New Babies in My Collection plus Japanese pictures

First of all I want to say thank you for all nice comments in giveaway post. You, guys, make me happy. More than 80 new followers came during couple days and that's great. I feel that I need to do new giveaway as soon as first one is done. I will start to shop around for something interesting for you (good excuse to shop again LOL).

This week was not bad at all. Actually I was VERY lucky to find Mac polishes which I wanted badly for a while. I didn't have big hopes when ask SR about Blue India because it was sold out everywhere. She said that they just cleaned back room and found some limited editions. I almost screamed when she brought box polishes and Blue India was on the top. I checked others and found Seriously Hip and Baby Goth Girl. I also won 2 Lippmann polishes on ebay last week (very cheap) and they arrived the same day. And the last (but not least) was Chanel Illusion d'Or which was delivered yesterday. So here they are all together.

All except Mac Blue India requires special light conditions to show all beauty. I tried to catch it.

Chanel Illusion d'Or has tiny gold glitter with iridescent flakies shining with blue, purple and green sparkles. I can't wait to start to swatch my new Chanel baby layered over everything. But I stop myself because I can't take pictures without help. And my 3 years old daughter is not big helper with pictures yet. Even adult can't hold my camera without support (Canon 20D with telephoto zoom lens if you are curious).

Lippmann Collections Fever has gold shimmer what makes this polish really special.

Lippmann Collection Pump Up the Jam has aubergine/eggplant shimmer in black base but it has also larger particles of multicolored tiny glitter. Unfortunately it's not really visible on nails (yes, I tried on one nail LOL).

Mac Baby Goth Girl is similar to Pump Up the Jam but shimmer is more reddish-purple. Mac Seriously Hip has golden olive shimmer in black base.

My husband is traveling in Japan. Skype is wonderful thing. We can talk and see each other every morning when he comes to hotel for night and every evening when he wakes up and ready to leave for adventures. He takes a lot of pictures and videos and I can't resist to show his pictures to you. I hope I will be there someday too. As usual all pictures are clickable.

Golden Pavilion in Kioto

You can recognize famous view of Mount Fuji at sunrise.

Choose polish for my new heels

I hope platform peep heels won't be out of fashion any time soon. I bought my 5th and 6th pairs for warm season. Since weather is pretty good today I plan to wear it on Saturday at my friend's birthday party. I didn't decide which pair yet so I'm considering some combinations. And I need your help to pick polishes.

My idea is to match heels color with my finger nails as close as possible and go with opposite color for toes.

I love olive-greens and wish to have more choices. BB Couture Kelly's green and Zoya Irene are most suitable. I also own Mac Dry Martini and OCC Swamp Thing but both are too dark for spring time and my flirty mood. Contrasting color for toes should be bright pink. That offers plenty choices even I'm not such girly pink type. I can consider Butter London Dolly Bird, Misa Runway Diva and Push Upon It (which doesn't look on picture even close to real life).

For very pale grey heels I'm considering Misa Fasionista and Essie Body Language for my mani and Zoya Roxi or Sally Hansen CSM in Plum Luck for my pedi .

Body Language is perfect match. Roxy just creates nice contrast in color and texture. Kelly's green is close in color and I personally love this micro-gliter in avocado base. It also reminded me how I need Grenade from their collection for men. Misa Push Upon It is deep berry color and it's nothing like brownish red it looks at my picture. Probably I need to pick rest of outfit first and then to check how is works with my polishes. I definitely have deep olive dress with red-berry embroidery which I kept in mind when I was buying this heels. And pale heels works almost with everything in my closet.

I want to hear your suggestions for picking polishes for mani and pedi. I need inspiration and maybe you can move my minds in different direction. Please, comment.

My first giveaway

It's big day today. I woke up and found that 50th follower is here. We will celebrate it with giveaway! I'm very excited. I love to give gifts to my friends much more than to get ones. I tried to pick interesting items for giveaway. Since Claire's mood collection attracts so much attention I decided it can be interesting. Giveaway is open for everyone in the World so nail addicts from other countries have chance to get it. I love and use myself other products which I add for giveaway.

So you can get

OPI Avoplex Moisture Replenishing Lotion

Barielle Natural Nail Camouflage (ridge filler)

Barielle Ultra Speed Dry Manicure Extender

And entire Claire's mood collection (Darling/Innocent, Happy/Earthy, Calm/Wild, Fabulous/Funky and Peaceful/Confident).

You can enter commenting this post.

Rules:

1. You have to be follower of my blog (leave your follower name in your entry) + 1 entry

2. Repost this giveaway on your blog, linking to this post and include link in your entry+ 1 entry

3. Tweet about this giveaway and leave link to your twitter post in your entry +1 entry

4. Leave your e-mail so I will be able to contact you in case you win.

5. Giveaway starts today April 27th and will end May 11th, 2010 at 8 a.m (This is my Birthday so I will start my day with good thing to do - picking winner with help of random.org)

6. The winner has 48 hours to respond. If winner does't reply alternative winner will be selected via random.org.

Good Luck too all who decides to enter!

Misa Fashionista

Fashionista was my NOTD couple days ago. I just took it away this morning. I love this color so much. And very nice application. And even in 2 thin coats. Color is right on my alley. Dusty. It's somewhere between mauve and lilac. And dusty! Dusty mauve!

Fashionista is not exact color of my blooming lilac but from the same family.

Rabbit enjoyed grass before we cut it couple days ago. He was sitting right under lilac bush. So I scared him when I came to take pictures there.

Making Scents: The Art and Passion of Fragrance - exhibit at Longwood Gardens

My other obsession except nail polishes is perfumes. It has older history but perfumes and polishes often come together. So I just couldn't miss exhibition opening in Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA - Making Scents: The Art and Passion of Fragrance. We went to look on second day after opening. We live 45 minutes from Longwood Gardens and go to visit few times a year bringing all our guests or just to enjoy good weather or holiday decoration there. Don't worry it will open till November 21st so you still have chance to see it.

Today my husband flew to Japan for trip (I promised to let him go since I spent all weekends at dog shows). Good part of his absence is I have more time to work on pictures and to post. Bad part that I'm already missing him and I have no one to help me to take pictures of my NOTD (my 3 years old doesn't count).

So back to exhibition. I can't tell that I saw all parts because we had friends and toddlers with us but exhibition itself is very interesting. Longwood garden's conservatories are one the largest in the country.

I never saw or smelled real plant of Ylang Ylang before.

Don't forget that all pictures are clickable.

Here is part from official presentation: "An intersection of flora, fashion and science, the exhibition will transform the Gardens’ gemlike conservatory into a museum for the senses. Visitors to the exhibition will experience the actual plants and flowers behind iconic perfumes, explore the mysterious power of the sense of smell, discover the unique combination of creative artistry and intricate science behind perfume composition, and have the opportunity to compose a basic fragrance.

“Making Scents: The Art and Passion of Fragrance will inspire and educate guests about the storied history and evocative power of scent,” said Longwood Gardens Director Paul B. Redman. “This exhibition is so perfectly suited to the setting of Longwood, where guests can experience first-hand the fragrant plants and beauty of nature that are at the heart of the fragrance story.”

Other focal point of Longwood gardens at Spring time is fields of tulips. I don't have words to describe its beauty.

I got this award from young friend from Amsterdam aka The Lacquerista

Here are the Rules:

- Post the award on your blog
- Link the person who has given you the award
- Pass the award to other blogs you've discovered:

I want to pass this award to

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Confessions of a Polisholic

The Nailphile

My Little World of Polish by Lily Nail

Pure Ice Hot Tamale

I usually don't like orange polish but this one looks not bad at all. Formula is good. It's very bright and juicy color loaded with shimmer. I think it will be great for my summer pedicure.

Pure Ice is available in Walmart for $2.

OPI DS Diamond & Nubar Gem

I just realized that my choices of holos from Nubar Prism Collection and from OPI Designer Series are not random. I bought 2 from each collection and they share the same gender. Even they are not dupes at all.

Before removing OPI DS Desire I wore on weekend I changed polish on middle finger to show you comparison with Nubar Jewel.

Desire is very crazy holo but Jewel is not holo at all. I can call Jewel true prismatic.

OPI DS Diamond has very subtile holographic effect which visible only in bright sun. It looks like shimmer in shade but it's never boring. Because of that it's also totally appropriate for my activities (dog shows) and as I mentioned in other post it stays up to week without any tip wear. I love to use it for trips. Base color is somewhere between silver and lavender and multicolored glitter is very fine and smooth.

Nubar Gem is my other favorite. Base has slight duo-chrome effect and changes colors between light taupe and soft peachy pink. Glitter particles are larger and very shiny. It doesn't have typical hologram look but it's very complex and interesting. Gem is similar to Jewell and very different from all other polishes I ever saw.

And here is comparison of two of them so you can see how different they are. And I need them all. Gem is on middle finger. Diamond is on index, ring and pinkie.

Sephora by OPI Havana Nights Collection

Havana Nights Collection is already on web site but not in stock yet.

Inspired by the glamorous, sultry scenes seen in classic movies set in Havana, this vivid collection is packed with ideal shades for summer. A rich, vibrant blue captures the bright sky while glistening gold references the sizzling nightlife. With salsa rhythms, forbidden rendezvous, passion, and romance as inspiration, these polishes show the true colors of the famed Cuban city.

New colors are

Caliente Coral - Spicy orange

Rumba Romance - Bronze shimmer

Teal We Meet Again - Shimmering deep blue green

Caribbean Cocktail - Ocean blue with silver shimmer

Read my Palm - Light jade green

Havana Dreams - Pale sky blue

First and last three are limited editions

I will check them out when I go to Sephora. They all look very attractive and I think I will need at least Teal We Meet Again and Read my Palm.

OPI DS Desire

I just love holographic polishes. And in my opinion OPI created some really unique ones. My previous NOTD was Diamond. It stayed like rock for 8 days without any scratch. I didn't take pictures because I did my mani during my trip to dog show (that's my other obsession). When I came back at home polish was 4 days old. But it looked so good that I just decided to change it only today. And since I was so pleased with Designer Series I wanted to try another one I just got few days ago. I think it was discontinued but still available on ebay. It is Desire - brown/taupe base with highly holographic fine glitter. It looks crazy at sun and very "normal" in shade. It's great "day to night" polish for me. Now take a look

And I just want to show you my lovely dog Lily who is my current show contender. We did really well last weekend and won couple time. Lily makes my really proud. By the way this picture was taken at Saint Patrick week so I thought it was good excuse to wear Nubar Reclaim. I think judge approved it too. You can even see it on my thumb.