03 | all the small stuff and things

Hey everyone,

I recently went to my local Rossmann and saw the Cupcake Collection.
Sadly there was only one polish left.

Angi, from Kreativchaos, made a really nice post where she shows all polishes and swatches from the polishes of this collection.

Aren’t these cute?

Since the only polish left was 03 Apple Green, I bought at least this.

03 Apple Green

I must say I expected it to be a bit prettier. From the pictures above I think the white one is the nicest.
Also I was disappointed by the quality of the polish. The texture is really gluey which makes it difficult to apply.
I felt the dry time was pretty long too and it started chipping after 3 days or so. So all in one not a polish I would recommend or buy again. After seeing all these “cupcake” polishes I was kinda expecting them to be difficult, so maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised haha

What do you think?

Mara

☆『マラ』☆

Hello everyone,

do you know that problem?
You see all these pretty white and black manicures and need a good black or white base color?
Or you want to create the trend of simple white nails, but you don’t have the right polish?
I feel you. Since forever I am looking for a good black and white polish, but especially finding a good white polish is almost impossible.

Well I own a couple of each color but still haven’t found the “holy grail” yet.
Today I want to show you my black & white collection and tell you some things about them.

So here we go

Black polishes from bottom to middle top

Astor – Nail Artist – Check Matte – 3309
Ciaté – Chalkboard Paint – 144
Essence – Colour & Go – 144 black is back
Maybelline – Color Show – 677 blackout
Manhattan – Quick Dry 60 Seconds – 1010N

Top Coats

Astor – Nail Artist – Game of Graphics – 3260 E
Astor – Nail Artist – Play the Graffiti – 3276 E

White polishes from top right to bottom

Catrice – LE Matchpoint – C04 The Winning Cream
Catrice – Ultimate Nudes – 03 Meet me a Paris
p2 – Color Victim – 030 virgin
Essence – Colour & Go – 152 give me nude, baby!
Essie – blanc
Astor – Fashion Studio – 274 Snow White

Astor Nail Artist - Chack Matte 3309 (Matt)

I saw this polish together with three other Astor polishes. (the white Fashion Stuido polish and two top coats for the Nail Artist LE).
I got this black matte polish about the same time as my Ciaté Chalkboard kit, so I was excited to see the difference, because Ciaté is pretty expensive with 10,- € each bottle, the Astor ones were only 3-4,- €.
Sadly this one from Astor is not really an alternative to the black matte polish from Ciaté.
This on here is kind of gluey, which I really don’t like in a polish. It makes it pretty difficult to get an even result.

This black matte took some time/tries to get used to, but especially after I cut the brush a bit, it is easier now to apply.
The result of the matte finish is pretty nice and dries fast.

Probably the cheapest in my collection. This polish was only 1,55 € and is, for that price, the best black polish I won. I still have to say that it get pretty gluey as well and after drying you can see bubbles, which I really really hate in a manicure.

This polish is about 2,- € and same as the Essence polish, is a bit gluey. I don’t know what it is with black polishes, but they all seem to be creamy and gluey. I hate it because especially with black and white polishes you would want a neat application since every mistake would show up immediately. I don’t know why it is so difficult to get a good black polish that is not gluey. Maybe it is the same as with eye shadows, the more pigments you put inside, the more problems you get with the consistency.

This polish is kind of old so I don’t remember the price anymore, but it is one of the smaller bottles, only containing 7ml. I always feel like it is almost empty because the brush doesn’t pick up enough color. As for the texture, same problem as with the others. It is creamy and difficult to apply.

Does anyone have a good tip for a nice black polish?

On to the whites

This polish is actually pretty nice, but not right if you look for a super opaque white polish. It is more…..metallic I would say. On the swatch at the bottom of this post you can see what I mean. It has a good coverage after 3 coats, but it is not a white tippex kind of white^^
The price was also nice, I think about 2-3,- €.

This polish is super sheer. No matter how many coats you put on, you will never get full coverage^^
But it is nice since it has a pink undertone / shimmer. A nice nude polish :)

Let me tell you right away, this polish is not available anymore. I bought it looooong ago when I started looking for a good white polish, but was pretty disappointed. It certainly has better coverage, but is not fully opaque. You don’t get the pretty tippex white effect with this.

This is one of the polishes I bought recently. I was really hoping this would be a good white polish, but sadly turned out to be shimmery and sheer. It is a nice polish, but not for the sake of having an opaque finish.

This is the only Essie polish I own. I was kind of resistant to buy Essie polishes, because I usually don’t like to pay that much money on a polish (7,- €) I think there are a lot of other drugstore brands that are much cheaper and have probably the same or even better quality, plus I don’t like the colors of Essie. I think they are pretty boring. Why would you pay that much money for a boring polish? I don’t get it. I think Essie is simply super hyped but not really worth the money.
Anyway, I was searching for recommendations on the internet on good white polishes and a couple of people said that blanc is a good white polish. I tried it and must say it is a good white, that’s what I was looking for, but still it is very creamy and I think the brush is very messy. I even had to re-shape it and cut of some hairs because they were not the same size as the others. That from a 7,- € polish? a NO-GO!
Also it leaves you with bubbles after drying. I am not very happy with it, but decided to keep it since it is the only opaque white polish I found so far.

This Astor white is also kind of nice but as well as the Essie polish it is creamy and the application is pretty difficult.
Like I said, this was also about 3-4,- €.

Astor duo 2

Here are the two polishes in the middle of the picture. I was really excited when I saw them at my local DM so I had to buy them!

Astor Nail Artist - Play the Graffiti 3276 E

Astor Nail Artist - Game of Graphics 3260 E

I tried them immediately the same night and got pretty sad :(
The look soooo nice in the bottles but it is so difficult to get the particles on to the nails.
I am not even sure which is worse. The first on has many small black and white particles as well as some striped particles and smaller and bigger black and white hex particles.
The second one has big black and white hex particles, some smaller ones and striped ones.
I must say they are equally difficult to apply. You also have to apply 2 coats of a clear top coat if you want to seal the annoying texture. But still, these are pretty polishes if you can get the designs on to your nails. Maybe use a toothpick or dotting tool.

Here are the swatches for all polishes.

One coat