Adorned Nails: Herôme W.I.C. Stunning Scotland Collection

Here's the new collection from Herôme. The colours are intense, in contrast to the mild, quiet shades of the previous collection, Peaceful Finland.

The Herôme W.I.C. Stunning Scotland collection is made up of:

L-R: Melrose, Kilmarnock, Stirling, Glasgow, Kirkcaldy, Aberdeen

I have two coats on in all the following photos:


Herôme W.I.C. Melrose
It's a metallic red, with a teensy bit of pink coral when compared to the other red, Kilmarnock.

Herôme W.I.C. Kilmarnock
This one's a full-on red with shimmer. It has that awesome glow-from-within look.

Herôme W.I.C. Stirling
Stirling is a straightforward metallic copper orange.

Herôme W.I.C. Glasgow
It's a moody medium blue-violet shimmer.

At a glance, the following final two look similar.

Herôme W.I.C. Kirkcaldy
Kirkcaldy is an aqua blue shimmer.

Herôme W.I.C. Aberdeen
Aberdeen is an aqua green shimmer.

Polishes were kindly provided by Herôme.

My favourite of the lot has got to be Kilmarnock. This crimson red's got depth.

Adorned Nails: Herôme W.I.C. Peaceful Finland Collection

Peaceful Finland is the latest collection from Herôme. The colours are nothing loud, they're just pale, muted and serene.

These are the six colours, each named after a city or town in Finland:

L-R: Rovaniemi, Lahti, Lohja, Jyväskylä, Mikkeli, Joensuu

Here are the polishes applied (two to three coats):

Herôme W.I.C. Rovaniemi
It's a very pale beige crème.

Herôme W.I.C. Lahti
Lahti is a light grey taupe shimmer.

Herôme W.I.C. Lohja
This too is a creamy one, a white with the slightest lilac tint.

Herôme W.I.C. Jyväskylä

Jyväskylä isn't a straight-out milky pink crème. You'll have to look closely to see the bitty bits of shimmer in the formula.

Herôme W.I.C. Mikkeli

This is another one with subtle shimmer. Mikkeli is a light lavender crème.

Herôme W.I.C. Joensuu
Finally, here's baby blue Joensuu. It's a blue crème, so pale you'd almost think it's white.

Polishes were kindly provided by Herôme.

Adorned Nails: Herôme W.I.C. Jaipur

One last polish from Magical India and we're done. And it's one of my favourite colours!

Personally, I find Herôme W.I.C. Jaipur more breathtaking than Pune. I mean, Pune is awesome but Jaipur is the one that makes my heart throb. The polish isn't exactly unique but maaaaan, the burgundy shimmer looks magnificent in sunshine! The formula was nice and thick and I've got two coats on.

I'm plainly overwhelmed. I have no more words for this.

This polish was provided by Herôme.


Previous Magical India polish: Herôme W.I.C. Pune

Adorned Nails: Herôme W.I.C. Pune

Remember KOH Fire? My......pet dragon?

Well, meet its blue counterpart.

Herôme W.I.C. Pune has whimsical blue/turqoise/warm silver sparkles in a jelly base of burgundy-purple. It applied without any trouble and I've got three coats on.

Mysterious and beautiful. I love how it perpetually twinkles.

This polish was provided by Herôme.


Previous Magical India polish: Herôme W.I.C. Bangalore
Next and final Magical India polish: Herôme W.I.C. Jaipur

Adorned Nails: Herôme W.I.C. Bangalore

The series on the Herôme Magical India collection continues with the opulent Herôme W.I.C. Bangalore. After seeing several grey tones, it's nice to look at a perky, gleaming polish for a change. It's like seeing sunshine after a cloudy day.

Bangalore is a pale golden yellow with an outright metallic finish. As the formula was nice and thick, you'd be able to make do with the usual two coats.

This polish was provided by Herôme.


Previous Magical India polish: Herôme W.I.C. Agra
Next Magical India polish: Herôme W.I.C. Pune

Adorned Nails: Herôme W.I.C. Agra

I'll have to say, this isn't quite the colour I would expect to be associated with Agra but okay, okay, the press release does say it's a homage with a wink to the iconic Taj Mahal. I wonder what Shah Jahan would have thought of this.

Herôme W.I.C. Agra is a murky medium-dark grey with a teeny tiny tinge of green. The formula was nice and creamy and you're looking at the usual two coats.

If it's not obvious already, this polish belongs to the new Herôme W.I.C. Magical India collection.

This polish was provided by Herôme.


Previous Magical India polish: Herôme W.I.C. Madras
Next Magical India polish: Herôme W.I.C. Bangalore

Adorned Nails: Herôme W.I.C. Madras

Polish number 2 from the latest Magical India collection is a warm brick-toned shimmer. I believe the Herôme W.I.C. Madras polish is meant to pay tribute to the 19th century majestic red sandstone complex that is the Madras (Chennai) High Court. If you've never seen it before, do look it up. It's a magnificent building complete with onion domes and graceful minarets.

The polish applied fine and you're looking at two-three coats here.

This polish was provided by Herôme.


Previous Magical India polish: Herôme W.I.C. Goa
Next Magical India polish: Herôme W.I.C. Agra

Adorned Nails: Herôme W.I.C. Goa

It's been a tough week here. Thanks for sticking around. I'll have to speed things up a bit as I have a lot to write about.

Here's a polish from Herôme, which, for those who don't know, is a sister brand of KOH. Its collection of nail polishes is just as impressive as KOH's and all Herôme W.I.C. polishes are named after cities around the world. W.I.C. stands for World Inspired Colours.

Herôme Goa comes from the brand's latest limited edition collection called Herôme Magical India. Goa would appeal to purple polish lovers. I have two coats on in these photos. It is what it is: a gorgeous, plush purple with some red and turqoise twinkles (when viewed in direct sunshine). Compared to KOH Rich, Goa's purple has a slightly bluer tint. It's hard to dislike either of them.

These are the six Herôme Magical India nail polishes. It's a beautiful collection and is as colourful as Incredible India (yes, the ad campaign did make an impact on me). Price: €7.50 per bottle (7ml) or €12.50 for two.

These polishes were kindly provided by Herôme.

L-R: Herôme Madras, Herôme Agra, Herôme Pune, Herôme Goa, Herôme Bangalore, Herôme Jaipur


Next Magical India polish: Herôme W.I.C. Madras

Adorned Nails: Herôme W.I.C. Kingston

It's an apparently innocent, work-friendly champagne-coloured polish today. No biggie.

This came in a Herôme box set which also contained a free lipgloss in a matching shade (well, kind of matching). The nameless Herôme lipgloss is in a chocolate milk shade. I paid €6.95 for this box set, which is what you'd usually pay for the polish alone (7ml).

It was a good thing that the lipgloss was free because the chocolate milk shade looked terribly unflattering on me, hence, only a swatch here. It's basically a petroleum jelly-based lipgloss with fine bits of gold shimmer and it smells of, uh, lady perfume.

There were several box sets with different colours to choose from. A red polish with a red lipgloss would have been a better choice but I chose Kingston because, hey, it's a holo!

Herôme W.I.C. Kingston is an introvert holo polish (remember Catrice Dirty Berry?). I've had this polish for a couple of months but because sunny days here have been few and far between, I've had to keep postponing wearing Kingston. No strong sunshine = no holo effect = pointless.

Well, finally, here are the sunny photos. You're looking at two coats over GOSH Fix Base Coat.

More information:
Herôme W.I.C. website

Adorned Nails: Conservative Colour Blocking

For a long time, I had been meaning to do some nail art revolving around Mondrian's artwork. The white background, the clean lines and the red, blue and yellow. Plain and simple.

And then, I read that colour blocking was/is experiencing a revival in the world of fashion and beauty and I still hadn't done my Mondrian nails. Sigh! The reasons: (1) I didn't have the time. (2) I didn't have a yellow crème polish (and refused to go out to buy a bottle just for this manicure, never to use it ever again after that). (3) I found out that Mondrian manicures are nothing new - they've been done, done and done before.

So, I shelved the idea of doing a Mondrian nail art theme and decided to do a variation of it. Mondrian-inspired conservative colour blocking, is probably the best way to describe this. It's conservative as it uses only black, white, grey and red.

These were the nail polishes that I used:

L-R
Grey: KOH - Playful
Red: Alessandro Stiletto - No. 21
White: Herôme - Ottawa
Black: Arcancil - Arrogant Black

I also used a base coat and a top coat for this manicure (not shown).

I've worn this look twice, once with the colour blocking on just the ring fingers and another time on all nails. I thought I'd show step-by-step how I got this look. I freehanded all the way. Tapes and such just never work on me (they hate me!). Just as with normal nail polishing, it's best to rest both your hands on the table when doing this. I have unsteady hands, so please excuse any imperfect lines.

You would of course need to wait at least five minutes between each coat/step.

1. Apply base coat.
2. Apply 2 or 3 coats of the grey polish as the base colour.

3. Apply in one sure stroke (length-wise) the red polish on a little more than one-third of the nail.

L: Just applied; R: Cleaned up

4. Apply the white polish from the red border to the side of the nail. Don't worry if it's messy. The black lines will hide the faults.

L: Just applied; R: Partially cleaned up

5. Use a fine brush to draw the black lines. I borrowed the brush from one of the Essence Nail Art Tip Painter bottles.

Draw the two short lines to enclose the white rectangle. Then, draw the lengthwise line that separates the red from the other colours.

L: Just applied; R: Cleaned up

6. For the thick black French tip, apply the black polish in a few strokes in the direction of the nail tip (ie. not side-to-side).

7. Apply a clear glossy top coat, clean up the sides and you're done.

More nail and outfit photos over at Witoxichic.