China Glaze Sexagon

Hi all, I hope everyone has had a good Christmas, or fantastic holidays whatever your religious persuasion is.  Its the reason for these festivities why I haven't posted in a while oops!  You know how it is, too much to do, then too much to drink, ah yeah, good times!  I was going to do an awesome mani for Christmas day with snowmen and santa's, reindeer and snow, the whole business but alas I just didn't have the time or the inclination to be honest so I just went for good old silver capped bling!  I recently purchased this polish from my friend Chelsea who is a master of hunting down hard to find polishes, and her blog and sales pages can be found here.  It is from the China Glaze Kaleidoscope collection of scattered holo polishes, and this beauty is called Sexagon.  It is a sexy little silver holographic bottle of polish and unlike the linear holo's of the OMG collection (which I also love by the way!) this one still sparkles away with all the rainbow colours you could want without strong light or sunlight.  Awesome, I live in England and its December, days are approximately 3 minutes long and sunshine is something I reminisce about, so this one fit the bill perfectly.

Sorry about the slightly dodgy pics and cleanup, but its the best light I could find to capture the loveliness of this polish. Taken under my halogen stairs lights with no flash, and don't they sparkle!  I hope you like it.

Color Club Lumin-Icent and ManGlaze Matte is Murder nail art

I had seen a design on another blog I would recommend checking out here, and it was so simple but looked really stunning, so I wanted to try it too.  I used Color Club's Lumin-Icent which is a very pale ice blue foil, and Manglaze's Matte is Murder for mine, as I wanted to do something a little different.  It was really simple to do, I used a base of Lumin-Icent and then when that was fully dry, I used low tack tape, to create a diagonal across the nail and added the ManGlaze polish.  Then all I did was fill in the lines and dots using a striping brush and dotting tool, and that was it!  I finished off with a top coat to seal it all, and then added a Matte top coat, because I think it looks more striking with a matte finish than its does glossy.  I am really happy with how this turned out, I will probably do this type of design again using different swirls and colours.  I like it, and I hope you like it too :)

UK News - China Glaze Electro Pop - New collection spotted on sale now!

*UPDATED*
Since posting this I have decided to remove the link to this shop, as although I have had excellent service from them in the past, they seem to be experiencing difficulties recently.  I have emailed them many times and had no response, and if you check their facebook page, many are having the same problems.  Order from them if you wish of course (I have just placed an order myself yesterday, we will see how that goes!) just wanted to give anyone reading a heads up really, and obviously I don't want to link to a site where any of my readers wouldn't get the service I would expect for myself.

Well I just have to share this one, I am not affiliated with this shop in any way but I was kind of excited when I saw the new collection on sale.  We don't usually get these new collections in the UK until way after the US so I had a little *squeeeee* moment.  Its just a shame I am on a total buying ban at the moment.  (Switches to whiney voice) but I neeeeeeeeeeeed them!  Ahem, okay well, I can't buy them yet but someone else might want to, so I couldn't keep it to myself.  You can buy the entire collection from Nail Polish Direct (link removed by me) with free delivery.  Let me know if you bought any, and what you think :) and I would love to see some swatches of these!

OPI - Excuse Moi!

Here we have another from the magnificent 'Muppets Collection' from OPI, in the sparkling form of Excuse Moi!  Unlike the other glitters in this collection this one has a coloured base and it makes it oh so pretty.  It consists of a darker toned warm pink base with multicoloured pieces of medium sized round glitter and tiny micro glitter too, so much glitter and all just lovely!  The fine glitter appears to be pink and silver, and in the larger pieces I can see green, pink, silver, red, blue and orange.  The application was easy and had great coverage, with these pics being just 2 coats over a clear base coat, and the sparkle, oh wow!  I LOVE this one, it reminds me of all the coloured wrappers which are a feast for the eyes when you open a box of Quality Street or Cadbury's Roses (which we only ever buy at Christmas time!) so for me its perfect for it to be in a holiday collection.


Here are the pics, which are as always click-able.  I hope you like it, maybe you can wish for it be in your Christmas stocking from Santa?

Weak Sunlight

Natural Daylight

Snowflake Nail Art Design

It is freezing here, with high winds, sleet, snow and ice so I thought I would do a manicure to match the seasonal weather.  I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do until I saw this post here, on Copy That, Copy Cat.  If you aren't already a follower of her blog you are missing out, she does some fab designs, go check her out and show her blog some love!  It was her manicure that made me go oooooh I want to do THAT one, so I take no credit for the design, but I am happy with the results.

I started with Color Clubs Cold Metal from their foiled collection (I won the entire foiled collection from one of Traci's giveaways at The Trace Face Philes, so had to try this one, thanks Traci!) then I added some sparkle by doing some graduated tips using China Glaze Sexagon.  Finally I added a very thin touch of Funky Fingers Baby Baby Baby (love the polish, want to vomit at the name urgh!)

That was the base sorted and I very nearly just left it as it was, it looked pretty and I have been suffering from the flu and a face full of goo.  But onwards I went wielding my nail art brush with grim determination.  I used one of those cheapie nail art 2 in 1 polish jobbies to do the snowflakes and it definitely needs a touch of thinner, but I think it did the job quite well.

So here is my version of a snowflake manicure, and I got a compliment on it twice today and I was only out of the house for a couple of hours so that was good!  I am quite pleased with it, apart from macro shots being so unforgiving I promise it does look lovely when not in mega 'I can see every wobble your hand made there' mode.  I hope you like it too :)

Essence Nail Art Twins - Gabriella and Troy

Here we have the lovely Essence Nail Art Twins, in the set 'Gabriella & Troy'.  These are gorgeous sets of polish and I will be posting pics of the others I have when I try them too!  I was still in a purple mood so I thought these would fit the bill nicely.  Gabriella is a lovely pink toned purple creme with a blue flash that isn't as visible on the nail as it is in the bottle, but it is still a lovely colour in its own right.  I will be wearing this one in future without her respective twin, Gabriella is a pretty girl all on her own.  The formula was great and went on without any issues and dried super shiny.  Once Gabriella was on and dry, of course I had to add her other half Troy to complete the look.  Troy has blue and purple small glitter particles suspended in a clear base, and compliments Gabriella perfectly.  Again it went on without any issues, and the overall finished effect is a blue and purple glittery prettiness that makes my eyes glad to look at.

So, as always, enough of the waffle, its the pic you want to see right!  I hope you like it :)

A-England Avalon

I got a purple in the post Friday, that is so gorgeous I HAD to make it my next manicure so here it is.  It is A-England's stunning Avalon.  I was so excited to try one of these polishes, I have seen swatches and heard good things, but most of all I wanted to try them because my patriotic side was prodding me and whispering 'its an English nail polish, you MUST try it!'.  Well, who am I to argue with subconscious me, so I ordered Avalon and waited with baited breath until it arrived.

Well this is definitely a hard one to capture on film, its not 'just a purple' its actually a bit more complex than that. If I look really closely in direct sunlight, I can actually see tiny particles of colour which make up the overall predominant purple.  I can see both red and blue in the mix, and this has a subtle shift depending on the light.  Sometimes it looks like a red based purple, as it does in the sunlight pic, but in the shade it takes on a darker blue based purple hue.  Its a really interesting polish with a glowy look and depth to it, and I don't think I have anything quite like it.  The pics are only two coats, although I usually go for three it is quite a saturated colour so I stopped at two.  The coverage was a little patchy on the first coat but evened out nicely on the second and the brush made application easy.  The only bugbear I have is it has a longer drying time than I would have liked, even with OPI rapid dry top coat.  It is worth it for the jewelled purple colour it bestows on your nails though, and as a purple lover of course I love it, but it is really is an enchanting colour that you just have to see in reality to appreciate it fully.  On with the pics!

Sunlight, look at that shimmer!  Red based purple right?

Natural daylight, deeper blue based purple now!

W7 - Metallics Planets Collection, Cheap AND Duochrome! Oh Yes!

Well as you all know I LOVE all things duochrome and multichrome, and so on my never ending quest to find new ones I came across some new W7 polishes that I hadn't seen before.  These were six shades all called 'Metallic ......' and then a different planet for each polish.  They looked nice in the pics on the website so of course I HAD to buy some! I ordered Metallic Mars, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter.  There was also Neptune which appears to be a dark navy blue, and Saturn, which is a green based one but I didn't order those ones this time.  Check out the bottles pic from when they arrived.

Pretty, right!  From left to right you have Metallic Mars, Metallic Venus, Metallic Mercury and Metallic Jupiter.  I couldn't wait to try them all individually so I swatched them all on one hand.  The Mars and Venus ones are the sheer type colours that need to be layered over another colour (darker colours seem to work best) so I applied two layers over black.  Mercury and Jupiter are actually sparkly shimmers in a dark base, and these can be applied on their own.

Mars is a red toned pink, to purple to gold colour shift polish, Venus is blue to purple with the occasional bronze hue flashing into view.  Mercury and Jupiter have a more subtle colour shift and are darker shades with a lovely sparkle.  Mercury shifts from a dark pink to purple to gold, and Jupiter dark blue to dark purple.  To my eye Mercury and Jupiter look like they are the darker glittery versions of the first two, but with such a different look that they totally warrant buying all four.

For my pics I applied two coats each of Mars and Venus over a black creme base, and three coats of Mercury and Jupiter without any 'underwear'.  The formula was actually quite good, it felt maybe a little thin but not really a problem, and it dried pretty quickly.  The brushes were quite nice too, providing even coverage, and these did feel like they should have cost more than the measly £1.95 (including postage!) I paid for each of them.  I am posting two pics which illustrate the colour shift in these, please forgive the sloppy application but I was so excited to try these out and show you all!  Bargain duochromes, yes please!  If you would like to buy some I don't know about my international readers (sorry!) but for the UK readers I bought mine from Nail Polish Direct where I have ordered lots of times now and always had good service, and they have pretty good prices on their polishes.  Can I just say I am not affiliated with them in any way, I just like their shop!

Right then, lets get on with it, and take a look at the pics.  With all the buzz going round at the moment about duochromes will you be buying these?  I think I discovered some little gems personally, I hope you think so too :)

Left to Right - Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter

Left to Right - Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter

OPI - Gettin' Miss Piggy With It

I love the muppets, and I am loving these Muppets Collection polishes.  Today I want to show you Gettin' Miss Piggy With It.  This one is red glitter, with small red glitter and large pink toned red and silver glitter suspended in a clear base.  I have heard some say that this took lots of layers for full opacity and would be better as a layering polish, so I went for the second option.  I searched my stash and tried to choose a red that was close in colour, and I came up with OPI Thanks so Muchness to use as underwear and it turned out to be a good combination.  The formula in Gettin' Miss Piggy With It was good, dried quickly between coats and went on without problem.  The larger glitter dispersed well too, without having to chase it round the nail too much to get it on there.  I layered three coats over my red base coat, and doesn't it look festive!  It is really sparkly, although a little hungry and took a good dollop of top coat but it was worth it and got me lots of compliments (which is always nice!).

Sadly I couldn't get a pic in the sunshine, because we don't have any at the moment, dull dull, more dull, with some grey thrown in is the best its been, so the pics is in natural daylight only.  Hopefully the blast of glitter makes up for the lack of sunshine!

OPI DS Temptation

I was still in a glitter mood so I decided that I couldn't wait any longer and really needed to try out DS Temptation.  As someone once said, 'I can resist anything except temptation', my sentiments exactly!  This is a lovely polish, its not the holographic finish that everyone has come to expect from the Designer Series but it is gorgeous nonetheless.  It has mutli colours of predominantly purple with magenta and silver tiny glitter particles suspended in a blue purple base.  The overall effect is stunning and one of those which I can't keep from looking at my nails, especially when the light catches them and they are sparkling away like something magical.

It did dry a little rough, and I needed to put a couple of generous layers of top coat on, but nothing bad for a glitter.  The formula was fine, not at all goopy and application was a breeze.  I applied three thin coats but I could have gotten away with two generous ones, but having said that if the polish does thicken up over time as polishes tend to do, then two coats would be fine.

So overall I do love this polish, but is it special enough to warrant the higher price tag that the DS series demands?  In my honest opinion, no it isn't but it is still a beautiful polish and one I'm glad I have.  If I knew before I bought it what I know now would I still have bought it?  Hell yes!  On with the pics (which as usual are click-able) sit back, relax and enjoy the awesome purple prettiness :)

Sunlight

Shade, natural daylight

Nubar Petunia Sparkle

Let me start by saying I freaking LOVE this colour!  It is a hot magenta glitter with purple leanings, it is absolutely packed with micro glitter and I just adore it.  I try to give a balanced opinion but there is nothing I didn't like about this polish, really.  The brush is nice and applies the polish evenly, and the cap is easy to hold and work with.  The colour is very saturated, the formula is not too thick and applies easily, and the end result on my pics was achieved after only two good coats.  Let me see, is there a downside?  Only one really, but its common in a LOT of glitters, and that was it dried a little rough and took a good couple of coats of top coat to even it out and give it a nice shine.  Certainly not the most 'hungry' glitter I have come across though, and no biggie to me.  Theres not a lot else I can say about this one except, here are the pictures, they speak louder than words can in this case and as usual are clickable.  One final word for this polish would have to be, BAM!

Sunlight

Natural daylight

Happy Halloween and Spooky Nail Art!

Hi all y'all!  First let me apologise, I have rather neglected my blog and all of you.  It wasn't intentional, but I did have quite a lot of stuff to deal with and I won't bore you with the details apart from to say I have had a bit of a stressy bad time and just didn't get chance to blog.  I am sorry, and thank you for your patience, but I am back now (YAY!)

Right, now without further ado, it is halloween!  I love this time of year, first halloween, then bonfire night, and then not long until Christmas.  I miss the summer sunshine, but all seasons have their beauty and Autumn/Winter has lots going on.  Also my dogs hate the warm weather with a vengeance so it is good to see them happy too.

I decided, in the spirit of Halloween, I had to do a spooky manicure.  I used a black polish underneath my pinky, middle and pointer fingers, and a white base under my ring finger and thumb.  I then added Wet n Wild Behind Closed Doors on the pinky and middle fingers, and a coat of China Glaze Frosty on the white ones.

Once this was dry I got some white acrylic paint and painted a white circle on my index finger, and then I used just plain black polish and a fine brush to fill in the details.  I really like this one, and it does look better in reality than it does on the pics, as macro mode shows where the black has streaked when I put a top coat on but it really doesn't show looking at it with the naked eye.  I got my inspiration (ahem, okay I copied!) the Jack Skellington faces from Nails by Asami, hers look so much nicer than mine but I am happy with my results too.  I also got a LOT of compliments and comments when I was out and about today so thats always a good indicator that I have done okay!

I hope you like my manicure, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Fat Fingers!

Sinful Colors I Love You, with Golden Rose Scale Effect I love you even more!

Today (well yesterday actually!) I have decided that since my mani's of late have been light coloured and pretty, I needed some purple back on my nails.  Purple is my all time favourite colour ever, and I had Sinful Colors I Love You sat on my untried pile just begging me to giver her a go.  This is a jelly polish which is a great purple, not red based, or a dark lavender, no, just proper purple.  I love this shade, and to add to the love it also has lots of shimmery micro glitter in there too in a lighter shade of purple (I want to say dark pink).  The first coat seemed really sheer and I was a bit worried it may be one of those that take too many coats to get the colour that is in the bottle but no, it built up nicely and my pics are three coats.  The drying time was good as well, and it has a gorgeous finish that is so smooth and shiny that I didn't even bother with a top coat.

Since I did the Sinful Colors mani yesterday, I have added some flakies courtesy of Golden Rose Scale Effect polish.  These scale effects ones don't have names just numbers, and mine which I got from a dear friend in Holland is number 13.  I thought purple + scales = dragons right?  Well in my mind it does, I adore dragons, and yes of course they are real (don't try to tell me they're not I won't believe you!)  The flakes are just packed into this polish, they are suspended in a pale blue translucent base and flash from orange to green.  The effect on my nails was achieved with just one coat and I absolutely love it.  It went on perfect and although it did dry a little dull, a coat of shiny top coat sorted that out.  I am loving the shiny effect, but I will matte-ify it before it comes off because I'm betting that will look awesome too.

You can see the lovely green and orange colours here.

Wow Just look at that green, beautiful!

I hope you like my 'dragon scales' effect nails as much as I do!

Essence Color & Go - Sure Azure, and added NYC and Essence bling because I can!

I have this lovely little bottle here of Essence Color & Go in Sure Azure.  Now I always think of deep sparkling sapphire blue when I think of azure, but this is a grey toned baby blue with a very delicate shimmer.  The formula was easy to work with and went on without issue, and my pic is with just two coats.  The first coat was a little streaky, but nothing to moan about, and the second coat evened it out anyway.  It dried with a lovely shine too, the pic is without any top coat, just the polish, you can see how shiny it is!  I love the colour and the finish, these essence polishes are proving to be rather nice additions to my collection.

Now me being me, I was bored, and couldn't leave things alone, so...I put on a coat of NYC Starry Silver Glitter.  This glitter is lovely, it has tiny silver holo glitter, and larger bright blue and lilac hex glitter suspended in a clear base.  It took a little manipulation to get the larger hex glitter to spread out evenly but that's the norm for this type of glitter.  I wish there was a ray of sunlight to photograph the holo effect of the tiny glitter, its so sparkly in reality but since its raining buckets here and dark and dreary, you will have to take my word for it.

Things were looking pretty at this stage, then I added a coat of Essence Nail Art Special Effect! Topper in Its Purplicious.  This is tiny purple glitter with larger purple and dark pink square glitter, suspended in a clear base.  This went on really well, and there is lots of glitter crammed into this polish!  Again, it is very shiny and catches the light really well, and was a perfect accompaniment to the colours I was already sporting.  I finished off with a final layer of NYC Starry Silver, and that was it done.

I love this mani, but I do love to experiment with these glitters, I can't wait to try them out over different colour combinations.  When I do, you will be the first to know!  I hope you like it, I only wish the sun had come out to let me show you the full sparkly nature of this lovely combination.

OPI Rainbow Connection - Muppets collection

Yesterday I showed you Designer...De Better from this collection, and today I have OPI Rainbow Connection.  This is a multi sized and multi coloured glitter bomb!  It is really shiny, and just spectacular!  Click on the bottle shot for a closer look, you will see magenta, green, orange, blue, gold and silver hexagram glitters in small, medium and large sizes suspended in a clear base.  The colours don't look too busy on the nail, and there is a good mix of silver and gold glitter in there which stops it from being over the top and allows just the right mix of colour.  Also because of the gold and orange colours, it has a slightly warmer toned look.  I know there are a lot of these multi glitters out there and I will try to do a comparison post at some point, but OPI does do glitter polish rather well and this one is no exception.

It applied without any problem, there was a little manipulation needed to disperse the larger glitter pieces which is usual with these types of glitter, but honestly not that much, and it  dried quickly between coats making layering it quick and easy.  The formula was good, not too thick and it had no drag issues for me.  The final pics are three layers over Designer...De Better, and I love the finished look.  The pics with three layers make it look a little uneven, but in reality it is laid pretty flat, and a coat of top coat finished any grittiness off.  I can't wait to try this over just about every colour I own, I envisage it looking rich over reds, adding bountiful colours to blues, looking dangerously cool over darks, and I can see it looks cheerfully blingy over brights.  The pictures don't do justice to how shiny and pretty this polish looks, I already want to put up my Christmas tree and start wrapping presents, it reminds me of cheer by the bucket full and I know already that these two Muppets collection polishes are going to be in collaboration many times over the Christmas holidays, and beyond!  I can't wait to get others from the collection now.  What do you think, is it just your cup of tea or do you prefer something more subtle?  Me, well, its blingernails isn't it, I LOVE it!

One coat of Rainbow Connection over Designer...De Better

Two coats of Rainbow Connection over Designer...De Better

Finally, some pics with three coats of Rainbow Connection over Designer...De Better.  I know theres a lot of pics, but it  does merit them :)

Look how shiny!

Did anyone say they wanted to see it matte-ified!  Ohhh go on then :D

The OPI Muppets collection will be available in the UK around mid October and will be available for purchase from www.lenawhite.co.uk for £10.50 a bottle.

(Polish was sent to me for review)

OPI Designer...De Better - Muppets Collection

I got OPI Designer...De Better and OPI Rainbow Connection in the post this morning, both from the upcoming Muppets collection, which is being released as OPI's Christmas holiday collection.  I LOVE nail mail, especially when its this good!  Today I am going to show you Designer De Better on its own, and tomorrow I'm going to show you Rainbow Connection layered over this, its sooooo shiny, don't miss that one!

OPI Designer...De Better has a foil like metallic finish that is just luscious!  If you look closely there are tiny micro copper and pink pieces happily floating around in a sea of shiny silver base, giving the overall colour effect of a pale champagne colour, very elegant and pretty.

On the nail the application was flawless, I have read others say it is a little sheer but I only used three coats over a base coat, and had no problems.  The pro wide brush made life easy (I DO love the OPI brushes!) and the dry time was good.  I love the colour and finish of this, in sunlight it is really bright and eye-catching, and even indoors in subdued lighting it was still shiny and reflective.  I don't have another polish quite like this in my collection, so its definitely a keeper, and it completely fits in with a Christmas collection, I can see me wearing it quite a lot over the Christmas holidays.

The collection will be available in the UK around mid October and can be purchased from www.lenawhite.co.uk for the retail price of £10.50 each.  There are 12 in the collection, 6 glitters, and 6 colours.  Will I be buying any others from this collection?  You bet I will, just watch this space, and don't forget to check out tomorrows second Muppets post featuring Rainbow Connection.

(As usual, pics are click-able to enlarge for detail)




(Polish was sent to me for review)

OPI Let Me Entertain You

I got this one as half of a set, and I have been meaning to try it out, so here it is.  This looks a lot more red in the bottle pic than it actually is, in reality it is more of a gorgeous dark magenta polish with a fuchsia glass flecked finish.  It is super shiny, and looks just wonderful!  I love these glass fleck polishes, China Glaze are known for doing these types of polish very well, but I have to say OPI have certainly not let that accolade go unchallenged, and have made a corker with this one!  The application was a dream, and I find the OPI wide brush to be one of the best to use for me.  The dry time was good as was the coverage, and I could have gotten away with just two coats, but I like to use three.

Ooooo just look at all that fuchsia shimmer, it is a really vibrant sparkly polish and I love it!  I hope you like it too :)

  

piCture pOlish Giveaway - Winner!

We have our winner, and a big gratzies to Guy Polish (Jim) for winning the three piCture pOlish own polishes of the colour of his choice!  

Thankyou to all who entered and for all the lovely comments on the entries, and remember theres always next time :)

Essence Color & Go - Blue Addicted, Deborah Lippman Across the Universe dupe?

Well first things first, sorry about the lack of posts for a while, I have had flu like symptoms, and massive headaches so obviously staring at a PC screen wasn't high on my priorities!  I will admit I did check my emails and facebook, but in general had no drive to do much of anything else, and then there was the disastrous job interview I just had today.  It was so awful it was funny!  Ah well, maybe the next one :)

When I got home I decided that I HAD to paint my nails.  I got the most EPIC nail mail from my lovely friend Kati P in Holland (waves at Kati!) and included in my mail was this little treasure which she had already bought me before I knew I wanted it, how awesome is she.

I layered this over a dark blue base, I used George Indigo Dazzle from Asda.  In its own right it wasn't a bad polish actually, but for this purpose I just wanted a base.  Then I layered Essence Color & Go Blue Addicted over the top.  Blue addicted is small blue glitter, and large blue and emerald hex glitter suspended in a navy blue base.  I used two coats over my dark base, and I think this is about right.  The glitter was really easy to apply, I didn't have to chase the hex glitter around or fiddle with it, and it dried quickly.  I did add OPI rapid dry top coat and it has dried to a wonderful shine and isn't rough or badly bumpy like some of these types of polish can be.

I am told that this polish is a pretty damned good dupe for Deborah Lippmans Across the Universe, so if someone will send me one of those I will happily do a comparison!  As I don't unfortunately have the Deborah Lippman one to compare this to, I have to rely on swatches posted on the net, and I have to say from the pics I have seen they do look pretty close, but you judge for yourselves, heres some pics and I think the polish fully justifies three of them :)  I hope you like, and thanks again Kati for this pretty bottle of polish.