Barry M Nail Paint - 216 Silver Cascade, Mad as a Hatter Dupe?

I ordered and received this lovely nail paint from Barry M.  I love Barry M, it is a good formula and well priced.  This one is no different, it went on well, dried fairly quickly and looks lush.  It is packed with multi coloured small glitter particles, and is predominantly blue, silver and red suspended in a pink base.  I put on China Glaze Coconut Kiss as a base, and then 2 layers of Silver Cascade.  I haven't had a glitter on for a while and had an urge to have  'blingernails' again.  I love glitters, but when I put this one on, it looked a little familiar in a very good way.  I pulled out my swatched OPI MAAH and compared them, and whilst not a full on dupe, they are close.  Close enough for me to be happy wearing my very affordable Barry M and save my MAAH for special occasions, without feeling that I'm missing out.  Silver Cascade leans more towards a pink tone where as Mad as a Hatter leans towards purple, but still its a reasonable dupe and I am happy its in my collection.  Pics you say?  Oh go on then, if you like, the one on my nails is the Barry M, and the one on the swatched falsie is the real deal OPI Mad as a Hatter, as always my pics are click-able so you can see the detail:

OPI - Tickle My France-Y

At the moment it would seem that nudes are very on trend and popular (I blame a certain royal bride for this) so I thought I would put up my pics of OPI's classic Tickle My France-Y.  It is a warm toned pale beige coloured creme, the formula on mine is a little streaky (though to be fair that could be due to the age of the polish) and it was quite sheer and took 3 coats before it was opaque.  I think thats OK though for a nude, you may not necassarily want full coverage for 'mannequin hands' and wish to go for a more natural look.  I usually go for much more bold colours but everyone should have some 'safe' colours in their polish collection, after all bold is not always appropriate.  On with the pics, which are as always clickable to enlarge (and please try to ignore the sore pinky finger, poor little thing it is).

Indoors no flash

Natural light

OPI - Anyone for Tennis? 2011 Grand Slam

For those who haven't already heard about and seen these, and lets be fair if you love polish you already have, I am posting the promo info I received from OPI with the details.  I don't think I would be disappointed to receive any of these to be honest, and I'm loving the look of Grape...Set...Match with Servin' up Sparkle.  I've seen swatches of Rally Pretty Pink too, and it is lovely although looks very much like Zoya Faye.  I think I may just have to buy some of these (shocker! lol)  As always the pic is clickable to enlarge.

Graduated Hologram Manicure - Frankenpolish, China Glaze IDK & China Glaze LOL

I had on my manicure with the Frankenpolish holo I created (mwuhahahah!  Ahem, oh dear thats quite enough of that, I shall have to aquire an igor if that goes on, and they're very expensive, Terry Pratchett said so!)

Right then, as I said I had on my lovely creation but, I was bored and decided to do something more with my mani.  I decided that since I had China Glaze IDK and China Glaze LOL sat there looking at me, I would try a graduated manicure.  It was a bit trial and error, and with only an old washing up sponge and a stipple brush at my disposal (both of them quite worn) I wasn't expecting it to look great if I'm honest, so with a bottle of remover on standby off I went.  I have to say though, I am rather pleased with the effect, and a graduated holo is just perfect for a sunny afternoon I think.  With it being holo I think it was a bit more forgiving of my less than steady technique too, which can only be a bonus.  Pics or it didn't happen, right?  OK, here they are, I hope you like it.

    

New Limited Edition Zoya Touch collection

Sadly I have no polish to swatch to go with the headline, but I did receive an email from the PR people at Zoya with the following info:

I know you can't all buy from www.zoya.com but its nice to know theres some new colours to look out for.  They look really nice nudes in the promo pics, so if nudes are your thing, I think you'll like these :) 

Stargazer 317 with added Nubar 2010

As a little follow on from my previous post, I decided to add Nubar 2010 over this before I took my mani off (as you do!) and this is the result, pretty nice I'd say

Stargazer 317

I saw some reviews of this polish and being a fan of all things duochrome and multichrome (ahh Ozotic Pro, one day I WILL have you!) I thought well, its not expensive, and its available, so therefore, I'm having it!  Its in a lovely round bottle, and went on a treat with no formula issues, although did show brush marks a little but not enough to be an issue.  

It really is a surprisingly nice duochrome polish, and what you can see in the bottle translates well onto the nail, but with most of these things, is very hard to capture on camera.  It flashes from a gorgeous rich deep blue to a lovely royal purple and as an added bonus it has a subtle shimmer in the sun.  All in all, its one nice polish and I have paid much more money for polishes which weren't as nice as this one.  If you don't have this already, get it, its a little gem.

   

China Glaze - Frosty

OK I know this polish is from the China Glaze 'Tis the season to be Naughty and Nice holiday 2010 collection (I have others from this collection too, yum!) but this is such a fresh clean colour I wanted to wear it now.  I don't know, maybe its the pink and white blossom petals all blowing about here at the moment, but it seemed such a good choice.  Also I have a spare bottle of this lovely, and seeing that it is a discontinued limited edition polish, and may well add it to my list of polishes to giveaway when I reach 100 followers :) we will see ;P

As with all the china glaze polishes I have, this is a lovely formula and applied well, it did take a little longer to dry though.  It is a fresh white glass fleck polish, with lots of shimmer and shine, and I can see where they got the name Frosty from, it twinkles like fresh frost on top of snow.  Really pretty polish though.  This was three coats, no top coat, and is gorgeous on its own or would be wonderful underneath a crackle glaze or as a base for some nail art and stamping.  I have made a note to try this (its on my ever growing manicures 'to do' list!)  Please excuse the messy mani, I always forget to clean up before I take my pics sorry!

 Must add a note to this, I wrote this a week or so ago and have since removed this mani.  Just wanted to say, it was a bit more difficult to remove than normal, I'm putting it down to all those glass flecks shimmering away in there.  Its no biggie, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

New Mani with my Franken-polish holo lovely

I decided that after sitting and looking at the prettiness in my lovely little bottle, I should use it to do a full mani.  Its not sunny here and I know thats best for holo's but I just couldn't wait anymore before trying it out.  

So here it is, indoors with flash, and indoors without flash.  Its really hard to capture the colour on this properly for some reason my camera won't do it justice.  It looks more blue with the flash, and too dark without it.  In reality it is somewhere in between the two, and more of a teal colour, and rather nice.  Its a keeper I think :)  As always pics are clickable to view larger versions.

Indoors with flash

Indoors no flash

My first Franken-polish - I created prettiness!

I was overcome with the 'more money than sense' illness and bought a 'gram'.  I don't have more money than sense, I have practically no money at all at the moment (got laid off from work arggg) but then again, I have even less sense for giving in and buying this.  This was an overpriced gram of powder that is used for car paint, but it is holographic and mixes with nail polish rather well.  I had to have it, as all polish addicts out there will understand, and theres a lot more than me who bought this stuff too.  Madness comes in a pretty little bottle it seems :)


So it arrived, and I lifted it like the holy grail from its envelope and locked myself in the spare bedroom, home of my polishes.  They sat there, all looking like prime candidates for my franken madness, but I spotted W7 Envy, and it called to me.  So, with trembling hand, I decanted some into a sample bottle, and added a pinch at a time of the magic powder, until a wonderful thing happened.  It changed, it became the sum of its parts, it became holographic *gasps* and here it is, behold my creation!

With flash

Sunlight - Blurred to show the sparkle

Sunlight

W7 - Orange Dazzle Neon - with W7 Earthquake Silver Crackle Top Coat

Oh dear, epic fail!  Never let your brother choose a nail varnish for you.  Mine chose this, and then had a bloody good laugh at my expense.  He IS my brother after all he pointed out, what did I expect, its his job to be mean.  Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with this polish, I actually like it and it applied well with no problems, sadly though it doesn't like me.  It is screaming bright ORANGE with glitter added, its awesome but does me no favours with my skin tone.  I have a severe case of zombie hands, I look like something from Shaun of the Dead (awesome film by the way.)

These pics don't actually show the true brightness, it is unbelievably, even brighter in real life.  These pics were taken in low light, it was coming up to sundown but you definitely get the idea.  The word florescent is very  appropriate here. 

OK, I thought I have to do something with this and asked my fellow polish-a-holics and a crackle top coat was suggested so I went with W7's Earthquake Silver.  It went on easy, wasn't thick or goopy at all, and this is the first time I tried this and I am rather pleased with the result.  This top coat cost a mere £2.50, so I think I have a bargain there.  Again please excuse the quality of the pics, the light was fading fast at this point, but I will add more tomorrow if its sunny :)

China Glaze Coconut Kiss - Ombre Manicure

I thought I would try an 'ombre' manicure, I haven't done one before and I was sat looking at my polishes and China Glaze Coconut Kiss caught my eye.  So I have done one, using China Glaze Snow as my white polish to dilute the purple.  It took a couple of attempts, it was messy, I still have it on my hands and need to do a clean up after I take the piccies, and I was starting to think this was a waste of damned good polish.  Even after all that I didn't think I would like it.  But I do, I like it quite a lot :)  I was going to do some nail art over the top of it but I think I will keep it just as it is for now.  Next time I try one of these I will be less messy now I know how to do it too.  Well, maybe I won't, I am messy I can't help it, but I'm comfortable with who I am :D I hope you like it, here come the piccies. 

OPI Mad as a Hatter & OPI Sparkle-icious

After reading a debate about dupes for MAAH someone mentioned they thought that Sparkle-icious was pretty close, so I thought I would post some pics.  I love both polishes but they are quite different.  MAAH is much more silver based, whilst Sparkle-icious is a warmer gold based glitter.  I will post actual swatches when I next remove my mani, but I've kind of been putting off swatching my glitters just because they are such a pain to remove.  Plus I'm still loving the M&S holo I'm wearing at the moment, and I have to say its wearing well :) 

So without further ado, have a peek at the lovely glitters that OPI do oh so well!

Left - OPI Mad as a Hatter  -  Right - OPI Sparkle-icious

MAAH

Sparkle-icious

Marks & Spencer Long Wear Nail Laquer - Rainbow WOW a Holo!

Hi :) I hope you are all having a great weekend!  I got a new polish yesterday from Marks and Spencer.  It is part of their 'Long Wear Nail Lacquer' range in a colour called 'Rainbow'.  I heard a rumour about this polish being a silver holographic so of course I HAD to look didn't I.  Now I don't know if my international readers have Marks & Spencers shops, but for all the UK readers, go and buy this now!  It is indeed a silver holo polish.  I know, from M&S, who'd have thought!  

It goes on like a dream but did take quite a while to dry but I will forgive it this as there was no drag or patchiness that seems to plague holo's.  Most of all I forgive it because it IS a holo, a lovely silver linear one too.  I am so pleased with this little gem, I am buying a backup.  At £7.50 it isn't the cheapest but its certainly not expensive in the grand scheme of things, and I am sooo glad I checked it out.  

Well alright I know you want piccies of this holo loveliness, and I have tried my best but after literally over a hundred pics, these are the best I could manage.  Even these don't show the holo effect properly but hopefully you can see some of what I'm talking about in them (they are clickable to enlarge them as are all my pics, so you can have a good close look).  

I hope you like it, it is a lovely polish and the holo really is better and denser in reality than my camera would pick up :)

Playing with Nubar 2010 - Flakie fun

Well, I have some good stuff coming up. I am going to do a review on a couple of cheaper brands I've seen, which had surprising results, and I have a Marks and Spencer nail polish to pick up on Saturday which is a holo polish!  Yes I haven't had a bump on the head, a silver holo polish from M&S, can't wait to get my eager little paws on that.

First though, I have been having a mess around with Nubar 2010.  It is about the only reasonable priced flakie I could get (see my previous rant about that, well better out than in eh!)

Right then, first I painted my fingers with the following: 

• Thumb - Orly Wild Wisteria
• Index Finger -  Nubar Peacock Feathers
• Middle Finger - NYC Nail Glossies No 249B
• Ring Finger - OPI Thanks so Muchness
• Pinky Finger - Color Club Revvvolution

Natural Light

Sunlight

  All lovely colours in their own right of course, well I bought them all so I must have thought so.  Then I gave them all two thin coats of Nubar 2010, no topcoat and these are the results:

Natural light

Sunlight

 As you can see, direct sunlight tends to overwhelm the flake colour and washes it out a bit, but I can live with that, because on the darker colours especially it still looks pretty good.  Out of direct sunlight though, and it pops.  I am really pleased with the way it looks.  It shines and shimmers with its duo chrome orange gold and yes I also see a hint of green in there.  I am disappointed with the effect over Color Club revvvolution I expected it to stand out more, and over OPI thanks so muchness it gives it a nice subtle shimmer.  Over the other three though I like it a lot.  I think my star of the show has to be the layering it over Nubar peacock feathers though, definately going to wear this as a full mani, it looks even better than the photos.  In fact it looks freaking awesome :) so a big thumbs up for Nubar on their lovely versatile 2010 polish.  I think I will end up trying it over many new mani's just before I remove them, so I can see the different effect on different colours.  Hmm, I think I may need to order a back up!

NFU Oh - Oh no, not if you live in the UK (no pics just a rant!)

OK, I have been looking for flakies, I love them, want them, neeeeeeeeed them after seeing so many lovely swatches.  I have a particular lust for NFU Oh ones, specifically no's 51 & 52 (oh and 49) and some others, you get my drift anyway.  Here there is one HUGE problem, I live in the UK (how bloody dare I!) 

Oh how I want NFU Oh, but the USA store which sells it won't ship to the UK as we already have a supplier, conflict of business interests and all that, and fair enough.  Therein though lies a small problem, (well actually the HUGE problem mentioned).  The UK supplier doesn't have hardly anything apart from standard nail polish, but even worse than this, if you are just a normal buyer, not a business or salon for example, then I was told in an email by them that they DOUBLE the price. What a rip off! Completely!  I've heard of supply and demand, but in this case its 'we are the only ones who can supply, so we can demand whatever price we want'.  I wish I was joking, I really do, but here is the email, word for word, copied and pasted from my inbox.   

"Hi Michelle

Our site is for trade only as we only sell to professionals. You must prove to be a trained Beauty Therapist or nail technician to purchase. We shall be offering retail prices soon to members of the public (for selected lines). However in the mean time if you wish to purchase at retail price it is double the price of the trade price for polishes.

Hope this helps"

Hope this helps!  I could feel a vein at my temple throbbing!  Now I'm not going to name this company, as I sure as hell aren't going to give them free advertising (I know I kind of have in a way but pah), but its easy to find them.  I just thought I needed to vent my frustration, and I'm sure there are lots of UK polish obsessed people feel the same way.  And.....breathe! 

China Glaze Anchors Away - Pelican Gray

Today I have to show you Pelican Gray from China Glaze Anchors Away collection.  Now I admit, when I first saw it I thought, well, urgh its grey, then I saw some swatches and it kind of grew on me to the point where I thought well, I'm going to buy it, and if I don't like it I'm sure it will make a good base colour for some stamping and nail art.  (Please excuse my middle finger cuticle in the pics, dog tooth related incident!)

Natural daylight

Sunlight

Well, it arrived, and I tried it, and I'm rather pleased to say, I like it :)  The formula is good and it went on smooth with no bubbles (which are a pain!  I always seem to get them no matter how careful I am and never shake the bottle.)  I wasn't sure I would like it, after all, its grey, a dull bland boring colour, the colour of concrete.  It shouldn't work, but it does.  It has a lovely subtle shimmer in it that stops it from being a flat creme colour, and I did keep looking at my nails when I had it on.  It is quite classy looking and I will definitely be wearing it again, I had nothing else like it in my collection and I'm so glad I have it now :)