Monday, December 20, 2010

China Glaze Lubu Heels

Today's NOTD is actually a Nail of a few weeks ago, I wore this one to a black tie event I was at. I apologise in advance for the application, I literally put this on as the cab was waiting outside.  This a lovely red glitter in a black base and it's beautiful! 


First, an upclose and personal picture,




Now, on the nails,




Eeek! I didn't realise my thumb was quite so bad! I got quite bad shrinkage on this, don't know if this was because I applied it, in such a hurry or not. So it's not tipwear, you see in the photos, it's shrinkage caused by the Seche Vite.  Despite the hurried application, I actually ended up wearing this for a few days, actually close to a week and it wore well.  There were no issues with application, other than the shrinkage, but I think I didn't leave it long enough before I put on the Seche, because the taxi was waiting outside. 


Have you tried Lubu Heels, what do you think of it?

Monday, December 13, 2010

ELF Glitter Glam

Today’s NOTD is another one of the ELF Christmas collection, ELF Glitter Glam. This is an icy white, silver glitter. On to the pictures,

Close up of the bottle,

 E.L.F. Glitter Glam


On the nails,
 E.L.F. Glitter Glam


Slightly out of focus to see the glitter
 E.L.F. Glitter Glam



This is 3 coats with a coat of Seche Vite on top, the surface isn’t very bumpy because the glitter is quite fine. The visible nail line in the pictures isn’t really apparent to the naked eye and is more down to the macro setting I used on the camera. In fact I only used two coats on my right hand and it’s sufficient coverage. The application is good on this one, the big ELF brush helps with the glitter I think. I’ve worn this for two days at the time of writing and no chips or anything. I never expect glitters to last too long.

I actually ended up wearing this for 6 days and had no problem with wear.


Thursday, December 9, 2010

Illamasqua Muse

 Hello, hello! I'm actually back with a post. Since I last posted, I have spent most nights in a hotel, been on five flights and spent a whole day in airport!  The first few nights I spent in a hotel were with my lovely girlies, we attend a ball and it was so nice to have everyone away together for a couple of days. Then, when I got back we had tons of snow, now for people who live in countries were it snows a lot you probably think so what, but in Ireland and England snow pretty much stops everything, and I had to get accross the country to the airport (which was closed most of the time), I ended up having to leave home a day early which meant I had to fit an extra days work in to the remaining days I had left, so in a nutshell it's been a bit hectic. I had planned to write up some posts and schedule while I was away but I never got around to it.  I also have the worst luck with internet access in hotels, the hotel I'm staying in at the moment has working internet sporadically it's taken me a day and a bit to get this post up, but things should quite down after tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be around more.  Ooops .....end ramble and on to the nail post ....
When I tried my first Illamasqua polish, I guess I was whelmed. I just wasn’t feeling it, but this one, it’s love! I present to you Illamasqua Muse.  It’s a perfect one-coater, somewhere between a teal and a turquoise.
The first picture is with a flash, which washed the colour out








Three days later I managed to get a picture in natural light ( I swear the sun never shines here any more, or more accurately when they sun does show itself for 10 mins or so in between showers, I’m usually at work!)




Like I said this was a one coater, absolutely no application issues at all. By the end of the fourth day I started to get a little bit of tipwear but nothing awful.

The only bad thing, I can say, is now I want more Illamasqua  polishes and they recently closed down their Irish counter.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Wheely Thursday!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted some pictures of my nail wheels and the lovely Karen from Frazzle and Aniploish (go check out her blog here!) asked me to name them.  So here’s the first wheel, in a feature that was to be called Wheely Wednesday, but since today's Thursday we'll just have to call it Wheely Thursday! (You can click the picture to make it bigger) 



  1. Amour Rain Glitter
  2. Opi Sparkle-icious
  3. Nicole Such a Go-glitter
  4. China Glaze Ick-a-Body
  5. China Glaze Zombie Zest
  6. China Glaze Mummy May-I
  7. OPI Tease-y Does It
  8. Color Club Revvoulution
  9. Eyeko Rain
  10. Eyeko Posh
  11. Eyeko Indigo
  12. Illamasqua Muse
  13. Illamasqua Rampage
  14. NY Summer – Amaranth
  15. Misa Dirty Sexy Money
  16. Asos by Ciate Lily
  17. Asos by Ciate Megan
  18. Asos by Ciate Lauren



These are all 2 or 3 coats. 

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Misa Dirty Sexy Money

Sorry, I'm only getting around to posting now, things are very busy here, I'm working crazy hours and getting very little done (or so it seems!) and now I'm sick to top it off.  I have a couple more posts pretty much ready to go, so I'll try not to leave it so long! 
Today's NOTD is Misa Dirty Sexy Money. There are not words to describe this one, I heart it! The colour is a dusty-ish green. The pictures will describe it better than I can, a picture's worth a 1000 words and all that,








I have no bad words to say about this one! Application - perfect! Wear- Perfect! I wore this one for about 5 days and no chips and minimal tipwear. This is my first Misa and if they are all like this, I'll be getting some more post haste!


Have you tried any Misa polishes? Are they any I *need* to get?

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

ELF Purple Party

Today's NOTD is Elf Purple Party. It's a lovely deep purple, think aubergine colour, with glitter in it. The glitter is silver but this is covered by the base colour so when it's on the nail it's not really possible to see it's silver.


First up a close up of the bottle to show the glitter,






On the nail, 






A slightly out of focus nail shot to show the glitteryness, the first picture is more colour accurate, this one is tending towards navy. 






This wore well, I think I wore it for about 5 days with minimal wear. Application was fine and once I put a topcoat of Seche Vite on top, it didn't feel gritty at all.





Sunday, November 14, 2010

NOTD ELF Twinkle over Eyeko Rain.

Before we get on to the polish, a quick apology. I know I have been lacking on posts lately, unfortunately life has conspired to cause me a few problems which has left my blogging time diminished, I *think* I have everything back under control, so hopefully I'll be around more, from now on! 


So I mentioned I got the the new Elf Christmas collection polishes recently. Elf Twinkle, is more of a top coat than a polish you'd wear alone, with blue, pink, gold and orange glitter. So first 2 bottle pictures, the right one is not in focus to show more of the colours. (You can click on this picture (and all my pictures!) to make it bigger)
eyeko rain


The blue colour in this polish reminded me of Eyeko Rain which I happened to be wearing at the time and I  popped a coat on top of the Eyeko Rain.  






Elf Twinkle
I liked this it wasn't too in your face but was still really nice. I only wore this for one or two days, I had already been wearing the eyeko for  a few days, but the wear was fine for those couple of days. Application was fine.  


Since these polishes are a Christmas collection and I doubt they'll be made permanent,I'll get these up on the blog as soon as possible.  Other than this one and yesterday's metal madness there are 3 more in the Christmas collection.



Saturday, November 13, 2010

ELF Metal Madness

Today's NOTD is ELF Metal Madness. This is one of the polishes ELF released for Christmas.  The base colour of this is a metallic charcoal colour, and it contains holographic micro-glitter. The base colour it's self is lovely and applies with out brush strokes which some metallic colours seem to suffer from. The holo micro-glitter (I'm calling it micro glitter because it's so small, if it wasn't holo, I think I'd be inclined to call it a shimmer?!) is subtle and in certain lights, it really pops. 


First, some bottle pictures to show you the holo. 
e.l.f. metal madness

A lot of time the polish looks like this, a lovely dark grey metallic, 
e.l.f. metal madness

But bring it in to the right light. 
e.l.f. metal madness





I wore this for about 5 days and it wasn't really until the 5th day that I started to notice tipwear. The application was fine, the elf brush is generally ok, unless you get one with a few stray hairs. This, and a few of the polishes I got in this order, seemed liked they'd been over filled, there was polish on the outside of the bottle and on the threads, the bottles were full, and there was no obvious spillage. (The elf polishes come in boxes, so it would be obvious if the spillage had happened in transit - leading me to think they were overfilled)  For £1.50 this is a lovely polish although if the holo was more pronounced this would be amazing! 


What do you think of this one? Have you tried any of the ELF Christmas polishes?

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Eyeko Rain

Today's NOTD is Eyeko Rain, extremely fitting as it never stops raining around here lately. But, rather than being depressing like real rain, this is a beautiful colour, which is not depressing at all. The colour is a kind of greyed baby blue, with a hidden shimmer. So on to the pictures, 

Artificial light, Flash

and close up of the shimmer.(Gosh, my cuticles look a bit scary close up, sorry!) 



The application was perfect on this, the brush is quite skinny, so I had to re-dip the brush to get enough polish to cover the nail, but that was no issue. The bottle is a little tall and narrow, which makes it a little bit unstable, but again that wasn't much of an issue. I wore this for a few days and there was no noticeable wear.  Eyeko polishes are available from their website for €4.00 and they offer free shipping to Europe and it's fairly cheap outside. Usually they offer something free if you spend more than €12. I got this one from ASOS in their sale. 


Sunday, November 7, 2010

Illamasqua Rampage

Today’s NOTD is Illamasqua Rampage, it’s a deep green jelly, which is almost black in some lights. Now, I think I might be ill, because this is the kind of colour I love, and I just can’t feel the love for this.  On to the pictures, 



 and one with the bottle, I love the Illamasqua bottle!  (Sorry this one has a bit of tipwear, the original bottle pictures had a hair on one of my fingers that I didn't notice until I looked at the pictures!)



First, I had some application issues with it, the formula was a little watery and I had pooling in my cuticles. I applied this after Color Club, Who are you wearing?, so it was two polishes in a row I had problems with, I think those problems may have more to do with me then the polishes. I was really busy and applied them in a hurry. I’ve never heard anyone complain about the formula of either. 

For Irish readers, Illamasqua are closing their counter in Dublin. I got this on ASOS but Illamasqua also ship to Ireland from their website.  


EDIT: The lovely girls at beaut.ie have a post on Illamasqua closing their Dublin counter, go here to get the details.  




Thursday, November 4, 2010

ELF Mango Madness

I recently picked up most of the new Elf polishes while they had free shipping, the matte topcoat and one other were sold out. I got Passion Pink, Mango Madness, Purple Pleaser and Rosy Raisin. The Passion Pink and Mango Madness were labelled incorrectly but there was a note in the box.   Since I got these, the Christmas collection has been released, and I ordered those polishes on Friday and they arrived on Monday (with free shipping), they are really nice, I'll pop some pictures up on the blog, during the week.


This is Mango Madness, it is a very very bright Orange, with a hint of pink in it. The bottle colour is probably the most colour accurate, but it sometimes looks like the colour on the nails too, depending on the light. 


Application of this was fine, the pictures show 2 coats, with one of Seche Vite on top. The ELF brush is usually fine except when you have a stray hair or two, in this lot all the brushes were fine.  I wore this for maybe 3 or 4 days and the wear was fine, just a little bit of tipwear.  This one is not bad at all for the princely sum of £1.50 if you're in Europe or $1 if you are in the US. If you follow elf  

Have you tried this one? What do you think? 




Wednesday, November 3, 2010

A late Halloween NOTD

For Halloween, I loved my China Glaze Ick A Bod-y mani from Saturday but wanted to add a little to it.  So I thought I'd put a coat of Barry M Instant Effects, over the top.  Here's the result,


The Barry M dries matte, so I thought I'd add a topcoat over it and much preferred it. 


Sorry for such a quick post I wanted to post this before Halloween was a completely distant memory! 

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

My exciting weekend!

I have one more halloweeny post for you tomorrow but today I thought I’d show you what I spent my weekend doing, coz I’m exciting like that!  You might have noticed that I painted my blood tipped nails on a nail wheel, well I ordered these ages ago and when they arrived I thought I’d swatch my whole collection. I was going to paint them by colour but I decided that it would annoy me if I got a new polish that belonged in between two other polishes. I just painted them in the order I took them out of their homes!   So here’s the result,











There’s a couple of lookie likies on there so I think I’ll do some comparision posts soon. If there’s anything you want me to post or name, just shout! (or comment I’m more likely to answer!) 

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween Nails Part Deux

Happy Halloween everyone! As you might notice, I don't usually paint nail art, but for Halloween, I was going to make a first attempt. Although as my week got so crazy, I only managed to practise my attempt on a nail wheel and not actually try them out on myself :(  So, I thought I'd show you my attempt at bloody tipped nail.




It's definitely not perfect, but an attempt in the right direction.The red is Essence Ready for Action.  Did you do any nail art for Halloween? I'd love to see it!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

NOTD China Glaze Ick a Bod-y

Before, we get into  today's post properly, I'd just like to apologise for the lack of posts this week. I've been stupidly busy in work but have a lot of posts almost ready to go for this week, I'll be better this week! 


On to today's NOTD, it's suitably Halloweeny. China Glaze Ick A Bod-y, this is the last of the Halloween set from China Glaze. It's a black base with orange glitter, I've been wearing it a few hours and have had 5 compliments from strangers. 


Natural light, no flash ( we actually have sun today!) 




Artificial light, flash








and a little close up 






Application was perfect on this, I can see one or two bald patches on this in the photos, that aren't visible with the naked eye. I should have probably given this a third coat for the photos. It dries a little matte so topcoat is a must for shine!  I don't expect wear to be great on this, glitters never wear extremely well. 


What do you think, love it or loathe it? How are you doing your nails for Halloween?

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

NOTD Models Own Purple Grey

Today’s NOTD is Models Own Purple Grey. This one has an almost identical base colour, to Chanel Paradoxal. The Chanel has a shimmer that this doesn’t have. Barry M have a new colour that is pretty much dupish to the Chanel, but I haven’t managed to get my hands on it.  




This is my first Models Own polish, I picked it up in the recent ASOS sale, however I was in my local Boots on Saturday and they have added a Model’s Own stand.  I wasn’t sure, I’d love this, but when it was half price in the ASOS sale, I decided to give it ago and it was love. It’s definitely a new favourite. Application of this was good, the pictures show two coats, I don’t think I could have gotten away with just one coat. This wore like iron, I think I wore this for 5 or 6 days and when I took it off, it pretty much looked like it did the day I applied it.

The Barry M dupe to Paradoxal, is called Dusty Maeve and Lacquerized has a comparision post showing how close they are, here.  It’s not in my local Barry M stand yet, but I hope to get my hands on it soon.


Sunday, October 24, 2010

ASOS Sale

I picked up a few nail polish bits in the ASOS sale. I was at work on a Saturday feeling sorry for myself when I saw it posted on another blog. I knew I had a few extra €'s coming in so decided to treat myself.(There are a few bits left on sale, if you're interested!) . I'm actually surprised everything go to me in one piece, because there was absolutely no packing, basically all the bottles were thrown in a box. So, thank you to the nice post men and women (post people?!) who got my package to me with no breakages!

Here's what I got.

Three Eyekos, Indigo, Posh and Rain. These normally retail at €4.50, but were €1.65 in the sale. I've been dying to try Eyeko for ages!

Some of the ASOS Ciatés, from L-R  Megan, Blake, Lauren and Lily. These cost €1.32, full price is €7.92.


Two Illamasquas, Rampage and Muse. Rampage was €8.60 and Muse was €6.62.  Full price is €17.21.

Two Model's own, what should be Blue Gem but is Bubble Gum and Purple Grey, these cost €3.92, they are usually €6.92.


Any of these you'd like to see? I have purple grey coming up in the next post!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

NOTD Barry M Raspberry.

Notd is Barry M Raspberry, this a raspberry(unsurprisingly!) coloured cream. The application on this was perfect, it was a one coater. I really struggled to take photos of this and debated showing the photos I ended up with.  I did a google search for more colour accurate swatches and found hardly any swatches at all, so I thought some not perfect ones were better than none at all. That said I think I managed to rescue a relatively colour accurate picture from the hundreds I took!



The index finger is the most colour accurate, I think.  Like I said this was a one coater, the polish is very pigmented. The wear was good on this I wore it for a few days without any issues. I got loads of compliments on this one which was really strange, because I thought it was quite boring!  Have you tried this one? What do you think?


Thursday, October 21, 2010

NOTD Color Club - Who Are You Wearing? with Crack(le)?

Just a quick post today, featuring yesterday’s Color Club ,Who Are You Wearing? with the Barry M Instant Effects polish. I thought the light colour would be interesting under the crackle polish.

It was a great way of hiding the failings of my application of this polish, as seen yesterday! I have no idea why my index finger didn't seem to crack as much as the rest, I might have used to thick a coat on that finger. 

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

NOTD Color Club - Who Are You Wearing?

First up, sorry, I've been a little lax on my posting lately, I'm under huge stress at work and usually manage to get posts written up on a Sunday, but I had to work this Sunday, so I am a little bit behind, but trying to catch up! 


Today’s NOTD is Color Club Who Are You Wearing? This is a very pale cream, white with hints of purple and maybe a bit of grey.  The pictures show 5(!) coats, application wasn’t great on this. This was the second attempt I had applied 4 coats, the day before and I ended up messing up two of my nails, I think because there were so many coats, it didn’t dry properly.  On this second attempt, it ended up quite streaky, I’m going to try this one again, letting it dry between coats.  I love this colour, it’s not a stark white, the hints of grey and purple make it very wearable, so I’m hoping to nail the application issues. (Ooops just noticed the pun - it wasn't originally intended, but it fits!)  So here is the  not so fabulous picture.


Apologies hugely for the this picture, but it really was the best I could do! :( I had a look to see if it was just me having problems with the application, out of about 10 blogs, 1 person had issues like me and the other 9 were fine in 3 coats. I was in a hurry both times, so maybe I didn’t let the coats dry enough?
Both times I only wore it for a day so I can’t say much about wear.

Have you tried this one? Did you have the issues I had?

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Transdesign haul

Last week, I received my order from Transdesign, I had ordered to get some the new OPI burlesques but had to throw in a few more, just to make the shipping worth it. (obviously!) So here's what I got.


This is one of the duo sets, which contains Teas-y does it  and Sparkle-icious, along with some shimmer powder. I also meant to Simmer and Shimmer but I got confuzzled and got two sparkle-icious by mistake!

I, also, got my first two Colour Clubs, Who are you Wearing and Revvvolution. Look at the lovely holo goodness in Revvvolution, I hope that comes out on the nail! 


Now, for some more firsts, I got my first Misa, Amour and New York Summer. From L-R, we have Misa Dirty Sexy Money, Amour Rain Glitter and New York Summer Amaranth.
So I'm extremely annoyed at myself for messing up the OPI part of the order, and it's not helped by the fact at first glance Sparkle-icous doesn't look all that different to Rain Glitter, looking closer they are different. 

Rain glitter on the left, doesn't seem to have the yellow glitter in in that Sparkle-icious has and it has more red than Sparkle-icious. You can click the picture to make it larger for a better look! 

I'll try and get pictures of these up as soon as possible, but if there's one you'd like to see first let me know! 

Thursday, October 14, 2010

China Glaze Mummy May I

Today is another one of the China Glaze Halloween  polishes,  Mummy May I. This one has catapulted right in to my favourites list. It’s a  deep purple base with fushia coloured glitter. (Actually when I was taking this off, I realised the glitter is actually silver and the polish over it is giving the appearance of it being fushia) 

The glitter gives it a lovely lit from within look, China Glaze do this kind of finish so well. (Actually must post some more on the blog!)  Application was good, this is three coats, to the naked eye two looked enough but when I took photos I noticed a few bald patches. This one needs a top coat, it dries a bit flat.

I wore this for two days and I got a chip on my index finger of my right hand, but I think that’s more to do with the nail on the that finger than the polish. A few weeks ago, I thought I got a chip in my polish but when I took the polish off, it transpired that a bit of my nail had come off, I’m patiently waiting for it to grow out!

In other news in case you haven't already seen, the lovely girls over at beaut.ie have teamed up with Barry's tea, for an evening with the founder of Wah nails, Sharmadean Reid. The details are all here. I'm very sad because I can't go :( 


Also, I've received some polish orders in the last week, would you like to see what I got as a haul post or just as I get around to swatching it? The only reason, I normally post what I've picked up is so you can see what's coming or in case anyone would like to request something to be swatched, but I know some people don't like that kind of post, so feedback is greatly appreciated! 



Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Barry M Instant Effects



This is the new crackle polish from Barry M, called Nail Special Effects. At the moment this just comes in black.   You paint your nails whatever colour you want, then when it’s dry you add a coat of this, trying not to paint the same part of the nail more than once. As it dries, it starts it’s magic.  It’s actually really fun to watch (but then I am easily amused!), there’s a video on the Barry M website here.

 For this first quick look, I did some skittles to show a range of colours. So here, from L-R is No 7 Grey Skies, Essence Rock n Roll, China Glaze For Audrey and Essie Lollipop. (I’ve shown all of these on the blog before except for Lollipop)


I love it over all the colours, lollipop and For Audrey are really obvious, the glitter of Rock n Roll looks really nice with it and Grey Skies is a little more subtle but is still lovely.  I got this in Boots, it cost €5.95 but the Barry M polishes were on 2 for €8.

Between writing this post this morning and getting around to posting it, this evening, Kirstie over at beaut.ie has also posted it, so go here for more ideas. 

Well, what do you think? Ugly or fab?