A Great Start to the Weekend

So, last week I got an email from the lovely Felizarine from Alizarine’s Claws, informing me I had won her giveaway. Check out her fab blog here. Now, this was a surprise of the best kind not least because I'm known for never winning anything, so much so that everyone remembers (in my family at least) when I won a raffle in 6th class (when I was 11!) because it's the only thing I've ever won! So I did go a little mad doing the lotto and the like thinking lady luck had finally found me and I was about to make up for years of being mucho unlucky alas it was not to be! However, a couple of days later, this package arrived on my doorstep, completely erasing the pain of not winning the lotto!

I couldn’t believe how quickly it arrived, all the way from Sweden. There were 11 fab nail polishes, 2 eyeshadows and 2 lipsticks.6 of the polishes and the makeup were from a Swedish brand called Viva la Diva. When my sister saw the makeup she swiftly decided I wasn’t going to wear it (!) and it was much better in her hot little hands, before I had time to object she was gone. I’ll track her down and demand a review!

So on to the polishes there were 11 polishes in total and since I actually already owned the lovely blue my mind I thought I’d swatch the other 10 polishes. The Viva la Diva polishes had no names only numbers. I’ve put Blue my mind away for a giveaway in future.

On my left hand, I swatched these (From L-R) Viva La Diva 13-17

No flash, from Thumb to pinky Viva La Diva 13-17

Flash, from Thumb to pinky Viva La Diva 13-17

The formula of these was really really good for pastels only the yellow (17) and the peach(15) were 3 coaters. (actually I dinged the yellow and it became 4 coats)

On my right hand, from L-R Viva La Diva 18, H&M Bella’s Choice, H&M Check Me Out, Hello Kitty Turquise Kitty, Hello Kitty Pink Kitty.

No flash, from Thumb - Pinky, Viva La Diva 18, H&M Bella’s Choice, H&M Check Me Out, Hello Kitty Turquise Kitty, Hello Kitty Pink Kitty.

Flash, from Thumb - Pinky, Viva La Diva 18, H&M Bella’s Choice, H&M Check Me Out, Hello Kitty Turquise Kitty, Hello Kitty Pink Kitty.

I loved them but Bella’s Choice deserves special mention as it was a one coater, and the colour was very simlar to China Glaze For Audrey (more of which tomorrow). The rest of the polishes were 2 coaters. There’s a shimmer in the Turquise Kitty colour, which I managed to fall to capture in the bottle picture and both of the swatch pictures, I’ll do a full mani with this and try and get better pictures. Here I should mention that Turquise Kitty is H&M's name for the polish and not my appalling spelling!

I’d never heard of Viva La Diva before and have no idea if they are available outside Sweden, the polishes are very pigmented and some the nicer pastels I’ve used. I don't live near a H&M but will be making a trip to one soon to pick up some more of their polishes.

Have you seen the Viva La Diva range before, are there more products we should be trying? Also, has anyone got any other recommendations for any other H&M polishes?