Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A Break in Normal Service.

Hi all, just a quick apology! I'm really busy with work this week and last, plus I have family visiting, so I'm a bit stuck for time to write posts. I hope to be back up and running by Friday, but just thought I'd let you know. 


In other news, I have a few bits of nail mail on the way. I did an etailer order on Saturday for some of the new OPI Burlesque collection and some others, and I have the China Glaze Halloween Collection on the way too. So swatches of these will appear as and when I get them. 


I've added a new page at the top of the blog called Stash, (you can get to it by clicking here) and I've listed all my stash, I'm currently updating it to link to those polishes which I've already shown. If there's anything on the list you'd like to see or any comparisons please let me know! 

Friday, September 24, 2010

NOTD Barry M Vivid Purple

Today is Barry M Vivid purple and, oh, how I love it. It's purple perfection! It's a lovely glossy aubergine (eggplant) colour, with a slight shimmer inside which gives a lovely lit from within feel to it. As, I look down when I'm typing, I feel happy! I don't want to take it off. 


So some pictures, the weather has been horrible so I have no natural light photos to do the polish justice. 




And a close up to show you some of the shimmer. 





The close up picture is the most colour accurate. The application was fine 3 coats and the wear has been brillant! After 5 days I have slight tipwear and that's it. 



Wednesday, September 22, 2010

NOTD ELF Innocent

Today's Notd is the last of the ELF polishes, I bought recently. This is Elf Innocent, it's a nude cream that leans towards peach.  Apologies for the photo, this is one I took straight after I applied it (cuticle oil and all), and I never got a chance to take any more.  


Here's the photo, artificial light and flash


This is 3 coats of Innocent, over a basecoat of CND Stickey and there a topcoat of Seche Vite on top. Looking at the photo, I now realise that there's some bald patches and it could of done with a fourth coat. Application was fine, no issues at all. I didn't love this colour, I felt its peachy-ness didn't suit my skin tone and I only wore it for a day, so can't say much at all about it's wear. If you are looking for a peachy nude, this is the one for you. ELF polishes are available from their website and cost £1.50. 

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

NOTD Gosh Holographic

Oh, how I love thee Gosh Holographic. Today is my current favourite polish. I easily get distracted by shiny pretty things and while I was wearing this I was distracted by my nails alot! Gosh Holographic is one of the Gosh polishes, I picked up recently. First up a close up of the bottle.
So far nothing too special, right? Maybe there's a hint of rainbow-ness in it, but it looks like silvery glitter.


 When I got it home, I noticed this
Of course, I hadn't picked up the base coat. After a bit of a mosey around, I started reading about it's bad application. So the general consensus was no base coat.  So, I went ahead with no base coat. Look at it's bootyfulness! 
A lot of the time, it just looks like the picture above just a hint of rainbow-ness, and somethings it looks more rainbow-y like below. 

and a blurry picture, to show a bit more of the rainbow-y goodness! 


After the searching about the base coat, I had read a lot of people complain about the application of this, but this was two lovely coats, I had no issues. Not only did I use no base coat, I also used no topcoat in case it dulled the holo. I actually put Seche on two fingers and I could only notice a really slight dulling (I forgot to take a photo, sorry!).  I can tell you nothing about the wear time of this because I literally wore it for a day, I had meetings and teaching the next day and decided it wasn't a good idea to wear it to work.  I'll definitely wear this soon and report back on the wear, I believe the wear on this isn't great but it's still bootyful! 

Monday, September 20, 2010

My first Gosh polishes.

I was wandering round the shops during the week, when I spied a lonely fully stocked Gosh stand (except for Rainbow) with the polishes on offer 2 for €12, they normally retail at €8.50 each. So it would have been rude not to pick up two!


I got Purple Heart and Holographic,




Swatches coming up!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

China Glaze Agent Lavender

Todays NOTD is China Glaze Agent Lavender. When I was picking this polish I was just after taking off the french manicure, from the last post and couldn't decide what to put on. In the end, after much taking polishes out and putting them back this is  what I decided on. Agent Lavender, is a pale lavender cream, I'm pretty sure it has a hint of grey in it too. 


Artifical light, flash




Natural light, no flash 


The top picture, I think is the most colour accurate. I found that, when I wore grey it definitely looked more purple and when I wore purple it looked more grey. (It just happened I wore grey and purple when I was wearing it!) 


The application was great, I was slightly worried because some pastels can be a bit of a painful streak-fest. The pictures show two coats with a coat of seche vite on top. I tried applying it as a thin streaky first coat with a thicker coat on top and a thicker first coat, with a thinner 2nd coat, but it made no difference. The wear was good I wore it for 4 or 5 days before taking it off.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

A bit boring? Mais Oui!

A few days a go I was changing my polish and realised that I had meetings the next day, that I needed to look “respectable” for, so I looked round my stash in vain for something to put on and wasn’t really feeling anything. Then I spied a French base and thought I must have a white somewhere I’ll do a French manicure. To be honest, I was a little surprised that I had the makings! I wasn’t go to do a post about this given it’s only a boring French manicure, but while I was wearing it I got to thinking that in a round about way French maincures were why I started the blog!

(If you are not in the mood for a ramble, skip the next three paragraphs, and down to the pictures with you!)

Before I started back at college, I worked a 9-5 (more like 8-7!) in a conservative setting, most weeks I’d get a manicure as a treat to myself, nearly always French. I gave a lot of courses and chaired a lot of meetings in my job so I was always loathe to go for any thing too flashy on my nails. But the girls in my usual place were really good and were always trying to get me to do something a little less safe, so we used to play around with bases, like using pink bases that subtly flashed another colour in the light, add a line of glitter in between the white and the base. Of course, if I was going out or on holidays I’d have something even better! It turns out, I was spoiled with that salon, the girls were really knowledgable, they used seche on top of every mani, so it dried quickly, etc,

I moved back to Ireland and now I was a student, so my rare manicures were an even bigger treat, because money was tight. I found myself paying double the prices I was paying before for really bad manicures, where there was no quick dry topcoat and they’d paint on the polish so thick it wouldn’t dry. After trying 5/6 places, I was getting really upset, my one treat, the thing I knew that if I was having a bad week, would cheer me up and make me feel better and ready to face the world again, wasn’t working.

This is when I decided that instead of wasting money on bad manicures, I could buy around 6 polishes for the price of one manicure, and at the same time improve my own application skills.



The base is an essence pink base for French manicures and the white is from ELF. While, I know it’s not the best French in the world, I don’t think I would have been able to do this months ago, so I thought I’d show it. It's still not perfect but I'm improving!

It may be a boring French but it definitely grew on me!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Storage and My New Teapot!

At the moment, I keep my polish in random boxes all over the place, I really need a better way to store them.  I was shopping during my days off, and I spied these boxes thinking they’d be just right for my polish collection, I snapped them right up.


Turns out they are perfect for polish, I took a quick count I reckon there’s over 50 polishes in both boxes.  The bottom box has all my tried polish, the middle box has the untrieds and topcoats, etc, and the top box has all the bits of make up that were hanging around my bag and the sitting room. I want to get some more of these. They were €8 for 3 in Dunnes.

Tried box,


Untried box,


While I was in Dunnes, I also picked up a new teapot and sugar bowl milk jug set.

The teapot was €7 and the sugar bowl, milk jug set on the tray was €8.


Monday, September 13, 2010

Comparison China Glaze For Audrey and H&M Bella's Choice

A little while ago, the lovely Lynnie did a post comparing dupes for China Glaze For Audrey (check it out here). This reminded me that when I got my hands on H&M Bella’s Choice, I was wearing For Audrey and I thought they looked very similar. 

First up, the two bottles,



They look very similar in the bottle, with For Audrey being a little more bluer maybe. In person, I think that For Audrey is a little dustier than Bella’s choice, which seems brighter.


I’ve read about people having issues with the application of For Audrey but I find that it’s a perfect two coater, as is Bella’s Choice. 

Natural light, no Flash.  From L-R, For Audrey, Bella’s Choice, For Audrey, Bella’s Choice.



Natural light, Flash. From L-R, For Audrey, Bella’s Choice, For Audrey, Bella’s Choice.



I can’t see a whole lot of difference between the two polishes in the pictures, Bella's choice is definitely brighter than For Audrey. I have definitely seen pictures where they look more different. All in all, if you can’t get you hands on the China Glaze, I’d definitely recommend the H&M polish as an alternative. If I remember correctly the H&M polishes retail at €4.50 for 9ml.  China Glaze is available online from various etailers, the bottles are 14ml.





Saturday, September 11, 2010

No7 Grey Skies Revisited


Like I said yesterday I loved this polish so I played around a bit with it. I thought that Nubar 2010/Gosh Rainbow/Sally Hansen’s Hidden Treasure (pick your own particular flavour!) would look lovely over it. I also wanted to see what it would look like matte, both on it’s own and with Nubar 2010 over it.  Again, the same apology about hang nails from yesterday! (sorry!)


From L-R (Pinkie to index)  Nubar 2010 matte, Nubar 2010, Matte, Normal.

Daylight, no flash

Daylight, flash



Artifical light


The polish matte reminds me a little of a blackboard, not in a bad way but it’s not my favourite.  I love the Nubar 2010 over it, espically the matte version on my pinkie. The next time I'm going out and have the time I'll wear Grey Skies with Nubar 2010. 

Thursday, September 9, 2010

NOTD No7 Grey Skies

Today, a new polish from No 7 called Grey skies. This is a  lovely dark grey creme. It’s not too dark that it looks black, so it’s just about a perfect dark grey.  I loved this! Before we see the pics, an apology: I normally take pictures of my left hand and these are of my right hand because I got some cuticle stains on my left hand. My index finger has some hang nails, I didn’t realise how horrible they looked, until I saw them on the screen, sorry.


Daylight, no flash

Daylight, flash



Artifical light



So I love the colour, it dries quite a bit darker than the bottle colour. The application was ok, the polish was a little thin and pooled at my cuticles, I got some stains on my cuticles when I tried to clean it up. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I find the No 7 bottle easy to knock over, because it’s quite tall and skinny. The wear on this wasn’t great, I was wearing the polish a little over 24 hours before I got a chance to take the pictures and I had tipwear, so I had to reapply the polish for the pictures. I’m not sure, if it was because I was particularly hard on my nails or they wear on the polish is just bad, so I will give it the benefit of the doubt.
No 7 polish retails for €9.75 and the bottle contains 10ml.

NOTD 17 Peacock Matte

So like I mentioned yesterday, I really wasn’t feeling the 17 peacock, I wore it to work and hated it. I was really looking forward to taking it off but work was really hectic and I was really late and way to pooped to do a mani. So I threw a coat of No 7 Matte Top Coat on top. 

Here’s the pic

I actually liked this much better  and ended up wearing it for a few days. The wear was really great, I know mattes don’t wear as well usually. 

No 7 is a Boots brand, the matte top coat is a limited edition and costs €9.75. (I used a €7.50 off No 7 voucher I had, so it cost me €2.25). Application is fine, although I don’t love the No 7 bottle, it’s so tall and narrow, it’s easy to knock over.  The bottle contains 10 ml. 


Comments, suggestions, just saying hi, all appreciated! 

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

NOTD 17 Peacock

Today’s NOTD is 17 peacock, from their fast finish range. An aquamarine colour polish, with a micro glitter, I *think* that this finish is called called a frost, it’s slightly metallic and quite brush-strokey. (I’ve kind of struggled with giving this finish a name! It could be a frost, a foil with shimmer, etc....) 17 is a Boots’ brand and their varnishes, are around €4. I’ve picked this one up and put it back so many times, I’ve always been unsure about it.   So here come the pictures,

Sunlight, No flash.



Natural light (shade), No flash.


Artifical  light, flash.




I really didn’t feel this colour at all, I just didn’t like the finish. (Look at all it's frosty-ness in the last photo - yuck!) I showed it to a couple of people and they didn’t particularly like it either.  I’m not sure  the colour suited my skin tone either, so that probably didn’t help.  Application was fine, except for the brush strokey finish always associated with this type of polish. The bottle is 8ml.

Have you tried this polish? How do you feel about? Is it just me?!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Haul

I took a few days off over the last week, I just wanted to get a few things done before Uni, started back.  Of course, this necessitated a couple of visits to Boots, where *ahem* some polishes may have sneaked their way in my basket!


From L-R, No 7 Matte Top Coat, No 7 Grey skies, Barry M Vivid Purple, Barry M Raspberry, 17 Ruby Dazzle, 17 Peacock and 17 Exquisite.



I was really excited to see Barry M in Boot’s, we’ve never had it before. Although, because it was new, the stand was ransacked. The Barry M polishes cost €4.50, but were on offer 2 for €8. The bottles hold 10ml. I’ll go back and get more soon, when the stand is refilled!


The two No7 polishes cost €9.75 for 10ml. They're a great thing to use the €7.50 of No7 vouchers, if you have any floating around!  The 17 fast finish polishes cost €4.29, but were on offer 2 for €6.50 according to my receipt, there was no sign. The lasting finish was €3.99. I would have got another polish if I had known about the offer. The 17 polishes are 8ml. 



Friday, September 3, 2010

H&M Blue My Mind

Up today is H&M Blue my Mind, this an amazing blue colour as the name suggest. The blue is slightly neon. It’s definitely an eye catching colour, I got so many compliments on this one. Oddly, I often notice that blues are the colour, I get most comments on, not always good ones either!


The pictures coming up are two coats of polish and a coat of Seche Vite. I wore this for about 4 days and I never noticed any bald patches until I looked at these photos, so apologies for the bald patches. Next time, I’ll do three coats!


Artificial light, flash

Natural light, no flash
Natural light, flash. 

The no flash picture is definitely the most colour accurate, the flash washes the colour in the other two 
pictures out. The wear is good I got 4 or 5 days out it chip free. H&M polishes retail at €4.50, for 9ml. I picked this one up in Athlone, I assuming all H&Ms sell polish.