Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid

Today's NOTD is from a new nail polish brand called Cult Nails. Cult Nails is run by blogger Maria, who runs a blog called  R3 daily, on her blog and twitter she talks about some the process of creating your own nail varnish brand like dealing with the lab. My Kind of Cool Aid is the first polish that she has released, she had 2 more planned (Iconic and Living Water) but actually ended up with an extra polish called Quench.


First before we even talk about the colour, let's talk about the packaging, Maria packs her polish with cotton wool balls instead of packing peanuts, as seen below.






Cotton wool balls are infinitely more usual for a nail varnish lover, than packing peanuts. Although, confession time - I can not stand the feel of cotton wool, it's my "nails on a blackboard". It sends a shiver down my spine, there aren't enough words to describe my dislike of cotton wool and I had to touch it to take the picture (see the things I do for a picture!!!)  All that said, I still think the cotton wool balls are a great idea, and I will pass them to a good home with my sister or mother and make sure they are used.


My kind of Cool Aid is a gravender (grey-lavender) polish, it's a creme with a really hard to detect shimmer in it, but the shimmer is what gives it, it's unique qualities. The shimmer is easiest to see with the polish wet but I did my best to capture it below. So on to the pictures,



I had taken the bottle picture to show the shimmer but thought it was more noticeable on my thumb nail, so I left my thumb in the picture, click to make to larger as always.

Firstly, I love, love the colour and the way the hidden shimmer gives it an extra depth. Application was perfect the pictures show two coats and a coat of seche vite. ( I should add that the polish was really shiny and only needed the seche for it's drying abilities and not it's shiny ones)  I unintentionally ended up wearing this for 6 days and the wear was just starting to show on the 6th day, so wear was really good too.  

The polish retails for $10 on Cult Nails' website and I paid $8 postage for three polishes. The bottle looks roughly the same size as a models own bottle but holds 18 ml compared to models own 15ml. When I ordered My Kind of Cool Aid, there was an offer running if you pre-ordered the other two polishes you got Quench free. So I have the rest of the Cult Nails polishes on the way and will show them to you as soon as I get them.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Catrice Let's Talk about Barrie!

Today's NOTD is Catrice Let's Talk about Barrie! This is a raspberry jelly, the polish is very pigmented but has the squishy look of a jelly and after 3 coats there was still evidence of visible nail line (VNL)
On to the pictures





Like I said,  this polish was very pigmented but needed 3 coats, the pictures show that maybe 4 coats would have been better. The formula was very runny, and I found it difficult to control and got cuticle flooding on my index and middle finger (which I now see is very evident in pictures, major apologies!) . The brush didn't seem as unwieldy as the one in catrice en vogue, it was much easier to control. 

The colour and the jellyness of this polish definitely make up for the application issues I had, in my opinion.  Although, one burning question still remains, who barrie is and why do we need to talk about him/her?  On that note, if you haven't seen the Stupid Nail Polish Names blog, I send you off there post haste! Happy reading! 

Friday, February 11, 2011

OPI Teasy Does It

Today's NOTD is OPI Teasy Does It, from the Burlesque collection. I picked this one up when the Burlesque collection first came out and I'm extremely sorry, I left it so long to try it out! There's nothing bad to say about this one! Application is perfect, the colour and finish are amazing and the wear is good too.


Right, some pictures of this beauty,  mmm purpley goodness...... 
Up close (and personal) 

and now on the nails. 



I was stuck in an incredibly boring meeting, the morning after I applied this and I happily passed some of the time checking this out. (God, that makes me sound so vacuous! But sometimes having nice nail varnish to look down at, in boring meetings makes the time go a little bit quicker! )


Have you tried this one? What do think?

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Wheely number 5



Welcome to Wheely Wednesday!  *sings tunelessly* It's just another wheely Wednesday.... Ooops sorry about that I've had Manic Monday stuck in my head since Monday (appropriately enough). On to the wheel, there's a couple of my favourites on this one, but I think I say that about them all!

Wheel 5

  1. 17 Peacock
  2. Essence Access All areas
  3. Gosh Holo
  4. Gosh Purple Heart
  5. H&M Turquise Glitter (their spelling not mine!)
  6. Topshop Gypsy Night
  7. China Glaze For Audrey
  8. China Glaze Heli-yum
  9. Essie Mint Candy Apple
  10. Orly Wild Wisteria
  11. Viva La Diva 16
  12. OPI You Don’t Know Jacques
  13. No7 Grey Skies
  14. Collection 2000 Bmx Bandit
  15. OPI Tickle My France-y
  16. H&M Blue My Mind
  17. Essie Chinchilly
  18. Elf Purple Pleasure
As always, if there are any you'd like to see in more detail, please let me know.


Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Catrice En Vogue


Today’s NOTD is Catrice En Vogue. This is the first Catrice I’ve tried and it’s amazing. I can’t get access to Catrice where I am and my sister picked this up in Dublin as part of my Christmas present but it seems to be part of a collection, so it might be a limited edition. En Vogue, is  a very deep navy with a shimmer to it. It often looks close to black but never quite black, it’s always obvious it’s a navy (to me anyway!)  The best thing about the polish was that it’s really pigmented and a one-coater.  On to the pictures,

Upclose and personal,




On the nails,



Like I said, amazingly this is a one coater, application of the polish itself was perfect but the brush I found a little unwieldy. I wore this one for a good 4/5 days with minimal wear so, wear was really good. 


Any more Catrices I should try? Do you have a favourite?