Showing posts with label H and M. Show all posts
Showing posts with label H and M. Show all posts

Sunday, January 8, 2012

H&M Miss Stone Heart

Today I have for you a H&M polish called Miss Stone Heart, I totes love this name and it's a medium grey kinda stoney coloured creme polish with a hint of lavender. It's a little more grey and dark than China Glaze Agent Lavender, and a little bit darker and more lavender than Orly Mirror Mirror.  








Application is good on this, if a little streaky and it dries a bit matte so you definitely need a top coat with this.  I don't love this new H&M bottle (I'm sure I've said this before!), the large cap is awkward to hold when painting the nails and it never closes flush with the bottle (just like the ELF bottles, which drives me a little bit crazy!)  At time of writing, I've been wearing this polish for 4 days and wear is fine, I'm starting to get a little tip wear but that's about it. 



Sunday, August 7, 2011

What I picked up in Spain

As those of you who follow me on Twitter know, I was recently in Spain for work. While I didn't have much time for the shops unfortunately, I picked up a few Essence bits in a cosmetic shop (kind of like a pharmacy without the drugs!). The selection there was much bigger than that which we have any where I've seen in Ireland - the stand was about 3 times bigger and a lot of the extra was nail stuff.  They had lots of nail stickers and much more polish as well as stamping kits. I only picked up a few things hoping to get back but never made it. 
So here's what I got.


From L-R , the stampy set, two extra plates 01 have fun and 02 style it up!, Nail  Art Twins 02 Julia and Nail Art Special Effect Topper 02 Circus Confetti.




And in more detail.


The stampy kit, this cost €3.49. This contains  a stamper (on top), a scraper (left) and one plate (right)






The two plates, have fun on the left and style it up! on the right.




The two polishes Nail  Art Twins 02 Julia, on the left,  and Nail Art Special Effect Topper 02 Circus Confetti, on the right. Circus Confetti looks very Happy Birthday-esque to me on first look and Julia is a chunky holo glitter. Both of these  are very sparse so a base coat will be needed with them. 




I also popped into H&M and as well as buying a few dresses I picked up these Moody Model,  from the last post and one more polish I can't find anywhere (which has made me mad!!!- I'm pretty sure it made it home with me, unlike my phone charger but that's a whole other story!)  




I did find a Sephora but didn't pick up any polish there, it was quite small and any that I liked the look of were out of stock :( 


Expect some stampy manicures soon, just as soon as I manage to get to grips with it!  





Friday, August 5, 2011

H&M Moody Model

Today's NOTD is H&M Moody Model, a lovely deep teal cream.  I picked this up in Spain for €3.99 and if memory serves me right they are €4.50 here in Ireland. ( I live nowhere near a H&M). I picked another H&M polish and a few more things, in Spain, which I'll show you in the next couple of days.






This has amazing application,  the polish applies really well it's not too thin or too thick and it's very pigmented, pictures show two coats with seche vite on top, if I did the coats a little thicker it might have been a one coater. This is one of the new bottles and the new cap isn't great, because it's so big but I found holding it sideways made it easier to apply the polish, and as soon as you have worked out a way to hold it, it becomes less of an issue.

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.





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. 

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Hello Kitty Turquise

Up today is one of the lovely Hello Kitty that arrived in the package from the lovely Felizarine from Alizarine’s Claws, you can see the rest of that package here.

Hello Kitty Turquise is as the name suggests a lovely turquoise coloured polish, it has an almost imperctible shimmer to it. Even as I look at the polish, I know there is glitter in it and I can hardly make it out, but it lends an extra depth to the polish. I’ve included a blown up picture of the bottle to show the glitter.



Now on the nails, 
Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, flash





I had planned to take more pictures of this but I managed to chip the mani after a couple of hours.  Application was great these pictures are two coats. The wear wasn’t great as I’ve mentioned I managed to get a chip less than 12 hours after I applied it and I was asleep for many of those hours!


As I said,this polish was part of the package I received from Felizarine for winning her giveaway, so I’m not sure of the price. The bottle is bigger ( 16 ml) than the normal H&M polishes (9ml) so I don’t know if that makes it more expensive. I'm pretty sure the normal H&M polishes retail at €4.50.


Saturday, August 14, 2010

Nubar 2010

Up today is Nubar 2010, this is a flaky polish in the vein of Gosh Rainbow, which must be sold out the length and breadth of Ireland! Not only is Nubar 2010 a dupe for Gosh Rainbow, it’s also a dupe to Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure which has all the American nail junkies on a hunt for elusive bottles!

First up a bottle pic,



I’m not quite sure if Nubar is trying to insult me or encourage to revert back to my previous sluttish state, but anyhow for best resluts! Right time to compose myself and get over my nail polish insulting me, didn’t it know I was never a slut, hence no need to reslut myself!


So when I had the skittles from the giveaway win post on, I thought this would be an ideal time to try out the Nubar 2010 and kept them on for an extra day to try and do the 2010 swatches. (I got some very strange looks at work!) Since I’m a little late to this party, I thought I it was an easy way to try it out on a wide range of colours.

Of course all day when I was in work with my multicoloured nails the weather was lovely and sunny and I knew this polish would need sunlight to photograph properly, on my way home the sun went in. The next day I had a meeting with my boss so it had to come off, but I held off to see if it would be sunny in the morning and just as I had remover in my hand, the sun came out for a brief minute so I got 2 not very good sunlight photos, so I’ve put a few photos in to try and capture the flakey goodness!

Artifical light, flash






No Flash, artifical light





Finally sunshine (through the window!) and no flash




Each of these is one coat of Nubar 2010 over the polish, I didn't apply topcoat as I didn't want to dull the flakies, it dried extremely quickly anyway. This was an absolute pain to photograph and I took over 150 photos of it and these were the best! When I use this again I'll try 2 coats of 2010 and find a sunny day!

I had heard about people loving this over pastel colours, I personally wasn't feeling it so much but I loved it over the darker colours, especially the Hello Kitty pink on my pinkie. Expect to see a few more colours 2010'd in the upcoming weeks while I decide if I love it or I'm just meh about it.

Have you any suggestions for good colours to try with 2010?

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

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?


Friday, July 9, 2010

My Stash

Today, I thought I'd post a few pictures of my small stash, so to start off here's a picture of most of my polish stash. I found a few more lying around the place after I took the pictures and I know my Mum and sister have a few too. I must make a spreadsheet because I have no idea how many polishes I have, I guess around 60.



Next up, The OPIs



The China Glazes.



The Orlys and Ruby&Millie.



Elf and No7



Essence



17



Collection 2000, Rimmel, Maybelline and H&M



Essie, Claires and mini OPIs from the Spanish collection


That's it for now. Have a great weekend!