Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Max factor fantasy fire, what to say? Firstly it's amazeballs! Secondly it's dupeish to the most beloved discontinued polish ever Clairins 230 (aka Unicorn Pee ). The third thing to add is, that this is most definitely a top coat, I've seen some people bemoaning that 6 coats later it's still not opaque. Stop, put it atop of what you are already wearing particularly if it's a blue, green or purple and prepare to be amazed! 


The sun didn't play nice the first couple of times I wore this, so I decided to show you some bottle and nail wheel pictures today and since I took these eleventy-billion pictures (this post has been a long time in the making), I managed to get some natural light photos of it on my nails so these will follow, shortly.




Some bottle pictures to start. Here and elsewhere, you can click the pictures to make them bigger, so do it!

So I said it was dupeish to Clairins 230, I don't own the Clairins polish so can't do a full comparision but in the bottle they look similar, layered over another polish they look similar, but on their lonesome on the nail they look different. The Clairins is a red base and the Max Factor is a purple base but because there are both so sheer it's seems to not matter one jot. Fantasy fire definitely has the green flash, just like Clarins 230.  The green flash was hard to pick up but I think you can see hints of it in the second bottle picture and the last nail wheel picture. 


In retrospect, I should have rotated this photos  The four polishes use are Green : OPI Jade is the New Black, Blue: OPI Dating a Royal, Navy :  Essence Midnight Rocker , Purple Revlon Rock.

The last thing to say is the bottle is tiny (6 ml) and costs €5.49 ( around £3.99, I think) and only seems to be available in the UK and Ireland. In Ireland, I've only found this in Boots, other chemists which do Max Factor don't seem to have this, so if you want this you'll have to get to your nearest Boots. 

Have you tried Fantasy Fire? What do you think of it?

Best in Beaut.ie Awards

(picture courtesy of Beaut.ie)

A couple of weeks ago (ummm 3 at this stage! Bad blogger!) myself and the little sister took ourselves of to Dublin to attend the Best in  Beaut.ie beauty awards. The awards were organised by the very lovely beaut.ie sisters Kirstie and Ailsling  Beaut.ie McDermott (who will hence forth be known as the mothership of Irish blogging, since they have been called this so often recently!)  in conjunction with West Coast Cooler.   If you haven't already checked out their blog, you should once you finish reading this post,. The blog is 5 years old, in fact they are celebrating their birthday this month, and they already have one book under their belt, with another on the way shortly. You should definitely check out the blather posts, which is a daily open post were people discuss anything from beauty to current affairs. 


The awards were not only voted for my Beaut.ie readers but the shortlist also came from their readers, so these were definitely a true reflection of what Irish (since they are a Irish based blog the majority of readers are Irish!) gals use and love.

Mmmmm west coast cooler!! 

(picture courtesy of Beaut.ie)

We arrived at the very lovely Dylan hotel and promptly were given a glass of west coast cooler and found some beaut.ies I'd met before and some I hadn't we had a great evening chatting and catching up lubricated by copious amounts of West Coast Cooler - which I hadn't tried before and actually it's quite nice! Then, the awards themselves were announced you can find the whole list here. I'm going to talk about the nail related ones but you definitely check out the whole list, some strange things won awards like the winner of the Best Skin Care Tool was the humble facecloth!


Best Polish brand was won by Rimmel, see the runners up here. The best base coat award went to OPI base coat, see the runners up here. The best top coat went to Sally Hansen Diamond Shine Base and Top Coat, runners up here. The best nail tool went to Boots Buffing Block, see the runners up here. The best hand cream went to (one of my favourites) L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream, see the runners up here. Last but not least the best footcream award went to Scholl Cracked Heel Repair Cream, see the runners up here.


After the awards were announced, we had some more to drink and some more chats and got given lovely goody bags, the contents of which are below, 

From L-R : No 7 Lash Adapt Mascara, Sally Hansen Cafe Au Lait, Rimmel Vinyl Addict Max Lipgloss in Addictive (this has the most mahoosive applicator see below!)  I'm dying to try the Sally Hansen polish, because they've just started carrying them in Ireland but I've yet to find somewhere that sells them,

Some Kiehls samples which came in a lovely bag which didn't make it into the photos, I've been dying to try Kiehls for ages so was very happy to see these. From Clockwise from the top left, we have Ultra facial oil free lotion, Creme de Corps, Midnight Recovery Concentrate, Epidermal Re-Texturing Micro-Dermabrasion, Rosa Artica. 

There was also some bottles of West Coast Cooler in the goody bag but they didn't make it to the pictures..........

I just had to show this, the Rimmel lipgloss pictured above has the largest applicator ever, see below for pictorial evidence, there's Benefit lipgloss on the left for comparison, it's ginormous! 

So what do you think of the winners, are your favourites among them? Have you tried any of the winners, what did you think?

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?

OPI Sparkle-icious

I hope you are all having a lovely start to the new year, and had a lovely polish filled Christmas! For the first post of the new year year I'll be extremely tardy and show you my Christmas mani, please excuse my tardiness my life just got completely on top of me (I won't bore ye with details!) and I couldn't find the time or enthusiasm to post, but I have been taking photos, so I have a whole load of posts upcoming.

Right on to the polish, today's polish is OPI Sparkle-isicous, which I thought was just the glitterbomb for Christmas. 

First up a close up shot, 

You can see that Sparkle-icous contains many different colours of glitter that maybe aren't so obvious on the nail picture.

Despite this being (the best) one of about 100 photos I took of this, I don't think this picture is doing this polish justice, this is a fab colour. 

Application was ok on this, I found it hard to stop bald spots appearing, as like many glitters it didn't like being painted over. The wear on this was good too, I wore it for a few days with no issues.




Sparkle-icious is part of OPI's Burlesque collection and I guess it should be in shops in Ireland around now (I'll try to get in to a OPI selling shop tomorrow to see) , I picked this up on the internet a few months ago. 

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! 

Nail Mail!

This fabulous package arrived for me on Monday but with one thing and another this week  turned in a giant PITA!  I’m only getting around to posting it now,  I won a giveaway on the lovely Jennifer’s blog, Nail Polish Addiction Anonymus, check out her fab blog here. 

So, this is what she sent me, isn’t it lovely? It completely and utterly made my day when I finally got to open it two days after it arrived.

And in a little more detail, China Glaze Halloween colllection, from L-R, Mummy May I, Zombie Zest, Ick-A-Body and China Glaze's Fast Dry Topcoat. 

From L-R, Nicole by OPI, Such a Go-Glitter  (the bottle shape is so weird on this one!) and the very elusive Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, this is a flakie that is very close to Gosh Rainbow and Nubar 2010.

The minis from the OPI Spanish Collection, from L-R, Suzi Skies in the Pyrenees, No Spain No Gain, Pink Flamenco and OPI fast dry topcoat. 

Two Bare Escentuals eyeshadows in Clarity and Socialite and an eyeshadow brush (seen in picture above). 

I promise I won’t try to do many more make up swatches, I don’t think I’d make a very good make up blogger, I just wanted to show you the lovely colours and there was no other way to show you!

Is there any these you’d like to see, I have Zombie Zest coming up soon as a NOTD post?

Comparision OPI TMF V Elf Innocent V ELF Desert Haze

So when I saw the two Elf polishes, Innocent and Desert Haze, the first thing that struck me was how alike the looked and the second was they look a lot like one of my favourite polishes ever, OPI Tickle My France-y from the French collection.

I love TMF its my favourite mannequin hands shade, it’s one of those colours that goes with everything and it practically applies itself the application is so good. It’s also a completely work appropriate colour.

So let’s have a look at the bottles, from L-R, ELF Desert Haze, OPI TMF, ELF Innocent. 

In the bottle, Elf innocent looks very closer to TMF, than Desert Haze does. 

We’ve seen all of these polishes before, here’s some links, Desert Haze, TMF, Innocent,  so here is a quick comparision of the three on the nails.

Picture taken in natural light no flash, from L-R, ELF Desert Haze, OPI TMF, ELF Innocent.

The picture shows 3 coats of Desert Haze and TMF and 4 coats of Innocent.

While they are not dupes, they are 3 variations of the nude theme, Desert Haze, is a more brown nude and Innocent is more peachy nude. Tickle My France-y is in the middle of the other two, it has a little bit of brown and a little bit of  peach.

The application was best on TMF, closely followed by Desert Haze, I struggled again with the Innocent application. My favourite of these 3 is definitely Desert Haze! I originally complained about the application of Desert Haze, the first time I used it, but I applied it in a hurry that time. I only painted two nails (although I'm only showing one here) this time and had no issues. (I'll go back and edit the original post I think.)

Have you tried any of these three? Do you have a favourite mannequin hands shade?

OPI Tickle My France-y

Today’s NOTD is OPI Tickle my France-y (TMF) from the OPI French Collection. Usually with OPI collections although they are limited edition, one or two make it in to the permanent collection. I believe You Don’t Know Jacques and TMF both have been made permanent.

TMF is totally a work appropriate polish and is completely my go to when I have to go to serious meetings and/or I’m going somewhere and need to polish in a hurry. I find it much easier to put a nude colour in a hurry, even if it’s a 3 coater.

A lot of the flash pictures pulled a bit pink, so while this isn't the best photo it's probably the most colour accurate.

The photos show 3 coats with a coat of seche vite on top. I literally threw this polish on while I was waiting for a taxi to arrive and while I had the forethought to have the money ready, I completely destroyed my right hand putting on my seat belt. (Well two nails but it bugged me the whole day although I know no one else noticed!)

Although I didn’t leave this on long I know the wear time on this is good from previous wears. For some people this would their mannequin hands colour (the colour that makes their nails the same colour as their hands) but on me this isn’t the best match for my skin colour but I still love it.

I have a few more nude polishes coming up, what's you favourite mannequin hands shade?

Elf Smokey Brown V OPI IDKJ

Today a comparison between ELF Smokey Brown and  OPI You don’t know Jacques (YDKJ).  When I saw Smokey Brown it reminded me of YDKJ, so I pulled out the bottles and what do you know, there were very similar so first up a picture of the two bottles.

Looking at the bottle, you can see the ELF polish is a little lighter than YDKJ. Next up, on the nails. From L-R YDKJ, Smokey Brown, YDKJ and Smokey Brown.

Flash Picture

No Flash

Again Smokey Brown looks lighter on the nail, the ELF polish need three coats but the OPI was fine with two. For the sake of comparison I did three coats of each. There’s no top coat on these swatches. I don't own Particulare to compare the ELF polish too, but I do know that it is also lighter than YDKJ, so this might be a good bet to replace that, although I think that Particulare has been re-released. 

Elf Lilac V OPI Parlez-Vous OPI

Wow, I have followers, welcome to my rambling world!  Today I have a comparison because the whole time I was wearing the ELF lilac polish I kept thinking it reminded me of another polish and all I could come up with was OPI Parlez-Vous OPI. I think it was the dustyness in the colour, but I was very wrong, but since I took the pictures I thought I'd show them anyway.

First up the two bottles

Now on the nails, from L-R Parlez- Vous OPI, Lilac, Parlez- Vous OPI, Lilac.

This picture is very colour accurate, given the purples are so hard to photograph, I only wish my hands weren't so lobster-ish! The formula on both of these is good, but the ELF brush is no where near as nice as the OPI pro-wide brush, which is one of my favs. That said the ELF brush isn't that bad at all.

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!