Halloween Nails Part Deux

Happy Halloween everyone! As you might notice, I don't usually paint nail art, but for Halloween, I was going to make a first attempt. Although as my week got so crazy, I only managed to practise my attempt on a nail wheel and not actually try them out on myself :(  So, I thought I'd show you my attempt at bloody tipped nail.

It's definitely not perfect, but an attempt in the right direction.The red is Essence Ready for Action.  Did you do any nail art for Halloween? I'd love to see it!

NOTD China Glaze Ick a Bod-y

Before, we get into  today's post properly, I'd just like to apologise for the lack of posts this week. I've been stupidly busy in work but have a lot of posts almost ready to go for this week, I'll be better this week! 


On to today's NOTD, it's suitably Halloweeny. China Glaze Ick A Bod-y, this is the last of the Halloween set from China Glaze. It's a black base with orange glitter, I've been wearing it a few hours and have had 5 compliments from strangers. 


Natural light, no flash ( we actually have sun today!) 

Artificial light, flash

and a little close up 

Application was perfect on this, I can see one or two bald patches on this in the photos, that aren't visible with the naked eye. I should have probably given this a third coat for the photos. It dries a little matte so topcoat is a must for shine!  I don't expect wear to be great on this, glitters never wear extremely well. 


What do you think, love it or loathe it? How are you doing your nails for Halloween?

NOTD Models Own Purple Grey

Today’s NOTD is Models Own Purple Grey. This one has an almost identical base colour, to Chanel Paradoxal. The Chanel has a shimmer that this doesn’t have. Barry M have a new colour that is pretty much dupish to the Chanel, but I haven’t managed to get my hands on it.  

This is my first Models Own polish, I picked it up in the recent ASOS sale, however I was in my local Boots on Saturday and they have added a Model’s Own stand.  I wasn’t sure, I’d love this, but when it was half price in the ASOS sale, I decided to give it ago and it was love. It’s definitely a new favourite. Application of this was good, the pictures show two coats, I don’t think I could have gotten away with just one coat. This wore like iron, I think I wore this for 5 or 6 days and when I took it off, it pretty much looked like it did the day I applied it.

The Barry M dupe to Paradoxal, is called Dusty Maeve and Lacquerized has a comparision post showing how close they are, here.  It’s not in my local Barry M stand yet, but I hope to get my hands on it soon.

ASOS Sale

I picked up a few nail polish bits in the ASOS sale. I was at work on a Saturday feeling sorry for myself when I saw it posted on another blog. I knew I had a few extra €'s coming in so decided to treat myself.(There are a few bits left on sale, if you're interested!) . I'm actually surprised everything go to me in one piece, because there was absolutely no packing, basically all the bottles were thrown in a box. So, thank you to the nice post men and women (post people?!) who got my package to me with no breakages!

Here's what I got.

Three Eyekos, Indigo, Posh and Rain. These normally retail at €4.50, but were €1.65 in the sale. I've been dying to try Eyeko for ages!

Some of the ASOS Ciatés, from L-R  Megan, Blake, Lauren and Lily. These cost €1.32, full price is €7.92.

Two Illamasquas, Rampage and Muse. Rampage was €8.60 and Muse was €6.62.  Full price is €17.21.

Two Model's own, what should be Blue Gem but is Bubble Gum and Purple Grey, these cost €3.92, they are usually €6.92.

Any of these you'd like to see? I have purple grey coming up in the next post!

NOTD Barry M Raspberry.

Notd is Barry M Raspberry, this a raspberry(unsurprisingly!) coloured cream. The application on this was perfect, it was a one coater. I really struggled to take photos of this and debated showing the photos I ended up with.  I did a google search for more colour accurate swatches and found hardly any swatches at all, so I thought some not perfect ones were better than none at all. That said I think I managed to rescue a relatively colour accurate picture from the hundreds I took!

The index finger is the most colour accurate, I think.  Like I said this was a one coater, the polish is very pigmented. The wear was good on this I wore it for a few days without any issues. I got loads of compliments on this one which was really strange, because I thought it was quite boring!  Have you tried this one? What do you think?

NOTD Color Club - Who Are You Wearing? with Crack(le)?

Just a quick post today, featuring yesterday’s Color Club ,Who Are You Wearing? with the Barry M Instant Effects polish. I thought the light colour would be interesting under the crackle polish.

It was a great way of hiding the failings of my application of this polish, as seen yesterday! I have no idea why my index finger didn't seem to crack as much as the rest, I might have used to thick a coat on that finger. 

NOTD Color Club - Who Are You Wearing?

First up, sorry, I've been a little lax on my posting lately, I'm under huge stress at work and usually manage to get posts written up on a Sunday, but I had to work this Sunday, so I am a little bit behind, but trying to catch up! 


Today’s NOTD is Color Club Who Are You Wearing? This is a very pale cream, white with hints of purple and maybe a bit of grey.  The pictures show 5(!) coats, application wasn’t great on this. This was the second attempt I had applied 4 coats, the day before and I ended up messing up two of my nails, I think because there were so many coats, it didn’t dry properly.  On this second attempt, it ended up quite streaky, I’m going to try this one again, letting it dry between coats.  I love this colour, it’s not a stark white, the hints of grey and purple make it very wearable, so I’m hoping to nail the application issues. (Ooops just noticed the pun - it wasn't originally intended, but it fits!)  So here is the  not so fabulous picture.

Apologies hugely for the this picture, but it really was the best I could do! :( I had a look to see if it was just me having problems with the application, out of about 10 blogs, 1 person had issues like me and the other 9 were fine in 3 coats. I was in a hurry both times, so maybe I didn’t let the coats dry enough?

Both times I only wore it for a day so I can’t say much about wear.

Have you tried this one? Did you have the issues I had?

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! 

China Glaze Mummy May I

Today is another one of the China Glaze Halloween  polishes,  Mummy May I. This one has catapulted right in to my favourites list. It’s a  deep purple base with fushia coloured glitter. (Actually when I was taking this off, I realised the glitter is actually silver and the polish over it is giving the appearance of it being fushia) 

The glitter gives it a lovely lit from within look, China Glaze do this kind of finish so well. (Actually must post some more on the blog!)  Application was good, this is three coats, to the naked eye two looked enough but when I took photos I noticed a few bald patches. This one needs a top coat, it dries a bit flat.

I wore this for two days and I got a chip on my index finger of my right hand, but I think that’s more to do with the nail on the that finger than the polish. A few weeks ago, I thought I got a chip in my polish but when I took the polish off, it transpired that a bit of my nail had come off, I’m patiently waiting for it to grow out!

In other news in case you haven't already seen, the lovely girls over at beaut.ie have teamed up with Barry's tea, for an evening with the founder of Wah nails, Sharmadean Reid. The details are all here. I'm very sad because I can't go :( 


Also, I've received some polish orders in the last week, would you like to see what I got as a haul post or just as I get around to swatching it? The only reason, I normally post what I've picked up is so you can see what's coming or in case anyone would like to request something to be swatched, but I know some people don't like that kind of post, so feedback is greatly appreciated! 

Barry M Instant Effects

This is the new crackle polish from Barry M, called Nail Special Effects. At the moment this just comes in black.   You paint your nails whatever colour you want, then when it’s dry you add a coat of this, trying not to paint the same part of the nail more than once. As it dries, it starts it’s magic.  It’s actually really fun to watch (but then I am easily amused!), there’s a video on the Barry M website here.

 For this first quick look, I did some skittles to show a range of colours. So here, from L-R is No 7 Grey Skies, Essence Rock n Roll, China Glaze For Audrey and Essie Lollipop. (I’ve shown all of these on the blog before except for Lollipop)

I love it over all the colours, lollipop and For Audrey are really obvious, the glitter of Rock n Roll looks really nice with it and Grey Skies is a little more subtle but is still lovely.  I got this in Boots, it cost €5.95 but the Barry M polishes were on 2 for €8.

Between writing this post this morning and getting around to posting it, this evening, Kirstie over at beaut.ie has also posted it, so go here for more ideas. 

Well, what do you think? Ugly or fab? 

NOTD China Glaze Zombie Zest

When Jennifer’s package arrived, I was wearing Orly Wandering Vine and loving it, but as I was swatching the polishes Zombie Zest was the one that stood out to and it looked a little sheer so I hit on the idea of putting it over Wandering Vine.

This is one coat of Zombie Zest over Wandering Vine, application was good. I think it looked lovely and got loads of compliments on this mani. The wear was really good no chips after 4 days and I had been wearing the wandering vine for  2 days already. 


Also,  everyone probably knows that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, the lovely girls at Beaut.ie did a post here about some of the lovely beauty buys that donate to BCA.   October is also Depression Awareness month and the colour for this is green is this mani is appropriate, Scrangie did a wonderful post about Depression Awareness here. 

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?

NOTD Orly Wandering Vine

Today’s NOTD is the most amazing Orly Wandering Vine. This was one my first Orlys and definitely caused me to love the brand. Wandering Vine is an amazing green cream polish, the pictures below are one coat, yup, that’s right ONE coat!

As mentioned above this is one coat in the pictures and the application was perfect, the polish is really pigmented but easy to work with too.   If you get a chance to get this one, I definitely recommend it. Incidentally, if anyone uses Transdesign to order polish from the states, they no longer ship Orly outside the states.  

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?

NOTD Essence Underwater

Today's NOTD is Essence Underwater, I picked this own up a little while ago but hadn't got around to wearing it.  It's a blue frost with shimmer, I've included a super-duper zoomed picture to show the shimmer. You may have a different version to this, in between taking the pictures and writing the post, I saw this post on Nihrida's fab blog, showing two versions of this. This is version 1, in Nihrida's post but I really like version 2 as well, so I'll keep an eye out for the other version.

And here we go on the nail.

 

After a couple of days wearing the polish, I was desperate for a bit of a change but didn't have time to change my whole manicure, so I applied a coat of No7 matte topcoat.

I really like this matte, aswell. You mght notice my pinky looks different, well that's because I applied a different matte topcoat to it, but more on this in another post. 

NOTD GOSH Purple Heart

Today's NOTD is Gosh Purple heart. It's a purple polish with a green duochrome.  The colour of this changes from purple to a kind of brownish colour when the duochrome flashes. I loved this,  but the duochrome was quite subtle and really hard to photograph. 


First up, a bottle picture,

You can see a bit of the green flash on the left of the bottle, I've included a zoomed up portion of the bottle to try and make the duo-chromeness easier to see.

From this picture you can also see the shimmer in the polish. 

I tried really, really to get a picture which showed both colours on the nails, I took over 100 pictures in various lighting but couldn't get one. So, I have two pictures, the first shows the purple.

and the second shows the browner colour it changes to, (apologies for the state of my cuticles in these pictures!)

On the nail the duochrome was much more subtle than in the bottle, I still like the polish but definitely not my favourite. The application was fine, the pictures show two coats. I've worn this for 3 days now and I'm starting to see a little tipwear. 


Gosh polishes retail at €8.50 in Ireland.


Have you tried this? What do you think? 

NOTD Viva La Diva 16

First up apologies for the lack of posts I've been incredibly busy in real life, but hopefully the craziness has calmed down for now! 

Today's NOTD is Viva La Diva 16,  a pink cream, this colour kind of reminds me of Pepto-Bismol. I’m not sure it’s great with my skin tone.

 I had some application problems with this but before I did the third coat, I put a few drops of thinner in it and ta-da problem solved. This did not seem to play well with Seche Vite At least I think that’s the problem, I had shrinkage from the cuticle up. It also didn't’ seem to dry great and I had sheet marks the next day. Unfortunately I’ve been stupidly busy and I’ve had to wear this mani all week, sheet marks and all and it’s worn really well!