Illamasqua Nail Duo Bright - Glitterati and Viridian

I bought this set of two Illamasqua nail polishes from Debenhams, named Nail Duo Bright. The set includes Viridian, a metallic peacock green and Glitterati, a glittery plum shade.

My first impression was that neither of these polishes looked as bright or glittery in person as they did in the stock picture on the Debenhams website. Fair enough though, things never do. I still think naming them as "bright" is a bit misleading because they're not.

Viridian is rather dull, darker and a lot less metallic than I expected, even based on what it looks like in the bottle. I ended up jazzing it up a little by Zoya Maisie, a blue/green flakie polish.

Glitterati is very misleading in the bottle as you can see loads of sparkles, but they mostly end up being sandwiched between the layers you apply (I did two) and also just floating inside the polish. The end result was much less glittery than I thought it would be.

Both manicures took 2 coats to look opaque, the formula was nice, not too runny or thick and they applied evenly. Both started chipping slightly in the first 24 hours, even though these polishes are supposed to be "extremely hardwearing and chip-resistant" according to Illamasqua. Once I applied Zoya Maisie on top of Viridian, it lasted really well (3 more days), but that credit goes to Zoya Maisie. Glitterati was very badly chipped on me by the end of day 3.

The set costs £22 from Debenhams (currently £19.80 in the sale - ends tonight!) and interestingly £24 on the Illamasqua website. Single polishes cost £13.50 and as both are full size (15 ml each), this is a good value set. (I can't actually see Glitterati on the website, maybe it's exclusive to the set?) Whether I'd recommend it is another question. If you don't mind that they're not as bright as advertised and aren't chip resistant like Illamasqua claim, then I would. I'm myself a bit disappointed with this set, and since these are my first Illamasqua polishes, not sure this was the best introduction to the brand's nail polishes.

See lots more pictures including swatches after the jump!

NOTD: Nails Inc. Burlington Arcade + Zoya Chloe

I picked up loads of Nails Inc. polishes from TKMaxx over the past couple of months, one of them was Burlington Arcade, a pretty burgundy shade. I decided to spice it up a bit and layer Zoya Chloe, a sheer pink flakie with orange, green and pink flakes. Here's the result:

I did two coats of Burlington Arcade and one coat of Chloe. This manicure lasted on me for the average 2 days without chipping. I love how the light catches on the flakes, it's very pretty.

Nails Inc. polishes normally retail for £11 for 10 ml and Zoya polishes cost around £8 (or more like $8 in the US) for 15 ml. The sets in TKMaxx cost £12.99 for 3 or £14.99 for 4 polishes, a bargain! I buy all my Zoya polishes on eBay from US sellers for about $7 a bottle (obviously you have to factor in the shipping cost and possible customs duty as well).

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Oh My Gosh Bright Yellow + Essie Shine Of The Times

First of all, I don't often share a lot of personal stuff about me on here, but with a name Shine Of The Times I couldn't not share this with you:

My favourite band EVER - Europe with Sign Of The Times. I've loved them since I was just 10 and now two and a half decades later they're still my favourite. Their music means so so much to me, even more than make up!

But back to the purpose of this post and that is to show you this manicure I did a little while ago. I really liked the look of the Essie flakie, but with hindsight I think I should've paired it up with something darker. It did make the Oh My Gosh Bright Yellow polish a lot more interesting though as the flakes can look orange or green depending on how the light hits my nails. Actually the Oh My Gosh polish is very nice in itself, I was pleasantly surprised by it, it has a really nice sheen to it. Apologies about the state of my fingers, it was very cold at that time (you can see some snow in the grass if you look closely) and my hands dry out very quickly.

I believe the Essie nail polish was limited edition, but I'm sure it's still available on eBay, and the Oh My Gosh polish is available from Superdrug.

See more pictures after the jump!