My Current Favourites - Part 2: Nails

I have already shown you my current favourite make up products and today I'd like to show you what I've been using most when it comes to my nails.

First up is Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Cuticle Pen. I use this every time I change my mani, and brush the oil all over my nails as well as my cuticles. It helps make my cuticles soft and also conditions my nails which are quite fragile and peel easily. Since I started using this product many month ago, my nails have been in a much better state, the peeling has slowed down and my nails have become stronger.

See what other products I've been enjoying using after the jump!

NOTD: Polish Me Silly Mind Blowing over China Glaze Want My Bawdy

I have another mani to show you (I told you I'm really into nail polish) and this time it's another fabulous indie polish called Mind Blowing by Polish Me Silly. I used China Glaze Want Me Bawdy, a dark blue and purple duochrome polish as the base and added Mind Blowing on top which is a multichrome topper with glitter. It goes from purple to blue as well, so a good match to Want Me Bawdy. It lightens the base colour and creates a galaxy like effect. Very pretty. It's really sparkly in direct sunlight, unfortunately the day I took the photos was a cloudy day. 

The formula of both polishes was great, Mind Blowing in particular and wore well for 2 days (which is my average and the frequency I change my nail polish usually).

Polish Me Silly polishes are available from their Etsy shop and from Rainbow Connection in the UK (although currently these multichrome toppers aren't in stock). If you buy from their Etsy shop, you can choose whether you want full size (15 ml) or mini size (9 ml) bottles and you can also purchase all 6 multichrome toppers available from the brand.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Color Club Hot Couture over Oh My Gosh Electric Pink

Today's manicure is a lovely springtime one (although I actually did it back in November), it's very appropriate for Easter, even though the weather in the UK resembles more Christmas than anything else. It was 2.8 degrees at 9 am this morning. Brr!

I used Oh My GOSH Electric Pink polish as a base and then applied Color Club Hot Couture glitter top coat on top. The result: bright pink sparkly nails! Lovely.

Both polishes has a good formula, not too thick, not too runny. Hot Couture has a very good glitter coverage, you don't need to fish around for glitter. I only had a couple of tiny chips after the first day, but after 2 days I had loads of chipping and peeling. Still, it was very pretty while it lasted.

I bought Hot Couture as part of a set from TKMaxx and Electric Pink from Superdrug.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Mavala Sparkling Violet

Mavala Sparkling Violet is a gorgeous multicoloured (magenta, teal, gold) glitter top coat. It has I thought it might be opaque enough to wear on its own, but after 5 coats (which is what you see in the pictures) I gave up. It should definitely be worn as a top coat!

It is very pretty though, as well as quick drying and long lasting. It lasted on me for 3 days with minimal chipping (no chipping at all in the first 24 hours) which is pretty much my record.

Mavala polishes cost £4 for 5 ml, so they are very affordable and as the bottles are so small, you actually have a chance of finishing them. The 5 coats I used for this pretty much got through a third of the bottle! I got mine from BeautyBay.

See more pictures after the jump!

2012 Favourites - Part 4: Nails

2012 was definitely the year of the nail polish for me. I bought over 550 nail polishes (I know, crazy!) and discovered some amazing brands. (Check out my stash video and pictures here.) Until 2 years ago I'd hardy heard of any nail polish brands that couldn't be bought in Boots or Superdrug (and back then there weren't a lot of glittery, shimmery, duochrome polish around, or at least I didn't notice them). As well as continuing to buy from mainstream brands like China Glaze, OPI, Orly and the likes, I discovered some very unique and interesting brands and nail polishes. My favourite polishes are holos and duochromes, or preferably both together in one product, and I'm also rather partial to glitter.

The picture above shows a few of my recent purchases including the new Color Club holographic polishes that I regret to say I haven't tried yet as well as Topshop glitter polishes and Enchanted Polish duo(multi)chrome polishes.

My favourite newly discovered brands in 2012 were Topshop, Enchanted Polish, Layla and Glitter Gal. Out of the four I'd say Enchanted Polish is my definite favourite, the only thing I don't like is how difficult it is to come by as the polishes are only made in very small quantities and the shades are limited edition. Nevertheless I have managed to get my hands on a few of them and here are some:

These are from the Beatles collection (I Am The Walrus and Magical Mystery Tour) and from the Falloween collection (Witchful Thinking). The new holiday collection came in a new style, fancier, more professional looking bottle:

Green Peace on Earth, Dance Of The Sugar Plum, Bruised Nutcracker, Olive The Other Reindeer

Enchanted Polish nail polishes are absolutely gorgeous, duo- or rather multichrome with scattered holo, straight forward holographic or glittery. I have showed you Across The Universe here if you want to take a peek.

Find out what other nail polishes and nail care products I loved in 2012 after the jump!

NOTD: A-England Lady Of The Lake

Today I have Lady Of The Lake from A-England to show you, a dark greyish purple polish with subtle holo. This is the second shade I've tried out, if you want to see Princess Tears in action, click here.

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

I did 2 coats with Seche Vite on top, then the following day I added an extra coat on top to see if it made any difference with the holo (top coats sometimes dim the holo effect), but I couldn't see a difference. The holographic effect is quite subtle, not as linear as Layla or Glitter Gal polishes, but it's still pretty.

The formula was nice and it lasted on me for 2 days with minimal chipping (I wore it for 3 days). That's average for me.

A-England polishes cost £9 each and you get 13 ml. Available to order from the A-England website.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Bourjois 1 Seconde Nail Polish in Rainbow Apparition

Once again I got sucked into buying another rainbow glitter nail polish. I'm like a magpie, love myself some glitter and rainbow colours. I used Bourjois Rainbow Apparition on top of 2 coats of Orly Sugar Plum (although I can't remember if I used one or two coats of Rainbow Apparition, sorry).

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

Rainbow Apparition is such a pretty polish, it has loads of holographic glitter that shimmer in all colours of the rainbow. It's supposed to be a 1 second nail polish, ie should take one second to apply due to the wide fan brush. I don't like claims like that, nothing takes one second in my opinion, but apart from that it's a lovely top coat with a nice formula and the brush is indeed very handy.

It lasted brilliantly on me, 3 days with hardly any chipping. I didn't have any chips at all in the first 24 hours, and only a couple of small ones later on. Very impressed.What annoys me though is that the bottle is so tall due to the long thin cap, it doesn't fit into my storage boxes standing up. No need for that in my opinion, 2 cm shorter would be just fine.

Bourjois 1 Seconde Nail Polishes cost £5.99 and available from Boots, Superdrug, etc. Orly Sugar Plum was a PR sample, but retails at £7.50 on BeautyBay.

See more pictures after the jump!

My First Ever Attempt At Nail Art ...Well, Sort Of

Let me get this straight I'm not good at nail art. I have now got to the point when I can just about paint my nails without too much mess, but nail art I could never be any good at. My right hand I could maybe do something arty with, but my left hand is absolutely useless, I can't write or draw with it. That is why I always photograph my left hand as the nails always look much better on it. Plus I can't even hold the camera properly with my left hand. So when I say I attempted nail art, I mean this:

Yep, this is it. I painted my nails with one nail polish (namely Urban Decay's Magic Bus) and then applied a glitter polish (Mavala Gold Diamond) on top in a sort of messy gradient style. It looked pretty nice as it was very sparkly and I did get some compliments, so I guess it's not too bad for a first attemp. It also lasted on me for 3 days which was pretty good. What do you think?

Want It: Orly Flash Glam FX Collection for Summer 2012

I have been on a massive nail polish kick lately and have bought probably over 100 polishes. I've actually got into the habit of painting my nails every 2-3 days, so I am slowly getting through them, but probably will take another 6 months or so to use every new nail polish I've bought. Regardless, I have spotted a new Orly collection of 22 glitter top coats (plus a black nail polish) that I really love and will be buying a good few from.

The collection contains 22 glitter top coats in different coloured and shaped glitters, there are holographic, bar shaped and round glitter in varying sizes:

• Ultraviolet
• Right Amount of Evil
• Spazmatic
• Cupcakes and Unicorns
• R.I.P.
• Atomic Splash
• Watch It Glitter
• Embrace
• Monster Mash
• Go Deeper
• It’s a Meteor
• Ridiculously Regal
• So Go-Diva
• It’s Electric
• Be Brave
• Too Fab
• Holy! Holo!
• Sunglasses at Night
• Mermaid Tale
• Can’t be Tamed
• Rocket’s Red Glare
• Sashay My Way

Based on the official information and the swatches I've seen so far, I want Cupcakes And Unicorns, Be Brave, Sunglasses At Night, Holy Holo!, Sashay My Way, and maybe Ultraviolet. For now anyway.

They are $10 each on the Orly website and I have found a UK stockist who is going to sell them for £8.29 each (they're due to be launched mid-August), but I have also found a seller on eBay who has them for $6.25 plus shipping which makes one bottle cost £6.88 or less if you order more than one. One bottle contains a massive 18 ml, so it's great value for money. 

See more details after the jump!

NOTD: Glorious Aquarius

I'm easing back into blogging with a nail post, this is such a pretty one, I wanted to show you anyway. This is 2 coats of Urban Decay Aquarius with Essence Glorious Aquarius Nail Art Special Effect Topper on top. Such a pretty mermaid effect. Brilliant formula too, it lasted on me so well, with only a tiny chip after 48 hours and I only took it off after 4 days.

Taken with flash

The Urban Decay polish was part of their summer nail kit a few years ago and I bought the Essence glitter top coat in Hungary back in June. I don't remember how much it was, only a couple of quid at most and it's a good 8 ml size. Both are really nice and the combination is especially pretty.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: OPI Save Me

Just a quick NOTD post today I'm afraid as I've been very busy lately and as a result, used up all my interesting scheduled posts. I should be back to normal in a few days, I have some lovely things to share with you, so keep checking in!

This beauty is OPI's Save Me from the Nicki Minaj collection. Hope it's still available because it's absolutely stunning if you like glitter. More of a topcoat really, but here I used it as a normal polish, and it took 3 coats to cover my nails properly. It is extremely rough though even after 2 coats of Seche Vite topcoat and the bar glitter tends to stick out all over the place, so it's really quite annoying. But it would look lovely as a top coat and probably more comfortable to wear, but it will still need a top coat to smooth it out.

As usual, you get 15 ml and in the UK OPI polishes cost £10.50. Quite a rip off, so I try to buy mine from eBay, usually for a good few pounds more. Otherwise, you can buy yours from John Lewis, Beauty Bay, Sally's, etc.

See another picture after the jump!

Finished! The December Edition

Another month over, another post about products I've finished. There are a few included that I have reviewed a few times on here, so I will just link them to some earlier reviews instead of repeating myself.

First up - a confession. I'm probably the only person in the blogesphere that doesn't know what the big fuss is about Clarisonic. I got a Clarisonic Mia a couple of months ago and I've been using it religiously, but in all fairness, I just can't see what it does to my skin. My skin isn't clearer, my pores are still clogged up, nothing has really changed to be honest. I don't hate it, but I do wonder what on earth I spent all the money on. Okay, there, I said it. Let the stone thowing commence. Right, onto the products. I got this cleanser with my Clarisonic and I didn't like it. Luckily it was only a small sample, so I used it up, but it smelled funny and it did nothing to my skin. Won't repurchase (I don't even know if you can).

 See what other products I finished after the jump!

Givenchy Phenomen'eyes Paillettes Glitter Topcoat in Plum Sparkles

I wore this mascara top coat in my previous post, so I thought I'd show you in a bit more details. It's part of Givenchy's holiday offerings and comes in 3 shades: Plum Sparkles, Gold Sparkles and Black Sparkles.

Givenchy Phenomen'eyes Mascaras are one of my favourite ones, so I was hoping this topcoat would have the same qualities, but sadly, no. I tried wearing it on its own, but the formula is too runny/thin for that and it hardly made any differenc to my lashes. On top of another mascara it adds some very hardly noticeable sparkles, but no volume or length. The sparkles were just not obvious enough to justify paying £20 for a topcoat, so I'm quite disappointed with this product. I haven't tried the gold shade, maybe that's a bit more blingy, but this plum shade is certainly very subtle.

Otherwise, it has the same brilliant brush as the regular Phenomen'eyes mascaras and you get 7 g which is a good size for £20. I think I will just stick to my regular Phenomen'eyes mascaras, they have never disappointed me.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Andrea Fulerton and Claire's - Now We're Talking!

You might remember my disappointing experience with Claire's glitter top coat over the lovely Andrea Fulerton pink nail polish (from the Princess duo) - if not, check out this post. I also purchased a holographic glitter top coat with blue and light pink large glitter that I tried out over my lovely Andrea Fulerton nail polish. This time I was pretty happy. Firstly, there was a lot more glitter on my nails after just one coat. Secondly, it didn't chip off nearly as quickly as the other one did. I did however apply it about 24 hours after applying the Andrea Fulerton nail polish plus Nails Inc top coat, so maybe that made the difference.

However, the amount of glitter in this is so much better than the other one I tried. I reckon if you were to use it on its own, 3 coats would give a pretty good coverage. Maybe I should give it a go! Let me know if you have this nail polish and whether you've tried it on it own! This one cost around £2.25 and is avialble from Claire's by the way.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: The Good And The Bad

As you know, I love my Andrea Fulerton nail polishes and today I have a beautiful fuschia shade to show you from the Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique Trio in Princess. On top of it I applied a glittery Claire's nail polish/topcoat, which has smaller and larger round glitter and also star shaped glitter in it (I don't know the name of it, it doesn't say on the bottle). Firstly, the good: Andrea Fulerton nail polishes are great, the formula's excellent, they go on nicely opaque and last for a good time without major chipping (on me it's 2-3 days I'd say, but everything chips on me very quickly). I love the colour of this polish too, it's a gorgeous fuschia pink with very subtle gold shimmer. The duo nail polish costs £7.99 and is available from Superdrug. 

Now onto the bad. While the Claire's top coat looked gorgeous in the bottle, unfortunately it was really hard to transfer any of that gorgeousness onto my nails. It looks like it's full of glitter, but actually it was very hard work to fish out any significant amount of glitter, as you can see on my nails. After about 5 minutes of trying, I only managed to scoop out 2 stars and a handful of glitter. I was expecting to see a lot more of them on my nails. The other problem was that it actually made the Andrea Fulerton nail polish chip off very quickly. I did apply the top coat directly on top of the AF nail polish while it was still quite sticky, so that might have been the problem, I don't know. In any case, a big dissapointment. I know the Claire's nail polish only cost £2.25, but still, you expect better than that.

So there you go, a beautiful nail polish and a not so great top coat. Maybe I should leave Claire's polishes to the teenagers and use more grown up stuff next time. What do you think?

See more pictures after the jump!

Finished! The July edition

Here are the products I finished in the month of July. Not to shabby, although sadly only 3 make up items.Still, my collection of cleansers/scrubs need using up as well. Let's have a look at what I managed to finish last month, shall we?

First up is Maybelline Dream Satin liquid foundation in 020 Cameo. I have reviewed it already, you can read my review here. I don't love it, it doesn't really work for me, it's greasy and leaves my face quite shiny too, so won't be repurchasing this. I still have another half a bottle though, so you can expect that to appear in another Finished! post soon. Available from Boots, Superdrug, etc. £8.19 at Boots with a 3 for 2 offer currently on.

Keep reading to find out what other products I have finished this month!

Another Glitter Crackle Polish NOTD: Nails Inc The City

You might remember my recent very bad review on Nails Inc The Westend crackle polish. This time I have a middling review, although The City is similarly very runny and not very pigmented, at least this one does crackle. Not that well, but it does crackle. In this look I used a pinky white nail polish under The City (Mac Frayed To Order), but I'm wondering if the cracks would've shown up better over a black base.

With flash

Ignore the index finger, the crackle polish went on very thin, so I tried doing a second coat, and well, this is what happened. You definitely need a good amount of nail polish on the brush because you need to do this in one go as much as possible. This is still not the easiest polish to work with, it is very runny and hard to achieve opaqueness with one brush stroke, but at least it does crackle and it is a really really beautiful shade of purple. Hopefully Nails Inc will tweak the formula a bit and then it will be even nicer. £11 for 10 ml.

See more pictures after the jump!

Nails Inc. The Westend - The Glitter Crackle Polish That Doesn't Crackle

Title says it really. Very disappointed in this, because I was really looking forward to a pretty blue glitter crackle topcoat. I ordered this and The City (review to come soon) at the same time as Farringdon which has a different texture to this and The City, much smoother and more opaque. Sadly this in particular is a very runny polish with not a very good coverage, so it's hard to have an even distribution of glitter on the nails and it just doesn't crackle.

If you look really close at the pictures below, you can just about spot some very very slight cracks, but since the glitter is so uneven anyway, it's hard to say what really caused the gaps. And for £11 a pop that is pretty poor. Shame as it is a lovely colour, and it looks pretty cool over a black base (I used Barry M Nail Paint in Black under it), but it doesn't crackle.

I have notified Nails Inc. about this and I believe a lot of other customers have too, and they have offered to replace my glitter crackle polishes with their regular crackle polishes free of charge, plus I don't even have to return these glitter polishes. Still, I would've loved to have some nice glitter polishes...

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Nails Inc. Aldwych and Farringdon Crackle Topcoat

Firstly, sorry about the messy application, but I was very keen to try these nail polishes out as soon as I received them and happened to have the time to actually take pictures before the chips appeared, so I decided to post them anyway.

Nails Inc. Aldwych with Farringdon Crackle Topcoat (with flash)

Farrigdon is the gold crackle polish I had been waiting for for a long time, ever since British Beauty Blogger wrote about it a few months ago. I ordered it from the Nails Inc. website a few days ago together with The City (glitter purple crackle) and The West End (glitter turquoise crackle).

Aldwych was a free gift with purchase and I'm really delighted with it as it's a gorgeous shimmery peachy pink. It is so opaque, it almost looks perfect with just one coat, but two certainly does the job. It's very shiny and looks really beautiful. I think it's lovely under this gold crackle topcoat as well as alone.

Farringdon is the thickest crackle polish I have tried and it was a bit tricky to apply quickly as I would run out of polish halfway through my nail, so had to go back to pick up more onto the brush. It took a while to dry too, even with a quick dry top coat and I managed to smudge it while cooking. But it is a gorgeous glittery gold and it especially looks amazing in sunshine. I can't comment on staying power yet, but nail polish chips on my nails quickly regardless of brand, so it probably wouldn't be very helpful anyway. The crackle topcoats cost £11.00 each and available from Nails Inc. and other retailers.

See more pictures after the jump!

Model's Own Smash Up Silver crackle polish review and swatches

You might remember me reviewing 17's gold crackle polish last month (see my review here). Although I wasn't that keen at first, I did get an awful lot of compliments on my nails and when I saw that Model's Own has come out with a silver crackle top coat, I decided to get it.

It is basically the same concept, you paint it on top of your nail polish and watch it separate, leaving the colour peeping out from underneath. Formulawise it is very similar to the 17 crackle top coat, it applies well and crackles quickly. This one is slightly more expensive at £6, but you do get 14 ml instead of 10. Unlike the 17 gold top coat the Model's Own version has tiny silver glitter which I think is very pretty, albeit not very noticable. I'm still waiting for a properly glittery gold or silver topcoat, something like the British Beauty Blogger wrote about back in March which is sadly still not available. In the meantime, this will have to do.

In the pictures I'm wearing this with Dior Love (LE) nail polish underneath. I have tried it with a dark blue polish too, but sadly it had chipped off before I could take pictures. Not the fault of the nail polish, it's my stupid nails.

See more pictures and nail swatches after the jump!