Sunday 31 March 2013

Dollish Polish Peter Cottontail

Happy Easter my lovelies!! Hope you have had lots of lovely choccies today and been up to something nice to celebrate.

Well as usual I'm behind on everything, I only just made my Easter baskets and I didn't get a chance to do the bunnies and eggs mani I had planned, but I do have an Easter mani to show you, and you know what? We even had something that resembles sunshine this morning so even though I lost an hours sleep because the clocks went forward, I can almost believe we may get a spring....

Anyway, on to the mani. I was lucky enough to be able to purchase Dollish Polish Peter Cottontail which was a Limited Edition produced by Dolly recently. I believe it was supposed to be limited to 100 bottles but the site oversold so there are actually 137 knocking about, mine is 84/100.

Peter Cottontail is described as a soft coral jelly filled with multi hued iridescent glitters in multiple shapes and sizes which gives the polish a true delicate glow. It looks pretty sheer to me so I decided to layer it. I actually wanted to do an ombre mani with it but I chose shades of peach and orange, a colour I actually don't have a ton of so I think I ended up with more of a skittle mani. Oh well, it was still pretty.

For this mani I used 2 coats of each base colour and 2 coats of Peter Cottontail over the top. Left to right: Barry M Peach Melba (LOVE!), Nails Inc Hobart Place, Nails Inc Mornington Crescent and an unnamed Color Club bright orange, which I believe may be Koo Koo Cachco. One layer of HK Girl smoothed this out and I'm just about to take it off after 3 days!

I think next time I'd like to try Peter Cottontail on his own to see if I can get that beautiful softness in the bottle to transfer to the nail.

So, which colour do you like best??






x

Saturday 30 March 2013

NerdLacquer Warrior Ethos

Hope you are all having a lovely long weekend!

We actually had some sunshine here so I took a drive down to the coast to see some friends which was awesome, it's so great to have time out to see friends you can't see often.

Anyway, I managed (somehow) to snag 2 Nerds at Amanda's last restock, and Warrior Ethos was one of them. To be honest I'm not a huge red person but this was one of two left in my cart by the time I checked out and I am oh so glad it was.

NerdLacquer Warrior Ethos is part of the Star Trek collection and it is described as a shimmering true red with red, sipper, opalescent and black glitter. Well I'm telling you right now that all of that mixed together equals sheer utter perfection.

As I said I'm not a huge red fan, and if you haven't been fortunate enough to gets your hands on some Nerds you might be wondering if they are worth all hype and insanity at restocks. Well, I think they absolutely are. This polish is just sheer perfection, it has all the squishiness of a jelly and the depth of opalescent glitters. I'll let the pictures do the talking, these swatches were taken with just 2 coats and a layer of HK Girl topcoat. I hated to take it off and I know one day I'll get my hands on some more. In the meantime you'll just have to drool over this.....







NerdLacquer can be purchased at Amanda's own shop www.nerdlacquer.comNinja Polish and Harlow & Co. Just beware, they sell out in about 10 seconds!
x

Thursday 28 March 2013

IsaDora Silver Sky Gradient

So Easter is almost upon us and I don't know about you but where I am the weather just doesn't reflect that at all! Anyway, I did this mani a little while ago and even though I'm still wearing winter shades I thought I'd post something to lift our spirits a bit.

So this is a mani with a base of IsaDora Silver Sky with a gradient of Color Club Jingle Jangle from the gorgeous Mistletoe collection and a hint of Girly Bits Hippity Hop for good measure. This mani was so sparkly, I just adore it!

In case you haven't come across IsaDora as a brand they are a Swedish make up brand that do some awesome polishes. I first came cross them when looking at Coewless Nail blog which you can see here.  This girl is awesome and literally made me want every IsaDora, luckily I have a polish friend in Sweden so she has done a few little hauls for me. You can find them on the web if you look hard enough, Amazon UK has them and I have seen them in Ireland but beware they are a tiny 6ml bottle so they end up being quite pricey (on Amazon the price is £7.95 each).

Personally I think if you love a colour then it is worth it. I got a back up of Silver Sky when it was discontinued a few months ago but I'm sure there will be some kicking around somewhere to be had.

Guess what I got in the post yesterday?? NERDS. I'll show you tomorrow. x







Wednesday 27 March 2013

Zoya Valerie

Today I have a simple yet so elegant polish to show you, Zoya Valerie.

I was lucky enough to receive this from one of the amazing girls in my birthday group, given how hard and expensive Zoya is to come by in the UK this was a real treat!

Zoya Valerie is from the Fire and Ice collection and is described as a royal purple, dark violet, red, deep pink and gold iridescence amplified by a glittering sparkle finish. Well I'm not sure exactly what that means but I do have to say that Valerie is everything she promised to be in the bottle and more. I adore this polish, I wore her alone for 3 days and was sad when she eventually chipped and I had to take her off.

For this mani I used 2 coats of Zoya Valerie and one coat of HK Girl topcoat. If you don't already own her I highly suggest you grab her soon, she's such a classy gal!





x

Monday 25 March 2013

OPI Liquid Sands Get Your Number

Hello lovelies!

So today I have one of the Liquid Sands from the OPI Mariah Carey collection to show you. OPI have plans to release another collection of Liquid Sands later on in the year based on the Bond collection, and along with Zoya, Barry M, possibly Orly and China Glaze later in the year it looks like these textured polishes are the big thing!

I personally have only bought the Mariah Carey ones and one of the Zoya Pixie Dusts, I like them because they have quite a lot of sparkle, and also because they have me intrigued. I really thought I'd hate the texture but to be honest it's fine and after a day I top coated it because I get bored easily and a few layers of topcoat really give a different look.

For this mani I used 2 coats of get Your Number and that was it. Very easy and very effective. I couldn't capture how sparkly this mani was but if I were to buy only one textured polish I think this would be it. It was beautiful!

I removed it after 3 days with no problem at all, it came off the nail almost like a creme with really minimal effort.

What do you think of the texture craze??









After a day I fancied a different look so added a layer of Gelous and a layer of HK Girl. The topcoat really allowed those holo glitters to shine. my husband even complained when I took it off!





Look at the holo glitters!!
x

Sunday 24 March 2013

Nails Inc Leather Effects Old Compton Street

So, it's that time again..... Sunday evening. It's been snowing here all weekend so today I stayed in with my husband, ate nice food, drank hot drinks and it all felt very christmassy Hmm, it's March I thought....

Anyway I also did some swatching which I will show you this week. What I have today is another Nails Inc Leather effect polish, this time it's the grey one named Old Compton Street.

After swatching the red Leather Effect, Shoreditch Lane (which you can see here), I think I had determined these really aren't my thing but I got this one in a drop of an auto-delivery programme from QVC so I thought I'd swatch it for you.

I used 2 coats for this swatch and I think this formula was a little thinner than the red one which made it easier to work with. I'm still not sure they look like leather to me and personally if I'm going for the textured effect I'm going to use a liquid sands but that's just me.

What do you think?






Saturday 23 March 2013

Hare Supernova Springs

Wow, thank you all for the views on yesterday's post and hello to my new readers!

Hope you are all having a nice weekend and your weather is not as bad as mine, we have snow! I thought it was supposed to be spring.... oh well.

Today I have one of my favourite indies to show you, Hare Polish. I got into Hare quite late in the day when I got this one in a grab bag from Llarowe, I've since bought quite a few Hare's and this one sat in the drawer unloved so I thought it's time it had it's day.

Hare Supernova Springs is from the Planet Springtime and is described as emerald glitters in a dark jelly base. I think the base is actually almost a very dark dusty purple colour but it is quite difficult to see in the photo's here. The glitters in this really sparkle to make a really quite pretty polish.

For this swatch I used 3 coats of Supernova Springs on it's own. The formula was great and it wasn't overly gritty, in fact one coat of HK Girl topcoat smoothed everything out.

If you want to check out Hare polish you can find them at Llarowe here and Hare Polish's own Etsy store here. They also have a blog where you can see the collection and restock information here.






x

Friday 22 March 2013

Illamasqua Pink Raindrops

Happy Friday everyone!!!!

I've been busy this week getting all my pictures and files sorted on my new Mac so I'm sorted to do some more posting from now on.

I also got the Duri Rejuvacote I ordered and I'm loving it so far. I'll be updating with how I'm getting on with it but at the moment my nails are feeling great, I'm really looking forward to Wednesday because clinics stop for a few weeks over Easter and I'll be able to wear polish every day, well for a little while at least. I have SO much to show you.... I just need some sunshine and some time!

OK, well today I have something exciting. Illamasqua's new Pink Raindrops. I'm sure I don't need to tell you about the hype surrounding Illamasqua Raindrops, the grey jelly with flakes (blog post here) which was re-released a few weeks ago? Well, Illamasqua have obviously been paying attention to what we like because they released this pink version when they hit 10,000 likes on Facebook. Of course, I had to order it immediately.

And here it is.

For these swatches I used 2 coats of Pink Raindrops and a coat of HK Girl topcoat. I would say that the formula on the pink version is quite different to the original grey, it is actually almost opaque in one coat where as the grey version is very jelly like and needs at least 3 coats. I was a bit disappointed it wasn't a jelly because, going on the original Raindrops I thought it would be and that's what i was looking forward to but the formula is good and if you don't like doing multiple coats then you'll probably really like this one.

So, what do I think? I like it but I don't know if I love it.... yes it's pretty but it's maybe a little too subtle for me most of the time, I'd say it would be very wedding or work appropriate though, or just great if you want something pretty and girly without lots of colour and bling. Myself, I'm resisting putting a glitter over the top and just trying to enjoy those little flakies. It does have a little hint of iridescence which doesn't show in these pictures but you can see in it real life and in the bottle, if we had some sunshine it would be more easily visible, oh well, just another excuse to wear it another day!

What do you think??





Tiny flakies!!

Can you see that iridescence? It does show on the nail a little to give the polish a little glow.
x

Monday 18 March 2013

Jade Diamond Twist

Happy Monday to my lovely readers!

I'm so sorry my posts have been a bit sporadic recently, to tell the truth I've just been completely exhausted since I got back from my trip. I mean like, can't keep awake past 8pm kind of tired. I don't know what's been wrong with me but I had a really nice and restful weekend so I'm feeling a bit better now.

Also, I've just got a MacBook Pro when I'm used to a PC and it's kicking my butt! I feel like I can't do anything on it, it's a big learning curve I wasn't quite expecting! Anyway, I have all my pictures and documents loaded to it now so hopefully I'm on the up now. Anyone else have this problem? How long will it take for me to get used to it??

Anyway, enough of the chat and some time for photo's of nails!

This mani I wore for St Patrick's Day yesterday. I fully meant to do some nail art with a pot of gold and a rainbow but alas that didn't materialise and the polish is easily gorgeous enough on stand on it's own 2 feet!

I was lucky enough to receive this beauty from my friend Tracy who is part of my birthday club. Jade Twist is one of the Jade Diamond collection. It is described as a blue /Turquoise duo-chrome, I have to say that in the bottle it did look green which is why I chose it. On the nail it really did have a nice duo-chrome going on, flashes of purple and the glass fleck finish is just stunning. I really liked it on it's own and I can't wait to try the others I have, I think I need the whole collection.

For this mani I used 3 coats of Jade Twist and a coat of HK Girl topcoat. I thought this would be a stainer but when i took it off last night nothing, such a bonus.

Enjoy!








Just because I haven't posted any pics of Miagi lately i thought I'd share. This is what I was up to last week, luckily I have a little companion who is more than happy to keep me company!