Tuesday 26 February 2013

NOTD: Barry M "Kingsland Road"


Just a mega short post today as I am busy trying out baking recipes for my wedding cupcakes. This is FINALLY "Kingsland Road"! :) I love this polish. It's girly, but edgy! This is 2 coats over my new fave base coat - Bourjois So Perfect! I will see if it lasts as well as "Atlantic Road", I just love these textured pastel beauties :)

Friday 22 February 2013

NOTD: Rimmel Cocktail Colour "Shirley Temple"


I *love* this colour :D I am drawn to oranges and glitters just now, I think it's because I crave sunshine. This is 3 coats with a slick of MegaShine. It's a really sparkly glassfleck polish which is kind of sheer but that means the glitter comes into it's own. Just layer on more thin layers. I have one more of the gorgeous Cocktail Colours to try, the purple one, but so far the pink and the orange are winners :)


And while searching for stuff on the internet I somehow stumbled across a new base coat from Bourjois. It promises to make the nails 'perfect' and give a true colour result for nail polish. It's supposed to be anti-yellowing, which is holds huge allure for me. It's quite a thick gel like consistency which applies really nicely. And you don't realise how well the lilac pigment works - my nails look really clean :) Polish goes on very, very smoothly. Me likey. It's £5.99 in the shops so quite expensive for a drugstore brand but we will see how it wears!

Now that I have a new base coat to try, I am keen on the new Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Gel Effect Plumping Top Coat, has anyone tried this? I have searched for reviews but there doesn't seem to be any?..

Wednesday 20 February 2013

NOTD: OPI "La Paz-itively Hot" Matte with Confetti and Concrete



I have a heap of new stuff to review, and it's actually starting to annoy me that I have to write about everything... So I got some more new stuff today. Ahem. Anyway. I DID get the pink Barry M textured polish but I then saw something else and I was off on another nail polish adventure. Seventeen (Boots brand that used to be 17) has brought out 4 textured polishes. And then I saw the Confetti top coat from L'Oreal Color Riche... I also scored a 7 day trial of the new Lancome Teint Visionnaire foundation, so I will be reviewing that as well. Anyway onto my NOTD. I decided that I needed something hot to go with the black so I chose my fave OPI "La Paz-itively Hot" Matte but then didn't like the finish with the accent nails. So I slicked on a coat of MegaShine and all was well again. This is my first mani with 2 accent nails - I suppose you have to get the inspiration to pull these off and I have been lacking in inspiration lately... I did 2 coats of colour for the OPI and 2 coats of the Seventeen polish, which is called 'Rock Hard Nail Effects Black'. I have a feeling my lovely friend The Evil Beech will LOVE this one :) I put a coat of the Confetti top coat over the OPI on my index finger.


I also attended my OPI GelColor course today, I always enjoy training days and this one was really well run. I was amazed at the qualities of GelColor compared to Gelish and some the DIY gel polishes. It doesn't use primer, just Bond-Aid (ChipSkip is the retail version of Bond-Aid, in case some of you might be using that already). And it literally comes off in a nicely peeled off sheet after 10 min, with no buffing of the top seal... The course offer was that you got a starter set as you see in the photo when attending, with the base and top coat and a colour. I was glad to see the colour wasn't something like "Samoan Sand" or the like but an actual colour I would wear. The one I got was "Big Apple Red". We also got an OPI nail 'wheel' which I put to good use and swatched some of my gel polishes on. When you attend the training you also get the manual and an instruction DVD. If you are interested in learning GelColor, check with your local beauty wholesale outlet - many usually do courses which can be attended even if you haven't got a beauty qualification. I go to Capital Hair & Beauty. I can't wait to get myself some more GelColor polishes, first on the list I think will be "I have a herring problem" :)

L to R: OPI "Big Apple Red", Sensationail "Raspberry Wine", Depend Gellack "122", Gellux "Rosie Anna", Depend Gellack "163" and Gelish "Oocha Coocha.."

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Valentine's Day NOTD: Barry M Textured Nail Effects "Atlantic Road"


I've been waiting like crazy for these textured lovelies from Barry M, but they only had this colour in stock in my local Superdrug today! :O I was kind of desperate for the pink one but I'll have to be patient :)

This is 2 coats over a coat of my usual Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle base coat. It takes a little while to dry down to reveal the 'sandy' finish. It applies a bit weird almost looks like it contains little glass bits as glitter?... You get little gritty tips, but I intend to file these smooth with my finest grit file once it's dry.

I am excited to see how this wears :) I am not loving the 'liquid sand' polishes from OPI, they are far too dark for my liking but these polishes in the pastel colours are sooooo perfect for spring and makes me feel very happy :)

Thursday 7 February 2013

NOTW: Depend Gellack "163"


I had a little experiment with the Elegant Touch Flawless French kit, and it wasn't a total success... I guess my nails are far too curved to take kindly to any overlays or wraps and this is no different. I also chose slightly too large sizes. But it looks nice-ish with Essie "Vanity Fairest" and with some practice I am sure I can actually do my right hand... what a mess... These Dashing Diva-look-alikes are sooo easy putting onto other people but geez it's a hassle doing them on yourself...

After flashing them to The Man, and having him say he doesn't really like a French manicure (or 'nails with the white bits' as he says) and prefers the colour manicures I do, I took the mess off and instead decided to do the new gel polish from Sweden my Mum sent me! :)


I used it with the Gellux base and top coat. I put on 3 coats of the colour cause I thought it would bring out the depth of the colour more. And I was right. It's VERY thick, even for a gel polish. You will need to apply it with a light touch or you will have that bleed to the edges you get with gel polish if you put it on too thick and put it under the hot LED lights.

And my goodness it's a nice colour :) in dimmer light it has a secret pink hue to the shimmer as well and it's lovely. And The Man thought it was a lot nicer than the (Not So) Flawless French! It can stay on until I get my hands on the new Barry M textured polishes next week :)

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Recent NOTDs


So I've been a bit slack with blogging lately, I've been really busy but I do apologise. I went to my fiancees Grandma's 90th birthday lunch on Saturday so I decided to wear red nails to go with my dress, so I chose an untried - Barry M "Retro Red". It was a limited edition some time back. This is 2 coats with MegaShine top coat. It looks a bit like Nails Inc "Aspen" but it lacks the magical depth of that true Nails Inc classic.


Then today I stumbled across 3 new polishes from Rimmel called Cocktail Colour in a Flash :) I couldn't resist putting the pink one, "Hawaiian Punch", on already. It's a gorgeous fuchsia pink jelly glitter. It looks more red in the photo than it is in real life. It sparkles like crazy, almost like a glassfleck polish! This is 3 coats to minimize VNL with MegaShine top coat. Love this! :) Can't wait to try on the orange one, "Shirley Temple"! There is also a purple called "Baby Bellini". Whatever you do, don't miss out on these, they will make your summer :) And they are £3.99 each, and even better, they are 3 for 2 in Boots just now.