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 :)

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.

NOTD: Collection Hot Looks "Wham" matte

I was sorting through all my stuff and was wondering what to put on... My nails are still too short to try the Elegant Touch Flawless French set I got from Superdrug so I had to chose a colour. After searching a bit in my drawers came across this grey beauty. I have already shown it in it's glossy state so I then dug out my Rimmel LycraPRO Matte Top Coat and slicked it on :) I love the result! Very chic. This is 3 thin coats and a thick-ish coat with the matte top coat. I still really love the mattes, I might do a matte pastel mint green next :)

NOTD: Bloom "Kate"

I have a million things to do but I needed something spring-like on my nails for work tomorrow as I'm coming down with some bug again and was feeling really unwell :O I may have had a craving for something similar to the super-hot new Barry M textured pastel polishes so it turned out I chose a baby blue creme. This had glooped up a bit since I last used it but was still OK to apply if you take a light touch. This is 2 coats and a coat of MegaShine.

NOTD: Vivo Magnetic "Dream On"

I got this awesome polish from my pal for Xmas/Birthday and it rocks. I've got a massively sore mouth after having a stubborn wisdom tooth extracted yesterday so I needed cheering up so I took this out. The brush is crap, so makes a mess, but after I clean up after my shower tomorrow no one will suspect it was this messy :) It applies as a glittery mauve metallic which is pretty in itself, but I was surprised to discover that it changes to a charcoal glitter with mauve metallic magnetic effect after using the magnet :D Wow! I had to photograph the right hand for a change as the left one was left a bit messy after buggering up the top coat on two of the nails and making a weird effect... It does actually look OK in real life but not in a photo.

For magnetic polishes I generally do 2 coats of polish over base coat. I then put speed-dry top coat on one nail at a time then use the magnet - this always seals in a crisp imprint in the speed-dry top coat and adds a beautiful shine :) Do one nail at a time! Beautiful :)

Now for something different. I've used the Dashing Diva French Wrap Plus for clients before but didn't fancy buying a whole new salon pack of 300 tips or so just for my wedding French nails as I seem to do very little Frenchies on clients nowadays (nail art's all the rage!). Buying paracetamol in Superdrug on Thursday before my wisdom tooth extraction I spotted the new Elegant Touch version! And half price at £7.49. Don't mind if I do! :) I will grow my nails out for a couple of weeks then put these through the pre-wedding road test...

NOTD: Revlon Nail Art French Mix "Over the moon"

So I was cruising for some late January bargains on the Boots website and came across these duo-polishes :D They were £5 just now so I thought why not! These are the same idea as the Andrea Fulerton polishes, as she used to do a flip-flop french, which was the idea behind these duos from Revlon. You couldn't layer these over each other like the Andrea Fulerton one I have reviewed previous. I haven't seen these Revlon polishes in store yet but saying that, my Boots/Superdrugs don't have the new Revlon polishes either.. :(

Tips for using the Revlon French Mix - let each layer dry thoroughly!! Including before you slap on the top coat - I thought it was dry enough but I managed to smear teal polish on the pink while applying top coat... Be careful with application, the pink is a bit gritty with glitter and pools if you are not careful. This is 2 coats of the pink and 2 coats on the tips with the teal. It can be a bit tricky doing your own French tips - I would have liked a different brush type on the teal polish to do the tips maybe? My hands are shaky from the medication I take for asthma so it's not as perfect as I wish it would be. I love the shades together though :)

I also scored a Stila palette for £9, "Written in the stars". It's a cute snowflake shape :) Some of the shades are too light to even show on my ghostly skin but might be useful for darker skins? The formula is probaby best applied with sponge applicator, my EcoTools eye shadow brush took a bit of work. Bargain for £9 though.

L to R:  1 Starlight, 2 Eden, 3 Luna, 4 Sun, 5 Ray, 6 Galaxy, 7 Asteroid, 8 Constellation,
9 Pigalle, 10 Bouquet, 11 Heaven, 12 Ariel

NOTD: Essie "Angora Cardi"

I felt like something cozy today seeing as there is a couple of inches of snow and still snowing! I chose this polish as it's just so soft and warm looking. Like a favourite old sweater :) I will team it with some beige wool tights, pink angora sweater, tan Ugg boots and a cosy grey scarf tomorrow!

The formula on this is flawless, this is 2 coats and a coat of Megashine. I discovered however that the brush must have had a few strands stuck to the neck of the bottle so it was all bent out of shape so application was not as good as last time :( very sad. I wish polish manufacturers would sell new bottle tops with brushes on their websites...