Weekend Mani #24

Woah! That weekend passed mighty quickly, I hope you had a good one!

Following on from last weeks poundland bargains, I have another £1 polish on the blog for this weekend.

Meet Sally Hansen Sugar Coat in 'Bubble Plum'

So first off, the colour, although the name 'Bubble Plum' doesn't quite roll off the tongue, it describes this colour perfectly.  A gorgeous mix between bubblegum pink and a plummy purple, it has a not quite neon 'glow' about it.  I'm in love with this colour.

This is Sally Hansen's foray into textured polishes and there is actually a large shade range of these and they vary between one colour matte shades to others with glitter and sparkle and all sorts.  I now have six in my collection, two of which have that extra sparkle dimension.   

These are really textured, almost  too grainy like for my tastes but that may also be because there is just one dimension i.e. just one colour, to this polish.  a bit of sparkle and this could be quite similar to 'My Current Crush' by O.P.I , see here.

The bottle says to apply two thin coats and I readily agree with that, I don't think you would get away with just one as it is quite a thin polish and also has quite a thin brush.  It dries relatively quickly and has lasted 36 hours with only minimal tipwear.  This is designed to be worn without a topcoat, which I particularly love as I do love me a bit of matte.  This isn't completely matte however, it does have a bit of shine and without a layer of topcoat, it is much easier to remove - bonus!!

For £1 at poundland, I would definitely recommend this if you are a fan of textured polishes.  The colour is lovely, it is very textured and dries quickly.

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

Weekend Mani #23

Although I am currently in the midst of some redecoration and have been for a few weeks now, hence the lack of posts, I decided that my nails still had to be done!  I may have had no make up on and my hair was in dire need of a wash but still, gotta be a little bit glam right?!

Meet 'Aquamarine' part of Revlon's Chroma Chameleon Collection.

First things first, this cost £1! One whole shiny pound, I urge you to go to poundland stat! I also got a few other Revlon polishes and a Sally Hansen Sugar coat which I will swatch over the next few weeks. 

This colour shifts from a beautiful sea greeny blue to a slight purple, this colour reminds me of 'The Little Mermaid', years and years ago, there was a nail polish and make up brand on the go called 'Spectacular' and I had about 300 of their polishes when I was a teen and my favourite one was called 'Ariel', this is the closest I have ever found to match that.

This is slightly thin, I used three thin coats for full opacity here, although I'm sure two would be fine if you took care to apply it neatly.  Colours like this with the duochrome effect can show up brushstrokes quite easily. 

The bottle is a good size and it's a nice shape for storing.  The brush is thin compared to the OPI Pro-wide that I'm used to but it was pretty standard and fit my tiny pinkies well! 

This has no topcoat on in any of these pictures.  It is very shiny and has an almost shimmery finish.

Such a vibrant colour.  The colour shift isn't too extreme but definitely enough to make it interesting. 

I was showing a bit of tipwear after sanding and doing other housey stuff so for 48 hours without topcoat, this lasted pretty good!

My mum has already hinted that she would quite like this for her upcoming holiday to Tunisia and I have to agree, this would look amazing on tanned tootsies!

I would like to try this over a purple base to try and capture more of the purple in it and would also quite like to add a few more of these to my stash. particularly 'Tanzanite' and 'Pink Quartz' 

Hope you have had a slightly more glamourous weekend!!

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

Weekend Mani #22

It's another OPI weekend.  After a few weeks of not painting my nails due to decorating, I was really in a quandry as to which polish I would pick and so I thought a classic OPI shade which has been sitting untried in my box for quite some time now, was just what I needed to help me get my nail mojo back.

Let me introduce you to OPI Ink...

So hard to capture the complexities of this polish, it is an almost navy purple but has teeny tiny glass fleck particles through it, which, if you catch them in the right light bring a fuschia tone to the nail.   

Tried so hard to capture the almost duochrome effect that the glass flecks bring!  

As with most OPI, the formula was fab, two coats are all that I needed create an opaque finish and the pro-wide brush makes application a breeze.  

There's a lovely glossy finish and although it looks very much on the navy scale, it is definately more purple on the nail.  The glass flecks which make this polish so multi-dimensional is something you find with a lot of OPI polishes and they really do add that extra element.

There's some good swatches here. 

Once again, OPI hasn't let me down!

Here's the cheapest link that I can find where you can purchase this polish should you fancy it... here at Nail Polish Direct for £7.95 with free delivery.

Have you tried  OPI Ink before?

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

Weekend Mani #21

This weekends Mani is pretty much the opening of a whole new portal into my polish collection.  I purchased my first ever Indie polishes.  Indie's are made by independent polish makers who create and sell their wares and they are becoming big news in the nail world.  Things like glitter toppers, thermals and holo polishes are being thought up by these creative souls and being sold on places like Etsy.com, although a fair few indie brands now have proper websites and are run as proper businesses.  The polishes I bought were from Dollish Polish and they are all glitter bombs! 

The one I used this weekend is the full sized polish in the middle called 'Care Bear Stare'.  This is the one that prompted this purchase as I had previously vowed to stay away from indie's for the sake of my bank account.  However, I had been lusting after this one for a while and then saw that it was part of Dolly's restock and knew it would be mine! 

Once again, please excuse the cuticles and lack of clean up, I actually painted my nails at 1am on saturday morning as I was so keen to get this on my tips! Not sure how well you can see it, but the polish has little stars and butterflies in it, there is a butterfly on my ring finger.  Typical glitter + iPhone pic = hard to capture.  this combo is like a princesses dream.   

The base polish I used was part of my Mavala Delicious Collection, which is pretty much my favourtie selection of pastels ever.  It doesn't seem like you can buy the whole collection together anymore but you can buy trios and individuals.  I like Mavala polishes as they are small but not too small bottles.  Ideal for someone like my mum, who doesn't paint her nails too often but likes a pretty polish now and again.

Words fail me at describing this polish.  After using two coats of my Mavala base colour, I applied two coats of this baby.  The first coat, I swiped on as usual and the second coat I went fishing for the bigger particles and dabbed them on my nails.  That is one obstacle when applying such glittertastic polishes, you will have to go fishing for the big bits.

This has small circles, big circles, squares, big hexes, stars and butterflies in gorgeous pastel hues of purple, pink, aqua and silver all in a clear base with some iridescent glitter in it just incase the rest wasn't enough.  

Nev loves nail polish! And nail files and bags and shoes.  He was being a 'right sook' or suck up here as the square bottle was just right for rubbing his face against! 

Few tips for applying glitters like these would be to turn the bottle upside down for a good 10 minutes before application and use a cocktail stick if you want to strategically place any particular pieces, such as the stars or butterflies contained within this one. 

Love my new indies although I don't plan to purchase anymore just yet, I still have to have a good play with these three and explore some colour combos, prepare yourself! These were shipped from the states and did arrive pretty quickly after dispatch but one thing to always be mindful of is if you order from the states, customs may destroy a package containing polishes.

Do you own any Indie polishes?

   

Weekend Mani #20

So, last week when I posted my weekend mani, here, you would be forgiven for thinking that I had pretty much declared my undying love for 'My Current Crush'.  Being somewhat a polish harlot, I have a new love this week and it has left me wanting more! 

Meet 'Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow' an O.P.I Suede. 

This is why I love O.P.I.  This is essentially like a matte polish and was released maybe three years ago now, way before most other brands jumped on the textured bandwagon.

One coat in and things are looking a fair bit patchy but the essence of the colour was definitely there, a nice emerald green.  The shimmer appears very fine and not in a metallic or frosty kinda way. 

With a second coat, it begins to take on a whole new meaning! When first applied you can see glimmery, shimmery things starting to happen and then when it dries it has a gorgeous matte but better finish. 

This is two coats and the colour is a lovely, deep emerald green.  The texture feels quite nice too, there is no roughness to it.  As it is supposed to be a suede finish, topcoat is not recommended so that does narrow down wear time, I had a decent amount of tipwear 36 hours later but it was still presentable.  On the plus side, it dries pretty quick so you can do your two coats in less than 10 minutes. I have some pictures of this with various glitters etc which I might do as a wee collage, I just couldn't resist! 

Aaah, it's like someone took the evil dark fairy 'Maleficent' from Disney's Sleeping Beauty and bottled her! I love the almost villainous glow that the shimmer and finish to this polish evokes and it has definitely left me wanting to try more of the suedes.

Interestingly, the suedes are not really that similar to their namesakes which is a little bit bizarre, see what I mean here and here!

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

Hugs,

Jodi 

xxx

Weekend Mani #19

Weekend Mani's are back!  I kinda lost my mani mojo although it is slowly but surely coming back, helped along by this little nugget right here.

Let me introduce you to 'My Current Crush' an O.P.I Liquid sand.

As with most of the Liquid Sands I have tried so far, you would get away with one coat, as in the pictures above and below.  That also had the added bonus of drying quicker if you are in a rush.

 This is two coats and it is perfectly opaque.  I really love this colour, it is just the perfect mid-purple and the silver glitter running through it just gives it that extra summin' summin'.

This post is a little picture heavy because I love it so... sorry.  I'm not sorry.

This was part of a set called 'The TXTure Effect' of which the other part was a 'Natural Nail' Base coat which is surprisingly something I have never tried from O.P.I before, I usually just use the Nail Envy as a base.

In sunlight this takes on an added warmth to it and the silver becomes more evident.  The texture is not overly abrasive, just enough so that every once in a while you find yourself stroking your own fingernails... just me then?!

As is standard, it features the O.P.I Pro-Wide brush for quick and easy application, unless you have tiny pinkies like me then the brush is a little bit too wide! 

I got this set in TKMaxx just before christmas for £12.99 and gave it to my mum to give to my brother to give me for christmas, yeah, that's how we roll at christmas.  I think most people are wary of buying a beauty products for someone has a stash to rival Superdrug but at the same time, I couldn't think of anything I would rather have than beauty, skincare or nails bits and bobs.  

Although Limited Edition, there are still one or two places where you can get this. 

I've never used this website before but they are offering free delivery as are Nail Polish Direct, here. If you do go a-browsing, particularly on Nail Polish Direct, watch out for some of the glitters that are priced at £19.95, I think 'The Living Daylights' and 'When Monkeys Fly' were the two I remember seeing priced as such.  There is no need for them to be that price, they are not hard to find so do shop around.

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

Weekend Mani #17

I have power!! Laptop cable has arrived, thank you Amazon and now hopefully normal service can resume!

My nails this weekend were all about Christmas as we had our work night out yesterday, although it was a lunch that lasted into the night! 

Ah, my smudgy penguin! my first attempt ever at a penguin and I literally had 13 minutes to do my nails so I think he turned out pretty good

The red is a Mavala number called 'Rouge Rubis' and it is rather lovely! I received this last year in my latest in beauty, you beauty advent calender (which I got for half price in January). It's packaged really cutely as a Christmas decoration so a nice wee surprise for a nail fanatic at Christmas time.  Topshop are doing similar individually packaged polishes too.  

I smudged his tummy several times although I am happy that his eyes were ok, they would have been harder to redo. I will post a tutorial this week on how I did the penguin, there are loads of tutorials on youtube or you can just google some images for inspriation.

I have used Mavala polishes before and I really like them.  They have a special formulation that apparently allows your natural nails to breathe and therefore reduce damage caused by polish (pretty sure you would have to use a Mavala Base Coat to achieve this result though?!).  Several other great things about Mavala polishes is that they are in 5ml pots therefore less likely to dry out, they are less than £5, come in a fabulous range of colours, are nasty chemical free (in your face formaldehyde!!) and they are opaque in two coats.

I tried to capture the shimmer in this polish but it is much more shimmery in real life.  It has a ruby red 'jelly' type base with these red glassfleck type particles throughout, these pictures are without topcoat by the way. It kinda reminds me of Essie's 'Leading lady' seen here, Essie's 'Ruby Slippers' here, China Glaze's 'Ruby Pumps' here or Zoya's 'Carrie Ann' seen here. Off the top of my head, I would say the closest OPI I could think of that would be even slightly like this would be 'Love is a Racket, here, but I think that is more pink with blue through it. I always thought it was weird that OPI didn't release some version of red polish with their 'Oz: The Great and Powerful' collection but it was a soft shades collection so I'll let them off!! 

It has chipped a wee bit and there is some tip wear but I was pretty tough on my nails last night, I dropped my bag alot and so was picking many a thing up off the ground, tsk tsk!!

Latest in Beauty are currently offering this Mavala polish as a 'luxury sample' and so for £2 this could be yours, its free to sign up to their website and they often have great collections. 

The Youbeauty advent calender is available here, and if you use the code YBD10 you can get £10 off.  I really liked my one last year as the samples are good sizes to try out. 

Have you tried Mavala polishes before?

Are you going to attempt some Christmas nail art?

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

Weekend Mani #16

Yup, it's that time of week again! It's the weekend of indecisiveness for me I think, I have on this colour but as I am off work until Wednesday I may change it for something a bit more 'va-va-voom'! 

On my nails this weekend, I have 'meet me on the star ferry' by O.P.I.  This is from the Hong Kong Collection of 2010, of which I own a few others from that I didn't actually realise! 

This one is really difficult to describe, in the bottle it seems to be an almost mauve colour but with a touch of red and a silver shimmer running through it but on the nail it looks different in every light! It looks purpley, reddy, goldy, silvery, shimmery and frosty all at the same time!!

This shows it leaning towards purple.  The shine is amazing, I have no topcoat on in any of these pics. I don't know if the colour suits my skin-tone the best but that's a small niggle that most people probably won't pay any mind to.

Trying to capture the colour without the shimmer, turns out, it ain't that easy! Please excuse the peppy pig plaster, sliced my finger on a Gillette in the bathroom.  Strange I have peppa pig plasters and no kids...

In usual O.P.I. fashion, the formula was easy to work with and this was opaque in two coats.  I have three coats on my middle finger as I bumped it whilst the polish was still wet.

And there you have it, a polish captured in pretty much every light source I have at my disposal and still remains a bit of an enigma!! I like this polish and I wanted it for ages but I'm not as in love with it as I had hoped to be.  In fact, I'd quite like to put this on my gramma! (She's pretty cool though so...) 

Do you wear polish to suit your skin tone?

Are you a fan of shimmers? 

Hugs,

Jodi 

xxx

P.s. This is once again courtesy of my ipad.  Binx has chewed through my laptop cable and so I am awaiting delivery of (another) new one! Good job he's purdy!

Weekend Mani #15

Pinch, Punch, it's the first of the month!

December, seriously?!?  I was feeling a little bit Christmas-y this weekend and so this weekends mani definitely reflects that.  I was also at a a wedding and was wearing a berry coloured dress and so this colour complimented my dark hair and dark outfit quite well. 

Meet 'Honey Ryder' one of the delectable Bond Girls released this year as part of a six piece liquid sand collection by O.P.I. 

Love it. I applied this on a minibus, in the dark, going up some country roads to my chums wedding venue (we were going for the evening reception as we had both been working all day.) This went on like a dream, you could pretty much get away with one coat of this, similar to the other liquid sand, 'Get Your Number' , here.

The colour was more of a metallic sandy gold and dried down well.  It wasn't too gritty but the texture definitley gave it an extra dimension and gave a twist to what could have been a very safe mani.  Did I mention I love it?! I have a wee tutorial coming up involving this which would be great for christmas ;-) 

It doesn't have a multitude of different glitter particles, it does just appear to be a proper 'suits any skin tone' gold.  It doesn't lean too warm, too bronze or too cool, it's just right. I fear I may be starting to gush a little! 

The one problem that I'm finding is that it seems to be sold out on a lot of sites, what I would recommend is to keep an eye on sites such as nailpolishdirect, asos etc in case they restock (it is gold and it is christmas so we can hope!).  You can also get it on the likes of Amazon and ebay but always be wary that there are quite alot of fakes going around nowadays.  Also be aware that polishes sent from the states may never reach you as there are a lot of restrictions in place regarding posting polishes now. Phew.

In this picture, I'm trying to show that although it is a textured polish, it doesn't leave nails looking all bumpy and uneven.  I don't mind the texture of the Liquid Sand polishes but I know for some people it's a big no-no, that is something to keep in mind if you are thinking about buying it for someone else.

The colour doesn't change much in different light sources either.  As I mentioned, it applies easily, even on a minibus, and it has the typical O.P.I pro-wide brush.  It dries super duper quick and after 36 hours I had no chips and that was with no base coat *gasp* and no topcoat.  I didn't get round to trying it with topcoat to see if that changed it much. 

Ideally I would have used the foil method, see here for that, to remove this polish but it's going to be another one of those walking to work whilst removing my polish mornings tomorrow.  Pretty much dragging the weekend out as long as possible!

Also, there is a facebook group called 'Nail Sale' where a lot of lovely ladies buy and sell polishes, I think this is where I got this one.  Some polishes may be brand new, some may be swatched once or twice but for brands such as O.P.I and Nails inc, you can sometimes get them at half price.

Have you tried any Liquid Sands?

Have you got an Advent Calender this year??

Hugs,

Jodi xxx

Weekend mani #14

This weekend I am all about the O.P.I again although not with my usual enthusiasm.  Let me explain...

Here we have O.P.I 'Your Royal Shine-ness' with 'More Than A Glimmer' on the accent nails.

'More Than A Glimmer' (MTAG) is part of O.P.I's 'Pink of Hearts' duo which they release every year with the aim of raising money for various Breast Cancer charities.  The other part of the duo is 'Pink-ing of You', which is a pink creme.  The pack also comes with Pink Ribbon decals and some stick on gems too.  

From what I can gather, only a small percentage of the pack price will be given to charity (£2) if bought from Lenawhite, here, £18.80 and there is no mention of a charitable donation on Amazon, here, but it is cheaper at £14.99 with free super saver delivery.  One other bit of imformation that I cannot seem to find out, is if O.P.I cap their donations in the way that Nails Inc. and Real Techniques did.  Nails Inc. were only donating a maximum of £2500 from sales of their 'Pinkie Pink' polishes and Real Techniques were donating a maximum of $2500 from the purchase of their pink brushes.  I find this a bit cheeky as they really encourage people to buy their products for a good cause, when in reality only a small amount is going to the charity!

I should point out, they offered donations for certain tweets but again, that was also only up to a certain amount.  

Back to the nails...

'Your Royal Shine-ness' (YRS) is a fabulous sparkling silver.  This, to me is what a silver nail polish should be.  This polish is almost like a multi-faceted silver foil.  Perfect for christmas!! It goes on easily, two coats and your done, same old O.P.I pro-wide brush so application can be done quickly.  

This was part of a duo too, one of the Serena Williams 'Grand Slam' Collection.  This came with 'Servin' Up Sparkle' which is an awesome holo silver glitter fest! You can see it in action, here.

I then decided to matte it up a little.  I have to admit, I was a little disappointed in the glitter.  I had got the impression that it was a matte, pastel glitter however the glitter was in a sheer pink matte base.  So the pink was the pastel part.  I almost felt like this was unneccesary since it's accompanied by 'Pink-ing of You'.  The pink to the base almost seems like it would limit which colours you could put the glitter over.  

I liked my idea of pastel glitters in a clear matte base better.

I like 'YRS' mattefied like this, it gives it a bit of an edge and almost makes it seem more of a pewter.  I like it a lot.  One day I would love to try this as a reverse mani with black or purple or navy or...

Thats that then, I'm off to practice my taping skills!

Have you tried any of the O.P.I. Pink of Hearts duo packs?

How do you feel about matte manis? 

Hugs,

Jodi