Wednesday 12 December 2012

Metallic Nails - Silver, white gold, gold~

Hello everyone!

Today I'm sporting a lovely, shiny metallic set of nails.
I've used White Gold by Accessorize (2 coats) on all fingers except for the ring fingers. On the ring fingers, I've used 1 coat of Barry M Silver Foil Effects with 1 stripe of Models Own Champagne down the middle and 2-3 stripes of OPI Goldeneye on top.

As you can probably gather, metallic nail polishes are my current obsession. I love the mirror shine, the shimmer and the lovely colours.
White Gold is especially reflective, and it's quite an unusual take on metallics too. At first you'll probably think that it's a bright silver, but in actuality there are gold flecks running throughout it. This gives an overall impression of the white gold colour that this polish owes its name too. I prefer warm metallics to cold in general, so this is why I like it so much! It's silvery but with a warm twist. It also lasts well and doesn't chip too much, even on my bendy nails. I think it's about 4 pounds. The bottle doesn't seem big but it does last, thankfully.

The Barry M silver nail paint is a cooler, more grey-toned silver. It doesn't really have much of a flaky shimmer like WG does, it's more of a smooth chrome effect. It's not particularly reflective, but it's completely opaque in one easy coat, and dries quickly. Chipping is minimal, and I've heard it's great for stamping with too. These factors, along with the cheap price (it's about 4 pounds for a big bottle) make it a winner for me!

Models Own Champagne is something that I mentioned in yesterday's post. You can read more about it there, it's a personal favourite of mine save for the quick chipping!

OPI Goldeneye is also something that I've reviewed before. It's one of my most prized polishes, it's utterly beautiful! It's a favourite of mine for doing stripes such as these because of the rich, bold gold colour.

Now for some pictures! :)

In addition to this, I've found a great way of preventing chipping! It's something I found out on the internet. You basically wrap your tips with nail glue instead of clear polish, and this protects you from tipwear or chipping for longer than just topcoat!

As usual for all of my nails, I used my trusty Seche Vite, then swept some clear brush-on nail glue across the tips to prevent chips. I'll tell you if this works for more than just a day!

Thanks for reading! :)

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Early December Nail Roundup : 3 new nail looks

Hi everyone!

Today I have a couple of new nail looks to show you. I hope that you like them!
 Please excuse my cuticles in advance, I'm afraid the cold weather is not kind to my fingers!


First up is a glitter gradient. The purple is Fantasy Fire by Maxfactor, and the blue glitter is Aquatic Glitz by POP Beauty (more on this one later!).
I applied 3 thin coats of FF (which is very much a sheer jelly, very pretty and versatile with a cool multichrome shimmer) to begin with. Then, I dabbed AG along the tips of my nails. As you can see, I've managed to tear my ring fingernail, which is sad for me as it was getting quite long too! :(
Then, I just dabbed some more FF over the seam between the two colours to blend it all out.


Next is a lovely shimmery metallic by Models Own called 'Champagne'. It's literally a champagne-coloured metallic polish, which is completely opaque in 2 coats but looks nice with just 1, too. I love this colour but it doesn't last long in my experience, I only wore this for one day until I had major peeling and chipping! I did make a mistake in my basecoat-
topcoat routine though, so I think this might be why.


Finally, what I'm wearing today is 2 coats of POP Aquatic Glitz, as mentioned earlier. It's a beautiful mix of fine pale aqua blue, darker blue-green and silver holographic glitter. It twinkles beautifully in the light, and I chose it for today because it looks rather like all the frost and ice outside!


Thanks for reading, bye for now!

Sunday 2 December 2012

NOTD - Essie 'Leading Lady'



Hey everyone! ♫ 

I hope life's treating you all well. The weather in England right now is evil, so bitterly cold! That's why we need lots of pretty polishes to keep us cheerful in the colder months!

Today, to celebrate getting a university offer for medicine, I went into town and grabbed some sweet new nail polishes! Yay! This includes a new Essie polish called Leading Lady.

I walked into Superdrug and literally almost squeaked a bit when I saw the new Essie winter 2012 collection! Shelling out £7.99 for this polish hurt a little, but just seeing the colour in the bottle was enough to take away the pain, haha!


Leading Lady (LL) is a berry red jelly packed with pretty pink-red glitter. It reminds me of raspberries and redcurrants, it's really juicy looking! And so sparkly too. My camera seems to be making this polish appear to be a dark burgundy, but it's so much more 3-dimensional than that, and a lot pinker too. It looks like someone mixed raspberry jam with pinky red glitter and put it on my nails! 

Here I've used two decent coats, three on some fingers. Honestly, if you're careful, 2 coats is plenty, as it transpires that LL has a really nice, semi-sheer red base to it that builds up really well. From past experiences of Essie polishes (granted, only pastel colours) I mistrusted the brand a bit after my polishes went gloopy and bubbly on me after a week of owning them! All I can say is, Essie, I forgive your for your past pastel sins, because this colour is just amazing! (* O *)

  










LL applies very evenly and smoothly, dries quickly with help from my Revlon Liquid Quick Dry, and is incredibly sparkly and pretty. I'm a sucker for jellies and glitters so it's a perfect combination of the two! I forgot to put topcoat on originally as I was in a rush and so got some tipwear after 24 hours, but I simply topped up my tips and applied topcoat as usual, remembering to seal the polish underneath my nails, and it seems to be going strong.
My personal durability test for polishes is that I go play my guitar and see what happens, and no chips / tipwear has been observed after a solid 20 minute practice! Amazing.

Overall, I give this polish a solid 4.5/5 for quality, application and durability. I'll report back later with durability updates as the week progresses! I can see myself using this all year round due to the lovely finish and quick drying time. (P.S. This looks great with just one coat if you're careful, it gives a lovely bright cherry red effect that's a little less heavy on glitter!)

I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading! `)