NOTD - Sinful Colors 'Sugar Sugar' x China Glaze 'Golden Enchantment'

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the extreme hiatus - college is pretty busy at the moment!

However, I have good news to report - Boots is now selling Sinful Colors nail polish! This is really exciting because it's not often that we can get hold of US brands in the UK outside of trade outlets or department stores!

I've picked up 4 SC colours so far, and today I'll be showing you the latest one, 'Sugar Sugar'. This is a shimmery cherry red that's opaque in 2 coats. A word of warning - make sure your first coat is completely dry before applying a second, or it'll streak up a storm! In all other respects it applies pretty normally though.

On the plus side, 'Sugar Sugar' is fairly quick to dry, and it looks lovely with some glitter on top. I've decided to use two gold glitters here. One is by Rimmel, and it's called 'Disco Gold'. That's the bigger pieces of glitter that you can see below. The smaller glitter is a mix of gold and holo glitter that's by China Glaze, and it's called 'Golden Enchantment'. Please excuse any hangnails in advance, my cuticles are in a bad way at the moment!

It's a good combination, I think. The Rimmel glitter shines warm gold in some lights and green-hold in others, which makes for an interesting visual effect in different types of light. 'Golden Enchantment' has a mix of gold and holo glitters that are micro-micro-small, they're more like a dusting of glitter than actual sequins or anything - but this is why I like it so much. It adds something delicate to an otherwise bold combination.

Holo Polish: The Makeup Store's 'Siw' and GOSH Fix Base Coat

Hello!

Today I'll be demonstrating a rather beautiful polish from The Makeup Store. I believe that this brand is quite hard to obtain in the UK unless you take a trip to Carnaby Street in London, although I've heard that a Westfield somewhere in London also has a branch. I think it's a Swedish brand if I've heard correctly. Their nail polishes are all £11, and they're also all 8ml. Expensive, yes, but this is one of the only holos I've found on the UK market, and possibly the only coloured one apart from its TMUS sister, Britta, a pink holo with a more pastel holo shine (which I coincidentally also own).

This polish is a wonderful, vibrant green-blue holo. The holo is linear and very, very bright- I suppose I would describe it as fiery more than anything, it really is that bright! I find that the effect is most visible under artificial lighting, so before I get to talking about formula and longevity etcetera, here are some photos. This is 1-2 coats depending on the finger, over GOSH Fix Base Coat, without topcoat:

Isn't it beautiful? The name is apparently said 'Seev', despite being spelt S-I-W. Interesting.
It's incredibly vibrant, and is perfect for any event where you'll be under bright lights. It's not quite as bright in daylight, but still gives a pretty, fish-scaly effect. It's a personal favourite of mine.

As far as topcoat goes, I've heard that topcoat can diminish holo polishes in terms of shine, but I used one coat of Nina Ultra Pro Wet Glaze on top of this afterwards out of curiosity and found that once it dried, it made no difference at all to the holo effect - in fact, it just smoothed out the planes of the nail and made it smoother.

As with all holo polishes, this lasts for less than a day on me without tipwear and minor chips, but this comes with the territory as far as I'm concerned, so I was far from surprised at this. Holos are notorious for chipping very quickly, but I feel like the effect is worth the minor tipwear that I've experienced. On this polish, it's not especially noticeable when there's tipwear anyway.

One thing you have to realise with holo polishes is that if you want them to apply anywhere close to easily, you must use an aqua base coat. If you don't do this, then you end up fiddling around and using close to 3 or 4 coats. A normal base coat just won't do the job, and you'll end up wasting polish trying in vain to even out the polish. 
In addition, I've tried using this without aqua base coat and the holographic effect is nowhere near as bright.
Aqua base coats multiply the holo effect by a huge amount and make application a hundred times easier, trust me!

The aqua base coat that I use is GOSH Fix Base Coat. I bought this off of Ebay for £5 including postage, which was a total bargain considering that it is now discontinued as far as I know! TMUS also make their own aqua base coat called Aqua Fix, but it is more expensive per bottle and cannot be ordered online (at least, not in the UK).

Here's a couple of photos of GOSH Fix Base Coat:

That's TMUS' Siw and GOSH Fix Base Coat in a rather wordy nutshell. I hope that this has been useful, and please contact me or comment below if you have any questions!

Thanks for reading,

Amber ♫ 

OPI Die Another Day - Review and Swatches

Hello again, for the second time today!

I picked up this polish yesterday at Sally Beauty Supply for a wondrous price of £3.64! How amazing is that? I've never managed to get OPI at such a huge discount before, and the bottle is full size too!

This is Die Another Die from the OPI Skyfall collection, as I'm sure many of you know.

It's a beautiful orange-tinted red. It's opaque in 2 coats, and I had few problems with application. It dries quickly to a satiny finish that's very very shiny. It appears to have a bright orange-red shimmer going through it that's quite silky looking, it's not frosty in any sense. In some lights this polish appears cherry red, and in others it leans more towards orange. I love it because it's a subtly different, dynamic take on classic red.

I can't comment on durability having only had it on since this morning, but I expect it to last me about 2-3 days at the maximum without too much major chipping. My nails are bendy to the point where long-wearing nail polish sadly just isn't a thing for me.

On my right hand, I used OPI Goldeneye on my index finger as an accent. I think it goes quite nicely with the red!

Here are some swatches:

I have to say, I had a couple of problems with streaking when I applied this, but that was more my lack of left hand control than anything else. I doubt that it's anything to do with the formula.

Anyway, I highly recommend this colour - it's a bright, vibrant red that's good for all seasons and is classic with a twist - definitely not boring at all!

I hope you enjoyed reading this, if you have any questions please ask!
Amber ◕ ◡ ◕

Ocean Glitter - NOTD

Hello everyone! I hope that you had a great holiday season this December and a happy new year too! 

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, January A2 exams are getting in the way of pretty much everything at the moment.

Today I'm sharing with you a lovely, frosty manicure. It's inspired by the sea!

I really like it when holo glitter polishes are left rough on the nail, so that they sparkle more and look like mermaid scales or ice. It's an interesting, eye catching look that also seems to not be as prone to chipping depending on the polishes that you use.

This manicure works around that idea of rough glitter finishes!

I apologise in advance for photo quality, I don't have a proper camera so I have to resort to using my iPhone instead...

Here's the finished product:

And here is what I used to achieve these effects:

From L-R: Sweet Kisses by 17, Aquatic Glitz by POP, Mermaid's Dream by Deborah Lippmann

Basically, what I did on my index to little fingers was 2 coats of Sweet Kisses, followed by 1 coat of Aquatic Glitz. The pinky - nude colour of SK gives the AG a slightly more cornflower blue appearance and gives a nice subtle colour base for the glitter. Sweet Kisses applies well but takes a little while to dry, which isn't so great for someone like me who can be very clumsy with their hands! No matter, as the glitter covers any bumps and imperfections. I've reviewed Aquatic Glitz before, which you can read about in my Early December Nail post. ♫

On my thumbs are simply 2 coats of Mermaid's Dream, which is a real favourite of mine - it's like nothing I've seen before. It gives an almost sandy effect, like a mermaid tail's scales. Small blue hex glitter mixes in with gold and silver micro glitter in a frosty, pearly, slightly duochrome aqua-gold base. It applies really easily and lasts for a long time!

Over Christmas I both bought and received some really great new polishes, which I hope to show you soon! These include the Sprinkles collection by Nails Inc, OPI Nail Envy, some holographic polishes from The Makeup Store and some other ones too!

If you have any questions about anything I used in this manicure, or any other posts I've done, please feel free to ask away!

Thank you for reading!

Amber ♫

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!

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! (´▽`)

NOTD: Models' Own Peacock Green with Jewelled Index Finger

Hello!

Today I've got a really simple and effective nail art look. Accent fingers are always so much fun to do, and add a little extra interest to an otherwise run-of-the-mill manicure.

Recently I took a trip to Poundland and got some really cool bits and pieces there! I picked up 3 glitter polishes, a Revlon polish in Lilac Pastelle (I'll report back on these at a later date) and 2 wheels of nail art bits and bobs.

The first wheel contains little polymer clay cane butterflies in all different colours! They're very cute and stay on well provided you use a cuticle stick to get them to sit continuously along the curve of the nail bed.

The second wheel contains little shaped  rhinestones in every colour of the rainbow! There are hearts, round ones, squares, moons, stars...even little black triangles for when I want to create a studded effect.

Anyway, I decided to use the rhinestones to create a simple accent nail on a dark manicure. I don't actually own that many dark nail polishes, but this one that I used is a personal favourite. It's Peacock Green by Models' Own, and it's beautiful!



This is a picture of my right hand - I only did an accent nail on my left, but I think I'll do the same on my right this evening. This picture lets you see the general colour makeup of this polish. It's supposed to be a duochrome, and it's a very subtle one at that, but that's why I like it I suppose. The duochrome effect means that in some lights, it appears to be a dark bottle green verging on teal. Turn your nail the other way, and it's a shimmery forest green! The nature of the shimmer is vaguely frosty and pearly but very rich, and the overall effect of the polish is extremely shiny, even without topcoat.



I applied the gems by waiting until PG was dry (2 coats), then I put on a layer of clear topcoat. Once tacky, I used a cuticle stick to pick up gems and drop them onto the nail surface. When the topcoat was almost dry, I gently pressed the gems down to make sure they stuck properly. Then, I put on a layer of an acrylic topcoat to secure them.

Again, you can see here just how shiny the polish is! It applies evenly and is completely opaque in 2 relatively fast-drying coats, but if you wanted a slightly sheerer look I think you could get away with one coat, although this would diminish the colour a lot in my opinion.

As for chipping, I can't comment yet as I've only had this on for half a day or so, but I will report back next time I post to update you!

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this post! :)

OPI Goldeneye Review and Swatches!

Hello! :)

Today my bottle of OPI's Goldeneye got here in the post from beautycow.com! (Great website by the way - it has loads of OPI stuff for cheap, this polish came to about £10.50 with shipping which is 50p cheaper than an OPI polish from the shops, not including petrol!) I was super happy because the shipping was only 2 days, very good!

So this polish is from OPI's new Skyfall collection. It's just so gorgeous!

The polish is comprised of a clear base packed full of micro flakes of gold! The gold itself is very warm, which I personally prefer...but if you're a person for cooler toned golds then this is perhaps not for you.

Either way, it looks like someone's put gold leaf on my nails! It's a stunning colour and looks beautiful in any light - artificial, natural or even in the shade.

I can't express how shiny it is in person, even more so than these photos! The second photo in the shade is a truer representation of the shine of this polish. I could rant forever about how shiny this polish is, the flakes add to this by diffracting light all over the place and making an amazing effect of complete shimmer!

Application wise, in these photos I'm wearing a good three coats (only thin ones, mind you). Each coat was extremely quick to dry, only taking about 5 minutes. It applied very smoothly and the finished product after 3 coats isn't bumpy at all. A lick of topcoat adds a bit of extra shine and longevity. 

At RRP £11.00 it's not cheap, but totally worth the money in my opinion. It's everything I've ever wanted in a gold polish - true warmth, golden-orange tones and seriously amazing sparkle! 

Like I said, beautycow.com have this for about £7.50 not including postage. They seem to have all of the Skyfall collection on there too. I know where I'll be making my OPI purchases from now on! 

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!
Amber ◕ ◡ ◕