Picture Polish Altered State

Hi Guys,

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! Mine wasn't that interesting really, I did nothing on Saturday, yesterday was better though because I had a quick trip to the city... I had my first ever venture into Sally's for acetone, and then I took a trip to Hobbycraft for some yarn, but more on that later in the week! 

Today's post focuses on another of the Picture Polish limited editions! This time it's Altered State, a blue - purple - red multichrome with chunky holographic glass flecks. I have to say when I first got these I was the most excited for this one, but was a bit disappointed when I first put it on. That changed once I started moving my fingers and saw the different colours. I will say though that I think this is the most subtle of the collection.

For these swatches I used one coat over Cult Nails Nevermore with a coat of HK Girl top coat on top of it all.

Sunlight

Click "Read More to see the rest of the pictures.

Picture Polish Aurora

Hi Everyone,

I write to you all from my ice chamber! We ran out of oil and have been without heating and hot water since Wednesday! My fan heater is working on overdrive and we have an oil delivery due today so I should be toasty and warm this evening!

Today I have my first of the Picture Polish Limited Editions to show you! I bought this when it first came out and finally swatched it this week!

Aurora is a green - teal - blue - purple multichrome glitter polish. I hadn't originally planned on buying this, but the feeling took hold of me and I couldn't help myself and I'm so glad I did! I love how you don't have to move your fingers to see the colour shift, in my opinion this looks even better on than it does in the bottle, but I'll let you guys be the judge of that...

The photos below show one coat of Aurora over one coat of black (Cult Nails Nevermore) with a HK Girl Top Coat on top. On the brush this looks like dirty dishwater, so I was shocked to see such depth of colour, shimmer and glitter in just one coat.

This post is a little bit pic-heavy so click "Read More" to see the other pictures! 

What's In My Stash #3

Hi Everyone,

I'm so annoyed that this has been such a quiet week because I've got lots of post swatches prepared, but I've just been so busy! My fiance found out last minute that he was coming home on Monday night (I found out Monday morning) and this week we've just been pottering around and due to him being four hours ahead at work he's been really tired early so I've been in bed by 10 most nights - that's usually blog post time! Tonight is his birthday, so we've been out for a meal and now I have time do post!

Tonight I have another What's in My Stash post. I haven't done one for a while because I've been focused on posting swatches of my Rainbow Connection haul, so I thought it'd be nice to have a look at something I have stashed away and it's a good one!

My Private Jet by OPI is one of those iconic polishes that you never think you'll ever own. There is a long story behind it, one that is too long for me to write, but suffice to say there are a few versions of this, two of which are holographic. The version I have is the brown holo version. I bought this for an undisclosed sum on eBay back in August as a birthday present to me from me!

Here are some photos, I used two coats with topcoat....

Flash

Natural light

Sunlight

Isn't this beautiful? I feel so lucky that I've got this, even though I'm too scared to wear it all and use it up!

I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with the first of this year's Festive Fridays so see you then!

Dollish Polish Nightmare Before Christmas Halloween 2012 Collection

Hi Guys,

I'm back! I've been at my Mum's for the last week and haven't stopped so I haven't been able to post anything! My boyfriend just got home last night after about 7 weeks away, so I have some help with our son and here is the result...

Before I go on, yes you did read the title right, this is the 2012 Halloween collection from Dollish Polish. I bought these polishes this time last year and didn't post them for some reason. Just as I was digging them out in time to think of what to wear for Halloween this year, I saw an update from Dolly saying she was restocking these as a limited edition item. I thought I would post swatches in case anyone wanted to see them before the restock!

Here they are... Please note that I forgot to bring my bottle of Vampire's Coven, but that is beautiful and well worth buying!

Something's Up With Jack is a clear base with purple large and small hexes, as well as white large hexes, small squares and bar glitter, and black hexes, squares and bars. The formula was pretty good on this, the photo below shows two coats over Models Own Utopia as well as a macro bottle shot.

We're Simply Meant to be has yellow, burgundy and blue hexes, with large black squares and holographic microglitter. I love the combination of colours in this, it's so unique and I don't have anything else like it. This is two coats over NYC Colors Raindrops.

What's this? What's this? contains orange, purple and green larger hexes, small black hexes, purple squares, white large hexes and bar glitter, as well as holographic microglitter. This screams Halloween and is the most Halloween-y of the polishes I bought from this collection. This photo shows two coats of Models Own Concrete Mixer as well as a macro shot.

Spectral Pup... Where do I begin? This was really the standout of the collection. I had to try to add this to my cart about 1000 times before finally it was released from someone's cart! This and Vampire's Coven were the two that sold out the quickest in this collection and I'm so glad I got them both, but particularly this. Spectral Pup contains large white hex and square glitter, as well as smaller versions of both, and has orange medium and small hexes. It also contains iridescent glitter and has a clear base, even though it looks quite cloudy. The reason for this is that it GLOWS IN THE DARK! It's so amazing, and I love it. I know lots of indie brands have released glow in the dark polishes but this is the first and only one I've ever owned.

The swatches below show one coat (amazing glitter pay of from a slightly thicker than usual base) over Sinful Colors Rich In Heart, which is a near black polish with dark red shimmer - similar to OPI's Every Month is Oktoberfest. My favourite way to wear this is over a pale sheer pink, specifically Cult Nails Enticing, to match the look in the bottle. But I was going for an autumnal combo.

So the details of the restock are as follows:

The Dollish Polish website.

11am EST tomorrow 6th October 2013 which is 4pm here in the UK - great timing for us Brits! 

The collection will be available until the 19th of October so if you order it you'll have it in time for Halloween!

Are you going to be picking up anything?

Dollish Polish Girls Rule, Boys Drule!

Hi Everybody,

I hope you're all okay! My life has been a nightmare the last 2 days, we've just been packing, packing, packing! My boyfriend got home on Monday and we started packing the house up on Tuesday. It was his birthday yesterday but poor him, he had to spend the whole day getting ready for the move! We're doing a big trip up to the house with a 7.5 ton lorry on Sunday. I'm excited to see the house again, I haven't seen it in a couple of months so I've nearly forgotten what it's like. Not to mention it'll be nice to be in a house that isn't full of boxes, until the new house has all the boxes in it at least!

I'm so excited to have an indie polish to show you! It feels like ages since I bought any. In fact it hasn't, but I just didnt get around to swatching the Dollish Polish Halloween Collection before Halloween... And a month and a half later it might be cruel to show of some things that are impossible to get hold of, so I think I'll save them for some NOTD posts later on, maybe in January when I'm missing Christmas and missing some sparkle!

The same thing sort of applies with the polish I have to show you... Girls Rule, Boys Drule consists of matte pink and purple hex glitter suspended in a clear base. It was super limited edition, with only 300 bottles made. In order to buy it you had to submit your interest in an online form and then Dolly picked out 300 names and sent Paypal invoices. You had to pay within 24 hours or someone else would get picked out. It probably took me 24 seconds to pay my invoice...

The photos below show two coats of Girls Rule, Boys Drule over Essie Bikini So Teeny. I used two coats of NYC Colors Turbo Dry Top Coat on top of this and it was perfectly smooth.

Before I post the swatches, can I just give a little bit of a shout out to the new Dollish bottles, I love them!

Ok, swatches now! Sorry there is only one picture of the polish on my nails. The weather has been so dull. I can't wait to get a lightbox!

The weather was terrible, this is flash photo taken outside
to give the illusion of sunlight!

Macro of the bottle

I think this is so beautiful, I want to layer it over more colours. I'll definitely post photos when I do! It's pretty similar-ish (not a dupe) to Ninja Polish Girly Floam so you could maybe get that if you're gutted you can't get this one. But Ninja Polish stuff is hard to get hold of, I'm dying for Floam so it's best to subscribe to stock emails.

Before I go, I just want to say a thank you to Dolly for bringing out such gorgeous nail polishes. I've been a loyal customer for a while since the old Esty days and I'm still pleasantly surprised by her collections! She has a lot of vision and will probably remain my favourite indie creator for a while. I love the indie nail polish revolution and I've loved being part of it as a customer. I really hope I can be a part of it as a creator one day!

And the Winner is...!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Sorry it's such a quick post but I'm so tired and I have to be up early to take my son to an indoor play centre and try and scope it out as a possible venue for his party in October...

So down to what I actually came here to write! As you might know, I extended my giveaway and it ended this morning!

Here are the results:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you all so much for entering, and congratulations to Amalia!

See you all tomorrow!

Olympic Giveaway!

Hi Everyone!

I'm so sorry I went AWOL yesterday! I had a post planned, then I was watching TV... All of a sudden I looked up and it was 11 o'clock so way too late to start. I had an early-ish morning today so I didn't want to stay up.

Anyway, you may or may not know that tonight is the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The highlight for me was the Queen, and the dancing through the ages, a lot of good songs were on there! Anyway, it's kind of a big deal and I have just the right post to celebrate!

A GIVEAWAY!  I know I said 75 followers would be my next giveaway but I thought I might as well do a little one! And it's a good time for my first Rafflecopter experience. Makes it easier for me anyway if I don't have to input entries manually!

The rules are: You must be a follower of my blog. That's about it! I know that annoys some people, but at the end of the day, giveaways are meant to do something nice for my followers who read and enjoy my blog. If you're a follower, you'll have up to 9 entries at first, and some can be done again and again.

The prize is a bottle of Barry M Jewel Britannia, very fitting! You can see my swatches here. This is a limited edition shade exclusive to Boots online and the Barry M website.

The giveaway starts today and ends on the 18th of August at 4am (sorry, Rafflecopter works in EST). This is in three weeks time and you can see a countdown on the widget!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! I'll be announcing the winner on the 18th of August! In the meantime, blogging will resume as normal! 

Have a brilliant weekend, I'm going to see my friend for a night out tomorrow (my first since February!) so that will be very fun!

See you on Monday!

NOTD: Barry M Jewel Britannia!

Hi guys,

Another NOTD today. I have so many polishes to swatch but I just got this yesterday and I couldn't resist! It's safe to say that my love affair with Barry M has been rekindled!

Barry M have released a British themed glitter polish in honour of the London 2012 Olympic Games, and I had to buy it as soon as I heard about it! I put out a tweet and Instagram asking for suggestions on what to layer this over, and some of my followers suggested grey, blue, pale pink, and yellow. I decided on grey for my first mani using this. 

I wanted a pale grey, so I went with H&M Miss Stone Heart, forgetting that this dries a lot darker than it looks in the bottle. I'm in the market for a pale grey... If you know of a good one, PLEASE leave me a comment. I'm going shopping on Sunday (well actually I'm going for lunch with my Mum, but little does she know, we'll be shopping too!) and I'd love to pick one up!

Here it is, I used two coats of Miss Stone Heart with one coat of Jewel Britannia. The formula was slightly gloopy on this so I had to dab it on, but I don't mind doing that to be honest...

Natural light

Sunlight

This is so gorgeous. I'm loving the fact that the mainstream brands are coming out with these indie looking polishes. 

My message to all UK based brands is this: PEOPLE WANT CHUNKY GLITTER!!!!! I mean come on, Models Own Ibiza Mix is the perfect example of this, it was sold out everywhere, in every Boots and Superdrug I looked in, so I had to buy it online (which I hate doing). People obviously like the look of them, and who wouldn't? Chunky glitters look amazing! To all the people who say they look tacky, cheap and immature, you're obviously not wearing them right!

Jewel Britannia is a limited edition glitter available exclusively on the Boots website where it is currently sold out, and on the Barry M website where it is still available! It retails for £2.99. 

I bought three of these, and I'm planning on having a giveaway soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Have a great weekend!

Divas and Drama - PRE-SALE

Hi everyone, 

I just thought I'd let you know that the amazing Divas and Drama collection from Cult Nails is available to pre-order today until March 18th. The collection costs $30 + shipping, which is $11 to the UK. 

L-R Scandalous, Enticing, Manipulative, Seduction

I actually bought this last night, I thought I'd have a look on the site and they'd put it up a bit early. Pre-orders will ship no later than the first week of April.

Order yours here: Divas and Drama Pre-Sale

If you haven't seen any swatches yet, you can find them, along with the story behind each colour, on Maria's blog, the R3 Daily here: R3 Daily

Personally (and I don't think I'm alone here!) I'm most excited for Seduction and will 100% pick up another bottle (or 2) of that when they're available to buy separately as Limited Edition items. I'm also looking forward to Manipulative, I love a good turquoise, and this one even has a subtle colour shift shimmer!

Cult Nails - Toxic Seaweed

Hi guys,

Today I have my first ever Cult Nails polish to share with you. I bought Toxic Seaweed after it caught my eye when I was browsing their site. I'm a sucker for green nail polish, and this one has a great Cult Nails twist on it! I'm still gutted I missed out on Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant (now discontinued) so I got 2 bottles of this as I knew it would be heading into the Limited Edition section, which it now has.

Cult Nails is a still relatively unknown brand to the general public, even more so in the UK. This really needs to change! This is by far the most original polish brand I've ever seen. The majority of the colours are created from ideas that Maria (the blogger behind the R3 Daily blog) receives in tweets and comments, meaning that the customers really get what they want. All polishes are 4 Free (free of toluene, formaldehyde, DBP, and camphor), not tested on animals, totally cruelty free and vegan friendly.

Toxic Seaweed is a forest green jelly packed with gold and green microglitter and... FLAKIES! Flakies are my all time favourite nail polish effect so I love this polish. The flakies shift from copper/red if you look straight on, and green if looked at from the side. I feel like I've seen this colour shift a million times but it looks beautiful in this polish. The formula was great and I used two coats for the photos below with one coat of Seche Vite.

Outside in the natural light

I got a bit pic heavy with this one, so click "read more" to see the rest of my photos!