The black I've been searching for all my life - Cult Nails Nevermore!

Hi everyone,

I'm absolutely exhausted tonight! I was up until 2am this morning catching up with Homeland... I still hadn't watched the last two episodes so I stayed up and watched them on my Sky+. The finale was soooo long, I thought I'd never get to bed! I didn't get to stay in bed this morning because my sun was up early-ish at 9.15 so we watched Jeremy Kyle in bed and then got ready to go shopping in town. I bought some new tops and shoes, as well as two lip pens and a lipstick, which I'll probably be reviewing soon. 

Today I bring you one of the polishes that I've been most excited about this year. When Maria posted on her blog saying she had created a one coat black I was checking the Cult Nails site religiously looking for it. I couldn't believe my luck when she released it and included it in the second $5 sale, I couldn't add it to my cart quickly enough!

Nevermore is a super glossy, fast drying black creme. But that's not all... It's a true one coater! It's no secret that I absolutely love black nail polish. I cant resist buying almost all of them that I come across, and this one from Cult Nails is (I think) number 5 in my stash. It's by far the best.

Here are some photos. These show one coat of Nevermore with no topcoat. It's so shiny, it's crazy!

Natural light

Sunlight - the green is reflecting from the sun lounger I used to keep my hand steady.
It's not my grass, that's not very green...

This polish embodies everything I love about Cult Nails. Maria got a lot of suggestions for a one coat black that was glossy, fast drying and good for stamping (I haven't used this for Konad yet, but I'm sure it'll work well) and so she made it. Not only did she make it, but she asked us Culties to come up with a name for it. Eventually Nevermore was picked (from the Edgar Allan Poe poem The Raven) by a Cultie. It also has significance because you'll NEVER need MORE than one coat... Clever, eh?!

Anyway, I strongly recommend you go out and buy this. Even if you have tons of other black, nothing compares to this. It's opaque in one coat, but not thick and gloopy, and it gave me no staining whatsoever! Maria, I must say you've excelled yourself! 

You can find Nevermore at Cult Nails here where it retails for $5.

Barry M Magnetic Dark Silver

Hi guys,

I've just finished my dinner, I had a really nice curry; a korma with spinach, onions, mushrooms and potatoes, with a garlic, cheese and onion naan, it was so yummy! Now I'm watching a programme on hoarders... My boyfriend is convinced I'm going to end up like them! I just think I haven't got enough storage!

Today I have a magnetic polish to show you. This is by Barry M and their magnetic range is pretty new, it only came out about a month ago. I only picked up this colour, but I do want the red too. The only thing putting me off the red is the magnet because it's the same as the Nº7 magnetics that I have. The magnet I want is the star shape, but it comes with the blue and I already have a blue magnetic polish...

Anyway this polish is marketed as "dark silver" but it is pretty much black with a grey pattern. The magnet pattern on this is different to everything else that I've seen, it's a wavy grid pattern.

The formula on this polish was so much better than I expected. Normally for magnetic polishes I put one coat on, let it dry, then apply a thicker coat to get opacity and hover the magnet over it to get the effect while it's still wet. With this polish, the first coat went on completely opaque, and I loved the colour so much I could happily wear it without the effect! Luckily for me though, I have a polish that's pretty much dupe for this: Starry Night by Famous by Sue Moxley, so I won't have to wear the Barry M unless I want the magnetic effect.

Natural light

Shade

Outside

This is so pretty! And the magnet/magnetic particles in the polish were really strong so the application was really easy. A lot of people say that magnetic polishes are too fiddly and time consuming, but this polish makes it so easy! So if you're one of the people who feels like this, this would be a great polish to change your mind!

I bought this at my local Superdrug for £4.99. It is available at selected Superdrug and Boots stores and online, so have a look!

China Glaze Smoke and Ashes

Hi everyone, 

I hope you've all had a lovely day. I've been pretty busy on this rainy Bank Holiday Monday but I'm still managing to post at a reasonable hour which makes me very happy! Other things making me happy today are:

1. The sun came out for about 10 minutes. I got so excited I had to post a picture on Instagram (@truly_polished).

2. Dollish Pollish had a mini restock of her leftover polishes and I got some! I may or may not have posted a little while ago that I missed out. There was a HUGE amount of buzz about the last restock and it sold out within about 30 seconds... I was one of the people clicking refresh from 10 minutes before and I still missed out! Anyway, I noticed a tweet about three minutes past 8 saying there would be a mini restock at 3pm EST, which I was sure was 8pm my time! I checked and it was true! I got Heart of Glass by refreshing and clicking add to basket, then I checked out because I was so scared my basket would empty!!! Then I composed myself, went back and tried my luck with a couple more. I tried the same technique and got Putting on the Ritzzz and Spank You Very Much. I feel bad because I know I got my polishes because someone else's cart emptied, but when I get my pretties, the guilt will all fade away!

Anyway, enough of all that and on to the polish! I have China Glaze Smoke and Ashes for you! This polish is from the Hunger Games Capitol Colors collection (inspired by the Hunger Games movie). I used this as a base for Luxe and Lush a couple of days ago but here it is on it's own. This is a very blackened green glass fleck polish, there aren't enough like this around, let me tell you!

The formula on this was amazing! It was a one coater for me, but I did put a second coat on to see if it changed the look of it, which it didn't! 

Now for some photos! All of the photos were taken in normal, natural, regular daylight. Luckily (seeing as there is no sunlight!) I think this polish looks better like that so you can see the glass flecks...

Natural light

Side view - look at those glass flecks!

Macro

This is the polish I was most looking forward to from this collection, and it really didn't disappoint. This kind of colour is perfect for when I'm in a bad mood and I want to show it with my nails! I also wear colours like this on my toes all the time. Right now I have Cult Nails Living Water on my toes but I think this will be finding its way onto them soon!

Models Own Champagne

Good afternoon everybody!

Today's post is a bit unfortunate! I wore this polish yesterday and swatched it then, when it was dull and slightly rainy, and now it's so sunny! Normally I swatch my polishes a few hours before I post, but I did two in one day yesterday because I had too much time on my hands!

Anyway, this polish looks lovely no matter what the weather is like! It's from Models Own, which are probably my favourite nail polish brand. Their polishes all retail at £5 and they usually have a buy 3 save £3, buy 5 save £7 deal, so it's always worth buying a few! 

The shade is called Champagne, and it's a foil effect polish. The colour is really hard to explain, it's a silvery gold/goldy silver! It matches with everything. I'm one of those people who can't wear a bag with silver bits on if I have gold bits on my shoes, no matter how small, so I really love this in-between shade!

The formula in this is my favourite kind, fluid, not thick, and really heavily pigmented. I've worn this polish 10+ times and because I know the formula inside out, this is easily a one coater for me!

In the photos below I'm wearing one coat of Champagne with a coat of Seche Vite.

The bottle

Inside in the natural light

Outside in the "sunlight"

This polish is so pretty! It can be found in Boots, online at ASOS.com, or on the Model's Own website here where it retails for £5. 

Nº7 370 Disco Nights

Afternoon Everyone,

Today I have a nail polish I bought last week at Boots. If you're unfamiliar with this brand, Nº7 is the more upmarket brand made by Boots. I don't usually buy much from Nº7 because I think their make-up (especially their nail polish) is overpriced for an own brand. Their Stay Perfect nail polishes retail at £7, but every now and again Boots do deal where if you spend over £5 in store, they'll give you a £5 off Nº7. This is when I normally buy these nail polishes, although I have a tendency to lose them! In fact, I only have this one and another (soon to be swatched) as well as the Stay Perfect Fast Dry top coat, the others have all been misplaced!

Disco Nights is a blue leaning silver metallic polish.

Outside in direct sunlight

GOSH 550 Purple Heart

Hey, hope you've all had a good day!

Today I have a GOSH polish to show you. I bought this a couple of weeks ago but I know it's been around for a couple of years now. It is my first GOSH polish. Believe it or not, I've always walked by the GOSH counter without taking any notice. This is how I managed to miss out on GOSH Holographic. However, last time I was in Superdrug I had a look on the GOSH stand and was surprised when this bottle shouted out "buy me!"

Inside with natural light