Dollish Polish Expecto Patronum

Hi Everybody,

I can't believe it's Thursday already! Tomorrow I'm driving up to Manchester to stay with my brother until Sunday which is exciting. I've never been there before, and on Sunday I'm meeting one of my uni housemates who lives near there as well, so all in all it should be a good weekend!

Tonight's post is a special indie brand that I love, Dollish Polish!

Dollish Polish will always have a special place in my heart. I bought my first ever indies from there and I keep going back! I hadn't bought anything from Dolly in a while, purely because I was getting sick of Royal Mail ripping me off for handling fees when I paid my import tax, so I was thrilled to find out that Rainbow Connection were bringing them in!

Expecto Patronum is something I've had my eye on for a long time but it was one of the quickest things to sell out at every restock on the Dollish Polish site so I never got it... Until now!

It is a white sheer base with aqua blue small and larger hex glitters. It's so delicate on and just great! One thing it has in it as well that I didn't know about until I applied it is iridescent green flakes and a little bit of shimmer, but that doesn't translate in the photos unfortunately.

The photo below shows two coats with topcoat. Coverage is fantastic on this for something that seems so sheer on the first coat. You could layer this over white but I like it better on its own, the sheerness makes it look all squishy and cloud-like...  

Sorry there is only one photo, my camera seemed to struggle to focus on the glitter through the base, but one photo is all it needs!

Isn't this gorgeous! The crelly base is perfect and the glitter is so pretty. I didn't want to take this off after I swatched it and this is the next thing I'll be wearing...

If you would like to buy this, it's currently available on the Dollish Polish store in mini version here, or you could wait for the restock of the full size on Rainbow Connection here.

If Dollish Polish is new to you, I strongly suggest you check out what they have to offer! Rainbow Connection still have a few of their polishes available if you check their website.

Maybelline Color Show Orange Attack

Hi Everyone,

Told you I'd see you today didn't I?! I'm still not 100% better yet from my illness, I still feel horribly congested, but oh well. I did a bit of shopping today and bought a new pair of boots, the mid-season sales are so good! River Island is impressing me for a change. If you follow me on Instagram (@truly_polished) then you'll have seen them already, I love them! I even wore them to ASDA this afternoon!

Anyway, I have a very summery polish for you today. I bought this last week when Superdrug had a 3 for 2 offer on their Maybelline products. I bought this and two others, and I went for more summery shades because I feel like I need to stay away from the dark blues! 

Orange Attack is a bright reddish orange polish with a jelly formula. It has buildable coverage but is still sheer enough to see a visible nail line.

I used three coats for the photos below.

Natural light

What I love about this polish is that it dries the exact same colour as it looks in the bottle, I took this picture to show you:

You can buy this at Superdrug for £2.99, and it's on 3 for 2 at the moment so it would be rude not to!

H&M Nail Polish Blue Bliss

Hi Guys,

We've reached the end of another week already. This has been a good week for me, I've been really busy and I've had two successful driving lessons. Hopefully within the next 6 weeks I'll be able to take my test after four years of on and off learning!

I have a new polish to show you, new to me anyway, I'm not sure how long it's been out but I haven't seen it before and I spend a lot of time in H&M! It's called Blue Bliss and it's a sheer blue jelly base filled with iridescent blue and purple glitters that sparkle to show green, copper, pink and lots more depending on how you look at it.

The formula is good on this, it's easy to apply and the glitter spreads out well. The base is very sheer though. Normally I'd use this for layering but I wanted to see how long it would take me to get it opaque, so I did coat after coat after coat! It looked so pretty! 

The photos below show four coats of Blue Bliss with one coat of Seche Vite.  

Natural light

Flash

I loved the look of this on it's own and I'll wear it like this again, but only when my nails are shorter. The VNL was killing me! I'm in the search for the perfect colour to match this for layering, but I'm eager to layer it over black to see what the iridescent glitters look like, so I'll be sure to post photos when I do.

This polish is available at H&M for £2.99.

Don't forget my giveaway is still running! It was meant to end at 4am tomorrow morning but I have extended it to run until Monday morning at 4am, midnight EST on Sunday night for any American people who have entered. I will be announcing the winner on Monday so I figured I might as well run it until then... You can enter here!

Have a great weekend and see you on Monday!!!

MUA Shade 12

Hi everyone,

Oh my, I'm so tired today! I went to my pram exercise class this morning and I'm so tired! I had my dinner and collapsed on the sofa for a while before writing this! I've got a feeling this is going to be a short post because I can hardly keep my eyes open! 

I have a MUA polish for you this evening. Shade 12 is kind of like a darker version of a bubblegum/Barbie pink and it has a semi-jelly finish. It's not something I used to wear very often but I saw it in Superdrug and it caught my eye enough to buy it for £1! 

The application on this was pretty good. I like MUA polishes a lot and own quite a few. Generally I like the formula of all of them, the only thing that bugs me is the brush! The bristles are really stiff, so I find if I have to go over the same part of the nail twice, the bristles go out sideways and dent the rest of the polish. That's 100% my only complaint though, I love these little bargain bottles!

Here are some photos, I used three coats of Shade 12 and a coat of Seche Vite. Like I mentioned, it's a jelly-ish creme, so I still had a tiny bit of VNL at 3 coats, but I loved how it looked.

Shade

Sun

You can find this in Superdrug where it retails for a teensy weensy £1! It's definitely worth getting for that price! It reminds me of an untried Barry M that I have in my stash (whose name alludes me...) so I might have to dig it out and do a comparison, even though I'm sure the Barry M is lighter...

Sorry for such a short post, I'll make up for it tomorrow, I have a good idea for a post so hopefully I'll get my nails painted tonight before I pass out for the evening!

Jelly/Glitter Sandwich featuring OPI and Oh My GOSH!

Hi Everyone,

I've had a really good day today for a change. I was really ill last night and up until 3am so when my son woke up at 6.30 and 8.00am I was NOT happy. But I got up, showered and dressed and thought I might as well embrace the early morning! Usually I get up around ten by the way. My son gets up at 7.30 for a feed and then goes back to bed and I'm normally up before him at about ten to ten. My baby likes to get up late! 

Anyway, I made a casserole to put in the slow cooker, had breakfast, tidied up, managed to have lunch (which I NEVER do) played with Caleb, had my dinner while he was asleep, spoke to my boyfriend on the phone, gave Caleb some casserole for dinner and made him up three portions for later. And my dinner for tomorrow is sorted too! I feel like Superwoman! Since I made the decision to blog less, I feel like I can gain control again, which feels amazing!

So, polish time! Today I have another jelly/glitter sandwich to show you. 

I bought this GOSH a couple of weeks ago when I went up to my hometown. It's called Cobalt Blue and it's a jelly! I've been on a hunt for jellies as I've mentioned a few times, and I remembered that one of my only other jellies is from Oh My GOSH as well. I had a look and I'm sure the shop assistants were going to tell me to leave because I was fiddling with everything. I keep wanting to say "I'm a nail blogger, I know what I'm looking for and I need to check how this looks on the brush to tell if it's a jelly or a creme!" But I think they may have put me in a straightjacket if I came out with that!

The glitter I used is from the new(ish) OPI New York City Ballet collection and it's called Pirouette My Whistle. My lovely polish buddy Liz from Colorado sent this to me in my latest package. It's silvery white small and large hex glitter with micro glitter in a clear base. There's nothing like this in the UK apart from the OPI, but I'm not spending £11 on it here! 

I applied one coat of Cobalt Blue and then one coat of Pirouette My Whistle, then another coat of Cobalt Blue. This isn't a true jelly. Normally they take four-ish coats but this was quite opaque after two. This means you can't see the glitter as much as I would have liked, but I'm still pleased with this mani!

Natural light

Flash

I hope you like this as much as I do! You can get Cobalt Blue at Superdrug for £3.50.

One last thing, just for the Americans who read this. I'm always talking about how we get ripped off in the UK, and I took photos for proof! They are phone photos so beware, but I was in Boots so I couldn't  really whack out the camera, I've seen shop assistants get a bit funny about that! 

£18.65 for OPI Nail Envy???? You have GOT to be kidding me! And don't ever buy Seche Vite from Boots! I got mine for about £4.75 from an eBay seller and you can get it on Amazon for £7.15. I refused to be ripped off by these people! 

I'll be back on Monday with the amazing layering combo I spoke about yesterday, I can't wait to show you guys!

Have a nice weekend!

Jelly Glitter Sandwich - Pic Heavy

Hi Everyone,

Today I have my first ever glitter sandwich to show you! If you don't know what this means, it's basically a technique where you alternate between layers of jelly finish and glitter polish to create a manicure that has a special depth to it. 

I bought a few new polishes yesterday and chose them specifically because I wanted to create this look. The glitter I had in mind was NYC Colors Lights Camera Glitter because of the larger hex glitter, but my local Superdrug doesn't stock it, so instead I bought Miss Sporty Sparkle Touch instead. Sparkle Touch is literally a dead on dupe for Rimmel Disco Ball which I already own but didn't bring with me here! 

The jelly I'm using isn't a true jelly. I only own two of these and they're both at home, so instead I used MUA Shade 18, which is a very sheer milky pink creme. 

The technique I used was to apply my basecoat (Nubar Ridge Filler) then one coat of Sparkle Touch, a coat of Shade 18, a coat of Sparkle Touch and then a final coat of Shade 18. Then I used Wicked Fast from Cult Nails as a top coat. Even with Wicked Fast, which usually dries really quickly, this took AGES to dry, I guess it was because of all the coats. MUA polishes usually dry really quickly, but the Miss Sporty polish took forever. I'm hoping that's not a standard thing with their stuff because I bought another two from them yesterday!

Here are the results anyway:

In natural light this leans very pink, very pretty!

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

Barry M Blue Moon

Hey,

What a busy day I've had! I went to breakfast, then straight to the Sealife Centre for a few hours, then shopping, then home! Stressful but fun! My Dad bought me these wedges from River Island which I fell in love with yesterday, and I can't WAIT for the weather to be nice enough to wear them! They'll look great with bright nail polish on my toes! I also bought myself an aztec-y print sleeveless shirt dress and some socks that say "I need sunshine in my life" because that's EXACTLY how I feel right now! 

Today I have one of my new-ish Barry Ms to show you. I mentioned before that I had a love affair with Barry M a few years ago that ended with no explanation, but it's come back in full force recently. I picked up a few polishes a few weeks ago on a whim and couldn't be more pleased with them!

This polish is called Blue Moon. This is a generic blue polish name, like Blue My Mind or Blue Me Away... There are so many polishes called Blue Moon, in fact I have another one coming up in the next few days! 

This is a very pale pastel blue jelly. I thought this would be a creme but when I put the first coat on and saw exactly how sheer it was I knew I was headed for squishiness! There is some very clear blue shimmer in the bottle but sadly it didn't really translate well on the nail, or in the photos!  

This polish did take four coats to cover properly (and I still had visible nail line) and it took a while to dry (Seche Vite would sort that out) but the end result was well worth it! This looks so squishy and I think it would be PERFECT for a jelly sandwich! I have it in mind for an upcoming post that should be ready when I eventually get home, I'm not sure how long I'll be away for yet!

The photos below show four coats and no topcoat.

Natural light

See the rest of the photos after the jump!

Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings the Blues - NOTD

Hi guys,

Today I have an actual NOTD (Nails of the Day) post for you! When I first started my blog, all of my posts were of the polish I was wearing that day, or the day before, because that's how I found it easiest to do my photos. Now since my boyfriend is home I've been swatching as much as I can in one day so I have less things to do and more time to spend with him. This means that I've been able to have a balance of painting my nails and giving them a break to stop them going yellow!

Last night I painted my nails with HITS Air Glow for a post, then decided to layer Afterglow on top to give it an extra something and keep it on. The only problem with that was that my nails felt so thick that I took it off first thing this morning. I was wearing a navy blue top to the zoo today so I decided to match my nails. I chose an untried in my stash that I got from Taryn, a polish buddy of mine, in a Fantasy Fire swap a while ago. 

Lady Sings the Blues is a navy blue jelly with silver microglitter and larger hex glitter. This came out in 2010 I believe, but there's no way I'd have bought it then as I was a very poor student... They only sell Deborah Lippmann in House of Fraser here (I think) and it retails for around £16, which is A LOT OF MONEY!

I don't have anything close to this in my stash, nothing at all. Not even a true navy like this! What I love about this polish is the application was amazing. It went on so easily, almost opaque in one coat and the glitter went on really evenly. This looks so pretty on because the blue jellyness kind of covers some of the silver glitter, so it looks a bit like a glitter/jelly sandwich!

Here are some photos, here you can see two coats of Lady Sings the Blues with one coat of Seche Vite. In future I'll use two coats of Seche Vite because I still had texture issues with this!

Natural light

Shade

Sun

I'm in love with this polish! Taryn, thank you so much! I adore this, and I definitely think it's worth the price tag! Usually I'm against the really expensive brands because I don't think they're any better, but this formula!!!! Maybe it was a one-off and the rest of the polishes don't apply like this, but this is amazing!

Cult Nails Scandalous and an apology!

Hi everyone!

I'm soooooo sorry I didn't do a post yesterday! I know I said I would do one every other day while I'm here but I've just been so chilled out! Yesterday we had a nothing day, we like doing this on holiday! One day instead of laying in the sun or shopping/sightseeing, we stay in our room and watch movies. We watched Something Borrowed and Source Code and just relaxed in the room, then had a lovely dinner. I had planned to do a post after dinner but it was getting really late and I was super tired! I've been shopping all day in the sun, so I'm really excited for today's post, a really summery polish by Cult Nails!

Scandalous is a creamy orange jelly from the new Divas and Drama collection. Maria describes it as the colour of a Creamsicle, but I have no idea what that is, I'm guessing it's an American thing! It's the same colour as the washing tablets I use and I've always thought that was a pretty colour!

Application on this was okay, it was sheer but easily buildable, I used four coats for the photos below.

Natural light

Sunlight

Flash

This is definitely a shade I'll be wearing a lot this summer. Usually I don't go for oranges, but because this one is such a creamy shade I find it a lot more wearable, especially on toes. You can find this here at Cult Nails where it sells for $10. If you're shy about wearing oranges, this one is a good one to branch out with!

I'm trying to find some nice polishes over here in Malta without much success. They have Layla over here but so far I've only been able to find the magnetics. I already have a lot of magnetics at home from other brands, but I'd love to find some holos! I'll let you know if I manage to find any!

Oh My Gosh Pink Red

Hi everyone,

Today's post is a cheerful pink! It's the other polish I bought from the Oh My Gosh by GOSH collection and the shade is called Pink Red... It's a shame all these shades have such unimaginative names! Especially seeing as this polish isn't actually very red at all! It's just pink!

Pink Red is a very bright pink, not a neon, but very bright, it's almost impossible to photograph.

I never used to like this type of colour, it was too bright for me, but this is a jelly polish, and that makes all the difference! I love it when a nail polish finish really suits the colour and this is definitely one of those occasions!

The application of this was pretty good, very typical jelly application: VERY sheer and seemed like it was never going to build then all of a sudden at four coats I was there. Squishy perfection with an amazing gloss, there was no way I was putting top coat on and insulting the natural shine this gave me!

Here it is in the natural light

Click "Read More" to see the rest of my photos. In the sunlight you can kind of see this polish leaning slightly red, but I still don't think that justifies the name Pink Red!