Rimmel LONDON - Salon Pro in Purple Rain

A trip into Warrington yesterday to purchase a Helmer unit to store all my nail polish in (more about that later when I've assembled it and filled it), led me to have a mooch around the shopping center there too. I was hoping to find some Essie in the colour above, I was looking for something purple but on the blue side in a cream with no shimmer.

It was slim pickings in Superdrug who didn't have any Essie at all and then I stumbled on a shop called Urban Beauty who had a number of different brands (some of which I'd never heard of before) and some OPI for £6.99, a small number of Essie and some Rimmel Salon Pro polishes.

The first polishes I bought were Rimmel, but I've never tried these Salon Pro ones before. The colour is 'Purple Rain' and exactly the shade I was after! It was a little thin on one coat and two coats seems to suffice, on reflection in the sun, it needs three.

The bottle is 12ml or 0.4 fl oz so larger than the normal Rimmel polishes and cost me £2.50 I think, usually these are £4.49 in the stores. The label says these polish have lycra in them, so I'll see what that does for the wear time and chip factor. Overall for that price, great colour and finish.

Zoya Dream

I road tested one of my latest purchases this week, Zoya's 'Dream'. What an amazing polish, so glad I was able to source it after some time watching items on eBay.

This really does look like the night sky on your nails, the finish is amazing and the micro glitters really catch in the light. I used two coats above with a Color Club quick dry top coat, on reflection three coats would have given better coverage. But just two coats did give a level of depth that I was looking for. Interestingly enough the formula is quite sheer, I guess to give a that gelly sandwich look, where the glitter looks like it's suspended in the polish.

Take a butchers at the sparkle on these nails and the level of colour you get from the holographic effect. An absolutely gorgeous polish, really easy to work with and has not chipped in the four days I've been wearing it. I do find that Zoya polishes are on the more expensive side, especially trying to obtain them here in the UK, but I do find the quality and wear top notch!

Mini Manchester Haul - Color Show, Butter London and Essie

Last week when in Manchester I was very disappointed not to be able to find the Nail Polish in TK Maxx. This week I found what remained of it near the tills!

I picked up (above) Butter London's 'Henley Regatta' a green and teal micro glitter in a clear base. Sorry about the chipped nail on the swatch. Bargain price of £4.99 when these usually retail at anything from £9 upwards.

I also bought Essie's 'Where's my Chauffer?', Essie do a very good line in blue polish and this is no exception. Almost a one coater, but as the polish is a very light shade of blueish/green two coats won't hurt. This was £3.99, perfect for Spring!

I was also after some new blusher, trying to find a berry toned blusher recently has been a challenge, and finally picked up a Maybelline blusher in Plum which is close to what I'm after. Superdrug was doing buy one get one 1/2 price on all products, so picked up one of their polishes from their Crystallize collection I think. I've never seen these before, this one is called 'Nearly Black'. It's a textured black glitter polish with micro glitter in cooper and green/blue. Really hard to tell, but gorgeous. All swatches are without top coat.

Then to my delight, a seller on eBay who was selling some of the Zoya polishes I've had my eye on, had 'Dream' on their list. I thought they had made a mistake, as when I checked back later pondering on buying 'Payton' also it was Sold Out.

Anyway sure enough the polish arrived yesterday and a little disappointed with the swatch as it's not as deep or sparkly as I expected. But it's by next manicure colour so I'll try 3 coats and top coat to see if I can get the effect I'm after.

Models Own Amethyst - Velvet Goth Collection

I've delved into my Velvet Goth collection and tried the purple polish of the set called Amethyst. Formula on this was a little thick to work with and trying to get the polish into the corners and sides of my nail was a struggle. I think I may try to thin these down with some nail polish thinner to see if this helps. This was one coat though, topped with a Color Club quick dry top coat, as the finish on this polish when dry is quite matt and also a little textured. This could even benefit from two coats of top coat to even out the finish even more.

Although I love the colour and they way the glitter catches a different shade of bluey purple, the finish looks to me a little messy and cheap. 

Will swatch and try the rest of the collection soon to see if the others apply the same. The red colour in Sardonyx was a much better finish and less gaudy, especially for work.

Urban Outfitters W.I.P Polishes

Since last weeks manicure I've been scouring the Internet for Holographic OPI polishes from their Designer Series. Their most recent collection is somewhat lacking in the colour or holographic effects I so desire and eBay have but a few polishes that are listed, in the region of £18. Much, much more that I have ever spent on one single polish.

So at the weekend I went into Manchester and had a mooch round Urban Outfitters and their polish display caught my eye. Two polishes for a tenner and these two really stood out. The left is called 'Black Holo' and was exactly what I was looking for. A gorgeous dark grey polish, I would say, with a gorgeous linear holographic effect.

You can see it here, both in the bottle and on the nail, it loses nothing once painted, and this was one coat! Day two and so far no chips, and I've even washed the pots! I topped it off with a Color Club quick dry Top Coat and was ready to go.

The other polish I picked up is a very, very fine beaded polish called 'Blue Beaded'. I'm not usually a fan of these type of polishes, but my friend pointed it out saying it looks like static TV in a bottle.

The polish has a clear base with tiny white and blue beads. The picture below shows two coats and you really don't need a base coat to cover the nail with this polish. It's a little textured once painted on as you'd expect, and although it has no glitter, it gives off a real glisten. The swatch here is without Top Coat, so I can't wait to wear this polish next to see how the Top Coat adds to the effect. They had this polish in light purple and a grey also, but the blue really stood out the most.

P.S. The Black Holo wasn't included in the 2 for £10 deal, so I ended up paying £12 for the holographic polish and £6 for the Beaded one.

Diamond Dust

So after a week of no nail polish, I went to the salon and had a manicure to clean up the mess I'd make of my cuticles, try and get a consistent length and to get advice on the discolouration on my nails. I was determined to stick to my guns and not get a colour but as confirmed with the specialist, leaving them from a week free of polish won't really make much difference.

So she cleaned my nails up with a great cuticle oil and really brightened them up. She also showed me a few polishes that I might and like and amongst them was this purple one. In the bottle I thought it looked too light, but then when she popped it on my nail, I was like holy crap this is the polish for me. 

Check out the holographic on this polish, and no problems catching this bad boy on camera. So this polish is from one of OPI's past Designer Series and is called 'Original'. Not sure when this was first out but seems you can't get it anyone more, much to my disappointment. These polishes apparently have diamond dust on them, I'm not sure if that is what give them their amazing holographic effect but this polish is amazing. There is nothing in this shade in the current DS series, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for future DS series and scouring eBay for this polish at a reasonable price.