Latest accidental polish purchase

I made a bit of a boob whilst taking a trip to Sally's to pick up some Acetone last week. There were quite a few polishes in the area that is usually reserved for discounted goods, so picked up 5 polishes thinking I was bagging a bargain. I should have realised as the one OPI I picked up was from their recent 50 Shades of Grey collection, which hasn't been out long and it turns out the 3 China Glaze I purchased are from the 'All Aboard' collection.

Anyway to cut a long story short they were full price, so I've treated myself to a mani using three of them.

The dark Grey is the OPI called 'Dark Side of the Mood', this is a colour I don't have already. I have a few light greys but not dark, I think this will look great on it's own for an everyday work manicure. Formula was a little sheer though and it took three coats for full opacity. The metallic red is my first Morgan Taylor polish called 'Vixen in a Mask'. I didn't realise Morgan Taylor were on a par with OPI in terms of price. Finish was nice but I did have tip wear very quickly with this polish.

The accent nail is China Glaze 'Loco-Motive' a lovely glitter topper with small grey/black glitter and larger copper coloured hex glitter. 

On a cheaper note, I picked up some more Revlon ColorStay polishes from PoundWorld. I've a few polishes from this range already and they are really great. Seems revlon are selling these off as they have reformulated this range as a gel style polish.

I used the black called 'Stiletto' and the purple called 'Bold Sangria' for the gradient below. Funny, 'Bold Sangria' looked a burgundy colour in the bottle and pleasantly surprised that it's this lovely purple shade.

The other colours I picked up were a grey/blue called 'Blue Slate' a pastel coral called 'Sea Shell' and a metallic copper/red called 'Cayenne" which I'm really looking forward to trying. As I created a gradient with these, can't vouch 100% for the formula, but they are pretty pigmented as you can see from the picture. All the other polishes I own from this range are spot on in formula and usually 2 and in some instances 3 coats for full coverage. They dry to a lovely shiny finish too. I'm definitely keeping an eye out for other colours in this range that I don't have.

31 Day Challenge - Green and Yellow

More untried polishes to use for the 31 Day Challenge. First up Day 3 : Yellow. Keeping with the Revlon ColorStay Theme this one is 'Buttercup' a pale yellow creme.

Like 'Marmalade' the orange used on Day 2, this took 3 coats to hide all sign of the nail line and first coats applied a little streaky. I was planning on some nail art, but time being short, I used some of the Bourjois Nail Tattoos to give the manicure a little something else.

Not overly inspired but I used these bee designed on alternate nails. These Nail Tattoos are so easy to use, and you'll need to top coat them so they don't wear off. I have to say I'm not sure I'm keen on this colour. It was a rushed manicure, so maybe if I'd taken more time it would have been neater and not so patchy.

Day 4 : Green moves from Revlon ColorStay to their Parfumerie range and the polish in 'Wintermint'.

The parfumerie polishes are scented, and this polish, as the name suggests whiffs of mint, oh and nail varnish... a bit. 

It's a little on the sheer side but you can build to full opacity, this is three coats and you can just see my nail line. The colour is a light metallic green with blue flecks of glitter, gorgeous. It dries to a slightly textured finish and I've abandoned top coat as I'll be changing my polish tomorrow to a lovely blue for Day 5!

Again I picked this up from PoundWorld for a £1, when this range is still being sold in Boots for £5.99. PoundWorld are stocking loads of polishes from this range, so keep your eyes and noses peeled. 

essence polishes from Wilkinsons

So I've been told that Wilkinson stores stock a makeup brand called essence and this includes a rather fine array of polishes at rock bottom prices. These little bottles of happiness are just that! At a slightly smaller size of 8ml where OPI are 14ml, these polishes are £1.60 and when I bought mine they were buy 2 get 1 free!

You honestly can't go wrong with these polishes, apart from the messy mani above! The quality is amazing and you can even get away with one coat! They dry to a very satisfying sheen without top coat, and the brushes are wide and make for easy application. 

The above colour is 'berry me now' and was the first of these polishes I tried, very happy with everything. Colour, finish, application, consistency and durability, I can't fault the polish. Even better that some other more expensive brands!

I used the three colours below to attempt my first patch work mani (top). This was inspired by a Pin from Chole's nails, here's her tutorial and much neater mani. Unfortunately the tape method didn't go to plan and I ended up doing the last colour free hand, which you can tell.  

Colours from left to right are ' prom-berry', 'berry me now' and 'let's get lost'. Formula on all three was perfect and the purple has a very slight metallic finish to it. As well as the price I like the fact the bottles are smaller, it gives me a fighting chance of actually finishing a whole bottle of Nail Polish.

New Models Own Fruit Pastel Polishes

I was in Forever 21 minding my own business, in fact I had done all my shopping, tried 9 items on and only bought 1, queuing at the till and I spied something out the corner of my eye.

By the queue were these bowls of polishes and there appeared to be two fruit pastel Models Own polishes that I DID NOT own. What were these? Where did they come from? Were they US releases, or new? It didn't matter they were scooped up and purchased without further thought or consideration to my 'No Buy' along with a third!

Turns out these are from this years Summer collection and thank God there are only two! The one on the left is 'Coconut Cream' a slight off white with a touch or brown and smells lovely. The left is 'Peach Melba' and is, well a peach cream!

Swatched them both and formula is good, there have been some complaints on Models Own streaky, clumpyness of late, but I'm please to inform these are pretty smooth.

The other polish that jumped in there is 'Microdots' five rounded miniature particles (yellow, blue, orange, red and turquoise) in a clear nail polish. It's going to look lovely over lots of different colours!

By the way don't those Models Own Sweet Shop polishes look nice!

Cirque Polishes - OMG

So whilst writing my Blog the other day and linking to Rainbow Connection, something caught my eye! Cirque polishes! For Sale! I've had my eye on these little babies for a while, and only found one site, Covet that was selling them in the UK for £15.

Well rainbow connection are selling these babies for £9.50 and it's £1 shipping if your order is over £20. Easily achieved when purchasing these polishes, oh go on then, I'll have to order as least three! Other wise I'd have to pay £3.50 and that could be put towards another bottle. Makes sense right?

This is the first one I've used called "Never Nude', a champagne nude with a rainbow holographic finish, most of these polishes I bought are linear holo's, can't get enough. This was bought specifically with the intension of doing this holo gradient from Chalkboard Nails.  

Obviously I needed to buy the darker polish called 'Fascination Street' in order to do the manicure and these other polishes fell in the basket too!

The boxes give them a little something else don't you think?

I shall get round to swatching the rest, the colours are so amazing on these polishes, it's not JUST the colours it's the depth and effect of the holo too.

Other news! As you can see from my last few posts I've been going polish crazy and this is only the tip of the iceberg, I haven't revealed the complete story of my polish purchases of late. I blame that Nail Polish Group on facebook, I may need to go cold turkey. People keep posting about polishes that previously was unaware of, and know I am, I need them.

So my Destash Swap buddy has invited the Group to an untrieds challenge. Total up your untried polishes and use as many of these as you can during the rest of the month. Also this is to encourage you to not buy new polishes. Really should be using the polishes I have before buying more. So no more polish purchases... for his month at least. What date is it?

USA Haul

So a couple of weeks ago I went to the states for the first time, and I was excited to see what polish I could pick up over there, and at a better price in the UK.

I was limited somewhat as we didn't have a car and were reliant on public transport to get around. So I was unable to visit Target or those kind of places that tend to be on retail parks.

However we spent sometime in New York and Boston, and I was able to visit a CVS, a DUANEreade pharmacy and most importantly when in New York a Sephora! 

So then, not too much excitement on the nail front. I acquire three new polishes on my first shop at Walgreens. Two Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicures polishes (above) in 'Mermaid's Tale' and 'Black and Blue'. You can get these at home, but slightly cheaper in the States and I've had my eye on 'Mermaid's Tale' for a while.

The third was a Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Polish in the colour 'Scrab' (pictures on swatches here on the left). Gorgeous Duo Chrome that shifts from Blue to Green, great for a Mermaid manicure topped with 'Mermaid's Tale'.

My next polish purchases were from Sephora and I picked up a Deborah Lippman polish from the new 80's Summer Collection called 'Video Killed the Radio Star'. An amazing bright blue polish (below). Formula fantastic and wore really well, although I didn't base coat it as I had none with me at the time, and it stained some of my nails pretty bad.

I topped it with my other purchase Nails Inc ' Floral Street Mews' on the accent nail. I've not had a great experience with Nails Inc polishes before, but this one is a glitter with light pink and white glitter and blue and white flowers. Also swatched above on the right swatch at the front.

The last four polishes I bought were from DUANEreade and were, OPI's ' Yoga-Ta Get This Blue' (Right back in the swatch picture). In the bottle looks like a duo chrome that shifts from blue to purple but this doesn't translate on to the nail unfortunately. 

Next Sally Hansen's 'Save The Date' which is a dark plum/purple metallic with very fine shimmer (Left back in the swatch picture). 

A Milani polish, which I have never seen over here in the UK, called 'Sugar High' (Left front in the swatch picture). It has gold, peach, lime green and blue glitters. It looks like sprinkles for a cake.

The last polish I bought was Sinful Color's 'Mint Apple' a cool Blue/Green polish with a slight shimmer. Perfect from Spring/Summer and I used this for the manicure below topped with a blue/green glitter from Technic.

So all in all, 9 polishes purchases and I'd say nothing really out of the ordinary and apart from some of the Sally Hansen and the Milani nothing that you can't really get over here. 

However I did spurge on some make up at Sephora, I'll do a separate post on these. My nail varnish addiction seems to be now expanding to make up in general. I also found out that Sephora ship to the UK too for not too much money, this is bad, very bad...

Mini Haul and Revlon Chroma Chameleon Mani

So I mentioned previously that I bought 16 polishes in one day, and here they are in all their glory. Starting off with the three Revlon chroma chameleon polishes. The above mani was with the 'Colbalt' colour and has a slight shift from blue to purple in the bottle, however on the nail it just looks metallic blue. I topped my accent nail off with OPI's 'Polka.com' but was a bit of a rushed mani as you can see and I've taken the polish off.

The other two polishes I bought were 'Topaz' and 'Gold'. The picture above captures the colours really well in the bottles, unfortunately the effect doesn't translate on to the nail quite as much.

The next four polishes are Sally Hansen, the two on the left are from the Xtreme Wear range and are 'Kiwi Bikini' and 'Pinch of Punch'. The two on the right are from the Sugar Coat range and are both matt textured polishes, the black is call 'Lick-O-Rich and the yellow is 'Sweetie'. I've not worn any of these, but I think I'll give the yellow an outing in the Spring/Summer.

All these polishes so far were a £1 each Pound Land including the seven Sinful Color's below. Only the brown in these polishes claims to be a Matt polish however most of the colours when swatched seem to be too. Not a problem for me as I top coat everything anyway.

The Fuchsia colour at the front of each picture is called 'Dream On' and is gorgeous bright fuchsia colour, I've not captured it well on these pictures as it's much much brighter.

Left picture shows from left to right, 'Ruby Ruby', 'Timbleberry' (A lovely coral colour), 'I Miss You' (A blue, silver, and purple glitter is a purple base) and 'Dream On'.

Right picture from left to right 'Dream On', 'Savage', 'Nirvana' (The matt brown polish) and 'Cool Gray' which I used in my second geometric manicure.

Swatch above shows from left to right, 'Nirvava', 'Timbleberry', 'Dream On', 'I Miss You' and 'Savage'. The colours again aren't true to the polishes themselves and I'm starting to lose the light now, but you can see these have a matt finish.

The last two polishes I bought were GOSH in 'Berry Me' a gorgeous burgundy/purple polish and Color Show 'Nearly Black' which is a matt textured polish from their Crystallize range. (Swatch on the right). It has purple, teal and gold micro glitter in a dark brown base. Interestingly enough I thought this polish was the same as a matt glitter polish I bought from GOSH called 'Frosted Plum'. I swatched them both when doing this blog post to compare. Turns out the GOSH polish is an exact dupe of Barry M's 'Countess' from their latest textured range. I cannot tell the difference!

So that was my 16 polishes in one day adventure. Most at a bargain price, keep checking out your local Pound Shops they seem to get new polishes in all the time and both of the Sally Hansen polishes I have never seen before. The Color Show was buy one Maybelline product and get another half price at Superdrug so that cost me £2 and the only polish I paid full whack for was the GOSH. But I really wanted a polish in exactly this colour. 

All in all a successful shopping trip and I endeavour to wear them all within the next couple of months, so far I've worn 4 so not bad. I have some work to do...

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.

Mini Haul from BeautyBay.Com

Last week I was scanning the internet for polishes on my want list and found one, China Glaze - Electrify (Hunger Games collection). It was on a site called BeautyBay.com for the very reasonable price of £4.17 with free postage and packaging too, even for one polish.

The site has a large range of beauty products, not just nail polishes, and at very good prices. Whilst browsing I picked up another two polishes pictured above. Orly's 'Masked Ceremony' and Essie's 'Hor d'Oeuvres'. All very, very sparkly. You can't see here but the Orly one has square silver glitters and purple glitters too which I really hope you can see on the nail! This was £5.13 and the most expensive was the Essie polish at £7.48 but it's a relatively new polish.

Shipping was really quick, I ordered these on Friday evening and they arrived on Wednesday the following week. I also paid £1.50 extra for a Premier order which meant I would be sent free samples too. I received a eye shadow colour (I think) in a nude colour called 'Warm Sienna' by Jane Iredale. (Around the dinner table I've have been advised to find out if it's an eye colour to put in on my lids and see if it stings!) Anyway I'll let you know how I get on... and two small bottles of skin toner and cleanser from a make called Mario Badescu who I've never heard of. The smell of them reminds me of something my Nan would use however.