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!

No Buy - Lasted 3 weeks!

My 'No Buy' lasted a whole three weeks, until I spent the weekend in Manchester and this happened!

Through a facebook nail conversation I was alerted to the 2true polishes that Superdrug carry. I've seen these before but never picked up as I wasn't sure that they were any good. Then I was led to this post by the Nailsaurus and I was converted. 

The polishes above are 'Nicole' a gorgeous purple polish which had to bought after seeing the following swatches on Polly Polish! Just look at these, it's so shiny just on it's own! If Superdrug would have had the Glitterati polish in 'Shade 4' I would have had that too, but alas they did not.

So just the two, 'Nicole' and this amazing topper which was only £1.99. What a bargain for a polish with this effect. It has silver glitter and fine sparkles, that on the purple base shift from what looks to be gold, black and purple. It's going to look different over any colour you want to layer it over. As the Nailsaurus says it' called 'Shade no.2' or 'Clear Sparkle', so happy to still find it on the shelves at the second Superdrug I tried.

In the Arnale shopping centre I also had to walk past this huge essence nail polish display. Before the 'No Buy' I bought a few of these from the Wilkos website which are still sitting in my Untried list. These polishes are £1.60, and Wilkinsons at the moment are doing 3 for 2 deal. I've seen some great reviews of these polishes and the colour range is pretty good. They have a few glitter and effects polishes at about the £2 mark but if you're looking for a cheap cream colour then it's worth checking out your local Wilko's.

I also resisted reduced polishes in H+M and TKMaxx, THAT is how good I was. I'd decided I was only going to get the three 2true polishes and that was it! Still it's a broken 'No Buy' and still many Untried I need to use!

No buy and untrieds

A challenge laid down by a fellow polishaholic, was to curb your nail varnish addiction by tallying up all your untried polishes and using as many as you can by the end of the month.

I was a little shocked and surprised that over half of my vast collection of polishes have been not so much untouched by human hand, but not touched the nails on either of my hands.

This is when I realised that I do have 'a bit' of a problem. Leading up to this revelation and challenge, I think I managed to buy about 30 polishes within only two weeks.

So challenge laid down and accepted, and doing the maths that means I could almost create a new manicure every day for the next six month using my untrieds (You understand some of these are glitter toppers). So far I have used eight of my untrieds and purchased no polish for two weeks.

 The latest mani, above is Nail Inc 'Regents Palace' a metallic purple polish with Revlon's 'Scandalous' as a topper for the accent nail. God this polish is gorgeous, and was one of the recent purchases. I've previously not been a big fan of Nails Inc, the only polishes I've had from this brand before were freebies with magazines. Both very light colours, which is something I don't wear often anyway, but the formula has been a bit gloopy and one even bubbled, but this may have been a dodgy top coat. Anyway this polish is a keeper and I'll definitely be wearing this again.

Stellar Nail Polish

 Through the Nail Groups I follow on facebook, I've discovered some great indie nail polishes and Stellar Nails is one of them. The lady who runs the business is active on the All Things Nails Group and I was lucky enough to benefit from one of the offers she posted on facebook. I received a free nail polish with my order and free postage, Whoooo Hoooo.

This is my second purchase into the world of Indie polishes and delighted that I found these readily available in the UK. The first polish I tried (above) is called Ayla and is a gorgeous blue with shed loads of glitter. Metallic purple and blue with silver micro glitter running through the whole polishly loveliness! I didn't notice, until I put this on, it has purple butterflies too! An added bonus!

This polish along with the polish on the left below called 'The Warmth' are both thermo polishes. These are my first and when you dunk your hands in cold water or when eating a Jubbly as I was the other day, the polish turns purple! To get a better idea of what that looks like, check Stellar Nail Etsy Shop here, my pictures just don't do this polish justice!

The blue on both of these polishes is gorgeous, yet hard to describe. It has this lovely colour dimension to it, blue leaning to a purple.

The middle polish is called 'Two Princes' and I layered this over OPI's 'Lincoln Park After Dark'. This one is a green and red gold flakie glitter topper. Going to be perfect for Christmas manicures too. I love putting Glitter over a cream it makes the whole manicure pop and also makes it last for much longer. Here's may attempt to capture the polish and failing miserably, lights in my house are rubbish!

The last item I bought from Stellar nails was a nail polish ring, she has just brought out some earring which I'm going to have to purchase too! These are so cute, they come in a range of different colours, the one I chose is the Purple Galaxy, of course!

Stellar nails are running a Giveaway at the moment. You can win two full size bottles of nail varnish and a pair of her new nail polish earrings. Enter here for a chance to win, as of today the Giveaway is open for four more days.

So far very impressed with all my Indie Nail Polish purchases, will definitely buy more Stellar Polishes. If you like the look of these, be sure to follow Stellar Nail Polish on facebook to keep up to date with the latest additions and offers they have.

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?

Nail Polish Splurge - The Good and the Bad

I had a bit of a splurge this week. Mostly at Superdrug and Poundland, many a bargain to be had. Whilst I was on a nail polish roll and buying a few things in New Look, I spotted these Kelly Brook polishes by the till. I was purchasing a pale orange dress and the colours below attracted me, I thought these would match and offset the dress.

Plus, look at the bottles. Aren't these the cutest?

Well, the colours and the bottles maybe the best thing about the polishes, as the formula, application and THE SMELL are NOT good. In the above manicure, I used the left polish in a gorgeous light blue with a sparkle running through it. (These polishes have no names either, shame on your Kelly Brook!) The application was patchy and the polish quite thick. The above is two coats, could have used three as you can still see the nail line. I tried to even the finish out with top coat.

I'm just really disappointed with them, and at £2.99 each the formula should be so much better, if Barry M can do it, GOSH and many other brands at the same price, why not these? Sinful Color polishes sell for £1.99 and £1 if bought from Poundland and the quality is so much better.

I used the pale orange for a pedicure, and the formula was better than the glittery polish, but still, the smell and the streaks! Yuck! I'd include a picture, but don't really want to share my trotters with you all. Especially as I'm running a lot at the moment, not a pretty sight!

Anyway on to bigger and better things... I found these in Superdrug by MUA!

Just LOOK at these glitters, really unusual and the colour combinations are gorgeous. There are six in the whole collection and I bought just these four. (I know, how restrained of me!) The first three you can see are all the same combination of diamond glitters with really tiny bar glitters and micro shimmers, but as you can see come in different colour combinations. The one at the back is called 'Luna' and has blue, purple and white circle glitters. 

I did a quick swatch of one of these, it may take a little fishing and a few coats to build up the glitter, but just look at the colour combinations! The possibilities are endless with what colours you can layer these over, in terms of matching the glitters or just something that is going to totally contrast!