A Christmas Catch-up! Revlon's Emerald City.

Merry Christmas and hope you all have a Happy New Year! Are you all stuffed from Christmas eatings? Well rest comes in a form of a lovely little update of what the nails looked like in the festive season. It was an oldie, it's Revlon's Emerald City which is a lovely shimmery metallic green that sparkles in the Christmas lighting. Follow me for more... 

Return of the Aquarium Collection: Barry M's Persian.

Sadly, it has to be admitted that this little beauty has been in the stash a while yet not appeared on the blog. It's been on Instagram here. Maybe it's just been forgotten under it's sheer brilliance, well here it is now and hopefully it will impress you all. It's Barry M's newest Aquarium Collection release called Persian, the colour is a mix of a deep purple and a bronze/gold when it catches the corner of the eye. This happens a lot, have a sneak through for some more photographs.

Back by Popular Demand: Sally Hansen's Jet Set Jade.

Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry collection is always in fashion here, seeing as they are always pretty colours and very easy to apply! Therefore when they reappeared within the local Poundshop, a few polishes just had to be 'selected for review on the blog'. Just kidding, only for my own personal polish collection. Today's polish is a lovely green and mix colour mix that's a metallic shimmer overall. It's called Jet Set Jade. 

Last Minute Adjustment: Purple Reflects! and Snow Globe

This polish looks very much like a going out on the town combination, but reassurances it's not. When painting Purple Reflects! on to the nails it just didn't seem quite right like there was something missing, in the end it was decided the manicure needed glitter. Snow Globe was chosen as there was a need to test this one out as the other Sally Hansen glitters had been so successful. It wasn't sticking to the polishes list that had been created, the deviation was worth it!

Going out on the town material: Rose Chic by Maybelline Colour Show

There's always those evenings that you are going out celebrating with friends and family - an occasion. When you've got painted nails but they just don't quite cut it for the event. Here's the polish to fill that gap, it's relatively new release and it's amazing for the amount of effort put in for the result that you receive. This little polish is called Rose Chic from the collection Crystallize by Maybelline Colour Show:  

Appearance of another duotone: Mediterranean by Barry M

When this collection first appeared, the hype didn't really reach myself as duotones haven't gone down well in the past. However once this polish was swatched, I was completely converted to duotones as it really appear to be two colours at once as well as having a lot of staying power on the nails. The amazing collection which has converted the feelings towards duotones is Barry M's Aquarium collection. And today is going to feature another one of these lovely polishes:

Now it's a little different from the usual nail polish palette which are normally swatched but I promise you it's a great colour choice. It's called Mediterranean from Aquarium collection by Barry M, the duotone effect is between orange and a rose gold. (sort of - not really any other way to describe it!) It appears metallic orange in everyday light and then the rose gold appears when moving your hands and in brighter light. Shall we go ahead and see the swatches?

An Eye Catching Blue: Pacific by Barry M Aquarium Collection.

When wearing this particular polish it's definitely mesmerising to say it lightly, seeing as every time you use your hands (which is a lot) the duotone catches the corner of your eye - making it impossible to not just have a quick peek at the nails. Additionally it does tend to catch the attention of a lot of other eyes! 

This beauty is called Pacific by Barry M in the recently launched Aquarium collection which contains 3 other duotones and 2 lovely looking glitters. Which surprisingly haven't been purchased for quite a while after the launch, probably due to the fact that previous duotones which have been tried haven't been all that impressive. This is not the case here. Pacific is a blue and green duotone which is also has a metallic shimmer running through it:

NOTD: Co-Bolt Blue by Sally Hansen and Diamond Glitter by Barry M

It's another nail of the day post as I am certainly enjoying doing these little insights into everyday nail varnish combinations on my nails! It means showing you the polishes which are well loved and great to wear on your nails, even though they are getting on a bit in their age.

It's 320 Co-bolt Blue by Sally Hansen and 350 Diamond Glitter by Barry M. Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri collection has been a massive hit out of the nail polish stash seeing as it goes on easily due to the fact that it goes on even and no streaks and it also comes off easily which is quite surprising as they aren't light shades. As Co-Bolt Blue is quite a metallic colour I decided to try out a silver glitter gradient, here's the results:

A Swatch and Review of Mama-San...

It has been a hectic week! So much so I've realised that yesterday there was no post for you guys, so there's going to be one today instead and apologies for my forgetfulness. The reasoning behind the forgotten post is that there's been quite of overtime floating around at work, I believe I've done triple my normal hours. I am overwhelmed, anyway on to the post I promised.

 This lovely looking bottle has been floating around the stash for a few weeks as the brighter colour have been chosen to be swatched first mainly as they catch the eye! And yes this is yet another nail polish from the brand Sinful Colors, I think I am trying to make up for lost time of not knowing about the brand by getting so many more at once. It's a little obsession at the moment.

The colour can be described as a light pink in colour with the added extra of it being metallic as well. It's a little too dark for the collection but it does look a little similar to the Barry M Silks collection however this one is a gloss finish. I'd better also disclose to you guys that this is a Poundland find, so I am not quite sure how new this little one is. It's probably from one of their collections... Onto the swatches!

Given into the hype... Barry M Silk!

Now there was quite a lot of excitement about the new release of polishes by Barry M, which do have a brilliant reputation for nail polishes. So there have been quite a few swatches and reviews around the time of the release, I read a lovely review by a blogger who'd received them early however silly me didn't realise that so went out to buy them and they weren't there.... Oops! However I haven't purchased one up until now which shows actually how interested I was in them. But that defiantly doesn't mean that they aren't as brilliant as other Barry M's....

When choosing, I wasn't drawn to the pink or purple and didn't like the look of the brown. Therefore it was a choice between green and blue. The green eventually won seeing as the stash already has a lot of blue so it was green for a change. But I would say that this isn't a typical green colour. It's metallic and it's appears to be a combination of silver and green in the bottle. Let's see it on the nails.

GOT Challenge: Green

Hello! This week's choosing of a nail polish was an easy peasy decision seeing as the first ever green polish that was purchased is still my favourite one to this day. Although it hasn't been used in a while therefore it was the one to be picked. After that the design was a little tricky but The Sequined Nail's Metallic Spot Gradient definitely inspired this quick little art design over the top!

These are selected nail polishes; NP 284 by Barry M (It's so old it's lost it's name.) and 819 Sublime Plantine by L'Oreal. The combination was due to the fact they are both metallic polishes meaning they'd compliment each other. Barry M will be the base colour as the Challenge is based on green this week and L'Oreal is the nail art colour. Here's the first coat...

Another metallic purple nail polish....

Any colour that is a deep purple or dark and metallic I am a sucker for! It's probably due to the fact that there are phases of my favourite colour and any nail polish that falls within the favourite colour of the moment must be purchase immediately. This means that this nail polish had to be accumulated once seen in addition to the fact that it was found at the back of the nail polish stand in another £1 shop. It just can't be helped...

What also didn't help was that this particular colour was on the list of nail polishes from Sinful Colors I would like from the help of YouTube when this lovely brand was discovered therefore there was no logical reason not to purchase it when seen at a reduced price. They say admitting your problem is the first step, I am a £1 shop nail polish bargain hunter. This lovely shade of purple is Fig by Sinful Colors and it goes on the first layer like a dream:

A brilliant metal rush!

Whilst deciding what to post about, I was in a real rut and couldn't decide what I wanted to do seeing as I have literally just started with the nail art brushes so I wanted to do some more practise before posting again and was unsure to post about the other China Glaze polishes I am currently testing. Then it hit me that I'd taken some photographs of a polish that I tried the other day and loved...

Now I know I have all rated and loved the Revlon Chroma Colour nail polishes however this one has a waaaaaaay better duotone I promise you! When purchasing 80 Purple Reign by Rimmel, I was a tad unsure as to whether it would live up to the packaging, stating that you can "flip your colour". This I don't believe it has done but the major up side is that it's a brilliant purple colour with added addition of the duotone orange/red-ish, that does shine brilliantly in most lighting.

When applying the first layer, the colour and effect it has doesn't appear to be that brilliant seeing as it appears to be a mixture of colours which don't relate or stand out. It improves though when more layers are added!

See the colours are coming through a lot better with another layer as they are more opaque and you can see less nail at this point... Additionally the metal shine is starting to appear with the next layer whereas with only one layer it just appeared to be really shiny. Now normally the application of a third layer is missed on myself, seeing as it's too much effort but this time it did happen.

Worth the effort of applying a third layer seeing as the colours are now at their best! Duotone effect really can be seen at this point, sadly I don't think the photograph can really show this seeing as you need to catch the light? Sorry about that, hopefully you can trust me enough, I am not lying I promise. As for the application, the solution of the nail polish is normal - not gloopy or runny at all, the brush is an attempt at a wide brush but doesn't really come under wide, I'd say it's a medium sized brush. Other than that the only thing that needs mentioning is the size of the bottle as it's not regular size, it's smaller as it contains 8ml which is a con if it's the same price or more expensive than regular bottles. So I'd shop around for it if I were you, I did purchase this particular nail polish at a £1 shop (Sorry.) Overall I'd say if you are metal or duotone lover this nail polish is for you or if your into cool nail polish effects which I am then grab yourself a bottle! 







Sally Hansen Co-Bolt Blue - A Recommend!

When I saw this colour I just knew I had to have it seeing as it's navy blue and metallic at the same time which is a combination of my favourite things! This was purchased in a £1 shop so I am not sure if it's either readily available in the UK or any where else for that matter... (Just did a quick search and you can get this lovely colour on Amazon.) It's a very dark colour itself yet the metallic element to the colour lifts it slightly so that it isn't mistaken for a black or a dark colour.

The applying of this nail polish was really simple! It went on smoothly with no large streaks or blobs that were visible to the eye therefore it was even. This was in a well lit room making it very easy to do but it wouldn't be hard in a normal room either. With the name of the range insta-dry I was expecting it to dry quickly but not that quickly! That was amazing! Finally it was enough coverage in the first layer to leave it as is. It came out in the first layer as if you had done about three. So a definite brand if your just quickly applying one coat and going. Here's the pictures...

 

 

That was just with the one coat, I decided to have a play and see if it looked even better with two coats but it my opinion it didn't make a huge change just more coverage overall.

 

They created a great coverage across the nails and the colour was amazing, so this could mean to the downside of either taking forever to come off or staining your nails when you did take it off. So I tested this by using nail polish remover to take them off and surprisingly they came off without any hassle at all! BRILLIANT! So all thumbs up from my review so far for this lovely nail polish. If you can find it near you or order it online, I'd definitely recommend this colour if your a navy fan or if you like convenient nail polishes. 

Revlon Chroma Chameleon

These nail varnishes are excellent if you want metallic or chrome nails! Basically it does what the name suggests. I purchased three colours of the range as these are generally colours I go for; blue, purple and green. The best colour of the three is definitely the blue one but the other colours are equally as nice. In addition to this you don't have to spend ages applying coats to get good coverage, it only takes two layers!!





An excellent pro to these nail varnishes (as I am a superscrimper) is that they were purchased in £1 shops that can be found in many high streets across the UK meaning it didn't break the bank. They normally retail at around £4.99 in high street drugstores. They are brilliant colours and would be fantastic for the Christmas season (especially green) as they are sparkly/shimmery to match the season! They'll probably also last the season as they don't chip. I'd definitely recommend these. :)