FashionistA nail lacquer in Mystical Dragon

I have been blogging a lot about makeup recently, and therefore haven't really written much about anything nail related. That's not to say that I haven't been buying nail polish, as my bank statement would quite clearly show you that I have!

My most recent purchase is FashionistA's Mystical Dragon. I'd been putting off buying this for a while now. Whenever I placed an order on MUA's website (FashionistA is owned by the same company as MUA), I'd put Mystical Dragon in my cart everytime, and would eventually remove it because some other product would feel more necessary or useful (normally lipstick!)

But not this time! Aha! I finally own Mystical Dragon, and I'm mentally kicking myself for not ordering it sooner. I posted pictures of my manicure with this polish, and even my mum (who rarely ventures from taupe polish) remarked on how pretty it was. I asked if she wanted to borrow it. She said no. She probably had a new Chanel greige polish. Whatevs.

FashionistA Mystical Dragon

(Direct Sunlight)

Direct Sunlight

Direct Sunlight

Mystical Dragon is a definite colour shifter! It couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a true teal or an a slightly emerald leaning teal. My pictures above don't quite show that emerald tinge, as my camera was freaking out, just even focusing on Mystical Dragon. Mystical Dragon is a glass fleck polish, and in the right light, has a golden fleck to it, which I managed to capture by blurring the shot a little. 

Direct Sunlight, purposely blurred

I used two coats in the pictures above, and you can still see some visible nail line (VNL). I''m thinking that Mystical Dragon ma work well on top of a suitable turquoise or teal cream polish, thus making it more opaque. However, this would then probably diminish the colour shift of the flecks. It's like Sally Hansen Nail Prisms all over again. *sighs*

It's only when I was later in my kitchen that I managed to capture this polish in a picture that has the truest-to-life representation. 

Artificial Light

Gorgeous! I'm yet to tell you the best thing about this polish- it's price. £1.50. Less than a bus ticket in Birmingham, and you can get yours here. The polish, that is.

Coming up tomorrow, I have some MAC Holiday goodness to share with you! 

NOTD: Barry M Foil Special Effects- Part 2

So here is my second and concluding part of the posts covering the Barry M trio of Foil Special Effects Nail Paints. Today's nail post is Lilac Foil, which is also a limited edition nail paint. (The gold and silver foils, I assume to be permanent).

 

Barry M Lilac Foil with Lavender glitter top coat.

Close up shot.

 

For some reason, the Lilac Foil applies better than the Gold and Silver foil nail paints. The formula doesn't seem as streaky. That said, it maybe isn't as foil-like as the other two paints, as this seems to have a very fine silver shimmer to it. You can see this in the close up shot.

 

The Lavender top coat is a clear base with micro fine silver glitter and lilac coloured square glitter particles. I absolutely freakin' love it. It looks great layered over black, but now that I've layered it over the Lilac Foil, this may now be my favourite combo with it! I didn't want it on all of my nails though- I still wanted to be able to see the beautiful foil paint. <3

 

Have you guys tried either of these? What is your favourite glitter polish of all time?





My Nail of the Day #3 Max Factor Max Effect in Dazzling Blue

The blogosphere has been awash with swatches and reviews of Max Factor's Fantasy Fire. I think this os hugely down to the fact that Fantasy Fire has a lot of similarities to the now discontiunued Clarins 230. Blogging pals in the US have gone wild for this polish, now that Max Factor is now longer available in the States.

However, while this Fantasy Fire storm has been roaring on (geddit?), I have been looking at the other 40+  shades Max Effect collection. And thats how I found Dazzling Blue:-

I have taken pictures of Dazzling Blue in a couple of rooms in my flat where the lighting differs. Some of these shots are taken in my front room where there's plenty of natural sunlight and others are taken in my corridor to try and capture some of the glow in this varnish.

You can probably see in the well lit pictures that Dazzling Blue has a beautiful shimmer to it. You can also see in the bottle that the turquoise has a purple duochrome, but this is not so obvious once its on the nail. You can see it in some of the pictures, but you may wish to enlarge the pictures to see it better.

Formula wise, this is a nice varnish to work with. However, I would recommend that you do take your time with it, otherwise it will bubble. Also, ensure you use thin coats, as it can be prone to streaking. Unfortunately, Dazzling Blue is rather sheer, and I used four coats to get the colour you see on my nails, as at three coats I could still see my nail outline underneath. The brush on this varnish is pretty decent, despite it being a mini. Much better than the OPI mini brushes, which are the bane of my blogging existence!

Anyway, I hope you all liked my swatches and review of Dazzling Blue! (Hey, I rhymed!) Do you prefer this of Fantasy Fire? Are any of my transatalantic readers wanting to try this varnish? Feel free to e mail me if ever you should want to do a bottle swap!