Swatch & Compare- Black Glitter Polishes: Part 1

Remember how in my last post on 17 Cosmetic's Dazzle the Night swatches, I said that I had a Rimmel nail polish similar to the Glimmer in the Night polish? Well, I thought I'd do a little Swatch & Compare!

And I was wrong about them being similar.Oh so very wrong....

On pinky and index finger: Glimmer in the Night

On MIDDLE finger only: Rimmel Precious Stones in Diamond Dust.

Yeah, that's right, only the middle finger is the Rimmel polish. As you can see, it is nothing like the 17 Cosmetics one. Diamond Dust is more of a grey colour, the silver glitter in it is much finer, and it has HOLOGRAPHIC particles in it. I like it a lot. So much in fact, that I had previously bought a China Glaze polish that was an EXACT dupe. 

Yep, silly old me. In all of the pictures in this post, on my wedding finger is China Glaze Some Like It Haute from the Eye Candy collection. 

Although these two are identical once dried on the nail, the formula of these two was dramatically different. Some Like It Haute was thin and runny and required three coats, whereas Diamond Dust was thick and required only the two coats. Both dry matte as you can see, so a top coat is essential for these thirsty polishes. I haven't applied top coat just so you can see that these two are dupes. 

What do you think of these polishes? Now I know that the 17 Cosmetics Glimmer in the Night polish is unique in my collection, I'm really kinda gutted that it is a LimEd. Boo. 

P.S Sorry for the dry cuticle situation in this post. My cuticle oil is playing hide and seek with me :/

17 Dazzle The Night Collection- Swatches and Review

Hey everybody,

I love the Boots' own brand 17 Cosmetics, ever since I first got into make up. I can always remember them doing glow in the dark nail varnish waaaay before anyone else came up with the idea! this is why I always pay particular attention to the new products that 17 brings out. Nostalgia mixed with the excitement of a new product will do that to any beauty junkie!

These nail varnishes known as the 'Dazzle the Night' collection were 17's Christmas offering. AND I LOVE THEM!!! Take a look:-

Glimmer in the Night

Close up shot

Wishing Star

Glimmer in the Night is a darkened slate grey with a mix of heavy and fine silver glitter. In the pictures I am wearing two coats, and its fully opaque at two. Its quite a thirsty polish, so I recommend two layers of top coat to smooth it over. Rimmel have brought out a range called Precious Stones in which there is a similar polish to this. I will review it to see if they are dupes, but at first glance, they are particularly similar. Therefore, I'm not too gutted that this 17 polish is a Limited Edition.

Wishing Star, however, I am going to buy some back up bottles of. Photos do not do it justice. In these pictures you can see that it is a gold iridescent polish, but in certain lights (especially under my light bulbs at home!) it has a yellowy-green glow. I would like to swatch this again, layered on top of another polish, to see if I can tease that green color out some more! Seriously, you need to try this polish.

These polishes are £2.99, and are available from Boots. But be quick, or I'll be snapping up all the Wishing Star!

Barry M Xmas Limited Edition Nail Paints

Hey y'all!

First of all, a super big apology for not blogging in a while. I've kinda made it my New Year resolution to dedicate more time to my little space of the internet!! So for my first post back, I have a real treat!

You may have spotted these four polishes in Boots and Superdrug over the festive period. Barry M were offering a free limited edition nail paint when you spent over £6 on Barry M make up. Easy done, right? Boots' two nail paints were a metallic gold and a metallic pink, whereas Superdrug's two were a metallic teal and a glitter topcoat. Let's take a look:-

Boots Limited Edition Nail Paint 2012-A

Boots Limited Edition Nail Paint 2012-B

Superdrug Limited Edition Nail Paint 2012-A and 2012-B

My favourite combination? Easily the Boots metallic gold with the Superdrug glitter top coat layered on top. That said, I loved all of these nail paints, and I'm gutted they're limited edition! I loved the metallic finish- if you click to enlarge the pictures, you'll see that they're not like the regular Barry M Metallic Foil nail paints. These have a gold fleck in them, making them look like sweet wrappers on the nail! 

The formula on the glitter top coat was fine, I used two coats of it on all of these manis. The metallic nail paints went on quite thick, so just use thin coats or you will experience bubbling. On a separate note, the blue and pink polishes were a pain to get and accurate picture of! Not entirely the polishes' fault, I hate how we in the UK are only getting about six hours of decent sunlight at the moment!

I'd love to read your thoughts on these, and how you painted your nails over New Years!

31 Day Challenge: Day 17- Glitter Nails

Yippee! I LOVE glitter nails, and when I saw that there was a glitter day to the challenge, I knew straight away which sparkler I wanted to feature! Behold...

Sea Lore's Ariel layered over China Glaze's Aquadelic.

 



Sea Lore is an indie polish company, headed by Jamie Lohr. There is only seven polishes by Sea Lore at the moment, forming the King Triton's Daughters collection. I wanted all seven polishes, but my bank account simply wouldn't stretch that far, so I picked Ariel. 'Cos y'know, The Little Mermaid was all about Ariel. Man alive, I loved that film! I can remember owning it on VHS and everything. I even wished I had long red hair exactly like Ariel's..

Anyway, childhood reminsicing aside, Ariel polish is a light aqua green jelly with small glass fleck shimmer. It has small circular green glitter, purple hexagonal glitter, and red square glitter. Thats a whole lotta glitter. I wanted to give the glitter a punchy base, so I picked my favourite China Glaze polish, Aquadelic as Ariel's base. They work really well together, as you can see!

And on a separate note, today was a very special day, as my little daughter had her first birthday! Today has been non-stop packed with fun, presents, balloons and cake, but now my sugar high is wearing off, and I'm writing this post with just one eye open. As a parting note, here is a picture of the birthday girl!

 

What a cutie pie!

(Outfit from Next)

31 Day Challenge: Day 15- Delicate Print

Hey guys!

Woohoo! We're now halfway through the challenge! Today's challenge was Delicate Print nails. In my mind, a really delicate nail art pattern requires stamping of some form. However, because I have no stamps in my nail art collection (yet!), I set about a simple, delicate print with some striping tape and my trusty Rio Beauty nail art pens!

 

Bourjois 1 Seconde in Shade 50 Bleu

Now, you will have to excuse the knock on the index finger! I bashed my hand at work, and trust me, the nail looked a lot worse initially! I managed to patch it up a little, but I didn't have enough time to restart the whole nail! You may notice my accent nail looks like its bulging- it is. With topcoat, to seal the striping tape in! As great as striping tape looks in the beginning, it can peel off the nail and go astray. So I just glued the little sucker back down!!

The Bourjois polish is a previously unused polish, and I just adore it. I love the colour, and I love how these One Second nail varnishes apply. But more on that later, as I have a bit of a Bourjois special post in the pipe line!

31 Day Challenge: Day 14- Floral Nails

Hey guys!

Now, I have never done floral nail art before. I mean, where do you start? A sunflower? Daisy? Hydrangea? (lol) So, I thought about what I wanted to do, and as I was cooking dinner one night, I glimpsed some of my Cath Kidston crockery. Hence this cute little rose design:-

 

Cute or what?!?

I really, really liked how this mani turned out. I think its by far my best work yet! I shall be re-visiting this pattern again soon, and may throw some polka dots into the mix. Or better yet, a whole Cath Kidston inspired mani with a different print for each nail!

Here's a rundown on the polishes I used:-

BASE COLOUR: Nails Inc Sumner Place
ROSE PETALS: Nails Inc Regents Park and Warwick Avenue
ROSE LEAVES: China Glaze Aquadelic and Rio Beauty Green nail art pen.

I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with for today's challenge!!

31 Day Challenge: Day 11- Polka Dots

Hey guys!

Sorry for missing yesterday's challenge! I will make it up to you and do a gradient mani at some point in the near future. Today's challenge however, is Polka Dots and it just so happens that I recently bought a set of dotting tools!

 

Q. Which Disney character inpired this mani?

 

Minnie Mouse!

 

 

I loved using my new set of dotting tools! Ah, I am going to have endless amounts of fun using them. I always think that Polka Dot manis are simple, but still striking and effective. They are also easy to master for beginners in nail art.

 

I really must apologise for the quality of pictures today- they have been taken under artificial light. The nights are drawing in here in the UK which can only mean one thing- Fall is a'comin'!! :)