Bourjois 1 Séconde ~ Shade 9

Hello!

Today I have a market-stall find, Bourjois' 1 Séconde polish in Shade 9 (pity it doesn't have a name).  It is a very deep, rich purple with a nice rich shimmer to it.  Here are two coats:

It is a very lovely colour indeed! 

The polish bottle makes a lot of claims: fan-effect brush, one brushstroke, one second to apply, one coat, 50 second dry time.  The extra-wide fan brush is brilliant, and I wish more polishes had them!!  It really does make application a lot easier.  As for the one-coat claim... this could never be opaque in one coat; it's a definite two-coater.  It also took longer than 50 seconds to dry completely, but it still dried quite quickly and I did paint thick coats on a lot of nails.  All said, the brush is what really makes this polish a quick, convenient and easy one to use.

As I have already mentioned in this blog, dark and demure colours really don't suit me.  I would definitely be pairing this polish with something else to make it more "me", so I did a quick test with four glitters to see how it looked.  Here we go...

Index ~ Sapphire by La Femme Beauty
Middle ~ Magic by Accessorize
Ring ~ Dream by Accessorize
Pinky ~ Light pink glitter by Claire's

The combination that really caught my eye was with Magic ~ it added a different, deeper look to the glitter and so I plan to wear a mani with this pair ~ watch tomorrow's post!

Hugs,

Lisa

Accessorize 3D Glitter ~ Dream

Hello!

Dream is the second 3D Glitter I bought from Accessorize.  I reviewed the other, Magic, here, and most of what I say about one can be said about the other :-)

Dream contains densely-packed fine blue glitter mixed with larger violet glitter.  It takes 3 coats for opacity on its own.  The polish is really quite gritty and takes a good 2 or 3 coats of top coat to get the most beautiful finish ~ but it is worth it.  Here are the pics!

In the flesh, the polish glittered a beautiful, rich, opaque royal blue and was lovely and eye-catching.

You do get tip wear extremely easily with this polish, although it is easy to correct ~ if you repaint the tips, the fine blue glitter covers it well and looks natural.  As I mentioned before, the polish is very gritty and requires a lot of top coat to get a good shine.  Looking at the finished mani it is beautiful, but if you're a polish perfectionist the application woes might annoy you!

All said, I do love these two polishes and will go through the pain of glitter application and removal to wear them regularly!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

The Jelly Sammich Revisited!

Hello!

A tiny while ago there was a Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge to do a 'jelly sammich' mani ~ ie. a mani layering sheer/jelly polish with glitter.  My first attempt was a bit rubbish, but then I remembered that my BYS colour-changing polish was nice and sheer, and that maybe it would make a good sammich filling.  I layered it with OPI's I Lily Love You, added 17's Glitter Top Coat (which comes with their current makeup bag promotion), and here I have the results!

Meeeep!  ^_^

I am really, really quite pleased with how this turned out!!  ILLY shows through nicely, and the pink/purple polish does have a jammy look to it!  What do you think?

Lisa xx

Blue Sky Nail Foil

Hello!

This is to show you my Blue Sky nail foil, an opaque full-cover foil.  I applied it over one coat of a silver polish, 17's Moonstruck, for full coverage.

I really don't know what happened in these pics, because it definitely did not have that 'dirty' look in real life.  Maybe it was the base colour showing through badly, or the wrinkling of the foil after I applied top coat ~ but in the flesh I actually really like the way it looked!  So strange.  I might try applying it again in the future and posting pics that do the foil more justice.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Random Polish Pick ~ Smoothie Rose!

Hello, I'm back with another of my not-quite-famous Random Polish Picks!

This time I stuck my hand out and grabbed Smoothie Rose by Esprit, a market stall buy.  When I  first swatched this, I loved the colour but hated the shiny-brush-stroke finish and planned to one day try sponging it to see if that was any better.  So here I did!  I sponged it over a couple of coats of No7's Snowflake, topped it with INM's holo glitter and ended up with a very delicate cloudy candyflossy look...

It is dreamy but I don't know if the colour is too subtle to be noticeable... what do you think?

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Random Polish Pick ~ Cheeky Chops!

Back with another randomer!

This is my third Random Polish Pick and I'm really enjoying choosing polishes I wouldn't normally pick up and thinking of manis for them.  This time I got No7's Cheeky Chops, a cheery coral pink that I adore but somehow don't often wear.  I recently bought new French tip sticker guides and have been waiting for Funky French inspiration to hit me... and here it did!  I left the main of my nail bare (not so flattering because of my over-polished nails, but hey), painted a Cheeky Chops tip and dotted on white polka dots!

And here is a non-flash pic which gives a much better idea of what colour the polish looks like:

I feel like Minnie Mouse!  ^_^ I definitely hope to be getting more Funky French ideas soon.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Accessorize 3D Glitter ~ Magic (lots of sparkly pics!)

Hello!

Yesterday, like the naughty girl I am, I went into Accessorize and ended up buying two 3D glitters at £4 each.  They just looked so irresistibly sparkly!

The one I'm showing you today is Magic, which is small indigo glitter mixed with larger violet glitter.  Here are  the pictures, 3 coats of Magic topped with 2 of top coat...

These first 2 pics best show the colour I see looking down at my nails, a definite all-round purple:

...and here are more pics which show a more blue tinge, but properly show the makeup of the glitter:

Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle!

I could stare at these pics and my nails all day; it truly is a glitter to behold.  To be a bit of a party pooper... the formula of the polish was quite thick and clumpy, and I ended up with that on my nails.  It's a bit disheartening before you add top coat ~ but once you do, the polish comes alive and you will fall in love!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

LisLis falls for Boots 17's promotion ^_^

Hello!

I was browsing in a smaller local branch of Boots and saw this offer on the 17 display: buy two 17 products and get the above set free, which includes a small make-up bag, a nail file and three polishes.  Well who could resist that?!  I bought backup bottles of Woo Me and Sweet Kisses, two of my absolute favourite polishes whose original bottles are fast running out, and picked up the free gift.  Here I'll show you all 3 polishes ^_^

Firstly, we have Risky Red, labelled as a 'High Gloss' polish.  This isn't part of 17's regular range and I wonder if it is a trial for either a new line or a rebranding of the 'Supreme Shine' line?  Here are the pics (non-flash included to give a fuller idea of the colour):

This is a REALLY good polish.  It applied well and was opaque and wonderfully glossy in 2 coats.  I do find the colour a little generic and uninspiring, but maybe that's just my taste?


Onto the black, Nightshade.  I actually had a bottle of this in my collection; I didn't like it and abandoned it in favour of other blacks.  Here I gave it another chance and was actually happy with it.  I remembered that my reason for not liking it is because it needs a good 3 coats to be opaque - and if you're using it as a simple black base for nail art or glitter, you can end up with a lot of polish on your nails.  However, just swatching it on its own it was a good polish.  Here you go:

And finally, the Glitter Top Coat.  I'm afraid my flash didn't show it off to its best, sorry!  This is the downside of sleeping problems and having to photograph manis at night.  You can still see though that it is nice; it sparkles lots of different, pretty colours.  It's nothing unique, but a nice little glitter to add to your mani for a party sparkle.

Do I think it's worth picking out a couple of 17 items you like in order to get this free?  Yes!!!  As I type this the Boots website seems to be down so I can't tell you how long this promotion is lasting, but take a look and see if your Boots has it ^_^

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Dried Flower on Holo

Hello!

After the tights-destroyed mani I showed you yesterday, I decided to go for the same concept but a different combo.  This time, I used Glitter Gal's Frappe (2 coats over a lilac polish for a colour boost, it's a very delicate holo otherwise) and white dried flowers.  I also changed my accent nails and put a flower on each middle fingernail.  Here we are:

And the other hand...

Super-girly!

The thing about the white dried flowers is that they can lose their colour as you secure them onto the nail polish.  They do still look lovely though, and work better on light colours so you don't notice the colour loss as much.  I do't need to tell you how beautiful the holo is... honestly, I am in love!  I'm constantly getting the urge to wear Frappe, that's why you might see it featured in this blog a lot ;-)

Hugs,

Lisa xx

It was a nice mani before I put my tights on...

Hello!

This is my first catch-up post, and a mani that I like and want to repeat... but next time, I will leave lots and lots of time before I have to get ready to leave the house!  Honestly, putting on tights means the certain death of any fresh mani :"-(

To start off with I used my mini of OPI's Ink bought in a blog sale ~ it is a really nice, deep purple.  I placed a dried flower on my ring finger (rose pink, if you look for the shade in online nail art shops), then applied a matte top coat.

In the pic you can see that the polish has been pushed away from the edges due to my clumsiness, damn!

Undamaged and neatly applied, I really like this mani and definitely will try again!

Hugs,

Lisa xx