Seche Magnifique

I have a confession to make. I haven't been into Sallys for MONTHS. Most of the time i can recite the approximate stock of each nail range in each branch of my city but with moving my work to an out of town location i no longer just have a wander down on my lunch break :-( 

But i went into Oswald Street the other day I've just been paid and it was VAT free day, that's a combination i couldn't ignore. I also couldn't ignore the big Seche colour stand that they had right next to the checkout. I've no idea whether these were new in or had been there for a while but i was curious so i had to pick one up. There wasn't anything that was out of the ordinary in the colour range that i could see, which was a bit disappointing but i've been looking for more summery colours so Magnifique seemed to fit the bill.

I've been a fan of the Seche Vite fast dry top coat for a while so i was looking forward to see i got on with this. The formula was nothing special it was easy enough to work with, the brush was very similar to the one with the top coat (but that's hardly surprising) I could possibly have got away with 2 coats but i did 3.

 Its more a deep magenta than the pink that it photgraphs but the pictures do show the really pretty blue shimmer that made me pick up the polish in the first place, i think it gives an unusal edge to the colour, and will look even nicer when i get a bit of colour (as much as i get colour!) in the summer. What i've found with a lot of polish with shimmer is that the prettiness doesnt show up on the nails, not with this! It inst quite as bright but its definitely still there.....

Is it just me or does it look like Simon Cowell reflecting in old pointy??

The picture above shows the pink more true to colour. I really like this colour, and i probably would by more from this brand but the colour range seems a little 'meh' at the moment but i will be watching to see if more are released over time.

Have you tried anything from the Seche range? What did you think?

Essie: Bikini so Teeny

So we've all seen this one a thousand times 'Bikini so Teeny'

Now I'll be honest i think i may have become a victim of hype on this one. I was in Boots, they only had 1 left, EVERYBODY and their granny loves it so obviously i had to buy it!

I'll not bore you with yet another same old in depth description..........

Its cornflower blue with sparkles

Now don't get me wrong here i think this colour is as pretty as everyone says it it is but my gripe with it is that as soon as you go near it with top coat it changes shade!



Without topcoat                                                                                           With topcoat            

    

 I don't know if its just me this is happened to because i haven't seen anyone else mention it but it does slightly ruin the polish for me. There's nothing wrong with the colour it goes with top coat but its just not quite as pretty as the one without. It also gives a kind of weird soft focus colour blurring effect to the nails. (As you can see on the tip of the ring finger below)

 Now i originally tried it with Seche Vite so i thought it was maybe the topcoat at fault.
So I tried it with Sally Hansen Insta-Dry, same issue.

I then had the bright idea that maybe it had something to do with the fast drying aspect of these so i broke out my OPI regular old Top Coat and it STILL changed colour.

Now I know what your thinking, go without topcoat! I tried that, i have a very hands on job (ooo-err!) and it just didn't last 5 mins without chipping.


Can anyone give me some suggestions on how to overcome this?
Have i maybe got some kind of weird duff bottle?
Or has everyone else found it does this and just not mentioned?

In other news:

I'm back at work after a couple of weeks off. It's so confusing, almost feel like the new girl again.
Also it means I've been having to get up at what i would call the middle of the night. Thank the big man for coffee and Red bull!