DIY Gel Polish Haul and NOTD

For the back ground reading on why I ended up giving this a go see yesterdays post.

I did a bit of research and hit up Amazon!

The first thing i sourced was my UV lamp. After a bit of research I opted for the 36 watt with timer option, it was roughly about £17 + postage which i found to be reasonable enough.

It was the polishes I was worried about, Amazon does sell CND shellac polishes but at £15 quid a pop for something i might use once and then never again, I wasn't to sure....

While i was googling swatches of their colours though another brand kept popping up, Bluesky.

Now I'm a documented lover of a good dupe, and although i obviously bought a few, something makes me a little uneasy about these polishes. I mean its one thing to have similar colours to a high end brand but these have the same colours, the same bottles(different label) and even the same names for the colours. Its really pushing the line between 'dupe' and all out 'copy' but at around £6 a piece it's much more affordable for an at home enthusiast like myself. I'd be checking the bottles at any salons though.....

From Left to Right we have- Asphalt, Purple Purple, Hollywood, Tutti Frutti, Strawberry Smoothie, Moonlight and Roses, Silver VIP and the Base and Top coat. The colours of the bottles aren't really a good guide to the shades as, rather than the bottles being transparent, they have a similar colour overlay instead.

During my google swatch hunting travels i decided to try a nice layering effect I'd seen, Asphalt with a overcoat of Moonlight and Roses.

A quick YouTube tutorial watched, I was ready to get going.

1. I ran some Acetone over my bare nails to make sure my nails were perfectly clean.
2. 1 thin coat of basecoat cured under the lamp for 10 seconds.
3. 2 coats of asphalt, both cured under the lamp for 2 minutes each.
4. 1 coat of M&R again cured for 2 mins
5. A layer of top coat again cured for 2 minutes

Now i'm no expert so follow those instructions at your own risk but since doing this on Friday I've had people commenting on how nice my nails look, and I've not had any tip wear or even the slightest hint of a chip and my nails are horrific for chipping i can usually only manage about a day, if i'm not working, and sitting perfectly still!

The polishes are quite thick and can be a little troublesome but as long as your reasonably careful and do a clean up before you cure each layer it is fairly straight forward, if a little time consuming.

Have you ever given this a go? Any tips on technique or what colours to check out?

Leave a comment below or give me a tweet x

Rimmel Precious Stones Diamond Dust

Today i have a little polish review for you. First off i apologise for the gnarly looking lid on this polish, i had a bit of a hard time getting it open so i resorted to using my teeth, do not try that at home!

The Precious Stones collection has been out for a little while now but i'd kind of passed it over until i saw this polish on one of my friends. See the thing is i had been debating getting one of the OPI liquid sand collection but i wasn't overly enamored with any of the shades, i kind of liked the ones with the more noticeable glitter but nothing was pulling me in. Then, as i said, i saw this...

Diamond dust has a dark grey base, with a crap tonne of glitter of all sizes/colours packed into it and its all kinds of pretty.

 I applied 2 coats of this in a quick fashion, i recommend the speed as this is one of those polishes that tend to get a bit gloopy in the bottle while your painting. But the finish? Oh my, hello prettier cheaper liquid sand! without topcoat this has the same matte effect as the OPI incarnations but i'm a scaredy cat and had to apply a quick coat of Sally Hansen Insta-dry. Having said that this polish is a bit of a top coat eater and after 1 coat you can still definitely see texture on the nail.

At the end of the day i think this has satisfied my liquid sand urge and at a much more purse friendly cost of £3.29 on promotion (usually £3.99) HERE i think i may have to spash out on the red version as well ;-)

Have you found any great dupes for liquid sand, or anything else recently?
Let me know in the comments below, and if your feeling friendly please do give one of my follow links a click,x

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?

Favourite Friday #1

Welcome to a new semi-regular series that i'm planning!

The title of  this series is pretty self explanatory, on Fridays i'm going to blog about a favourite.

I know this is not an entirely new concept in the blogging world but i always really enjoy reading about what people are loving right now. So hopefully other folk feel the same.

The topic of this post may vary wildly depending on what i feel like i'm loving at the moment so expect posts on beauty, lifestyle, food, fashion, and everything else in between!

I'm one of those people that once i like something i stick to it like glue, well at least until something else catches my eye,just ask my folks about the time i'd eat nothing but fish fingers!.

This week my main love has been... Essie Tea and Crumpets

Firstly lets take a moment to bask in the cuteness of its name, i mean who doesn't love a nice mug of tea with a wee crumpet on the side. The name itself screams comfort and security, and that's exactly what this polish offers.

Its nude enough to make even stumpy nails look lady like, even if it does get a bit of tip wear it still manages to look classy and the best part is it goes with EVERYTHING!

Whats your current favourite?

Frankenstein Nails

I was having a browse on YouTube for some ideas for Halloween nail art and i came across THIS VIDEO by missjenfabulous. I really like her simple designs that even a nail art newbie like myself can follow.

I fell in love with the Frankenstein nails, as they are a nice change from the usual pumpkin effort i do at this time of year. There may be a couple of NOTD designs over the next couple of days as i do love a good themed manicure.

I didn't have a good shade of green for the Frankenstein design so it was also a good excuse to feed my polish addiction. I picked up BeautyUK Sage Green in a haul i did yesterday.

In Jens version she used dotting tools and nail art pen to do the art bits but i saw a post recently (sorry I'm not sure who it was) where the person used an eyeliner for the drawing part which is what i had to hand today.

I've never used a BeautyUK polish before and i found this one surprisingly nice. Opaque in 2 coats, possibly could have got away with one even.

Using the eyeliner i drew on faces and stitches and did some googly eyes with white polish to bring him to life.

Finally I did a coat Seche Vite to make it nice and shiny.

Some sort of topcoat is really important if your using eyeliner for the art, or it'll just turn into a blurry mess when you wash your hands.

Have you done any Halloween nail art? If so let me know in the comments and make sure you subscribe for a couple more spooky designs coming between now and the 31st!

(I apologize for my hideous cuticles here, I've been a bit lax on the the old glove wearing, and well its so cold that it snowed a bit today!)

OPI Skyfall Mini Collection

So as you may have seen in my previous post i did a little airport shopping yesterday.

I picked up the new OPI Skyfall mini collection and 1 other..


I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie so this collection is right up my street.

And here is some hastily painted swatches:

So Left to Right:

GoldenEye: I think this one would probably look really good as a topcoat. I've done 3 coats here to show it opaque but it goes on quite sheer. Little yellow gold glimmers for your talons.

The Spy Who Loved Me: This has almost instantly become me favourite red. Its a jelly with tiny red glass flecks. To me it looks like the Red Candy apples i used to eat as a kid, Yum!!

The Word Is Not Enough: this is described by OPI as a rosy silver. I would agree with that, although there is also some very tiny green micro shimmers in the mix giving it a little more interest

Live and Let Die: This is an interesting one, to me the base is extremely similar to Nein, Nein, Nein, ok fine! from the Germany collection but with golden micro shimmer. Very pretty.

I really like this little set, its always nice to try out a selection before forking out for the bigger bottles, and i definitely see a big bottle of The spy who loved me appearing in my collection shortly.

Now as i mentioned i did buy another polish from this range which i shall be swatching shortly, to keep up to date remember to press the follow button in the side bar!

What's your favourite from this collection?

The £1 Red Lip!

I thought i'd give a lippie post a try.

Its hard to take pics of your own mouth!!

Anyway, about a year ago i was decided while at work that i wanted to go for an impromptu night out.
Cue the hurried trip around primark and the dash around superdrug.
It was in the later that i picked up my first tube of this.

Imaginatively called 'Shade 1' the £1 price mark didn't fill me with confidence....how wrong was I?!

Excuse the awkward mouth shot. i struggled A LOT with it!

Its a lovely tomato red but not too orangey so it does a decent job at making my teeth look a bit whiter which is always nice.

This is it just applied from the tube. As with all Reds a lip-liner might be a good shout if you like keeping it prim and proper. I quite like it getting a little smudgey and worn looking, but each to their own ;-)

What's your most bargain-tastic makeup find?

W7: Lava Flow NOTD

Yay for Sunday!

Watching food shows on the TV and eating is what Sunday is all about. Chicken Pie for lunch, YUM!

So todays nails are the quite unique Lava Flow from W7.

A milky white jelly base with red and black glitter.

The effect this gives is almost like a mosaic pattern. So unusual.

The black glitters even take on a bit of a blue tinge when they show through the cloudy base giving it a bit of extra interest.

This polish is a really similar idea to the Nails Inc Sprinkles range. As lovely as the higher end version looks this one cost £1.99!

Even if it was a plain colour that would be exceptional value and, with W7, I have to say I've never had a bad colour. They also seem to be branching out into more unique shades and dupes for higher end things which, in my opinion, is a great thing.

My new job is nowhere near somewhere that sell these but they are readily available online.

Whats your favourite budget polish range?

Right I'm off to fill m face with apple pie and ice cream :-)

I have a feeling that tomorrows fat girl slim update may not show much progress........x

Seeing Stars: NOTD

So I've made it to Blogtober day 5!

I don't have a lot to report today since i essentially had the laziest day ever.

I had a peruse around the blogosphere looking for some new blogs to follow (any suggestions let me know in the comments).

Then i had a nap. It was glorious.

Since i was taking it easy I thought I'd wheel out my stamping plates from Bundle Monster.

This is what came of that,

I used OPI 'Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! as the base and Gosh holographic hero for the stamping with Bundle Monster plate BM21

I got my stamping plates quite some time ago but I've not had a lot of practice in using them but I'm reasonably pleased with how this turned out.

Does anyone have any suggestions for good polishes for stamping?

If you would like to keep up to date with my snoozing habits please follow @cotton_buddle on twitter :-)

GOSH: Holographic Hero

I have a lovely polish post for today :-)

How I got this polish has a little bit of a story.

I was at work one day, the day before pay day to be precise. I was having a particularly rough day due to my tool of a boss and I'd gone for a stroll to superdrug to stare at the makeup because doing that has a soothing effect on me (Am I alone in that?)

This polish immediately caught my eye. I'd never managed to grab a bottle last time it was out and I stared at it for a good while. The security guard even came for a hover as I must've looked somewhat odd!

Anyway it was the day before payday, I just didn't have the pennies to splurge on polish. I went back to work, convinced it all be sold out by the next morning when I had the money.

When I got back to work iI told my colleagues (they really are good sports about my obsession) and we all had a bit of a laugh about how I'd set an alarm in my phone for the next morning to go to superdrug at opening time.

This went on for a while...

Later on as David came bag from his lunch he dropped a little pink bag onto the desk. He'd only gone and bought me it :-) He'd even had to ask the bemused sales assistant to make sure it was the right one.

I was ridiculously happy!

Onto the pics..

2 coats over my regular china glaze strong adhesion base (although i am tempted to get an aqua base to see if it really shines brighter)

My poor camera (currently using my Xperia S phone) doesn't really do this justice. When i have this on i do spend a lot of time staring at my wiggling fingers.

The bottle shot...

This pic gives a better idea of the colours that shine under the light 

And the name shot...

Last time this polish was out there was a bit of a storm about the lasting power of the polish so GOSH have cleverly stated on the top that its "One night wear for Holographic Lovers'

Personally i LOVE this polish. I think i might have to use it for a pedicure in the very near future.

Is it just me or is a good Holo hard to find in the UK?

Have you got any suggestions of other Holographic polishes i could try?

Leave a comment below.

China Glaze: On Safari - Glitters

Sallys had a VAT free day.

It would've been rude not to buy something   :-)

By the time i got there they were out of OPI: Every month is Oktoberfest so that will be a quest for another day.

What they did have though were the glitters from the China Glaze On Safari Collection.

It seems like an eternity ago that i first saw swatches of these. And in real life they do not disappoint.

First up we have my favourite of the 2 I'm Not Lion. Light Golden with multicoloured micro-shimmer. The swatch pic was 3 coats taken in natural light. I've included the blurry shot to try and demonstrate the sparkle of the polish.

And this is I Herd That. Same micro shimmer idea although more a bronzey gold almost erring on the rose gold side in some lights.
Again 3 coats in natural light.
Excuse the random awkward hand shot the sun was just refusing to shine in the right direction so some interesting wrist bending was on the go!













Did you pick up anything from this collection?

Let me know on twitter or leave a comment below.

Remember to follow for more randomness

CB

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!

Primark Polish...

Now imagine the scene... i was having my usual payday stroll around Primark. I was quite happily wandering around picking up random things (lilac jeans anyone?) and merrily throwing them in the giant basket that always ends up dragging along the floor when all of a sudden my spidey senses were on edge, there was polish nearby, and i had to rescue it from the 7th circle of hell that is the Primark on Argyle street.

The idea of Primark stocking polish is not foreign to me. I have seen those little sets in the makeup bit but there was nothing there that excited me. This stand was new, in my local anyway, it was for the Angelica range.

Priced at £2.50 the stand had obviously seen quite a bit of action before i got there (9.30am!)
I picked up 2. I'd set out that morning thinking of picking up Maybelline 'ceramic blue' but then i set eyes on 'skylar' the absolute perfect pale blue.

I'd also had my eye on China Glaze 'Fairy Dust' so when i saw 'Magnetic' my wallet took a sigh of relief. Tiny glitters in a clear base, perfect.

the resulting love child of these 2 looks like this:

Pale colours can be quite streaky, but 'skylar' was perfectly opaque in 2 coats and 'magnetic' gave just the right amount of sparkle.

I have to say I'm really quite impressed with these so far, its only been 1 day but i have no chipping so far, which for polish this cheap and the treatment i give my nails is quite an accomplishment.

I have to say I'll definitely be back for more. There were some Neons there that were absolutely screaming SUMMER. Lets just hope mother nature obliges bonny Scotland with another heatwave this year.

Available at Primark in the UK and Penneys in Ireland

Have you tried anything from this range?

I'd love to see swatches of other colours!

In other news:

*I bought the mirrored fridge - and now I've stopped eating so much ice cream.

but luckily....

*It Jubilee weekend in the UK and I've had the weekend off to eat a bucket load of cake(handily not kept behind a full length mirror) and drank a gallon of tea :-)

*I may have purchased the Rebel polish from MAC...stay tuned!

OPI: I Have a Herring problem

My Nail of the day today comes from the lovely Holland collection by OPI.

I picked up the mini lacquer box for this collection a while ago and i have to say all the colours have been completely lovely.

The one I've gone for today is charmingly called 'i have a herring problem!' here is the 'on the nail' pic...

And here is the in the bottle pic....

I think i may have to scout out a full size of this. Its a perfect stormy cornflower blue with such a pretty silver sparkle. Just the perfect shade to sport until summer comes to play in my neck of the woods and i can break out the neons :-)
(note to self, dont wear a bright orange jumper when taking pictures of shiny things!)

The Holland collection is available here

Have you tried any of the lacquers (that's OPIs preferred term) from this collection?

I'm trying out my shiny new phone camera here (Sony Xperia S) so do let me know what you think compared to the pics in my other posts.

Currently i have my eye on:

Rebel from the new Mac Fashion Sets Collections
and
Ratin Jot from the Thakoon for Nars collection - I'm not usually one to splurge so many pennies on single polish but i think the colour could be worth it.

What collections are you loving right now?

In other news:

*My fridge freezer decided to die today. Is it wrong to base the purchase of the new one entirely on the fact that it has a mirrored front?
*Its one of my close friends 30th birthdays. Suddenly felt old + ran to the mirror to check for wrinkles.
*Still addicted to San Pellegrino

Hows your day going?

Models Own: Beetlejuice Collection

My name is Jenn and i am addicted to duochrome.

There we go.

Now we've got that out in the open you can probably guess my excitement on trying out these 2 beauties from the Models Own Beetlejuice collection.

They've been sat on my table for a good couple of weeks now because i simply couldn't decide which one to wear first. Sometimes i really do think i have issues...oh well.

So my solution that came to me in one of those middle of the night wake up with the answers to all the worlds problems type moments it dawned on me, I have 2 hands!

So on my lefty here is Purple Blue...

This colour is just so very VERY beautiful. Its impossible for me to capture the richness of this one with my (currently) limited camera expertise but i have to say i spent many many minutes waving my fingers around staring at the prettiness instead of working ;-)



And on my righty is Indian Ocean...

This is one of those colours that looks almost magical. If you were to ask me what angels wear on their nails it'd be Indian ocean. The shimmer is so delicate almost glowing. It is very sheer, so even after 3 coats there is still some visible nail line which is not everyones bag but personally i love this effect. It really adds to the other worldly quality of the polish.

On of my friends has dubbed this my Angel/Devil manicure (and demanded i did their nails the same immediately!)

These colours are absolutely stunning. The collection is based on the shimmer of beetle wings and in my opinion Models own have outdone themselves here. I've always been a fan of their range. And in my opinion they are incredible value for money.

There is 5 shades in the range, i plan to get them all,roll on pay day!. The polishes cost £5 each and you can get them in larger Boots stores, but there is a brilliant deal on the Models Own website where you can get the full set + a handy topcoat for a bargain price of £20 (its the top right of the sets)! Here comes the...LINK!

Topshop Nails: Gypsy Night

Hello my dears, its way past my bed time but i thought id pop on to do a quick post about a new find.

Now I'm last to the party on this (but hey that's nothing new) but I've just discovered Topshop Nails range.

Yes i know they've been out forever but i always just assumed that, well, they'd be a bit rubbish.

How wrong i was...

Now this is only my first go with the first polish i got from them but i am tres impressed.

Nice formula, easy to work with, unusual colour, what more could a girl ask for?

Here is the pictures id have taken more but my battery died!

I give you Gypsy Night..

Such a pretty black with tiny golden micro shimmer and small multicoloured glitter giving a perfect galaxy effect. As i said so so pretty.

Gypsy Night costs £6 and is available here or at most Topshop stores.

I'm keen on getting more from this range so any suggestions would be most welcome!

CB

Revlon: Facets of Fushia

It took 3 trips to 3 separate Boots stores and 1 awkward conversation with my boss but I got it!

Revlon Facets Of Fuchsia

I've been eyeing this baby on other sites for a while now and quickly became somewhat obsessed.
Out of the many, and I mean MANY polishes I have I've never once actually purchased a Revlon one. I have no idea why, I guess it's just one of those things!
Anyhoo, the kindly folk at boots had sent me some advantage card vouchers one of which was a £3 off Revlon...SCORE! It was like a sign from a higher power ;-)
So I made it my mission to find this precious polish. I should explain that the reason I flipped quite so badly for this one is that my favourite colour is Fuchsia (I have on several occasions turned my hair this colour, but thats another story entirely). My favourite non-colour is black, and well I believe that glitter is what powers the universe -:)
I traveled far and wide and even boarded a BUS,which round my way is basically the bravest thing you can do. But in the end it took and awkward conversation with the boss to explain why I had requested to go home early that got me it.
Imagine the scene: it was cold, it was raining, in the distance there are the bright lights of the last boots in town, the young adventurer (who'd manage to leave her brolly at home) was soaked but battled on. Finally she reached the sacred place. The doors were closing, but she managed to squeeze in just in time.
The search began.
The was a special stand with the new collection, but no precious, the fear set in.
To the main display! The tannoy is politely is telling everyone to leave...
She turns the corner, there's an empty display :-( she looks at the rest of the polish crestfallen.
Then...
No...
Surely my eyes deceive!...
Behind a regular bottle she sees a twinkle....its been found...the quest is complete!
Melodramatic,yes. But sometimes the occasion calls for it don't you think?

Until next time.
xx

The picture is two coats of Facets of Fuchsia with seche vote topcoat. This us really one you need to experience in real life. It's SO beautiful.