Thursday 28 April 2011

China Glaze Anchors Away Ahoy! (again!) This time with added art

Since I decided I love this colour so much (see my review) and that I was keeping it as my mani, well, I can rarely just leave it at that.  I added a third coat of Ahoy! and yes it looked positively lush all on its own but I decided to add a bit of stamping to it.  You can also see the sparkle in the polish a bit better in these pics than in my original swatches of Ahoy! on its own.

I was looking out into the garden and I noticed that there are some lovely blossoms in bloom at the moment, and quite a few blossom petals falling and  swirling around so this inspired my design.  I hope you like it as much as I do :)


Wednesday 27 April 2011

China Glaze Anchors Away - Ahoy!

Today we have Ahoy! from the China Glaze Anchors Away collection (I also have Pelican Gray to add as well, which I will do asap)


This is a gorgeous raspberry colour which my camera had a hissy fit with and refused to photograph properly, but after taking literally 40 or 50 pics, these are the best ones.  I haven't posted the picture indoors with a flash, because it just photographed it as a bright pink, and its really not.

In natural light

In sunlight
 Even these pics make the colour look more washed out than it is.  In reality it's a more vibrant and darker shade, and has the most gorgeous pink (and I'm sure I see gold too)  micro glitter particles that make it really sparkle.  If you click on the pics to see a close up you can see them in there.  It was lovely to apply, drying time was good, and these pics are with two coats with no top coat.  I'm going to add a third coat and wear this as my mani, because I love this colour!  I'm not generally a pink kind of girl but I have surprised myself with this, it is just the most gorgeous shade and such a great summer colour and so very pretty :)  *skips off feeling very girly now*

Monday 25 April 2011

China Glaze - Ahoy! with Nubar 2010 - Warning, Feet Alert!

I hope you all had a lovely Easter, and if you ate lots of choccies look away now as I don't want anyone to be ill.  Warning, explicit content, my funky feet!  


Well, I had a lovely mani on, as posted earlier with China Glaze Below Deck and it is wearing really well and I didn't want to take it off. You know what its like though, when you get a dilemma of a new polish arriving before you're ready to take the old off.  Well, I got three polishes arrive on Saturday, one of them was Ahoy, one was Nubar 2010 which is a lovely flakey. So.....I couldn't wait and thought to myself in a moment of madness, feet, I have feet!

I will post seperate swatches and review of China Glaze Ahoy! on its own next week, and I have been experimenting with layering Nubar 2010 over various colours, so those along with a review of Nubar 2010 to come next week too!

 So, *drum roll please* without further ado, I give you, 2 coats of Ahoy! and 1 coat of Nubar 2010 on undeserving piggies (please forgive me!)

Saturday 23 April 2011

Changing Web Address :)

Just a quick update to let you all know that my web address is going to be changing.  The new address for my blog will be http://www.blingernails.com 
My blog will still be available on  
http://www.blingernails.blogspot.com while the changeover is happening, so I apologise in advance for anything that may (and probably will!) go wrong!  Thanks and I will be posting more updates and swatches soon.

Friday 22 April 2011

China Glaze Anchors Away - Below Deck with Nail Art

Wow its yet another gorgeous day today thats got to be some kind of record for here, so I'm just going to update with one colour from the Anchors Away Collection, and I have chosen Below Deck.  I do have Pelican Gray, and I have Ahoy on the way so I will post those later, but today its far too nice to be sat in front of a computer, even for me :)


China Glaze Below Deck - A Brown/Purple colour which reminds me of chocolate mousse, yum!
Indoors with flash

Natural light

Sunlight
 The formula on this I found to be a little thicker than I prefer but it was still good and went on lovely and smooth and I was happy with the coverage at just two coats.  Its one of those not quite one colour or another kind of shades but I think it looks quite classy.


Since I had Below Deck as my mani, I thought I would use one of my stamping plates and a fine brush, and add a design.  I used NYC Foiled Again as my stamping polish, and I was surprised at how well it worked, and then finished it off with a Nail Tek top coat.

 I was really pleased with how it turned out and think it looks really pretty, hope you all like it too :) Right I'm off for a well deserved coffee and a cuddle with my dogs. 

Thursday 21 April 2011

China Glaze Free Love and Crackle Glaze

I got this lush polish just last week, and it is definitely a keeper :) it is China Glaze Free Love from the Retro Diva collection
Natural Light

Sunlight
The natural light picture makes it look much more muted than it is, the sunlight picture is much nearer the mark.  The formula was good with full opacity in two coats, but I used three when I did a full mani.  It is a lovely bright vivid orange colour, with added gold microglitter particles mixed in there which stops it being too harsh and gives a lit from within quality.  Very much my colour and looked great on me, so pretty and such a lovely finish I didn't even have to use a top coat.  This is going to be worn a lot over the summer because its such a happy sunshiney colour :)


Well, I started to get a bit of wear after a few days (so the wear was really good) so I thought should I remove it and do a new manicure?  Hmmmmm, couldn't be bothered and thought hey I know, put one coat as a touch up, and get some crackle glaze on that beauty.  It was my first attempt and I thought it looked pretty good.  Feast your peepers on this.


 I finished it off with a gold shimmer top coat.  It did dull down the lovely Free Love colour, but not bad for my first attempt I don't reckon, what do you think.  Hope you like it :)

Orly Cosmic FX Collection

Well I say collection, in my case a collection of two, but thats fine of course because I bought the two I like most!  Well, der, like I would buy one I didn't like (well actually that HAS happened but only because I didn't actually like it 'in the flesh' as it were when I saw it in real life.  Anyway, enough waffle (yeah right!) On with the pics!


First one up, Space Cadet - Duo Chrome (we've ALL seen it by now I know) but I am putting a few pics up to show it off.  Please ignore the sloppy application and the awful cuticles by the way, it was me being very lazy.
  



 The formula on this was quite thin and applied quite translucent, so it had to be built up.  This is 3 thick coats for swatching purposes, but when I did a full mani with it I applied four coats before I was happy.  The wear wasn't great but wasn't awful and was easy to touch up, but all that is totally worth it.  It is a pink, purple, green, gold, shiny foil finish wonder!  It has that glass like almost foil finish and a lovely depth to it because of the build up of layers that makes me keep looking at it.  Please just be aware of where your going and know this, you look like a deranged mad woman walking down the street gawping at your hands, even more so if you walk into something.


Next one is Halleys Comet (apparently it is a dead on dupe for OPI catch me in your net, I chose Orly because you get a bigger bottle, can't have too much polish can ya!)


The formula on this one is the same as Space Cadet, but this one is a less obvious duo chrome.  It is nevertheless a gorgeous colour of turquoise blue/green and can I see gold in there?  Its hard to describe and even harder to photograph but very easy on the eye.  It has the same reflective foil like finish and is a stunning polish.  Love it, and got lots of compliments when I wore it as a full mani, which I will be doing again for sure :)

Color Club Femme Fatale Collection

Good morning all :) gorgeous day here again today, so I think its time for some more holo's, these two being from the Color Club Femme Fatale collection.


First up we have Worth the Risque, a classic silver holo.

Natural Daylight

Sunlight
The formula on this was great, went on smooth without a problem and this was only 2 coats and dried quickly.  I tried to get a pic under artificial light with a flash but it was impossible, the flash just rebounded back from the polish, (or from pasty white me, I'm sure it didn't help!) so we had white out photo's, but it does look quite twinkly in artificial light, and I could definitely see the holo effect going on.  In normal daylight, like most holo's the effect isn't amazing but I still like it.  Its a nice sparkly silver, and doesn't look greyed out like some silvers can look.  Of course like all holo's its time to shine is when the sun comes out, and then it sparkles away like little jewels.  Its not as dense as some holo's I have come across but it is a very pleasing effect and its a keeper for my collection.


Next up, is Revvvolution - An unusual black holo

Indoors with camera flash

Natural Daylight

Sunlight
 OK when I saw the word 'Black' and 'holographic' in the same sentence I nearly had an excitement wee.  It sadly doesn't look as holo'ey in indoors light with the flash as the photo makes it look, but it is still nice.  In natural light you can see the different particles that makes it what it is, and in the sunlight it definitely has a bit of bling going on, but would I call it a black holo, not really.  Don't get me wrong, I do love this polish and I don't have anything else quite like it.  The formula was great again, and this was only ONE coat.  I just couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that it wasn't holographic.  I do have plans for this little bottle though, I have a nice flakie winging its way to me at the moment, so I'm going to try layering it over this when it arrives, I will post swatches when I have done it and let you see the results :)

Wednesday 20 April 2011

China Glaze OMG Collection

I don't have all the OMG collection, so I'm going to go ahead and post what I have got.  I've heard others say the formula on these was a bit weird, and yes they can be, but I think thats because they dry super fast so you can get bald spots when you're doing them.  I didn't find this too much of a problem though, I just slapped it on and went 'ooooh' at the prettiness of these.


First up I have LOL - A Dark Purple holo

Its purple, and its a holo, so thats a yes (more like a 'oooh yessSSS!) I do love purple though, it is very much my colour.  My living room is painted purple, three different shades of purple, and if I could paint it this shade then I think I would!  Ooo holo paint, theres an idea.  Anyway I digress totally, back to the polish.  In natural light without sunlight it still looks a nice pretty warm shade of purple, and in artificial light it looks pretty awesome too, but in sunlight is when it really pops.  Shimmery multicoloured purple gorgeousness in a little glass bottle *sighs*


OK, next up we have IDK - Its another purple, but this time its a light lilac purple

In sulight

In daylight
As you can see, its a lovely lilac in natural light, and is still really pretty and has a noticeable shimmer, but again in sunlight, well more wow!


Last but by no means least, we have 2NITE - Blue holo

In daylight
In sunlight
Again, just ditto everything I have already said really.  The shade of blue reminds me of a holo version of China Glaze Secret Periwinkle, its a really pretty colour and when it hits sunlight, BAM!  


So there you have it, seeing as it was actually sunny here today I thought I would add some holo's.  I know they have been done to death, but they haven't been done by me :)  I will post a couple of Color Club holos I have when I get a minute, I already swatched them so when I get time I will put them on too (and lots more to add as well, got lots of swatches to upload!) 




(Please note all polishes owned and purchased by myself, and all images taken and owned by myself.  All posts written by me and express my own opinions only.)