Nails Inc. Nail Jewellery - Emerald, Sapphire and Pink Diamond

I bought three of the four Nail Jewellery Polishes by Nails Inc. because I am just too much of a magpie to resist when I see such shiny things!  The ones I bought were Piccadilly Arcade (Emerald), Royal Arcade (Sapphire) and Princes Arcade (Pink Diamond).  I left the Burlington Arcade (Diamond) as it looked like a few polishes I had seen before, and it just wasn't unique enough for me to shell out the rather expensive £11 price tag.  These are meant to be glitter toppers I believe, and I tried them all over dark underwear, but these three could be worn alone with a couple of generous coats in my opinion.  They applied really well, not too thick or goopy, and the polish stayed put where it should be without having to fish around for even distribution of the big bits of glitter.  My swatches are just one coat over the base colour and a layer of top coat, so they should last a fair while which goes some way for me to justify the expense.

I think my favourite out of the three I have has to be Sapphire, it is such a luscious shade, but all of them are really vibrant and rich colours, really striking to look at.  The blue and green both have small, medium and large glitter pieces.  The pink one has more uniform sized small and medium glitter but seems to have different hues, I see magenta, purple and silver holo-esque colours in there.  One thing they all have in common is that they catch the light wonderfully and really shine and sparkle.  All in all I think its a great collection, its just a shame the silver one isn't as dense as the other colours, or I would have bought that one too.

Emerald over Nails Inc Cadogan Lane

Sapphire over Sinful Colors See You Soon

Pink Diamond over piCture pOlish aphrodisiac

OPI DS Radiance

I am a sucker for a shiny polish, and foils are no exception.  I long for the day when there can be a true 'chrome' nail polish, but foil polishes, if they are done well, go some way to satisfying my cravings for mirror nails.  OPI DS Radiance is one that is done well.  I got this in a swap from the lovely Kelly at musings of a slightly mad mother because it didn't really wow her, but I'm glad she didn't like it now (sorry Kelly!).  I had no application problems, dry time was normal, and it didn't seem to show the brush marks as much as some foil finish polishes tend to do.  Once it dried, I went in the sun to check out my bling, and I was all happy shaped after that :) it sparkles in the sun and looks lush in the shade.  It really does look just like the silver bottle cap, and the freak in me liked that uniformity of that, 'oo look the polish matches the bottle perfectly!'  I don't think I would shell out for the full price of this one when there are so many good foil polishes around at the moment, (Color Club Foiled Collection instantly springs to mind) but I am glad I have it, and I'm not going to be swapping it out, its a keeper for me.

Direct Sun

Shade - Natural Daylight

Jubilee Nails

Being British I couldn't let the Queens Diamond Jubilee pass by without having a burst of patriotism and doing a jubilee manicure in our lovely Queenies honour could I.  There's not much to say about my mani except that if I put both my hands together, tip to tip, I have a Union Jack flag but I couldn't manage a pic without serious peril to my camera sadly!  For my polishes I used Nails Inc Bakers Street for the blue, and Nails Inc Villers Street for the red.  I used China Glaze Snow for the white.  The blue glitter is Pure Ice Strapless, and the red glitter is Barry M.  I'm really pleased at how it came out, and I have had lots of compliments so it must look alright to others as well.  So, without further ado *trumpet fanfare* I present in honour of you our lovely Monarch, my Jubilee Nails :)

Sally Hansen Purple Diamond over Illamasqua Jo'Mina

Wow whats this, no posts for ages then two in one day!  Well, its way overdue isn't it!  Now in my last post you may recall I said my nails today were blinging, and Sally Hansen Purple Diamond is the reason why.  Who would have thought this battered old bottle contained such an explosion of holo goodness.  I had been wearing Jo'Mina for a day or so, and decided to try this layered over it.  I put it on and smiled, and have been waving my hands around in the sunshine like a mad hippy on too much acid ever since.  Its a lovely sunny day, and this polish has made me all happy shaped today :)

This is just one coat over Illamasqua Jo'Mina, and isn't it just the most beautiful thing.  It applied really easily, and dried super shiny too which was a nice surprise.  I will go without wearing holo polish for ages, then when I go back I wonder why I left it so long.  Oh yeah, that's right, grey crappy Winters with no sun, that's why!  Well the sun is here today, and has brought my happy holo head back with it.  I hope you like it as much as me, I am smitten.

Illamasqua Jo'Mina

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and my nails are blinging!  Oh yeah!  First of all I want to show you a fantastic colour, Illamasqua Jo'Mina.  This is my first Illamasqua polish and I LOVE it.  The colour is unique in my collection and is hard to describe, but best is a contradiction, in that it is a bright pastel.  It is a stunning lilac purple, in some lights it is a vibrant paler purple, but in others really bright.  Hard to capture as well but I believe the pic I chose is pretty colour accurate.  The formula was fantastic and applied like butter and dried fairly quickly.  The pic is 2 coats with no top coat and look how luscious it looks.  I will definitely be trying some more from Illamasqua, I was impressed with this one, and it has gone straight on to my favourite purples list!

China Glaze - Blue Sparrow (Neon)

The sun has been shining (through the rain, and snow, and hail.  Typical British weather!) but I am ever optimistic and decided to go for a bright neon.  Apparently blues and neons are popular at the moment so I'm told, so I went for both.  I had China Glaze Blue Sparrow on my untried pile, and thought what the heck, so on it went.  I really like it!  It applied well for a neon, and dried fast with a matte finish as neons tend to do.  It looks a little gritty on the pics but it was no where near that textured to the naked eye, and I left it matte because I thought it looked kind of cool.  I know, I am a bit late to the 'mattes' party, but I didn't used to like them, I have been changing my mind recently though.  I don't think theres a lot else to say about it really (unusual for me to be not so wordy I know!) so, on with the pic.  I hope you like it :)

piCture pOlish - Opulence Shades

I have today all three of the new Opulence shades from piCture pOlish in Australia, launched today and selling fast, and I can see why!

So without further waffle, first up we have 'a classic Hollywood icon' Monroe.  This is described by the girls at piCture pOlish as a blood red holographic shade. This one needs 2 - 3 coats for full coverage, my swatch pics have 2 generous coats and no top coat.  It is a jelly type polish which applied great and dried so super shiny, it is really lovely.  Its a lovely vampy rich red with subtle holographic particles which sparkle and catch the light in the sun, and look like a very subtle silver shimmer in the shade.

Next up, is 'do you wanna see my...' Peacock.  First of all I love the oo err missus cheeky name of this one, second thing, I LOVE this shade.  It is an unusual glitter having vivid emerald green glitter in a purple base.  I have nothing like this one in my collection, and I love how it looks.  The girls at piCture pOlish describe is as 'an emerald green glitter, blue/white sparks with a purple base and definitely needs a top coat to achieve full gloss due to the purple fluro that dries off matte.'  I think theirs is a pretty accurate description really, it does dry off a little matte but I actually liked how it looked.  For my swatches I applied 2 coats and a dollop of shiny top coat, and it is just stunning.  It is hard to capture properly in pics, but the glitter doesn't swamp the purple, the whole thing just works.  I have heard others say that the formula was a little thick, and I don't know it if it is perhaps due to a different climate or temperature but mine was fine.  It wasn't difficult to work with and was comparable to the OPI glitters I have.

Lastly, arriving fashionably last in order to make an entrance, we have the magnificent 'look beyond the sparkle!' mask-a-rade.  Well, wow, I mean really WOW!  If you have seen the Ozotic Elytra polishes, imagine grabbing one of each shade, mixing them all together shaking the hell out of them and putting the results in its own bottle, and you would have this.  It is stunning.  The girls at piCture pOlish say it is 'multi chromatic particles (every kind we could find) and definitely needs a black/dark base to achieve full effect!'.  It has a clear base so is best layered, and who am I to argue with the creators of this wonderful potion, so I used a standard black creme as my base.  I then applied 2 coats of mask-a-rade and heard angels sing.  I have reached polish nirvana!  This is gorgeous and very hard to photograph, so I just took lots of pics and will let you see for yourself.  I also took an underwater picture to capture the colours as best I could.  The application was trouble free, and the look...swoon.

Underwater Shot (damn the water was cold, why didn't I use warm water, d'oh!)

I hope you like this collection as much as I do, I love all three but especially the glitters.  You can order yours at piCture pOlish here, and they deliver international (yay!), or look for details of one of their polish network girls for a distributor near you.

(products sent for review)