Sinderella

I was really excited to see a new nail polish display while shopping in my local Boots last month (I haven't blogged in a while! oops). I was even more excited when I saw the Sinful Colors bottles, and in particular this colour ....

This is Sinful Colors Cinderella, this little beaut caused quite a stir between US bbloggers last year, and is a polish I could only wish I would some day own, so when I saw it sat on the shelf (there were only two left)! I snatched it and ran to the checkout. I was in such a rush I didn't even stop to see what other colours could have lurked there. So silly of me!

On first inspection the colour reminded me of a Revlon polish released last year named Blue Lagoon, that I skipped on. I loved the colour, but having purchased the yellow first (Sunshine Sparkle), with which I experienced severe bubbling, no matter what top coat I used or how long I allowed the polish to dry in between coats, it really put me off Revlon. But Cinderella's glitter is a little different, its not straight up glitter, or shimmer, its not flakies neither, the best way to describe it is flecks, small flecks of pinky-orange glitter as apposed the the shimmer in Blue Lagoon. I can see why this polish was so popular across the pond.

The formula is thick but runny, I know thats an oxymoron, but if you have tried this polish then you will know what I mean. The polish wants to be gloopy, but then it will start to run off the nail into your cuticles. Sinful Colors = flooded cuticles, but for just £1.99 who cares about that? I recommend thin coats to build up the colour gradually, this is 4 thin coats.

As you can see my bottle is unfortunatly defunktive, the brush hasn't been finished properly which caused me difficulty when applying the polish. It also shed quite a bit during the application. I've never had this happen to me before so I don't really know what to do. Whats acceptable in this situation? I like the colour so I don't really want to return it, but this brush is useless to me.

Have you tried Sinful Colors yet? what shades do you recommend?

xoxo

on the Fly

Fly is a true teal creme finish polish, at last! its photographed fairly true to the colour. This polish is everything I wished Ski Teal We Drop would have been. This was three coats, which I felt was needed for full opacity, but the colour is worth it!

For a little bit of glitter I decided to add Pirouette My Whistle over the top, I love how subtle this glitter is, so it isn't so overpowering when being used as a top coat. I need to use this polish more, and I think it would be a perfect bridal manicure.

Glitter Stetsons

At this time of year I start to crave neutral colour polishes, a great trick to transition into the next season. But I can't quite shake the festivities, so I added just a little glitter. 

You can see just how the weather has turned here in the UK, just look at those nasty, dry cuticles!

This is OPI San Tan-Tonio from OPI's Texas Collection, a milky, almost caramel brown polish. I used Boots No7 LE Glitter top coat, aptly named "Gold" for that little bit of sparkle.

Amethyst Glitter

I hauled this polish back in October last year, and have only just got round to trying it.

This is 3 coats of Amethyst Glitter over Blackberry Gelly and two generous coats of Nails Inc Caviar Top Coat.

Amethyst is a gorgeous blend of silver , magenta, cyan, brilliant purple, and is there some royal blue glitters there thrown in for good measure??

This polish is so beautiful, and a fabulous mix of on trend jewel tones. Have you tried it yet?

xoxo

#OrangeOctober The Final Segment

#OrangeOctober Day 31.

Happy Halloween!!

Wow! 31 Orange manicures! I can safely say I will not be wearing orange on my nails any time soon. I am craving dark, vampy colours ready for winter :)

Todays post is double the trouble, in honour of Halloween I am going to share with you two of my favourite orange glitters, but these are no boring orange glitter.

China Glaze Fortune Teller was an US exclusive in 2009 that was extremely hard to find. I managed to find on ebay last year and paid a pretty penny for it. But I just had to have it after falling head over heels for it after seeing it on SayAnythingBrooke and Scrangie's blogs.

Fortune Teller is small and medium round orange glitter and larger hexagonal orange glitter in a black creme base.

The magic really happens when you add a matte top coat to this glitter. I used China Glaze Matte Magic.

Doesn't it look like molten lava?

The other Halloween themed polish is an all time favourite of mine, this is Ick-a-Bod-y. I have a particular fondness for this polish because of the name, I absoltulely LOVE the story of Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow, so much so I named my pet cat after the main character, Ichabod or as I liked to call him Ichabody. So of corse I had to buy this polish when it was released.

Ick-A-Bod-Y is a fine orange glitter suspended in a black gelly base colour.

China Glaze NEVER disappoints with their Halloween collections.

What is your Halloween mani? Don't forget you can share photos and links to your blog posts on Facebook and Twitter

#OrangeOctober Extra-va-vaganza!

#OrangeOctober Day 29

Who doesn't love a glitter polish?!

Todays polish is the third that I have featured from OPI's Burlesque collection, wow! who would have thought Burlesque = Orange?!

Extra-va-vaganza! (like Va-Va-Voom) is from the glitter half of the collection. A beautiful orange glitter mixed with silver, and if I'm not mistaken, green? Its a gorgeous blend which works really well for this time of year :)

Take The Stage

Rising Star

Trick or Treat?! How to Remove Glitter Polish

Everyone should be able to enjoy wearing glitter nail polish at this festive time of year without being afraid of the removal process. Today I am going to show you a quick, easy and efficient removal method, using household items that everybody should have to hand.

You will need:
Nail Polish Remover
Cotton Wool
Kitchen Foil

and that's all you'll need!

Fist we will need to tear off 10 equal squares of kitchen foil, they need to be large enough to wrap around your finger nail and accommodate the cotton wool.

Next you will need to saturate your cotton wool in nail polish remover, I am using Cutex Moisture Guard with nail whitening formula. This is the one I like, any will do, but I find this one quick and easy to work with. I am also using balls of cotton wool instead of the pads as I find these soak up the polish remover better.

Lay the cotton wool in the middle of the foil, place your nail over the cotton wool and wrap around your finger, ensuring a tight as possible seal to prevent the nail varnish seeping out.

When you have wrapped all 10 fingers, relax ....

and do the robot!

Leave for about 2 minutes, then carefully, without tearing or ripping the foil, rub the cotton wool over your nails, if it moves with ease it is ready to be removed, if not leave for a further minute and try again.

Hey Presto! Glitter free nails!

I hope this was helpful to some of you! enjoy your festive glitter nails!

xoxo

#OrangeOctober Glitter Nails

#OrangeOctober Day 27

Today I have for you something a little bit different for #OrangeOctober: A tutorial!

I have been wanting to try Gosh nail glitter for the longest time now, but never wanted to pay the nearly £5 price tag. So I finally broke down and hit ebay.co.uk were there are lots of sellers offering nail and body glitter for far less. I don't know just how safe they are, so I won't recommend any sellers to you just incase. If you are unsure I'd recommend paying the extra for the Gosh glitter, or a fine craft glitter I'm sure would be fine.

Heres what you will need to get orange glitter nails :)

A good quality base coat

Your favourite orange nail polish. I'm using Barry M Block Orange

Your orange glitter

A shiny top coat

A rubber cuticle pusher or an orange stick

Piece of paper or kitchen towel

I started by applying my base coat (OPI natural base coat) and one coat my orange polish...

Place your hand over your paper or kitchen towel and apply your second coat of your chosen orange polish,  wait 30 seconds for the polish to go a little tacky and pour over the glitter (this is where it gets a little messy).

Tap off any excess glitter, don't worry about any stray glitter pieces around your cuticles, we will tidy that up later. Pick up your paper by two opposite corners to make a funnel and pour the glitter back into its container and secure the lid.

Phew! thats the messy bit finished.

Allow the polish to dry, and using your cuticle pusher or orange stick tidy away any glitter on your cuticles. Apply 1 generous coat of top coat.

As you can see the glitter will still look gritty.

Wait a couple on minutes and apply a second layer of top coat. You can repeat this step as many times as you like/need to reduce the roughness of the glitter.

So there we have Orange Glitter Nails :)

xoxo

#OrangeOctober Serena and Chloe

#OrangeOctober Day 24

Heres another Poundland find! This is Sinful Colors, Serena and Chloe.

My only problem with these polishes is how liquid they are, I still haven't mastered the art of NOT flooding the cuticles. A steady hand is much needed to apply them. If anyone has any tips or tricks please let me know!

Serena and Chloe is a gorgeous, dark burnt orange polish with super sparkly, glass fleck, glitter particles

#OrangeOctober Anom

#OrangeOctober Day 21!

Todays polish anonymous, It's from Claires and thats all I know. A quick google search suggests it might be Julius, a neon orange with holographic glitter, it fits the description! (If you have any other suggestions on what this polish is, please leave it in the comments as I'd love to know).

To get this level of coverage I had to apply 4-5 coats to each nail, the polish is very sheer and jelly like and the glitter is super gritty. So gritty not even a generous coat of Seche Vite helped :(

Overall I think this polish is good for a bit of fun, a day off work, a weekend getaway that kind of thing. It doesn't have much staying power, this mani chipped within half a day! I'm glad I only paid £1.92 its not worth a lot more.

What Claires polishes would you recommend?

xoxo

#OrangeOctober Poppy

Day 12 #OrangeOctober

KleanColor Chunky Holo Poppy

KleanColor is a brand I know very little about, it wasn't until I was doing research for a holographic orange polish for #OrangeOctober that I had even heard of them. I believe this is an US brand? Made in China and not available on the UK market. After a bit of googling I couldn't resist and ordered these two of off eBay and they arrived last week.



236 Chunky Holo Black and 229 Chunky Holo Poppy. In the bottles they look beautiful, glittery, duo-chrome whats not to like?

A bit more googling led me to this review Haul of Shame: KleanColor Holo Collection Swatches over at Swatch and Learn. Disappointment set in :( I hadn't realised these glitters were so sheer. These beauties in the bottle don't quite translate to the nail. a base coat was clearly needed.

Collection 2000 came to the rescue with Hip Hop, the perfect juicy orange shade to pear with Poppy.




This is 2 coats of Hip Hop and Poppy.



(sun)



(shade)

As you can see, in some lights this is a very red-dy orange and the duo-chrome effect that you can see in the bottle just doesn't show up on the nails.

Note to self: try Poppy over black.

Have you tried KleanColor polishes? and if so, whats your favourite??

Don't forget you can share your #OrangeOctober swatches with me on Facebook or Twitter