OPI – Black Spotted

I’ve been a very lucky girl, so very lucky.  I was able to snag a bottle of Black Spotted, the new OPI Polish.  If you think crackle, but with spots, this is what you get.

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It is a very thin, watery polish.  I painted it onto my nails very thinly and then quickly went over it again.  This technique seems to produce a raft of smaller spots.  If you paint it on too quickly then it doesn’t spot very well.  Also, if your polish is not BONE dry, then is spots but cracks.  It is worth waiting.  I’ve been using it over day old manicures with lots of success.  What you see above are several different under polishes, so many polishes, so little time!

What would you wear under Black Spotted?

 

Dior – Bikini

I’m a very lucky girl.  This turned up on my birthday as a gift from my mum.  This and St Tropez no less.  Wow.  I’d been eying up the Spring/Summer Dior Croisette collection for some time, I’d even given Waterlily, from the Garden Party Collection and its other scented counterpart a miss.  But I longed for those two.

Bikini is a coral, pink, slightly orange tinged polish.  Blessed with the lovely Dior formula it really hits a home run…

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What you see above, its Seche Retain as a base coat, followed by two rather swift coats of Bikini and then Hong Kong Girl Top Coat (she really goes well with everyone).  Coverage was excellent, I could hardly see my nail line with one coat, two was perfection.  Plus it dried well in between coats that as soon as I had done all my fingers I was nearly ready to do a second coat.  I love that.  It didn’t drag or pull, just glided onto the nail.

Wear was also excellent.  I pulled out some similar shades from the stash, Catrice Pimp My Shrimp is more orange/pink, WnW Club Havana is also more orange and WnW Heatwave is much more orange.  So I have nothing like it.  Score! Oh and I am ROCKING St Tropez toes…. seriously cool colour…

Dior is available form high end department stores in the UK, such as Debenhams and Selfridges.  It can also be found in the larger Boots stores.  Polish retails at £18.  Lucky ladies in the US can order directly from Dior.com

NARS – Space Odyssey

I don’t often buy many polishes online, I like to see what I am getting, but whilst browsing ASOS’ beauty section they had some KILLER deals.  I managed to pick up the polish I am about to show you and its sister colour for a steal.  The one I am showing you today is Space Odyssey, the NARS contribution to 2011 Fashion Night Out. (pssst its still available on narscosmetics.co.uk for £14)

Anyway, its a lovely silver with the lovely NARS shimmer.  Its such a saturated colour that on the nail it just pops and is so noticeable.

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The formula is great, it does err on the thin side, so be careful not to overload the brush and end up with flooded cuticles.  What you see in the pictures above is three thin coats, the third coat does make the brush strokes disappear, and it nail in person looks like its coat with a foil.  Excellent stuff.  I top coated with Seche here and it ensured that it looked good and shiny.

Just love it.  What other silver foil like polishes do you like?

Wet N Wild – Under Your Spell

Goodness, I love Megalasts.  I now really want them all.  All of them.  Even the light and pink ones.  I just adore everything about them and I have a few coming up and you have seen a few of my newer acquisitions.  As last time, I *still* cannot believe we cannot get them in the UK, such a massive shame.

Anyway, this little gem is called Under Your Spell.  This also came in my little package of love from ZedleyQ.  Its a shimmery lovely deep red/blood red mystery of a colour. Its like velvet in a bottle.  I blinking love it. Here come the pics!

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However, its formula is a bit of a doozy.  First coat went on a charcoal colour.  Seriously.  My heart plummeted.  Second coat, I could see some of the shimmer and the red was beginning to peek through.  Coat Three, almost there.  Coat four, BINGO!  I know four coats.  But it is cute.  The shimmer is not as apparent as seen in the bottle and that is a bit of a disappointment.  But the wear is aces.  I top coated with Hong Kong Girl again, I just cannot leave my bottle alone (thank you my PPP x)

If you are in the UK the only way you can get your polished fingers on WnW megalasts is to either be in the US or have someone get you some.If you are in the US, so many places so little time……

Chanel – Diwali

I have a little treasure for you today, in the form of a limited edition Chanel polish from their Bombay Express De Chanel release.  I wasn’t going to get it as I thought I’m not into gold at all, but then I saw it.  Its a lovely pale, cool, silver toned gold.  The kind of non yellow gold that looks good on us paler ladies.

So, here come the pictures!

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As with nearly all Chanels, the formula on this polish is lovely.  What you see above is three coats of an average thickness.  It dries well and the brush strokes are not very noticeable.  I’m glad I picked this up as I have no golds at all in my stash really, plus I would imagine its a great base for a black glitter!

What do you think?  Lovely, isn’t she?

Nicole by OPI – I’m in a Pool for Love

I recently had a lovely swap with the fabulous ZedleyQ, she’s been on a little break but is now back and blogging it! She filled up my swap box with all sorts of wonderful goodies including some Cake Beauty Hand Scrub, see below, and a whole raft of wonderful polishes.

Click the image to visit the Cake Beauty website

Anyway, in my lovely swap box, was this fabulous colour I am about to show you now, by Nicole by OPI. I’ve never seen this one before, and boy, is it a beauty! As I mentioned to some polish friends, I wondered how close this was in colour to the Sally Hansen Loves Me Not limited edition that was recently out. I have both, so a short comparison will follow.

This is a fantastic deep blue polish with hints of copper, red and purple in a duochrome shimmer. Its a complete stunner! Formula was good, what you see here is three thin coats. First coat looked exceptionally patchy, second coat gave the depth seen in the bottle and the third coat really brings out the shimmer. The only downside is that the effect in the bottle is not as apparent as on the nail, but it a small downside let me assure you.

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I used Seche Retain AND CND Stickey as a dual base (I’d heard the Sally Hansen stains like a….) and then my Hong Kong Girl top coat. Wear was great, 4 days later only one small chip. Love this colour. From what I can tell this was one of the 2011 releases and is not available through the UK Nicole reseller Lena White.

What do you think?  Below are some comparison posts, you can click on them to make them bigger, should these just be in the slideshow or should I have them laid out individually?

L to R; I’m in a Pool for Love, Sally Hansen Loves Me Not, Hard Candy Beetle, MAC Formidable!

Comparison with Models Own Purple Blue

Wet N Wild Megalast – Club Havana

I think my love of Megalasts needs no introduction, but in case you are new here, I LOVE THEM.  You can see them all by clicking here…. I love the range, colours, formula, the shape of the bottle, brush, everything about them.

I’ve been very lucky in being able to get another on to add to the small collection I am cultivating.  This one is called Club Havana, a rich tangerine orange.  In the pics it is leaning quite coral.  Like all the other ones I have, this has a tapered brush, meaning you can get up close and personal with your cuticles and NOT get polish on them.

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Now the formula on this one is lovely, my brush was a bit raggedy, but that it OK I can work with that.  It glided onto the nail.  The first coat was a bit streaky, but careful application for coats two and three left me with a great even coverage.  I used Seche Retain for my base and then Hong Kong Girl on the top.  Look no shrinkage!  Hurrah, I’m loving Hong Kong Girl.  The wear on this mani was great, nearly three days before I was itching to change it.  Megalast by name, Megalast by nature.

I’m going to the US in October and I’ll hopefully be able to fill the Megalast gaps in my collection, they are SUCH a great price and SUCH a great formula, its a real shame that Wet N Wild do not sell in the UK market.

 

Chanel – Sky Line

I have a lovely LOVELY polish to share with you today.  This is Sky Line, a limited edition Summer 2012 release from Chanel that forms part of the Illusion Bleu collection.  The collection comprises of 2 blue eye shadows, an eyeliner in blue and Sky Line.  I do not know how limited but it was only available in one store near me and I can’t find it anywhere online at the moment (although I am well aware that might change)

Sky Line is a sky blue, pearlescent polish.  Its very light and playful.  It stay on the right side of frost (and I’m sure you will be pleased as I was about that).  You can see white ripples running through the bottle as you turn it in your hands.

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Formula was lovely, the polish just glided onto the nail with no major issues of any kind.  It was opaque within two coats, although I did three just to ensure an even coat on all my nails.  Drying time is excellent, really good and it dries to a good finish.  I based coated with Seche Retain and top coated with Hong Kong Girl for a bit of extra shine and a dollop of good wear.  I love how the light just catches it, every time I glance at my fingers, it has a slightly different hue to its colour.

Chanel is readily available at Boots and high end department stores.  I hear the Sky Line is exclusive to Selfridges in the UK and them only certain stores in its chain.  I bought mine in the Exchange Square store for £18.

Essie – Sexy Divide

There are no words to describe how much I adore the polish I am about to show you today.  This is because of two reasons. 1. At Christmas, it was the polish I wore after my manicure treat (and I knew I should have bought it then) and 2. It was given to me as part of my Bunny exchange (previously discussed)

I don’t own many Essie polishes, I have Dive Bar (as we have seen), I have one of their Lux Effects and I have a small mini duo that the lovely Adina sent me.  This is something I need to correct quickly and bearing in mind we now have high street access to them in the UK, I’ve now got my eye on the Mirror Metallics.

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As you can see, Sexy Divide is a deep rich, velveteen purple.  It is positively glowing on the nail.  I wish we had more sun so that I could show you her showing off.  Anyway, formula was good.  Quick drying time.  I waited a fair bit between the three thin coats I put on.  Mainly because on coat two I created some unattractive nail drag near the cuticle.  But you can’t see that in the pics.  If I had been a bit more careful, two would have been sufficient.  Base coat was Seche Retain and I’m still rocking a Hong Kong Girl Top Coat – I don’t see us ever falling out.

So, which Mirror Metallics or other Essie polishes should I snap up?

Barielle – Buddha-ful

Now here is something you don’t see everyday on PN&BS, a pink.  And a light pink at that.  I’m not known for wearing soft feminine colours, not because I’m not feminine I hasten to add, but just because I’m obsessed with glitter and dark n’ vampy.

This bottle of Barielle made its way to me care of the lovely and generous Adina of Blue Collar, Red Lipstick.  Buddha-ful is a very soft, light pink made unique by the inclusion of flakies.  The iridescent shimmer that these babies give off in the bottle is hypnotic.

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I was lucky to have dry weather so I took some pics outside for you to see the goodness.  I think the flakies keep it from being ‘just another nude’ polish and although I might not have picked it myself, Adina chose it very well and its fantastic to be surprised by polish when you have as many as we both do.

In terms of formula, it is very sheer and a bit runny.  Careful application needed here.  What you see in the images are four thin coats, dry time wasn’t too bad, but I would recommend a fast drying topcoat.  Even with four coats there is a hint of a VNL but the flakies more than make up for that.  Wear was also excellent, I had it on for three days because I was out and about a lot.  There is something about Barielle that is so very enticing, they have an excellent range of colours, and I’m lucky to say I have some more coming, so watch this space! (or use Bloglovin or something so you never miss a post!)

A quick reminder that you can currently pick up Barielle sets in TK Maxx in the UK for a penny shy of £10.  In the US you can order online and from other resellers such as Beauty Bay and Amazon.