P2- Joyful

I have another of my of most loved P2 sand style polishes for today.  This one is called Joyful and is a lovely spring colour, but something I think you could probably get away with at any time of the year when you want to wear coral.  Lets check out some pictures.

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Formula was just lovely with this one, you could almost get away with one coat, but I chose to do two so that I had good even coverage.  It was very easy to work with and just a delight really.  Once it dries is has a very gentle textured finish and isn’t at all weird.  In fact, it feels quite nice to touch.

I wore this over a base of Nailtiques 2, and as with all textured polishes, no top coat required unless you want to.  Wear on these textured shades is much better than those matte ones!

Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments!  What are your favourite textured shades?

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Manhattan – Amazing Anniversary

This is the final of the Manhattan shades I have to share with – lets hope I get to go back to Austria or Germany to get some more!  This one is called Amazing Anniversary and is a lovely navy shade with black glitter and golden shimmer particles. Lets get onto some pictures.

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This is two coats over a base of Nailtiques 2 and topped with G&G HK Girl.  Formula was good and two coats provides a good amount of coverage.  The glitter doesn’t stick up and sits on the nail well.  The glitter really catches the light and provides a bit of interest.  I’m quite fond of this, again nothing quite like it in the stash.

I love the idea of a main stream company working with their fans to create shades and I know that other brands have done it.  be good to see more of this in the UK.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Don’t forget that you can follow this blog via Bloglovin’, either by clicking the icon to the right or by clicking here. I can also be found on Twitter @BakingNails

Manhattan – Cupcake Addicted

This is Cupcake Addicted, another of the Manhattan Birthday Nail Polishes.  This is a german brand that seems to have really upped its game and I fell hard for these in the store.  Even this one, with pink in!  The above image shows the entire range of polishes and we’ve already seen one from the Blogger Collection and one from the Birthday Collection.  Lets check out the pics!

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This is a creamy white polish with pink glitter in.  It also has a slight shimmer to the base which brings it beyond a basic creme polish.  What you see above is two or three coats over a base of Nailtiques 2 and topped with G&G HK Girl.  Why two or three?  I needed to have a fair amount on the brush so that the glitter didn’t drag and pull up to the free edge.  There was a bit of streaking going on.

However, nothing that cannot be navigated with a bit of care.  What is nice is that the glitter does end up nice and flat on the nail.  Top coat provides smoothness.  And can I just say, the wear on this is excellent.

These aren’t readily available in the UK, but I have spotted some on eBay and perhaps you might have a german or austrian buddy to call on.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Manhattan – Strawberry Cake

Today I have another of the Manhattan polishes I picked up from Austria.  I do love these *quite* a bit.  This is the Birthday Colours collection, a collection of what the BIPA website tells me is 15 shades and the above image is from the Manhattan Facebook page! I didn’t see that many when I was away but I have three from this collection to share with you.  I also, thanks to google, found out that this is a range created by fans.  How awesome!

First up, this is Strawberry Cake!

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This is two coats over a base of Nailtiques 2 and topped with G&G HK Girl.  Formula was good, easy to work with, and the larger pieces of glitter were less likley to come out of the bottle and overworking of the polish dragged them near the free nail edge.  However, isn’t this pretty!

Its the right side of pink for me, the glitter is either silver or a light pink, or a mix of both.  I cannot quite confrim it either way.  Its a good strawberry red/pink and I love the little red glitters that are also in the polish.  Really makes it a bit different to other things in my stash.

What do you think?  I paid €5 for this and the other ones I have yet to show you, I think its certainly worth that.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Don’t forget that you can follow this blog via Bloglovin’, either by clicking the icon to the right or by clicking here. I can also be found on Twitter @BakingNails

Manhattan- Green & Bronx

I have mentioned I was away last week and as usual I was fortunate to have some time to pop into local drug stores and check out all the polishes.  There were a lot of polishes…. a lot, but I was very good.  I was quite drawn to this range by Manhattan which is called Bloggers Choice – a range of polishes designed with bloggers.  Great idea, the range was excellent and had something for everyone.  This on really caught my eye and is called Green & Bronx.

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Green & Bronx is quite an unusual colour (I seem to be saying that a lot recently…) its an brown olive green with gold and copper micro glitter in.  Now on the nail there isn’t tonnes of glitter that comes out, but you know what, that is the best thing about it.

This is two coats over a base of Nailtiques 2 and topped off with G&G HK Girl.  Wear was excellent, three days before a chip showed as I was too busy to change my polish.  The glitter is all the same size too and being that bit smaller means to gets onto your nails and doesn’t stick up and get all clumpy.  Does remind me of many polishes before we all went glitter crazy!

Anyway, I do like this and I’m excited to try the other Manhattan polishes I picked up, so keep popping by for those.  I have seen some of these in the pound shop – the bottle is quite distinctive – and I will admit that I have looked over these as it wasn’t a brand I was familiar with.  I shall rectify that next time I am in a poundshop let me assure you! (having gone through the Manhattan website I am of the opinion that it is basically Rimmel but with some differences, they have the new Argon Oil mascara and something very similar to the Apocolips)

Don’t forget that you can follow this blog via Bloglovin’, either by clicking the icon to the right or by clicking here. I can also be found on Twitter @BakingNails

 

 

 

 

 

P2 Summer Attack – Green Palm Tree

I have another lovely polish that the fabulous Lindz sent me over from Europe.  I can’t get P2 in the UK so it was a HUGE delight to get this in my recent nail care package.  This is from the Summer 2014 range, cleverly called Summer Attack! And I love the promo image above – fab and summer perfect!

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This is called Green Palm Tree, a lovely shimmer gold flecked polish.  The green is just perfect for summer.  What you see above is three thin coats over a base of Essence Anti Split Nail Sealer.  I topped with G&G HK Girl which helps seal in the shine.  Formula is good, thin coats meant it dried quickly and three coats hardly took any longer than two average coats.

As I say, P2 isn’t available in the UK, you may find some on eBay or if like me, you might be lucky enough to have a nail polish buddy in Europe.  I do love this and I get see it getting a lot of love on my nails.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Essence – Heart Explosion

Don’t you just hate finding pics on your camera you have no idea were there?  Clearly changing my polish (nearly) daily has addled my brain.  In my defense I do remember wearing it, just not taking pictures!  This is an Essence polish that a Dutch friend picked up for me when she popped home for a trip.

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As you can see above Heart Explosion is a really shiny, bright tomato red.  It is one of the effects polishes meaning its a bit like a textured polish.  Its not super textured like some, its a bit more gentle and only slightly bumpy.  It does have glitter pieces in it, so it catches the light quite magnificently.  I wore this with no top coat over a base of G&G Stuck on Blu! over a layer of Nailtiques 2.

What do you think?  Still loving textures as much as I do?

Essence Sand Style – Hey Nude!

I have a little European gem from Essence for you today.  If you’ve been hanging about these parts for a bit, you know that I like my nails bold.  I have however, fallen for this one, mainly because I am a sucker for a textured polish…. here is Hey Nude!

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As you can see, this one is quite sheer, but its great to have a polish that provides a wash of colour to the nail without being all cray-cray.  This is two coats over a base of G&G Stuck on Blu!  The silver pieces are quite prominent and in the light this really sparkles.  I was sent this, but you can pick up Essence in mainland Europe, Ireland and online.  They are coming to the UK as they have been slowly rolling themselves out in various Wilkinson’s stores – just not fast enough for my liking!

What do you think?  Let me know in the comments.

Catrice – Royal REDding

Image from http://www.nihrida.com

Very quick post for you today – crazy busy week, but trying to keep up with the blog… this is a polish a colleague at work picked me up on a trip to Europe.  It is one of the new 2014 Shades by Catrice from a range called Crushed Crystal.  You can see them all above, aren’t they pretty??

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As you can see from the pictures above, these are slightly different to some of the other textured shades I have shared with you. From the bottle, everything looks super sparkly.  On the nail, even when dried, it has the appearance of jam.  Yes jam, as in the stuff you put on your toast or in your porridge.  It is very jelly in finish.  Drying time was average.

Remember no top coat with textured shades, so just base coat of G&G Stuck on Blu! here over a layer of Nailtiques 2.  The sparkly bits do try brighter than the body of the polish so they do leap off the nail at you.  I do quite like this, even though its unlike any other textured shade I have tried.

What do you think?  Good, bad or are you just indifferent to textured shades now?  Let me know in the comments.

KOH – Blue Universe

I’ve got one of the polishes off my wish list to share with you all today.  I picked this up when I was in Europe and I’ve been sat on it for ages.  Typical huh?  You get something you have wanted for AGES and when you get it, it drops down your list of polishes to wear.

Anyway, I give you Blue Universe from KOH.

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Blue Universe is a demin blue polish base with a red tinged flakie throughout.  Its really unusual and unlike anything else I have in my collection. Formula was a bit on the thin side, and what you see above is four thin coats, but it does build up the interest well.  It catches the light well.  Brush is typical really, its flat and there is no curvature to it.

Picking this up from the KOH experience store was a bit of an experience in itself.  You pick your polish and they walk you over to the counter.  Then they place your new polish in a lovely little polish box to keep it all safe.  Mine was black with some satin detail.  Lovely, but hard to store with all your other polishes, it does set it aside from others in the stash.  From what I recall I paid €14 or thereabouts.

I know this is on a LOT of other wishlists, is it on yours??

Don’t forget that you can follow this blog via Bloglovin’, either by clicking the icon to the right or by clicking here. I can also be found on Twitter @BakingNails