Milani 3D Holographic – Hi-Res

OK, here we have yet more Milani Nail Polishes. I cannot get over how brilliant they are. I urge Milani to crack the UK market NOW!! Occasionally they pop up on eBay or Amazon (for a very steep price!!), but not often. Like last time, mine came from a great US Polish buddy

This little beauty is from the 3D Holographic range. And look how she shines. It’s lovely. Formula was good, I did three thin coats (again watch for dragging with anything with a holographic pigment) and it dries quickly so three coats doesn’t take ages. I base coated with Essie’s Millionnails and top coats with Seche Vite. Its a lovely dark lavender colour.

I don’t have much else to say beacause this polish is simply great.

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Do you have any of the 3D Holographics?

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New Things I Have Spotted #12 – Bourjois 1 Second Nail Remover AND NEW CHANEL!!

Ok ok. So I fell for the 1 Second gimmick. It was a good deal, buy one get one half price, worth trying so a review will follow.

Plus, I caved and bought Holiday, the new Chanel. It’s amazing. Vibrant. Intense. Orange. Love it. Painted my toes in it.  Apologies for the picture, I think I’ve gone sun crazy! (a proper review will follow, promise x)

Barry M – Copper

As you have seen from my recent Spotted! posts, Barry M has been spoiling us with a series of new releases.  First we have the magnetic nail polishes in four colours, now we have five new colours – Teal, Silver Lilac, Black Sparkle, Denim and Copper.

I fell for Copper the moment I saw her, with her twinkly looks in the display cabinet, a hint of red and green in a sea of coppery loveliness.  She is a tease this one let me tell you.  So the formula is a bit thick, probably as a result of all those particles that were winking at me, and it needs a very steady and quick hand not to create hideous looking nail drag.  I applied three medium thickness coats, I would have struggled to make them thinner, but it seems to create a lovely colour on the nail so I am not complaining.  Three coats provides the colour as it is seen in the bottle.  It is a fast drier as well, so three coats isn’t going to take too long.  I finished mine with a sturdy coat of Seche Vite, lovely.  I even managed to get a picture in the sun, although within 3 minutes the rain was back.

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I paid £2.99 for this one, although every so often they do offers where if you buy two you get £1 off, so that makes it 2 for £5.  Otherwise you can buy online on the Barry M website.

What Barry M’s are you after from the new releases?

Nails Inc – Spitalfields

My love of the polish magnetic is well documented, see here, and here and finally here. So it was only a matter of time before I fell hard for the newest ones out from Nails Inc.  What swung it for me was the new magnet type and the promise of a properly vivid green magnetic nails.

Like other magnetic nails polishes, the magnet comes in the lid.  The lid is fully removable and has a lip so you can balance it over your freshly polished nail to create a pattern.  The formula on Spitalfields, a lovely bold green (not vivid emerald as the promo images would have you believe), is good.  Its thick, which is needed, and goes on with minimal brush strokes.  The colour is lovely prior to magnetizing.

I applied one coat to all my nails, then followed it with one slightly thicker coat before applying the magnet, nail by nail.  The trick here, with this new magnet pattern, is a steady hand.  Because it is creating a criss cross pattern any wobble or repositioning will result in blurring lines.  I know some people have struggled with this one in particular, I did on a couple of my nails.  I wish the magnet was a *little* bit wider, on my thumb the pattern sits squarely in the middle of my nail and I’d prefer full pattern coverage.  I tried doing half and half on my other thumb and it failed….  I notice that this is the only complaint on the Nails Inc page as well.

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I do love it, a lot.  I have yet to try the Barry M version so I cannot compare magnets.  The fishnet pattern comes with the blackened silver, and there are sister polishes in red, blue and purple.  I’m actually going to try this magnet with my ICING Polish from my PPP, probably in silver because I think the glitter definition will make for an interesting pattern.  I’ll keep you posted.

I paid £13 instore at their Debenhams concession and you can buy it online from Nails Inc direct.  If you love magnetic nail polish, you are probably going to need this…

What magnetics do you have?

 

 

 

Catrice – Be Pool

Be Pool is one of the Nympheila Collection by Catrice. I picked it up on my recent trip to the Spanish Islands. Catrice, as we polish heads know, is a European mainland brand, that isn’t readily available in the UK or online (unless you count eBay).

Nymphelia was the only Ltd Ed collection I saw on my trip and I wasn’t blown away by the colours to be honest. I did buy one the eye shadow quads (and at €5 can you blame me?) and I was almost tempted with a mascara. Be Pool is a teal green, with a subtle shimmer that is only visible in the bottle under artificial light. I was super disappointed once I was outside in the natural light.

In terms of formula, it too was OK and I wasn’t blown away with this like I was with Dirty Berry. I wonder if the 40 regular colours have better quality formulas? I have one more to try so we will see. The polish dragged very easily and if you cannot polish in one stroke you might struggle here. I did three thin-ish coats and the colour did build up well.

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I’m not convinced here, can you tell? The wear was pretty shocking within 16 hours I had two major chips even with Sally Hansen Mega Shine on. I wanted to love this one so much…… perhaps I need to try with another base and top coat and not do it in the middle of the night….

Catherine Arley – 500 Black Holographic

Like all good nail polish fanatics, I have a favourite colour.  A colour I have time and time again is black.  Black matte, black with glitter, black with sparkles, black with shimmer.  But the one thing I have been missing is a true black holographic nail polish.

Now I have one from the Eastern European range called Catherine Arley.  You can see more from the range on Fashion Polish. I bought this one on a Buy It Now from eBay, which as an investment to test the polish was actually rather reasonable.  It took about 5 weeks to get here.

Onto the polish itself, it comes in a classic bottle with white labelling and a sticker on the polish handle.  It glistens in the bottle.  I was so excited to try this one on that I ignored all my Vacation Purchases and reached for this one.

I could have gotten away with one coat, seriously, one coat.  It was glossy, formula wasn’t thick but really workable and useable.  Smell was a bit of an issue, this one is a bit of a stinker.  Lingers a bit too and for a couple of hours post painting, I could smell it from underneath my top coat.  That said, the colour is a STUNNER!  Shiny with holographic goodness.  Drying time was a bit longer than average, but with a good top coat you can bypass some of that.

I think I may have to investigate some more, what other brands to you suggest?

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Catrice – Dirty Berry

eBay, you are evil. People sell polish on there for WAY more than the retail price. If I pick up a polish for someone I’m happy to take what I paid, plus postage, with a small amount for packaging. I know its a buyers market, but when I can get a polish for 3euros and then see it on eBay for £14 or more, it makes me sad and cross in equal measure.

Anyway, in my recent trip to the Spanish Islands, I was able to find some European Nail Polish. This is Dirty Berry, by the brand Catrice. This colour is going to remain part of the core 40 polishes for the first half of 2012, at least that what my brochure says.

Firstly, WOW. Images do not do this colour any kind of justice. Its wonderful, purple, dusky, showing, shiny, sparkly and simply lovely. There is also a holographic glint that I was completely unaware of….

Formula was good. You can do three thin coats or two slightly thicker ones. In fact, I was worried it was going to be a little on the opaque side, but it was perfect. And it dried so quickly.. really quickly. I put on my usual top coat and its still super shiny, in fact I can’t stop looking at my nails.

What do you think? Do you own any Catrice?

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ICING Magnetix Pink

More goodies from my Polish Picking Princess.  The pink ICING magnetix nail polish, I talked about the blue one here.  There are no words, this is divine.

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In the bottle, this is a shimmery dusky pink.  Its a good formula with just the right amount of thickness. On the nail its very similar, then you use a magnet to give the pattern.  And BOOM!  Glittery goodness!  I bought a little magnet device of eBay for 99p, it has three designs, lines of two varieties and a star (which is what I was lemming for).  It took an age to get here from Hong Kong, but the magnet was good and strong.  I placed my finger in the holder on the second coat, then quickly placed the magnet over the top.  If you adjust it right you don’t get the magnet into contact with the nails.  This is much better and faster than using the lid of the polishes.  And I love the star pattern.

ICING is a North American brand that you can get in the US and Canada.  If you have a Polish Picking Princess, she might be nice and send you some.

Magnetic Nails

I simply adore magnetic nail varnish, I think its very clever and provides a simple and easily achieve nail art look.  Since they first started to trickle into the UK I began to watch with envy what became available across the pond in the US.  Thankfully, a polish picking princess came to my rescue and provide me with some of the 4 ICING MAGENTIX nail polishes that have been on many a US blog, see The PolishAholic

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There are many pics above, firstly of my growing collection and then a look at the colours that might be the same.  Thankfully, having compared them all, I can say that they colours are different.  The ICING ones have glitter in them and the 17/FashionistA ones are shimmery with no glitter.

So we can all breathe a sigh of relief that I have no duplicates and can justify keeping them all!

In terms of formula, I’ve previously posted about the red FashionistA Magnetic Nail polish, but the ICING one was quite thick.  It wasn’t helped by the fact the brush was a bit wonky.  Once I had figured out how to used the brush I could put on one fairly thick coat followed swiftly by the magnet, one nail at a time.  The wavy magnetic with the ICING ones is lovely, I couldn’t get a clear pic, but again you can see the effect very clearly on The PolishAholic.  The magnetic worked very well, I was pleased with it.

For great troubleshooting tips, check out Scrangie’s trouble shooting guide.

In the UK you can get your magnetic nail polish from Nails Inc, 17 for Boots and FashionistA in SuperDrug.  China Glaze now also do a range available online.  Icing is a US and Canada based store that does much more than polish.

Barry M – Instant Nail Effects in Silver

Another polish in my Christmas stocking was one of the new foil polishes by Barry M.  This one is the silver one, its a bit of a stunner to be frank!

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Its a bit of a runny formula, so I had to be quite careful not to overload the brush.  However, one good coat is all that is needed with these types of polish.  Once on the polish dried well and to a nice finish.  I would say go a little bit thicker than usual just to ensure an even coat.  It dried quickly and a nice top coat gives it a bit more shine and last.

All in all, for £3.99 each, I don’t think you can go far wrong…