OPI – A Woman’s Prague-ative

Today I have one of the OPI Euro Centrale collection for you.  This one is called A Woman’s Prague-ative – snappy I know – and was part of the OPI Spring/Summer 2013 range.

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Wow, I love this.  Formula was to die for, colour is to die for and the wear is phenomenal.  Its a great, russet bronzey orange colour that is just so shimmer and sparkly.  I used up the end of my Essence Studio Nails Better Than Gel Nails Base and Gel Shine Top Coat for this mani – firstly because they are great products and secondly, I can remove the bottles from the polish table.

OPI is readily available from a number of places – the official retailer in the UK is Lena White, and they now have an updated website.  You can visit it here. RRP is about £11.50 but you can shop about.

What do you think?  I certainly feel this one is a keeper!

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

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Anny – Rock Your Nails

Oh my, I have a lovely polish for all you lovely people today.  Again, this is something I picked up in Europe.  This is from the brand ANNY and is their take on liquid sand/sand style nails.  This is from the Desert Glam Las Vegas Show Stars Collection.

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This is a lovely lavenderised silver, with a range of matte glitters within it.  Lovely, really pretty and it catches the light in such an amazing way.  It is simply stunning.

I used a base coat, here its G & G Stuck on Blu! and as you may recall, top coats are not a requirement with these textured polishes.  Gosh I love this, glitter and cool in equal measure.

Quality of this polish is excellent, good manageable formula with a good drying time – but time is needed between coats to allow the texture to develop.  These are smaller than the regular bottles but that isn’t always a bad thing as how often to you get to the bottom?  Brush is small but workable.

Very nice, loving this.  I think I paid about €5 for this and if I recall, I picked this up in a Douglas store. I’m intrigued now about ANNY what else is good??

Rescue Beauty Lounge – Turn It Around

I have my second Rescue Beauty Lounge Polish to show you today, which is part of the Spring 2013 Emoting Me collection.  Its a lovely collection but this was the only one that really called out to me.

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Its a super complex colour, I thought it was a green leaning brown, but then on the nail it looks like a brown leaning green.  There is a pinky/brown ripple of sparkle throughout the entire polish.  Its beautiful.  Formula was a tad on the runny side, but it is really well self levelling, dries well and colour builds up really well.

I used Essie Millionails (which does appear to have been discontinued) as my base coat and topped with a nice coat of Seche Vite to really bring out the shine.

RBL is known for having high shipping costs, so it can be worthwhile clubbing together with some polish buddies.  I got mine from a group buy and it worked out quite well for me as I only wanted the one. RBL has a great website and their founder Ji has a fab blog, worth checking out.   Turn It Around costs $20.

Do you own any RBL’s what else is worth picking up?

Chanel – Taboo

Wow, I have a beauty of a polish today.

This is Taboo, from Collection Revelation, by Chanel for Spring 2013.

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First up – this polish DOES NOT look like the polish in the bottle.  At all.  Not even close.  But my word its a beauty.  Formula was lovely, smooth and creamy.  Almost a perfect one coater, but two ensures even coverage and great levelling.  As with all Chanel polishes, the black cap pops off and you hold a smaller lid.  The brush is of average size and is super easy to work with.

Just adore this, well worth picking up if you can.  I’m not sure of release dates in the UK, but I am sure I read June 2013.  If I find out where I saw it, I will update, but I know you can pick this up from the pop up Chanel store in London.  Usual RRP is about £18 in the UK.

Essence – Black to the Root

Another little gem I picked up from Holland recently.  This is from the Essence Floral Grunge collection and was the only one that caught my eye.  All I knew about it was the sticker saying ‘The Rough’ and the name – Black to the Root.

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This is a black polish with little silver glittery bits in it, its certainly unlike anything else I have in my black stash.  Formula was excellent, two coats and bingo.  It dries to a lovely matte colour and the silver just provides the most unusual accent.  Drying time is very quick due to the matte nature.  Only thing is, because its matte use of a top coat will make it shiny.   So I didn’t top coat, although I used Essence Better Than Gel Nails Base Coat, and I experienced a chip within 24 hours.  A shame, but totally worth it!

European girls have great access to Essence in lots of different stores.  In the UK, you can purchase Essence polishes (and some nail products including Better than Gel Nails) from Sally Magpies Nail Emporium.  Prices can vary, but I think I paid about 2€ for this.

Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots – Chalk Dust

Another Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots to show you today.  This one is Chalk Dust, a clear base polish, with black and white glitters of varying sizes.  In the latter respect its very similar to the others in the range.

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I layered this over Julep Salma, a hot summer red, and I think the colour contrast works really well.  What you see above is one coat over my top coat.  Getting the glitter out of the bottle was not a problem at all, this genuinely is one coat of the brush.  The brush is quite thick, so you can probably get away with two swipes of the brush.

As with Rain Forest Cafe, you get 7ml of product for your £2.99, but its worth waiting until there are offers instore, such as the Boots and Superdrug Buy One Get One Half Off deals.

Did you pick up any Polka Dots?  Or is it a glitter polish too far?

Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots – Rain Forest Canopy

In my last edition of Spotted!  I shared with you all the new Maybelline Color Show Polka Dot Polishes.  This is the first one I have had time to swatch and share with you.  This is the green one of the bunch, known as Rain Forest Canopy.

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As you can see, its a jelly-ish teal green with black and white glitters in of different sizes.  I wasn’t sure how opaque it was going to be as a true jelly is not my favourite type of finish.  However, three average coats later and opacity was not an issue.  First coat had a tendency to drag the glitter towards the free edge of my nail but careful applications on coats two and three rectifies that nicely.  I used two of the  Essence Better Than Gel Nails products; the base sealer and the top coat.  Still quite fond of these, not sure how much is left as the bottles are not clear.

Drying time for this was actually very quick, by the time I had finished on my last nail, the first one I painted was pretty much touch dry.  I was able to romp through this mani quickly, base, three coats and a top coat.  Brush for the Maybelline Color Show polishes tends to be on the thin side, so you usually need multiple sweeps to paint a nail.  Each bottle contains 7ml of product and retails around the £3 mark.

Find out more about Mayeblline Color Show on the (US) website here, check out the Pinterest Board and look at the (UK) Maybelline Color Show page.

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

New Things I have Spotted #49 – Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots

Ah, new polish.  What is better than new polish?  I saw these today in my local Superdrug.  I saw four in total, this pink one, the two below and a dark blue one.

I cracked and bought two.  200 Rainforest Canopy on the left and 197 Chalk Dust on the right. There is a deal on at the moment for buy one get one half price.  RRP is £2.99 so that is a great deal.

Plus, according to British Beauty Blogger, they aren’t meant to be out until June.  So consider this a sneak peak!  Swatches coming soon.

Have you seen this in your local stores yet?

Models Own – Pukka Purple

OK, pictures only coming up…. this is Model’s Own Pukka Purple, one of the new Ice Neon shades in a lovely frosted bottle.

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It dries matte as you can see.  I found the formula quite thick and hard to work with as it dries so quickly.  I’d be very interested to here how you might have found some of the others if you have tried them.

The colour is VERY intense and the pictures do not show how intense.

As price point goes, Models Own are a very reasonable £5 and they have great online offers for multiple purchasing, so do check with website. You can also found them in larger Boots stores.

Let me know what you think or if you have tried these, love to have your comments!

 

 

 

 

 

New Things I Have Spotted #48 – George at Asda, Kate Moss for Rimmel, Barry M and 2True

A few things to show you in this edition of Spotted!

First up, yet more of those Caviar Bead things, this time from George at Asda. You know a trend has crossed into the mainstream when you can pick it up with your fruit and veg.

Then, the new Salon Pro Kate Moss polishes.  Lots of usual colour lines here, nothing that screams BUY ME NOW, although the formula could be awesome.  Not sign of them yet on the Rimmel website.

Bottle Shots here.

Then the Barry M Nail Art Pens that are getting bloggers all excited.  Available now on the Superdrug website for £.499 each.

Finally. MORE of those Nail Caviar things and new Salon Shine polishes from 2True.  At first glance I thought someone had misplaced the Gelly Barry M’s but no. Its a new line. Salon Shines are £4 and 3D Candy Art are £3 each.

So there you have it, some new things in the stores now.  What’s fallen into your basket?