Saturday 27 August 2011

OPI From Monop With Love

Hi guys!

Please excuse my lack of updates in the last few days- I'm back to the UK now and have been busy and catching up with friends too. Today I intend to make up for my lack of posting! :)

So, this is probably going to be a post that may interest my French fans out there! Bonjour!

While I was still in France I popped into Monoprix, and found their OPI section.

They had this, a Monoprix Exclusive:

OPI From Monop With Love

So as I say, this is only available in Monoprix.

Unfortunately I don't have swatches for you because I decided not to buy this one- I feel this I've got soooo many red polishes already, and I wouldn't classify this one as one that, personally, really made me feel desperate to buy it, but it is pretty looking.

OPI FMWL

Sorry for the rubbish picture quality, I shot these pics on my iphone whilst shopping!

What do you think, do you like this colour?

:)

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Catrice: Forget Me Not

Hello!

Today I have a very beautiful manicure to show you all- Forget Me Not, which is a very beautiful rich shimmery violet purple shade by the German make up brand, Catrice.

It's the first time I've come across this brand, despite having gone to Germany already this year... Whatever, I found it in Nice, France, and I'm glad I did, because it seems to be a really nice brand with some very interesting colours.

I picked up two colours from their range, this one here- FMN, and also a very gorgeous looking nude with a beautiful golden shimmery vein running through it,  called Mona Lisa Is Staring Back.
Forget Me Not by Catrice, in full sun

So, back to FMN. This colour is really gorgeous, it's so pigmented, rich and shimmery. It really is an absolutely beautiful polish.

 Catrice FMN in full sun- incredible, no!?

The only thing I hated about it was its application- I found it very tricky indeed and had to concentrate quite hard to get it right. I think I used two coats of colour in the end.

Once the colour was on, the application didn't seem like such a huge problem for the prize- the colour it turned out. I thought it would be a good shade looking at the bottle, but I didn't realise it would be this nice!

It's Quality Street wrapper meets Cadburys wrapper nail polish! (English chocolate brands!) :)

Catrice FMN in the shade

This polish really does just glow when it hits the light- natural or artificial.

Observe:

FMN indoors in dark shade with centre illuminated by light outside, approx. 10 metres away

-Isn't that incredible!?

This polish is great for the price too, it was only €2.49 RRP.... I think Catrice is stocked in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France- I'm not sure about other countries, unfortunately, and you can't buy them via their website either, so if you're in mainland Europe, have a look for them.

On another note, I'm flying home, back to London tonight, so I'll be able to post more again, and do some more swatching- I'm very excited to try out OPI It's MY Year and OPI Crown Me Already! which I have waiting on me, and of course OPI Glacier Bay Blues will be tested asap too! I can't wait!

Until then... Have a lovely day, everyone!

:)

Monday 22 August 2011

What!? Come ON, OPI!

Very sad day yesterday...

...I decided to do a shatter mani with my OPI Turquoise shatter. I had done the mani I decided to layer it over the night before, so obviously my base was already completely dry.

Why then, did this happen:

OPI Turquoise Shatter: Huhhhhh!?

I don't understand why this happened, and was not a happy bunny when I saw the completed effect. I didn't layer it on mega thin or crazy thick, so I can't see why it didn't shatter properly!

I showed my Mum, and she said that it looked messy- I have to agree! It just looks like it's bumpy and blotchy, with tiny bits of other colour underneath... Not a good look, unfortunately.

I must say, I'm gonna be honest here, as much as I love and adore OPI's products in general (I am a huuuge, absolutely massive fan!) unfortunately, I'm not a huge lover of their shatters...

...Yes, the OPI Shatter colours available are great compared to some other brands, but (on me at least) I can never get my OPI shatters to do the job as well as my Barry M shatters for some reason. I own the pink, white and black Barry M Shatters, and I must say, they perform absolutely brilliantly every time I use them.

Another point about the Barry M shatters is that they are only £3.99 each, whereas the OPI shatters are £10.50.

Having said all this, I'm still really curious to try out the upcoming Gold Shatter from OPI, I think that could be brilliant, but let's put it this way, if Barry M came out with a gold shatter first, I think I'd probably rather buy that... And therefore be able to spend more on the OPI Muppets collection, especially the glitters- (SUPER excited!)

Anyway, enough from me- What experience have you guys had of OPI's Shatters- Is it just me? Do you have any tips or tricks I could try?
And if you've tried Barry M's or Nails Inc's collection of shatters- what do you think?

I'd love to know your opinions!

Lemme know below :)

My fishy little friends!

Hey guys!

The other day in Monaco I tried out something pretty exciting that I had been wondering about doing and hoping I might have the chance to try out at some point- a fish pedicure!

My fishy friends in action!

Well-
My feet/legs (a bit stubbly, with lots of onlookers= Noooo! Haha) were hosed down before going into the tank. You just dipped your feet/legs in very slowly, and very quickly the fish were all around my feet, sucking on them! Apparently I needed a good exfoliate!

My fish pedicure experience, as captured on film!

The fish are called Garra Rufa or 'Doctor fish' and they're small and (very importantly!) toothless fish that suck and nibble away at dead skin.

My feet did feel soft after I lifted my legs out of the tank after my 15 minute session. Later on whilst walking, I noticed that the soles of my feet were more sensitive than usual in my same pair of flip flops.  I presume it's because the fish got rid of a lot of the hardness on my soles.

It was quite an experience!

...I wonder whether they sell them in pet stores....!?

Just kidding!

:)

Friday 19 August 2011

Mavala Minsk

Hi guys!

What I have to show you today is a beautiful shade by the Swiss nail brand Mavala-  it's called Minsk.

I bought this polish in Nice, France the other day. It's lovely- brilliant if you live in the UK, very fitting- it reminds me of a dramatic, stormy sky, it's a lovely deep creamy granite blue shade.

Mavala Minsk in full sunlight

...They call it nail colour cream, and I'd have to agree- It is very creamy. I had to work hard to put the perfect amount of formula on, as it seems if you apply too much, it's prone to spilling into the cuticle.


Having said that, I think it's worth a bit of cleanup- which I did have to do on this mani. I think the colour is lovely, and fairly uncommon too.

What do you reckon of this shade? I'm thinking very good!

This polish was good and lovely in two coats. I really like the colour as well. Great for Autumn and into the Winter season as well, I think.

Mavala Misnk in the shade.

I think this is definitely a polish I'll revisit.

What do you think?

Cheers, everyone!

:)

Thursday 18 August 2011

Deborah No. 18

Ok, as promised here is the Deborah No. 18 review post!

I picked this up at the OVS store (Italian High Street store) in San Remo, Italy.

Here it is!

Deborah Shine Tech No. 18

This is quite a nice polish. It's got a black base with shimmery rainbow coloured glitter- kind of similar to if you put China Glaze's Fairy Dust on top of a black base. The glitter in Deborah is much finer, though.

I reckon it's a cross between OPI's My Private Jet (Original), the new MPJ, and a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust! It's very pretty, for a black shade. Good for a sunny day in Winter!  

Deborah No. 18, blurred so you can see the glitter! Woooo shiny, shiny!

The glitter in this looks great in the sun, and it's pretty evenly spread throughout the polish, which is a bonus! No more bald glitter patches. In the shade, the sparkles in this polish just look silvery, so it's definitely one for sunnier climes, which is presumably the reason that this polish is from an Italian, not English brand! :)



For some weird reason, the black base itself in this polish dries kind of textured- not lumpy, bumpy or bubbly or anything, just kind of... textured. It's no biggie, I was just wondering why it did that, really. Seemed a bit odd.

Still, overall, a nice polish. Nothing to scream and shout about, but nice all the same. 

Until next time, folks! 

:)

Monday 15 August 2011

Italian Haul! Mamma Mia!

Hi lovely people!

Today I've got a little Italian haul I got the other day to show you.

I bought these three polishes in an Italian 'high street' style store called OVS. They had a really good nail polish section in there, with plenty of different polishes in there, some of which are available on their website. Here is the link if you wanna check it out:

http://www.deborahmilano.com/en/sub-subcategory.php?id=132

So, to the fun stuff- what I picked up! I wanted colours that I hadn't really seen elsewhere, unique, more unusual sorts of colours. With that in mind, here's what I got:

L-R: From the Deborah 'Pret a Porter' line, no. 26, next from Deborah's 'Debby' line, no. 113, and from Deborah's 'Shine Tech' line, no. 18!

There! One polish from different Deborah lines- I was very eclectic in my choices, no? :)

Anyways, about the polishes, from what I can tell going by bottle shade alone-

No. 26 looks like a very pretty pale baby blue foil. Looks like it will be a stunner for a cool 'frosty' Winter mani.

No. 113 looks like a beautiful purple/gold duochrome shimmer. I'm actually extremely interested to swatch this alongside 'It's MY Year' from OPI's Miss Universe collection, to see which I prefer. That should make for a very interesting comparison which'll be featuring on here shortly! Stay tuned for that!

No.18 looks like a pure black base with multicoloured very fine glitter running through it. Think more of a finer China Glaze 'Fairy Dust' suspended in a black base than the original version of OPI MPJ.

I think all of these polishes look really nice!

The first one from the three that I decided to do a Mani with was....

No. 18! My nails are short (at least by my standards!) at the moment, so I'm liking the darker colours at this time....

...Check the next post for my Deborah No. 18 review!

Happy polishing, everyone! :)
                                                      

Friday 12 August 2011

OPI Roadhouse Blues

Okay, so while I was in Sephora in Nice yesterday, I was looking at their own polish collection and, slightly bored and not wishing to purchase anything, I was ready to leave.

My Mum went to the checkout to purchase a lipstick, so I followed her over to that area.

....Wait, more nail polish here!
....Wait, OPI!!
....Wait, Touring America by OPI!!!

Oh my goodness!

I was so happy and shocked it was there! I was in Selfridges, London last week trying to find it, and they didn't have it, so this was, in Nice, France, the first time I'd ever seen it in person! I mean, WOW!

OPI Touring America A/W 2011 collection

Woooo, soooo exciting! :)

Well, I only picked up one, I mean in France they're RRP €13.90, so I picked up the one that I'd been lusting after since I first saw Touring America swatches-

Roadhouse Blues!

OPI Roadhouse Blues

...And I have to say, I completely and utterly love it! It's like Indigo colour, a very dark blueberry/blackberry, without the red. It's a lovely elegant, classy, the perfection for A/W Blurple! :)

Interestingly, it's very unique in my stash. There are so many lighter blurples or shimmery navy colours out there, but I don't have anything like this.

I must say, I think this lacquer ACTUALLY looks better in shadier conditions than in direct sunlight! Good for me as I live in the UK and it's always grey! :)

I really think that this is a beautiful polish.

It was perfect in two coats. I found application a bit difficult, but I 100% believe that's because I had a coffee right before painting my nails, so I therefore had the caffeine shakes! :) Not a good decision, eh?!

I think this colour will be soooo perfect for Winter, when my skin is super pale. It'll really stand out on that canvas.

My next lemming from the OPI Touring America collection is I Brake For Manicures.... I really want that one!

Until next time, folks!

:)

Sephora Nail Products :)

Hi!

I went to Nice (France) yesterday with my shopping buddy for the day, my Mum, and among other shops, we popped into Sephora.

I didn't buy any of the polishes in there, I prefer the bigger brands like OPI, Orly, China Glaze, etc. as I think their colours are much more unique a lot of the time, but for a quick hit, the Sephora colours are alright, and the colour range is pretty good.

 Sephora colour selection. (Sorry the image quality's not the best, I shot this on my iphone!)

Sephora Europe doesn't have Sephora by OPI like it does in the US, which I personally way prefer, but its normal range is fairly good. Here are some colours from their Summer collection:


Summer at Sephora! As you can see, the colours are all €4.90 per piece, and to be honest, I think this is pretty expensive for how much you get. The bottles are cute, but they're pretty small.

Sephora also does a range of 'Nail Patch Art,' their answer to Minx...

Here is the shot of all the different options:

Nail Patch Art, by Sephora

-Have you tried these out, or any from another brand, such as the original, Minx, or Nails Inc or any other? I never have, but I'm very curious, and would definitely sample one and review it on here.

If you have any tips or recommendations, let me know, gals!

:)

Thursday 11 August 2011

Free Ciate!

Hi everyone!

If you're in the UK, pick up the September issue of Marie Claire for a free Ciate Nail polish and also 25% Discount on other Ciate items at their website!
With regards to the nail colours, there's a choice of two, you can pick up a beautifully rich shimmery purple (perfect for the upcoming A/W 11 season) or an elegant nude.
I got the purple.                   
How about you?

...And don't you just love that little black bow on the Ciate bottles!? So adorable!

:)

Tuesday 9 August 2011

The Midas touch, courtesy of The Ritz!

Hi everyone!

Sorry I've been inactive with my posting over the course of the weekend. It was extremely busy, I assisted a Photo shoot and attended a Wedding among everything else going on, like shopping, cleaning and packing for my holiday!

Also, my nails are short now, (boooo!) because I broke one one the weekend! They all had to go after that, as I *hate* having nails all different lengths! :)

Anyways... I'm now down in Monaco (in the sun and just by the beach!), but still hope to do lots of posting on here- yay for broadband!

Ok, so after I got down here last night, I thought- how perfect, Monte-Carlo style, would doing a mani with The Ritz be? It seemed a fitting time to swatch it!

As I mentioned in a previous post, The Ritz is by Orly and it is EXCLUSIVE to The Ritz. I had to go up to their 7th floor salon to get my bottle... Which was worth the effort- that is a stunning hotel!

Orly The Ritz

How stunning is this polish!? It's only a two coater as well so hopefully the bottle will last for a while. I like Orly's bottles, you get a lot of bang for your buck.

So- about the polish! The finish of the polish is a foil, it's very sparkly, it just looks absolutely magnificent in the sun, which luckily for my swatching there's plenty of down here!

No need to describe the shade of gold in detail- I'll give you this: as if you just dipped your nails into 24ct Gold! -It's absolutely wonderful stuff. I've never seen a gold as rich as this before.



Seriously, take my advice and grab a bottle while they're still going!

Friday 5 August 2011

OPI and Barry M combo!

Hi!

Here's my NOTD, using two coats of OPI Glitzerland as my base, one coat of OPI Bring On The Bling, and Barry M white shatter to top it off:

OPI Glitzerland, OPI Bring On The Bling, and Barry M white shatter (flash)

I really like this combination, it's sooo sparkly in person. I think it works really well for Summer, it would be great with a tan (which I sadly do not have right now!) but I think it'd also be really nice in Winter too, for a 'frosty' kind of look.

OPI Glitzerland, OPI Bring On The Bling, and Barry M white shatter (weak sunlight)

I love Glitzerland with my skintone, it's a very pretty, cool toned 'frosted' champagne gold. Bring on the Bling is a lovely sparkly gold polish from OPI's Burlesque collection, I say gold, it's predominantly gold, but there are also multi coloured bits of glitter in there. Lovely!

I really like the Barry M shatter collection, I own the pink, white and black shatters from their range, and them seem to shatter extremely well on the nail.

Do you like?

:)

My favourite OPI hard to finds! :)

Hi everyone!

I thought I'd do a post of my favourite HTF OPI Lacquers I own today, for your viewing pleasure as always, folks! :)

From l-r: OPI DS Signature, OPI DS Original, OPI Glacier Bay Blues, OPI Absolutely Alice, OPI Sparkle-icious

Oooh, pretty, no?

As usual, click on the image to enlarge so you can see these gorgeous polishes in all their glory!

Shout out to Leisha in Ipswich, who today became the very proud owner of OPI DS Original!

...Wonder if she's painting her nails right now!

:)

Wednesday 3 August 2011

OPI Glacier Bay Blues

Hi people!

So I went shopping in my local town centre today and popped into a couple of Nail Salons. There was nothing much in the first one, unfortunately.

I had gone dusty hunting in the hope of finding a bottle of Mad As a Hatter or something nice and glittery like that.

Instead, I found something in the second salon I went to which is, in my humble opinion, much better than MAAH. Sure, MAAH is cool, lovely and glittery, but the colour I found today is a stunning HTF multichrome!

It's OPI's Glacier Bay Blues, from OPI's long retired Canadian collection!

I was SO happy to find this today! I never thought I'd see it in person, unless I resorted to Ebay, which I didn't want to do- So, WOW! I'm so thrilled to finally have this in my collection!

I took quite a few photos of this one to showcase the fantastic multichrome. Honestly, this polish is STUNNING. It reminds me of a beautiful peacock.

OPI Glacier Bay Blues


 Forest Green Shimmer in OPI GBB

Dark purple shimmer in OPI GBB

 Blue, Purple, Green, Pink Multichrome shimmer in OPI GBB

 Pink/Purple shimmer in OPI GBB

 Steel/Dark Green shimmer in OPI GBB

 Pink/Purple shimmer in OPI GBB

The Stunning OPI Glacier Bay Blues

I'm so lucky to own this! It was a GOOD day today!

:)

Free Mavala!

This month's (out August 3rd) Elle UK Magazine comes with a choice of THREE different polish shades!
Observe:

Elle Red, Elle Orange and Elle Grey


RUN, don't walk, to your local newsagent! If you live near me in London, well then I sincerely apologise in advance, because the grey will already be gone...Jokes... No but seriously, I want that grey! 


:)


5/8/11 UPDATE:


Here is what you'll get!


ELLE UK September 2011 issue


Happy polishing, guys!


:)



Attention: This is completely *dazzling!*

Wow.


I was reading online and came across some information on The Ritz, Piccadilly, London.
They have a new Manicure service available:


The Ritz Orly Manicure, £75 for 60 mins (020) 7300 2435 or email salon@theritzlondon.com


It looks like this:
Now THAT's class! Would you shell out £75.00 ($120.00 USD) for a Mani? Hmm...! It's a beautiful colour, though, isn't it!? 


:)

OPI, Barry M and Glitter Combo!

Hi guys!

Here's how I jazzed up my OPI 'Be A Dahlia, Won't You' Lacquer this evening:

OPI Be A Dahlia, Won't You, Barry M Pink Shatter and holographic fuchsia string glitter tips!

This was my first time trying my Barry M Pink Shatter, and I think it did what it said on the tin brilliantly!
I'm very impressed.

I may get Barry M White Shatter now, as I have had the Black Shatter for ages- way before the whole shatter trend really kicked off!

There is also a Blue Shatter by Barry M, if you're interested.

:)

Sally Hansen

Sally Hansen shades- As seen in the August 8th Edition of MORE Magazine


:)

Barry M



Buy Barry M from Superdrug or Boots stores....


:)

Tuesday 2 August 2011

OPI Rally Pretty Pink & OPI Turquoise Shatter

This is a combo I actually just thought of doing the other day. I had thought of doing a combo such as OPI Glitzerland, OPI Bring On The Bling and OPI Turquoise Shatter (phew, that was wordy!) but decided to do OPI RPP and TS at the last minute.

I probably will still try out the 'wordy combo' at another time, because I reckon it'd be completely gorgeous.

For these mani combos, I kind of took inspiration from my Mum and sister's recent trip to the Greek Islands. I was thinking of turquoise shimmering waters, golden sandy beaches, hot blue sky, etc. etc, yeah you get the idea!

So- for the RPP and TS combo, here's a pic:

OPI Rally Pretty Pink and OPI Turquoise Shatter

The only problem I had with this is that the shatter didn't shatter as well as I had hoped it would, probaly because I put the shatter on too thick- my bottle has already gone slightly gloopy :( so I may have to rescue it with a couple of drops of Lacquer thinner.

Also, I have realised that personally I REALLY prefer to apply shatter horizontally across the nail, not vertically. I just way prefer the effect, and strangely it seems to shatter a bit more...

Back to the colours though, and I really like this combo, it's very 'poolside' and tropical feeling.

Click on the image to enlarge!

:)

GOSH Nail Glitter

Just thought I'd let you know, if you haven't yet seen it, of the new GOSH Nail Glitter range, which you can buy in Superdrug.

Here it is!

GOSH Nail Glitter range

The shades of glitter available are:

* Silver
* Gold
* Grey Moonstone
* Ruby Red
* Amethyst Purple
* Turquoise
* Blue Sapphire
* Rose Quartz
* Topaz Lavender

According to the GOSH display, this is how to use these glittery pots of wonder:

Step 1: Apply any Nail Lacquer

Step 2: Dip the nail in the jar of glitter

Step 3: Brush off the excess glitter from the nail

These pots of glitter are £3.99 RRP each.

:)

OPI Come to Poppy, as seen in LOOK Magazine

OPI Come to Poppy, as seen in LOOK Magazine

OPI's CTP, as seen in the reader review section of LOOK.

Everyone loves OPI!

:)