Recent nail roundup

He we go with another recent nail round up and I have been really lucky recently with some nice gifts and freebies.

Lets start off with a lovely gift brought back from the states by one of my best friends. I had asked him to pick up the new Hello Kitty palette from Sephora which I will be reviewing soon and he also picked up this cute Hello Kitty polish for me. The shade is called Blueberry and it kind of a periwinkle/forget me not blue and I love it. It is such a sift shade and suits my pale skin very well although I can imagine it wold look awesome with a tan.

The application was good and it was a fairly thick and pigmented polish so 2 coats is more than enough and it was a very easy to control brush.

The next is something I couldn't resist picking up and that is the new pirates of the Caribbean collection from OPI, this is mermaid tears with the silver shatter and the finish is beautiful. They have managed to make the shatter really sparkly so it is quite sheer this allows a lot of the base colour through.

Another freebie and this was part of the recent Nails Inc give away with Instyle. Whilst I love Nails Inc polishes I have only ever parted with cash for one and that was before they started giving them away. I feel the brand would do slightly better if they stopped giving them away and reduced their prices a little (£11 a polish is more expensive than OPI). Their polishes are lovely and their colours are always on trend but I am never compelled to part with my cash for them.

This is Candy Orange.

the last one is a bit of an experiment, it's OPI catch me in your net with the Barry M blue crackle over the top. Not sure I like this one it was very bumpy!

I haven't done nails for a while

So lets have a run down of the last couple of weeks.

Still experimenting with my OPI haul from Brand Alley, this one was a big departure for me as it is distinctly gold and I don't do gold in any way shape or form. I can't say I loved this either, objectively I can see it is really pretty of course as a metallic applied really well and dried super fast not keen on seeing brush strokes though and it just not feel comfortable on me.

With flash

Natural light

Next up is another OPI I think this is the first one I ever bought and I have actually repurchased this one. It is called Malaysian Mist and its one of my all time favourites I haven't worn this one in the longest time due to the staining on my nails. I don't think the staining would have shown through as it is more of a creme than a sheer but I still couldn't wait to put it on my newly whitened nails. This one also lasts forever on and I can easily get a good week out of this before it starts looking ropey which makes it an excellent holiday shade.

In sunlight

In the shade, this was right before I broke my nails :( look how nice they were

So it was back to the dark side again with surprise surprise another OPI, I always pick a vampy colour when my nails are short not sure why. This is Sapphire in the Snow from this years Holiday Wishes collection and I have to say I had high hopes for this. Looked beautiful in the bottle a rich purple creme but unfortunately the pay off did not live up to my expectations. The formulation was very gloopy and incredibly difficult to apply and the colour was much much darker than the bottle would suggest which was a shame, I may stick some thinner in this and give it another try but it won't be for a good long while yet.

Natural light

With flash

Bottle shot - see it was not quite what I was expecting

Yay for No7 till spits! this lovely is from the limited edition Decades range to celebrate 75 years of No7. If you haden't already guessed this is the 1940's shade called starlet stockings, it's a bright red which is far more orange toned than I would have expected for the 1940's but No7 were around then and I wasn't so what do I know! Anyhoos, it applied like an absolute dream glided on and was perfect in one coat (yes you heard me ONE COAT) but unfortunately this is another one that does not like the Seche Vite and I suffered from polish shrinkage and tip wear. I think if you had the time to wait for it to dry then this would provide an exceptionally beautiful mani but I couldn't stand the tips so took it off after only a day.

Natural light

With flash

Which brings us to what I am wearing right now, courtesy of InStyle Magazine. They Teamed up with Nails Inc (whats with all the Nails Inc promotions at the moment) to bring 3 exclusive colours and there was one free on the front of every copy. This is Mink and I love, love, love the colour even though it was like my worst nightmare to apply. Gloopy, Draggy and fairly streaky it took a good 3 coats to get this right but a coat of the old magic Seche Vite and it was stunning. So smooth and even someone actually asked me if my nails were real today. It is a darkish greige with slight purple tones and I hope it isn't too similar to the Diet Coke London I have coming up which looks more pink but I will do a comparison shot for you all to see.

Natural light

With flash

Phew! that was a bit of a whistle stop tour hope you enjoy.