Mammoth Nail Round Up

So here we are at the end of another year and again I haven't got nearly as much blogging done as I had wanted. So with the purchase of a new camera for Christmas we are going to change it up a gear and there will be more vlogging and hopefully better pictures.

So without further ado heres what I have been sporting recently

I went to Finland at the start of December and picked myself up a few new polishes, this is Orly Ou Of This World (deep purple with a gold shimmer) and it is from their Cosmic FX collection, you have seen this swatched a million times I guess but it is a lovely colour. Application is fairly good, it does not play well with the old Seche though and as you can see I suffered some shrink and horrendous tip wear. It didn't chip though and lasted quite well. The Duo tone wasn't as nice as I expected but hey still love it!

with flash

inside light

Next up is another from the same collection and the formulation is the same this is Lunar Eclipse, Looks more Purple in the bottle but comes out electric blue again the duo tone isn't all the but a nice polish none the less.

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with flash

Nails Inc have been at it again with their free giveaways, this was on the front of some magazine which I can't remember the name of now. The colour is Saville Row deep aubergine purple and not a lot to be said about Nails Inc really. I don't think I have ever had a bad one the polishes are a great formulation and last really really well.

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Up next is Mac from the Venomous Villains and it's Bad Fairy. This was the only unique polish from the collection and it's a beauty, I wasn't sure at first it;s a coppery pink and not really my style but once on it is mesmerising and not as garish as I thought. This seems to be the same formulation as the Orly Cosmic FX (with the other two polishes being direct dupes) so you do get a bit of tip wear.

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Again you have seen this a billion times but it is the Barry M Dusky Mauve which is a direct dupe of the Chanel Paradoxal which was a big hit back in the summer. I have to say I like this more if you remember my review of the Chanel I wasn't all that impressed but the shimmer in this is just a little stronger and the formulation is a little better not to mention the price.

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natural light

I can never resist a Mavala release their polishes are always quality and they are trying really hard with the colours even if they are still a heartbeat behind. This is Blue Smoke, smokey blue with blue glitter. I actually liked this more than I thought but I just never seem to feel comfortable with blue polishes.

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natural light

This is from the same collection and it is called Rococo Red. I can say hands down this is the best red nail polish I have ever tried the colour is so vibrant and it is a one coater, two if you are a perfectionist like me. It just glides on thin, precise and opaque I love it. I will be buying lots of back ups of this.

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indoor light

This was a polish from my New York trip in October It's OPI for Sephora and the colour is 212. I think it is exclusive to online and in the times square store and it is such a hard colour to describe. it's a blackened brown jelly with glitter (gold and holographic) and kind of coppery flakies. Sounds complex, looks stunning!

natural light

The final polish I have for you today is a little gem from Accessorize. They have dabbled in polishes and cosmetics before but their recent major release was a tour de force by them and this duo chrome polish is outstanding.

It's called Aztec and is a passable dupe for Mean and Green from Mac. Having them both I would say the glitter in the Accessorize is chunkier and the duo chrome slightly better, in fact I preferred this one to the Mac I think. Formulation and wear were the same you still need loads of coats but for £4 you can't complain.

natural light

Recent Nails

I have been really lazy, I have bought loads of stuff and done loads f nails but just not had the time or inclination to take pictures and blog it for you. I have been ill and work had been rough but I am excited to get started again so strap yourselves in because after this post with nails I did manage to take pics of the next post will be my 100th post give away. Then I can get to showing you hauls recent looks and discoveries.

This first colour is Passion from OPI, this is the colour I wore for my wedding and I love the way it makes my nails look. It is almost half way between a jelly and a cream and even with 3/4 coats its still slightly sheer. It just gives your nails that "perfect" false nail look and wears really well (on me it lasts about a week).

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natural light

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The next is a new discovery for me, this is from the Andrea Fulerton range at Super drug and is in the shade Mischa. She is THE manicurist to the stars and because of this her core range of polishes are all names after celebs, I also picked up Kylie. She also has a great selection of nail effects, glitters, nail art, stickers and layering shades. I was super excited for this range and finally manage to track it down to the Superdrug on the Strand but haven't managed to find it anywhere else. The prices are mid range with normal polishes at £4.99 and effects at about £8. The Mischa shade is a grey jelly base with lilac silver and gold glitter and honestly the photos don't do it justice, it's beautiful. It applies really easily and lasts fairly well.

This you have probably seen swatched a million times across the blogosphere but I just love the colour. This is Diva of Geneva from the Swiss OPI range. I just managed to snap one shot of it before I forgot great colour with only minor tip wear after a few days.

Again another one you have seen a million times but I wanted to share with you my nail disaster. This is of course Chanel Paradoxal 509. I wore this while we were away fro bank holiday weekend at my parent and my mother was admiring my long natural nails which were far longer than I normally have them. Then what do you know the next day I broke one clean off and now I know why I keep them in check, it's funny but I am kinda grossed out looking at how long they are in the pictures even though they didn't seem that long in person. I defiantly prefer them shorter like in the OPI Passion pictures.

A quick word on the shade, I was expecting it me be my hoy grail colour but the "secret shimmer" is so secret you can hardly see it. Can't fault the formulation though it's amazing just glides on exactly where you intend to put it, it's like it's psychic or something :)

gah serves my right

boo hoo

other hand, too long and a bit nasty

secret shimmer?

This is one from Mavala called aquamarine, I love mavala for their quality and affordability. Don't get me wrong they are in no way value for money (per ml they work out quite pricey) but the quality is great, the longevity is great and the colours are good they tend to be a beat behind the big boys rather than a trend setter but they are getting quite fearless with the colours they release.

artificial light

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We are finishing off with another disaster, this is one the Hello Kitty polishes from H&M can't remember what it is called, applied horribly had no shine to it at all even with a coat of Seche, they glitter was lumpy and it was runny and gloopy in equal measures. I guess they can't all be winners.

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natural light

Some recent nails (pic heavy)

Working backwards from what I have on my fingertips right now these are what I have been rocking in the past week.

This is Revlon's One Perfect Coral (990) and unfortunately the photo doesn't do justice to quite how bright this colour is. As the name says it is a perfect coral, not pink, not, red, not orange it falls right in the middle of all three and is quite neon. It applies really well and has a 50/50 jelly to creme formula which makes it a little more runny than I am used to and it is also quite sheer so you need a few coats before you get rid of your natural nail line. As with most Revlon nail enamels it lasts really well (only exception I have found was the Midnight Affair episode which disappointed).

Moving on to Sensuality from Mavala, application - great, wear - great and colour - meh! The hubby decreed he did not like this colour and I am still undecided.

I had my first little foray in to GOSH recently and I picked up a couple of their polishes. This is their legendary silver holo 549 after a tricky application (dumbo here used a base coat doh!) I topped it with Seche vite and it was rock solid in seconds. The effect is mesmerising and I had to take it off to stop me crashing into things because I was looking at my nails instead of watching where I was going. I was also getting a little disconcerted at random strangers grabbing my hands for a closer look.

My last look is again GOSH and its their flakie called Rainbow and this is over a Nails Inc Belgrave Place. I am looking forward to trying this out over lots of different colours to see the different effects.

Nails of this week

Again I'm rocking the Mavala Mystic collection and I have to say I am still a little disappointed that they are not as intense as they are in the bottle and do look just like black from a distance. Having said that again these two were completely opaque in 2 coats and applied beautifully but did supper the dreaded tip wear very very quickly. Surprisingly I think my favourite of the 3 I have is actually the Cedar Green which is strange for me as I am a purple girl at heart but the purple just didn't do it for me unfortunately.

See what you think

Cedar Green with flash

Cedar Green natural light

Black Cherry with flash

Black Cherry natural light

The other nails I tried this week were a first for me, in my little haul from Fragrance Direct I got a Ciate gift set with 3 colours, file and corrector pen. this is the colour Marilyn and I love it, pretty much a dupe for cherries in the snow but a little bit brighter I think. It applied really well but took 3 coats for me to be happy with it. I applied my coat a Seche Vite and it looked prefect but then in the next hour the horror unfolded. Check out the shrinkage (click picture to make it bigger) it looks like I have had it on for a week. It did last it really well no chips or anything but I will have to try this one again with a different top coat I think. I do however have it on my toes and it looks fab!

Nails of this week and last week.

Mavala - Black Velvet

black with a purple shimmer, as a long time fan of these polishes I have always liked their purples (tokyo is an awesome colour) this is more of a black than a purple. It looks a lot more purple and a lot more shimmery in the bottle but I do still really like it, it applied fantastically and was solid after only 2 coats. I only wish that it was a little more like it was on the bottle and I do wish Mavala would do bigger bottles because this was a challenge to go back to after using China Glaze and OPI for so long.

Natural Light

Flash

Natural light with flash

Urban Decay - Asphyxia

I got this as part of a small haul from Fragrance Direct I have never used urban decay polishes before so I was a little dubious but at £1.50 a bottle I thought it would be worth a go. I really like all of their other products and I have to say this really lived up to their fantastic standard. This was 3 coats but it went on like a dream and dried very quickly, the colour is so hard to describe it is like a lilac purple with and electric blue flash of shimmer when it hits the light. It looks very delicate on and looks like it should be a sheer but you can't see any nail through it and I think you could still get away with it on heavily stained nails. I have to say I was very slap dash applying it at the end of a long hard day and it just doesn't show at all. This even got a compliment from the hubby so it must be nice ;)

Halogen light (really doesn't do the shimmer justice)

Wuth flash

OPI - Lucky Lucky Lavender

China Glaze - Fairy dust

In my quest to try and love Lucky Lucky Lavender on me as much a I do in the bottle I resorted to trying the Fairy dust top coat over it. It looks kinda pretty but still does not work for me, I guess I will have to chalk this one up to experience as I normally love everything from OPI.