Sunday 30 June 2013

Bargains Spotted....


This month's UK edition of Marie Claire contains a free Ciate mini polish set - one polish, and one bottle of caviar beads.  The polish shade is a nude taupe called 'Cookies and Cream' and the beads are a really lovely mix of complementary shades and sparkly clear beads called 'Shooting Stars'.  I thought the beads were really pretty, but I can't stand nude shades so I gave this one a miss personally.  Still, a caviar kit worth £10 for the cover price of £3.80 is a nice bargain if you like nude shades....


Marie Claire UK edition - July 2013
Marie Claire UK edition - July 2013

Saturday 29 June 2013

Chanel Taboo


Today's NOTD is the highly anticipated Limited Edition polish from Chanel - "Taboo".  This was released in the UK on 28.06.13 and I headed straight to my local Chanel counter to grab a bottle! I've been eagerly waiting for this to come out since I saw the promo swatches in February.

Chanel Taboo - Artificial Light
Chanel Taboo - Artificial Light
This is now only my second Chanel polish. At £18 a bottle it's a significant investment for me, but from the swatches this looked like it had been designed specifically for me.  I am crazy for purple and red shimmer polishes, so Taboo which is a combination of both, is pretty much my ideal combination.  Described as the secret lovechild of "Vendetta" and "Malice" this is a purple based polish with purple, royal blue and burgundy shimmer particles.  In the bottle there also appears to be larger silvery particles, that look like the 'scatter chrome' particles you find in the Ozotic 900 series.
Chanel Taboo - bottle shots
Chanel Taboo - bottle shots
These bottle shots show the predominant shades in this complex polish - purple and burgundy.  Sadly, and it pains me to say this, I'm a bit dissapointed in this polish.  That incredible fire and complexity of colour seen in the bottle doesn't translate to the nail.  On the nail this appears a rich blackened purple, but there is very little spark from all that shimmer.  I suspect this polish will be a lot more impressive in sunlight, but I live in Scotland and sunshine is a rare event so I couldn't swatch this in full sun.

Chanel Taboo - Natural Light
Chanel Taboo - Natural Light
The formula is very thick, this is definately a one-coater, although I'm wearing two here (plus Nail Envy base and Seche Vite topcoat) because I made a poor attempt of the first coat and left a few thin patches that I needed to even out.   It also smells very strongly, I don't know what chemicals they've used in this shade but they must be powerful.  Perhaps they needed it to suspend all that shimmer.

All in all I'm not sure that I'd recommend paying £18 for this polish.  It is lovely, but it's one of those dissapointing polishes that looks so much prettier in the bottle that on the nail.  Unless you can walk around in permanently sunny conditions, or with a camera flash pinging off you nails, then you won't see a lot of evidence of all that lovely shimmer. 

Perhaps I'm just sad because I waited so so long for this to finally get its UK release.  The previous Ltd Edition shade "Malice" is one of my favourite polishes ever, probably in my top 3, but I don't think its sister shade Taboo will make the top 10....

Postscript:

The next day the sun obliged me by popping out for a few minutes so I took a picture of Taboo in the sun.  You can see here that there is a but more evidence of those shimmer particles, but still nowhere near the sparkle power of Malice.  You can also see the significant tip wear - this was after just one day (although admittedly I did do my cleaning in this...but I do wear marigolds!)

Chanel Taboo - Direct Sunlight
Chanel Taboo - Direct Sunlight

Tuesday 18 June 2013

A-England Rose Bower



"Here lies the hoarded love the key
To All the treasure that shall be
Come fated heart the gift to take
And smite the sleeping world awake"
inscripton beneath "The Rose Bower" by Edward Burne-Jones


A-England Rose Bower - Natural Light, Indoors
A-England Rose Bower - Natural light, indoors
Today's NOTD is the stunning "Rose Bower" from the new A-England collection "Burne-Jones Dream".  A-England is a fabulous UK based boutique brand that finds inspiration in classic literature, art and poetry to create some of the most unique polishes I've ever seen.
 
A-England Rose Bower - Indirect Sunlight
Indirect sunlight
Rose Bower, like the rest of the Burne-Jones Dream collection is a scattered holographic polish.  A-England have perfected the art of the perfect holographic polish; ultra-fine astonishingly sparkly holo particles produce a rainbow of colour when the light catches it but give the polish an elegant dusted appearance in indirect lighting.  The formula is smooth as butter, and dries smooth and glossy with none of that gritty texture you might expect from a polish with this amount of sparkle.


A-England Rose Bower - Indirect Sunlight
A-England Rose Bower - indirect sunlight
Here I'm wearing two coats of Rose Bower, with a single coat of Nail Envy underneath and Seche Vite to top it off.  It was opaque enough in a single coat, but I'm a habitial double-coater!  Its a scrumptious shade of raspberry, I'm totally in love :)
 
A-England Rose Bower - direct sunlight
A-England Rose Bower - direct sunlight
Summer is the perfect season for holo polishes that burst into life at the merest hint of a sunbeam.  Rose Bower is a beautiful summery colour, I'd definately recommend it.

These are not available on the A-England just yet, but you can order directly by sending an email to hello@a-england.co.uk with your colour choices and you'll be sent a paypal invoice to complete the sale, and even better - postage in the UK is free!  Each bottle is £9, and worth every penny.

Saturday 8 June 2013

Bargains Spotted....

This month's Harpars Bazaar features a free Leighton Denny "Colour & Go" polish duo.  The Colour-And-Go duo provides 4ml each of colour and "One for All" basecoat and topcoat.  The RRP for these is £11, and the magazine cover price in the UK is £4.20, so this seems like a reasonable bargain and perhaps handy for summer travels?

Shades available are: Rebel, Butterfly Wings, Just Perfect, Pillow Talk & I Love Juicy & Starkers.


Harpers Bazaar - July 2013 issue
Harpers Bazaar - July 2013 issue
With the exception of "I Love Juicy", I already have all of these shades so I haven't personally bothered with this offer.  I would recommend Rebel - the royal purple - which I have in a full size and is one of the nicest purples I own.  I also love "Pillow Talk", its a gorgeous raspberry pink/red polish that's lovely on.  I haven't ever tried the "One for All" base/topcoat (because with Nail Envy and Seche why would I?), or the "Colour and Go" duo, so I can't say whether this is a good thing or not, but for £4.20 it seems a reasonable price to give it a go.

For LD lovers and bargain-ista's its good to know that there are sometimes LD bargains to be had in TK Maxx, and also on QVC UK.  I like LD polishes, they're excellent quality, although their shades can be a little 'safe' for my tastes sometimes.  I like me some bonkers polish :)

Monday 3 June 2013

Comparison: OPI Germanicure, Every Month is Oktoberfest and Chanel Malice

Today's post is a comparison of some of my absolute favourite polishes from 2012, and actually these might be some of my favourites ever: Chanel Malice, and two from OPI - Germanicure and Every Month is Oktoberfest.  I've been meaning to dupe test these for a while, and you can see from this bottle shot why I thought they'd be pretty similar....

Chanel Malice, OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest, OPI Germanicure - sunlight
L:R - Chanel Malice, OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest, OPI Germanicure - sunlight
Malice was the limited edition Christmas release for 2012 from Chanel.  The OPI polishes - Every Month is Oktoberfest (EMIO) and Germanicure are part of the Fall 2012 'Germany' collection.  The Germany collection is my favourite OPI collection since the legendary Russia Fall collection in 2007.  I'm definately a Fall/Winter shades kind of girl, I much prefer vampy juicy Fall colours to insipid Spring pastels and these three polishes are right up my alley.

There is significant debate online about the similarity between the two OPI shades.  Germanicure has also been touted as a dupe for the HTF Malice.  So...on with the comparison!


Chanel Malice, OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest, OPI Germanicure - sunlight
Chanel Malice (index finger), OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest (middle), OPI Germanicure (ring finger) - sunlight
Immediately you can see that these couldn't be more different.  Malice is a lush blackened burgandy with incredible shimmer, EMOI has an inky violet base with golden fiery shimmer and Germanicure has a dusky brown base with golden fiery shimmer.  The in-bottle similarity of the OPI's I think is because the shimmer particles look the same to me, and its the base colour that differs.

Chanel Malice, OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest, OPI Germanicure - articifial light
Chanel Malice (index), OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest (middle), OPI Germanicure (ring) - articifial light
Pictured here I'm wearing one coat of Nail Envy as base, and two coats of each colour, with no top coat.  These polishes are beautifully glossy on their own.  The formula on the Chanel is incredible, this is pretty much a one-coater its so pigmented, but I'm a habitual two coater regardless.  No streaks, perfect leveling, top marks.  The OPI's are both pretty streaky on the first coat, but the second sorts that out completely for a smooth finish.

For giggles I then layered these with another firm favourite from 2012 - Fantasy Fire by Max Factor.  This is the ultimate layering polish - its too sheer to be much use on its own (it took 5 coats to get the in-bottle colour on my nails).  It's a violet base with pink, purple and gold shimmer particles.  So it layers brilliantly with any colour that has any of those three colours as a base....

Chanel Malice, OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest, OPI Germanicure - layered with Fantasy Fire - sunlight
Chanel Malice (index), OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest (middle), OPI Germanicure (ring) - all layered with one coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire - sunlight
Phwoar! As if any of these shades needed something extra, the Fantasy Fire just gives these an extra edge of sparkle. 

For my manicure this week I picked my favourite and painted the rest to match: OPI EMOI with Fantasy Fire...love it! This is the fourth time I've used EMOI since I got it, which makes it officially my most used 2012 polish.  It's like they designed this one with me in mind.  Can't wait to see what OPI brings out this Fall!

Nail Envy (1 coat), OPI EMOI (2 coats), Max Factor Fantasy Fire (1 coat) and Seche Vite (1 coat)
OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest - layered with Fantasy Fire - sunlight
OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest - layered with Fantasy Fire - sunlight


OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest - layered with Fantasy Fire - sunlight
OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest - layered with Fantasy Fire - indirect sunlight
What were your favourite polishes of 2012? Do you wear Fall shades all year round or are you a seasonal girl?