Nine Realms by Crowstoes : Muspelheim

Hello Ladies! Today I have another of the fabulous polishes from the Crowstoes 9 Realms collection - tonight's offering is the lovely (but unpronounceable) "Muspelheim":

In Norse legend Muspelheim is the flaming inferno volcanic home of the fire giants.  I don't know that I would have picked a blue based shade to represent a fire planet, by hey I'm not the creative at work here.  Muspelheim the polish is a multichrome glitter in a blurple base.  It is packed with teeny tiny glitter particles in royal blue and golden yellow that produce a multichrome spectrum from royal blue to purple.  The golden particles don't really show on the nail as clearly as in the bottle (except in the closeup thumb nail shots below).

Pictured here I'm wearing my customary two coats with NE base and HK girl topcoat.  In the swatches at the top of this post you can see Muspelheim in the sunshine - in the shade is the only time you'll see both colours on the nail at once, otherwise the main colour is either the royal blue shade or the blurple. The magenta shade here is really hard to capture because it's not really seen except at really high angles to the light source.

 

In the thumbshots below you can see all the lovely details of this polish.  Unfortunately these details aren't quite so obvious on the nail unless you look quite closely.  I really did like this shade a lot, but it's one of those that's just not quite as fabulous as it promises in the bottle.

I bought my bottle of Muspelheim for £10.25 from Rainbow Connection (link in the Suppliers page). This is a lovely shade, I think I was just a little spoiled by this point because I'd tried collection-mates Huginn and Muninn, and Vanaheim, right before - and those are bonkers good!  I do recommend Muspelheim, especially if like me you're a big fan of purple/blurple shades.

Picture Polish Ultra Violence

The final instalment in today's Picture Polish blogfest....this is the incredible Collaboration shade "Ultra Violence"...


Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well.
To what do I owe the extreme pleasure of this surprising visit?
 

Ultra-Violence is a purple foil glitter with pink sparkly shimmer and adorable pale pink hex glitters.  It's hard to see the link between such a pretty polish and the book-banning ultraviolence of Burgess' novel but hey, if I looks this nice I don't care...


Picture Polish Ultra Violence

As per usual, I've got two coats of colour atop NE base and beneath HK Girl topcoat.  The formula on this one was reasonably easy to apply for something so glittery.  I only noticed afterwards quite how many of the pink hex glitters were sculling about in the bottom of the bottle, so perhaps if I'd given it a good shake I'd have gotten more of them on the nail.  I did manage to get a reasonable number on there and they were a gorgeous addition.  The flashes of pink sparkle really stand out against the purple and make this a really eyecatching shade.

Picture Polish Ultra Violence - artificial light

I'm totally in love with this shade, it has all of my favourite qualities...it's purple, its glittery, and it has cute pink sparkles in (I would vehemently deny loving pink if you asked me to my face, because it's not very rock and roll, but I do in fact love pink sparkly things.  Sometimes I'm such a girl *eye roll*)

Picture Polish Ultra Violence - artificial light

I picked up my bottle from Rainbow Connection UK (link in Suppliers page) for £13.50.  It was totally worth it.  Like the Limited Edition shades this one has gone straight into my top ten favourite polish purchases of 2014...I know the year is young but I predict this one will still be there by the end of the year....highly recommended.


 

Halloween-y Heli-Yummy

Today's NOTD is Heli-Yum by China Glaze from their 'Up and Away' Spring 2010 collection.  I was in the mood for something summery now that the nights are dark and the temperature has dropped.  This is a lovely bright pink crème with an almost neon jelly quality to it that made it very hard to photograph!

China Glaze Heli-Yum - Artificial Light

Shown here I'm wearing two coats, with a coat of Seche on top.  I'm also trying out a new nail shape on my nubbins and I'm still a bit mystified how to make a round thing square armed only with a nail file.  We'll see how this goes.

Tomorrow is Halloween and, even though this isn't a really Halloween-y shade I decided to have a go with some Born Pretty store water decals to make this mani a bit more festive.  I was really impressed with the decals, they're super easy to use and awesome fun.  I'll definitely be buying a bunch more of these.  The pack contains dozens of decals and at just $4 with free postage, that's a lot of bang for your buck...

Halloween water decals

The only negative I have on these is that the instructions on the packet are pretty hard to understand, but a quick google search revealed several YouTube videos that told me all I need to know.  They take seconds to apply, and are sealed in place with another layer of Seche.

Spooky fun

I bought the CG polish from Radiant-Babe Beauty on Amazon UK  for £4.95 with free postage (because I bought 3 polishes in total) and the decals from Born Pretty Store.  Born Pretty is awesome - they sell nail art supplies at bargain basement prices and with free P&P.  The only downside is that they are based in Asia and it takes  3-4 weeks to arrive.  But as long as you're not in a hurry its ideal.

Happy Halloween mani-maniacs :)

Miss Conduct

Miss Conduct by Orly - Indirect Natural Light

Today's NOTD is an incredible pink holo by Orly, that's amusingly called 'Miss Conduct'.   This was from the Naughty or Nice Holiday 2012 collection and I picked up a set of three in TK Maxx for the bargain-alicious price of £15.  Holo polishes are perfect for summer although ironically the sun wasn't shining when I took these swatches so you've got indirect natural light and artificial light.

Miss Conduct by Orly - Artificial Light

This was my first experience of an Orly polish and I'm really impressed - formula was fantastic, smooth as butter and great opacity.  Pictured here with two coats, plus nail envy for undies and SV to top.  This had a really smooth glossy finish all on it's own, but I always use Seche regardless because of the extra wear time it gives me and the quick dry so I can get on with stuff after I paint my nails.

Miss Conduct by Orly - Artificial Light

On a nail nerdy point, I think Orly have the most perfect bottle/brush combo I've come across.  The big rubber grip top is genius and really easy to handle (Chanel, with your stupid fiddly short handles, I'm lookin' at choo!).  Now if they would just adopt the OPI pro-wide bristles it would be a match made in heaven.

I absolutely love this polish.  It's the perfect shade of pink - a sort of crushed raspberry - that is really sophisticated.  There's always a danger with pink sparkly polish of looking tacky - as a rule of thumb, if Barbie would wear it then I avoid it like the plague.  This is jam packed with scattered holo goodness; darker yummy raspberry particles and bright rainbow coloured bursts of sparkle from teeny holo particles.  In the sun this is like a pink disco on your nails.

This polish is all kinds of awesome, highly recommended.

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

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.

 

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

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

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.