Sea You in Hollywood by OPI

Hello ladies! Tonight I'm shopping my stash for a short and sweet post.  This is 'Sea You in Hollywood' by OPI.  This is a beautiful cerulean blue foil polish that is really pretty to wear.  This was apparently a QVC exclusive shade, but I picked mine up in T K Maxx in a pack of 3 for £10.  This is two coats with NE base and HK girl topcoat.  No issues to report quality wise, and I got a CRAZY weartime out of this...a whole week with no chips.  That's the dream ain't it?

OPI Sea You in Hollywood - natural light

Hooray for T K Maxx! It's always worth a visit, and my local one has recently really expanded the brands it carries, they now have Spa Ritual, CND, tons of Ciate and loads more and all for silly prices.  What's not to love?

Spotted! The 'Amazing' new Revlon Collection

Hello Ladies!  I was out shopping today (you know, where you decide to just 'go look at the nail polish' and end up buying 6...) and I spotted a gorgeous new collection from Revlon - The Electic-Chrome limited edition collection released as a tie-in for The Amazing Spiderman 2.  The reason for this post is that THESE ARE CURRENTLY ON OFFER! These sell for £6.49 each but Boots is currently doing a 'Buy 2 for £10' offer.

Here's a collection marketing pic I shamelessly nicked from the internet...

Electric Chrome Collection - Revlon

IRL these don't appear to have quite the multi-chrome pop that the promo shots are showing, and instead look more to me like gorgeous bright metallic foil shimmers.  A quick hunt for collection reviews suggested this was the overall effect on the nail, although I have seen a couple of shots where the blogger used black undies to give the shade more pop. I'll definitely be trying that.

left: "Super-Powered", right: "Spidey-Sense"

I chose 'Super-Powered' and 'Spidey Sense'.  It was a really close call though with the magenta 'Gwen's Crush' which is also lovely.  But in the end I'm a sucker for a metallic red so it had to be Spidey Sense.  You may recall that a few years ago OPI released a Spiderman collection (great review post on the PolishAholic) to tie-in with the first 'reboot' and in my opinion this offering from Revlon is more exciting.  I also love the gold spider's webs on the bottles, that's a really nice touch.

Swatches to follow...at some point...really I must get quicker at this swatch and post business!  But I wanted to get the word out before the Boots offer ends....

Revlon Parfumerie - Autumn Spice

Hello Ladies! This week's nail news - The Revlon 'Parfumerie' collection of scented nail polishes is now available in the UK!  They were released at the end of last month, and are available in Boots and at larger Revlon counters.  Today's post is the one I've been most excited to get - Autumn Spice.  Pictured here I'm wearing two coats atop NE base, and with two coats of HK girl top coat.

Revlon Autumn Spice - artificial light

Autumn Spice is a toasty warm brown foil finish packed with gold and russet toned flecks and a hint of pink.  It's an interesting shade all on its own, so the fact that it's also scented just adds to the fun.  I was really intrigued by the idea of scented polish, these have been around before, and its definitely a gimmick that won't last, but I do love a good nail polish gimmick...

So what's with the smell thing? In the bottle, there is no evidence of any smell other than the usual nail polish smell.  On the nail, when it dries, this polish smelled exactly like a Starbucks Gingerbread Latte.  A sweet, yummy, spicy smell that suits the colour perfectly and made me fancy a coffee the whole damn day.  It smelled just as strongly underneath two layers of topcoat (I used two because the foil finish meant I didn't get quite the gloss I liked with just one coat).  The strength of the smell was about at the level of a scented hand cream - I could smell it faintly all the time, and strongly whenever my hands were near my face.  After a few hours that got annoying.  BUT within 24 hours the smell was very faint, and unrecognisable.  It had a vaguely floral, plasticine smell that wasn't spicy at all.

Revlon Autumn Spice - artificial light

So, the smell is a bit annoying, and doesn't last long at all.  I also had massive tip-wear and small chips within 24 hours, so I think that the wear time and smell time are probably comparable.  The biggest problem I had with this polish was on removal.  The gritty foil took a bit of scrubbing to remove, but the polish stained my nails a gross nicotine brown when I removed it.  It took a lot of scrubbing with a nail brush to sort that one out.

The bottles look cute, and Revlon have gone for a vintage feel that I really like, but the brush is very annoying.  That bulb shaped top isn't easy to grip, but the brush head itself is really thin which makes application fiddly.  The formula was fine, a bit dry like all foils tend to be, but nice and opaque in two coats.  I loved the colour when it was on, it's perfect for Autumn.  Even though the smell element to this polish is a bit of a gimmick the shade is interesting enough all on its own to be worth a look.



Revlon Autumn Spice - artificial light

The polishes retail for £6.49, and Boots has them on 3 for 2 at the moment.  Given that you can get OPI online for that kind of money I'm not overly impressed.  This is a really pretty shade, but the brush was a pain, the smell was a bit annoying (and short lived) and it was icky on removal.  So overall I'm not very impressed.  I have another two of these (Wintergreen and Bordeaux) so I'll reserve judgement until I've tried those too.

Have you tried these? What did you think?

Hellhound by Crowstoes

Hello ladies! Today's mani is from the "Better Late than Never" collection by Crowstoes (so named because it was a Fall collection that came out closer to winter!).  It seems quite apt since that's also my approach to blogging my manis....Check out my review of its collection-mate Indian Summer here.

This is the gorgeous 'Hellhound' which is described by its indie brand maker as 'Berry to Orange to Gold glass fleck colour shift in a burgundy base'.  That description is accurate, but doesn't really translate the magical effect of this polish when you see it in person.  It's a multichrome glass fleck polish with a finish like a foil, I don't think I've seen that trick from any other polish brand.  It certainly makes this a very unique looking polish.  I have no idea what its relation to hellhounds is - are hellhounds berry and orange and gold coloured? They sound cute!

Hellhound by Crowstoes - artificial light

I'm wearing two coats with NE base and SV topper, although that opacity of this polish is ridiculous so that second coat was only to fix my mistakes, you could do it in one if you have a steadier hand than me.  The polish on its own dries to quite a matte finish, so it takes a nice layer of topcoat to really bring all that sparkle to life.

Hellhound by Crowstoes - artificial light - bottle shots

I'm a big fan of this shade, it's really pretty.  The colour shift on-nail isn't quite as dramatic as in the bottle, most of the time it appears a pretty berry-purple shade, but there's those flashes of gold that come through when the light hits it just right that makes this a  really interesting shade.

Hellhound by Crowstoes - so pretty!

I picked up my bottle from the lovely Rainbow Connection UK for £10.25 (see store link in Suppliers page). The shop has been closed for a wee while, but is reopening tonight with a sale! My aim for a January no-buy is not looking good....