Monthly Archives: August 2011

Boots 17 Lasting Fix Fairy Cake

August 17, 2011 2 Comments

Hello my lovely readers, long time no see! Sorry it’s taken so long to blog… My nails are in such a state at the mo I’m ashamed to show them haha. I dabbled with some falsies when I was away on holiday and me being impatient, I got fed up trying to rub them off with acetone and ended up trying to rip them off as gently as possible but of course I ended up taking a few chunks out of my nails 🙁 you live and learn! Anyways, business should resume as usual since they’ve pretty much grown back now (apart from the obvious index nails being way short!). I may get some photos of the holiday up as there were some beautiful sunsets, and maybe my little Scottish haul 🙂 It’s nice to be back but I miss sharing a bed with my Andy 🙁
3 coats.
3 coats.
3 coats.
I’m just going to put it out there… I don’t like this polish. Even in the bottle I wasn’t keen. This is a classic ‘baby pink’ pastel creme. Usually I love Boots 17 Lasting Fix polishes as most of them seem to be good quality 2-coaters. This one, however, was a streaky mess.
The formula is quick thick, and because of this and the fact that it semi-dries quickly, the polish drags as you apply it if you aren’t careful. You end up putting excess on the nail and this makes it harder to control = flooded cuticles. Argh! And on top of that, the polish doesn’t sit evenly, and you end up with patches of uncoloured nail. It took me 3 good coats to get to what you see in the photos, and even then there were patches that weren’t opaque.
It did dry quickly, but it just had that kind of chalky, thick finish that reminds me of tippex on the nail. The colour doesn’t sit quite right with my skin tone either, it’s too stark and Barbie-esque. Not a fan.
I noticed that it was very similar to Barry M’s Strawberry Ice Cream, which I am a fan of, so I put them side by side for comparison. Each nail has 3 coats, although the Barry M really only needed 2.
Index, middle and pinky: Boots 17 Fairy Cake.
Ring finger: Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream.
As you can hopefully see, Strawberry Ice Cream is ever so slightly more blue-toned. What you can’t see is that the Barry M was a dream to apply – lovely smooth, creamy formula and not at all streaky, and glided on my nails easily while still being controllable. It’s almost jelly-ish compared to Fairy Cake – I’d go for the Barry M any day.
My personal verdict is that if you like this pink, go for Strawberry Ice Cream or another similar colour by another brand because Fairy Cake just ain’t worth the headache.

Have any of you tried Fairy Cake? Reckon mine was just a dud bottle?

Hope you are doing okily dokily, I nipped into town the other day and picked up something for an upcoming giveaway I have planned, more on that when it happens 😉
Emma xxx

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Models Own Pro Limited Edition – Swan Lake

August 6, 2011 7 Comments

By the time you’re reading this I will *hopefully* be on the lovely island of North Uist, Scotland 🙂 as it turns out I’m a crap blogger and never managed to get round to the scheduled posts and I don’t get how to do the whole guest blogging thing. Well anyway, who knows, I may even have 3G connection on North Uist. It’s weird writing this while trying to keep in mind that you’ll be reading it next week. It is, by the way, currently Thursday 28th July. Anywho, I’m very sorry to be disappointing but I thought I’d break up those long 2 weeks away with this post.

Enter Swan Lake!

If you look at the bottle in the photo below, this was not what I paid £8 for at 3 coats!!!
As you can hopefully see, the bottle colour is *very* misleading, I was expecting a lovely taupe-y shimmer. Nevertheless it inspired this gradient mani.
Pinkie to thumb: Boots 17 Peacock, Boots 17 Supreme Shine Wave, Nails Inc Electric Teal, Essie Lapis of Luxury, Barry M Blue Moon.
Thumb to pinkie: BeautyUK Slate, Barry M Mushroom, Nails Inc Fashion Fawn, Oh My GOSH Nude Champagne, Barry M Matt White.
I have to say, it does have a lovely unique finish even despite the sheerness. You know when you look into a lake or into the sea in the sun and it glistens in a lovely fluid, silvery way? Well it’s like that. It’s beautiful. Still I was disappointed with the price!
Anyway, layered over the top of other colours it looks absolutely beautiful. It dries quickly, and is fairly easy to control. I’m not a fan of the square lid, it doesn’t hinder the application too much but for a ‘Pro’ polish you would expect something a little easier to work with. The glittery shimmer spreads evenly across the nail so that isn’t a bother.
Overall I have very mixed feelings about this polish. For my first Models Own Pro polish, for the price, I can’t say I’m that impressed. However, the glistening effect of the polish has won my heart over. Just beware of this one if you were expecting a more opaque colour. Personally I would expect at least a hint of the taupey brown jelly base on the naked nail but apparently not – I only saw this when it was put over the Barry M Matt White!
Hope you are all well, and I’ll be back in a week!
Emma xxx
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.