Another Models Own polish, this time from the new Hedkandi collection. Disco Heaven is a very pretty gold glitter topcoat with iridescent green-blue hexagonal glitter in the mix.

From my point of view, this is definitely a topcoat polish. At four coats it doesn’t quite cover the nail enough to wear alone – you can still distinctly make out the free edge, and the gold in the polish seems to give an orange cast to the nail, making it look more stained than it actually is. However I’m sure if you layered it up enough this wouldn’t be a problem. The blue, sadly, doesn’t really show up unless you are looking closely.

Application:

The 3rd and 4th photos show the polish at 3 coats –  not by any means opaque. Although like many glitters, the light reflection from the polish does help to disguise the nail beneath. The polish dried quickly, and also dried quite smooth. I guess this can be attributed to the small proportion of glitter to clear polish – the clear polish must help smooth things out, I think? So in that vein, I personally don’t see a need for a topcoat. Again with Models Own not being Big-3-free, the polish had a strong chemical smell, so I would recommend you apply it in a well ventilated area.

I did a little swatch of Disco Heaven over Rimmel London Black Cab – a plain black creme, to see if the iridescent blue glitter would show up better (you’ll have to excuse the mess that is my nails!) :

Sorry for the rubbish lighting – it was literally the only light in which I could capture the blue glitter in at all! Hopefully you can see it, a little bit? While I love the idea of the blue iridescent glitter, it’s just too pale for me and it only really shows up (in real life) under bright light – it’s just too subtle to make it this polish worth the £5 price tag, for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the polish and a gold glitter is always a good staple, but if I was to design it, I’d put in opaque blue glitter and make sure it stands out against the rest of the gold glitter (oh and get rid of the Big-3!).

Maybe I’m just too fussy – what do you think about this one? I suppose another way to save yourself some pennies is if you already have Maybelline Flash Cosmic glitter polish and any old gold glitter top coat, this look is easily re-creatable.

Have you tried any of the Models Own Hedkandi polishes? What do you think of them? I also picked up ‘Hedonist’, a neon coral colour. I have yet to decide how much I like it! I do really like the look of ‘Ibiza Mix’ , but my Boots seems to be permanently sold out of it. I am also a big fan of all the companies really pushing the boundaries with nail polish lately, it feels like they just keep getting better and more unique! This Spring has been really good for we nail polish addicts, not so good for our purses…!

x

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.

Hello all, I have a second Models Own Beetlejuice polish for you today! This is another one from the Spring/Summer 2012 release of 3 new Beetlejuice polishes from Models Own. I’m not going to rant about the Big-3 chemicals today, if you want to read it it’s all in my review of Models Own Tropical Sun. I do really really love these polishes, sooo pretty!

 Soo pretty, right? My only issue with this (other than the Big-3 chemicals) is that it’s very sheer. The polish is essentially a blue-green seafoam colour base packed with pink shimmer. There’s also a bit of gold in there too, in some lights! Gorgeous, very reminiscent of a pink sky over the sea at dusk. The shimmer is almost flakie-esque, it has that lovely glass-fleck sheen to it.

Application:

Indian Ocean, like I said, is very sheer. The pictures all show 4 coats, and even then the free edge of my nails is very visible. Saying that the pink shimmer helps to reflect light off the nail, masking the free edge somewhat. The blue really comes out over the free edge, making it stand out quite a lot compared to over the pink of my nail. The polish dried relatively quickly, but not as quickly as I’d have liked for 4 coats. Indian Ocean dries to a high shine, so you won’t need a topcoat.  My only other little niggle was the chemical smell, it really doesn’t feel healthy to be breathing it in, so make sure you apply it in a well ventilated area.

It’s definitely a candidate for layering – I’ve seen various layering combinations over the internet the last few days, so I thought I’d try a few of my own. I definitely prefer Indian Ocean layered as the green in the polish can make your nails look a little dirty when the free edge is showing. There’s a lot more green to it than I first realised – I noticed this when I layered it over white. I also think it would look fab over black, but that’s for another day!

Thumb to pinkie: Barry M Matt White, Barry M Mint Green, Barry M Blue Moon, Revlon Dreamer, Revlon Charming.

You’re going to have to take my word for it that these combos look amazing – the picture really doesn’t do it justice! I’ve had many a compliment on them too, the duochrome nature of Indian Ocean is absolutely stunning, it reminded me of beetle wings. Very very amazing, you really have to see it to know what I mean.

So, despite their containing Big-3 chemicals, the Models Own Beetlejuice SS12 gets a huge thumbs up from me. I didn’t buy Copper Pot because it looks a little like Boots 17’s Fury, and that didn’t sit very well with my skin tone.

Have you tried the Beetlejuice SS12? I’m starting to feel won-over by Models Own. Hope you are all doing well, let me know what you think of Indian Ocean!

x

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 have released their 2nd Beetlejuice collection, this one being their Spring/Summer 2012  collection. I have to say, I wasn’t a huge fan of the 1st Beetlejuice collection (other than Golden Green) and didn’t get them on the basis that Models Own polishes still contain toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin and camphor, and I am reluctant to part with £5 for something which could potentially damage me when many companies these days produce Big-3-Free polishes – always check your nail polish ingredients! It seems the Big-3-Free label is a big selling point for the Models Own Pro range but to pay £8 for that when many cheaper polishes from other brands are Big-3-Free anyways is a little frustrating!

However, since I never tend to wear a polish for more than a day or two before changing it, I did buy some polishes from the 2nd Beetlejuice collection as they are too hot to miss! Today I have Tropical Sun for you guys, a very very very pretty peach 🙂

So it’s not exactly duochrome (which was one of the selling points of the Beetlejuice collection) but it does look different in different lights – hopefully you can get that from the many photos I took 😛 the final photo shows how it looks distinctly orange in natural light, while the rest are in sunlight or direct light. Essentially it’s a very pink base filled with golden-orange shimmer. Tropical Sun also has silver microglitter throughout, which gives a subtle sparkle to your nails, very pretty!

Application:

The pictures show 3 coats. At 3 coats Tropical Sun still shows some free-edge of the nail, especially if your nails are stained, so if you are a stickler for opacity you will need a 4th coat! The golden-orange shimmer does reflect a lot of light which does conceal the free-edge somewhat though :). I found that Tropical Sun actually took a little while to dry, which was a bit of a pain as I did need a 3rd coat so I ended up doing the 3rd coat the next day. The polish smelled quite strong, a different smell from most polishes (maybe it’s the Big-3 chemicals? Anyone know?) so definitely apply this in a well ventilated area. Finally the finish is shiny, but ever so slightly bumpy so if that’s annoying to you, you may need a topcoat! I think that’s due to the microglitter. Tropical Sun is also just sheer enough to make a nice layering polish, but only just!

Despite all the application pains, I do LOVE this polish. It’s sooo pretty and definitely lives up to the ‘Tropical Sun’ namesake. I’ve never been a peach-person polishwise, but this one is gorgeous. It kind of reminds me of Boots 17 Glisten, but they are very different in base and finish. Tropical Sun is much more pink and has a somewhat more jellyish base. Would you like to see a comparison? Lemme know!

What do you guys think of this one? Also I’m interested to hear what you think of the fact that Models Own still contains the nasty chemicals?! They definitely improve the consistency and finish of any polish, which is a bonus, but I would never wear it say if I was pregnant due to the unknown long-term effects of them. I also wonder how many other drugstore polishes still contain these, I haven’t really looked into it fully yet. Does a polish containing the Big-3 put you off buying it?

x

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.

Hello my lovelies, sorry I’ve been absent for the best part of March, I was on a bit of a roll with my blog and suddenly life took one of those turns and my blog was no longer my priority nor my pleasure. Anyways I would like to think I am on the road to recovery and this is just one of those steps.

Today I have for you the lovely Revlon Cloud (I fully admit that I was swept up and taken in by the name…), a lovely pale lavender creme. I want to say that it’s one that doesn’t quite live up to my expectations, having wanted it for a good few months, but maybe I’m just being fussy.

Not my best application ever…! Anyway, Cloud is one of those pastels that is a must-have for those of you who follow Spring trends, pastels seem to be a staple pretty much every Spring. Personally I’m really enjoying the fresh and bright colours coming out this year, I’ve never really been a pastel person :).

Application:

The pictures show 3 coats. Cloud was a teeny bit on the patchy side – it applied smoothly but there were still a couple of bald streaks which required the 3rd coat to cover over. Cloud dries fairly quickly, although it didn’t really do the ‘Top Speed’ name justice, it doesn’t dry any quicker than most other polishes. It dries to a relatively high shine, you just can’t tell because of my sheet marks (!) oops.  A slick of topcoat always seems to make creme finishes stand out a bit more though.

I did wonder how similar Cloud is to Revlon Charming (part of their new collection) as Cloud seems to have disappeared off my local Boots’ shelves. Side by side, Charming is a lot more pink-toned, while Cloud is predominantly more blue. I will do a comparison when I remember! Unless you’re lilac-crazy, I personally would go for one or the other, dependent on which goes better with your skin tone.

I actually found Cloud in Poundland, so yep, just £1! I also managed to find Black Star, part of their new line, so keep your eyes peeled! Definitely worth it when you consider the £6.49 price tag for Revlon polishes in Boots and Superdrug.

Hope you are all well, let me know what you think of this one 🙂 I bought the new Models Own Beetlejuice polishes today, they are amazing (needless to say!) and will hopefully be up on my blog soon! 🙂 I did go and see the Hunger Games last Wednesday with Andy and 2 friends, and I was totally blown away by the colour, the sound, the visuals in general… it was just, WOW. I have gone out and bought the books and am currently loving the first one! Have you guys seen/read it yet?!

x

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.