GlossyBox

First of all, this mini polish came in my favourite GlossyBox so far, their Christmas box. I believe you can still get one for the next couple of days. I absolutely loved this box! But I won’t waffle on about it now, there’s plenty of blogposts dedicated to it.

Now Deborah Lippmann has always been one of those brands I’ve admired from a safe distance, as a single full-sized bottle costs a whopping £14-16! Saying that I feel that all the glitter is more worthy of the hefty price tag than Chanel…

Anywho, the mini polish is a fairly decent size, probably roughly the size of Barbara Daly’s (at Tesco) smaller bottles, maybe a tad larger. Unlike OPI with their outrageously small bottles.

3 coats, without topcoat

With topcoat!

This is a lovely lovely polish. Essentially it contains a tonne of cranberry-raspberry glitter, suspended in a deep blackcurrant jelly base. The base is quite sheer, it took 3 coats to achieve full opacity. But it does give the polish quite a lovely dark dimension, as the glitter catches the light the rest looks deep and rich in colour. It dried relatively quickly, a bit longer than most glitters though.

Without a topcoat it’s a very grainy, average texture for a glitter, but just one coat of thick topcoat and it’s smooth and lovely. It catches the light beautifully.

My one major problem with this polish is that it stained my nails. I put on two coats of basecoat and I am still left with a pinky-orange tinge to my nails. I put on two coats of basecoat because Scrangie reviewed Razzle Dazzle and noted that she experienced staining. Now, call me fussy, but if I was to pay £14-16 for a polish I would NOT expect staining, and I would be unhappy to have to apply 3 coats. And I can’t buy it anyway, because House of Fraser (who presumably supplied these to GlossyBox as they were cited on the description card for ‘where to buy’) don’t even stock it.

So is this polish worth it? In my eyes, no. I feel like if I bought a similarly coloured glitter topcoat and layered it over a murky pinky-red base I would have a cheap and cheerful (perhaps mediocre) substitute. However I do see the appeal as it is gorgeous and quite unique, I just feel that for the price, it really isn’t something I would stretch to. Across The Universe, on the other hand, wow!

I am of course very pleased that this came in my GlossyBox as Deborah Lippmann is a brand I’ve been dying to try for a year now!

Hope you are all well my lovelies, I’m well and truly knackered after such a heavy semester at Uni and fully glad to be on holiday! Andy and I are planning to go to London tomorrow to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, will be so much fun! Last day to enter my giveaway everyone! I’ve had some good suggestions about how to improve my blog so this is very good 😀 So close to Christmas, eee!

Emma 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.

This came with my July GlossyBox, which, for those of you who don’t know, is a box containing 5 samples of ‘luxury’ products costing £10 (but £12.50 inc. P&P; from September) which comes around on a monthly basis. Once you have signed up, they will automatically take the money each month until you unsubscribe. Last month there was an uproar on Twitter because the box contained a small bottle of Batiste Dry Shampoo which isn’t ‘luxury’, although frankly compared with the price of the other products, I think it’s a bit greedy to expect all expensive items! I just think it’s a shame to see a brand new company get so much grief for one little mistake. Anyway, those who unsubscribed after that apparent outrage will probably be kicking themselves this month, as the July box was fab! Even better- it arrived on my birthday!
In my box I received a pack of Nouveau Lashes, Ciaté Nail Polish, Weleda Pomegranate Body Oil, Illamasqua Lipgloss in Explode, and the only sample sized product is the Xen-Tan lotion (in dark – I’m a bit scared to use it haha!)
So anyway, onto the nail polish. FYI, Ciaté is 3-Free (free from formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate and toluene).

1 coat – hopefully you can see the very pink jellyish base! This s reminiscent of China Glaze Strawberry Fields, and I actually wore my nails all day in Oxford like this as I loved the bright pink!

Left: 1 coat. Right: 2 coats. Huge difference!!

The gorgeous yellow-orange shimmer in the bottle.



This is my first bottle of Ciaté, I’ve always admired their polishes online, but never got round to buying one as I never managed to decide which one first! I have to say, as a first taste of the brand, I am SUPER impressed. The polish has a pink jelly base, with tons of yellow-orange-red shimmer, which I assume accounts for the red effect as the layers build up! I ended up applying a third coat, but if you don’t have nasty stained nails like mine, you could easily get away with 2. coats.
This polish is easily mistaken for a classic red shimmer in dim light, but as soon as you get under a light or into natural daylight, or even better, sunlight, this polish lights up like a fire! The blend of orangey-reddy-yellow shimmer makes it look like glowing embers, and you occasionally catch a hint of the pink base. Can I emphasise how amazing this polish is any more?
Onto application. I’m in love. You know that myth that you’re supposed to do three strokes with nail polish, middle then 2 sides? I’ve never ever been able to do that until I used this polish. The brush is firm enough to control the polish, but soft enough to maneuver it neatly around the curves of the nails. I love it! The handle is long, allowing for good hand control, and the brush is the perfect width and density – not too thin and not too thick. According to the GlossyBox notecard, the brush has 250 bristles, though it doesn’t explain why haha.
Ciaté polishes retail for £9.00 from the Ciaté website, or from the Powder Rooms. I would seriously recommend this fiery red to any of you! Well worth the £9.00 for 13.5ml, if you compare with OPI’s average £10.50 for 15ml in the UK and China Glaze’s average £8.00 for 14ml, plus the application makes it all the more amazing.
Just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you who said Happy Birthday in the comments on my last post, it made my day to a) know that you care and b) know that people actually bother to read my ramblings! I promise I will work on cutting down the waffle but thank you so much
Emma xxx