Nail Polish

GOSH Limited Edition Spring 2011 – 001 Lavender Love + Spring Nail Art

April 14, 2011 3 Comments

Just a quick forewarning this post is a tad pic-heavy as I just couldn’t capture the colour right.
This is pretty much the colour of the polish, or as close as my camera could get.
Against a bright blue to show you how much more purpley it is.
And some nail art just for kicks 🙂
First of all, this polish and 3 other colours (purple, pink and greige) along with the GOSH Matte Top Coat are all Limited Edition so if you like them, get them asap! The other ones you will find swatches of on google.
I want to say that my first experience with this polish was a bad one, it dragged and took forever to dry and was just generally a nightmare. The second time, it applied like an absolute dream, dried in a reasonable amount of time and didn’t dent at all. It was opaque in ONE COAT! I don’t know what caused my previous bad experience, I suspect I may not have let my base coat dry fully and probably applied too thickly too, so just a word to the wise if you are in the habit of this 😀
The polish is close to Essie’s Lapis of Luxury but has a more purple undertone, making it a true cornflower blue. (I will be doing a swatch comparison which should appear in the next post).
The polish itself, as I mentioned, is not only a one-coat-wonder, but also dried with a beautiful glossy finish, eliminating the need for top coat. I’ve worn it for two days now and I have barely any tip-wear and no chips whatsoever. I am very happy with this polish now, can’t say I was the first time round! I think the key is in the application.
The polish retails at £4.99 in Superdrug so I’d grab them while you can 😉 I’m sorely tempted by the neon pink but I felt that Lavender Love was the most unique highstreet polish of the lot so went for that one.
The nail art (which I cocked up on the ring finger, oops) is just dotting with my white Rio Nail Art pen (and letting the dots merge to make the ‘petals’ connect)
Hope you are all doing okay, drop me a line guys 😀 I have some lovely Lemon Earle Grey tea to hand, which I have to say is my lifeline at the mo following my second traumatic blood test experience this month, I’ve come home with 8 holes in my arms and hands, bruised to high heaven and generally feeling a bit shakey. They tried several times in each hole as well! Argh. Anyways enough of my moaning, I was lucky enough to win the Models Own Twitter competition and have the black and the silver Smash Up crackle polishes somewhere in the post! Thank you Models Own!
Let me know your thoughts on this polish.
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.

Marks & Spencer Aubergine (EP)

April 10, 2011 3 Comments

So the end of my four M&S; polishes is here, did I leave the best til last? You decide 😀 (by the way sorry for the rubbish photos, my nails don’t actually look this tatty IRL.)

Here is yet another impossible-to-capture colour, I’m starting to think maybe it’s my camera. Or my eyes. Anyway, this gorgeous shimmer is a very deep magenta-ish base, with red and gold shimmer. The gold is more apparent in the bottle while the red is more so on the nail.
I used to have this polish years ago with the old M&S; nail polish line, and I absolutely loved it then. The colour now is a little bit more red than I remember but still very similar which I love, because my old bottle dried right up.
This shade is at 2 coats. The chipping/sheet marks you can see is actually due to the dire state of my bare nails rather than the chip-ability of the polish, but I’m chopping them down tonight as I have work experience in a hospital for the next two days.
I absolutely love this shade. I first bought it when I was going through a dark clothing phase because I’ve never liked plain black polish, I just find it looks cheap and tatty on me. This was suitably dark and vampy for me and still is, I can’t tell you how flattering it is on my skintone and makes my fingers look longer and slimmer… I love it 😀 It feels very classy.
The shimmer isn’t as visible unless in direct light or sunlight but that hasn’t been a problem thanks to all the gorgeous sun we’ve been having 🙂 Dry-time again was fab (a little slower than the other polishes but still quicker than the likes of Barry M etc, probably more comparable to Nails Inc.) The formula was a little on the thick side but wasn’t an issue and didn’t drag sooo….
How are you all? I hope things are going well for everyone, I’m about to go and do some more revision but I must conclude with this post that I would definitely recommend the M&S; polishes because they are fabulous quality, and largely because (as mentioned before) they are certified Cruelty-Free by the BUAV, so if you want guilt-free polishing this is the brand for you 😉
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.

Spring Time Nail Art

April 9, 2011 4 Comments

First of all I still had the M&S; Duck Egg polish on, and didn’t want to take it off so did this over the top. I used GOSH Wild Lilac and the silver polish “Moonshine” (to make it shimmery) from Poundland mixed together on a piece of cardboard with a cotton bud stick (all cotton removed ofc), and then dabbed it onto my nails using a cheapie foundation sponge, from a pack of 25 I also bought at Poundland.
Originally I intended this as a gradient effect but as you can see that didn’t exactly happen lol.
I then topped it with Barry M’s Pink Iridescent to make it even more sparkly and because it didn’t look right on its own, I used my Rio Nail Art pens in black and white and just dotted the flower petals and switched colours for the centre.
A bit boring I know but it gained some interest at school 🙂
And if you’re wondering where the splodges came from it’s because I can’t sit still to save my life, even when nail art is at stake!
Hope you are all well, my GOSH Golden Dragon polish arrived today so I’m feeling very cheerful 😀 revision here I come…
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.

Marks & Spencer Duck Egg (EM)

April 7, 2011 2 Comments

I realised I haven’t really gone into detail with the M&S; polishes. For just £3 you have a full 8ml of polish. The back label claims that the polishes are “High gloss, fast dry, chip resistant.” I agree with two of these three claims. The polishes all have so far been fast dry, and as far as I can see chip resistant (apart from on my split, peeling index nail, which to be honest is only to be expected).  However, I do not agree with the high gloss claim. I would put a polish by Barry M, BeautyUK, GOSH etc in the high gloss category, however I’ve found that the Marks and Spencer polishes, thus far, are incomparable. They have a lovely finish but it’s very muted in that it is not glossy whatsoever. I’m sure a topcoat would solve this issue but I don’t have one since wasting a good £10 on a particularly bad one, but that’s another blog post 😉

Anyways, this is my third and penultimate M&S; polish, as you can see all three so far have been blue-based:

If you click on the photo it will enlarge it, you may even be able to see the green shimmer!
3 coats.
This baby is beautiful right? Well what you can’t see (damn you camera!) is the gorgeous green shimmer packed into this polish, I mean it is stunning! I always worry with shades this pale that they’ll cause havoc clashing with my pale skin, but this one is just perfect. It’s a very very pale blue base with the pale green shimmer and has a gorgeous pearly shimmer finish. I can’t fault the colour. I don’t know if anyone remembers when the Body Shop used to do polishes as a permanent line, but I had three, one of which was a pure white polish with green shimmer and ever since that one dried up I’ve been desperate to find a dupe, and I reckon this is about as close as I’m going to get.
The formula I’m not as amazed by, it was a tiny bit on the thick side and resulted in a couple of tiny bubbles but that’s possibly because I haven’t yet mastered the art of applying a thin layer of quick-dry polish! Nevertheless the bubbles are barely visible IRL and really aren’t a problem.
This took 3 coats to reach full opacity, which I’m not fussed by myself as it’s a quick-dry polish and doesn’t look too bad at 2 coats if you’re in a hurry (I wore 2 coats all today and only added a third for the photos – hence the messy cuticles!)

This is surprisingly flattering to my skin tone and I imagine will be for darker skin too. I can’t tell you how much I love this polish (although I say that every time right? Lol, maybe I’m just psycho about colour!)

The photos are somewhat deceptive because the green shimmer is very much more visible to your real eyes, but was just impossible to capture. So frustrating!

To begin with I wasn’t sure about the name, but looking at it on my nails it really does capture the blue-green combo of duck egg, if in a slightly more unique way, perfect naming is my verdict 🙂

This one I also love too much to take off right away so I’ll be trying some nail art tonight (if I don’t fall asleep first!)

I can’t tell you how much I recommend the M&S; polishes, if only for their unique shades, I am awestruck 😀

Hope you are all well and smiling, I’m so relieved it’s nearly the Easter holiday because with my paper round I just never get a lie-in during term-time, even if it is only an extra half an hour! Also lots of revision to be getting on with 🙁 Ah well.
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.

Marks & Spencer Lagoon (RC)

April 5, 2011 3 Comments

First of all does anyone have a clue what the weird (RC) and (M2) etc naming code is all about on the M&S; polishes?
Here is the most beautiful blue shimmer ever. Well apart from Barry M Navy. And many others. Actually I’m just a blue addict full stop…

3 coats… Look at the beauty 😀
This polish has a cobalt blue base packed with greeny-blue shimmer. It’s beautiful, it absolutely gleams in all lights. This is perfect for those of you that love blue nail polish but feel that Barry M Navy is just a bit too dark for your liking. Trust me, despite having a dark base, this one is bright! A male friend even told me today that he liked this colour and that it suits me and I should wear it more often! (Rare moment!)
Application-wise this polish has been perfect. It dries very quickly and is totally opaque within 2 coats. The only reason I added a third is because I had a bit of tip wear on my index finger where my nail is totally split underneath… but you weren’t to know that 😛
I would most certainly recommend this polish to ANY blue polish lover. It kind of reminds me of ice and winter, I love it! Can definitely feel some nail art coming on with this one. I don’t want to take it off yet, which is rare for me, usually polishes only last one day on my nail before I’m itching to wear a different one! 😀
I just wanted to draw your attention to the BUAV Bunny logo in the bottom left corner. This essentially verifies that the brand is Cruelty-Free, which I haven’t yet seen on any other drug-store brands! (Urban Decay and Too Faced are BUAV Approved by the way, you can find the list of approved brands here.)
Oh and how cool is this pen?! My mum picked it up from her 4-day Vet conference, which is where all my freebie pens come from! They always have weird animal drug names on haha. This is the sort of thing that appeals to the child deep within me haha.

Hope you are all well, I am feeling rather cheery today, I’ve had a haircut which I’ve finally worked out how I want to wear it, it’s cake day in Chemistry tomorrow, I won a Twitter giveaway from Daisy at Daisy Loves, I won some national Creative Writing competition for something I can’t even remember what it is! I’ve got GOSH’s Golden Dragon somewhere in the post, I’ve lost weight in 3 weeks and everything has gone right for a change! Andy’s business is really starting to take off,   Let this be noted as a very high point in my mental state lol. Probably won’t last the week given the mounting pile of revision awaiting me. Work Experience next week and a blood test at the hospital because my GP surgery don’t have the equipment to find my veins, apparently I have really deep veins.

How are you all? Are things going right or wrong for you? By the way I honestly don’t mind if you want to use my comments box to vent or whatever, I know you probably won’t want to but I’m totally okay with it, it’s your chance to share your opinion 🙂
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.