Tag Archives: Boots 17

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.

Missguided x Cosmopolitan Freebie – Misstique

July 15, 2011 7 Comments

Finally I’m back! Basically my camera connecting lead broke so I couldn’t upload any photos, sorry guys 🙁 Anyway, I have another lovely Cosmo freebie today, one of the three different colours available 🙂 The other day I showed you the bright orange, Misstaken, and today I have a beautiful aquamariney teal colour – Misstique.

In sunlight.
Indoors (natural light)
Indoors
Sunlight
Indoors 🙂
This polish is good to go with one coat, two just to make sure everything’s all even and opaque. Application-wise, it was still a little slow-drying, not amazingly so, I think I’m just judgemental after using so many polishes that dry very fast! It’s not a problem, just one that you’ll need to sit down for 20 minutes to let it fully dry before doing any dent-worthy activities. Also the polish drags a little, so if you just load the brush with plenty of polish (more than you would usually use) then it will glide on more easily.
Misstique dries with a lovely high shine, and really dazzles in the sunlight. I’ve been looking for a polish this colour since forever, because (don’t hate me) I just think that pure turquoises need more green to be flattering on my skin tone! I absolutely love this colour.
Also, looking at the photos, it looks a little similar to Boots 17 Wave, so I thought I’d do a little bottle comparison for you 🙂 I included Nails Inc. Electric Teal to show a true teal for comparison too 🙂
As you can (hopefully) see, Misstique is a lot brighter than Wave, which is more muted.
Once again, Cosmopolitan is £3.50, which is pretty good going for a 13ml polish which would ordinarily cost £5 plus P&P; online at Missguided! So if you’ve been looking for a turquoise aquamariney colour, a bright orange or a hot coral then look no further 😉 and again, Cosmopolitan have included a ‘chequebook’ which includes discount codes and competitions etc., including discounts for NYX and Nfu-Oh! 🙂
Hope you’re all doing well, sorry for my heeeuuuge absence. I’m seeing Jason Manford with Andy tonight, then waking up ultra early tomorrow morning to get to the train station to go up to Keighley for my cousin’s wedding party, so I’m very excited at the mo! Let me know your thoughts on this polish if you’ve picked it up too.
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.

Boots 17 Supreme Shine Wave

June 25, 2011 13 Comments

Hello all of you lovely people, thank you for being so patient and normal service will resume as from now. A lot has gone on in the last month, so I won’t rant about it as usual in the final paragraph of this post as it would take far too much text! The two most important things which happened: my 2 year anniversary with my Andy, and the finishing of my A levels! No more Chemistry ever again – woohoo!
I first saw this amaaaazing polish on the lovely Kaye’s blog here, and I absolutely fell in love, and I just knew it had to be mine!
This is what I’d call a ‘vintage turquoise’, it’s got the green and blue elements spot on but it is very muted and dusky in tone. I can’t stress how perfect this is for me! The pictures are at 2 coats.
The polish dries super fast, as always with 17 polishes, and is very pigmented. I barely needed the 2nd coat to cover up a few slightly thin patches. I can’t really comment on the wear because, fickle as I am, I change my polish every other day, if not every day!
The brush is quite wide, which is lovely for people with wide nail beds like mine, as it allows for lovely control and even coverage without having to stroke away with an anorexic brush for 2 minutes and inadvertently decorate your cuticles.
The finish IS lovely and glossy, not quite Barry M glossy but I’m still happy with it.
I really think this polish is one that will suit all skin tones, it has that wonderfully flattering capability even on my bright pink hands!
I know it’s not a unique colour, but at the very affordable retail price of £3.99 and what with all of Boots’ instore offers going on, I would recommend picking it up!
How are you all doing? Please let me know, I’ve missed my blog so much and I am so happy to be back!
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.

Boots 17 Fast Finish Catwalk Couture

May 15, 2011 13 Comments

I’m sad to report that this polish has been a disaster. I don’t know if it’s solely due to the ‘Fast Finish’ nature of this polish, because the other Fast Finish I own, Peacock, wasn’t half as bad.
The colour is gorgeous, a very stunning aqua-turquoise. It’s similar to Barry M’s Pure Turquoise but more turquoise… I’m not very good at describing the differences am I? Haha. Anyway, Catwalk Couture has a very subtle silver microshimmer running through the polish, which only really shows up in direct sunlight, but when you can see it, it’s beautiful.
My issue with the polish is the application. Because it dries SO FAST, this polish drags like crazy. You absolutely cannot go over an already polished area unless it’s totally dry and you have plenty of polish on the brush. You literally have to load the brush with polish in order to avoid dragging. Of course this results in a thick coat and I find that it makes it very awkward to achieve an even finish – my right hand was worse.
It’s such a shame, I love love love the colour of this polish and the microshimmer, but that’s about it 🙁 all three times I’ve tried this one I’ve had this problem.
Also, if you do happen to try this polish (or Peacock), I’ve found that during removal it tends to leave behind a greeny-blue stain on your skin. This washes off after a couple of handwashes but it’s just something to be aware of.
So what do you guys think? Anyone tried this polish? Would a thinner help to rectify this? I really am reluctant to throw it out because a) it was a present and b) it’s beautiful and c) I am emotionally attached to all of my polishes!
Have you had troubles with the Fast Finish range? I find that the Lasting Fix range is amazing, absolutely no issues whatsoever but this one is the polar opposite.
My first exam is tomorrow- I’m so scared! Haha. It’s a retake so it’s not the end of the world if I don’t do amazingly but even so.
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.