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Imagination In Colour - Page 77 of 98 - UK Nail Polish Blog

Beauty Without Cruelty – Heather Mist

My new favourite brand. This polish, particularly, is one of my new favourite polishes of all time – alongside colour and quality, this is largely due to the cruelty-free nature of the product. It’s BUAV Approved so I know it’s cruelty-free. I’m sure you all know now how I feel about cosmetic animal testing, so this brand is welcomed by me with arms wide open. Add in to the mix the fact that the polish is toluene, phthalate and formaldehyde free and has a fabulous formula and you have me right there.

This polish was kindly given to me by my mum for Christmas… what can I say, she chose well! I was a little underwhelmed when I first saw the bottle, but when I applied it to my nails, well, I’ll leave you to see for yourselves!

Beauty Without Cruelty BWC Heather Mist New Attitude Nail Polish Cruelty-free non-animal-tested BUAV Approved Barry M lilac foil pearl ladylike delicate feminine pale purple pink candyfloss

Beauty Without Cruelty BWC Heather Mist New Attitude Nail Polish Cruelty-free non-animal-tested BUAV Approved Barry M lilac foil pearl ladylike delicate feminine pale purple pink candyfloss

Beauty Without Cruelty BWC Heather Mist New Attitude Nail Polish Cruelty-free non-animal-tested BUAV Approved Barry M lilac foil pearl ladylike delicate feminine pale purple pink candyfloss

Beauty Without Cruelty BWC Heather Mist New Attitude Nail Polish Cruelty-free non-animal-tested BUAV Approved Barry M lilac foil pearl ladylike delicate feminine pale purple pink candyfloss

Beauty Without Cruelty BWC Heather Mist New Attitude Nail Polish Cruelty-free non-animal-tested BUAV Approved Barry M lilac foil pearl ladylike delicate feminine pale purple pink candyfloss

How stunning is this polish?! I was pretty much sold on Barry M Lilac Foil Effectsย but Heather Mist wins hands down. In comparison, Heather Mist is a lot lighter, more pink-toned and more shimmer-pearl in finish, while Lilac Foil is darker, much more blue toned and has a much more chromey-pearl finish. Heather Mist is so much more airy, delicate and feminine, I’m thinking unicorns, while Lilac Foil by comparison is heavy and solid, and puts me in mind of heavy machinery. I find Heather Mist to be far more flattering to my skintone. (Though of course I still love Lilac Foil!)

Perfect name for it too, Heather Mist is very delightfully misty and whimsical. I love it!

Application:

Heather Mistย dries super fast and is opaque in two coats. What more could be better? Due to the shimmery nature of the polish, brush-strokes are avoidable. You need to be careful to paint straight from edge to edge, and if you do end up with brush-strokes don’t be tempted to go over it again… leave it for the second or third coat when the previous coat is dry.

My only flaw with this polish is availability. I really don’t know anywhere that stocks it, other than Boswells in Oxford. However, they do sell at the online BWC Shop, which I haven’t yet used myself. You can also read a bit about the company’s history and policies on animal testing and ingredients on the website. The polishes retail at ยฃ7.99 but let me tell you, this one is SO worth it.

What do you guys think? I am so in love with this polish it’s unreal. It’s overwhelmingly pretty and dainty and goes with my chameleon skin-tone whatever the weather decides to do! Even lobster hands can get away with this one. Can it get better? ๐Ÿ˜›

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.

Deborah Lippmann Glitter In The Air

Um.. so I didn’t get round to that new year’s nail polish because, well, I didn’t have one. I wore Barry M Indigo, which I took photos of, but they just don’t come out right. Sorry ๐Ÿ™ I will definitely do a new-year’s-themed nail post though… I have it on my nails right now!

Oh yeah, happy new year to you all ๐Ÿ™‚ how did you spend new year’s eve? Tell me! Or link me to your blog posts! I had a lovely evening with my Andy – he treated me to aย marvelousย meal out, then we watched the countdown on TV (man I love those fireworks! Did I ever tell you that one of my many life dreams/goals is to organise firework displays?! Never going to happen but.. I can dream!) with his family & neighbours. We then watched Lee Mack (hilarious!) – all in all it was a fab night. The next day I went to visit my Granny in Wales. ๐Ÿ™‚

Anyway, enough boring you all… I’ll do a full long synopsis of what’s happened in my life in 2011 on my (new!!!) lifestyle blog – ghostofmysoul… I’ll let you know when that’s up!

Glitter in the Air was the second Deborah Lippmann polish my Andy gave me for Christmas… I am utterly overwhelmed by Deborah Lippmann, or at least the three I’ve tried, and eternally grateful for such wonderful gifts!

As is well known in the blogosphere, Glitter in the Air is very sheer. Which personally, I love! Maybe I would love it even more if my nails weren’t so yuckily stained…! Anywho, I layered it over Barry M Blue Moon, to give the illusion of opacity, and it looked, ah-may-zing!

Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air Pink Golden Globe Performance Sheer Grey Gray Blue Pink Glitter Sophisticated Nail Polish House of Fraser Layered Barry M Blue Moon

 

Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air Pink Golden Globe Performance Sheer Grey Gray Blue Pink Glitter Sophisticated Nail Polish House of Fraser Layered Barry M Blue Moon

Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air Pink Golden Globe Performance Sheer Grey Gray Blue Pink Glitter Sophisticated Nail Polish House of Fraser Layered Barry M Blue Moon

Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air Pink Golden Globe Performance Sheer Grey Gray Blue Pink Glitter Sophisticated Nail Polish House of Fraser Layered Barry M Blue Moon

I layered Glitter in the Air over Blue Moon because the latter has a somewhat jellyish formula, so that the sheer-cum-jelly formula of Glitter in the Air wasn’t lost by layering it over a harsh, chalky pastel. I think it maintains the jellyish quality of Glitter in the Air quite well – and is neutral enough to allow the grey-blue tone of Glitter in the Air to dominate, rather than a blue which really isn’t present in the polish alone – see the bottle, I think my nails are similar enough! ๐Ÿ™‚

In a nutshell (or not – I’m not very good at brief blogging!) the pictures show 2 coats of Barry M Blue Moon, followed by 3 coats of Glitter in the Air. If I had been more proficient in my application of Glitter in the Air, I wouldn’t have needed 3 coats of it – the glitter doesn’t always come off the brush and sometimes I needed to push the glitter round, or decided after it had dried that I needed more glitter (fussy, me?!) hence the 3 coats. To be honest, 2 would have been fine.

Glitter in the Air is essentially a grey-blue sheer jelly polish, with lovely pale blue and pale coppery-pink glitter floating around in it. Something I never noticed in other swatches, purely because I wasn’t looking for it, was the lovely green-turquoise-blue micro-glitter throughout the polish. It’s quite hard to see, but adds a super-cool dimension to the polish. I think you can kind of see it in the fourth photo. It’s mostly hidden by the glare of the flash, sadly. You may have to just trust me that it is, just, SO COOL.

Application:

Obviously it drops marks on account of the glitter not being evenly spread… but honestly, I can live with it. Ditto the sheer formula. Otherwise, it’s a fabulous layering polish, and dries quickly, so the extra layers don’t make too much of a difference.

This would make for a spectacular Easter manicure… it really reminds me of Mini Eggs ๐Ÿ™‚ I foresee myself wearing Glitter in the Air this coming Easter ๐Ÿ™‚

Worth ยฃ16? YES! Just like Across the Universe, this is DEFINITELY worth the money in my books. They are just so unique. Saying that, Revlon seems to have come up with another Deborah Lippmann dupe for Glitter in the Air, called Whimsical. As far as I know, it’s only available in the US at the moment, but who knows what might happen for us lovely UK ladies (and gents…?). Oh and the aforementioned green-turquoise microglitter is a lot more apparent in The Polish Aholic’s swatches of Whimsical – that’s pretty much how they look in Glitter in the Air, I’m just very amateurish when it comes to photography!

Tell me your thoughts on this one ๐Ÿ™‚ and don’t forget to tell me about your new year’s antics! ๐Ÿ˜€

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.

Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe

So everyone knows about the iconic Beatles. I love them, I love being British ๐Ÿ˜€ I love that Deborah Lippmann names her polishes after songs. Across The Universe was never one of my favourite Beatles songs, but it is lovely. Funnily enough, this polish has a deep, inky, night-sky blue base, but the glitter is green and blue. I’ve never actually seen any universe but what I have seen of the night sky doesn’t look like this! Not that I’m complaining, the polish is totally gorgeous and has been on my wishlist since the beginning of time.

My very amazingly generous boyfriend Andy bought it for me for Christmas, along with another Deborah Lippmann polish… I can’t thank him enough, this zooms straight to my top 20 ever nail polishes, and is very high in the running!

Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe Beatles Nail Polish Aqua Turquoise Green Glitter deep blue sky sea ocean dragon snake lizard monster house of fraser high endDeborah Lippmann Across The Universe Beatles Nail Polish Aqua Turquoise Green Glitter deep blue sky sea ocean dragon snake lizard monster house of fraser high endDeborah Lippmann Across The Universe Beatles Nail Polish Aqua Turquoise Green Glitter deep blue sky sea ocean dragon snake lizard monster house of fraser high endDeborah Lippmann Across The Universe Beatles Nail Polish Aqua Turquoise Green Glitter deep blue sky sea ocean dragon snake lizard monster house of fraser high endDeborah Lippmann Across The Universe Beatles Nail Polish Aqua Turquoise Green Glitter deep blue sky sea ocean dragon snake lizard monster house of fraser high endDeborah Lippmann Across The Universe Beatles Nail Polish Aqua Turquoise Green Glitter deep blue sky sea ocean dragon snake lizard monster house of fraser high endDeborah Lippmann Across The Universe Beatles Nail Polish Aqua Turquoise Green Glitter deep blue sky sea ocean dragon snake lizard monster house of fraser high end

The polish takes very different faces dependent on the lighting (hence the picture spammage) – the first 5 photos were in sunlight, the final 2 in natural light. I find that in natural light the glitter tends not to stand out so much and the deep blue base really dominates the polish, while in false lighting and sunlight, the glitter really comes alive.

Application

The photos all show 3 coats. The blue base is a jelly, making the polish quite sheer, but it builds very quickly. This is also helped by the density of the glitter… I don’t think it’s possible to avoid the glitter, there’s so much of it! The polish dried relatively quickly, so the 3 coats weren’t a problem. I found that, worn alone, the polish was quite dull, presumably because the blue base covered a lot of the glitter. However with 1 thick coat of topcoat, the polish became a magical lagoon of sea-green and blues ๐Ÿ™‚ It has so much depth, I absolutely love it!

What do you guys think? Across The Universe retails at ยฃ16 from House of Fraser.. I don’t think there are many around on eBay or Amazon but it may be worth a look. This one frequently sells-out on House of Fraser though, so if you’ve missed it before, now’s your chance ๐Ÿ˜‰

Do I think it’s worth it? Well I suppose I’m biased as the polish was gifted to me, but I really do think it’s worth the money. It’s sooo pretty and I can guarantee you won’t stop looking at your nails! 1000x more worthy of the price than a Chanel polish, in my very humble opinion. What are your thoughts?

Wanted to say a huuuuge thank you to my Andy for this rather extortionate present, I am eternally grateful! ๐Ÿ˜› <3

Hope you are all well my lovelies, I do have a little New Year’s manicure lined up, so hopefully that will be up in the next few days. What are you doing for New Year’s? Any special manicures/nail art/makeup you’re planning on doing? If so, link me up, I’m very curious! ๐Ÿ˜€

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.

Barry M Red Glitter

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all had a lovely day and lots of lovely pressies! I certainly had a wonderful Christmas – I received a lot of AMAZING nail polish and skin care products so I am very chuffed! What did you get?

Here is a lovely red glitter (what do you mean you can tell from the name?!) by the lovely Barry M.


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Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle

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 ยฃ14-16! 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 toย achieveย 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 ยฃ14-16 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 (whoย presumablyย 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 ๐Ÿ˜€ 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.