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Imagination In Colour - Page 81 of 98 - UK Nail Polish Blog

Cheapie Clothes Haul!

August 27, 2011 3 Comments

Ok so I know this is a bit different to my usual nail posts haha but I recently stocked up on several staple tops (and skirts) which really didn’t cost a lot, so I thought I’d draw your attentions to it while the sales are still on! And before you laugh 😛 yes I did get most of it from Tesco, but they are actually decent quality and very standard, if you didn’t see the label they could have come from anywhere. Tesco’s sale has a lot of items that are 70% off so it’s worth a nosey.

Oh and I wouldn’t click on the photos as they are utterly crap, I’m no clothes photographer, I’m sorry!

Top left: £2
Top right: £4
Bottom left: £3
Bottom right: £1.60
Top left: £4
Top right*: £2.50
Bottom left* & right*: 2 for £8
Top left: £8
Top right: £8
Bottom left*: £12
Bottom right*: £12
Skirt: M&S; £12
Skirt: M&S; £25
Top: QS £5
Scarf: Tesco £5

So really all of these have been fab bargains, very standard clothes but I’ll need a lot of them for uni. UCAS Track finally updated which is such a relief as it kind of makes it feel official whereas before I only had the admissions lady’s word for it, which didn’t feel as convincing haha. So now I have to fork out on lots of lovely expensive books haha. I’m also considering getting a netbook, does anyone have any suggestions?
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 Black and Gold Glitter Crackle Topcoat

August 24, 2011 9 Comments

Hello girlies (and guys… any guys other than my boyfriend read this?), I saw this in Boots and absolutely HAD to get it, no question. Aesthetically a wonderful idea.

Layered over China Glaze Strawberry Fields, my new favourite ever polish (well, possibly..) Google it!
All pics shown with topcoat.
So here we are. I love it! I have a couple of pointers about this one though:
  • It looks best over a light colour such as white, silver, pale blue, pale pink, mint green or neon pink etc. – the gold glitter drowns out darker colours so the crackle effect isn’t as noticeable. Hopefully I’ll get a few pics up to demonstrate the light colours thing.
  • It doesn’t crackle as much as other polishes – I find the thinner you spread it, the more it crackles… but then you lose some of the glitter. It takes a bit of getting used to.
  • The glitter tends to all stay at the base of the nail (or wherever you start painting from) and I’ve gone over some areas with more than one stroke, which may account for less crackling.
  • It crackles more if you blow on it as it dries!
  • It dries matte, which can dull the contrast between the crackle and the base so it’s worth putting a topcoat on.
  • It is a typical glitter, it will take that extra bit of rubbing with the remover to get it off!
Despite all of this, it has an amazing effect, and it does look AH-MAY-ZING on le nails. I’ve never really been that excited about the crackle trend but this one I LOVE. Boots is onto a winner! I’m hoping for a black with silver or red glitter next 😉
The crackle retails at £3.99, and a little birdie (well actually, the Boots website) tells me that they also have a purple crackle in too! I have to say, I quite love the fact that Boots went for gold crackle then black & gold glitter crackle and purple crackle, rather than the standard black then silver, gold, purple and pink, like every other brand seems to have done. Thumbs up Boots!
How are you all? I have so many exciting (well, to me) polishes coming up. I just don’t want to overload you all haha.
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.

Revlon 095 Facets of Fuchsia

August 22, 2011 6 Comments

Behold a beautiful Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance near-dupe, for the very reasonable price of £6.49:

Click to enlarge!
So, this one zoomed straight into my favourite ever nail polishes ever. It’s amazing! I can’t fault it. I saw it in Superdrug and nearly fell over with how amazing it looked 😀 it’s part of their new line, dontcha know.
Facets of Fuchsia is basically a green-black-grey jellyish base which builds to a solid black at about 3-4 coats. In the pictures I have 3 coats on. Pink (or fuchsia) hexagonal glitter is suspended in the base along with a lot of very fine glitter of the same colour. The glitter spreads fairly evenly although it’s worth bearing in mind that all your nails will look different – it’s just about impossible to spread the glitter identically for each nail. There’s a nice amount of the hexagonal glitter – not so much that it drowns the smaller glitter out and not so little that you end up with none on one nail. Spot on!
Application-wise, the polish was easy to spread and was dense at 2 coats, but needed a third to get the base to opacity. It dried quickly so that wasn’t a problem. My only issue was that it was a little difficult to control the brush – I’d recommend you slap the polish all over and don’t bother with neatness, just leave that to when you do cleanup (I can hear the polish addicts gasping as I write this) I know it’s sacrilege but black looks so messy unless you do a proper cleanup anyway (note the areas around my cuticles *cringe*) You might as well make sure the whole nail’s covered and work backwards. Or at least that’s my theory.
My only other niggle is that it doesn’t dry totally evenly. It’s pretty impressive given all the glitter in it, but I put on a topcoat and it looks even more fabulous. For your interest, I have topcoat on all fingers except my left ring finger.
So Revlon have redeemed themselves for now (see my previous Revlon let-down) and I would fully one million percent recommend Facets of Fuchsia to all of you. Particularly since it is so very similar to Deborah Lippmann’s Bad Romance – you could get two bottles of the Revlon and it still wouldn’t cost as much as one bottle of Bad Romance! Unless you’re a die-hard DL fan.
I have some lovely China Glazes coming up for you, along with the best BeautyUK polish in existence (in my humble opinion). I also picked up one of the GOSH Ltd Edition polishes of this Autumn, so that should be up soon! Thank you all so much for your lovely comments congratulating me on my A level results, it’s so lovely of you all and each one made me smile that little bit wider 😀 Hope you are all well my lovely readers, until next time!
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 Soft Pink (D6)

August 18, 2011 8 Comments

Just got my A level results this morning – eek – I got B in Biology, B in Maths, and C in Chemistry! Exactly what I needed to get into Oxford Brookes to do Occupational Therapy so I am VERY relieved and excited! A little bit scared too but more excited! New start and all that, I am glad to be leaving Sixth Form behind with no bitter regrets (well, other than the mere existence of Chemistry in my list of qualifications…) My hands were shaking as I opened the envelope this morning haha. Starting on 19th September so I have a whole month to go! If anyone is looking into Occupational Therapy or other Allied Health professions, feel free to get in contact as I have a brain full of tips and advice 🙂

Back to the real subject of my blog post – this lovely sheer pink, perfect for work or weddings or even school if your teachers need glasses 😛

It’s a little more pink than the pictures would have you believe, so a little more flattering than looking like you’ve spent too long in cold water at the bottom of a river… Anyway, this is lovely because it works well as a french manicure base, or as a neutral wedding nail, or just to cover up any unsightly staining (which I of course have never ever suffered… cough… cough…) I think worn alone, it works best on shorter nails, but it is still very flattering and kind of gives the impression of a healthy tan. It also looks really beautiful with black nail art detailing as it really sets off the black, but I messed mine up before I could show you 🙁

The pictures above all show 2 coats, although you can wear 1 for a more sheer look or you can build it up to get rid of the nail line. Personally I think it looks beautiful and rather dainty with a little nail-white showing through. This type of shade used to be one of my favourites before I became a nail polish addict.

It dried very quickly, the colour spreads evenly across the nail and with no streaks.

And of course the usual reason for this being a fab polish is because it’s BUAV Approved – Cruelty Free. Retails at £3 from Marks and Spencer – you really can’t go wrong.

Hope you are all well and good, and particularly anyone who received their results today – I hope it was good news! Feel free to drop me a line (or a Tweet or email) if you fancy a chat about going to Uni!
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 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.