Bronze Nails

'Tis the season to make your nails festive and today I have a gorgeous golden coppery bronze shade to show you. I am the first one to be surprised at the beauty of this shade.  My first experience of bronze nail polish didn't have the best start. I remember buying Models Own Proper Copper from a blog sale and not being able to wear it at all. It basically looked like baby poo.

  






Models Own Rage however is a total different kettle fish altogether. I predict that it won't be everyone's cup of tea and won't suit all skin tones but for me, it has enough gold in it to stand against the contents of a baby's nappy and I really really like it. To top it all, Bronze Rage applied very easily and gave me a beautiful opacity in just 2 coats.








In one week's time, well next Friday, I am hoping to wear a black skirt and a fancy gold embroidered corset style top for my staff Christmas Party (this is the plan so far anyway) and Bronze Rage is presenting itself a strong contender for my nails. I am thinking that maybe I could jazz them up with a gradient-ish gold glitter tips a la Lady of the Lane? We'll see...

I am once again very grateful to Sirvinya, without who this blog would be very bare at the moment. Take a moment to check out her blog, if you have a few minutes to spare. If we hadn't had this Sunday blogging date going on, this blog wouldn’t be very much updated these days. I think my mojo is hibernating.

Have you been on a Christmas Party yet?
What did you wear on your nails?

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Releasing my inner Minaj

I can't believe how hot and sunny it has been lately and I have got just the brightest polish to give the bright sun a run for its money. This is aciiied from Models Own.





It's definitely not safe for office work, it's loud, in your face and it reminds me of Nicky Minaj luridly bright hair, outfit and makeup. In fact it's too bright for me and had I seen swatches of this 9 months ago, I probably wouldn't have bought it. Yes this is how long it has taken me to play with it.






Aciiied offers a superb coverage (the photos show 2 coats of polish) but application was a bit laborious. It's not streaky, nor patchy but the formulation is quite thick and I found it quite hard to control the flow and place the polish where I wanted to. It felt as if the polish was controlling me. My first attempt at painting my nails was a disaster. The second one was much better: I had to take my time, I made sure the brush was lightly loaded (I usually load it up and wack it on) and just go very slowly basically.








If you like bright acid green verging on neon yellow, you'll go past the distinctively strong smell of the polish and its application woes. I think it would make a perfect dupe for OPI 'did it on em', but at half the price.  Aciiied made me realise that I'm much more a lime green type of person and that my favourite lime green to date was not so bad after all.


what: Models Own Aciiied Nail Polish, NP 114
how much: £5
where: Boots nationwide and Models Own online.

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When Eylure and Models Own met Hedkandi …

I didn't think there could be any more exciting false lashes release this year when Katy Perry worked  with Eylure, one of my ultimate favourite brands of false lashes. This was until Eylure joined forces with Giant Record Label Hed Kandi to create amazing party pieces: Hed Kandi Lashes by  Eylure.






I love dance/house music, I love Eylure and I just couldn't think of a better  collaboration. It just makes perfect sense. Ministry of Sound, who I am also a massive fan wouldn't have worked you see: Hed Kandi already has the stunning imagery of glamorous girls, where the addition of lashes not only makes sense but would beautifully enhance them.

The Hed Kandi Eylure range contains 5 pairs of falsies, all housed in a beautiful  packaging, with a eye catching glittery/disco ball background, priced at £6.49 each and already available in your Superdrug.
















My instant favourite is 'Twisted Disco' (the one  featuring a girl with butterfly on it) which will remind you of Samantha, Sex in the City Eylure lashes. Typically, surprise surprise, my Superdrug doesn't hold Twisted Disco but I am more than happy to travel the country a bit to find them.
As if the release of Party Lashes was not exciting enough, Hed Kandi joined forces with Models Own to create a brand new exclusive collection of nail polishes inspired by the party capital of the world, Ibiza.

"With this year being Hed Kandi’s 10 year anniversary on the Balearic party island, the range of five polishes reflects the Hed-turning, fashionforward glamour that the fabulous brand brings to all their events on The White Isle. The ‘Hed Kandi collection’ instantly brings to life the recognisable glamorous girls synonymous with the brand, transporting you to the jet-set global dance floor. With three of the brightest Models Own shades and two premium glitters making up the collection this embodies the whole essence that Ibiza has to offer."

Balearic Cool: a crystal aquamarine blue inspired by the waters of Formentera
Hedonist: a no inhibition hot neon coral.
Beach Party: a sunny, bright and intoxicating polish inspired by the world famous sunsets on the White Isle
Disco Heaven: a glittery, gold disco bomb
Ibiza Mix: a dense multi-coloured day-night sparkle







The Hedkandi polishes will be on sale at £5 from the end of March online and are due in your Boots stores in April.


If all this doesn't get you in a summery or party mood, well I don't know what will

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The Indian Ocean, now in the palm of your hands...

Pardon me for these easy puns (and for the botched 'photoshop' job). This is the best I could come up with to let you know that, Indian Ocean, one of my favourites from the new Models Own Summer BeetleJuice Nail Polish Collection is finally available for purchase (£5) on the website. There is massive buzz around these new Beetlejuice polishes, so don't delay your purchase, to avoid disappointment.

Disclosure: no one contacted me to post about this, in case you're wondering xx

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Beetle got hotter!

Following the huge success of their duo chrome beetle juice collection, Models Own will be releasing on 19 March, 3 new shades of duo chrome polishes. Inspiration is the 'colours of a hot summer haze, mimicking a mirage of complex colour-shifting shades'. As their November sisters, the polishes will be retailed at £5 each.

Have you got any favourites?
Indian Ocean is the first one which caught my eye and it will take incredible amount of willpower to resist it.

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Simmer Smokey Kit from Models Own

I've always been on the look out for small compact eyeshadow palettes where I can achieve a look just by using the colours contained in that one palette and no separate products. When I first laid my eyes on the smokey eye (trio eyeshadow) kits from models own, the first problem for me was to choose the colours and I wanted to buy them all: They have 6 trios on offer, with suitable sexy smokey names, all starting with the letter S: Sultry, Seduce, Smoulder, Sensual, Simmer and Sassy. But I decided to be ... sssensible and just buy one.



So I waited for the half price sale and purchased 'Simmer' trio, the only true matte eyeshadow trio from the collection, at £4 instead of the usual £8. The trio comes up with fully detailed 6-stages instructions on how to achieve a smokey eye and two cute brushes.

Had my local Boots stored some Models Own at the time, I would have had the chance to swatch it beforehand and make a more informed decision. You've guessed it, the trio is just not good enough for me and I can't use it really. The main problem for me is low pigmentation. The light shade hardly shows on my hand (I should have marked the spot really) The warm and dark brown offer better pigmentation but I find them a bit patchy and not just good enough. Cue swatch:

I've tried to create a makeup look with the trio to demonstrate the colours applied on the eyes but I was unable to create a look I was happy with it and I found I needed to add some darker brown to add a bit of depth to the look, which totally defeated the purpose of finding a handy self sufficient eyeshadow palette.


Matte eyeshadows palettes are renowned to be a little more difficult to get it right and I knew it would be a gamble before buying it. Thanks goodness Simmer was a half price gamble, as I would have been ever more sorely disappointed. Don't let it deter you from swatching the other smokey trios, but you'll be better off skipping simmer. Right, there's no more words starting with S I can find..


Thank you for reading.

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Les Scarabées de Novembre*

I have not even played with my Models Own nail polishes purchases from the half price sale and here I am, lusting for more polishes. But wait, hear me out, these are not any nail polishes, these are beetle effect nail polishes. Feast your eyes on the 'Beetle Juice' Collection due to be released sometime in November.




Inspired by colourful beetle bugs,

 


Models Own will be releasing 5 shades of duochrome nail polishes:

GOLDEN GREEN: a fresh energetic acid;
PINKY BROWN: a warm rusty pink;
PURPLE BLUE: a vibrant punch of fuchsia indigo;
AQUA VIOLET: a true sky shimmer; and
EMERALD BLACK: a bold-blackened midnight peacock





I am not 100% sure about which one is pinky brown (3rd bottle?) and which one is purple blue (2nd bottle), so please excuse me if I didn’t write the names of the polishes on the picture.


 

Each bottle contains four pearlescent colours mixed into one gleaming shade, and the complex colour-shifting, with flashes of vivid tones and ethereal hues, gives a shimmering duo chrome finish.

Now wouldn't be great if the company did a 48hr free delivery for any purchase including let's say 2 beetle polishes, which should amount to £10, assuming the nail polishes would retail at their usual £5.
I know which ones I want and must get. Golden green, golden green, golden green, which should finally relieve my obsession with £17.50 Chanel Péridot.

What about you?
Will you be having some beetle juice this winter?

*Scarabées de Novembre: French for November Beetles

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Pay Day Temptations

If I didn't know before today I was a nail polish addict, today I have one proof my love for nail polishes has reached uncontrollable heights. I've just indulged in a models own half price sale (my polishes have reached me safely 2 days afterwards!) I've not played with them yet and I want some more. Let me share with you what I've now got my heart on.


These polishes are from the Models Own Professional Range, which is a little bit pricier than the normal range: £8 per bottle as opposed to £ 5, for the traditional range


The Models Own Professional justifies their prices as it is "specially formulated to both assist nail growth and prolong colour, preventing any fading. Added benefits of the premium range include vitamin E and UV sun filters to protect the nail". The added benefits do sound very nice but at the end of the day it's still £8.


This another bootleg press release picture, showing of the very well kept stand of Models Own Professional range in the Boots shop in a town near me.



  



and these are the shades which got me drooling in particular.








I need to hang in my head in shame as I wrote the information about the first polish incorrectly and looking back at my notes, there is no way that this polish can be called 'Stark Naked' and be a nude beige with a golden shimmer. My guess is that this one is called ‘Lavender Blue’. ‘Pinky Pearl’ is a rather odd name for this sumptuous shade of shimmer reddy rusty orange shade. ‘Sunny Honey’ is a shimmery golden yellow and Clay Away is gorgeous shade of khaki.







If money grew on trees, those beauties would be what I would have loved to spend my pennies on. Boots have a got a special 'triple points 'offer on, especially for the bank holiday week end but I shall be good and resist... until there is hopefully another 3 for 2 offer on these polishes. If you do happen to know the name of pale lilac polish, please let me know!




Will you be splurging at Boots this week end?

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Plan of attack…

No one likes to get it wrong but on this occasion I am so glad my first instincts were wrong. When Models Own promised their customers that they would be offering a half price sale if they reach 50,000 Facebook Fans by the end of the month, not only was the pessimistic in me didn't think they would reach their target but that they could reach it 10 days before the deadline would have never crossed my head. I am a pessimist at heart and it helps me to be less disappointed in life, in theory.


But they made it and, according to their latest Facebook update, they are hoping that the sale will happen today. Hoping is the operative word there. To say that I am excited and anxious is an understatement. I started to get into nail polishes right after their last half price sale and I didn't think such a dramatic sale, in search for a better word, at 05.43am, would happen again before Christmas.


Anyway,


if everything goes to plan,
if the code is released today,
if I haven't totally lost it by then,
if my internet connection works,
if the website copes with the traffic generated
if facebook isn't down
if I haven't lost my bank card
if there is no power cut
if I don't fall under a bus

and if the shades I want are still there...


This is going to be my plan of attack.


There is no way, to my knowledge, to save the shades in the basket in advance. The search facility is not working properly so I need to find a way to quickly identify the objects of my desire.

Yes, ‘sad’ is the word you’re looking for here ….

In addition, I would also want to get 2 of their new smokey eye kits, which I have been lusting for/on/over for a while.



Will you be taking part in the models own sale?
Have you got your heart on some shades of nail polish in particular?

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Champagnes and Roses NOTD

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What a fancy title for something which is not really exciting. Please forgive me. About 2 weeks ago, I shared with you my own knock off version of Models Own 'Golden Peach', a miniature polish part of an ridiculous cheap set of 3 polishes (£1.49 to be precise).





I was never going to play with the other 2 polishes from the set, until my friend Sinead from Dainty Dolly Mix asked how I went along with them. So I thought I would quickly swatch them for you.


The first one is a lovely champagne gold. As with Golden Peach, this polish absolutely pongs (is that the right word) but the colour makes up for it. Application was tedious, as it took 4 coats to achieve the coverage you see on the pictures. overall, this polish is definitely worth £0.49p but I would love to find a better quality equivalent for it. The scent is so strong and going through 4 coats of this is not what I would call a pleasurable experience.









The red is not my favourite kind of shade. This is a browny red and I much prefer my red to be brighter. Streaky application, strong scent added to a colour which is just decent would probably lead this polish straight into the bin. I have more delightful red polishes in my collection and I don't really this one.




 


All in all, Champagne Gold and Browny Red didn't even measure up to the beauty of Golden Peach and the latter will always be my favourite from the set.

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The Dusk about Barry M : Hype and Sensitivity around dupes

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When someone decides to make a remix of a popular track and commercialise it, they usually need to ask permission to the author and pay some rights. From this alone, I reckon, ABBA must be absolutely minted and probably never have to work again. But how does it work when a makeup company decides to recreate a popular makeup product from a very well known brand? How did it work for example, when Models Own recreated 3 shades from Chanel Khaki Collection and many companies (Barry M, Models Own, Revlon, and lately Asda to name a few) took their take on Chanel Paradoxal? Did they need to pay rights to Chanel? Did they need to ask permission beforehand? If this is the case, how long after the public release of the original brand do they need to wait before the release of their duplicate? Is this detrimental to brand or highlighting the pure genius of a brand, who ‘inspired’ so many companies. 



When Chanel released their Paradoxal Nail Polish on that Friday 13 August, I am not sure anybody was ready for the stir it was going to create among the blogosphere and makeup lovers around the globe. For the purpose of this blogpost, and by curiosity, I wanted to track down the actual date when Barry M released their version of Chanel Paradoxal, their 'Dusky Mauve' but I hurt a brick wall. I googled first of all in the hope to find an answer, but alas with no success. Then I tried to see which blogger blogged about it first to see if they had the answer, again no luck there.


So I bit the bullet, the horn and everything (however the expression goes) and decided to ring Barry M to see if they would tell me. Another brick wall. The lady was nice enough but terribly protective of the information: 


'Why do you want this information' she asked.
Me: 'Oh just by curiosity' Her: 'Please give me a moment'.
At her return: 'We're not able to give you this information'.
Me: 'Oh, is that because you don't know or you are not allowed to tell me'?.
She goes: 'Well it depends why you need this information for'.
I went 'Oh i have this small blog on internet and I wanted to provide this information for my readers'.
'Oh' she says (tone of voice changes as it is now more acceptable to ask)

So this is when I asked myself 'what does it matter why i want to know this information for? The date is not to going to change depending on what I know to know it more, does it?


Anyway, she comes back and says something like

'It was in September'.
Me 'Thank you, would you have the exact date please?'
She goes 'We can't give you this information'.
Me again 'Is that because you don't know or you're not allowed to say'.
Her: We're not allowed to say.

I thanked her, and ended the conversation.

My google researches already led me to end of September, all I wanted to know was the exact date. Why so much secrecy? Maybe the lady didn't know and didn't have the courage to say 'To be honest, I haven't got a clue'.
Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that it's a dupe of Chanel Paradoxal and there is some senstivity there?
Meh, I don't know.


Very late after the party, these are my swatches of the much talked about and very difficult to source, Barry M, Dusky Mauve released at some undefined date at the very end of September but which really took the blogosphere by a storm during the month of October.






Is it worth the hype?

As my friend ellie said, I think this polish has been a bit too overhyped. It is nonetheless a gorgeous colour on the following conditions: If you're after this polish to admire this gorgeous & precious light purple shimmer shining through it, then don't bother. You'll have a nightmare to:

1. capture it on photos, and facing a dilemma trying to share with others its elusive beauty.
2. actually see that shimmer for yourself.
   

The reality of this polish is that it's a dusky mauve and that's that. Buying this polish to see the gorgeous shimmer in it, it's like going to the cinema to see a 3 hours movie to see a fleeting 2 seconds appearance of your favourite actor. I saw that shimmer, and it really fascinated me, but the following day it was gone, in the same manner as the freshly polished lustre of any polish would go after 1 day. Even during that one day, I was failing to see that gorgeous shimmer, in most lighting conditions my nails were exposed to.




 

Am I glad I bought this polish? Hell yeah. I am 500% happy with it and I love it to bits, but I accept it for what it is: a greyish purple, a stunning one, but with not much chance to see that most talked about shimmer in it. I am a big fan of Barry M polishes (their formula, ease of application and amazing bargain price {£2.99} and value for money) but there are not many shades for me (too many cremes, not enough shimmers and duochromes) so Dusky Mauve for me is a delight and was a very welcome and unique addition to my growing collection of nail polishes.





Is it worth ruining a friendship? Definitely not. If you see it in your local Boots or Superdrug, get it, this polish will enchant you. I am totally under the charm.

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A dupe of Models Own 'Golden Peach' at £0.49?

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. My blog is rapidly turning into 'let me buy all the cheap tat in the shops, so that you don't have to'. Inspired by friend Debbie who discovered some bargains at bodycare, I stumbled on a trio of mini polishes (7ml in each bottle), and right in the middle of this trio, this peachy polish infused with gold, which reminded me straight away of Models Own Golden Peach, one of many items on my ever expanding wishlist.


 






This trio was priced at £1.49, making this little sexy number just costing £0.49. At this price, even if I get 5 manicures with it, I'll be happy. The first swipe on my nails and it was love at first sight and I just couldn't wait to pait all my other nails with it and show it to you. Application was a breeze despite a very sheer formula. Here you can see 2 coats applied over a nude polish, the same one as normal, misscellaneous from missguided yadi yada *yawn*. I must buy another nude polish because at this rate, I am going to run out by the end of the month.







Love at first SIGHT but definitely not love at first SNIFF: I'm not sure what they put in there but, boy, 'goldy peachy' as I would like to call it stinks the place out. I actually usually love the smell of the chemicals in the polishes but this is a different story altogether and it reminded me a bit of the smell of a freshly painted bench.







Overall opinion: other than being impatient at the nail polish to dry so that the nail polish diminishes in smell power, I am very happy with my little bargain and until I can afford it, this will be my very own models own golden peach to keep and enjoy.

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Crackle Polishes go technicolor: Blessing or overdose? Radioactive Lizard NOTD

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Apparently crackle polishes first started their appearance years ago and what we noticed in England, when Barry M released their record breaking 'paint effects' black top coat last October was a revival of the trend. Revival or not, it took the blogosphere by a storm, and I was one of many who didn't even such a effect could be achieved with a nail polish. I have no idea how the contraction works and makes the polish, snap, pop and crackle (to reuse dottie k's expression) but I have to confess it's quite fascinating watching it doing its thing.






When I first wore 'Barry M' paint effects at work, the first thing my colleagues asked was if 'they' did it in other colours. Well, now 'they' do. Models Owen firmly embraced the trend with both arms and are about to unleash their 'Smash up' range, 8 colour additions to the crackle trend, with also a black version thrown in for good measure. The range is very enticing: bright colours, funky bottle lid design and cool name.









You'll be able to get your talons on them, at £6 each from April 6th online at http://www.modelsownit.com/ (thank you Drew692 for info on release date) and in selected Boots Stores later on in the month of April.


The polishes not being available yet, I obviously couldn't try them on. So here's a little manicure done with beautyuk yellow peril (see it worn on its own here) with a thick coat of Barry M paint effects on top. I prefer my crackle to be big and chunky so I like to apply a generous coat of it.










Have you joined the crackle bangwagon yet? Will you be 'smashing it'?


credit: big kiss to debbie aka @drew692 and her cool tumbrl beautyblog for letting me use her pictures.

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