Swatch Sunday – With a twist

I am feeling really poorly right now. Don’t feel sorry for me, I am nursing a bad head because I over indulged last night. But it’s Sunday, it’s the day when I have my blogging date with Sirvinya and business must carry on. For you today, I have some swatches of a little beauty from Gosh. Not a unique shade by any means, but definitely worth getting for the pleasure of its application. Everytime I play with Gosh polishes, I forget how dreamy they are to work with. My photos show 2 coats.






  

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Hello Holo :)

What? Another nail post. Yes. I really need to mix things up a bit before this blog turns into a nail polish blog but I am trying to get back into the habit of updating my blog more frequently and nail polish is the only thing I can stick my teeth into at the moment. I hope the little beauty I have to share with you will make up for it.





Hot from the Boots oven, this is 'Silver' 17's take on the holographic trend. About time the high street gave Gosh Holographic a little bit of competition. The Silver Holo is much more subtle that the legendary holographic from Gosh, recently renamed 'one night only'.It also doesn't quite have the 'metallic wave' effect which you find on your typical holographic craft paper, but it still just as hypnotising.

   

  




Like the Gosh Holo, you just can't quite comprehend what's on your fingers, the effect is just so magical. Application was far more superior than the Gosh Holo: effortless, smooth, with the added bonus of being fast drying.
   







You need this in your life.









The end.


what: 'Silver' Holo Nail Polish from Boots 17 Cosmetics
where: erm, Boots.
how much: £2.99 or £3.99 (I don't remember)
bought by me

A big wave to my blogging friends Claire (Eyelining Obsessions) and Liz (Cappuccino Lace) for joining me tonight for a #bloggingdate.

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Under the sun: Daring Dragon and a little giveaway

Once upon a time, I met a lovely girl Emma who used to comment frequently on my blog. I soon found out that Emma also had a blog. Her cruelty-free nail polish blog 'Imagination in Colour' has now become one of my favourite reads. I love the way Emma writes. She thinks she's rambling on too much but I think her reviews are just right and very comprehensive. She's also on the ball, would also know about nail polishes releases before anybody else (I believe Emma was amongst the first ones to post about the Barry M magnetic polishes) and already own Gosh Galaxy even before I knew about it :) To top it all off, she's just acquired a fancy camera, so the quality of her photos is even better! She's ace and I love her to pieces.



Emma is doing a little survey at the moment on her blog and for one minute of you time, she would like to enter you in a small giveaway: The majestic but now discontinued Gosh Dragon nail polish. So if you would like to enter her giveaway (ends 15 September) please click here or any of the pictures below.





This is also the opportunity for me to play again with Gosh Dragon (reviewed here) and start the first episode of my 'under the sun' series. (Click here to see what it's all about.)

   

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Gosh Galaxy

When the news of the iconic Gosh Holographic nail polish being relaunched first broke, the first question that many of us asked ourselves was 'Are Gosh going to be doing coloured holographic nail polishes too or just the silver holo one’? Well, from what I've managed to gather, there is only going to be one holographic polish released in September but it looks like that Galaxy, another soon to be launched polish has got some serious holographic potential. I could totally been barking the wrong tree and maybe Gosh Galaxy is going to turn out more like Eyeko Cosmic rather than 'Reclaim' from Nubar but there is hope and we'll see.








Come September (I have yet to establish the right release date for these little beauties) I will also need to indulge in Lazy Green, which promises to be a very nice shade of khaki. I only own one khaki nail polish, a £1 little bargain from MUA. It fulfils my khaki needs but I wouldn't mind a more upmarket one.





Of course, I will need to purchase the repackaged and soon to relaunch 'holo' from Gosh. Quite frankly, I don't own a nail polish which has moved me as much. No photo I could take could possibly communicate its beauty to you, you need to experience it first hand. Its application is a journey in itself. As for its lasting power, it was the very reason why it was discontinued in the first place. Apparently people complained about it and it was dropped down from the shelves and stopped from being produced. But even more people complained that it disappeared. So much so that it started to sell on eBay for 5 times its value.




Its lasting power is still the same and Gosh is the first one to admit that, which is why it's now called 'one night only'. I hope Gosh is prepared for the storm this little holographic is going to cause as this might well beat the sales of this fire from Max factor.


Oh I nearly forgot. Gosh could have totally 'done a Sleek makeup' coup and amped its prices up drastically for the occasion. But no. The new polishes are planned to be sold at £4.99. Woop :)

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Swatch Sunday: Gosh Smokey Eyes Palette

what: Gosh Cosmetics Smokey Eyes Palette in shade 02 Brown
how much: £7.99
where: Superdrug shops nationwide
disclaimer: palette was bought by me

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Oh my gosh! They are back :)

I am very excited to tell you that the 'Oh My Gosh' mini polishes (£3.49, Superdrug) from Gosh are back. They were first released last year in July and stayed on the shelves for a month, if that, pushing the boundaries of the meaning of 'limited edition' to a whole new level.






Amongst this delightful collection, was a true gem, called Nude Champagne (shade 22) which was an instant case of love at first swipe. I waxed lyrical about it here. I knew in an instant that I had to get myself a dupe of it. For me, it's just the perfect nude. The problem is that when I went back to the shop, the whole collection had sold ou, and the stand made way for some new stuff. Well, Gosh has re-released some shades, eight new shades according to my shop.
and the shades are:

22 Nude Champagne (reviewed here)

21 Peachy Rose

09 Cobalt Blue

07 Appel Green (photographed below)

11 Electric Pink

20 Light Nutt (I wonder what this shade is?)

18 Brown Grey (photographed below)

02 Classic Red (photographed below)

Please do not take my photo above as reference. I am not sure quite sure what this baby blue (first bottle on the left) is doing in my shop, haven't got a clue about the name of that yellow polish and this pink is definitely not electric. Yes, it's another majectic shamble on the Gosh front. No one knows what's going on, the company on twitter can't help either. But I can't complain. I have been dying to get a spare bottle of nude champagne and I am over the moon. Woop  


Did you get to buy these mini polishes last year? Will you be having some this year?

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Anxiously waiting for…

... the release of the Smokey Eyes Palettes from Gosh Cosmetics. Ever since I saw Beaut.ie's post, I've been regularly checking my local Superdrug to see if they have arrived. We're talking about 3 to 4 times a week. Today, I've finally asked for more information on twitter and rumour has it that it won't reach our British shores (the palette has already been made available in Ireland for a while) before 'sometime' in April.




I am particularly desperate for the brown quad as it's designed to feature exclusively matte shadows and that good quality eyeshadow palette which doesn't break the bank are very hard to find. I've been using this little matte fella from Gosh to death and it's about time I purchased a replacement. I love gosh eyeshadows: They feel a little hard and dry at first, but in return they offer a good colour pay off, have very little fall out and are easy to blend.


I am told that the palette will be sold at £7.99 and will be released sometime in April. Watch this space, as there is NO DOUBT, this will end up in my home and on my eyes. Yeeha!    

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Crackle me madly notdees

If you're tired of the crackle nail polish trend, you might want to turn away now. If you still enjoy playing with crackle polishes, these might interest you. When 17 cosmetics released their gold crackle, I was only midly interested. It was not bright and in-your-face gold enough for my liking and I happily skipped it. A little bit more recently 17 cosmetics came back with 2 new additions to their crackle family and released these 2 babies: a vibrant purple crackle and a really original crackle: a mixture of gold, glitter and black crackle.






I think I've already found my perfect purple crackle. It's BROKEN ARROW from MUA Cosmetics and it's perfect on every aspect. I like Broken Arrow so much that not only it's my favourite purple crackle but it might be my favourite crackle polish of all. So I didn't have much hope for the Boots 17 purple crackle to impress me.

I decided to use GAMMA from Illamasqua as a base  for my first play and I was really taken by surprise. The vibrancy of the purple is absolutely amazing. It is not as metallic intense as Broken Arrow (but this is turn makes it easier to photograph) but it has the most gorgeous blue undertone which comes to life when a powerful light hit it.




I love the way the crackle created this x shape on my middle finger





Application was easy, even though I have found the formula a bit thick. I like my crackle to be quite chunky so I had to make a point to load the brush to the max before applying the crackle polish onto my nails.

I have yet to ascertain if using a nail polish thinner would alter the crackle formulation or whether it would still crackle? Does anyone of you know?

I was quite excited to try the gold/black/and glitter polish. I decided to use a nude polish underneath: NUDE CHAMPAGNE by Gosh which I am absolutely obsessed with at the moment. This crackle is very unique. In fact, it's so different from any crackle polish that I've known that I would like NOT to call it crackle. Whilst the finished effect is gorgeous and give you ultimate party nails in an instant, the crackle effect is much more subtle. It doesn't crackle as much as 'normal crackles'. Could it be because of the chunky glitter inside it?







I couldn't stop looking at my nails whilst I was wearing this combo but I kept on wishing the glitter had been more fine. Removal as expected was quite laborious because of the chunky glitter. This polish presents the usual glitter dilemma for me. Is it gorgeous enough for me to put up with the removal process.

If you're expecting this polish to be a true crackle, you'll be disappointed. If you're in a rush, and have 2 minutes to jazz up your chipped nude nails before a party: you'll be in love with this and all eyes will be on you too.

I am lucky. I didn’t have to buy these 2 polishes as my friend from work bought them 2 days ago. Me thinks she should leave them in the office all the time :)

As far as I know, these crackle polishes don't have a name.
How would you call them?

What? 17 Cosmetics Nail Extras Crackle Top Coat
How much? £3.99
Where: any boots, even the 'crap' little ones :)

Related posts:
Mua Cosmetics Purple Crackle Nail Polish (Broken Arrow).
Gosh ohmygosh Nude Champagne Nail Polish.
Illamasqua Gamma Nail Polish.

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Early Green Nails and new releases from Gosh

Another day and another little trip to Superdrug. Today, I am taking you to the gosh corner of my little Superdrug to show you an amazing lime green polish by Gosh. This is Early Green, shade 606 (£4.99) It's bright, it's in your face and I love it.






Despite to what the noticeable booboos I've made on my index and middle finger might suggest, this polish was a delight to apply. All my photos show 2 coats of Early Green with no clean up whatsoever. Well, considering the massive gap I’ve left around the cuticle, it’s no wonder I didn’t need any clean up. I am working to reduce that gap. The amount of coverage delivered just after one coat really impressed me.










 




I leave you with some cheeky snapshots of the latest nail polishes from Gosh. Gosh released 4 gorgeous limited edition nail polishes (£4.99) with a very cute artwork on the bottle. You can hop along to Kelly’s aka Jellyminx Thinks Blog: she has some gorgeous swatches for you.  The 4th colour appears to be black on my dodgy bootleg quick_before_anyone_sees_me  photo but it turns out to be a very dark and elegant bottle green.








Last but not least, Gosh has hopped on the crackle bandwagon and has released 4 shades of 'cracked' nail polishes. The shades looks very nice, the design on the bottle cap too and the promotional picture delicious and inviting. However, I feel that, personally they will struggle to sell their shades of crackled polish (£5.49) which is such a shame.




*cue uncontrolled rambling*



 



On average, each company which I have seen doing crackle polish sell the product for £1 more than the normal polish. Beautyuk usually sells their polishes at £1.99 so their shatter polish is sold at £2.99. Barry M would usually sell their traditional polishes at £2.99 and the crackle version at £3.99. Gosh, by contrast has only amped their prices by £0.50 which is really generous but the competition they're facing is too hard.

To give you an example, my tiny little Superdrug has a permanent table put out, with chairs and white towel on which could almost look like a nail technician work station. On this improvised station, 3 plaquettes displaying a multitude of nails, showcasing Barry M crackles and the various colour combinations you can get.


This workstation is there all the time, from the minute they open the store till 5.30pm when they close it. Client goes in, see the 'exhibition' and no one sees the MUA crackles, the Beautyuk nor the Gosh ones. I feel a bit sorry for the other brands really. Do you think, in the case of my shop, Barry M felt suddenly threatened and decided on this tactical approach? I was a bit rude one day. Shop assistant was demonstrating the Barry M polishes and I barged in and went: It's the gold crackle you want, it's better :) I am not sure which one she bought in the end.


I couldn't work in Superdrug, I'd be wanting to push the underdogs forward and would get fired for it... I am surprised they even let me in as a customer. I bet they think 'Oh that's the weirdo which comes in every Saturday...

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Lime Soda and Champagne {eotd & notd}

I am still angry at myself for having missed the 'all nyx eye pencils at £1' from cocktail cosmetics the other day. More than ever since then, I have been obsessed to get my hands on a bright lime pencil. Ideally, I would have loved to buy a Revlon, as a big fan of the colorstay eye pencils, or a Bourjois but both these brands don't offer a bright lime. There was 3 for 2 on Gosh recently and I finally took the plunge and bought Gosh Lime Soda 'velvet touch' eye pencil






The colour is absolutely gorgeous. It's just the perfect shade


 


However, I am not in love with this pencil. I know many of you are absolutely in love with these pencils, but I found the application of Lemon Soda a bit laborious, the texture a bit on the dry side and not as creamy as I would have liked. For its price tag of £5, it took a few goes for the pencil to warm to my waterline, and showing some pigmentation before firmly migrating soon after to my lashline.


Removal of lemon soda was even more laborious. This is not the fault of Gosh. The pencil is meant to be long lasting and waterproof which I failed to read, as I was too enchanted by the colour to consider anything else.


Another product which I have been waiting anxiously for its release is the line of mini polishes from Gosh (£2.99 for 5ml of product). I decided to be good, and just buy 1 from the range and opted for 'nude champagne' (022).






I am absolutely thrilled with my purchase. The colour would suit a darker skintone better than mine but the polish offered me full opacity in just ONE coat, and all the photos outdoor and indoor show just one coat of 'champagne'. My application is very rushed. I didn’t expect to apply just one coat at all!!



 





This would be a perfect polish to take with me if I am in a rush, packing to go somewhere, and absolutely no idea of the final outfit I'd be wearing and when my unsightly yellow nails would need to look pretty and polished. This would also be perfect as a base for other colour polishes which would require 3 or 4 coats to achieve opacity and cover the white nail line. Ironically, this polish would need to exist in ... full size. There I said it.





Lime Soda annoyed me, Champagne excited me. 


Fin.

p.s Like the look of these mini polishes? Nic from Strawberry Blonde Beauty Blog is giving away 6 shades of the Gosh mini polish on her blog. Don't delay your entry, her giveaway closes on August 1st!

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Bargains Alert in the Gosh Corner

It's sale time at Superdrug and there are plenty of bargains to be made in the gosh corner. The absolutely gorgeous limited edition polishes (if they are any left in your store, that is) are now ALL half price. You can see me wearing the groovy grey here. They had the misty mauve today in my Superdrug. It was very hard to resist. I am going to think about it overnight, and if it’s still there on Saturday, then it will be a sign that God wants me to buy it :P





And then you have all these little babies as well on sale. I am very tempted to get the foundation. We’ll see if it’s still there on Saturday.





1. GOSH Natural Touch Foundation £4.49 (was £8.99)
2. GOSH Trio Eye Shadow £3.49 (was £7.49)
3. GOSH Velvet Touch Lipstick at £4.49 (was £6.49)
4. GOSH Long Lasting Lip Marker Berry £4.99 (was £6.99)


Shame the velvet touch eye pencil in lime is not on sale. I have been wanting a nice true lime eye pencil for a while but I feel it’s tad too expensive for me. I could kick myself for not having bagged the nyx equivalent on Cocktail Cosmetics at £1 last week! *slaps forehead*


Any of these bargains piqued your interest? or perhaps it’s the don’t get me started on the miscommunication about the release date of the  cutesy oh my gosh mini polishes (£2.99 for 5ml) which will get you down to your beloved Superdrug?

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