Nudey Dudeys

It's been so long since I've blogged that I feel I have forgotten how to do it. To ease myself gently back into it, I wanted to share with you my impressions on the second half of the neons and nudes set from Nails Inc. After being very disappointed with the opacity of the neon side, playing with the nudes was a walk in the park. Just two coats and the white line of my nail was appropriately hidden.




I hope you will excuse again the 'lazy' manicure. These bottles are so small (only 4ml of product in each of them) and you really feel the big dent in the bottle after 2 coats on each finger. Porchester is such a lovely colour. It was love first sight. If I listened to my heart, I'd go buy a full size bottle right now. I feel it compliments my skin tone quite nicely. I didn't get along with Cadogan Square at all. I can't put my finger in it, it just clashes with my skin tone. It feels a bit like trying to pull off a shade of blonde hair on someone designed to be a brunette.






No seche vite was used in this manicure. Holding a normal size bottle of nail polish made the photograph taking easier






The little cherry on the top in this set was the timeless classic Jermyn Street and it made me fall in love with it all over again. I could have sworn to have blogged about it before but a quick search on my blog made me realise that I was wrong.


Jermyn street is quite simply the best brown nail polishes out there. Some of you will call it taupe but to be honest, I don’t know much about colours to distinguish between taupe, brown, mushroom and all that. Since jermyn street, I have not touched at my Barry M mushroom which I find quite bland in comparison. Jermyn has just the perfect dosage of purple in there and I don’t think I could ever get bored of this colour. I would totally recommend it!

  







  

It’s time of the week again when I have a blogging date with Becky. Hop over to my friend Becky aka sirvinya and check out her post of the day

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Neon Skittles

Everything beauty is just so Christmas focussed, I wanted to take a little step back, break from the mould and write about something a little different. I will embrace Christmas when I am ready but for now I want to write about something bright, something neon. Some of you will associate neon colours more with Summer. For me, neon is there anytime you want to brighten your mood and this is just what I need at the moment. Without wanting to throw my doom and gloom on you, I've spent most of the past week under the weather, mourning the loss of a close friend of mine. It's been quite cathartic to cry but now I feel the urge to shake myself out of it and inject some brightness into my life again.

 
Cue the Nails Inc 'Neons and Nude' boxset of mini polishes. I was lucky to win the boxset in a blog giveaway and the neon shades had to go on my nails first.
   
   





For you today, I have some swatches of the 3 neon shades: Westbourne Grove, Portobello and Notting Hill Gate.



The first shade which I felt compelled to try first was Westbourne Grove, the neon yellow-orange shade. I am not going to beat about the bush. I was very disappointed. Whilst I find the colour absolutely gorgeous, the application was laborious. The formula was smooth enough, but it was way too sheer. I paired it with my favourite nude polish underneath but even then it took 3 coats of polish to be able to appreciate the colour of Westbourne Grove. Then it's the finish I had trouble with. I do like matte polishes but when Westbourne dried on my nails, it looked decidedly dull.





Portobello and Notting Hill Gate were a little bit better in terms of coverage but they still required the application of a nude polish underneath, which defies the object of 'quick, let's just apply a bright ass nail polish to cheer myself up'. Enjoyment of the neon part of this box set takes time and patience.





There's something as well you should know. Bottles only contain 4 ml of product. Do not be fooled by the photos. 4ml is not much at all which explains why I only opted for a skittles manicure to show you how it looks when applied on the nails. The set is very cute but I find the price tag of £22 a little steep for sheer polishes. Maybe the other half will fare better in terms of opacity?  
   
   



If you like Westbourne Grove but feel slightly put off by its pigmentation pay off, I'd recommend BonBon by Beautyuk. You’ll have your bright orange/yellow fix quicker and with less effort. I moan, I moan but I am quite happy to be the owner of this set. It brightened my mood, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

   

I am once again eternally 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, I am not quite sure I would have updated my blog at all these days

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NailsInc BlueBell Nails courtesy of InStyle Magazine

Bluebell or wild hyacinth is the name of a flower, belonging to the lily family and which grows shed loads in Scotland. Also the name of a gorgeous creme finish nailsinc nail polish which came free in the June 2012 edition of the InStyle Magazine (full details of the operation and other free colours here) 





I vowed myself not to buy it, as I am not really into blue polishes to be honest (don't let me enumerate my exceptions because that would defeat the point that I've just made) but it was free with the magazine and Emma wanted to see what it looks like. That's it, I am just going to blame Emma for this acquisition.


NailsInc BlueBell was lovely to play with (applied very sloppily here though!) It does present the usual nailsinc quirk, i.e goes on a bit unevenly at first to dry to a smooth finish later, but I am cool with that. The coverage is exceptional. In one thick coat, it covered the not-so white of the white of my nails but you still want to apply a second coat to cover the ridges of the nail. The colour reminded me of a cross between Models Own Beth's Blue (what I actually wore on my nails the day I avatared myself) and Gosh Lavender Love. It is a beauty.








Do you need it in your collection?
If you are into purpley blue polishes, this is definitely one gorgeous limited edition item to own, wear with proud and enjoy. I am :)

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Free NailsInc polishes in Instyle Mag. starts tomorrow

I reckon that my nail polish is so vast that I could have enough nail polish to paint the hands and toes of all the people at my workplace. But despite that, I am finding it hard to resist a free nail polish. It's not entirely free, mind you. You need to buy a magazine to get it.





Buy the June 2012 edition of InStyle magazine (£3.80) and leave with a free nails inc nail polish worth £11. There are three colours to choose from: Peach Sorbet, BlueBell and Power Pink. These colours were designed exclusively for the magazine, are limited edition, and will be available from tomorrow (Thursday, 3 May 2012) until stocks last.


I quite fancy checking out the ‘Bluebell’ in person and see what it’s like.
Will you be heading to your newsagent and check out the shades too?

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Overglaze: the latest gossip

Can't get your hands on 'Rainbow', the gorgeous discontinued 'flakie' top coat from Gosh? Not a problem. Inspired by the main female characters (Blair, Lily and Serena) of the 'Gossip Girl' American TV series, Nails Inc have released 3 gorgeous collections of special effect nail polishes. Don't call them 'flakies', these are 'overglaze' top coats, dahling!

Using hand cut particles, overglaze top coats will give your nails a futuristic finish which is bang on trend for this season. Applied over a deep glossy nails inc polish, overglaze provides a unique and exciting look for your nails

Meet Blair, a Teal black Blair nail polish teamed with Privileged blue / green overglaze top coat

This is Lily, a Plum black Lily nail polish teamed with High Society red / green overglaze top coat.

and last but not least, meet Serena, a patent black Serena nail polish teamed with It Girl electric blue overglaze top coat

Now, I know what you're going to ask. Can you buy the overglaze top coat separate? No, as far as you know you can't and you need to buy the whole collection, which is £20 per 'character'. But if you don't mind spending £17.50 in Chanel polish, then £20 in a collection of 2 polishes, with limitless combinations brought with the fancy top coat shouldn't be too much a problem :P

Do the nail polish correspond to the personality and look of the characters of the series? I couldn't tell you, I need to confess that I've not watched the series, but boy these polishes are gorgeous and get me more excited than any magnetic polish could ever do!

What? Nails Inc Gossip Girl Special Effects Overglaze Polishes
How much? £20 for one set of 2x10ml bottles
Where? Nails Inc website.

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and the ‘fabulous’ winner is …

I can be very bad at delaying announcing winners for giveaways. This time it was much easier, no extra twitter entries to add to the total number of entries and it was pretty straight forward. So without further, the winner of the News of the World / Fabulous Magazine / Nails Inc giveaway is:

femketje

Congratulations girlie :) You have won. I am going to email you tonight or tomorrow but if you see this post before I email you, by all means, please feel free to get in touch to leave me the details of the address of where I should send you your prize :)


To the lovely 24 others of you who didn’t win, please don’t feel disheartened. I have got 2 more giveaways in the near future coming up. I am hoping to have photographed and launched the first one of them by Friday this week. As usual, it will be international. So stay tuned ;)

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Fashion Fawn Nails and Brown/Taupe Polishes comparison

I've been wondering whether I was a bit harsh with my review of Nails Inc Instyle Orange Candy yesterday. On Emma's positive experiences on Fashion Fawn and Electric Teal, the other 2 shades of nails inc polishes, also free on purchase of In Style magazine this month, I decided to buy 'Fashion Fawn'. Everything is all right with the world again.

Application was the usual easy and I couldn't fault the formula. I was able to be more in control the application again and no hint of gloopyness in sight. I had one hair on the brush right in the middle of the brush longer than the others but it was nothing that a quick snip with a pair of scissors couldn't fix. My photos show 2 coats of polish. Fashion Fawn gets my thumbs up!












I am not very good at describing shades, and comparing it with others. For me it's brown, a nice shade of brown. I am going to leave you all nail polish aficionados and taupe experts to appreciate the nuances in my little comparison swatch below. Thank you Emma for the comparison inspiration :) xx






I really enjoyed that exercise. I have found that:
- Barry M Mushroom was the easiest to apply (They have really nailed their formula!!)
- I still want to recycle / blog sale Accessorize Truffle: not too keen on the brush, it feels so short. I am not very comfortably applying it, the size of the cap of the truffle feels disproportionately too wide too big compared to the length of the brush. I can’t believe how grey and dark it looks here!
- My favourite brown from this little swatch is Jermyn Street and it made me appreciate it even more.
 

This is one of these times when I would have loved to be a freak, to have 4 more fingers on the same hand and compare more shades at once. Now if you want to compare nails inc london, fashion fawn, eyeko posh and no.7 'the brown one' I'd love you for ever :)

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Freebie Fursday {notd}

I am not liking my nails at the moment. They are too short, the nail shape of my index is doing its own thing again but today was a special occasion. Today was Freebie (Th)Fursdaaaay :) The orange fanatic in me found it hard to resist buying a copy in Instyle Magazine this month. Instyle did again one of their popular collaboration with nails inc and promised their readers 3 shades of polishes this month. 5pm couldn't come soon enough for me to get my hands on candy orange.


At the same time, I've been reflecting on my recent purchases of nail polishes and realised that the most I'd been spending lately on nail polishes had been £2.99 (Instyle Magazine costing £3.70!) So I really wanted to have a good look at the bottle and make a final decision then. The polish was much brighter than I expected but since I only had one orange polish in my collection (Gosh Orange Drops) I decided to give it a whirl.



 


Well maybe I shouldn't have bought it after all. I have found candy orange not very easy to apply. I found the formula to be quite thick, verging on gloopy. It has a nice glossy finish but it's one of these polishes that until it's a bit dry, it looks a bit messy to be honest. But if the colour and the result is nice, it's all that matters right?




Well, I do love orange but this is bit too on the neon side for my liking. Photos show 2 coats but ideally this manicure needs 3 coats. Overall, I am not very impressed by this shade and it will no doubt come up in some sort of blog sale. What a shame, I had great hopes for this little orange number. Maybe my expectations were too high. I should have bought the brown instead *sigh*






Candy Orange? I would prefer to call this more Fanta Orange, as it also comes free with plenty of bubbles unfortunately.

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Inglot Candy Nails

I was not planning to wear nail polish for a while. I was planning even less to post any pictures of my nails!  I had to cut them right down to the base (very bad tear) and I much prefer doing nail posts when my nails are a little bit longer. I feel that they showcase a nail polish better but hey ho, short nails deserve to be loved too right?





Today, I am wearing a little freebie from a magazine. It's an oldie but a goodie: It was given away in 'In Style' Magazine and it's called 'Candy'. Candy a lovely shade of lilac pink. It's very girly, very pink but the lilac tones prevents it from being too 'barbie' girl and too cutesy. Application was easy, although I find this polish a little bit on the thick side. If you're a rush, you could get away with one coat as the coverage is pretty impressive but 2 coats will give you immaculate and even coverage. 


And now for the obligatory photo with flash (I much prefer taking my nail photos with flash!)




And now powered with natural sunlight :)





I am not into 'creme' finishes really. I find 'creme' finishes to be a little flat, unless they are nude mannequin shades or greige. But this one I like. And I like it better because it came free with a magazine!


 


In the occasions, when I miss my shimmer drama, I like to pair Instyle candy with the most gorgeous top coat ever: Inglot 017, one of my very few purchases from Imats (January 2011)


 


This very sheer polish will just 'prettify' any polish you have and will add some kind of duochrome pink/bluey glow to your nails. If you wear it on its own (about 4 coats though) it will just make your nails so pretty and elegant.





I've worn on its own a few times (very hard to photograph) and they look like very clean, fresh rosy glow nails and I always get compliments. It would be the kind of shade Men scared of nail polishes would like, something pretty safe you would want to wear when you meet his parents too ;)





Talking of freebies, and if you're in the UK, keep your eyes opened for some other magazines offers: Fee from Makeup Savvy and Grace from London Makeup Girl  have found some offers for us, starting in just a few days time. Weee! :) Ooo I like a magazine freebie! Which one is the best one you’ve collected so far?

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** Winners ** Nails Inc. Giveaway Winners

The drums have been taken out of the cupboard tonight for a special occasion tonight: the giving away of £50 worth of beautyuk makeup. So this is the perfect occasion to announce the winners of my nails inc giveaway. I am sorry it took me so long. While it's been absolutely fabulous from you to retweet the giveaway, it has also been quite a task to keep track of the retweets.






With apologies for the delay, the entries have been counted and verified and I can announce that the 2 winners of the nails inc polishes are:

LibraKitten 

Karrisx

Congratulations ladies, keep an eye out for your inbox as you’ve been notified by email that you have won :) xx

Thank you so much to everyone who entered and MOST OF ALL  for sharing with me their favourite nail polishes. This is very dear to me as I am becoming a nail polish addict. Thank you so much xx

liloo (aka @tsunimee on twitter) x

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Diet Coke Nails Inc ‘Plum’ NOTD

Blogging about nails and stay current at the same time is tricky: Your nails need to be decent for any eventuality and any release. Sadly my nails are not very good at the moment, especially the poor nail of my index finger which is slowly recovering from a bad break. But the ‘Nails Inc Diet Coke’ operation (buy 2 bottles of diet coke and grab a free polish from Nails Inc from 4 to to choose from) cannot wait for my all my nails to grow at the same length and I just had to show you this colour.  Apologies for the bad pictures, hasty application (no clean up – this is raw pictures baby) and missing index finger.






This is my second and final purchase from the Nails Inc Diet Coke this January 2011 as the 2 other free shades on offer (blue and lilac pink) didn’t appeal to me. This one is simply called ‘plum’.







Coverage from one coat was very impressive but here it is with 2 coats. Like caramel I tried on yesterday, this shade is nice enough but I don’t like on me. The finish is nice, the shine is nice, but I find it a bit dull and bland on me.

 




I was wearing caramel all day today (the first free shade I got from this diet coke offer) and actually quite like it with a sheer coat of revlon starlight on them, but this one is not a keeper and I am not quite sure what to do  with it? Does any of you like it?

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Best things in life are free? NOTD Nails Inc Diet Coke Caramel Nails

Shame on me. I can't believe I have not got round writing about my favourite to-go nail polish: London from Nails Inc, The London nail polish came about a few months ago, as a freebie part of the Diet Coke operation. Helen from SparklzandShine kindly donated it to me, as I was a slow taker and when I had got round to boots to get it, all the shades of London had gone. You bet when Nails Inc and Diet Coke joined forces and offered free polishes that I had to be there on the first day and grab my free polish. It was a no brainer and I wanted to get my hands on 'caramel' the shade which reminded me of London.


First impressions: I preferred when there was no diet coke sticker on the lid of the bottle, it makes the fact that you got it as a freebie even more obvious.





This second picture is probably the most accurate in terms of colour and 'mismatch' again my skintone. I won't beat around the bush and there is no other way to say it: I don't like it and I don't like this shade on me. I feel the nude colour does nothing for my skin tone and I find it bland bland and bland. I can already hear what a typical pragmatic bloke would think looking at this shade: what’s the point of having nail polish on if it’s going to look the same colour as your skin? He’s right!





Did anyone say corpse hands? How obvious, incidentally, is it that I am trying to hide as best as I can the nail of my index finger lol? :P









What a shame. I could cope with Miscellaneous (the rosy nudey  mannequin shade of MissGuided (freebie from cosmopolitan magazine) and by retrospect I quite like it now, but I honestly don't see myself wearing Caramel on my nails. Not on its own anyway.


I've tried to pair it with my new love (this will have to be the subject of another post) Revlon Color Beam in Starlight, it's a little bit better but still not me. I shouldn't complain, caramel came as a freebie but I cannot help but feeling disappointed. Caramel hasn’t never tasted as bland as today…

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