Kiko Cupcake Nail Lacquer - 656 Pistachio

 

Pistachio is another of Kiko's textured Cupcake range, this one is a very pale, yellowy green shade with darker orange and blue sprinkles.

 

As with all the Cupcake polishes it applies really nicely and dries fast.

Kiko Cupcake - 651 - Strawberry

 

Another Cupcake polish today, this time the pink from the collection 651, Strawberry.

 

651 reminds me of a strawberry milkshake, it's exactly the right creamy pink colour speckled through with red and blue textured pieces - hopefully you don't get them in your next milkshake!

Kiko Cupcake - 654

Another of the Cupcake polishes today, this time 654, Anise.

 

 

Similar finish and application to the others I have posted about recently but this time a pale blue base with darker blue sprinkles through it.

 

I really love the colour; it's a very bright, icy blue shade. 

 

 



Kiko Cupcake 647

 

647, or Jasmine as it's called on the UK Kiko site, is a white base with orange and blue speckles and strands through it's textured base.

 

These pictures are two coats and as you can see it's nicely opaque at that.  The polish dries reasonably fast but not quite as fast as the Sugar Mats, possibly due to the different textures and make up of the additional colour particles.

 

What really impressed me about this polish is how well it lasted, even without a top coat, it managed 4 days with minimal tip wear and no chips which is pretty good going for a textured polish.

Maybelline Colorshow Crystalize Nail Polish - Nearly Black

Another textured polish today, this time from Maybelline.

 

 

Nearly black is, as the name suggests, a black base with lots of multicoloured shimmery glitter particles through it, it reminds me of the night sky or maybe of fireworks or some sort of gem stone.

 

As with all of the textured polishes it dries fairly quickly to a matte finish.

 

Gosh Frosted Sand - Purple

After the silver shade I had on the other day I remembered how much I liked these polishes so I decided to have another day of textured goodness from GOSH, this time in the purple colourway.

 

Gosh Frosted Sand - Silver

I've posted previously about the Gold and Purple version of this polish, since I liked them so much I decided to complete my collection with the silver version too.

 

 

Like the other polishes it applies brilliantly, smoothly and opaque in two coats.

 

It's a lovely bright sparkly silver shade despite it having a semi-matte finish.

Gosh Frosted Sand - Purple Frosted

I showed you the Gold from this collection the other day, there's also a silver which I don't have...yet.  The purple is similar to the gold in finish and effect but instead of gold it's purple toned, although in some lights I think it looks quite grey.

 

 

Again it's beautifully sparkly and the chunky glitter adds an extra interest to the polish, I think this one looks a little like certain types of tarmac on frosty mornings.

 

The application is nice and easy and the polish is fast drying, so all in all I can see this being a polish I wear again very soon; it's pretty, sparkly and a little bit different.

 

GOSH Frosted Sand - Gold Frosted

I picked two of these polishes up on a whim when I was in Superdrug the other day, they had £2 off all GOSH cosmetics so the polishes set me back just £1.99 each.  I've been slightly obsessive about textured sand polishes of late and I don't have a proper gold one so when I saw this for such a bargain price I couldn't resist.

 

 

It's a lovely pure gold colour, quite pale but VERY sparkly and it applies beautifully, this is two coats and as you can see it's fully opaque.  It also dried nice and fast as tends to be the case with these textured polishes.

 

The polish is made up of the base of fine glitter particle and also has the extra sparkly addition of larger gold glitter bits to make it super shiny and extra textured.

 

I really love this polish, it's very elegant and would be a perfect party shade.  Look out for swatches of the other shade I bought coming soon...

Kiko - Sugar Mat - 456 Teal Green

Another in my long list of Kiko Sugar Mat posts today, this is 456 from the Sugar Mat Collection Box I got just before Christmas, which is a deep teal green sort of colour.

 

 

This one also has a little silver teal sparkle running through it which is very pretty and as with all the Sugar Mats it applies beautifully and is opaque in just two coats, this collection are also super fast drying which makes them great as a speedy manicure choice.

 

I really love the colour of this polish, it's a lovely bright, blingy shade but still feels quite sophisticated.

 

Kiko Sugar Mat - 451 - Apricot

451 Apricot is another of the polishes from the Kiko Sugar Mat Nail Lacquer Set which I have posted about a fair bit recently.  I am slowly working my way through the set and trying out each colour and today was the turn of this peachy little number.

 

As with all of this set it applies nicely, is opaque in two coats and dries quickly. I have to say it's not one of my favourite shades from the collection though, it's a tiny bit insipid for me, for lovers of nude of neutral nails it should be a favourite though.

 

There are tiny pinky peach glitter particles throughout the polish which add a bit of extra interest but for me, and in particular with my skin tone, it's just a bit too pale and wishy washy.

 

Kiko Sugar Mat - 454 - Wine

Another polish from the Sugar Mat Nail Lacquer Set today, this time 454 Wine.

 

 

I pretty much love ALL of the Sugar Mats and this one is no exception, it's a burgundy wine shade with a subtle glittery shimmer.

 

It applied beautifully, is opaque in two coats and dries lovely and fast.  I love these polishes and they are definitely my lazy day option as they are so quick and easy to apply.

 

Snowflakes

Nothing says winter themed manicure like some snowflakes, last year I did two snowflake manicures this one, which was OK, and this one on Christmas day, which I absolutely loved.

I was hoping to sort of recreate the one I loved but I could not for the life of me find which plate I used (I've since worked it out and added a note to the blog post from last year) so I ended up using a combination of two other plates, BM-H02 from their recent holiday collection and HB23 a Bunny Nails Plate which you can see HERE.

I don't mind how it's turned out, I love the colours but would prefer different snowflake positioning, I'd say it's better than my initial attempt but not as good as last year's Christmas day version which I loved.  Still quite pretty though.

I used a white nail art pen to stamp the snowflakes, here's a quick shot of the plates:

Kiko Sugar Mat - 457 - Royal Blue

Another of the gorgeous Kiko Sugar Mats today, this is Royal Blue, 457, from the Digital Emotion limited edition box set which was released for Christmas.

 

457 is the perfect icy winter blue.

 

 

A bright vibrant blue textured base packed full of lighter blue, lilac and even some pink glitter pieces, this polish is properly gorgeous and ideal for the festive season if you want a break from the standard red green and gold.

 

Application with this polish was slightly more of an issue than usual, generally the Sugar Mats are totally opaque in two coats and dry super fast, Royal Blue is a bit sheerer though and needed 3 coats which then took a bit longer to dry - which is why there is a dink out of my index finger. ;)  The application was still good though just not as super fast as the other Sugar Mats.

 

You can really see the shimmer in the picture above where the camera hasn't focused perfectly, it's so pretty in person and really adds something extra to the textured finish.

Christmas Textured Stamping

This stamping didn't exactly go to plan, it was supposed to look Christmassy but instead I think it looks more like flock wallpaper.  It IS in Christmas colours though so we'll let it through on that.

 

 

I used plate H03 from the Bundle Monster Holiday Collection, it looks like more Christmassy on the plate, I think it's meant to be baubles but that didn't really translate so well onto my textured nail.

 

It's still pretty though, I used Barry M Foil Effect in Gold for the stamp.

 

 

As you can see from some of the pictures I am suffering a bit from wear, the stamping on my index finger and close to the tips is wearing off a bit, probably because I can't top coat the textured polish to make it stay put, it's not too noticeable in person though.

Kiko - Limited Edition - Sugar Mat Nail Lacquer Set

Christmas shopping is a treacherous activity for the bank balance, one minute you're ordering your dad a nice pair of slippers the next you've stumbled onto the Kiko website and discovered their new range of gift sets, I think what happened next is probably fairly obvious...

 

 

I'm a huge fan of Kiko's Sugar Mat collection as you can see from the number of times I've posted about them in the past. Essentially Sugar Mat is a textured polish, the original Limited Edition Collection featured 8 cream and 8 shimmer polishes all with a fine sandy textured finish. They apply beautifully, dry quickly and last really well considering you don't apply top coat.

 

The easiest way to fill you in on the details is to show you what Kiko have to say about the new Limited Edition Sugar Mat Nail Lacquer Set on their site.

 

"Eight limited edition sand effect polishes with full shade, pearlescent and glitter colours in a matte finish. The nail polishes are contained in a desirable "Digital Emotion" style case, making them ideal as a gift or to collect.

Formulated with added microparticle grains, giving a three-dimensional textured effect that can be seen as well as felt.

After application, the texture appears sandy, as if sprinkled with grains of sugar."

The 8 new colours in the collection are shown below:  

 

 

There are a couple which look similar to other colours in the previous Sugar Mat release or the main collection but it's always hard to tell without seeing them in real life.

 

 The Sugar Mat collection costs £19.90 and is available now, a pretty good deal if you ask me as the regular nail polish retails at £4.90 each, which means this set of 8 is pretty much half price!  There's also a Satin Nail Lacquer Set available for the same price which I have resisted so far.

 

Stand by for more pictures and details when it arrives with me, hopefully later this week.