Max Factor - Fantasy Fire

I love this polish and I've read online that Revlon Royal which I wore yesterday is a great base for it.  I wasn't blown away by Royal on it's own so I was hoping the addition of Fantasy Fire might make me more of a fan.

 

 

Unfortunately I don't think FF looks any better over Royal than it does over various other colours I've tried it with so it wasn't really a win on that front and the tip wear of the Royal was still very evident which is annoying.

 

I so still adore Fantasy Fire though, it's definitely in my top 5 polishes of all time, just look at it's shimmery duochrome gorgeousness!



Sally Hansen - Nail Prisms - Lapis Amethyst?

I think this is Lapis Amethyst, some of my Nail Prism bottles aren't very well labelled but as far as I can tell by Googling swatches this is what it comes closest to, so for the purpose of the post let's say this IS Lapis Amethyst.

 

These pictures are two coats over Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Blueberry, which is a pale blue shade, I think next time I'll try it over a darker base. From the swatches I have seen it seems to bring out the duochrome more when you use it over a dark base.

 

 

The polish is a pale shimmery blue colour with a lilac pink duochrome effect.

 

 

From some angles the polish is very blue while from others you can really see the lilac and pink shades.

 

 

This polish reminds me of Models Own Indian Ocean, of the two Indian Ocean has better sparkle and wow factor although Lapis Amethyst is a little more duochrome in the traditional sense.

Sally Hansen - Nail Prisms - Amber Ruby

Somehow I have managed to get a totally different look to the last time I wore and posted about this polish.  I shan't complain though, this time it shows off it's duochrome gorgeousness much better.

Although still not as well as it does in real life, the colours shift from a deep wine red through bronze and gold and finish up with a green tint.  These pictures are 3 coats with no base colour, the polish is quite thin but worth layering up for the effect you're left with.

Under bright lights there's an almost chocolate sort colour and the glittery sparkle is shown off beautifully too.

This is the best gold green photo I could get, it's obvious in person but so hard to photograph.

I love this polish, it's such a shame that the Prisms are so hard to find and that Sally Hansen doesn't have anything similar in the current collections they do.

Sally Hansen - Nail Prisms - Turquoise Opal

I'm on a bit of a duochrome kick at the moment so I decided to dig out my much loved Turquoise Opal and wear it again, I've posted about it before but I'm hoping my pictures have improved quite a bit since then so I thought it was worth showing again.

SO PRETTY!  The colour range shifts through a deep grape purple colour all the way lavender, sky blue and turquoise teal; there are so many different shades on show depending on the light.

These pictures are two coats over a dark purple base colour.

In bright indoor lighting you can really see the glittery aspect of this polish which isn't so evident in more natural lighting.

I adore this polish, it is so pretty.

Fantastic Fantasy Fire

Somehow I manage to forget how much I love this polish so I don't wear it half as much as I should.  When it was released Fantasy Fire sold out pretty much everywhere as it was considered to be a pretty good dupe for the mythical Clarins 230 (you can Google it if you don't already know what it is but if you're reading a nail blog I suspect you do).

While it's not an exact copy of 230 it's close enough for me and an utterly gorgeous colour shifting duochrome polish.  These pictures are two coats over Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Blackberry (which I believe is now called Plum, the dark purple from the initial collection either way).

Outdoors in natural light it's a pretty dark purple colour with a bit of reddish sparkle to it.

But where it really comes into it's own is under bright artificial lights where you can really see the bronze ad gold tones.

Or under dimmer artificial light where it shifts through red, orange, gold to green and back.

This, to me, is where you get the real wow factor of the polish

In very bright artificial light you can see the really bright purple of the base colour, you could probably get this effect by layering it up on it's own but who has time for enough coats of a sheer polish like Fantasy Fire to dry?  Not me, so I generally use a base (it's also gorgeous over black, dark blue or dark green, and I want to try red too)

I really love this polish, it's hard to show in pictures how much it glows and sparkles in real life and the best thing is that it looks good, and different, in all sorts of lights so you'll never get bored with it.  For me it's definitely a desert island polish.



Orly - Galaxy Girl

I decided to revisit an older polish today, Galaxy Girl is from the Orly Cosmic FX collection and was one of the first polishes I actually sought out online (after seeing it on a load of American blogs and reading about it on MUA) rather than just buying randomly.  I think it was also one of the first proper duochrome polishes I became aware of.

 

The collection was released in the summer of 2010, so 3 years ago now!  It's strange to think I have been obsessing about my nails and tracking down polishes for so long already. :D

 

Galaxy Girl is a deep wine shade which colour shifts through red tones to a blue / purple colour, there's even a bit of turquoise in there if you catch it at the right angle.

 

 

It reminds me a bit of Urban Decay's Bruise - although the Orly is a little more textured and grainy looking, it's a similar colours and colour shift though.  These pictures are three coats of polish.

 

It's a very pretty polish and the sort of thing that is ideal for people wanting something a little different to a flat colour without having to go all out; a sort of grown up, ladylike version of a nail effect or duochrome.

 

Putting it on again has reminded me of the other polishes from the collection so I might have to drag them out to try soon too.

 

 

 

Rimmel Metal Rush - Pearly Queen

As I mentioned the other day I have been coveting Pearly Queen since seeing it on Claire's blog, nuthin but a nail thing.  Despite my best attempt to match it with something from my existing collection the lure became too much and I caved in and bought it.

 

Here it is over Barry M Pricky Pear Gelly Hi-Shine polish (which has made it look quite different from Claire's which was over a pale grey base).  Pearly Queen is a milky lilac green duochrome with hints of pinks.

 

 

What you don't see in most pictures I took is the pink flash which shows up in certain lights, you can just about see it here, it's more obvious in real life.

 

 

I like this polish; it reminds me, inexplicably, of Sci-Fi and aliens and the pictures really don't capture the flashy duochrome color shifts that you get in person.

 

 

It turns out, now that I've applied the polish, that I do have a rather close dupe in my collection - Zoya Adina.  Pearly Queen is like Adina's softer, lighter sister, although I bet over a darker base they'd be twins.

Never paint your nails...

...with a cat on your lap, that's the lesson to be learned from last night's manicure.  The reason why you shouldn't?  Because you'll end up with lots of black hairs trapped in your top coat like I did with this manicure!

 

 

This manicure didn't turn out how I expected it to at all.  I used Models Own Grace Green as a base and then added Rimmel Daisy Chain over the top.

 

The effect was an odd silver blue duochrome which flashed lilac under certain lights.

 

Apparently the daisy chain was more opaque than I expected as it changed the base colour totally!  In the bottle it's a sort of milky lemon yellow with what looks like little flecks of pink so I was pretty surprised when it turned out blue!

 

Cat hair aside I don't mind the way this turned out, it's always interesting to try an unused polish and be surprised by how it looks but I'll be taking it off tonight as I can't bear to have the hairs on there any longer.



Max Factor Fantasy Fire

I love this polish, I don't think I could ever choose one favourite polish but without a doubt this one is in my top 10.  It's different in every single light and rarely looks the same on your nails for more than a minute at a time.  It reminds me of Nfu Oh 51 without the flakies and with a bit more colour shift.

 

 

It's a purple-ish jelly base filled with colour shifting glitter particles which change from pink to bronze to purple to green to gold and back again under different lighting conditions.

 

 

In low light it's a subtle grapey pink shade.

 

 

But under artificial light it really comes into it's own.

 

 

 

 

I'm sure it'a also amazing in bright, direct sunlight but since it's November in Glasgow I have no way of backing this claim up. ;)

 

 

 

There isn't much more to be said about this polish, I love it, these photos are two coats over a dark base, again I seem to have quite a bit of tip wear which I think is down to my top coat, hopefully I'll get it sorted soon, on the plus side my cuticles are looking slightly better. ;)

 

Have you tried Fantasy Fire yet, what do you think?

Rimmel 615 Night Before

I'm obviously having a purple week this week, today's polish is another purple!  This time Rimmel's Night Before.  I picked this up in TJ Hughes so I'm fairly sure it's not a recent release and possibly not even available on regular Rimmel stands.

 

It's quite sheer, as you can see from some of the photos, and definitely needs three coats to make it fully opaque, it has a bit of a jelly look to it and in the right lights it's also a lovely duochrome.  With flash it's a deep, shimmery Cadbury's purple.

 

 

 

In daylight it's a deep aubergine sort of shade.

 

 

And under bright indoor lighting it's a dark purple with a pink-ish duochrome shift, a polish of many faces.

 

 

 

It reminds me a little of Max Factor's Fantasy Fire but without the green/gold colour shift, so I might try a coat of that over the top and see what sort of effect it has.

 

 

 

 

My one irritation with this polish is how quickly it has developed tip wear, literally overnight while I slept!  I'm not sure if this is a polish issue or a top coat issue.  I'm currently using Seche Vite a lot and although I adore the squishy, shiny, wet look finish it leaves I do feel like I am getting a lot more tip wear than I do with other top coats?  Does anyone else have an issue with that?

Lovely Lilac

To create the nail colour I have on today I used 2 coats of Kiko 330 with two coats of Hedy's ma.nish.ma Blaster a glitter duochrome polish.

 

 

 

The effect is beautiful and truly duochrome, although it's impossible to photograph properly!  This shot is the closest to how it looks in real life, a gorgeous lilac base with tonnes of bluey-pinky-lilac shimmer on top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's really hard to capture the pink shift in a photo but in real life it's pretty apparent as you move your fingers around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under artificial light the polish glows with all the blue glitter in it.

 

 

 

 

I'm really pleased with how this look turned out but after I applied it I did have a certain feeling of deja vu... I've checked and they aren't the same but there are definite similarities to Models Own Indian Ocean, I'd quite like to do a little swatching test to see just how similar.

 

Blaster seems to lean more blue whereas I was surprised at just how pink Indian Ocean was but without trying them both over the same base colour it's hard to tell how close they are as dupes.  Regardless Indian Ocean is one of my favourite duochrome polishes so I'm quite happy to have it's close cousin my collection now too!

A limited number of Hedy's polishes can be found on Cosmetic Fairy website, details in this post: Polish Haul.