Rimmel - Space Dust - Total Eclipse

Space Dust is Rimmel's version of textured polish, Total Eclipse is a dark grey green coloured polish which in certain lights also has a sort of duochrome effect with a purple lean to it, it's almost impossible to capture the purple in photos but it is there and you can see it in person.

 

The polish applied nicely, these pictures are three coats but you could probably get away with two.  The wear time was good too, I took these photos before a busy day resealing my bath and even after picking out all the old silicone sealant my nails only had tip wear and no chips.

 

In a darker environment with flash you can see the grey colour of the polish but in real life and most lighting the polish is a very definite green / teal shade.

 

Overall I'm impressed with this polish; it's pretty, wears well and is easy to apply.

Sparkly Haul

I had some Advantage Card points to spend so I decided to take advantage of Boots 3 for 2 offers and pick up some polish, without meaning to a created a bit of a glittery sparkly theme, here's what I got...

 

First up two if the Seventeen Rock Hard Couture polishes; Charm Bracelet and Celestial Pearl.  I've been meaning to pick these up for ages now but I've been good and waited until there was an offer on.

 

I also picked up one of the textured Barry M polishes; Countess.  I was tempted by others but I already have a few pink textured polishes from the Kiko Sugar Mat collection and the other two in the collection are basically exact dupes of the Seventeen colours above.  

 

I grabbed the new LE bar glitter polish that Boots have available at the moment too, it's a mix of pink, green and blue bar glitter in a clear base.

 

Then two of the new Maybelline Brocades; Foil Flash and Knitted Gold.  I've seen the US collection pictures of these (they seem to have 8) and so I had to try a couple when I saw that Maybelline UK had 4 available, there's also a grey/black and a red but I preferred the silver and gold ones.

 

Finally, Rimmel Space Dust in Total Eclipse.  Since getting back online after the purchase I've realised this is another matte finish textured polish which I didn't know in the shop.  It's a gorgeous colour so I'm looking forward to trying it both with and without a topcoat to see which is prettiest.

 

Look out for swatches over the next few days, I have enough new colours to keep me busy for a good few manicure now. :)  A good use of my hard earned points, I think.



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.



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?

Rimmel Matte Finish Topcoat

This topcoat is one which has been in my collection for ages but it's woefully underused because I often forget just how much I love the effect it creates until I use it again.

 

A while ago now it seemed like almost every brand was bringing out a matte top coat, keen to try the look I picked up a bottle of this Rimmel Matte Finish topcoat in Superdrug to see what the hype was about.  I decided to go with the Rimmel as it was significantly cheaper than the other versions I had easy access to at the time and I didn't want to shell out on something I wasn't sure I would use much.

 

In the end that was a good decision because although it's one of the less expensive versions on the market (it's £4.49 in Boots or Superdrug) it works beautifully for me.  It does exactly what you would imagine a mattifying topcoat would do, gives whatever polish you put it over a lovely suede matte look to it.

 

It can really transform the look of your polish and it's so simple, you just slap it on like a regular clear topcoat and wait for it to dry.

 

For today's manicure I simply put a layer over my camouflage manicure from Monday.

 

 

I love how this turned out, it's only a subtle difference but it really adds to the camouflage look and makes it look a bit more authentic, although I'm not sure a city dweller with camouflage nails can ever be authentic, but I'm sure you know what I mean. ;)

 

 

 

I've been rather lax with my blogging this week for no real reason other than I rather fell in love with my camouflage nails and didn't want to take them off and all the exciting beauty and nail things I have ordered recently haven't arrived yet.

 

I'm off to Spain to visit my parents next week so hopefully the polish haul from that trip and the parcels due to arrive will mean more interesting posts in the near future!