OPI Black Spotted FAIL

Last time I posted about OPI Black Spotted I wasn't 100% sold on it, and this time is no better, if anything I am less impressed.

 

 

This time I applied it over China Glaze It's a Trap-eze which I thought might be an interesting base with a good colour contrast, in reality I think it just looks messy and like chipped black. 

 

My coats were probably too thick which doesn't help but I am really not feeling the effect this time at all, it's quite a hard polish to work with - you really need to use very, very thin coats - and I think because it's been so long since I last used it I'd forgotten how thin they needed to be.

 

Another issue with it is that it seems to wear really fast at the tips, it doesn't have much staying power at all.  This manicure only lasted a day before I was not only bored of it but it had started to chip off and wear heavily at the tips.

 

Looks like I still need a good bit of practice with Black Spotted!  Have you tried it?  How do you find it, any application tips?

China Glaze - It's a Trapeze

Today I have It's a trapeze to show you, I mentioned it in this post but today I have full, proper swatches of it.  These pictures are 3 coats over a base layer of Barry M white.

 

 

I really love this polish, it has such an indie feel to it with all the different coloured glitter in the milky white jelly base. 

 

It applies nicely but as with most glitters it looks better dabbed on rather than painted on normally as it lets you move the glitter around a bit more. 

 

 

 It reminds me of some sort of birthday cake or the little chocolate pennies with hundreds and thousands you used to get in a 10p mix up.

 

Next time I think I will try it without the base colour to see just how opaque it is, if it's as pretty as it is over the white I'll be very pleased. <3 p="">

China Glaze Hologlam Collection Picks

China Glazes OMG Holographic collection are probably some of the best loved polishes in the nail world, unfortunately they seem to have been a one off and later holographic collections for China Glaze have never been quite so spectacular.

 

So, although I didn't have hugely high hopes for the Hologlam Collection the choice of colours meant that I couldn't resist picking up a couple of bottles to try.  I chose When Stars Collide, a deep maroon / burgundy shade and Strap On Your Moonboots a sort of dark royal blue.

 

 

The colours look beautiful in the bottle but not very holographic, even under bright light.

 

I love the colours and since I'm not expecting them to be the amazing in your face holo goodness of the OMG collection I don't think they will be disappointing on the nail, keep your eyes peeled later in the week for manicures done with both new colours.

 

Have you picked up any of the Hologlam collection yet?

Barry M - Glitter Topper

 

Today's polish is still Color Club Ulterior Motive but with the addition of 3 coats of Barry M's LE Christmas 2012 glitter top coat, catchy name, huh? ;)

 

 

It's a clear based top coat with two sizes of blue, green and pink glitter through it, coverage is pretty good, I could have got away with 2 coats but I wanted to add a few more pieces so plumped for 3 in these photos.

 

I think the glitter really compliments to bright pink polish well.

 

Today is also the British Nail Blogger InLinkz day, check out what they're all been up to below!

No7 Beautiful Skin Cleansing Brush

Boots No7 have recently lunched they're new Cleansing Brush and it's currently on offer for just £15, that's nearly £10 off it's RRP.  As far as I know the offer runs until the end of this month (Feb 2013).

 

I was keen to try it out as I have been lusting after a Clarisonic for ages now but there is no way I could justify the £100+ price tag so when No7's budget version appeared I knew I had to take one home with me.

 

 

The brush is battery powered, unlike the Clarisonic, and comes with two AA batteries to get you started.  I've only been using mine for just over a week now so I can't comment on battery life by suffice to say they definitely last more than a week at a time which was an initial concern. (Update 19th June 2013): I have changed the batteries once since having the brush so I can now safely say that one set of batteries will do you for several months of use.

 

The brush is a very sleek, simple design made up simply of the body of the brush and the detachable brush head (replacements can be bought in packs of 2 for £8), there's only one button which controls the heads two speeds.

 

The brush head itself is fairly large and the bristles are beautifully soft, unlike the Clarisonic which oscillates back and forth the No7 version does spin a full 180 degrees when it's working.

 

So far I have been using speed one (the slower setting) to do my cheeks and then using speed 2 (which is faster) to do my t-zone and more stubborn areas on my face.

 

The brush comes complete with instructions, which I have taken a photos of to show you to save me typing them all up, lazy, I know. :)

 

As I said I have been using the brush for just over a week now and so far I am really impressed.  Rather than buy a new cleanser to use with it I have been alternating between No7 Hot Cloth Cleanser, Superdrug, Hot Cloth Cleanser and Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish all of which seem to work pretty well with it.

 

The brush definitely feels like it is exfoliating but isn't so rough as to feel like it's damaging the skin, I haven't noticed a huge change in the appearance of my skin but it definitely feel softer and well exfoliated and I haven't had any break outs of trouble with my skin while using it.

 

For £15, or even for £24.95, the Cleansing Brush is worth trying out, for me it gives a similar level of exfoliation and cleaning as using a muslin cloth does and it definitely leaves my skin feeling clean and well cleansed so for those who have been lusting after a Clarisonic and not quite been able to justify the price I would urge you to try out this budget version.

 

All in all a good job by No7.  Have you tried the new cleansing brush?  What do you think?

 

Update (19th June 2013): Just a quick update now I have been using this brush for a good while.  I am still really liking it, it leaves my skin feeling well exfoliated without that over raw feeling you can get from harsher exfoliators and it does seem to have made a difference to the troublesome blackheads around my nose.  Although I'd still love to try a Clarisonic I'm happy to stick with this excellent budget version for now as it really does seem to do the job it's meant for.

Color Club - Ulterior Motive

 

Today's polish is Color Club Ulterior Motive, a bright pink jelly like polish with beautiful shimmering pink and blue glitter particles through it, these pictures are three coats.

 

Ulterior Motive is part of the Alter Ego - Keep it Under Cover collection which I posted about previously.

 

It has quite a jelly-like finish to it hence the need for three coats to get it opaque.

 

In certain lights you can really see the blue shards of glitter flashing through, very pretty!

China Glaze Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away Collection Picks

Ever since I saw the first promo pictures of this collection I knew there was one polish I HAD to have, It's a Trap-eze.  It's a Trap-eze is a milky jelly white colour packed full of multicoloured glitter pieces in various sizes, it's very similar to a lot of Indie Brands polishes, here's a bottle shot to show you what enticed me to check out the collection:

 

 

While I was looking at swatches I also fell for the gorgeous glittery green foil, Running in Circles, so I decided to grab it too:

None of the other polishes in the collection really appealed to me so I decided to be good and stop at the two that I really loved.  I ordered them from BeautyZone2007 on eBay.

 

 

Here are a couple of very quick swatches of the colours, hopefully I'll have full manicures of them both to post very soon, I can't wait to try them out.

 

Have you ordered any colours from the Cirque du Soleil Collection?

Unidentified Stamp

I decided to stamp over my Barry M Pink Silver Glitter from the other day using a Barry M Chameleon polish, this one is the one which is blue in the bottle but after I applied a topcoat it changed to a sort of dark purple shade (as it's meant to).

 

 

The other Barry M Chameleon polish I have, the pink one, also stamps beautifully but stays the bottle colour after top coat so I'm not sure why this one is different, I'm quite glad it is though as I don't have a dark purple polish like this that stamps nicely.

 

I'm not sure what the stamped image is meant to be, possibly a version of the Saran Wrap Manicure that lots of blogs have featured?  That's cling film to you and I. ;) 

 

It's on a Bundle Monster plate along with an image the looks like it's meant to be gradient so I am going to guess it's another cheats version of getting a nail effect by stamping.  Helpfully, I forgot to note which plate it was but if you need to know comment below and I'll dig it out and check.

 

I'm pleased with how this turned out, the colour combination is good and the glitter under the stamping is pretty effective.

No7 Beautiful Skin Hot Cloth Cleanser

As part of my ongoing search to try and find a bargain alternative to my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish I decided to pick up No7's version while I had a £5 off voucher.  The voucher meant that the cleanser was just under £5 which for 200ml of product and a muslin cloth is a pretty good deal.

 

 

As with the Superdrug hot cloth cleanser I tried recently this is a nice product, it feels fairly thick and luxurious when you pump some out of the tube and it applies nicely onto my face.  The smell is very neutral, it doesn't have the same sort of obvious (and in my opinion, lovely) botanical scent that LE, and even the Superdrug cleanser, has.  No7's version is much more subtle, to me it smells the way a lot of unscented products smell, not a major downside but I do like my face products to smell good and this one doesn't really smell at all other than vaguely of generic 'face stuff'. :)

 

It removes make up well and leaves my skin feeling clean and soft, it doesn't seem to leave the same slight dryness that the Superdrug version did so it seems more moisturising.  Altogether not a bad hot cloth cleanser, but again, while I am happy to use it up I wouldn't swap my Cleanse and Polish for it unless I was on a serious budget.

 

It looks like when it comes to hot cloth cleansers Cleanse and Polish is still the original and the best, sometimes you do get what you pay for.

Barry M PInk Silver Glitter

A nice simple nail of the day today using Barry M Pink Silver Glitter.

 

 

This polish applied beautifully, this is 3 coats but 2 would easily have been opaque enough to wear out, and as with the majority of Barry M polishes it was smooth and simple to apply.

 

It's a little more subtle than my usual looks but it's very pretty and sparkly.