First Haul Post.

I do a lot of hauling but I just haven't posted about it before. The sun is out and I thought I'd try to get some nice shots of polishes I've gotten in store and polishes that have arrived in the mail in the last week. 

Cult Nails Hypnotize Me, Let Me Fly and (the new) Iconic.

I got these in the sale. Sheila from Pointless Cafe placed the order for

me since I was at a wedding that day. Thank you, Sheila!!! <3

Fashionista Mystical Dragon, Revlon Rain Forest and Illamasqua Faithful.

Faithful in it's beautifulness!

Fashionista Mystical Dragon.

Cult Nails can be purchased at their site here. Fashionista is a brand sold at Superdrug. These are £5 and are part of their 3 for 2 Mix and Match cosmetics offer at the moment (not sure when it's ending). The new shaped Revlons have only just made it to the UK and I had to have this one right away. They're super pricey at £7.99 each but I've been wanting this one for ages. They can be purchased at Boots. Illamasqua Faithful is part of their new Naked Strangers collection. It can be ordered from Illamsqua at the moment and will be available at Sephora sometime at the start of June. Go like Illamasqua on Facebook and use code LIKE15 for 15% off their site!

Memorial Day Meh Mani.

Today I have a mani for you that I'm really not happy with at all but I thought I'd share it anyway. The red is Illamasqua Alarm, the white is Illamasqua Scorch and the blue is Illamasqua Force. The glitter tips is Nails Inc Jubilee. I was going to save Jubilee for next weekend but I thought I'd give it a try to see how best to apply it. I don't really like it used this way. There's also some shrinkage with the glitter, so now I'm trying to figure out the best way to apply it for next weekend.

As I was applying the top coat, I never thought to do the colors separately and ended up with red polish on top of the white on my thumb. Not a lot, but I still find it annoying.  The red is much too orange for my liking for this mani as well. That's what nail polish remover is for anyway!

Nails Inc Jubilee is a limited edition polish released for Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. She's been on the throne of Great Britain for 60 years now. Also, it's only available in this crystal cap, which means it cost £15/$23!!! and any discount that you can apply to other polishes, doesn't apply this this one (there is a 20% off promo going on until the end of the month. Use promo cold INSTYLEPROMO. Only valid until the 30th of May). I don't think it's going to be released in the states, although they could market this for the 4th of July.

Bourjois 14 with Essence A Lovely Secret

This is Bourjois number 14. This is a 1 second gel nail polish with a silicone texture and it has a fan effect brush for neat nails. You're suppose to be able to paint your nail in 1 second with this special brush. I'm not very great with painting my nails but this is definitely not a 1 second brush, in my opinion. The brush is really thick. It'd be a 1 second brush on my thumb nail and that's about it. My thumb nail is also a lot wider than most other ladies thumbnails, so I don't see how this will work with ladies with small nail beds. It was almost impossible for me NOT to get nail polish on my cuticles on my pinky finger. But saying that, it's a gorgeous glitter polish and worth the hassle. It's a holographic glitter in a rose pink jelly base. The lid even has holo glitter embedded in it! Here's some pictures!! This is Essence A Lovely Secret and Bourjois 14.

Height Comparison

OPI, Bourjois and Zoya

Brush Comparison

OPI, Illamasqua, Dior and Bourjois.

The Bourjois is gorgeous and worth the hassle of dealing with the huge brush. As you can see in the comparison pictures above, this Bourjois bottle (they have several different style bottles) is really really tall. I'm not sure if it'd fit in a Helmer but it certainly won't fit into my storage since OPI and China Glaze don't fit into mine. Looking at the comparison of the brushes, it's the thickest brush I've ever used. I should have put the Illasmasqa brush on the left but it was there to stabilize the other brushes :) Illamasqua's brush is my favorite to work with. OPI is a little thick but is okay. Dior's brush was the thickest one (and a little difficult for me to work with) but Bourjois is definitely the thickest in this line up. Again, not sure how ladies with small and thin nail beds will work with this brush.

I received the Essence and the Bourjois in a swap with Alex from Luxembourg. Essence can't be purchased in the UK but it can be purchased in a lot of other countries in Europe and at Ulta in the states. This Bourjois can be purchased in France at the moment and will be available in the UK in June or July (can't remember which) and will be able to be purchased at Boots and Superdrug and other stores.

Holo Day - May 19, 2012

I'm part of a group on Facebook where we decided that, as bloggers and as nail polish lovers, we'd have a day where we all wear Holographic nail polish! I live in England, so it's not often that I actually have a sunny day to get a good picture of the beautifulness (not a word, but it works here) of holographic nail polish. A while ago I saw a blog where the lady put Hits Ares over a black cream polish. I got Hits Ares not too long after that, mostly because of that post. When I got it, I wondered what all the other Hits that I have would look like over black! Here's what I got:

*click to enlarge and see beautifulness better!*
Hits Zeus on thumb.

Top to bottom: Hits Ares, Dionisio, Hera and Demeter.

All over Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory base color.

Avon Peeling and Brittleness Solver as base coat.

Essie Good to Go as top coat.

I think that Zeus, Dionisio and Hera look the best over black (although Dionisio isn't all that much different to what it normally looks like). Ares might have been better if I had used a polish thinner and thinned it out a bit. Demeter does NOT look good over the black. I won't be trying that again. I think this is a nice way to wear all of them (except Demeter) and it'll also save you using a lot of coats of the small bottles that Hits comes in. This brand CAN use a top coat over it and I did. Some holographic polishes can't use top coats as it dulls the holo effect and makes it look horrible. Hits is a Brazilian brand that can be purchased at Llarowe and at Ninja Polish. Prices and shipping are really reasonable on both sites and they both ship internationally! 

Please check out all the other blogs participating in Holo Day!!!

Models Own Tropical Sun

This is Models Own Tropical Sun over Illamasqua Whack. Tropical Sun is pretty sheer and since I didn't want to apply 5 coats and still have a visible nail line, I decided to layer it. In the bottle there is a flash of pink but I don't really see it in this combo. It's a really gorgeous bright orange with a yellow flash on my nails. It hasn't been very sunny here lately. It took me a while to catch a small ray of sun.

2 coats Models Own Tropical Sun over 2 coats Illamasqua Whack

1 coat Avon Peeling and Brittleness Solver as base coat

1 coat of Essie Good to Go as top coat

Topical Sun is part of Models Own new summer Beetle Juice line. I've ended up buying a lot of orange nail polishes over the past couple of months. I guess that it's going to be an "on trend" polish for the summer. I love orange polish, so this is okay with me. Models Own can be purchased at Boots (in store and online) in the UK and from the Models Own website.