Illamasqua Creator

Today I have on Illamasqua Creator which is from their new Generation Q collection. I absolutely love this! It's so gorgeous! I applied 1 coat of Illamasqua Creator over 2 coats of Illamasqua Boosh (a black creme). I didn't try it on it's own because I almost always layer glitter over another color just because it's so much easier to remove!

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Illamasqua is available on their website and also from Sephora in the states. This collection will be landing in Sephora on the 20th of September. The release date has been pushed back once so hopefully it's not pushed back again.

NerdLacquer All of Time and Space.

Doctor Who Series 7 premièred last night and in honor of that, we're having a Dr Who mani collaboration weekend! And since I'm no good at nail art at all, I broke out NerdLacquer All of Time and Space (AOTAS). The name comes from a quote from an episode of Dr Who called "The Eleventh Hour":

So... all of time and space, everything that ever 

happened or ever will - where do you want to start?

Who could say no to that?!? Anyway, on to the pictures!

*click to enlarge!!*

I applied AOTAS over Dior Waterlilly. That's what appears to be yellow on the side of my nails. Not sure why it's photographing so yellow but I took advantage of the sunshine and grabbed the camera and snapped these pictures off really quickly. Waterlilly is a really thick formula and is also rose scented. While the scent doesn't bother me very much, I know it bothers a lot of other ladies. FYI, I could smell the rose scent even after 2 coats of AOTAS and 2 coats of Essie Good to Go. The smell is gone now but I was really surprised I could still smell it with all that other polish on top. The formula on AOTAS was really runny and hard to get the same amount of glitter on each nail. I've used this once before but I can't remember what the formula was like before. I might have added thinner to the polish and that could be why it's so watery but I really can't remember if I did or not.

My middle finger nail broke on Friday while I was eagerly opening a package that my mom sent over from New York. I was too lazy to go back downstairs and get a knife to open the box so I proceeded to rip it apart and I sacrificed my nail :( 

Dior Waterlilly is available from a few different sites and I'm not going to bore you with it since you can't even really see it in the picture :) NerdLacquer is, unfortunately, really really difficult to get a hold of. This was another indie brand that blew up selling a crazy amount of polish last year and was hard to get then. It's nearly impossible to get now as the lady that was making the polishes has seemed to have disappeared completely. The only way to get them is to occasionally catch them on ebay or in nail polish groups on Facebook but at really inflated prices since they are very hard to find.

Did you watch the Dr Who premier yet? What did you think? I LOVED it and I was super shocked by one aspect of it that I won't mention because it's very spoilery!

Cirque Fascination Street

There's a fiery ball in the sky that's hardly ever seen in England (at least this summer) so it's now time to break out the holographic nail polish! Today I have on Fascination Street by Cirque. Cirque is a polish that is handmade in NYC! This is the most beautiful dark purple linear holo that I've seen.

My friend Sheila over at Pointless Cafe sent this to me. Here is her post on Fascination Street. She didn't keep it because there is a scent involved with the polish (because of added oils) and it didn't go away when she wore it. I didn't have this problem. I didn't even notice a different scent with it compared to other polishes and there definitely wasn't a smell for me after application at all either. I guess it really does depend on if you have sensitivity to fragrance.

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Not sure why this picture is rotated this way.

The original isn't and I can't figure out how to rotate here.

Amazing, right?!?! Cirque is available from their site (here's their Facebook page) and from Mei Mei Signatures (which also sells lots of other brands!). Both ship internatioally although I don't know how the Singapore dollar translates to American/Canadian dollars or pounds. 

Rebel Rainbow Fish Blue - Owen is here!

This weekend's collaboration is a kind of spontaneous because my friend Jacki at Adventures in Acetone (go like her Facebook page as well!) had a baby boy on Monday, July 16th! We're welcoming Owen James by painting our nails blue. Because how else would we welcome him? Surely he's going to appreciate this when he's a teenager (yeah, right haha)!!!!! CONGRATS to Jacki, Wes and Hailey (who is going to be a great older sister!)

I've used L'Oreal Rebel Blue with NailVenturous Rainbow Fish gradient tips. When I showed Gary he said "why did you only do the tips and not the whole nail?" And I said that I wanted to be able to see the shimmer in the blue (although it's not very apparent, not sure why, maybe it's the 3 coats of top coat). Gary responded with: "so, is it gradient because you messed it up and went further down than you wanted to?" HOW DARE HE! Of course I did it on purpose and didn't mess it up. I'm awesome like that. *rolls eyes* Anyway, this took many days to capture on camera since we've had nothing but miserable weather here for a week and hardly any sun. This is day three of the mani and it's holding up well on my left hand but not looking too great on my right hand. I think this is mostly because a few of my nails are damaged and peeling.

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L'Oreal polishes can be purchased at Boots and Superdrug (and I'm sure a few other places as well). NailVenturous is another indie brand. Amy has decided she won't be selling publicly any more so, therefore, they're really really difficult to get a hold of. But go like her Facebook page in case she decides to open shop again.

Dior Purple Mix and Sonoma Sunset

Today I have for you Dior Purple Mix and Sonoma Nail Art Sonoma Sunset. Purple Mix was a little bit darker than I thought it would be and I wasn't completely happy with the darkness. Not sure if it was just the gloomy weather that made it look so dark or what but instead of taking it off, I decided to put Sonoma Sunset over it! I tried Sonoma Sunset a few weeks ago over Illamasqua Wink (pale purple) and I was not happy with the combo at all. In fact, I took it off before it was even dry (luckily I'd only done 4 fingers). I couldn't quite decide what I didn't like about it but after looking at swatches when I came back from Scotland, I decided that I liked the look of it a lot more over a dark purple then a light purple.

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Overall, I really loved this combo. It's amazing! And I had to show off my pendants because I think they went perfectly with these colors. The heart Gary got for me on Stratford-upon-Avon when we went for my birthday day out. I got the thistle pendant (to replace one that I lost) when we went to Stirling Castle in Scotland a few weeks ago.

My friend, Jacki, over at Adventures in Acetone posted her Sonoma Sunset mani today. Here's what her mani looks like. I love her combo! So much better than a pale purple!

Not sure about the availability of Purple Mix in the states but you can purchase it at Boots in the UK. Sonoma Nail Art is another indie that is difficult to get a hold of and only has occasional restocks on etsy. Go like her Facebook page for updates and here is her etsy shop.

Happy Ironic 4th of July

There are 2 reasons why this is an ironic 4th of July mani. First, none of the polishes I used are actually American polishes. And second, I'm an American living in England, the very country that America became independent from. I used a England Order of the Garter for the blue, Illamasqua Scorch for the white and Ozotic 621 for the red.

 *click to enlarge!*

My friends, Chris and Andy, sent me the star glitter in a box with my birthday present. And I don't mean in a bag. It was all loose inside the box. I'm STILL finding glitter around the house and my birthday was in March. But it's okay because I love them. To apply the glitter, I put a thick coat of top coat on over the blue.  Then, working quickly, I dampened a cotton swab (making sure that there wasn't any stray bits of cotton sticking out), dabbed the cotton swab onto the star and then applied it to my nail. I did try this out before I applied the top coat since I've never done this before and wanted to see if I could actually do it :) In the bottom picture, I applied two thinish coats of Glitter Gal Light As A Feather, which you really can't see.

A England and Illamsqua are British brands and can be purchased from their  respective sites (Illamasqua can also be purchased at Sephora in the states). Ozotic and Glitter Gal are Australian brands.  A England, Ozotic and Glitter Gal can be purchase from Llarowe, Ninja Polish, Harlow & Co and Overall Beauty.

Canada Day? Kinda.

I really couldn't think of anything to do for a Canada Day mani. Well I could but I lack the skills to actually do it. And I tried. So, instead, I have for you a polish from a Canadian indie company. This is Essie (not Canadian) She's Picture Perfect with Pam's Girly Bits Hippity Hop. I wore it last month and only got one good(ish) picture of it.

*click to kinda enlarge*

Not great quality.

She's Picture Perfect was really easy to apply and has a really pretty shimmer (which you can't see in this picture). Hippity Hop was a little bit harder to apply but I got there in the end. There's an absolute GORGEOUS shimmer to this that I definitely couldn't capture. You just have to see it to understand the beautifulness of it! Essie can now be purchased at Boots in the UK and in lots of stores in the states. Pam's Girly Bits are a little harder to buy since it's an indie seller. But like the page on Facebook for updates or keep an eye on her store. Happy O Canada Day!!! Especially to my favorite Canadian, Silver!!!