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.

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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.