Dazzle Dry - Nail Stories "Blue Fantasy" Collaboration Shade and Mystery Winter 2013 Collection

Hi everyone! Today's post is really special to me as I've had to keep it a secret since early summer. But it's finally being launched today and time to share with you that I've been chosen as one of the bloggers for Dazzle Dry's Winter 2013 Collaboration project. I also have swatches of the other polishes in the collection and which blogger created which shade.

About the polish:
When I was first approached by Dazzle Dry, I was really flattered to be chosen as one of the 5 bloggers to create a shade. It didn't take me long to decide on an electric blue as it's obviously one of my favourite colours.
However, I wanted to add a little extra something to it and it wasn't until my husband showed me some galaxy pictures which he obsesses over in his free time that I saw some amazing colour combos and it struck me! I wanted a vivid blue with small particles of pink shimmer swirling across the entire nail.

Without further ado, here are the beautiful shades the other ladies created:

Artic Sunset by Anutka from wackylaki. A striking white with silver/gold shifting shimmer.

Tiger Lily - a hot pink packed with iridescent shimmer that shifts beautifully. By Jen from The Nail Polish Project.

Moxie - a deep purple based multichrome. It shifts from copper to fuchsia to gold depending on the lighting. By Robin Moses

Feisty - a deep burgundy with pink and silver shimmer. By Rina from Simply Rins.

Dragonfly - a dark forest green shimmer/ foil polish. The duochrome in this one is gorgeous as well, it shifts from teal to gold.

The majority of these polish dry slightly matte because of Dazzle's Dry's super quick dry and Vegan formulas but the colours really come alive with a topcoat!

Availability:
The Dazzle Dry Winter 2013 Collection will be available to purchase from their website www.dazzledry.com or www.dazzledry.co.uk for UK buyers.

*The products featured in this post were sent to me for review.

piCture pOlish - Vampire

Here is another gorgeous piCture pOlish shade which I can see myself wearing various times this Fall. It's called Vampire and the name completely suits this blood red jelly! Squishy and gory, perfect for Halloween!

This is two coats but you can add a third coat to get a deeper burgundy red colour!

piCture pOlish can be purchased directly from their website - picturepolish.com.au. They do international shipping. You can also purchase it at various etailers throughout the world. Check out their Network page for more info. You can keep updated on any piCture pOlish news via their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

*The product featured  in this post was sent to me for review.

Clinique - A Different Nail Enamel for Sensitive Skins - Swatches & Review

Until very recently I wasn't aware that Clinique were bringing out a range of nail polishes! They did have nail polish in the past but I don't remember it ever being anything to shout home about.
Indeed the fragrance free brand has launched a new line of twelve core colours and nine limited edition Summer 2013 shades (see UK website for more details).

This nail enamel claims to be "different" as per the name and why is that you ask? Well, according to Clinique it was specifically formulated to minimise skin and eye sensitivity. They are also 5-free, but I thought established 5-free polishes were already kinder to skin? Check out Lipglossiping blog for more information on the formula and what the Clinique PR team had to say about it.

Today I'll be showing you 6 different shades. A mixture of some core line shades as well as some limited edition ones. You'll notice I have also filed down my nails quite a bit, it's much easier to swatch with shorter nails. All swatches are two coats although I would recommend three coats for the jellies.

Happy is my favourite from the bunch. A hot coral creme with pinkish-red undertones which is quite hard to capture on camera.

70o and Sunny (LE) is a bright sunflower yellow creme. Most yellows are streaky and this one is no exception. However, the formula was quite good to work with and therefore quite easy to minimise streakiness.

Black Honey is deep blackened cherry red jelly which is perfect for fall. The fact it's a jelly means that it doesn't apply so dark on the nail that it looks completely black as some of these polishes often do.

Hot Date (LE). An interesting purple jelly. With only two coats, you can see the magenta undertones in there that for some reason my camera picked up. It's slightly darker and more true to bottle colour in person.

Party Red is a classic fire engine red creme. As with the other cremes in this collection, opacity was great.

Juiced Up (LE) is an orangey coral jelly. Not as bright as Happy but still a must have for summer if you don't feel like wearing an in-your-face neon.

The bottle shape isn't my favourite (they remind me of Nails Inc bottles only thinner), but the embossed chrome metal caps are quite sleek and do keep with the Clinique image. The whole bottle is very clean (no writing whatsoever) with only a small sticker at the bottom showing the polish name. For a list of ingredients, you must refer to to outer paper packaging the bottles come in.

Although I was impressed with the formula on these, including the jellies; each 9ml bottle comes with a price tag of £12 which I know is a lot more than what a lot of people would pay for polish, myself included. People with sensitive skin prone to allergies and irritation should give this polish a go and see how it compares to their regular polish.

These are now available online at www.clinique.co.uk and at Clinique counters from 31st May 2013.

*The product featured  in this post was sent to me for review.

My Dark Valentine

Today I have a Valentines Day mani to show you. It's a little bit on the dark side but I wasn't in the mood for pink. I wear pink quite often but for some reason, never feel like wearing it around Valentines!

I've always wanted to see what NYX Dorothy looks like matte so this was the perfect occasion to do so. I love this polish, a black jelly base packed with large hex and small red glitter. I'll definitely wear it again on it's own very soon! The thumb and pointer are just a regular black creme mattified with Essie Matte About You.

I stamped the ring finger with the Born Pretty lovely heart m59 stamping plate which at the time seemed like a good idea but I'm not really a fan of how it turned out. The bubbling hearts are too sweet for the look I was going for but then again, it's the only detail that keeps it withing the Valentine these! I also added some loose hex glitter pieces to the ring finger for a slight french tip.

Flakie Flamenco

Earlier this week I was going through my untrieds stash and noticed that I hadn't even swatched this beauty. This is one coat of Hits Speciallita Flamenco from the Mundo De Dancas collection, over a coat of red creme.

Flamenco is a bright red jelly base packed with gold, green and orange flakies. It reminds me of Nfu Oh 59 and Barielle Elle's Spell but brighter. I love flake polishes and don't think I could ever get tired of companies bringing out new flakies. I really enjoyed wearing this colour, it goes well with my skin tone and is also season appropriate. Thank you so much Bia for sending me this :)

Also, why do you think red manicures get the most compliments? I could be wearing the most intricate design and awesome polish on my nails and it doesn't get as many compliments as a basic red manicure!

Thanks for reading :)

Autumnal Gradient

I wore this two-tone red Autumnal gradient a couple of weeks ago. The weather had just started to change then, and the colours seemed season appropriate.
Since following Sammy's gradient tutorial, I find them a little easier to manage but I still get annoyed at the amount of polish I get around my finger and the clean up afterwards. I guess it's something I have to endure since I really love gradients!

For this gradient I used two shades of red. Butter London Come To Bed Red and Nails Inc Victoria. I have to say that CTBR is not my favourite of reds. It has a jelly-like finish and although I don't mind some vnl, I hate vnl with red polish. It needs 3 coats for full opacity.

I always feel the need to complete my gradients with a glitter or some sort of topper so I added CND 24K Sparkle Effect. I reminds me of fallen golden leaves and it also gives it a rustic looks. I'm not sure what version I prefer though! You?

Tip Top Nail Chic - Traffic Lights & Sexy Fishnet Stamping

This is the second polish sent to me for review by Tip Top Nails. If I liked the colour and formula of the first polish, this one totally blew me away.

I like reds but don't usually go out of my way to buy a dark shimmery red like this, so I couldn't believe how much I loved it on my nails. It's so vampy and mysterious, a great colour for fall. You know when we say "this polish is almost a one-coater but I used two for consistency", well, this mani is actually just one coat! The formula was a dream to work with, I'm so impressed.

I'm going to a Burlesque show tomorrow so I couldn't have received this polish at a better time! I channelled my inner Chloe's Nails and went for a sexy fishnet pattern (BM209) with some black french tips. I love how they turned out.

And here is one coat of Traffic Lights on it's own. How cool is it that it's completely opaque in one coat?!

If you want to find out more about Tip Top Nail Chic, I suggest you visit their Facebook page as the company is very active on there.

*This product was sent to me for review by the company.

60's Red Polka Dot French

A nude and cherry red polka dot French. That's what I wanted to show you guys today! I thought it was very retro and 60's looking, hence the post title :)

Since I've been back, I've been so busy that my nails have been naked for a few days! I managed to finally paint my nails last night with a Speciallita polish I recently received in a swap and I will post that as soon as I've posted these last few manis I did before I went on holiday!

For this mani I used Nails Inc Elizabeth Street, a creamy nude shade with the slightest hint of rose. I use this polish very often as a base for funky Frenches! The tips and polka dots are Nails Inc Victoria, a dark cherry red which is much darker than what you can see in these pictures but as I just applied one coat over the tips, it looks lighter.

Thanks for reading and commenting :)

Sweet Cherries of Mine

Time for a little bit of nail art! I've got so much stuff to post for you guys and I wish I could post everyday but I'm so busy at the moment :( Good thing I have quite a few swatches and manis which I did over a weekend a couple of weeks ago, so I'll keep posting some of these until I run out!

I had been wanting to do a cherry manicure for ages as they are incredibly cute. However, my first attempt was so disastrous and disappointing that I had to remove it straight away! I drew cherries on all the nails and I just didn't like the look! It was a bit of an overload especially as I am really into more toned down and discreet (not too discreet) looks now!

That's when I came across a picture on Tumblr by a girl called Victoria. She did a cherry mani but only on her accent finger! I can work with that! I spent about an hour looking at all her designs! She is so talented and her stuff is seriously amazing, check out her page!

So, this is the second attempt. I like it much more! I'm even impressed that those cherries came out quite "cherry looking"! I'm so bad at freehand that I was half expecting them to come out looking like plums!

The red is Boots 17 Knockout Red and the white is OPI Alpine Snow!

The Crackling Girl On Fire!

All this week, running up to Friday when the much awaited Hunger Games movie is released, I will be posting a HG inspired mani and my China Glaze Capitol Colors which I got in the mail last week!

I actually did this mani a couple of weeks ago, my nails are much longer now! I was toying with the idea of doing a water marble with red, orange and yellow but I really suck and those and, well... I'm really lazy!!! So I went for the much quicker and easier option!

Cinna would totally approve of Katniss wearing crackle right? Especially matte c'mon!!! Lol!

Get Me Some Red Glitter Pupms!

I don't own Ruby Pumps or Ruby Slippers or any other form of Ruby footwear *hangs head in shame*! I know they are amazing polishes but although Ruby Pumps is quite easy to find as is OPI Speak for your Elf, Ruby Slippers is discontinued! Maybe I'll get it in a swap one day, from someone who has a spare bottle lying around, *hint hint*! :)

In the meantime I have Barry M Red Glitter which I'm really loving! I let out a little gasp when I first put it on, the micro glitter creates so much depth.

Apart from the silver and gold glitters, Barry M's other glitters are of really good quality. The pictures show 2 coats of Red Glitter over 1 coat of Boots 17 Knockout Pout (a poppy red creme) and a thick coat of SV. The glitter is dense enough to be applied on it's own but it would probably need 3 coats to be the way I like it!

It makes me want these red glitter Louboutin pumps! Haha!

source

Red & Gold

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
I should have probably posted this mani before Christmas because of the colour scheme but better late than never!
I haven't done a half moon mani in a while and since I'm not very good at nail art, I really like these because they look good and are easy to do! I'm not sure about this colour combo for everyday use but around the holidays everything goes!

I used Nails Inc Magnetic Big Ben for this many because it was the closest to the shade of gold that I wanted. It also has a sort of matte finish which I thought was interesting for the half moon:

Gingerbread Man Cookies

As I didn't really do any Halloween themed manis this year, I'm going to try to run with it for Christmas! Plus I have to put some of the Xmas designs on the Bundle Monster plates to good use. Here are some yummy Gingerbread Men topped with sprinkles of glitter, over CND Fireberry which I've had on since Thursday:

Fireberry

This is my new favourite red (for now)! It's the perfect red for the nubbins I'm sporting at the moment. I've had to file my nails right down as I've been overloading them with polish and sometimes using pure acetone remover.

Fireberry is a bright but cool toned red. I can't really see any tinge in it, it's just that - a bright red creme. I only have one other CND polish (colour) and this one is every bit as good as the other one. The formula is perfect, it applies a dream and opaque in one coat. My favourite red before this one was OPI Keys To My Karma but it's nowhere near as opaque. It now means I can do tape manis with red!

Here is an extra pic of Fireberry with a black diamante ring I bought this week. Looking at this pic now, it looks a bit big for my hand, but hey.... I like big rings. The bigger the better right? And it only cost £1.99.