Topshop Hidden Treasure

I got this baby in the post today and had to swatch it immediately. Hidden Treasure by Topshop! This is also my first Topshop polish and I have to say I'm impressed!

I assume it's another attempt at recreating Channel Peridot and that's the reason I bought it after seeing a swatch at A Polish Addict. I don't own Peridot (mainly because of the price tag), so I'm really happy with Hidden Treasure (£6 for 8ml)!

The bottle shot is amazing! Depending on the angle, it reads a green/gold/teal/turquoise'ish mix with indigo towards the edges! Oh boy... I wish my nails looked like that but obviously the multichrome doesn't translate as strongly onto the nail!

HT needed 3 coats to be fully opaque but the formula is really smooth, applies a dream and there is no streakiness whatsoever. On the nail, the colour resembles that of Peridot - a greenish gold! In some pictures, the gold is more apparent but in others, you can see the green creeping in and getting slightly darker at the edges! Obviously, irl, if you move your hand around, it is much more noticeable as the light hits it at different angles.

I took a pic in direct sunlight which I don't think makes much of a difference to this polish as both the green and gold are still visible under my lamp. I also took one in a bowl of water as it was the only way I could get the slightest bit of indigo to show!

China Glaze Prism - Prismatic Chroma Glitters Collection Spring 2012

I was going through my untrieds stash yesterday afternoon and realised that I hadn't yet showed you Prism from the China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters Collection! I have now been wearing it for just over 24 hours and can safely say... I'm disappointed!

Although this collection was nothing like I thought it would be, Polarized was starting to grow on me. It's not a holo but it's a very pretty dense silver glitter. Then it all went downhill with Prism.

Prism is supposed to be the purple glitter of the bunch but have a look at the pics and tell me how much purple you see in it? I only see the slightest bit towards the sides of the nails where it reflects! The first thing I thought when I put it on was how similar the same it is to Polarized. Why did I need both?!

Here is a pic of Prism and Polarized side by side. See what I mean?? Arrgg! I'm annoyed now!

Then, just a couple of hours ago, this happens! Yep, that is a large chunk of polish that just lifted right off my nail! I wasn't expecting this dense glitter to come off that easily so I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing! I have a feeling that this happened because I applied base coat. This kind of polish would probably stick much better to the nail without a base coat.

Weekly Synopsis - Chapter 11

I finished reading Hunger Games yesterday and had to immediately buy Catching Fire! I know, I know...I'm late as usual! Most people I know read HG like a year ago or something!!!

So I obviously loved it, but it left me wanting more! I would read it at every opportunity and hated when I had to put it down! People say it's a cross between Stephen King's Running Man and Battle Royale, although these are more aimed at an adult audience. Has anyone read Battle Royale by Koushun Takami?

Anyway, so I was so into it like a teenager that I went and did some "Katniss - The girl who was on fire" nails! If you want to see some proper Hunger Games nails, head over to Sammy's blog or for some awesome flames nail art, head over to Jane's blog! As you can see, I tried to do a "drag-needle" sort of job various times on a nail wheel but it didn't quite work of my newly short nails! Nfu Oh 49 works quite well for burning ashes though!

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 Posts of the week:

- Leslie from polish art addiction did a really pretty and soft Cinderella inspired franch mani. I really must try something like this.

- Rebecca from Rebecca likes nails shows us how to make nail polish jewelery. I need to get myself some clear glass cabochons and some ring bases. Custom made rings = awesome :)

- Want to see a mani inspired by Adele's Louboutin nails. Head over to Loucas por esmalte.

Pink & Blair

I have another Essence polish on my nails today! Sorry to all the girls who can easily purchase these at their local drugstores. To me they are special because if I run out, I can't get anymore :(

This is the Blair part of the Nail Art Twins set. I've also got Chuck which Nihrida kindly sent me a few months ago and will be trying that very soon!

I layered a coat of Blair over an unamed polish by La Femme which is of a pinkish/ purple tone. My cousin wanted to throw this bottle away but I couldn't bear seeing her do that so I had to give it a good home! Now it's in a happy place, on my shelf!

I then mattified the glitter just to see what it looked like. I always have this urge to mattify glitter and flakies!

And here is that pinkish/ purple La Femme on it's own! It's a very pretty colour and actually applied really well! It makes my hands look a bit red and lobster-like but oh well! What was my cousin thinking throwing this baby away?!

All Essence Zebra

I thought Essence's Got A Secret would be a great base colour for a mani I've had in mind to do for quite some time - Zebra!!! A dove gray and black zebra is every bit as cool as black and white :) This mani was inspired by Sammy at The Nailasaurus. She did a really cool nude and black version a while ago.

I used Essence Vampire's Love TE - Hunt Me If You Can to stamp with and for the vertical lines on the left of the nails. So, this is an all Essence mani!

I really like how they turned out! You like? :)

Got A Secret?

I really like Essence. I think it's such a great brand. They always have a really good choice of polishes and make-up at very affordable prices! I like it even more so because we can't get it in the UK!!! So I can only get them when I go across the channel or through a swap!

This is Got A Secret from Essence's Colour & Go line.  It's a very soft and pretty dove grey creme. The formula is excellent and fully opaque in 2 coats!

Glistening Turquoise Seas

Miss Sporty- Hypnotic Turquoise. A very pretty turquoise shimmer with hints of green and gold.

This polish reminds me of Summer Holidays, hot weather and glistening seas! It looks so exotic and "hypnotic", Lol! And very, very bright!

The formula is excellent to work with and applies brilliantly. This is 2 coats which gives you opacity but you could probably apply another one for more depth. Not much else to say about this polish other than it's a keeper :)

  

Chalkboard Nails - My entry: The Dotting Tool nail art contest

Sarah at Chalkboard Nails is hosting a really cool nail art contest. I'm not one to enter contests because they usually require very elaborate and complicated freehand designs which I'm not very good at. However Sarah's theme, the dotting tool, really caught my eye since I use dotting tools quite a lot and love anything that has polka dots in it (although other designs can also be created with dotting tools).

You have probably already seen this mani before (see my original post here). I did it a couple of months ago using Stargazer Chrome 232 and various neon polishes. I really liked how it turned out so I'm submitting this as my entry :)

Golden Eye Lagoon

I'm overdoing it with these spring/ summer pastel and milky colours aren't I? It's just that I made a point to at least use some of my lighter colours that have been sitting on the shelf for what seems like forever. So, I have a few swatches and manis in mind to show you.

This is Mavala Lagoon stamped with Barry M Gold Foil and BM212. Although a lot of people use this stamp for their "peacock" nails, it also reminds me of some of the patterns in Indian lace. Oh, and eyes as well! Lol!

Lagoon is a light blue/ green creme with the smallest hint of shimmer. In some light it looks like a pale turquoise but in others it resembles a sort of minty green (see pics below - I painted my nails this morning but only stamped this evening and couldn't capture the same shade!).
It's quite similar to Chanel Nouvelle Vague. From swatches I've seen, Lagoon has a tiny bit more of a green tinge to it but they're close enough for me.

It's a pretty colour, applies well and needs 2 coats for full opacity! The brushes in Mavala are actually quite good for a small bottle. I would say I love this colour, but hey!!! There are very few polish colours I dislike, it just depends on my mood!

Pastel, Milky, Whitish Blue?

Today I have a very milky pastel baby blue polish (not sure what to call it actually) to show you. I love white polish as well as pastels so as soon as I saw this bottle, I fell in love with the colour.

Andreia is a brand from Portugal. My mum got me this one whilst on holiday over there last summer. Unfortunately their polishes have no names, only numbers but they have a nice and interesting range of colours.

The formula is quite thin and streaky on this one but nothing that can't be sorted with a couple of generous coats. Next time I would probably apply 3 coats just to smooth everything out better. I was also a little surprised to find out there's a tiny bit of blue shimmer in it (which isn't visible on the nail at all but never mind!) This is still a great polish for S/S.

Weekly Synopsis - Chapter 10

Coloured jeans. What do you think of them?

In my opinion, nothing can replace black and blue jeans. They are versatile, can be dressed up or down and are comfortable. However, for the last few months I've been a bit more open to colour and decided to give coloured jeans a go!

Terracotta, grey and indigo are the only ones I have at the moment (well, I suppose grey is a safe colour anyway). I have my eye of a couple more blue and burgundy ones!

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This is my picture of the week!

I could sit there for hours and just stare at the Med sea! My husband and I were meant to get married on the Greek Island of Santorini but because of logistics and trying to get all our family and friends to fly there, we ended up choosing somewhere else. We still spent some time on the island and it's such a wonderful and magical place. You feel whole and at peace there. When I came across this picture on Google, it moved me because it felt so familiar. I had to post it.

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This is my video of the week. I really like this cover that Birdy did of Bon Iver's Skinny Love:

 

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Posts of the week:

- Anutka from Wacky Laki shows us such a sweet and elegant french mani inspired by fashion.

- How cool is this Wonder Woman/ Superhero mani by Copy That, Copy Cat?

- Natalie from Gems in a Bottle shows us a different take on Valentine's manis with a colourful Leopard Hearts mani.

- I love the jelly/ glitter sandwiches that Goose's Glitter comes up with. This week she showed us some pretty amazing ones which I can't wait to try :)

Coffee Addict

Today I have another Kleancolor pretty to show you which I got with my last Beautyjoint haul. This is Coffee Addict, a metallic blackened golden brown! I don't think it's part of their metallic range but it still has that smooth and glossy metallic finish to it. Kleancolor have quite a few polishes named after coffee and they are a very nice mix of nudes, beige's and browns. I have also swatched Cappuccino which you can see here.

Coffee Addict isn't to everyone's taste I suppose. The first thing my mum said when she saw it on my nails was "yuk"!!! Well, I guess that describes it for her but I actually really like this colour. The formula, again, as with all Kleancolor polishes I've tried up until now, is great to work with and fully opaque in two coats.

Liberty's Butterflies

I really felt like I needed to add something else to my nails today. I could no longer stand Mavala Liberty's lack of colour. My hands just looked so pale with this polish.

So, before I left for work today, I tried to make it a little more interesting and inadvertently created a spring looking mani.

I sponged half the nail with Rimmel London Apricot Punch and stamped with Konad White and BM205. I also added some New York Summer glitter (I think this one is called Las Vegas??) but in hindsight I should have probably left this out. It looks like the butterflies are being attacked by a swarm of insects. Lol!

Mavala Liberty

A few years back I would be all over a colour like this. I used to absolutely love flesh toned polishes, especially if I wanted a quick, hassle-free and pretty mani. Today, after I finished putting it on, I just thought it was so *meh*!

Liberty is a creamy nude peach, or can sometimes hint to beige tones depending on the light, but it goes on much lighter and sheer on the nail. It looks almost like I've got nothing on. There is a lot of vnl although I applied 3 coats. I usually like to look at my nails and Wham!!!... a lot of colour and a party going on!

I love nudes (a lot) but this is just a little too nude for me, if that makes sense! I probably wouldn't wear this on it's own again but I would use it as a base colour for nail art, even glitter sandwiches and I also think it makes a great polish for French Manicures.

Hearty Half Moons - Quick & Easy Valentine's Nails

And here you have it. The actual Valentine's day mani. I actually did this one last week but was waiting for 14th February to post it.

If you follow my blog you have probably seen this before, I did the same half moon variation back in October 2011 with Illamasqua Purity, just after Theatre of The Nameless was released and all because the shape of the half moon reminded me of theatre curtains! Weird I know! Well this shape also reminds me of a heart so I've had this mani in mind for quite some time and was waiting for Valentine's to do it.

I used Barry M Black over Jessica Samba Parade (my only Jessica polish) as a base colour. I've had this polish for so long that the formula has gone a bit goopy and it was hard to manage, however it's a good quality polish and they have very interesting colours. The only downside is the price, they retail at about £9.45.

Blurple Scattered Holo

You know when you want a polish so bad that you need to have it straight away but then when it arrives, it sits on your untrieds stash for months? That's what happened to this little guy - Kleancolor Holo Chrome.

Holo Chrome is a light purple, in fact, it shifts between blue and purple depending on lighting. You can really see a rainbow in it! I was quite amazed that the scattered holo in this polish shows even under my artificial light, at night and indoors. Most holos I have look completely flat if the sun isn't shinning (granted most of them are linear holos like Nfu Oh's).

I really like Kleancolor polishes and have always had positive experiences when using them. They have some pretty cool polishes at very affordable prices! I know a lot of people don't like their strong smell but I can't really say it bothers me. Anyway, Holo Chrome doesn't smell like the other Kleancolor's I've tried. I've never had a problem with their formulas either. Application is always smooth and consistent. Holo Chrome is no exception. The formula is thick but in a nice way, it actually makes application easier to control.

This is 1 coat of Holo Chrome over an unnamed lilac polish I had lying around. It's by a brand called "Yes Love"  which I usually buy in €1 stores when I go on holidays to Spain or Portugal.

Leopard Heart - Quick & Easy Valentine's Nails

I have another quick and easy Valentine's mani to show you. I've done two Valentine's manis today, I will be posting the other one on Tuesday of course! So a grand total of 3!!! Not bad for someone who can't keep to themed manis at the appropriate time...Lol!

I used a barbiesque pink Maybelline New York polish for this mani. There no name on the bottle and I can't find it online either, it does have a number - 264. The formula is good, a bit thin but two coats are sufficient. There's the tiniest amount of micro-shimmer in it but it's not visible on the nail at all, I can just about see it in the bottle if I squint very hard!

The accent nail is a leopard heart shaped sticker so I just added some black bullion beads around it.

My very own Unicorn Pee - Max Factor Fantasy Fire

I managed to get my hands on the new "it" polish - Max Factor Fantasy Fire. To be honest, I don't buy many Max Factor polishes so when I saw this polish a few weeks ago whilst browsing in Superdrug, I thought it was beautiful but didn't really think much else of it! Then it started creating a stir in the blogging world. All of a sudden, I can't find a bottle anywhere and it's already selling on Ebay for £13.99! What??!! It's only £3.99 in the shop and they usually do 3 for 2 offers! Or was... as it's sold out in the three shops I went to and online.

You're probably heard that it's a Clarins 230 (a.k.a Unicorn Pee) dupe. I don't own Clarins 230, I would love to have one but would never be willing to pay the exorbitant amounts asked for it, so I'm extremely happy to own a bottle of Fantasy Fire! Finally we get a really cool and coveted polish in the UK!

Fantasy Fire is a purple based jelly full of shimmer and there's quite a bit of colour shifting going on (copper, green, red, maroon, gold etc) but these pics were taken under a lamp last night so I found it impossible to capture all the colours! The colours you get also depend on your base colour. Maybe a medium purple or blue jelly would create more colour shifts.

This is one coat of Fantasy Fire over CND Midnight Sapphire. Two coats of Fantasy Fire would probably give you more depth and make it look more dramatic.

 

Here is a pic in the style of Cristina from LTHP :)

Purple Kisses - Quick & Easy Valentine's Nails

I have a love/ hate relationship with festive/ seasonal manis. I usually don't have a problem stamping hearts or snowflakes on my nails throughout the year but when it's Christmas or Valentine's, I end up not managing my time properly and panicking because for some reason I get really busy and have to rush all my festive manis. They always end up a mess!

So, for this Valentines I decided to do a series (hopefully I will manage more than one mani until Tuesday) which are very quick and easy but still capture the Valentine's feel.

This mani is inspired by Erika. I spotted it on her blog last year and loved it so much that I kept it in my "to do" folder for this year. Erika added some amazing matte french tips but to keep this mani quick and not have to mess around with scotch tape, I didn't add any tips :(

Base colour is Barry M Black. I love Barry M polishes but their black is really bad to work with, it's extremely hard to control and gets goopy by the time you reach your 3rd nail. I had quite a bit of clean-up to do. I just want this bottle to finish already!!! I then stamped using BM02, GOSH Metallic Purple and an unnamed Primark polish.

Weekly Synopsis - Chapter 9

The "Big Freeze" is taking it's toll throughout most of Europe. I don't think we've had it that bad in England but if you watch the news, you would have seen the chaos it is causing elsewhere. A lot of people are obsessed with snow, I don't care for it much unless I want to ski. When I have to wake up at 6:30am and make my way to work in it, not so much fun!

However, I have to admit it does look pretty, magical and makes for great photos. Here is a picture of the lake near our house, it's half frozen! The ducks actually walk over the icy parts, can you spot the one stepping off the ice and back into the water? Poor little ducks. Do you think they get cold?

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After seeing a picture of Arya in Nihrida's weekly summery yesterday, I realised I haven't posted a picture of my little fur ball in a while. Here is Eggbert sitting in one of his favourite places (the corner of the living room cupboard) staring out of the window at the snow:

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This week I have been playing Lana Del Rey - Born to Die and Video Games non-stop on my iphone! I think it's getting on Martin's nerves! I have read all the controversy about her being an artificial creation and even The Guardian and Vigilant Citizen articles but I still love her look and her music regardless! If you haven't seen the video for Born to Die yet, here it is:

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Posts of the week:

- Natalie from Gems in a Bottle showed us three gorgeous Deborah Lippmann glitters - Candy Shop and Forget You and Happy Birthday from the Get the Party Started set. Candy Shop and Forget You are two huge lemmings of mine.

- All Lacquered Up swatched the China Glaze Capitol Colours Hunger Games collection for us. Do you already know which colours you want to get your hand on or are you getting the entire collection?

- I recently came across a Brazilian blog by a lady called Kelly. Her Blog is called - Esmaltes Da Kelly. I love her nails and the layering combos she comes up with! I can't believe I haven't spotted it before!

It's Black, It's Gold, It's Matte!

I'm obsessed with matte again! I was really into it at one point but then sort of forgot about it, now I feel like I have to mattify everything, well... nearly everything!

After I laid the gold stamp over the black base, it just didn't look right being glossy! I had also been looking at some of Amy Grace's past matte manis and who doesn't totally fall in love with Amy Grace's manis?! I also took a page out of Finger's and Erika's book and added some french tips for good measure!

So here it is, 2 coats of Barry M Black, stamped with Barry M Gold Foil and BM201. I smudged the image a little and not all of it transferred as I had hoped but I'm getting better at stamping.  Hope you like it :)

China Glaze Polarized - Prismatic Chroma Glitters Collection Spring 2012

When I got home from work today, I had a little package waiting for me and inside was China Glaze Polarized (and Prism which I will show you later) from the Prismatic Chroma Glitters Collection for Spring 2012. I was so excited, I had to swatch it straight away!

Polarized is the silver of the collection. It's a  micro silver glitter base with large green, red, pink, blue, yellow, orange and silver glitter.

Before I say anything else, here is what 2 coats of Polarized look like (plus 2 coats of top coat - it's very thirsty glitter):

OK, I have to stress that I am happy with this as a glitter polish (it is a very good dense glitter polish, completely opaque in 2 coats and super blingy) but I wouldn't call it a holo polish which is what I thought it would be when I first saw the promo shot for this collection back in November. 

 

I was sceptical about the amazing'ness' of the holo in these, I was doubting if they would look that good on the nail and I guess it turned out they don't. Having said that, although my nails don't look as good as the girls' in the promo shot, I still love the mix between the larger multi coloured glitter and the finer micro glitter. As I said, it's still a very nice glitter polish and although the glitter is quite dense, I think it would look good in glitter sandwiches.

I know there are some mixed reviews on this collection. What are your thoughts?