Erre Due - Neon Fluo 01 & Blair

Today I have another Erre Due polish to show you. It's a neon so I'm trying to wear them the most I can before summer is officially over but to be honest, I am over them a little. I have already shown you a couple of their neons here which I was generally happy with and this vivid orange with red undertones doesn't disappoint either.

It looked quite watery as soon as I opened the bottle but it's opaque and even in two coats. So far I've been really impressed with Erre Due's latest collections.

I'm planning to wear this mani for at least a couple of days (planning being the key word) so I layered 1 coat of Essence Blair over it. I was going for a jelly sandwich but didn't want to mute out the "neonness".

About the company:

Erre Due are part of Aromca Cosmetics and were one of the brands first launched under the group is 1984. Erre Due products are available in Greece and Cyprus.. They have an extensive range of make up and nail polish, you can check out their colour charts here. Their Facebook page features up to date information on their latest products.

*Part of these products were sent to me for review by the company.

Layla - Ocean Rush

For as much as I love them, I hardly ever use my holos, even in the summer because it's so hard to actually get a sunny day to coincide with me having the time to paint my nails. As strange as that sounds, it's painfully true. So I was quite impressed when a friend from Instagram told me she swatches her holos at night, under her lamp as she does with any other polish and the holo effect still shows as vividly.

I can't say if this is the case for every brand (I will most definitely put it to the test) but it's definitely true of this Layla Hologram Effect. I was so impressed the linear holo effect shows indoors under my lamp, hmmm, why didn't I think of that before? It makes sense!

I wore Ocean Rush with no base coat as I don't own any holo-compatible base coats and it was quite tricky to apply. Nothing too bad that a second coat didn't fix. I was also afraid a top coat would kill the linear holo effect but it didn't seem to make a difference (at least with the top coat I used, CND Speedy).

I tried adding some sort of nail art over it but gave up after a while and just added some silver chevron french tips. I didn't like the overall look as the chevrons blend in too much with the blue polish so I removed the whole mani this morning. Sometimes a pretty polish really does need to be left alone.

An Almost Rainbow of Butterflies

Today's mani which I did about a week ago, started out as an experiment. I had never stamped with more than one colour before and I wanted to find out how easy or difficult it is because I like the final results so much. It turns out, it's quite simple and not very messy as long as you work fast (if you are using regular polish).

The 3 colours I used are very cheap polishes (I don't like to waste my good polish on stamping) and I think it came out really well. The colours are vivid and show enough for my liking. I got quite a few compliments on this mani. A few people asked me if I was wearing stickers or press-ons, so I guess that's a compliment. At one point I just said yes after I tried to explain to the first girl that it's all polish and stamped with 3 different colours. She looked confused and sceptical!

Essence Snow White - Sneezy & The Huntsman

I've been seeing fall colours everywhere recently and whilst going through my untrieds to sort by colour, I came across these two polishes recently sent to me by a friend on Instagram.

Essence Sneezy and The Huntsman, both from the Snow White LE collection. Sneezy is a medium chocolate brown packed with silver micro glitter. I don't own very many browns so this is a nice addition to my stash!
The Huntsman is a gold glitter topper with extra pieces of gold hex glitter and some shredded glitter too. I really like shredded glitter but the pieces in this polish just seem strange and out of place to me. I love it nevertheless! I'm sure it would look really good over nude or a black base too.

Can't wait to try some of the other Snow White polishes!

When In Doubt, Wear A Pink Gradient!

As the title suggests, recently when I've been running out of ideas and lacking inspiration, I turn to gradients. Whatever colours you choose to go with, they always look pretty and neat.

So here is a pink french tip gradient mani. Polishes used were Yes Love Y17 and a no-name hot pink I picked up in Primark for £1. I topped the gradient with Kiko Sparkle Touch 228 to give it that extra bit of sparkle.

Pastel, Gold and Daisies

I'm trying to hold onto Summer as much as I can. We've had an unusually hot weekend here which was awesome but I know temperatures will start falling very soon and it will be time to embrace Autumn!

I've felt like wearing yellow for the past couple of days and I finally got around to it. I was only planning to wear a pastel yellow on it's own but as it turns out, the formula on this polish was very streaky so I had to cover it up with some stamping.

This is 2 coats of "Yes Love" No243 I usually buy Yes Love polishes in €1 stores when I go on holiday to Portugal. They are extremely cheap and always have a really fantastic range of colours and finishes. The formulas are hit and miss but I suppose you can't expect too much of a €1 polish.

I stamped with Cheeky CH16 and randomly dotted some gold shimmer onto the daisies (Miss Sporty Gold Backstage).

Erre Due - Neons & Pastel

Today I will be sharing with you three polishes by a brand called Erre Due. I first came across Erre Due whilst holidaying in Greece last Christmas and grabbed a bottle of their Blue Jeans Blue Black polish which is very similar to Barry M Denim. Since this brand isn't available in the UK, I haven't come across it since then, until I was contacted by their Events Manager to review some of their new polishes.

Now onto some of the swatches. First up is No184 (unfortunately no polish names). This is a neon orange which I had to photograph in the shade to capture the true colour. The formula is quite opaque and creamy for a neon. It covers well in 2 coats and I had no problem with brush marks on this one. What more could I ask of a neon?

This is 3 coats of No186, a get-your-sunglasses-out neon green! The formula on this one was totally different from the other neon. It was extremely streaky, didn't even itself out and I gave up after 3 coats. It's one of those I'll definitely be layering over white.

This is 2 coats of No94. I believe this one is from their fast drying range, thus the "1" on the bottle! The formula was good for a pastel. It's smooth, not chalky at all and opaque in two coats. I'm not sure about the drying time as I had been swatching neons up until then so this one obviously seemed to dry much slower than the neons.

They were very sweet and sent me the loveliest box wrapped in a white leather string bow. They even threw in a leaflet of their latest nail trends: Ombre, Gradient, Newspaper Nails and Water Marble.

About the company:

Erre Due are part of Aromca Cosmetics and were one of the brands first launched under the group is 1984. I'm not sure if the Erre Due products are available in other European countries as I've never seen their products anywhere other than Greece. They have an extensive range of make up and nail polish, you can check out their colour charts here. They seem to have updated their collections and even changed the design of their bottles slightly but their website still has pictures of their old bottles. Their Facebook page seems to be much more up to date and features their latest products.

*These products were sent to me for review by the company.

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.

Salt n Peppa over Mango Sorbet

I was really excited when some pretties from Lush Lacquer arrived in the post. I had seen swatches of Salt n Peppa all over the blogasphere and Instagram and always thought it was such an interesting and cool polish.

The first Lush Lacquer I tried is the famous Salt n Peppa. A mix of black and white hex, square and bar glitter in a clear base with some iridescent glitter mixed in to add to the fun. If you love glitter, you'd love this! They weren't skimping on the glitter either, it's so packed with it that one coat is all you need. No fishing or placement required and the formula isn't too thick and goopy like some other densely packed glitters I've tried!

This is one coat of Salt n Peppa over a franken I've recently concocted from some old leftover polishes. I think I'll call it Mango Sorbet because the pastel orangy shade reminds me of just that!

Violet Pink Gradient Dots

I really enjoyed doing this gradient dot mani inspired by Sarah at Chalkboard nails. It's been on my "to do" list ever since I saw it last year but as usual, I've only just got around to it! It's such a simple mani but I really like the way the dots start fading from the violet into the white.

I used a violet pink Forever 21 polish (no name) which I got as part of a set of five polishes for $3. I had never used Forever 21 polishes before but for this price I couldn't help myself, plus all five colours were really pretty. The white is OPI Alpine Snow.

Tip Top Nail Chic - Fairy Dust & Metallic Lavender Flowers

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Tip Top Nail Chic to review some of their polishes. Although they are unknown over here, I had already browsed through their Facebook page and had also seen some amazing swatches that Nihrida posted a while back.

The polish I'm reviewing today is called Fairy Dust and this is 2 coats. I was quite surprised that I only needed 2 coats, considering this is a pastel. The formula is very good to work with.

I wanted to keep the look quite soft after wearing so many brights lately, so I stamped with GOSH Metallic Purple (perfect polish for stamping) and Cheeky Plate CH12.

You can check out their website here. They are a South African brand who have recently made their products available to consumers. Their polishes are the big 4 free for those of you who like your polish as much chemical-free as possible and best of all, they don't test on animals. They have a varied range of colours and nail treatments but not all colours seem to be on their website yet and there aren't any prices either. I'm not quite sure where you can buy them either as there isn't a purchasing option on their website and currently they only seem to be available in South African stores. The best bet is to contact the company via their Facebook page if you're interested.

*These products were sent to me for review by the company.

Island Girl - Pink & Micro Holo Glitter

I only found out about Island Girl polishes around five months ago via the girls on Instagram. As far as I'm aware, these polishes are only available in Hawaii and they are also sold in ABC stores in Las Vegas. The brand has such cool and vivid colours and they are quite cheap as well (under $3), the bottles are shaped exactly like the China Glaze ones and the brushes are identical too.

Here I'm wearing two coats of Island Girl - Island Girl (self titled polish, lol!), a fuchsia creme packed with micro holographic glitter. It's still a bit gritty after the top coat which doesn't bother me at all but for those of you who like your nails smooth, a thicker top coat will do the trick! The accent finger is Rimmel London Misty Jade stamped with BM221. I think pink goes with green so much!

Here are the colours I've collected so far:

Flip Flop Fantasy gets Crowned Already!

Today I have another mani from the vault to show you. I posted this one on Instagram back in July (it's inspired by Lisa Beth who I follow on IG) but as I was literally on my way to the airport, I didn't have time to write a blog post about it.

Usually summer holiday mani equals neons for me. And what better neon than China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy to relax at the beach and pool with! This is two coats (such a pain to photograph) with two coats of OPI Crown Me Already on the accent finger. I also added some loose silver hex glitter to each of the half moons and quite a bit to the accent finger to make Crown Me Already pop a little more.

Lava Flow - New W7 Glitters

When I was browsing through nailpolishdirect.co.uk last week, I came across some new W7 polishes. I used to see W7 as one of those very cheap and random brands which had inconsistent formulas and which I would only use for white and black cremes. Then I tried one of their "Dazzle" glitters and a couple of their "Planets" polishes and became quite obsessed with this £1.95 brand!

They have impressed me lately and I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted these three glitters! They reminded me of Indie polishes so much. I hadn't seen any swatches at all or even heard about them but since they were so cheap I decided to get them anyway! I'm so glad I did! L to R: Mosaic, Salt N Pepper, Lava Flow.

One of my followers on Instagram has just told me that Mosaic is a dupe for Nails Inc Sprinkles Pudding Lane, with the same gold and dark blue glitters. I wish they would bring out more with different base colours!

Here is two coats Lava Flow which consists of black and red glitter suspended in a white milky base! Although I have one coat of OPI Alpine Snow on, I was quite surprised at how opaque Lava Flow actually is!

Two Long Lost Manis

I was clearing out my external drive yesterday and came across a whole bunch of manis which for some reason I never posted. I was wondering where some of those had gotten to?! There were seriously at least ten different manis in there so here are a couple.

First up is a bright and fun mani I did using Essence Wake Up! and sponged NYX Carnival onto the top half of the nail. My nails were so ridiculously long here that I remember a few people asking me if they were fake.

I really love this glitter. It's a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday, Milani Gems, Wet N' Wild Party of Five Glitters, OPI Rainbow Connection, NOPI Rainbow in The S-Kylie and all those other hex multi-coloured glitters, so we have quite a few options there. It only cost $2.25 from Beauty Joint.

Secondly is a glitter v-gap mani I did using Impala Lover sent to me by Bia! This is such a gorgeous foil type pink packed with gold and silver shimmer. This is just one coat so I thought it covered quite well. I used loose pieces of holographic hex glitter to fill the nude v-gaps.

Bejeweled For Audrey

I've been wearing this mani for nearly two days now and although it's quite simple, I've received a few compliments on it. I guess people like the look of manis that they would easily be able to recreate themselves, even if they don't have a lot of practise with nail art.

The base colour is the famous China Glaze For Audrey which I only acquired in a swap recently. I can see why so many people love this turquoise cream.

I then sponged some China Glaze I'm Not Lion from the On Safari collection, to the top half of the nail. I'm in love with this glitter and so glad I purchased it even when I hadn't yet seen any swatches. To add a little bit more sparkle, I randomly placed individual hex glitter pieces.