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.

Autumnal Colours - 2true Glossywear Shade 54

Isn't it really annoying when you come across a shade of polish that you actually really like and they have no name, only a shade number? That's how I feel about 2true Glossywear Shade No. 54, such a perfect Autumn shade with no name!

It's a really pretty deep sapphire blue shade with great opacity (2 coats here). The bottle says "up to 5 day wear" which is very true as it's the fifth day I've been wearing it and there's only minor tip wear on my right thumb. I'm really impressed with this polish - no fuss to apply and it's only £1.99 from Superdrug.

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

Blue on Blue with Shimmer Polish Maria

It just so happens that this morning, I had put some Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream on my nails! I hadn't worn it for so long and it's such a pretty saturated sky blue.

The blue lover in me couldn't neglect Shimmer Polish Maria which was still sitting in my untrieds stash but because I didn't want my whole mani to be too glittery, I opted for an accent nail of Maria with some silver studs. Maria is definitely for blue lovers as it's packed with blue glitters of all different shapes and sizes.
I haven't worn anything that even remotely resembles nail art in the past few weeks as the smell of polish still bothers me a lot if I spend too long around it, so one tiny accent nail is perfect right now.

You can purchase Shimmer Polish directly from Cindy's Etsy store. There are also lots of beautiful swatches and product information on their website and Facebook page.

*Some of the products featured  in this post were sent to me for review.

Polished by KPT - Color Therapy

Apart from "Glow The Blues Away", this polish was the other Polished by KPT beauty I couldn't wait to try! I always thought the glitter mix in this one was super funky and interestingly bright.

It's called Color Therapy and it's a mix of neon pink, coral and green square and hex glitters. The clear base is also packed with scattered holographic pigments and the glitters glow under UV and black lights which makes it all the more fun.

At first I tried it over a white base on a nail wheel but fell in love with this colour combo the most. The blue base is Miss Sporty Pop Fiction.

You can purchase Polished by KPT directly from their website, (US & Canada shipping) but they are now also available at Shoppe Eclectic and Harlow & Co.

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

piCture pOlish - pshiiit

A week doesn't go by that I don't check out Camille's blog. She is super talented, her manis always inspire me and her photography skills are amazing. The polish I am showing you today is one of the collaboration shades and as per Camille's blog, it's called Pshiiit.

This is 2 coats of pshiiit. No topcoat. As it's a little on the sheer side, I will probably go for 3 coats next time. The bottle colour transfers onto my nails pretty accurately. It pulls more towards green although that blue jelly base is still visible, making it a nice teal duochrome. There are also some blue/ green flakies in there although I wish there were more of them because they're so hard to capture.

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.

Polished by KPT - Kelvin Bleu and Hot Like Wasabi (thermal polishes)

The wonderful Katherine from Polished by KPT recently sent me some of her polishes to try. If you visit her shop, you'll see an extensive line of bright and dark thermals, funky glitters and toppers as well as holo and neon/ glow polishes.

Today I'm showing you two thermals - Kelvin Bleu and Hot Like Wasabi. All Polished by KPT polishes are 3 free (no toluene, no formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate) and cruelty free.

Kelvin Bleu is a medium periwinkle blue when "cold". Capturing the transition in this one was easier than the others. My hands were really hot when I applied it, thus the very pale shade of blue...

...but as soon as I dipped my hands in ice cold water, the blue transition became much more evident and darker. In the winter it would permanently look like this as my hands are always cold.

The transition for "Hot Like Wasabi" was much more difficult to capture. Maybe it was because I swatched these when the weather was really, really hot here and by the time I removed my hands from cold water, they were instantly hot again.

Hot Like Wasabi is is a yellow/ green scattered holo thermal polish. I didn't layer this one over white which I think would have made it slightly paler. The first picture is what it would look like "hot" and I just about managed to capture the tips transitioning to a brighter green in the second picture.

You can purchase Polished by KPT directly from their website, (US & Canada shipping) but they are now also available at Shoppe Eclectic and Harlow & Co.

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

 

2true Pro - Metallica, Salon Shine & 3D Candy

2true Cosmetics and Make-up have recently launched their new range of nail polish, 2true Pro which has 3 parts to it - Edgy (which are a set of 4 caviar beads), Classic (a set of 5 cremes/ crellies) and Metallica (5 metallic polishes).

Today I'm reviewing a little bit of each collection. First up, the metallics. Although I'm not a massive fan of metallic polishes, the good thing about these is that they are completely opaque in one coat. I couldn't imagine having to apply two or more coats of a metallic polish.

Aphrodite - a medium rose pink - 1 coat

Arete - a light lime green - 1 coat

Athena and Noir beads - a dusty blue and black beads - 1 coat

If you read my blog, you will know that I was never into the caviar/ bead/ sprinkles (whatever you want to call them) craze. It was just one of those trends that I didn't get and didn't appeal to me, plus I even had some trouble applying them. They aren't durable and would annoy me every time one fell. I know you can put a top coat over them but I think that makes them look lumpier and they end up falling off anyway! Great look for a nail photo shoot though!

Next up is a polish from the "Classic" collection - Mila. I have to say that this is my favourite of the bunch! I love this shade of orange as all my other oranges have too much red in them. This one actually looks quite coral'ish in person. It applies beautifully in 2 smooth coats.

2true polishes are available now exclusively at Superdrug stores nationwide. They cost £4 each and the beads cost £3.

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

Revlon Royal Makes a Summer Appearance

Are there any darker coloured polishes that you would wear in the Summer and pretty much all year round? Well, for me, one of those polishes is Revlon Royal! Predominantly what would be considered a Fall colour, for me it's just one of those colours that I would even wear to the beach (if I lived anywhere the beach)! That may be because it's a polish that we can't get in the UK but even if we could, I think I'd love it all the same!

I love Revlon Royal on it's own but how fantastic does it look with a coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire? It's a match made in polish heaven!

Apologies for the quality of these pictures. I took them late at night and although I used my lamp as I usually do, for some reason they came out quite dark and full of shadows!

This was also the perfect opportunity for me to wear my Revlon Royal/ Max Factor FF ring that my friend Cassie (IG: cassgooner) made for me. Isn't it gorgeous?

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Dazzle Dry - 3 Pastel Sponging Mani

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. We finally have some sun in the UK, warm enough for me to actually wear dresses and sandals! Oh the little things!!!

Today I have somewhat of a random mani to show you. I say random because when I started, I really wasn't sure where I was going with it but it turned into some sort of pastel sponging affair.

I used 3 Dazzle Dry polishes, all from their Spring 2013 Afternoon Tea collection (Petit Four, Strawberry Maracon and Spearmint Tea). I have already reviewed Petit Four and their Quick Dry Nail System here if you want to read up on that. They do the most amazing quick dry top coat!
I topped everything off with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust which I would layer pretty much over anything if I could!

You can purchase Dazzle Dry directly from their US and UK websites. You can also see various swatches and manis on their Facebook page.

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

piCture pOlish - Hope

piCture pOlish Hope! This is another collaboration shade for piCture pOlish, this time with french blog Vernis en Folie.
It's a dark blue jelly with scattered holo and a few pieces of blue hex glitter mixed in which I love as it sets the polish apart from other scattered holos. Opacity is great as with all piCture pOlishes I've tried. This is two coats. For the accent nail, I used some regular blue rhinestones and round gold studs from the Born Pretty Store.

Isn't it so pretty? It's got amazing dimension to it.

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.

 

Nfu Oh 52

I wish Nfu Oh polishes were more easily available in the UK aside from a single stockist. And slightly cheaper as well. I adore their bottles, their brushes and their formulas.

Today I'm wearing Nfu Oh 52. In fact, I've been wearing it for five days today and there's only a small chip on my thumb.
Although you can't see any purple in there, #52 is actually a purple jelly base chock full of sapphire blue and green shifting flakies. I chose to layer two coats over Miss Sporty Blueberry so it wouldn't look so dark on the nail.

The flakies were really evident and they had such depth to them trapped in that jelly base.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

Studded Chevron Blues - with Born Pretty BK Polish

Today I will be showing you a gorgeous blue polish by the Born Pretty Store. These dainty 8ml bottles cost $2.95 and come in 42 different shades. You can purchase them directly from the Born Pretty website and get 10% off by using discount codeVA7J61.

This deep sky blue (BK #31) actually surprised me in terms of formula and coverage! Opaque in two coats and not streaky at all.

I used scotch tape for the black triangles and the square studs are also from the Born Pretty Store. You can find a link directly to them here.

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