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.

Autumnal Saran Wrap with Nail Girls

I was sent this Nail Girls polish sample a while back but was waiting for the weather to get slightly cooler and Autumnal to wear it.

This mini has no name or number and I can't find it on the Nail Girls website. I think it may be part of the London 2012 Medal Collection although the colour is much more copper than bronze. Two coats of this buttery metallic is all you need for full opacity. It applies very smoothly and leaves no brushmarks at all.

I tried the Saran Wrap (cling film) technique for the first time but as I used a foil and a metallic, it turned out slightly different than if I had used two creme polishes. A foil doesn't seem to spread as much when the cling film is dabbed onto it. Here's what the gold and copper look like together. I also stamped the accent nail with BM04 and added loose glitter pieces to the tip:

Nail Girls full sized polishes cost £10.50 and you can purchase an array of colors and finishes diretly from their website.
For UK girls, Nail Girls also have a salon located in Islington and have a service called "nails On The Go" where they will come to you (0ffice, home, etc) if you are pressed for time.

Some of the product(s) in this post were provided by the manufacturer or their PR for my honest review.

My Fall Polishes: Peripera - Prism Navy

I've been swatching untrieds like a mad woman this past weekend as I don't have a lot of time to paint my nails during the week. Also as an attempt to lower my stash of untrieds which now outnumbers my actual stash! I've also started putting together a little "Fall" stash. I get really excited when seasons change!

Here is a polish I've had for quite some time - Peripera Prism Navy P019.
It's a Korean cosmetics brand and I bought it on Ebay for £5.82. They have really pretty duochromes and metallics and this particular colour caught my eye. To be honest, I really loved the cute shape of the bottle!

It's supposed to be a navy/ teal duochrome polish but it doesn't quite translate onto the nail. However, it has an amazing foil finish packed with shimmer which is very dense and opaque and doesn't streak at all. I can see myself wearing this a few times throughout Autumn/ Winter and it will make an awesome stamping polish too!

And how cute is this bottle :)

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.

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.

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.

The not so scary Halloween mani

I didn't do any Halloween nail art this year. I'm not very good at themed manis and even worse at freehand. I suppose I could have used some BM plates but I rather admire what other bloggers have been creating. I have seen some amazing Halloween manis floating around this year :)

So, trying to at least keep with Halloween'ish colours, here is a not-so-scary scotch tape mani in orange and black. You can tell by the title, I had no idea what to call this one!

The burnt orange polish used is Metallic Mango by Milani. Orange is one of my least favourite colours, I'm not even sure why I bought this one, I think it was really cheap on Ebay! It's a shame I won't use it much because it's orange as the formula is amazing! The consistency is perfect and so manageable I didn't even have to do any clean up. Perfect is 2 even coats!

Stargazer - Chrome Silver #232

Stargazer Chrome Silver was all over Ebay and Amazon in the last couple of years (I think it still is). I have heard many good and bad things about it so I wanted to try it out for myself and at £2.50 a pop, why not!

So, in a nutshell, these are the good and bad points for me:

Bottle - Love the mirror shine colour of the bottle but hate the shape! It's super hard to hold when trying not to make your fingers look all frumpy and ugly for the pics.

Application & Formula - I've read reviews where people have had trouble applying this over regular base coat as it drags leaving bald patches. I had no problem with this. It applied evenly over my base coat (CND Stickey) and with 2 thin coats I was left with a complete opaque coverage! It dries like a matte polish - very quickly. Be careful is you have ridges, this polish shows EVERYTHING! Even the slightest piece of dust will be magnified if trapped in this polish!

Colour - Silver metallic foil, like a nice piece of stainless steel, but it's not glittery or glossy as are some other metallics. This one is quite matte with only the slightest bit of shine.

Overall, I think it's quite good for the price! I can't see anything majorly wrong with it. Don't know what all the bad reviews were about! I think a lot of people were expecting it to look exactly like the colour on the bottle!

I then added a coat of Barry M Silver as I wanted to see what it looked like with a high shine to it. I like both looks but obviously the original look is more unique!

Nail Photo shoot 1 - Polka Dots & Rhinestone Black French Tips

Good morning all

Yesterday I joined forces with my cousin who is a make-up artist and a photographer. We used eyes/ nails or lips/ nails for the photo combos.

The model had very short nails so I had to use nail extensions on her (sorry some may look wonky but she had very small fingers and I only had certain sizes extensions).

I decided on 2 different looks. Polka dots (because I don't do enough of those) with a girly pink and blue barbie doll feeling and an edgy black/metallic with coloured rhinestones. The make-up and accessories we applied according to the nail polish colours.

Here are pictures of the hands only:

Products used:

- Jessica - Samba Parade (and I mixed in a few drops of CND Colour Raspberry parfait #519 to customise the colour. Don't worry, no polishes were harmed in this process).

- Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream

- 17 Lasting Polish - Mini Skirt

I know most people change the design of the ring finger but on this one I decided to change the design of the middle finger !!!

Here is the photo after wardrobe and make-up was applied:

(please note that photoshop was only used on face skin and make-up, not on the nails)

  On the model's other hand I applied Metallic with black tips and a shatter effect on the ring finger:

I thought it looked a bit plain, so I added multi coloured rhinestones along the french tip line and vertically on the ring finger:

Products used:

- Barry M Nail Paint - Silver #288
- Barry M Instant Nail Effects - Black #311
- Rimmel London 60 seconds - Blackout #800

Here are the photos after wardrobe and make-up were applied:

                            
Hope you guys enjoyed the photo shoot.

If you have any requests for a glossy photo shoot, please e-mail me - nailstories@hotmail.co.uk

xoxo