ASOS Paint Pots by Ciaté

I spotted these new polishes while browsing on ASOS (always a dangerous activity!) I've got quite a selection of the original Ciaté paint pots so of course I couldn't resist trying one of these

 
 
I picked Mary-Kate, a black creme with gold shimmer (and a touch of blue/pink shimmer too)

Application was good but this is one of those polishes that eats topcoat! This is 2 coats of polish and 3 coats of Seche Vite and it's still not madly glossy!

I like the fact that they'e carried the sweet bottle bow across to this line too.

 
Click the pic for a bigger version to see the shimmer.

Overall I really liked this polish.

Anyone else tried any of these?

H&M Polishes

 

I picked these up a couple of months ago at H&M on Oxford Street. I didn't know H&M sold nail polish so I was pretty excited to spot these and squeeed at the colours!

 
 
First up is Enchantress Emma, a turquoise blue with blue shimmer.

Gorgeous colour but this was very slow to dry and this is 3 coats and I still have VNL


 

Next is Fashionista, a mid royal purple shimmer. I *love* this colour, it's just beautiful and this is only 2 coats. This is definitely the star of the show for me.

 


Finally - Sophisticated Susanna, a bright coral with slight shimmer. Again this is
2 coats.

Overall the bright, unique (for me) colours and the right amount of shimmer in these polishes compensated for the minor application issues.

I can't remember how much they were, I think less than £5 each though

New Brand Compulsion

I have a compulsion, not just for nail polish, but to buy nail polish brands I don't have or haven't seen before. No doubt close cousin to the compulsion to buy first issues of magazines and why removal men will always curse and mutter under their breath as they have to move *another* heavy box full of magazines!

So the other week I found myself browsing on the Debenhams site in the beauty section. For non-UK readers Debenhams is a mid-market department store that sells a variety of branded and own-brand goods. I don't usually shop there for beauty items, I'm not really a high-end beauty gal and the only nail polish I'd seen was Nails Inc at scary full price!

Out of habit I did a search on nail polish which threw up lots of exciting (for me!) new brands.

First up is Urban Retreat. According to their website Urban Retreat are a pioneer in luxury hair and beauty, a beauty paradise with a vast range of lavish treatments, services, and products from some of the finest brands in the world, all under one roof.

Who knew? I certainly didn't. What I did glean was that the polishes were created by Leighton Denny, probably the UK's most high profile nail technician who has his own eponymous polish brand, one I don't own, yet. I just can't get past his prices, they retail around £10 and there's never been a colour I just *had* to have.

All the Urban Retreat colours were half price at £5 for two bottles.

So I ordered up all three duos, Metallic, Glam and Classic. Each contains two 8ml bottles in complimentary colours.

I've only swatched one so far, from the Glam collection called 'UR Envied'

 


It's a bright fuchsia pink shimmer with a strong purple flash. It's a nice bright colour, not my usual style and made me feel a bit 80's.

This was two coats, application wasn't great as the brush was too long and somehow splayed at the end and combined with the slightly gloopy polish made it all quite hard work. I felt like I was fighting the polish all the time and I did a lot of muttering about the *big fat brush*.

Unfortunately this has made me less likely to invest in Leighton Denny - surely they have better brushes?

Green Glitter - My Bonfire Night mani

Just a quick post to show the glittery green mani I wore over the weekend to my family's annual bonfire night party.

 
 

It's two coats of the awesome Barielle Date Night with two coats of Nyx Lime Sparkle. I really like how this turned out and couldn't stop looking at my nails. As ever, click for *really* big pics but don't look too close at the cuticles - my hand cream/cuticle oil/lemony flutter habit has uninhabited itself.

I'm sure most folk reading this will already be aware of Date Night but for the uninitiated, Date night is a fantastic emerald green shimmer that Barielle released in 2008 as part of the Fall Affair collection. I was lucky enough to find these in a CVS when I was in the US earlier this year. It applies flawlessly, dries fast and is opaque in 2 coats.

NYX is another US brand but this one I picked up on my cheapie haul the other weekend. It was one of the most expensive cheapies at £3.30 but totally worth it.

Unfortunately over the weekend my middle fingernail (which I was patching with a succession of silk wraps & ibd - if there's a way to make them last longer than 24hrs I need to know?!) broke off completely and I haven't got the heart to file all the others down to match.

Cheapies

Last weekend I was over in Slough. It's fair to say that Slough is not the most high end shopping experience, so after splurging at TK Maxx (TJ Maxx to US readers) I went cheapie hunting and boy, did I haul! I picked up 20 polishes, all of which were less than £3 each and most were less than £2. Some brands I'd heard of (NYX, Star Gazer, Wet n' Wild, Sleek and W7) and some were new to me (X-Plode, Make-up Academy and Go) and a mixture of US and UK brands.

First up is Mystery from Make-up Academy






It's a slightly grey toned dark blue shimmer with the blue leaning towards Air Force blue and some fine silver glitteriness.

This is 2 coats with topcoat. For a polish that cost £1.99 the application was pretty sweet, the brush was a good length and shape and the polish was opaque in two coats.

I really like this colour, the shimmer is good and I like the fact that it's not your bog standard deep blue shimmer, of which I have too many to mention!

I bought this (and two other colours) from Savers, a discount drugstore and I'm assuming it's their own brand and is unique to them.

Salzburg Haul

Apologies for the lack of posting - As well as the ongoing building work (see Builder's Tea), I've been away on a business trip to Salzburg

I was hoping to pickup some unusual polish but limited trawling of the pharmacies and nail bars near my hotel only yielded a small selection of OPI DS and some Essies - all of which were madly expensive. The euro exchange rate isn't good news for Brits shopping in Europe.

But then in the airport on the way home I was idly walking round the duty free shop, past the teddy bear's wearing leiderhosen and the chocolate Mozart balls when I stumbled upon a small nail polish stand where I spotted these beauties.

 

They're only minis but check out the awesome flakiness (click for huge pics) - if these apply anything like the bottle I'll be very pleased.

And they were only 3 euros each which didn't seem a bad price.

I think Alessandro are a German brand - anyone got any experience of these?