Avon - Green with Envy

The last of my Avon's - Green with Envy. Not a very original name but I think the colour is a little more unusual.



Green with Envy is a very dark green creme, like a school blackboard. It is very dark green but for me never looked black, but perhaps that's the view of a polish colour obsessive!

This swatch is 2 coats, the formula was great and look how shiny it is without a topcoat.

Overall I think the Avon's are good quality polishes, with somewhat unusual colours for a great price (on sale) - but actually not a bad polish for the full price either, especially given the size of the bottles.

Avon - Decadance

Another Avon Nailwear Pro, Decadance

I love this one, it did cause some problems as you'll see but such a gorgeous polish





Decadance is a purply pink shimmer with pink and purple fine glitter.  I think it looks gorgeous in the sunlight.

This is 2 coats and I'm afraid not the neatest swatch - check out that big bubble/blob on my ring finger. Basecoat but no top coat

Another oddity - this was my last swatch of the day, I went to bed 7 hours after this swatch and woke up another 7 hours later with sheet marks! So I think it's fair to say without a fast drying top coat this is not a fast dryer!

Avon - Dynamo

Next up from the Avon Nailwear Pro range is Dynamo





Dynamo is a medium pink, slightly purply, slightly dusky foil
This is 2 coats, no topcoat

It's pretty but not massively unique I don't think.

Again application and formula were great.  And as you can see they're big bottles for your £3!

Avon - Splendid Blue

Shortwidenails asked me to swatch the Avons I recently posted haul pictures of, so here goes.

First up is Splendid Blue





Splendid Blue is a dark blue with sparkly blue, turquoise and silver shimmer
This is 2 coats with no topcoat.

It's a really lovely polish, the sparkle is always visible but still subtle.  Application and formula were top.  Overall a great polish for a great price (I got these half price from the Avon site for £3 each)

Anyone else tried any of these?

Accessorize - Magical Mocha

Now this is better than Pin-up and I think this is one that Helen-Nice-Things might like





Magical Mocha is a cool brown packed with silver shimmer
This is 2 coats, no top coat.

I really like this one..

Accessorize - Pin-Up

Hmmm, not quite sure why I bought this one - it must've looked better/more interesting on the web site.





Pin Up is a peachy pale pink with gold shimmer and slightly larger silver shimmery pieces.
This is 3 coats, no top coat and I still have visible nail line.

There's nothing really wrong with it, it's pretty enough but not really my kinda thing!

Accesorize - Mermaid

Gah - I'm so behind with posting! I'm going to do up the frequency a bit to try and catch up.

Over the next few days I'll show the rest of the Accessorize I got.

First is Mermaid - slightly unimaginative name for a blue polish but it does tie in very well with this turquoise/blue foil - you can almost see the scales and hear the sound of the sea.

 
2 coats, no top coat.

 



3 Pics to show the gorgeousness. There's a hint of duochrome in the bottle that doesn't make it to the nail but it's still so pretty.

As I'm sure you know this one is a dupe of Zoya Charla, Orly Halleys Comet, OPI Catch Me in Your Net and prob. some others. But I don't have any of those....

Ciaté - Main Stage

This is my second polish from Ciaté's S/S 2010 collection, Festival Fever. Although checking the blog I haven't posted Talent Scout yet - doh, although it does feature as a comparison here

This is Main Stage, a cool-toned slightly dusky pink creme



This is 2 coats with no top coat. It's a pretty colour but, like most pink cremes, makes me feel all Betty Draper elegant rather than Festival grunge!

Festival Fever is a collection of 6 polishes themed around music festivals. The others are Access All Areas (Coral), Ditch the Heels (Mint Green), Fun Fair (Lilac) and Headliner (Turquoise blue).

Ciaté polishes retail for £9 from Ciaté or ASOS and the Festival Fever collection is still widely available.

This was sent to me for review by the lovely Rachel

Catrice - Looking Greyt

And the last from the Expect the Unexpected LE Collection that I got is Looking Greyt - I think there was one other, a pinky purple creme?





Looking Greyt is a darkish blue-toned grey.
And this is that rare beast, a one coat wonder!

Again great formula and application - these really are fab for drugstore polishes - I wish they sold them in the UK...

Catrice- Purposely Purple

Next up is Purposely Purple, again from the Expect the Unexpected LE Collection

 
It's a mid purple creme, not massively unique but nice all the same.
This is 2 coats, no top coat. Again the formula was great and super opaque.


I thought this could be pretty dupey so I did a quick & dirty comparison with Ciate Talent Scout and Nails Inc Duchess Street.


l-r Talent Scout, Duchess Street, Purposely Purple, Purposely Purple

IRL Talent Scout is close but slightly lighter & pinker, Duchess Street is darker.

Catrice - Spruced Up

Here's the first of those Catrice's from Germany

This is Spruced Up from the Expect the Unexpected LE Collection




As hinted by the name this is a fir green/teal creme. Formula and application were great and this is 2 coats.

It's a lovely colour and I can see myself wearing this a lot over the winter.

And I really like how Catrice add different prints to the bottle for their limited edition collections.

Mini Germany Haul

Hey, I'm back from *another* trip to Germany. Unfortunately the strong storms in the UK last week meant our flight was delayed and we got back a day late.

Sadly this didn't give me more time for polish shopping as the town we were staying in, Herrenberg, is pretty small and didn't have any great places to buy polish.

I did pick up a few from Ihr Platz, the local drugstore though - hey what's a business trip without polish!


Catrice LE's


More Catrice LE's and a sparkly Maybelline

And these were waiting for me when I got home



Swatches to follow

Fireworks Party Mani

Just a quick post to share the manicure I sported over the weekend for my family's annual bonfire/fireworks party. We were a little late this year as Guy Fawkes was last week but I wanted something sparkly to compliment the sparkly fireworks.

I'd picked up some Nails Inc glitters in their recent sale so decided to give the red one a go. It didn't look like it was going to be opaque in any reasonable number of coats so I went for a layered manicure.







This is one coat of American Apparel 'Downtown LA', a classic red that's pretty opaque in one coat and then 2 coats of Nails Inc 'Trafalgar Square' and then 3 coats of Seche Vite. I'd say this was a medium bumpy glitter.


Closeup to show the glitter

I really liked how this turned out and three (3!) members of my family commented positively on my manicure and usually they're pretty oblivious to my np madness! Obviously the bling was noticed and liked.

Because of the vast amounts of SV this didn't wear that well, I had some visible tip pull on the second day.

It was also firmly in the glitter polish territory for removal, felt acetone and scrubbing.