Illamasqua - Baptiste

If life (or moving) gives you stumpies then wear vampies!

So here's a quick post of my current mani, the totally gorgeous Illamasqua Baptiste.



It's a dark purple with loads of pink and purple shimmer. My picture really doesn't do it justice and it's probably a little more pink toned IRL. This is two coats with top coat which so far, 1 day in, is wearing well.

And why do I never remember to put hand cream on before I take the picture - d'oh!

butter London - Bezzie Mates

Gawd, this moving lark is killing my nails. This weekend I managed to badly bang my thumb against a desk corner while moving a sofa. Boy did it hurt, almost as much as when I accidentaly electrocuted myself changing the bulb in the extractor fan! And I now have a small blood blister under the nail - eek!

And today I've had to trim my ring and pinkie on my swatching hand as they looked so out of place with the index and middle that had broken low down. So I am stumpy nails for a few weeks which means more old swatches from 'back in the day'.

So here's my first featured butter LONDON. I don't have many of these, in fact the sum total of 2!

I picked them up in a previous ASOS sale, not because they were particularly amazing colours but just because I didn't have any and at the time was reading a lot of conflicting opinions about the polish quality.

Now obviously you shouldn't judge a brand too strongly on just two polishes (otherwise I never would've bought another OPI! - seriously my first two were lame, a big disappointment - I must dig them out and revisit)

This is Bezzie Mates a bright fuchsia pink that has a slight squishy jellyness to it. The name is a UK colloquialism for best friends, originating from Liverpool.

butter London, despite the name, is not a British brand though. It's an American company, though founded by two Brits, Sasha Muir and Nonie Creme, hence the polish names.





This was two coats and topcoat.

I thought the polish was fine, not awesome, butteryness (as you might imagine from the name!) but by no means as bad as some of the comments had led me to think.

Anyone got strong opinions on butter London?

Pure - Persian Red

This is Persian Red, a Raspberry creme with slight jelly finish.  I wore this as a full mani so this is 2 coats and  topcoat.  It's a pretty colour, good with my skintone (cool) and very shiny!

Pure is one of those brands I'd never heard of before. I spotted it while browsing on the Debenhams site. I think it's a Spanish brand - the squiggly writing on the left of the bottle says "Carlo di Roma"

I've never seen this in stores nor seen it on any other blogs.  Although I think Carlo di Roma have other brands that are more widespread - am I right in thinking they crop up in Dollar stores in the US?

MNY 265

This was one of the (many) polishes I picked up in Germany earlier this year

MNY is a funky Maybelline brand that I've not seen for sale anywhere in the UK. I picked up several from this brand as they had some fun and unusual colours.

Let's kick off with one I wasn't sure about....



This is 265, a raspberry jelly with fine holographic glitter



I'm not usually a fan of jellies or the vnl that goes with it but this is really pretty and I can just about overlook the VNL.

This is 3 coats, unfortunately there wasn't a lot of sun when I took these photos so the holographic glitter doesn't really jump out, but it is pretty subtle




Close-ups to show the glitter

Overall I liked this better than I expected and it's definitely unique in my collection.

Has anyone else tried these MNY's? or spotted them in the UK?

GOSH -Metallic Green

It is still August right? The weather in the UK this month has been terrible - this week it has rained, rained and rained some more.

Where is our summer?!

So as the weather has been so terrible for swatching I'm sharing an old swatch with you.

This is GOSH, the imaginatively named Metallic Green!



Shade




Sun

This is two coats with no top coat. I'm not sure if this is a foil or a pearl, it was easy to apply and surprisingly brushstroke free - so does that mean it's a pearl?

Either way it's a nice colour & finish.

Ciaté - Sugared Almonds

Gawd, sorry gals - I've been away too long. After the fab holiday in France, the much less fab tummy bug from hell (tip - don't swallow the river water!) followed by kitchen painting, crappy internet speeds and back to work I haven't had time to swatch or post.

So here's an old swatch, another from my small but perfectly formed Ciaté Paint Pots collection. This is Sugared Almonds.



Sugared Almonds is a pinky/peachish nude. This colour reminds me of vintage silk lingerie, it has a very elegant 40's feel to it and I really like it. Which of course is only emphaised by the cute vintage-style bottles.

It's not quite manequin hands on me but a pretty, fresh nude. Love it.

Application was good and this was 3 coats.

Ciaté retail for £9

RBL - Grunge

I'm off on holiday today! A week in Chamonix, in the French Alps, with my lovely man and his three equally lovely kids, all boys, aged between 11 and 15.

We're staying in a lovely apartment with views of Mont Blanc and have lots of fun stuff planned.
Despite being a well known ski resort, Chamonix is a great summer destination if you're not looking for sizzling temperatures and sandy beaches. The ski lifts are open throughout the summer so it's easy to do stunning hikes, there's also rock climbing, ice caves, white water rafting and the much loved luge - lots of stuff to keep teenage boys occupied!

I am taking a couple of mini bottles of polish with me but with our packed, outdoorsy itinerary there won't be much time for nails so I wanted to wear something low-key, long-wearing that wouldn't show chips too much but that I'd feel comfortable in (I'm not really a sheers kinda girl) so I finally decide on Grunge from Rescue Beauty Lounge.



Grunge is another of those greige/taupe/nude colours that's tricky to describe. It's not quite mannequin hands with my skin tone. I'd say it was a light taupe with a fair amount pinky lilac tones. There's also a very fine, unobtrusive/invisible silver shimmer there.

Of course it has the renowned RBL application qualities, this is two coats over Barielle Hydrating Ridge Filler, a coat of Nails Inc Albert Bridge and topped off with Seche Vite to dry.

I picked this up with a few other RBLs in their last 50% off sale. I'd heard great things about the polish before but I really couldn't justify the high price tag and hefty international shipping charges.

But thanks to that amazing sale and my wonderful polish enabling pal Carl, who lives in the US and is willing to act as my US postbox, I managed to get my hands on some, including all the blogger special editions.

And fortunately, or unfortunately as I now want more of them! they completely lived up to expectations. All opaque in barely two coats, amazing formula and gorgeous, edgy, unique colours. Definitely in the same ballpark as Illamasqua for me. If only they weren't so expensive.

Fingers crossed my mani lasts a few days and see you all in a week!

Ciaté - Cookies & Cream

Here's another from the Candy Couture collection from last summer.

This is Cookies & Cream, an unusual take on the nude/grey look. I think Ciaté described it as pastel grey but it's definitely got a hint of taupe/nude in there too although it's mostly grey.



Apologies for the terrible swatch - by the looks of this I must've been swatching something blue and glittery that didn't come off very well!

Ciaté - Fruity Pops

Next up is Fruity Pops - love that name!



Fruity pops is an orange toned coral creme - a very summery colour in my book.

Again this is 3 coats and despite it not being as pale as Lemon Sherbert it was still a bit tricky to work with - mostly caused by polish drag on the second and third coats.

So again this was 3 coats to get an even coverage, not terrible but 2 is better, right?!

This, like Lemon Sherbert, was from the Summer 2009 collection, Candy Couture.

Lemon Sherbert - Ciaté

As my nails still haven't recovered from packing and moving and I'm sooooo behind with blogging I thought I'd post some old pics, but don't worry they're not ones I've posted before just ones I took a long time ago when I had nails!

I thought I'd start with some Ciaté

First up is Lemon Sherbert



It's a pale yellow creme, with the problems you'd expect from that. This was 3 coats and it was, like most yellow cremes, a bit of a challenge to work with.

As expected it doesn't look great with my skintone, a bit like yellow tippex really.... ah well.

No7 - Beanie

Just realised I missed off a polish from my recent(ish) new No7 Speed Dry polishes





Beanie is a lovely dark taupe/mushroom creme, it's a rich, darker brown toned taupe.
Very opaque, this is 2 coats



As it's one of those taupe/mushroom shades I thought it would useful to compare against one of the classics, $OPI Metro Chic

They're pretty different, Metro Chic is lighter with more grey/lilac tones. Both lovely though, especially if you ignore my horribly dry cuticles!

Moving House

That's me, not the blog!

Apologies but I've been moving back into my house over the past week and haven't had any time for blogging or nail painting - not that I've got any nails left after a week of lugging boxes, unpacking, building furniture and cleaning!

I've now unpacked and mostly sorted all my furniture and possessions that have been in storage for 9 months. The 'collection' is still in boxes but check out the lovely new storage I have for it...



Yep, that's 4 Helmers!!  And the darling man thinks they're great and wants to get some more for himself, result!

Normal service should be resumed soon...

No7 Speed Dry - Grey Skies

The second Speed Dry I chose is Grey Skies


Shade


Slightly more sunny - ok there wasn't much sun around!

Grey Skies is a blue toned darkish grey creme

Another one that's very opaque and nearly a one-coat-wonder, although this is two.