Barry M Autumn Gelly Collection Swatch and Review!

Hi!

It's not often (in fact, I think this is a first) that I swatch an entire collection, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's not often that I like an entire collection enough to buy the whole set, and as my polish budget is fairly limited I can't afford to buy a polish just to swatch if I don't love it. And secondly, I rarely have the time to sit and polish my nails over and over in one sitting. Nor do I think my pictures are anything special! However, when I saw the Autumn Gelly nail paint collection from Barry M I wanted, nay needed, them all, my youngest bubba just started full time school (sob) so I managed to spare an hour for some swatching, and the sun was shining so I hoped to get a decent pic. No excuses, so off I swatched!

Barry M has come up trumps with this collection of 6 polishes from their Hi-Shine Gelly range, all named after spices (with the exception of Cocoa) that are perfect Autumn colours. Most are unique to my collection, which is getting rarer and rarer these days, and I think filled a gap in Barry M's range too. It's great to see some more muted, unique colours. All of my swatches show two coats with no topcoat. The formula was thinner than I've come to expect from the Gelly range, which isn't a bad thing as some of them, especially the white-based colours (I'm looking at you Huckleberry) can be a little on the thick side. I had no issues with application, and the dry time was great.

Mustard is exactly that; a mustard yellow cream. This is probably the most unique of the set, unlike anything I've got in my collection. I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I do, but it has a warmth to it which means it avoids the baby-poo look!

Cocoa is the darkest of the bunch, a dark brown that's not too red but avoids looking black. I can imagine this looking beautifully cosy with some gold glitter.

Cardamom was my favourite, although it is slightly darker on the nail than in the bottle it is still a lovely dusty mid-green.

Chai is a perfect grey cream. It comes a close second to Cardamom for me and I've already worn this again.

Paprika is Cocoa's redder, paler sister and reminds me a silky melted milk chocolate.

Lastly, Chilli, which is the reddest of the collection, and I think it will make a lovely autumn pedicure colour.

It's hard for me to pick a favourite here, but if I was pushed I'd go for Cardamom with Chai a close second, and Mustard bringing up the rear! I've already worn Chai with some stamping, but I broke a nail before I could get a good picture :( Anyway, I can see myself reaching for these over and over in the next few months! Which is your favourite?

I purchased these myself from Superdrug, where they are currently on 3 for 2 - so you can get all 6 for a few pence less than £16. What a naughty enabler I am!

Hx

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GOT Polish? Red!

Hi!

What a bad blogger I am! I promised you this post yesterday but I'm a day late again - at least it's only a day this time and not a week! I'm doing a part-time job three mornings a week (only temporary at the moment) and it's knocked me out of whack a bit. I will try to be better I promise! Anyway, this week's Golden Oldie Thursday is bought to you by the colour red, and I decided to be brave and try out a Robin Moses design. If you haven't heard of Robin Moses, google her, youtube her, stalk her on Instagram because she is awesome! I also cracked out the acrylic paint which I bought years ago, tried once and then threw into the nail art drawers when I couldn't get them to work to fester ever since. Impatient, moi? Anyway, I think I will need more practice since my lines were a little thick (and a thinner brush, maybe) but not too bad for a first (ok, second) go. The polishes I used were Nails Inc King Edward Street and China Glaze Fairy Dust in the negative spaces, along with black acrylic paint.

You can see the Robin Moses original here. I don't think she has anything to worry about...

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Picture Polish Illusionist - galaxy in a bottle!

Hello!

I'm going to jump straight in today and say I can't do galaxy nails. The fact I've only actually tried them once, about three years ago is irrelevant. It was a fail and I shelved the idea and never tried again. Galaxy nails are so pretty, I "ah" every time I see one, traditional or pastel, and I think to myself I really should try that again someday. But in the back of my mind I still have the fail and a little niggle that says don't even go there. So I don't try. But now, along comes a polish that does it all for me, in one little bottle! Picture Polish Illusionist is a beautiful glittery multi-chrome polish with just the right amount of holo glittery flakies running through it to make it twinkle like the night sky. So. Beautiful. As multi-chrome polishes tend to be, this is sheer so I layered two coats over Sally Hansen Navy, Baby so you can see the full shift from pink to purple, blue and turquoise, and even a rusty red at the extreme end (which you can see in the underwater pic at the end). I combined it with a silver accent nail and some simple white stamping. But the Picture Polish is the real star of the show.

Stunning! I nabbed my bottle from the wonderful Sally Magpies when there was a sale, but even though it's back to full price now I suggest you grab it because it wont be in stock for long!

Maybe next time I wear it I will attempt some galaxy art over the top...or maybe I'll wimp out and just admire it instead!

Hx

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#GuessThePolish and win!

Hi!

I'm excited to share something a bit different with you today! A week or so ago I received a lovely surprise package featuring a mystery polish! The polish is a juicy coral red from an exciting new range that has been launched. All you have to do to win a bottle is guess the brand and follow me for a chance to win! Your guess doesn't have to be correct to be entered, just have a go and all will be revealed next week! Onto the polish - this is three perfect, fast drying coats and no topcoat, so you can see how shiny it is! I wouldn't normally chose this colour for myself, but I was surprised to find I love it, and would be great for everyday or to dress up an outfit - perfect for a summer wedding! I, of course, couldn't leave it plain and had some fun with a bit of stamping - could it be a clue I wonder... The bottle I'm holding has had the branding removed, but the bottle you could win will reveal all!

To enter, fill in the Rafflecopter form below with your guess, a way of contacting you if you win and confirmation that you're a follower of my blog, and a winner will be chosen this time next week. There are a few extra fun questions for extra entries too! There will be extra entries to be gained on Instagram and Facebook over the next week too, so keep checking!

Now the boring bit - due to postage restrictions the giveaway is only open to UK residents. If you are under 18 you will need your guardians permission to give me your address so I can send the prize to you. The giveaway will run until midnight on Sunday 8th June 2014 and a winner will be chosen the following day and announced here at 6pm. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. That's it, have fun!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check back next week to find out if your guess was right! Good luck ;)

Hx

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Dotty Bows with MoYou Nails

Hi!

I was offered the change to try out some stamping plates and special polish from MoYou Nails, a UK nail art brand who offer stamping plates, special polishes and everything a nail art novice or expert, or anywhere in between, could ask for! They sent me plates 101 and 105, a stamper and scraper and their red special polish to try.

The plates I chose both have 6 small images on them - 101 has owls and eyes, and 105 has hearts and bows (we all know how I feel about owls! <3) The plates are round, come with a blue protective film to stop them getting scratched in transit, and a backing so the edges aren't sharp. The stamper is red and firm, and it worked straight out of the packet with just a wipe over with some acetone - no need to "prime". The scraper is plastic, which I prefer as it wont scratch the plate. All in all a great set, and would be fab for someone just starting out with stamping.

I started out by swatching both the plates on paper, using the red special polish. The red is a true red and stamps perfectly. I had no trouble picking any of the images up and transfering them - on paper or on my nails. Even the plate number stamps! Each image is crisp and clear.

I then tried the polish over some different colours. I chose red because it is a notoriously hard colour to stamp over a dark base, and unfortunately this was the MoYou red's only downfall. You can barely see it over the black, but over blue and silver it's perfect.

And then of course I had to use it in a manicure! I paired the red with white and some dots for a cute mani. The red special polish isn't too thick that you can't use it for a base, which saves trouble trying to match stamping polish to normal polish.

All in all, these are great, high quality stamping plates, and I'm very pleased to add them to my collection. Everything featured in this post can be purchased from www.MoYouNails.com, and they have a huge range of plates with individual and full nail images, special polishes and nail art tools. I've got my eye on some of the XL plates...

Also, keep an eye on MoYou Nail's Facebook page for updates, special offers and competitions! And I'm planning a special manicure with the owl plate soon, so look out for that too!

Hx

The product featured was a PR sample provided to me for free for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own and 100% honest. Please see my disclaimer in the tab above for further details.

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Crabtree & Evelyn do polish...

Hi!

I don't know about you, but Crabtree & Evelyn isn't a brand I associate with nail polish. Skincare and fragrance, yes, but they've recently launched a polish range too. So when Mr NN came home with four for me to try, I was excited to give them a go! Of the 21 shades available, he chose Tomato, Snowdrop, Mica and Pistachio, and today I have Mica and Tomato to show you. Mica is a lovely steel grey shimmer, and I used two coats for opacity here. It applies really well and dries quickly to a great finish. I used Tomato on my ring finger, which is, as you would expect, and orange toned red but with gold shimmery flakes that make it really special. I stamped some roses (again!) with a magnetic polish similar in colour to Mica and topped it all off with a coat of Poshe.

These polishes have a great formula and they're really pretty, too! Of the other colours I got, Pistachio is a pale green shimmer and Snowdrop is a white cream which I used as yesterday's neon gradient base and is a good 2 coat white - which are hard to come by! All in all, these polishes surprised me, I like them much more than I thought I would! And the best bit is the price, just £6 each and currently on offer at buy one get one half price online, although Mr NN says they are BOGOF in store (at least in the Canary Wharf store). I really like the look of Wisteria and Petal Pink too (hint hint!)

Have you tried Crabtree & Evelyn polish? What did you think?

Hx

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Introducing Moyra UK - Swatch and Review!

Hi loves!

Today I have an exciting European polish range that is new to us UK lacquerheads to share with you! According to their Facebook page Moyra is a European nail brand loved by nail technicians across the world for the world class quality, affordable prices and amazing colors. And what an array they have! There is a huge classic range with every basic colour you could every need, and then there are suedes, gel effects, sands, glitter, neons, holos - literally everything you could want and bang on trend too. Today I have a pastel shade, a gel look and a cheeky holo to share with you!

First up is this perfect lilac creme, a must have shade in any collection. The formula on this one is thin, but not unmanageable and I hardly had any clean up to do. Despite it being thin it wasn't at all streaky and here I used two easy coats. I couldn't resist adding a little stamp to this one!

Next I tried the gel look, Nathalie, a lovely shimmery red. It makes a nice change to have a gel effect polish with shimmer, as usually they're cremes. The shimmer in Nathalie makes it look so lush and juicy, I don't often wear red, but this one I could reach for over and over again. This was two perfect coats, with no topcoat. No topcoat, people! Shiny!

Finally the star of the show for me. Luna is a light green holographic polish which, for a budget brand, has the most amazing linear holo rainbow you could ever wish for! Again, two easy coats and no application issues at all. And the stunning result? I could stare all day...

I am super impressed with these polishes, especially at the price point. The pastel and holo polishes are just £3, while the gel looks cost £4, for a full size 12ml bottle. Bargain! At the moment you can purchase from Moyra's Facebook page, with a website coming soon. The range really is huge, so I'm sure there's something you'll love! I'm eyeing up the neon texture polishes next ;)

Hx

The product featured was a PR sample provided to me for free for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own and 100% honest. Please see my disclaimer in the tab above for further details.

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