Fairy Dust vs Electric Lane Comparison

Hey there people, now here's a question.  Who doesn't want sparkly rainbows on their nails?  I know I do!  Nails Inc Electric Lane is the nail polish that made number one on my all time top ten polish list. If you want to look at that, here's the (link) which also includes a couple of Electric Lane swatches.

But I've seen manicures online using China Glaze Fairy Dust.  The difference between these two polishes is something I've been wondering for ages.  Finally, I couldn't wonder any longer so I bought some Fairy Dust so I can compare the two. 

I bought my China Glaze Fairy Dust from Amazon, and when it arrived, I couldn't see much difference at first glance:

The glitter pieces seem to be exactly the same size and colour to me.  So I made up some nail wheels with lots of different colours to try over:

Black: Deborah Lippmann - Fade to Black

White: Poundland Jess (link to full review)

Grey : Leighton Denny - Zero Gravity

Green: Barry M Gelly - Key Lime

Blue: Bourjois One Seconde - Bleu Water

Red: OPI- Big Hair...Big Nails

 

I decided to do one coat of each and no topcoat so you can fully tell the difference (if any).  Here's what I got:

I think you'll be able to guess, but the N's are the Nails Inc Electric Lane, and the C's are the China Glaze Fairy Dust.  As you can tell, more noticeably on the red and black is that the Electric Lane has a denser consistency.  However, in this light you can't really tell so well.  I have a couple of close ups which show it better:

 

Firstly the black:

I think this shows the difference in density much better, although in this lighting my photo seemed to come out a bit blurry, strange.  I think it might be the holo freaking my camera out.

 

Here's the red:

Again, a heavier glitter presence from the Nails Inc.  However, in my opinion, for a glitter topper, that's not necessarily a good thing.  The heavier covering of glitter is hiding the base polish somewhat, rather than enhancing it.

 

Also, Electric Lane dries to quite a sandy matte finish, which I like, but is another difference from Fairy Dust, which dries to more of a gloss as you can see.

 

Here's a picture I took in a rare sunny moment:

Definitely on the black you're starting to see the holo.

 

Here's how the brushes differ:

They both performed admirably, no problems with blobbing during application, and both glitters went on pretty evenly.

 

Here's a full nail swatch of Electric Lane over Nails Inc Devonshire Row:

So how much do they cost?

Nails Inc Electric Lane costs £12 for 10ml

China Glaze Fairy Dust costs £6.49 for 14ml

 

However, there isn't anywhere on the high street I can buy China Glaze, and Amazon have stopped free Super Saver Delivery unless you spend £10, so there will be extra to pay for shipping.  There is a Nails Inc stand in larger branches of Boots, so you can get them with no P&P to pay.

 

However, even with this taken into account, Fairy Dust is cheaper, and you get more.

 

I have managed to get full coverage on my nails with Electric Lane with four coats, I doubt you'd ever manage that with Fairy Dust.

 

So, which do I recommend?  Amazingly, I actually recommend Fairy Dust!  Electric Lane definitely has more bling, but I prefer the glossier and less overwhelming finish of the China Glaze.  Plus of course it's cheaper.

 

No one could be more surprised about this outcome than me, but that's the conclusion I came to.  I still like them both though in different ways, so you could certainly justify owning both.

 

Do you own either of these polishes? Or do you have a different favourite holo glitter topcoat?  Would love to hear about it if you do.

 

Until next time...

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~

Christmas Nailart - Artsy Wednesday

Finally!  Better late than never, here I am with my Artsy Wednesday post, which should have gone up on Christmas Day.  I actually did have these nails done on the big day, but I feel like I haven't had a moment to myself to put them on the blog.  I kind of lost my nail mojo for a while there, but thankfully it's coming back now. 

I've had a lovely Christmas, FAR too much indulgence, but will be back on the wagon in the new year (that's the plan anyway).  I actually didn't get much in the way of nail presents, just four No.7's in a gift box, and some manicure items from my mum, but that just gives me all the more reason to buy my own hee hee.

I've been nursing a split on my middle finger.  It went above the nail line and I've been babying it along until it grew out enough to cut off without including my actual finger in the operation, so you will see a lump there where I've been gluing it.  It's come off now, and that nail is super short, so it'll be a left hander for the new years nails.  Which means stamping probably.

The best glue I've found so far for nail splits is Loctite Superglue Power Flex Control. Here's the Amazon LINK to the one I have.  The lid doesn't get stuck on, polish remover doesn't take it off too easily, and it's lasted a good 3 or four days on me before I have to reglue.  Plus, as I keep it in my handbag, it's a hard tube so it doesn't get squished.  You have to squeeze the grey handles at the side to get the glue out, and it comes out nice and slowly.  I like alot.

So, for my Christmas nails, I fancied something glittery.  I own quite a few glitter polishes, but hardly wear them as I hate the removal.  But for Christmas, I don't mind a bit of extra work.  I eventually decided on a cloud manicure of festive red, gold and green.  As chance would have it, I own all three colours in China Glaze glitter polishes.  So I went with those.  Here's what I made:

I started with a base of the green glitter Running In Circles.  Just one coat needed, but I did touch up a few slightly bare areas at the end, so I should probably have done two coats.

Then I did the cloud detail in red, which is of course, Ruby Pumps.  This is a really easy technique, just three swipes of the brush, straight out of the bottle at different heights.  Being over the green darkened it a bit, bit it was still bright enough to look like red, so that was okay.

Then, over that, I used I'm not Lion, which is a holographic gold, which I love.  Same technique, three swipes.

Here's the bottle shot:

On top of that, I used Glisten & Glow HK Girl topcoat, which has had some brilliant reviews, but I haven't used enough yet to form my own opinion on.  It certainly get marks for wear though, because after three days I had almost no chipping, which is a first for me.  It could be just because it was on top of glitters?  More on that as I find out myself.

I took a few more pics of the mani, so I may as well show them to you.  Here's the first.  Bauble-tastic:

And here's the other.  Traditional close up bottle shot.  You can see the lump on the left of my middle nail quite clearly there, down by the red section:

And that's my lot!  Christmas nails, done.  Have a ganders (goose pun intended) at what the other beauties in the Artsy Wednesday Club have come up with:

Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)

Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)

Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)

So what did you have on your nails this year? 

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

China Glaze Def Defying vs Sinful Colors Innocent - dupe?

Hi there everyone,
 
Hope you're well today, and enjoying the holiday break, if you're getting one.  I'm all out of sorts and can't decide what day it is because I got Friday off, so today feels like Sunday.  The clocks go forward tomorrow night, so that's going to be even more confusing!  Typically, because I'm on leave, I woke up this morning at 7am and couldn't go back to sleep.
 
However, I've had a lovely day, I went shopping with my friend, and we had lunch at a fab pub.  I had a HUMUNGOUS burger, it felt quite wrong eating meat though as I hardly ever do, other half's veggie and we don't have meat at home.  Still, it was tasty.
 
So there I was, wandering round Boots, and PING!  A Sinful Colors display!!  I've never seen this brand in there (or anywhere) before, there were loads of colours and of course I was excited.  Then when I saw the price, only £1.99 per bottle, and a 3 for 2 offer, I was even more excited!  Needless to say, I picked up 6 haha. 
 
I'll swatch them all at some point, but will probably wait until this middle finger cuticle has healed, it's such a pain covering it up in the photos, and it makes my editing take twice as long, grrr.  I've got some other reviews and stuff I want to do anyway, so it'll be a good chance to get those done.  It's a heck of a lot better than it was due to a LOT of TLC, and I reckon it'll be better in a week or so, so not long for me to wait.
 
So anyway, I got all my lovely Sinful Colors haul home, and what do I notice?  That one shade I bought, Innocent, is suspiciously similar to the China Glaze color I bought not so long ago, Def Defying.  I keep calling it Hi Def, I have no idea why.  So I thought I would do a comparison post in case anyone else is wondering about it, and swatch and review both colours at the same time, so covering everything in one post.
 
So first up, let's go with the China Glaze Def Defying swatches, just because.  Firstly in the sun:

It has to be said, I've had an awful time capturing these polishes.  They are more neon than they're showing here.  I've tried to colour correct them as far as I can, but this is as far as I can go without giving myself alien fingers.  The formula was ok, it didn't flood my cuticles and was thin enough to do thin coats if you like to apply it that way.  I did find it a little bit runny.  First coat was streaky, and this is two, with no topcoat.  A beautiful acid green colour, it reminds me of the 60's, not that I was there, but you know what I mean.
 
Here it is in the shade:

Dry time was medium to fast and the brush was pretty good.  I like it.
 
Now we come along to Sinful Colors Innocent.  You can see why I thought of the dupe:

I actually preferred the formula on this one.  It was still runny, and it's one of those where you have to make sure you clean off the stalk or it blobs off onto whatever you're leaning on.  However, it was more opaque than the China Glaze.  First coat patchy rather than streaky, and this is two, with no top coat. I think it might be good for stamping.
 
Here it is in the shade:

As you can see, it dries a touch brighter than it shows in the bottle.  The only downer on this polish is that compared to the fast dry polishes we're used to these days, this one is only medium speed drying, and I did smudge a couple of nails while I was waiting for them to dry and had to re-apply.  One day I will learn to sit still and wait for my polish to dry.  Today is not that day.  Of course a coat of Seche would rectify it, but I like to show polishes in reviews with no top coat.  Otherwise I don't think it can be a fair showing of the finish that the actual nail polish has.
 
So without further ado, lets get on with the comparison / dupe check:
 
Here's a pic in the sun, hopefully I've made it pretty obvious which finger is which:

Can you guess?  That's right!  Def Defying on index and middle finger, and Innocent on ring and little finger.
 
As you can see, in the sunlight there's not much in it.  Sinful Colors is slightly paler than China Glaze, but I think if you weren't seeing them side by side like this you wouldn't really notice a difference.
 
Here they are in the shade:

Again, I would say the China Glaze is perhaps one shade richer than the Sinful Colors one.
 
I would say though, that these pictures don't show the true 'almost neon' brightness of these nail polishes.  The only thing that would capture it is my iphone, and as it's only a 3gs (upgrade due soon woohoo!), the resolution is not good.  However here's a pic taken against my monitor showing one of these pics before I've colour adjusted them to give you an idea of the size of the task:

As you can see, my camera decided it didn't want you to see the true nail polish colours, sigh.  I think I got them as close as I could though.  This iphone picture is pretty much spot on for colour, with no adjusting.  There's no way my OCD-ness would allow me to put up these blurry pics as swatches though haha.
 
Here's a picture of the bottles and brushes side by side:

As you can see, there's pretty much the same amount of polish in both bottles too.  So, I preferred the formula of Innocent, but I preferred the brush on Def Defying.
 
Now we come to price.  I bought my Def Defying on Amazon UK (here) for £7.45 including shipping.  I bought my Innocent in this Boots deal for £1.33.  Over three times less.  The usual price without the deal is still only £1.99.  You can order it online from Boots (here) but they do charge shipping.  However, of course if you can't get to a shop, it's still alot cheaper, even taking the shipping into account.

So what so I think?  Not exact dupes, but very very close.  Quite frankly China Glaze Def Defying isn't better by enough to justify paying for it over Sinful Colors Innocent.

So Sinful Colors wins.  If you don't own either, and you want an acid lime polish, I recommend Innocent.  And of course, because you've saved your money, you can have the other two bottles you get at the same time 'for free'. ;-)
 
Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Pretty Jelly Fairy Ring Review and St Patricks Day Nailart

Hi there everyone,
 
It's the weekend at last.  Here I am again with a polish review and some nail art for you.  Today I'm going to show you Pretty Jelly's Fairy Ring.
 
I've already reviewed some of the other Pretty Jelly holo polishes in the past, Diamond S-teal-er , Grape Escape and Bullet Rouge and I've enjoyed them.  When I saw this mossy green, I couldn't resist!
 
Pictured below is two coats, using Sally Hansen Miracle Cure as basecoat, and no topcoat.  Application was well behaved and lovely, and as a result I didn't require any clean up before taking these pictures.
 
In the shade, it's a pretty and soft mossy green:

There are some greens that don't do my skintone any favours, even though I still wear them of course!  This is not one of those, I found it very flattering.
 
BUT... it's only in the light that this polish comes into it's own, check out this baby:

And because I can, here's another picture:

Check out that holo!  Awesome!  You can see the holo quite nicely in lower light in real life, I just couldn't get my camera to pick it up.
 
As you probably know, it's St Patricks day this weekend, and as I'm already wearing green on my nails I thought I'd spice things up with a bit of Ireland-inspired nail art:

That fab green glitter I used to do the dots with is China Glaze Running in Circles. It's pretty much Ruby Pumps, only green.
 
I used Barry M Spring green to draw a line down the left hand side of my nail, I didn't bother with striping tape.  Then I used this Color Club gold glitter striper to draw a line next to that.

Then I added the dots with a dotting tool and my fingers were done

I wanted to do an accent nail on my thumb, so I decided to paint the Irish flag.  Again I didn't use striping tape, but for this one I kind of wish I had as my lines weren't perfect:

The green is Barry M's Spring Green again, and the orange is Max Factor's Bright Orange.  Despite saying I don't like this orange, I do find I go back to it alot for nail art, so it can't be all bad.

Everything got a coat of Seche Vite at the end.  As a little extra positive, the holo wasn't completely killed by top coat, which made me happy.

You can buy these polishes by going to the Liquid Jelly Etsy shop HERE the full size bottles like the one I got are $10.

The polishes are 3-free and cruelty free, so you can shop with a clear conscience.

 

So what do you think?  Do you own any of these polishes?  Would be interested to hear what you think!

 

Until next time...

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~

Valentines Nail Art - Ideas for short nails

Hi there,

Here I am again, have had a day off work today for a dentists appointment, so managed to get some cheeky mid-week nailart in.  I can't wait until summer when I get enough light at night to let me post more than just at the weekends!

My index nail finally gave up the ghost, it got a big dent in the weak bit, so I've had to file all the other nails down to match.  In a way it's a relief, because I was fed up of babying it along, and now it can grow back nice and strong again.

Also, it's given me a chance to show you that nail art isn't only for long nails! 

I specifically haven't included any stamping here, because I think there'll probably be alot of that around at the moment.  I actually saw some stamping sets in Claires Accessories today, so if you don't want to buy from the internet, then you can pop to Claire's to pick one up.  There was only a choice of 3 plates, but knowing Claire's, they'll improve that if they sell enough kits.  I think they were £9.00 (or maybe £12).  I don't see them on their website yet.

I've tried to do a few different designs, to hopefully get your creative juices going, I know what it's like when you just have a bleugh day, you look at your polishes and no mojo... 

I start with a semi-fail.  I found a new shop in carlisle called Fun-2-Do, which has all craft stuff in it.  They do have a website, HERE but not every item in the shop is on the site.  So anyway, I was in there, and I saw some table confetti, it was little red hearts and they looked like they'd be good for nail art.  I've also think I've seen them on Amazon HERE but I can't be definite they're exactly the same ones.

So I used them in my nail art and....
Oh no! They bleeeeedddd.... This is not good, I have a BIG bag of these!  So I had to come up with something.  The red I used is China Glaze Ruby Pumps, how pretty is it?!  Two coats here.  It reminds me so much of juicy strawberry jam.  The pink is OPI Mod About You.  You're going to see alot of that pink in this post, as it's my number one light pink.  On my thumb I taped off to do the lines, but on the rest of the fingers I decided that was too much hassle, and just freehanded.  A top coat of seche which was intended to make it look prettier haha.

I did do another look, that I decided not to go with, but I managed to topcoat it without bleeding it:

For that look I used Color Club polishes Antiquated and Hot Like Lava from their Foiled Metallics collection.

What I decided to do was to try to take the colour off them with polish remover.  Initially I put some in a freezer bag with some polish remover.  The idea was to swish them about a bit, rinse them off, et voila!  Nice clean non-bleedy hearts.  It didn't quite work out, the bag leaked, I lost a load while I was rinsing them, and all in all it was more hassle than it was worth. 

It was much easier to give them a rub with a cotton pad dipped in polish remover one by one.  Yes it seems like it might take longer, but actually it's not too bad.

So now I have silver hearts instead of red.  So I have to come up with a new colour scheme.  This is what I went with:

I messed up a bit, as I made the index finger stripe too thin, but hey, we're just experimenting here!  The polishes I used were OPI Mod About You (I told you that you'd see it alot) for the light pink, and the darker pink is Nails Inc's Bruton Street.  Both have lovely formulas and are topped off with Seche.  I could have done with another coat of Seche really, because by the end of the day I'd lost a few hearts.

So these looks I actually did last weekend, and today I did another one.  Well, it's two into one really, because there's step one, which is one look, and step two which is different....  I'll just get on with it shall I...

So, because I didn't get my tooth mended at the dentist (had to make another appointment, as it was apparently just a check up appointment that time, sigh), I thought I would go shopping to cheer myself up.  And SOMEHOW found my way into Fun-2-Do again.  I found some more hearts, and thought I would take a chance.  These were the ones I got, they cost me £1.50:

Now, I couldn't find these on their website, or anywhere else for that matter, but as soon as I got home I tested them, and HOORAY they don't bleed!  Typically of me though, I decided not to use the red ones today haha.  I went for the gold ones, and a Butter London polish called Fiddlesticks that I bought before Christmas and havent used yet.

I thought I'd keep it clean and simple:

This does have a coat of Seche over it, as it dries to a matt-ish sheen.  It's got a very similar glitter feel to ruby pumps, only much more magenta.  Think raspberry jam instead of strawberry.  Also here you can see how short my index nail is now.

Here's another pic as I loved this look so much:

This look worked really well in low light, as the hearts picked up any bit of light and flashed brightly every time I moved my hands.

Then of course, I got bored of being understated and stylish.

So I made another look with it:

To do this, all I did was used a ring reinforcer to mask off the top of my nail, I got mine from Amazon link HERE but you can buy them from lots of places.  I then used my Color Club pink striper, also from Amazon, to draw some stripes on the ends of my fingers.  I started with the middle stripe and worked my way out to try to get them even.  I messed up one stripe on my little finger, but I think this look turned out be pretty, and perfectly demonstrates that short nails don't have to be boring.

And I STILL wasn't finished!  I had one more idea.  I got my trusty Mod About You out, and Nails Inc's Devonshire Row.  The two went so well together, but what to do?  Then I realised I hadn't done any dotty looks yet, so I got out my dotter and away I went.

This is what I ended up with:

Now the heart on my middle finger didn't come out exactly how I wanted, but you can still tell what it is, so that's ok.   I topped it off with a coat of Seche.  As you can probably tell I was starting to lose the light by this time.  Probably a better represtentation of the colours is in this picture:

So there you see, on short nails and still pretty.  I actually really like these two colours together, and they are going on my 'do this again' list.

And that's it!  Which is your favourite?  I think mine is the Butter London stripy one, but the dots come a close second. 

Have you got any nailart planned for Valentines?  Hopefully if you've been stuck for ideas I've given you a bit of inspiration.  Please feel free to recreate any of these looks if you like them, and if you do, please give me a shout, I'd love to see!

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Christmas Nail Art Challenge - Day 6 - Gifts

Hey there all!

Here I am again, feeling much better now, my cold is almost gone, and I have today off, yay! 

Then there's only a week to work until Christmas, so exciting! Some more gift shopping to do today, and a bit more nail art once my hangover is gone, bit too much celebratory 'day off' G&T's last night, ouch!  Hopefully I'll finally get a bit ahead on the challenges, and not have to rush them, because I was stressing myself out, silly sausage. 

Thank you so much for the get well wishes, they're very much appreciated, and it looks like they worked a treat.

So todays challenge is - Gifts

This got me thinking.  I initially was going to do a tape manicure of a parcel on each finger, but you know me, it would only take one smudge or blob and I'd probably end up hating it.  So I kept thinking some more.  And I actually got to thinking.... what are the real gifts, the precious ones?  And so it happened, I came up with my favourite manicure.  Not just of this challenge, but possibly, of all time. 

Not because of the execution, but because of the sentiment.  Here's what it looks like, and then I'll explain it:

The base is Barry M Spring Green.  I chose green because it's the colour of nature, luck, and tranquility.  Also it's Christmassy, so double win.

I sponged China Glaze I Herd That onto the tips of my nails to represent sunshine, warmth and happiness.

Here's another pic, it shows the multicolour sparkles in the glitter a bit better:

I did some nail art in white acrylic paint.

On my index finger I painted a dove. This represents peace and faith.

On my middle finger I painted a heart. This represents love and health.

On my ring finger I painted what is apparently the Chinese symbol for friendship. I'm sorry to any Chinese people if this is a terrible rendition.

On my little finger I painted a house. This represents family and stability.  I don't see my family alot, but they're always in my thoughts and heart.

On my thumb is an actual gift. This represents generosity.

Every time I've looked at my nails since doing this manicure it's made me feel really happy and fulfilled.  The sentiments are so positive, it reminds me of everything that's good in people. 

And I reckon....

That's the real gift of Christmas, isn't it?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

China Glaze Kalahari Kiss Blossom Nail Art

Hello again!

I was up early this morning, so had time to do some nail art.  This is one I've seen quite a bit round the net, although not for a while, so I can't really give credit for it to anyone, although I'm pretty sure Indigo Nova has a YouTube tutorial for it (I think she has a new name now though).

It actually wasn't what I intended to do when I painted my nails initially, it just kind of happened, but it wasn't a bad thing because I'm really pleased with how they turned out:

Here's what I did - NOT a tutorial:

1) Painted my nails with Kalahari Kiss
2) Used a green striping polish to make random branches - this was very easy to do
3) Used a dotting tool and Barry M Peach Melba to dot the flowers on, easy but time consuming
4) Used the smaller end of the dotting tool and Rimmel Coraliscious for the flower centres
5) Waited 5 mins, then top coat of Seche Vite

All done!

I took alot of pictures of this, but will only subject you to one more, speaking of which, I joined Instagram, went out on a walk today and took some great pics, so will see if I can add them, I don't know yet if there are picture size rules or whatever, but will suss it out!  Heres the other pic:

I think I'm going to risk it and wear it for work tomorrow, I might get away with it because it's quite light coloured, only one way to find out!

Until next time.....

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

China Glaze Swatches - Kalahari Kiss, Desert Sun and I'm Not Lion

Hi again :-)

This post came about because I was having a Twitter conversation with the lovely Catrine @unnakednails (hi hun!) about, what else, but nail polish.  (If you want to catch up with me on Twitter I'm @maspooase , always happy to have a nail polish chat!)  I was saying that I loved the look of Kalahari Kiss.  Now for some reason, I don't know why, I'd never thought to actually try to buy any China Glaze, in my mind it was just a brand that would be available in America, but because we were talking about it, I got on my trusty Amazon UK app, and amazingly it was available! It looks like they sell for roughly £6 each, but I plumped for a set which contained, in my opinion, the best 4 polishes.  'Heres the LINK to the one I got' which cost me £19.99 including P&P.
And here's a pic:

Please tell me if my images look OK, as I've found a program to resize them to 800 pixels so I don't have to pay extra for Picasa storage.  If they're no good this size, I'll just bite the bullet and pay it, but if I don't have to, then I won't, more money for polish that way!

So the first one I swatched was the one I wanted most of all, Kalahari Kiss:

The first thing that struck me was the smell, it's quite strong!  Not as bad as Seche, but still pretty potent.  The first coat was streaky, but opaque.  Consistency wise, it's runnier than something like Nails Inc, it reminded me a bit of Revlon Top Speed.  I had to make sure I cleaned the stalk off to make sure I didn't get blobs of blobbiness making its way onto my manicure. 

 

The brush wasn't one of the wide type, and it did have almost exactly the right amount of flex to it, I liked it.  Drying time was quite fast.  This is 2 coats with no top coat.  I really liked this polish, not sure it's quite right for my skin tone, but I think we'll see it around alot as a base for nail art as it's a nice 'almost' neutral.  It's just ever so slightly less yellow than it shows in this picture, in real life it reminds me very much of the colour of fudge, or a pale Werther lol.

 

The next one I swatched was Desert Sun:

The coverage on this one was a little more sheer, but still the same kind of consistency.  I found it OK to apply, although I did have a little bit of trouble getting it completely neat around my cuticles, as you can probably tell!  This one does have a lovely shine to it.  This is two thick coats, probably the equivalent of 3 thin ones (as I was a bit impatient), with no top coat.  Another lovely wearable shade, just slightly more toffee coloured than this in real life.

 

Next up I tried, I'm not Lion:

A fine gold & holo glitter combo in a clear base.  Under my craft light its a festival of awesomeness, but I couldn't get my camera to catch it.  Its very fast drying, this is two coats and they were dry in a flash. 

 

I also layered it over Kalahari Kiss which came out quite well.  Even without a topcoat it was quite smooth, and wasn't too hard to remove, always a bonus for a glitter!:

And last but not least, I had I Herd That to swatch.  I opened the bottle and.......

Oh nooooooo!  Where's the brush?!  It hadn't fallen off into the bottle, it just wasn't there, so no swatches of that one today.  I emailed the seller, who replied within the hour to say that they've dispatched me a new set with a pre-paid label to send the old set back, which is great service.  It's a bank holiday now, so I won't get it for a while, but when I do I'll swatch it and put it on the blog. 

 

So even though I'm sad about getting a dud, I was very happy with the customer service I got.  To be fair, without opening every bottle, you would never know if that was going to happen because you couldn't tell from the outside.

 

So to put the balance straight, and because I always do it, here's a picture of the brush.  Its interesting to note that even though the lids look quite rounded they still stand up by themselves:

And finally, because the colour inspired me, I decided to do some safari-esque nail art over Kalahari Kiss:

And there we have it, my first ever China Glazes, and I'm very happy with them.  They may be my first, but they won't be my last!  Do you have any CG colours you'd recommend to me?  

 

Until next time.....

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~