Pretty Jelly Diamond S-teal-er Review and Nail Art

Happy Saturday!
 
I hope you're having a great day.  Mine's gone pretty well so far, I haven't been up to much, mostly painting my nails and drinking tea, which suits me fine!  I do have some housework to be getting on with, which is why I'm sitting here blogging haha.
 
Today I bring you the third installment of my Pretty Jelly reviews.  I bought 4, and have already reviewed Bullet Rouge HERE and Grape Escape HERE
 
This one's called Diamond S-teal-er, which you would think makes it teal.  To my eyes it's more like an icy mid-blue, not really enough green tone in it (in my opinion) for teal, but that doesn't make it any less pretty.  And of course it's holographic anyway so who cares!
 
The holo is there, but it doesn't jump off the page with this one, although of course because I want to swatch a holo, it's grey and drizzly today, so that doesn't help.  Here's how it looks:

I still have a bit of glitter left in my cuticles from wearing Nails Inc's fine sprinkles, but oh well.
 
This is two coats, with just regular basecoat and no topcoat.  The formula on this one seemed a tad more gloopy than on the others I've tried.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't too awkward, but it didn't quite seem to glide the same.  Dry time seemed a bit slower too, I wonder if I need to thin it a little bit?  I think the lump on my middle finger is a bit of leftover glitter, I obviously wasn't very rigorous with my last removal!  It had the same lovely high end finish as the others I've tried.
 
Here's a pic under the kitchen light to show the lovely holo:

I told you it was there!  Lovely holo rainbow.
 
I already knew when I started painting my nails what nail art I was going to do on this, as I woke up with it in my head (sad I know).  As Spring is on its way, I thought I would cheer it along with some flowers. 
 
Daisies are a double win, because they're one of my favourite flowers, and also they're mega easy to do with a dotting tool.  All you need to do is start from the outside of a petal and drag to the centre, repeat four or five times, then do a dot in the middle.  If you can make a dot, you can do these flowers.
 
So here's what I ended up with:

I used OPI Alpine Snow for the petals and Collection 2000 Hot Looks in Lemon Soda for the centres. I didn't topcoat it because I didn't want to kill the holo.  I took two pics I couldn't decide between, so I'm showing them both to you.:

And here's what it looks like with its holo kick:

So pretty!  And because I've been a bit lax at remembering to do it lately, here's what the brush looks like:

You can buy the Pretty Jelly polishes from the Etsy shop HERE and I paid $10, which equates to around £6.50.  Obviously alot of shipping on the top of that though because it came all the way from America.
 
The polishes are 3-free and cruelty free so happy days.
 
Unfortunately for me there are now some new, different, gorgeous, holo's in her shop, and I want them all! 
 
What do you think?
 
Until next time...
 
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

OPI The Top 10 mini collection review - first 5

Hi there!

Hope you're well today.  Snow is forecast here AGAIN! Spring is playing hide and seek with us at the moment. 

I picked these pretties up at TK Maxx a few weeks ago, and have had them in my 'to swatch' pile since.  Here's how they look in the box:

Apologies for the slightly rubbish picture.  I didn't find out until it was too late that it was impossible to get the polishes out without wrecking the box.  I believe these to be the 'light' half of the OPI Top Ten collection (Amazon LINK here) but I didn't see the other darker half in TX Maxx.

Without further ado, let's get on with it.  The first in the box is Alpine Snow:

I actually already own the full size of Alpine Snow, and I did a comparison post with My Boyfriend Scales Walls (HERE) which is one of my most popular posts.  The first coat is patchy, but the second coat evens it out, so this is two coats.  It's also pretty fast drying.  I was pleased to find that the brush in the polish was still a pretty decent size, even though it's a mini polish.

Next up we have Bubble Bath:

I also own the full size polish of this one (why did I buy this set haha), and I already knew I didn't like it so much, too sheer for me.  This is two coats.  Of course it would be good for a french manicure, which is probably why it was formulated in the first place.  I noticed that the mini bottles are comfortable to pose with.

Next is Tickle My France-y:

This was also quite disappointingly sheer.  At two coats I still had alot of VNL.  However I do like the colour, so I went with another coat, so this is 3 coats in this picture.  It is a very pretty nude.

Second to last we have Kiss Me On My Tulips:

This is a bright pink that does nothing for my skintone, but no fault of the polish for that.  It reminds me a bit of Orly's Basket Case.  Perhaps I'll do a comparison on the two at some point.  At one coat it still had VNL, but this is two, and as you can see, hardly any VNL left.  Dry time was med/fast.

And last but not least we have Red Lights Ahead... Where?

This is two coats.  Too sheer for me.  It was relatively fast drying though.  Lifes too short for undies on a polish when I have other reds that don't need it.  Not too impressed with this one.

Here's a picture of the brush, which was pretty consistently good across all the polishes:

So there we have it.  That's the whole (half of the) set reviewed.  I paid £19.99 at TK Maxx and to be honest, if you're like me and don't like to see your nail line through your polish, I wouldn't recommend this set.  Oh well, live and learn!  One of these days I'll actually have that blog sale I keep wondering about having, and most of these will probably be in it.  I'm sure there's somebody out there who has the patience to apply more coats than I do.  I can't comment on wear time, as I haven't liked any of them enough to wear for any length of time.

They were all very shiny though, no topcoat in any of these pictures, and pretty fast drying, so it wasn't all bad.  Now I know the brushes are OK, I would buy more OPI minis, but I would check out the reviews first to make sure they're opaque enough.

What do you think?  Yay or nay?  Is VNL a big no-no for you too or don't you mind it?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

2True Fast Dry Polish Shade 11 Swatches

Hi again!

Hope you're well today.

Here we have a surprise buy for me, a super-cheap £1.99 nude polish!  Now I'm not a big fan of nude polishes, despite loving my pastels, but this one caught my eye because I'm looking for an antique cream for a nail art look I've got in my head. 

I thought this might be the one I'm looking for. Unfortunately it wasn't, (not cream coloured enough) but I like it all the same:

It was streaky in one coat, and opaque in two, which is what's shown here.  The formula was a tiny bit runny, but nothing too awkward, and perhaps half a shade darker once on and dry than in the bottle.  It reminded me very much of the 'camel coats' we all used to wear, way back when...

It also reminded me very much of a bottle of concealer, and once I'd got that in my head I felt weird painting it on my nails haha!  Here's another pic:

And finally, here's a pic of the brush, partly because there's a flash on the packaging that says 'new flat brush' so I thought you might like to see it, and partly because I always want to show brushes on my polish review posts.  I'll include front view & side view to show that it is, indeed, flat:

And actually, the brush was the only thing that slightly let this polish down, the shape was actually fine, I did my little finger in more or less one stroke and pressed flat it went into a more slightly rounded shape, but it was just that little bit too stiff bristled to be perfect.  However, bear in mind I'm comparing it with Nails Inc and Jessica polishes that cost more than a tenner each.  No complaints on glossiness or coverage though!



Also not only are they £1.99 each, they're 3 for £5 in Superdrug, which is where I got mine, so they really are a bargain!  Thoroughly recommended.

Until next time...

MASPOOASE   X X X

~Wendy~

Mid Browns - Nails Inc Ganton Street Vs Jessica Guilty Pleasures

I have decided that fate doesn't want me to blog about nail polish at the moment. 

Because of my pesky ongoing achilles tendon problems, I have to have physiotherapy on a Thursday afternoon. 

Because I don't have enough annual leave left for my hospital appointments, I'm having to work on Saturday morning instead to make my hours up.  This is so INCONVENIENT!  Guys and girls who regularly work at the weekends, you have my undying admiration.  I just feel like theres no time to do anything. 

Also, because I'm working on the Saturday, I can't have my usual swatch-a-thon on Friday night.... so all in all it's a right royal pain in the behind.

Well, here's two fingers up to fate, because I've managed to do it anyway!  You may know that I'm craving a dark brown nail polish right now, but with the aforementioned problems I've had to resort to just mooning over web swatches and wishing for things to get back to normal. 

I decided to look through my polishes to check what browns I actually do have, in case I already had one (I didn't but you never know until you look!), but I did find two mid brown polishes which were virtually identical, and similarly priced, so I thought you might be interested in seeing a comparison.  They are, as the post title suggests, Nails Inc Ganton Street and Jessica's Guilty Pleasures.  For a change I will start with the brush & bottle shot:

There you see, pretty similar, right?  The Jessica is a tad warmer, but very similar all the same.  Apologies about the dark corner on the picture, with Autumn setting in it's getting harder and harder to find bright places to put things...

So onto the swatches, I found the best place to show the difference was under the trusty LED craft light.  All pics are two coats with no topcoat.  Nails Inc on left 2 fingers:

Then, amazingly, the sun came out for a moment:

Then it went back in.  So here's a pic in shaded light:

Application wise, there's hardly anything to pick between them either.  If you've used Nails Inc before, this is their usual creme formula, which I like as it's got good coverage and is pretty quick drying.  The Jessica was a teeny tiny bit more sheer on first coat, but by coat two they looked the same coverage-wise.  I preferred the Nails Inc brush, because the Jessica one was a tad softer so therefore not quite as easy to work with, but I really am splitting hairs (LOL) here.

Out of the two, it was the Nails Inc I chose to put on afterwards, it's a Malteser brown, and somehow for a darker colour it seems quite work appropriate, which is good.  Unless of course, you do what I did and put nail art all over it haha.  It didn't exactly work, but I liked the colour scheme:

The Jessica has 14.8ml in and the Nails Inc has 10ml in.  Nails Inc polishes cost £11 and Jessica Polishes cost around a tenner, but I have seen both cheaper on Ebay.  So mil for mil the Jessica is probably better value, but if you're willing to spend more than £10 on a polish that doesn't really matter so much to you.

So there you go!  Formulation and application are both pretty much the same so it just comes down to the tint you like the best.  Hopefully this will prove helpful to someone!

Until next time.....

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Barry M Gelly Paprika Mustard and Cardamom swatch and review

Hey there!

I hope you're all doing well?  Here we are at the change of the seasons again, and we're now getting into my favourite!  The leaves are starting to turn, and whether you call it Autumn or Fall, I reckon it's the most beautiful season there is.

Having been completely underwhelmed by high street nail polishes of late, and unwilling to pay the higher prices of indies when I already have so much polish, it means I've actually bought very little lately, and that's why I haven't had very much to show you.  I haven't even done much nail art, and that which I have done has been simple dots or stripes and not really worth shouting about.

However, I was in Superdrug last weekend, and ka-pow! Some polish that made me do a double take.  In fact I might have even said "ooh!" out loud, for here were some polish colours I didn't already own, and in wonderful Autumn colours.  There were 5 or 6 in the range, but Superdrug had a 3 for 2 offer on, so I rationed myself to three.

These were the three polishes I got:

From L-R they are Cardamom, Mustard and Paprika. 

I may as well now show them to you in the same order as this picture, which is just the order I picked them up in my hand (professional to a fault hehe).

For each colour polish I've taken three pictures.  One in direct sun, one in the shade and one showing the bottle so you can see how the polish on the nail compares with the colour in the bottle.

So lets go with Barry M Cardamom.  First in the shade:

The formula was lovely, if you've used Barry M Gellies before, it's pretty much their standard formula.  This is one coat with no top coat, and it had the lovely shine as they all do.  I find that this shine doesn't last long on me and if I manage to wear it for a couple of days without chipping (I'm tough on polish) I find I want to add a topcoat at that point just to get the shine back. 

Usually by a couple of days I've chipped any polish anyway, no matter what the make.  I think it's because I wash my hands alot, and am typing most of the day.

Here it is in direct sun:

I have had to do a little bit of electronic dry skin gardening on these pics.  Not to make my cuticles look marvellous (as I'm sure you can tell) but just to make sure I don't put you off your breakfast.  They were most incredibly dry, despite me treating them better than most Egyptian princesses day and night. They're so ungrateful and insist on shedding all the expensive moisture I try to pamper them with.  Sigh.

Here's the bottle comparison:

I have to say I was a little bit disappointed in this colour when it dried.  As you can see, the colour in the bottle is a more greyed out green, which I prefer, and it dried to a kind of light British Racing Green, which is not what I was looking for.  But still, it's not unpleasant, and I do think I'll wear it.  Dry time was the usual Gelly medium-fast.

Next up we have Barry M Gelly in Mustard, firstly in the shade:

Again this is one coat with no top coat, and for a light colour it gave pretty good coverage.  The same nice formula with a medium-quick dry time.  I do find I have to be quite careful when applying Gellies to wipe the brush stalk or else there is  a high possibility of a big blob of polish making its way onto my nail (or leg, or carpet, etc, in a nail polish Russian Roulette stylee). 

Here it is in the sunshine:

You can see on this pic, very slight VNL on my index finger and the edge of my thumb, but in real life that wasn't noticeable.  Another coat would have sorted it out, but to be honest, I was too lazy.

Here it is with its bottle comparison:

Again, a little bit darker than in the bottle.  When I first applied this colour I said, OMG this does absolutely nothing for my skin tone, but it was that fugly I actually fell a bit in love with it.  Of the three colours, this is my fave, and I think it will be my go-to Autumn colour this year.  Though not really office friendly in the conservative environment at mine so I'll have to reserve it for weekends.

And onto the third colour, Paprika:

A true russet red, this one really did need two coats.  However I didn't, because I'd only done one coat for the other two colours, I wanted to keep the same for this (see also, lazy).  Same formula and dry time as the others.  Reds are not really my thing, but this one is wearable as it's definitely more in the brown family.

Here it is in the sunshine:

This picture is actually pretty spot on colour wise, and is the most office friendly of the three I bought.

Here's its bottle comparison:

Again a bit darker than in the bottle, a recurring theme.

The three look lovely side by side, so I thought I'd mix them up a bit:

I used striping tape to section off the end and middle of my nails and just using the brush from the bottle I painted between the tape.  Leaf for topical interest ;-)

It's not the neatest nailart I've ever done but I absolutely love the end result.  So much so, I took another pic haha.  This time in the sun:

It was topped off with HK Girl Glisten and Glow top coat which is my current favourite.  It doesn't go gloopy and shrink like Seche can after a while.

So there we have it, the three I bought, and I'm very pleased with them.  I would definitely recommend them.  I paid £3.99 per bottle, but as I said I got them on a 3 for 2 offer which means I ended up paying just over £2.50 per bottle.

You can see the full range of the Barry M Gelly colours by following this (link) and the list of ingredients are also there.  Barry M are cruelty free, so guilt free polishing.

The next polish on my want list will be a thermal, I've only got a couple of those and the formula of the ones I have is not great.  Do you have a favourite I should be looking at?

Is Autumn your favourite like mine, or do you prefer another season?

Until next time....

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Liquid Sky Lacquer Holo Top Coat Review and Swatch

Well hi there, long time no blog!  Life is just too annoying getting in the way of my nail polish fun.  Today not only has the sun finally come out, but I also have a day off work, yay! I am, of course, using the time wisely to finally show you my new nail polish.

You must know by now that I love holos.  LOVE them.  Somewhere along the way, I saw someone talking about a holo top coat, and was instantly intrigued.  I went onto Google (as you do) to have a look for reviews.  I found alot of swatches but nothing easily findable in the way of reviews, so I thought I'd buy it anyway and do my own review.  So here I am.

Firstly, lets see it:

Pretty rainbows hooray!  In real life it looks mega holo in the bottle, I could look at it all day.  I like the simplicity of the label too, I don't think it needs any more than that.

So lets have a look at some swatches.  The thing I was looking online for the most, and couldn't find, was a swatch of it by itself.  Well, I did one for you.  Here it is:

Just a linear holo sheen which is eminently safe for work.  I really enjoyed having the polish on my nails this way.  It was like my own secret portable rainbow.

But of course, that's not what it's designed for.  I got a nail wheel out and experimented:

It really pops over black!  I think you can click the picture to zoom in.  The two I was most pleased with were the yellow and the white.  All too often yellow holos are actually gold.  A yellow holo makes me happy.  And I don't think I've ever seen a white holo, it does work.

So how about on my nails?  I thought I would go double whammy and swatch over a thermal polish.  I chose In the Mood polish in a shade called Devious.  Here is is "naked":

It is pretty by itself, despite having tricky application, I still use it because I love the end result.  It dries semi-matte though, so I'm thinking a holo top coat might be just the thing.

Here's how it looked:

Application was easy, with no clumping or dragging, and the polish itself was fast drying.  No hassle at all.  This is without top coat, but I did apply a coat of HK Girl Glisten & Glow Topcoat after I took this picture, for longevity.  It didn't dull the holo, so that's another plus.  I got lots of compliments on this mani, and quite a few people asked me where I'd had them done *smug face*.

So what do I think?  I love it!  I don't know how I'm going to resist using it over everything.  I highly recommend.  I bought mine from Mei Mei's Signatures who ship internationally (link) for 17SGD which equates to roughly £8, plus shipping.  It probably worked out around £10 overall as I bought other polishes while I was there so combined shipping.  You can pay by PayPal so don't have to worry about exchange rates and currencies too much.  Considering how much it will save me from buying other coloured holo polishes, I think it's well worth it!  This is my first Liquid Sky Lacquer, and I'm sure it won't be my last.  Any recommendations?

So what do you think?  Are you mad on holos like me?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Poundland Jess White Polish review and swatch

You probably all know by now how much I love a nice cheapie (hee hee).  When I was doing the rounds at Poundland last weekend, I spotted a whole rack of a new polish range called Jess so I thought I'd give it a go. 

For anyone not living in the UK, I should explain that Poundland is (I'm imagining) our version of the Dollar Store, although at the moment a dollar is worth about 61 pence, so I wish it really was the equivalent.  Let's make the "61p Store" a thing people!

They had a pretty good range of colours actually, but because I didn't know anything about the brand, I thought I'd just try one.  My bottle of Alpine Snow is getting a bit gloopy, so I thought I'd go for the white.  White is always a good test of formulation and brush.  I've had quite a few disappointments, most notably a Calvin Klein white polish which had an awful brush, although the polish itself was okay.

So anyway, without further ado, let's get on with it.  Apologies in advance, I know my nails and cuticles aren't top notch right now.  I had to use my leftie for this because the cuticles on my right hand were cracked and bleeding, yuck.  I did take photos, but they were just too gory to use.

Wait a minute, didn't I say without further ado?  Here's the bottle and brush shot:

The brush was actually pretty good, no different from a regular high street polish, think Rimmel or Barry M.  A slim flattish oval, I could do one finger in three or four strokes.  Reasonably flexible but not floppy, the polish had a pretty good flow from it.  I did notice a tiny amount of bubbling during application, but they weren't left on my nails at the end.

Here's the first swatch, natural light, but indoors at the window because it was raining:

Here we have two coats.  As you can see, the line at my cuticle is quite neat, this is with no clean up.  The first coat was quite patchy, and I did find the formulation slightly gloopy, but actually no different to OPI Alpine Snow.  It didn't remove any first coat when I applied the second coat, as can sometimes happen.

Here's another swatch, this time under artificial light:

I wish I'd done another coat on my ring finger, it is heavily ridged, and they show through on the finish.  All these pictures are taken without top coat, and still it had a pretty decent shine to it, which can be tricky for a white polish.

Originally I only put this on to swatch it, but I liked it that much that I actually kept it on for work the next day, and I did have a few favourable comments.  I did have some chipping at the end of day two, but I am pretty hard on polish, so I wasn't surprised.  Next time I wear it I'll topcoat it, just for longevity.

Talking of the white stuff, we've had some snow here in Cumbria last week!  This is near to where I work, luckily the roads around the base of the mountain didn't get any:

Snow just the way I like it.  Beautiful, but quite far away, haha.  The lines through the middle of the photo are power cables.

Thankfully my blog mojo is starting to return.  I have a few comparison posts to do, and some pretties on the way from Mei Mei's Signatures and Born Pretty Store which I can't wait to show you.

I haven't done any nail art at all since Christmas, which is unheard of for me, to be honest I think I burned out a bit, having to post regularly got on top of me.  I was always just used to posting as the inspiration took me, and have come to realise that scheduled posts just aren't for me.  I like to create, then let it fly baby, yeah!

So, have you tried any of the Jess nail polishes?  Any colours that you'd recommend, or any I should steer clear of?  Would be interested to hear!  If you've reviewed any, pop a link in the comments.

Until next time,

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

M&S Limited Collection Textured Polish Pink Mix Swatch and Review

I love a bargain, me. LOVE. So, while having a browse in Marks & Spencer last weekend, this lil pretty caught my eye. I've stayed away from textured polishes this far. The only ones that have caught my eye have been the Liquid Sand ones, but they cost too much really to justify as a 'novelty' polish purchase, so I haven't bothered. And all the swatches of the Barry M ones I've seen have been a bit meh.

 

But at £4, this one called to me from the shelf... "Buy me, buy me, you know you want to.... I don't cost much and look at how prettyyyyy I am" then somehow jumped into my hand, and magically towed me to the cash desk. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

But sadly then all week the weather has been rainy and grey, and no good for showing the new addition to my polish family off to her full potential. Saturday I was rough as anything due to slight over indulgence on Friday night, so no polishing happening there. But today, the swatching gods got their act together, I felt OK, the sun came out, and I was able to take some pics to show to you. Slightly too many if truth be told, but I couldn't pick, so you get the lot.

 

So without further ado here's the first pic. Now in winter jumpers, yay!

Sparklicious!  This fuschia-y shade is one of my favourites, which is lucky because as far as I could see, it seemed to be the only colour it came in haha.  It's called Pink Mix and it's a jellyish watery berry base with fuschia and electric blue micro glitter mixed in.  There's also something holo-y in there, but I couldn't figure out what.  One coat was passable, but I got full coverage in two coats.  This is obviously shown with no top coat, and dry time was initially fast, but stayed denty for about 7 or 8 minutes.  I found that once you can't smell them any more, they're dry.

 

Here's a pic I took earlier in the day when the sunlight was a bit whiter:

This is a truer representation of the colour, and the blue has come out to play.  It dries ever so slightly lighter on the nail than it shows in the the bottle, but not much.  If you like it in the bottle, I think you'll be pretty pleased with it on your nails.  I know this sounds weird, but it can't be said of all polishes.

 

Application was ok.  I didn't need to do any clean up, and I didn't have the 'not going to the edges' problem you sometimes get when applying glittery polishes.  The brush dropped the polish pretty much where I wanted it to without flooding or blobbing.

 

Speaking of the brush, here's a pic of it:

It looks a bit stubby there, but actually the lid's quite long and it was good to use.  Sometimes the lid of a polish can be a distraction while you're using it, but not the case here.  You can see the brush itself is slightly splayed, and that made it work well with the glittery formula.

 

Here's the Extreme Close Up.  Matchy matchy with my phone cover:

Bright enough for you?  It comes into its own much more in real life.  I wouldn't call it a full on blingy sparkle, but a more grown up twinkle. 

 

As its selling point is as a textured polish, I guess I should talk about that a bit.  I think that pic shows the texture well.  It's not gritty to the touch, just slightly bumpy, so it won't pick up hairs or accidentally scratch you.  Think teeny tiny fairy woodchip wallpaper.

 

Packaging wise, it wins points also:

Yep, holographic deers.  I don't care what's in the box, I'm having it!  I think it looks like it cost more than it did, and the packaging also makes it easier to wrap.  A definite win/win gift-wise.

 

Let's have one more swatch, just because I took the pic and we may as well:

You can see on my middle finger, I have a little bit of wear.  I'd put the polish on in the morning, and this is mid afternoon.  Although admittedly I didn't wait very long before I starting doing things, wear time is going to be interesting with not having a top coat.  Actually in real life you can't see that wear at all, but it is there (obvs).

 

Surprisingly, removal wasn't too bad.  I use Cutex Ultra Cleansing remover which contains acetone, and gets rid of regular polish in one or two sweeps.  This one required a little bit of rubbing, but I wouldn't put it in the 'painful' category along with my other glitters.  Also I wasn't covered in glitter after I removed it, like some polishes.  It put me more in mind of removing a foil finish polish.

 

So, I think you can tell, I like this one.  I think I'll get a fair few uses out of it, and it's not too seasonal to have to just stick to wearing it in the winter.  So far I haven't found a polish from the M&S Limited Collection colours that I haven't liked, and I've got 6 or more now, so thumbs up M&S!  If you want to buy online, here's the (link) which shows me it also comes in a blue version, which they didn't have in my store.

 

Do you own this one?  What do you think?

 

Until next time...

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~

A-England Lady of the Lake swatch and Autumnal nailart

Autumn is coming! Yay!  And with that comes the darker colours, which I don't wear haha...

However having said that, I do go slightly darker, and incorporate those vampy colours in my nailart rather than painting them as full nails.

So for my first "less than summery" mani of the season, I decided to use A-Englands Lady of the Lake.  It is from their Mythicals Collection, and of course because I live in the lovely Lake District, how could I resist?  I'm surprised I haven't reviewed this before now, as I've had it quite some time, and I have worn it a few times too, strange...

Well never mind, here it is now.  No sunshine, and I did struggle with shadows in my photos today, but that can't be helped.  Here it is outside:

The formula was ok, a bit thicker than I'm used to, but it lay down to a nice smooth finish.  Because of this, the coats I used were quite thick, so dry time was just medium.  It felt like it would be quite a fast drying polish if I thinned it a bit, but I wasn't in any rush, so I just waited for it to dry.  The brush was co-operative, quite soft, but just right for the formula of the polish.  I didn't need to clean up round my cuticles and as you can see the cuticle line is quite nice and even.

The silver sparkles you see here in the daylight are actually small holographic particles, but out of direct sun they're quite hard to see.  I find this with alot of scattered holos, and it's the reason I usually prefer linear holos for that 'bam' of holo goodness.  However, scattered holos do have their place, and are much more appropriate for places like work, where you can still angle your nails and enjoy them without them being too much in peoples faces.  Also they can be seen as a bit more grown up, but hey, you're as young as you feel that's what I say.  There shouldn't be age restrictions on what polish you can wear no-sirree!

So here it is under the kitchen lights, captured as best I could:

So then I had to decide what nailart to put over this lovely purple.  There was only one colour that came to mind, which I have used it before in THIS post, and that was Estee Lauders Pure Colour polish in Smashed.

So now I had my combo, what design to do?  Well, I was at a bit of a loss.  So I had a google about and I found one that was perfect on Polish You Pretty and I had to give it a try.  Here's the LINK to their tutorial, totally different colours than mine, but I followed the tut pretty much brush for brush.

I used the polish straight from the brush in the bottle to apply half moons of Smashed on my nails:

And then on their tutorial, they use a contrasting colour to make dots.  Well, I wasn't sure what colour to use, and while I was deciding, my lovely childhood bestie got in touch.  Her favourite colour is turquoise, and that also goes well with purple, so there we go, decision made!

So, as per the tutorial, I dotted around where the two colours meet, and this is what I got:

The turquoise I used is Maybelline Express Finish in Turquoise Lagoon.  I've used it in the past on my sunflower nailart tutorial HERE as a base, but not as an accent until now.  I topped it all off with a coat of Seche.

Here's another pic:

The dots on my other hand (which I did first) were larger, and I don't think they look as good, so I do recommend using a smaller dotter, or a toothpick, if you're going to have a go at this look:

I did then make an effort to capture the holo of Lady of the Lake, and lovely glittery depth of the juicy blackberry colour of Smashed.  I didn't like Smashed as a full nail colour, it's a jelly-like finish, and as such I couldn't get it as opaque as I liked, but I love it layered like this.

Here's the close up:

Pretty hey?  Even still I'm frustrated at not being able to capture the sparkliness, but it's close!

Here's the super-closeup:

Hooray!  At last I showed the holo!  I know that Adina, who produces A-England polish, does so with alot of care and attention, and I really wanted to show its true beauty.  Admirably for the creator of a thriving company, she is still taking a hands-on approach with both her customer service and product feedback, and it really shows.

I bought Lady of the Lake from the A-England website LINK which currently only ships to the UK due to Royal Mail postage restrictions, but if you're international you can still order HERE to get your lovely A-England.

As much as I'll miss summer and its long lazy days, I'm happy to see Autumn arrive.  It's my favourite season, with its vibrant colours and crisp mornings.  I'm chosing to ignore the thought of dull rainy days for now!

Are you an Autumn lover like me?

Thanks for reading, and until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~