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~
Hi All!
I feel like I haven't blogged for aaages! It's only been a week though, and I do have some photos ready to go, so it's about time I got my blog on.
Been a busy week this week, work has been super-busy, and pretty stressful, so I'm happy that it's finally the weekend. Amazingly the sun is out, and things are starting to warm up at last. Spring might be finally here, after a couple of false starts.
We watched the movie 'In Time' last night. I enjoyed it, if you get a chance to watch it I'd say go for it. I also realised how much I like the actor Cillian Murphy ;-)
Anyway, back to the nail polish...
I've been wanting to do a review on this polish for a while, but something else always comes up. I bought it a while back as part of a haul when I was looking for a(nother) light blue for a particular look I wanted, but this one didn't make the grade. "Why not?" I hear you ask. Yes, in my head. I worry about that, but not often. Just joking.....
So anyway, enough of this revelrie, let's get on with the review. Here's Barry M Blue Moon at one coat:
Noooo! Look at the sheerness! *sad face*
Actually though, application wasn't bad, and dry time was med/fast. So I perservered.
Here's Blue Moon at 2 coats:
Starting to get some coverage. This is usually my limit for a polish. If it's not opaque in 2 coats I'm not interested. But I was intrigued to see how many coats it took to become opaque. There is a blue shimmer in this polish that looks pretty in the bottle but it doesn't really show when it's painted on my nail.
So, I went for it again with another coat as I'm in a more patient than usual mood today:
STILL some VNL!! Although, to be fair, most people would consider this enough coverage. If you look on my middle finger, you can still make out my nail line. That would drive me insane, I would feel like I had to apologise for it every time someone commented on my nails.
So, in a bold move I went for another coat, here we are at the heady heights of four coats:
This is finally enough coverage for me, and it also meant I couldn't see my nail ridges. However it does dry slightly brighter than the bottle colour, which was a little disappointing, as I like that slightly dirty blue look it has in the bottle. I guess that's the shimmer, and that's why it's different when worn.
So, if you have the patience, at four coats Barry M Blue Moon is a pretty light blue polish with a completely hidden shimmer.
Here's a picture of the brush, as it's the thing that's missing in most polish reviews:
Yes, we do have chipboard wallpaper. The brush was fine to work with, not too soft and not too stiff. It also delivered the polish at a consistent speed, with no blobbing or bubbling.
And, me being me, I couldn't resist putting a bit of simple nail art on the top:
All I did was use a blue striper which I bought from the makeup stall at Carlisle indoor market, and a silver striper that I bought from Claires Accessories, and drew on the stripes. I was going to do some dotting either side, but I think you have to know when to stop sometimes, not one of my strong points, but on this occasion I managed.
Here's another pic of it, along with one of the stripers:
I bought a couple of these stripers, but if I remember rightly this was the only one I really liked. Am quite liking this look, but am not sure if I can be bothered to do the four coats it took of Blue Moon on my other hand!
I've just been to the Superdrug Website (here) and they're calling this pale blue. But 317 is Blue Moon, according to the sticker on the bottom of my polish anyway, so I don't know if that's a mistake by Superdrug. It's available at £2.99, and at the moment they're on 3 for 2. I've also seen it on Amazon (here) for around the same price once you factor the shipping cost in.
Barry M nail polish is cruelty free, vegan and vegetarian, so at least when you're applying all those coats of polish, you won't be feeling guilty!
In brief, unless you have the patience for the amount of coats it took in order to be opaque, or you don't mind VNL, I wouldn't give this one a thumbs up. 5/10 from me. Sorry Barry M, because I love alot of your other polishes!
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Hi there again lovely people,
Hope your weeks going well. We've finally had some sunshine - and I've been stuck at work, typical! The weekend was cloudy, and today it's started to rain again. According to the weathermen it's going to get freezing cold again next week, and then I'll be wanting this mild and rainy weather back, so not going to complain. This doesn't count as complaining, right?
Have got some really good blog post ideas in the wings, some other reviews, a tutorial, a couple of music posts.... and am very close to 100 followers, have got some good posts lined up for that too, exciting times!
Finally my TK Maxx has restocked with some decent polishes, and I recently picked this set up:
I've never used Nails Inc's mini polishes before, so I was intrigued to give them a go. I'll review them in the order that they came in the box.
The names on the bottom of these polishes were nearly impossible to read, but I managed. The first one is called Pimlico. It's purple with a blue shimmer running through it:
As you can see, the shimmer still shows when the polish is applied. Too often polishes like this look awesome in the bottle, and then when you apply them they look ordinary. Not the case with this one. The first coat was a bit patchy, and weirdly the brush seemed a bit too square, which made my cuticle area a little bit untidy. It was slightly watery, and flooded my cuticles a couple of times, but I caught it fast and could clean it off with my opposite thumbnail. Dry time was medium/fast. This is two coats, and I still had a little bit of VNL, but as you can see it wasn't too bad, another coat would have covered it. I like it.
The next one in the box is Ebury Bridge, a cornflower blue polish:
This one has a lovely shine! It's slightly greyer in tone than it looks in this shot, and as you can see it dries quite a bit darker than it looks in the bottle. The shiny lids on the Nails Inc bottles freak out my cameras white balance, it's so frustrating. This is two coats. The formula wasn't too bad, a bit thick and it did need a little bit of clean up. It was self levelling, and dry time was quite fast. I like this one too.
Next up we have Blandford Street, a straight up coral:
It's very bright in real life, almost neon. The brush on this one wasn't so good, a bit stiff, but I still managed to apply it OK. The first coat still showed VNL, but the second coat covered it. Dry time was medium, and as you can see it dried darker than it looks in the bottle. This one doesn't really suit my skin tone and I'm not so sure about it, but thats just a personal thing, not the fault of the polish. Would be good with a black or green glitter over it for halloween. And yes, I do think that far ahead haha.
Next up we have Cadogan Place:
This is a true greige. The first coat was patchy, but the brush is good. Slightly runny formula but it was still easy to control. This is two coats. It has a lovely shiny finish. As you can see it dries signigicantly darker than it shows in the bottle. Dry time was medium/fast. I like this one alot, and in fact I prefer it to their 'hero' shade Porchester Square as a go-to nude. It self levels nicely and I like it alot.
And lastly we have Holland Park Road:
Here we have two coats. Can you guess how I feel about this one? Thats right, I hate it! Super sheer and sheen finish. I wouldn't be one bit surprised if this was part of their 'neon' collection, the same as Portobello, which I also hated. This one is a fail. Its one positive is that it was very fast drying. It's possible the sheer finish would make it good for using on a gradient nailart look. Will give that a go and show you another day.
So there we have it, that's all of them. I was surprised that the brushes weren't uniform across the collection. I've always been put off buying mini's because I thought the brushes would be too small. This hasn't been the case, and I would definitely buy Nails Inc's mini polishes again if another collection caught my eye. There weren't any brushes that I really disliked. As I never finish a bottle of polish anyway, the small size of the bottle doesn't put me off. They all had 4ml each in them, which is probably enough anyway.
I think I paid £12.99 for the set, and I'm quite pleased with the value I got. Apart from the last one, I'd recommend all of these. I've also reviewed some other Nails Inc colour collections HERE HERE HERE and HERE - I've done more of them than I thought I had!
So what do you think? Have you got any favourites?
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Hi there again,
A happy Sunday to you. I hope you're having a good day. Mine has mainly involved driving round car sales garages looking at cars for other half. He's finally decided which one he wants now and my taxi-ing days will soon be over. It's not been too bad actually because he doesn't work too far from home and it's just meant getting up 15 or 20 minutes earlier so no big deal.
Unfortunately for me, now I've seen a car I want too! Typically it's just slightly outside my budget and they won't budge on the price. I could stretch to it, but am not sure if I should. I know that my current car is getting pretty decrepit, and it's at the stage now where it's going to need some pretty serious money spending on it if I want to keep it, so I'm wondering if I'm just better off putting that money towards this new(er) car instead.... decisions decisions!
The sun has finally put in an appearance today so I can come up with some decent nail swatches. Luckily for me this has coincided with my most bargainous nail find ever! I was in TK Maxx (unsurprisingly) yesterday, and was lamenting again about how they've hardly had any polishes in since Christmas. My TX Maxx was always awesome for polishes, with Nails Inc, Orly, OPI, and Color Club collections all knocking about, and the occasional Leighton Denny in there as well. So, as recently usual there was hardly anything, so I went to the tweezers and brushes section, and was just having a root about, when I realised my nose was nearly touching a plastic wallet with three Nails Inc polishes in. So I had a look and it was priced at £4.99!! Well, of course I had it off that hook quicker than you can say 'bargain'. It must have been marked up wrong as the RRP was £18, and as we all know Nails Incs sell for £11 each.
To be honest, I knew I already owned one of these. That was the light pink Elizabeth Street, because I got that when it was free on the front of Glamour Magazine, and I knew I didn't like it. But hey ho, it's still £4.99 for 2 polishes and the other two were nice. It wasn't until I got them home I thought, hey, they look similar to the two Barry M polishes I bought a couple of weeks ago, and when I came to check, lo and behold, pretty much dupes! So I thought I'd make this a comparison/Barry M swatch fest too. Hence this is a pretty picture heavy post.
So without further ado, let's get on with it. I'll show them in the order I swatched them, so here's Elizabeth Street in sunlight:
This is a pale pink sheer with a pearly shimmer. The first coat was streaky. It strikes me as a very 'there but not there' office appropriate colour which would be good for french manicures. The dry time was medium, and it was self levelling. Still slightly patchy at coat two. Maybe at three I could get away with it VNL-wise, but I didn't try as I know that if it needs three coats I'll never bother with it.
Here's how it looked in the shade:
So, I knew I wouldn't like this, and I don't haha.
Onto the next one, All Saints Road. A vibrant cobalt blue. Here it is in sunshine:
It's the usual nice glossy nails inc formula. With careful application this could be a one coat wonder. I did two coats though for all of these swatches. Dry time was medium/fast. It dries slightly darker than the bottle colour and did require a little bit of clean up.
Here it is in the shade:
A lovely colour, but I realised when I got it home, I already had Barry M Cobalt Blue. So how does it compare? Well let's see:
Almost the same! So let's get it onto my nails and see how it fares, is it still a dupe?
Yep! The Barry M is sliiiiiightly darker, but there's hardly anything in it. As you can see, my index and middle still have the Nails Inc on, and I took it off my ring and little finger to put the Barry M on. Formula wise, Barry M Cobalt Blue has a thinner formula, but similar opacity. A bit more difficult to get neat with one swipe. It has a slower medium-ish drying time. This is 2 coats. Here's a comparison of the brushes:
So which did I prefer? Well I found the Nails Inc slightly easier to apply and a little bit faster drying, so if they were the same price I'd go for the Nails Inc. But seeing as the usual price for a Nails Inc is £11 and the usual price for a Barry M is £2.99 I would definitely recommend the Barry M. Unless of course you got the deal of the week like I did and got your Nails Inc for £1.67 haha.
So, onto the third and final Nails Inc polish I got in my set, Belgrave Place. A royal bluey purple (blurple?). Here's the sunshine swatch (try saying that after a few G&T's!):
It was a thinner than usual formula, but still opaque and could be a one coater. My thumb got bubbles as I'd shaken bottle vigorously, this is not usually an issue with Nails Inc because of the thicker formula. In some lights it looks inky blue, and in other lights it looks like a rich purple. The dry time was medium/medium-fast. a lovely glossy finish, but it did stain my cuticles on removal. Here's a shade pic:
So, when I was getting my Barry M Cobalt Blue out of my stash, I came across a dupe for this one as well! Barry M Indigo. Here's the bottles side by side:
Pretty similar right? Here they are on my nail. Again I took the Nails Inc off my ring and little finger and put the Barry M on. In sunshine:
And shade:
The Barry M was a slightly less opaque formula, and I got some bubbling on my little finger. Indigo is faster drying than Cobalt, med/fast dry time with a whisper of VNL at two coats. Colour wise it's virtually a spot on dupe. So which do I prefer? There's so little to choose between them, that again I would recommend the Barry M purely on price.
Here's the brushes:
And there we have it! One swatchathon done and dusted. I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed making it.
Whats been your best nail polish bargain? Have you done a post on it? Post a link to it in the comments if you have, would love to see!
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
