Dior Waterlily scented polish - swatches and review

Hi there again everyone,

Here I am, back from my weekend away in Blackpool.  I had a fabulous time, and have come back feeling all refreshed by the sea breeze. 

I won't bore on about it, but the weather was kind, and I managed to squeeze in some shopping, as ya do.  I got a pair of shoes for FIVE POUNDS!! Bargain-acious!

This is a review I've been meaning to do for a little while.  I've had the pictures done, and just haven't got round to writing the review.  Therefore, I apologise for the state my cuticles were in.  They're alot better now (but not completely healed) due to some intensive Flexitol/Phenomenoil treatments, and my persistence is paying off.  I have no idea why they suddenly went off the rails after being no problem for quite a while.  Perhaps just the change in the weather.

I've also realised that my 100th post, and first Blogiversary are coming up soon, so will have to rack my brains on what to do for both of those things.  I had a giveaway for my 100 follower celebration, so will have to get a bit more creative!

Back to the polish.  I bought this polish as a backup for my beloved Collection 2000 Mint Mojo, but as it happens it has a shimmer in it, which I didn't see in the shop.  It's typically weird of me to buy an £18 polish as a backup for a £1.99 one lol.

So, without further ado, lets get on with the swatches:

Application wasn't bad, the first coat was streaky, but this is two coats, and coverage was good enough.  It's a bit more gloopy than regular polish, it almost seemed to have a 'whipped' texture, but it didn't give me a problem in application. 

It dries to a nice sheen/shine, but that silver microshimmer is only really apparent when you're looking really close up.  Dry time was medium, about 5 mins or so to get to a safe touch-dry state.

Here's another pic, this one shows the shimmer better, and my cuticles don't look so ghastly in it, so I like it more:

The polish is scented by the addition to the formula of rose essential oil, and it does smell strongly of that.  The scent also lasted a couple of days, so I was pretty impressed.  During application there was also a normal polish smell, but once it had dried the polish smell was gone.

Here's a pic of the bottle, I was trying to be 'arty', but my fingers just look deformed in the reflection haha.  Worth a try:

And last but not least, we get to the brush.  I wasn't super impressed by that.  It's the wide type, and it seemed to be a bit un-generous when it came to releasing the nail polish onto my nail.  If you can get the technique right, and you don't have narrow nail beds, you might really like it though:

As you can see in this pic, the silver lid lifts off to reveal a smaller lid underneath.  I found it a little bit fiddly to use but not too bad.

I did some nail art over this for my Artsy Wednesday post, which was 'recreate your first blogged nail art'.  Here's the (link) if you want to check it out, but here's how it ended up:

It's not going to rock anyones world, but it does show the polish with a coat of Seche over it, which gives it a nice shine.

So, to summarise, I don't hate it, but I don't adore it.  And for the price it should be my favourite really, which it isn't.  When I put it on though, I was like "oh, I'd forgotten how nice this is", so I've got mixed feelings.

It was a limited edition colour, although I've seen it in my local House of Fraser still for sale.  It's not on their website though.  There are loads for sale on Ebay (link) so you may be able to pick up a bargain if you're really loving it.

So, what do you think?  Do you have a polish that you spent more than you should have on, which you ended up not adoring?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Artsy Wednesday - Inspired By My First Blog Post

Hi there everyone,

Here we have my first ever Artsy Wednesday post!  I was amazed and delighted when Catrine at Unnaked Nails invited me to join the Artsy Wednesday gang.  I've always enjoyed her posts but never dreamed that I might be joining in!

Funnily enough, the first challenge takes  me right back to the beginning of my blog.  It's quite appropriate really, as I'm nearly at my blogs first anniversary.  My first nail art post, which was my second ever overall post, was Nails Inspired By My Garden (link)

There were three nail art looks there.  One was just a skittle, one was a gradient, and the third was actual nail art.  Here's the picture from the original post:

Well, I remember quite enjoying wearing this one, so this was the one I picked to recreate.

 

In the picture above I used Collection 2000 Mint Mojo as the green, but elsewhere in the post I had also used Dior's Waterlily which is a very similar colour.  Well, I've been wanting to do a review on the Dior polish for a while, so I thought I would paint my nails in that, review it in a blog post, and then use it for the base for the manicure for this post.  Multitasking!

 

So here's how it came out:



As you can see, the main difference is that I've got a better camera now.  I only bought a better camera because I was frustrated at how my blog pics were coming out.  It's still just a point and shoot, but a bit better quality than the previous one.  I actually don't think the manicure looks any different one year on!  At least I'm consistent.

Here's another pic:

This white/yellow colour combination always reminds me of fried eggs, ha!  I'd forgotten how much I like this green, I hardly ever wear it, what a waste.  The white is OPI Alpine Snow, and the yellow is Rimmel Sunshine.  The dotting tool was a Cheeky one, you can get the whole set super-cheap from Amazon UK (here)

And just to show I did both hands for a change, here's my 'Cinderella' hand.  It's not used to modelling:

And there we have it!  My first Artsy Wednesday post, I hope I can live up to the high standards of everyone else!  I kind of wish my first blog post had been a bit more demanding haha. 

It also means I have to be disciplined and make sure that my posts are ready to be scheduled on time, which is a challenge all of its own.  I'm excited and a bit daunted to have joined such a talented group of girls, but who knows, it might make me raise my game!  Have already got some excellent ideas for the next Artsy Wednesday posts, so watch this space.  And I am going to try scheduling this post to publish automatically, which I've never done before, so it will be interesting to see if it works.

I hope you've enjoyed this, I certainly have enjoyed recreating and reminiscing!

Check out all of the other super-talented girls recreations:

Michelle - Lab Muffin http://www.labmuffin.com/

Alanna - Pretty Purple Polish http://www.prettypurplepolish.com/

Maria - Maria's Nail Polish Blog http://mariasnailpolishblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Melanie - Nail & Polish http://nailandpolish.blogspot.co.uk/

Jessica - Beauty Gnome http://beautygnome.blogspot.co.uk/

Emily - An Accent Nail http://anaccentnail.blogspot.co.uk/

Ameerah - Valiantly Varnished http://www.valiantlyvarnished.com/

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~