Sainsbury's! Nail polish! You want this!

New brand - so excited

En route from the frozen fish back to the tomatoes (don't ask) was looking for cleanser/toner, glanced up at the end of an aisle and.....kaboom!

You should check these out. I can't even remember how much but not cheap. However they have loads of information on the card e.g. colourflip (meaning duochrome), crackin' up etc. Mind you, the card is also a bit environmentally unfriendly/OTT....

They have magnetics should you be so inclined, a dead ringer for Chanel Graphite (that one I also purchased) and a core collection which is not just pink and red. You may have moved on from flakies but I haven't. Hence the bottle above.

Will be swatching the 3 I got soon. SO hope that they live up to the promise shown by the bottle contents. Fingers firmly crossed.

When did they start stocking these? You have them? Seen them?

Jenni

Jessica Electric Teal

Jessica Electric Teal

Had a spa time with OH and daughter to have a chat before the wedding in July. You know the kind of thing - 'You quite sure about this? You positive? Don't feel you have to go ahead if you have any doubts.' But she's fine and he's lovely so all bodes well and we had a rather super time.

Anyway - I had a manicure after all the swimming and steaming. Very happy with it. The girl worked well and the Jessica products are simply the best. I have quite a few Jessica polishes (all of which I love) but it's amazing how much more effective their polish-remover is than the usual cheapo brands I buy. Top tips to self. Don't skimp on the polish-remover. Invest in a whole range of Jessica products.

So glad I chose ET for the left hand. It's been around since '09, I believe. Underrated polish which doesn't feature hugely on blogs. 2 coats and it has shimmer! Despite being on a hypothetical 'no-buy' I must have this.

Next stop (which is an anagram of 'post' curiously enough) - the polish on my RH. Also a gem. A Jessica gem.

Jenni

Ombre/gradient gone bad...(not a good 'bad' either)

CQ Golden Green and Barielle Polished Princess and a bit of Revlon Galaxy to try to conceal/remedy the horror

What went wrong

• DON'T work with wet polish on wet polish - wait for first colour to dry
• DON'T try blending two wet colours with a sponge - a mess ensues
• DON'T try an ombre with colours that are too close shade-wise - you might as well not have bothered

What went right

See how close the colours are - not VERY close but still not suitable for a gradient mani

• Nothing went well at the painting stage
• I chanced upon a great source of 'obscure' brands in my local post office - EXPLORE STRANGE PLACES - SEEK OUT NEW LIFE (no, sorry, that's Star Trek)
• Olives do suit my skin colour
• CQ is a cool brand in a funky bottle
• Barielle WAS on sale at £4 per bottle BUT their UK operation now seems suspended/terminated 

Jenni
What's the oddest place you ever found a new polish?

Cult Nails - cult status

Cult Nails Swanbourne + City Color reddish purple on index

No way on this earth was I getting an accurate pic of this. It needs sun. Ha! So why show it? This is why. I simply couldn't wait. See that bottle? Wow. I don't find the glitter as prominent on the nail but I have very small fingers and I rushed the application (2 coats btw). I think it would be extraordinary on long nails.

Cult Nails is new to my stash and it's even better than I thought it'd be!

• Superb quality (smooth and buttery and melted chocolate-y)
• The range changes so you can never quite be sure what's going to be there
• It's personal to the owner/inventor - it has a real 'identity'
• It has a cachet here in the UK due to relative rarity and 'hard to source' quotient 
• It is not merely 3-free. It is 4-free and non-cruelty to animals. 
• The customer service given by Maria is exceptional.
• Her facebook presence is great/informative

Lindt 90% (my chocolate of choice) plus The City Color mini that I found for £1 at the Post Office

If we're calling it an 'indie' brand then do you have any other recommendations for 'indie' polishes?

Jenni

Lovely Thursday...

Well, it makes a change from 'Wordless Wednesday'....

The wood over the back of my fence April 24th 2012

Basically I just took the dogs out in the morning in the sunshine and the bluebells were at (or close to) their annual best. With more sun and heat to release the essential oils they'd smell gorgeous too. But I think we all know there is to be no heat until....September 8th? At 11:17? Until maybe 11:35.

And in 'breaking' nail news (it made ME chuckle) I tore 3 nails on my right hand grabbing at a silly drawer. Rubbish.

Jenni

Fittles

Models Own: Sterling Silver/Mystic Mauve, Green Flash (mattified), Blue Moon, Champagne

I liked the creme pastel Borghese skittles so much I wanted another go at skittles. So here it is. Not great. Average. Actually C+. If that......

Foil skittles = fittles

The colours are not as vivid I remembered when last I used these foils but they're OK. I mattified most of the RH and the blue and champagne are VERY nice mattified, I must say! Do try this method with your foils because it can reveal some otherwise undetected qualities.

Jenni

Pearls and Charm

The butterfly has blingy, sparkly edges but photographing your own head ain't so easy....

...... and not forgetting the one my students like best! The red one!

You can't easily see but this one has lots of translucent red beads too!

http://retrorecycled.webs.com/

These were made by Gail Reed (see below for me copy and pasting from her website). I'm mother-of-the-bride in July and huge hats or fascinators simply aren't 'me' so I started checking out other hair accessories and got addicted! I know that some of the pieces that make up my hairbands came from charity shops and Gail deconstructed jewellery before retrorecycling it. So the charities win. I win. It's the proverbial ....win-win!!!!

I now have a new passion. Collecting hair accessories. My wallet does not need this. Too late. Gail is great btw. Excellent customer service. I have super-short hair and it's a fabulous way of funking up my style. I have 4 of her pieces and I don't know yet which I'm wearing to the wedding!



Here's Gail's bit.

"About Me

Pearls and Charm was created by me, Gail Reed. I have always had a passion for statement clothing and the beautifully unusual.

I love fabric, lace, ribbons, pearl, bows and buttons. My dream is to inspire others to wear accessories made from recycled fabrics; ideally beautifully crafted, inspired and decorative items. 

I am designing and crafting accessories for Pearls and Charm at the same time as creating jewellery and stationery for my wedding in June 2012. The theme for our wedding is 'pre-loved' which came to us when we began to look into the amount of wastage that can come out of a wedding. 

Each piece is individually handmade from recycled fabrics, meaning that no two items are the same."

Jenni

Pure Brittle Diamonds

A selection of Borghese + Mavala Pure Diamond

I really liked the skittles so I slapped a coupla layers of Mavala on top and hey presto, Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your auntie, a nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat.

Have a nice Monday! Don't forget to watch Scott & Bailey!


Jenni

Brittles

San Pellegrino Aranciata - I love this stuff - yummy orange-water drink

aka Borghese Rapido Skittles

• Pretty pastels
• Streaky as the streakiest of streaky things
• I like this skittles mani generally and the colours, as a range, are well-balanced and complement each other
• BUT they are hardly unique and did I mention the formula at all????
• I changed the basecoat to see if that had been the culprit first time round - it wasn't 

You got any collections where you liked the colours but found the formula problematic?
Jenni

While you're waiting for your nails to dry...(episode 1)

...you could try reading this!

• And, before you protest, it's a NOVEL. Not a Geography book - not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with Geography. I won't have a word said against it. But still...
• If you like Harry Potter
• If you like the police procedural
• If you like a fast-paced tale
• If you're willing to suspend disbelief
• If you have a sense of humour (er, the same sense of humour as I have anyway)
• Then this is for you

Question

Is there a correlation between liking nail polish and enjoying reading? There's no reason I can think of why there should be but still I thought I'd ask.....

Jenni

Purple? You jest!

Borghese Rapido Incantato Purple with Felice Tangerine accent

• Lilac. Surely. Surely.
• Another tricky Borghese.
• Not perhaps as tricky as the Lime.
• I love all lilacs so I love this despite its lack of compliance. It IS shiny.
• I added some Flormar to most nails because I spotted a GORGEOUS Jessica polish, the spirit of which I hoped to capture in some small part.
• It's Jessica Born 2 Pansy. Sadly I'm on a no-buy. But when I finally emerge!!!!
• http://jellynat.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/jessica-born-2-pansy.html (for a peek at it)
• I have plenty lilacs but there's always a place in my stash for more.

Suggestions for quick-dry polishes that aren't PITAs to apply, please.

Jenni

Superdry.....WOT?!

Superdry - how glossy and scrumptious is THIS?

 Just when you go on a 'no-buy' you happen on a website (handbag) that shows you some stuff you really rather want but, by definition, cannot damned well have...Bah.

£6 including P&P. To be honest, it's a good thing I don't live in a metropolis where I can chance upon all these goodies whilst going about my daily business because I'd be even more broke than I am at the moment. Sheeesh! I just love the packaging on these.

Have you
1 heard of 'em already - this is NOT news - you have some of their stuff - you are not a provincial
2 know about Superdry clothing but not about the polish
3 never heard of any of it
4 don't know and, what's more, don't care

Jenni

Limetastic!

Borghese Rapido Fantastico Lime

• One of my haul of 5 Borghese Rapido. 
• Stubby little brush. Most unusual. I suspect some people would find it TOO small. I wasn't overly keen despite having ickle babby hands.
• Fast dry? Oh, yeah. So speedy it streaks as it dries. Dries as it streaks. Tough to apply.
• Stunning colour though.
• 3 coats.
• Ended up fairly level despite using 3 thick coats in the attempt NOT to develop streaks. Catch 22!
• Really glossy with the usual topcoat of Seche Vite.
• Not easy to work with but certainly worth it.

Question time

1. Would you wear lime on your fingers?
2. Toes?
3. This is the colour of my nails in my teens. Do you or did you have a 'teen' colour?

Jenni

Insane, INbloodySANE!

Jessica Hologram Chic

It takes 2 products to achieve this. Observe.

Retro Revival = undercoat, Disco Diva = the BIZNESS end!

Basically 2 coats of the milky one and 2 coats of the holo hotness.

Blurry.

Very expensive but really...... In this case I'd have to say it's worth it. You're worth it. It's worth all of its twenty odd quid. Dammit, closer to thirty. It is very well-behaved. I didn't pause between coats or have the nightmare streaking problems that drove me to dispose of 3 bottles of GOSH holo. These are 14.8 ml bottles. It's Bohemian Rhapsody. It's Beethoven's Ninth. It's that whole universe on a cat collar out of Men In Black. It's Colin Firth in tight, wet trousers emerging from a sunlit lake (if you like that kind of thing).

Quick notes though if you do splurge on this

1. It goes on remarkably dull. Do NOT panic. You can see it brighten up and shine within seconds. I repeat: Do not panic.
2. I put Seche over it. The packaging recommends that you don't use topcoat. I found it made no difference EXCEPT insofar as the dulling effect occurred again whilst the Seche was applied but then it revealed itself very rapidly as the topcoat dried.

Jenni
Best holos?

Now that's what I CALL a colour clash!

Thought the Borghese wouldn't be very good (I'd bought two locally) so put off using it for ages but I'm happy to say it was fabulous. Directly went back to the website to order some more. I'd read a single review of Castello Blue (also a Rapido) which suggested it was tough to apply and streaky so that put me off. I've checked again and other bloggers had no trouble with the blue so I should have been more thorough with my research.

Borghese Rapido Felice Tangerine/Essie Super Bossa Nova/selection of glitter topcoats

http://www.cosmeticsfairy.co.uk/borghese.html?limit=36

This firm is based near me and I had a very pleasant surprise one day when I popped into a post office near where I purchase my dog supplies and was confronted by lots and lots of nail polishes that you can't find in Boots or TOP (the other place).

Still can't master using nail guides and keep leaving a nasty, thick, lumpy line which then has to be obscured using glitter. But I do like the colour contrast so I'm posting it anyway.

Question
Ruffians or Tips?
Any advice about ruffians?

Jenni

Nail polish from Argos, you say? *face pull*

4 polishes for £14.99 - a Nails Inc product so it says - 3 different sets

Don't know about you but it's not the first or even tenth place I think of when I've a few pennies burning a hole in my pocket for polish purchasing. But lookee here.

9 Accessorize for £19.99 - good colours!

And down here.

6 polishes for £15.99

Now these I did buy. They're the usual Barry Ms available in Boots etc. No special colours or LEs but they'd be £18 bought separately and I had some kind of voucher so it worked out dirt-cheap. And I had forgotten how good Barry M actually is! Barry M are good for swaps with international polish-peeps because they're good quality and the colours are strong. Worth a look, I'd say. They've got some MeMeMe also. Maybe as gifts for nail newbies?

Jenni x