Essence The Only Chance!

 

• This is after 2 days of wear.
• 2 coats and that's plenty! RESULT!
• This was a gift. Double ++ result.
• You forget how useful brown shades are. I think they suit everyone.
• This is perhaps a tad lighter IRL. Lovely and milk-chocolatey. Not yer average chocolate either. A really yummy milk chocolate.
• Oh, and it's really glossy but my shit-camera-work doesn't show that. Dammit.

 Jenni

Missguided Misstique - misnamed

No mystique about this. It's a lovely, creamy 2-coat polish. Even covers up my ridges. I do like this brand. Pity there are so few colours. Got this as a freebie just like the rest of you probably did with some magazine or other. But I'd recommend it even at full price. Not sure this aqua-turquoise usually suits me but this doesn't seem to give me "lobsters" so......result. Nowt special colour-wise but a darned good formula.

Jenni

Couleur du jour?

Maybe even couleur du mois/ de l'annee!
Orange.

Illamasqua Insanity. Even WITH a bubble it's simply the best orange there is and moreover the best polish I've bought for a long time. £5 in the sale! Superb result. How chuffed am I.
3 coats is plenty. 2

So what d'you reckon is the genuine, current couleur du jour?
Orange
Coral
Other

And would that be a creme formula?

Oh, a little pointer for those who weren't sure. The large square cap on Illamasqua is MEANT to be removable. In fact you SHOULD remove it and leave the smaller cap for proper control. I have heard some say Illamasqua polishes are unwieldy. That need not be the case.

Jenni

Mavala Milky

My new favourite coral-peach. 2 coats of Mavala-lousness. *It just never gets old!* Just maybe could take a 3rd coat. Application as easy as (insert here your personally-favoured dubious analogy referring to a woman's sexual availability) ...... anything.

Next up in the Mavala-fest will be Daring Pink.

Jenni

Mavala Berlin - hot from Smurf Central

The curse of blue nail polish. You can never get rid of it...

This was streaky after the 1st coat and I thought I'd be heading for a minimum of 3 but the 2nd was more than sufficient. Another excellent polish from Mavala.

Looks like me, Mavala and Leighton Denny are going to make a cosy threesome. Really want to support European brands. And UK polishes if possible. I checked and the LD are made here. This may account in part for their higher price in addition to their excellent quality but I'm happy to pay more to keep jobs in the UK. Don't want us to be seen just as a nation of bankers. Bankers. Is that the right word, I wonder? Hm.

Jenni

China Glaze First Mate

Any decent blogger would be ashamed to post this. But I have no shame.

 

Honestly. The cuticle remover has completely knackered the skin round my nails. Hey ho.

2 coats of this gorgeous 'dirty' blue. Lovely quality.

Begs the perennial question. China Glaze or OPI? Ditch it or dig it? If one company had to bite the dust which should it be? I'd ditch OPI. They are loads more expensive and do too many boring colours. Plus they got into commercial bed with L'Oreal which isn't all it should be on the animal experimentation front.

Jenni

Nina Ultra Pro Hazelnut

Typical fugly colour such as I love.

3 coats.  Topcoat. Little finger has a coat of Flormar because I had a 'ding' to obscure.

I don't have many Ninas. Two? Three? I am not much disposed to root round Sally's and the Ninas are never reduced. They always give the impression they are the unloved ugly sister to Cinderella China Glaze and Princess Perfect OPI. This one was from my beloved Raven Cosmetics etailer.

Well, I like it.

Jenni

Bourjois Orange Creation

 

2 coats over ridgefiller plus top-coat as it dries insufficiently glossy. Sadly I selected a topcoat that has seen better days - hence the bubbling and uneven finish. Not perceptible IRL.

Oh, BIG MOAN! Got a lot of chipping on the Bourjois Bleu Model. Hope this is better. And lots of tipwear on OPI JITNB. Not funny! Be warned. Please report back if you experience unwarranted chipping on the new Bourjois. I haven't had a polish wear so poorly in nearly 2 years.

This is an intense and slightly dirty orange. Not quite neon. I like it. These come out just as they look in the bottle. Consistent then.

Worst polishes for chipping?

Jenni

Is this really the new black?

OPI Jade is the new Black
Yes, I know everybody else bar the Archbishop of Canterbury has been all over this already but it's still new to me.

Got it for £6.95 which I think was a fair price.

• 2 coats but it really needs 3, applied very easily and fluently
• Really intriguing colour and changes a lot in different light conditions
• After 48 hours I have significant tipwear - displeasing in the extreme
• Absolutely love the colour

Now phrases predicated on 'is the new black' are just lazy. Taupe/beige/brown/jade/whatever. 

Black is, and will always remain, the default colour of choice for all-purpose use. Bold statement and, like any generalisation, doesn't account for specifics such as weddings or possible fashion change in the 22nd century but pretty fair nonetheless. As regards clothing.

For nails however black never was the OLD black - let alone the NEW black. For nails red or pink is the old black. This season yellow or orange are the new black (for which substitute red/pink). For winter green could easily be the new black.

So, what would you LIKE the new black to be?Not a fashion forecast but a whimsical wish.

Jenni

It must be love da da..It must be love da da..(Thanks, Madness)

Bourjois Bleu Model

(BUT before we proceed a big THANK YOU for all the great and amusing comments I've been getting these past few days! Really bucked me up no end!)


If this is blue then I'm Pippa Middleton's body double. Cuticles still dire. Sorry.

It's green. C'est vert. End of.
Whatever you'd call it I do know one thing. It's 3 coats of creamy gorgeousness! Cannot stress sufficiently how good the formula is.Bourjois really does quality nail-polish.

Bourjois Jaune Trendy

(Cuticles are rubbish. Sorry. Having real trouble.)

2 coats and a lot of Mavala ridge-filler. Well, it's a yellow creme. But 2 coats! Honestly, this is brilliant.

And now for random thoughts on a French-theme (those who are easily offended - and French - should beware) calme-toi, ma chere liloo

• All Bourjois stuff is fab and I like the packaging- those little pots they do are so cute
• The French should not be allowed to use English words like /cool, trendy, super/ because it just sounds wrong
• To call anything Jaune Trendy goes beyond wrong to preposterous
• Bourjois are amazingly brave to have put out some great shades this summer - proper funky colours
• The collection is called Paris (*stifles chortles* because .......see next point)
• No Parisienne would ever wear any of these colours, Parisiennes wear dull colours - that is a FACT
• Parisiennes have brown hair
• Parisiennes are immaculately turned out in a way no British woman could ever achieve
• Mid-price and budget French cosmetics ranges never include funky colours and the high-end companies make a bloomin' great fuss about it when THEY do a yellow or a green (ya know what I'm talkin' about?)
• I could say a lot more about Anglo-French relations but I should perhaps quit before being dragged off to a guillotine somewhere
• Why do Brits go on holiday to France but never to Germany?
• What is so great about croissants?
• Why is African French so much easier to understand than French French?
• Have you ever been up the Eiffel Tower? I only got to the first stage and there's a long story (wholly tedious) about why I never made it to the top
• My favourite Paris memory is a little crocodile of French children with their attendants trotting through Parc Monceau in the sunshine - cycling round Versailles was good too but does Versailles count as Paris? (not really)

Jennifer

Bourjois Rose Corset

 

• It isn't rose.Well, roses can be this kinda shade but when we say 'rose' we don't think of this colour, do we?
• It has nothing whatever to do with corsets that I can think of.
• 2 or 3 coats
• Great Bourjois thick quality
• Love the Bourjois brush
• It's one of the shades du jour

Jenni
Is Bourjois too expensive? Discuss. Sorry to be so bossy.

2true Fast Dry Shade 6

It's not going to set the world on fire colour-wise. Hence the FlorMar layering. But it does glide on beautifully. OPI do a trillion shades like this but the OPI quality is unequivocally no better than this modest self-effacing product.


These polishe are like liquid plastic or something. The consistency is superb. I've only one more 2true to review. Boo hoo. Next step is to try the squat bottles. But they have a lot to live up to. Problemo.

Your cheapest budget polishes?

Jenni

What would a perfect world be like?

Models Own Utopia

Because, without looking it up, that's what I suppose Utopia to be. Perfect world.
I have wanted this polish longtime.

• It is pastel and it is a bit streaky. 3 coats for sure. You have to get a lot of polish on the brush. Easy it's not. Not by any stretch.
• But the colour is unusual. I have over 1000 polishes now and it's unique in my stash.
• Luckily I lemmed it and I love it.
• Is it pink, lavender, lilac? Don't know.
• The photo makes my hands look lobster but that's not the case irl.

You know any dupes for this?

Jenni

2true Fast Dry Shade 9

This is unfair in a way because the bubbling is due entirely to me using the wrong product as topcoat. It mucked up my other hand too which sports a different polish. Totally my fault.

Big sorry to 2true because this is another great polish - 2 coats and you're done. The accent nail is Pop Beauty Twinkle which is a bottle of liquid joy.

Is anyone else suffering dry skin at the moment? I think I may have been neglecting my hand-care regime but maybe it's... sunspots! Or...........something in the water? Any ideas?


Jenni

Chanel Mimosa it isn't - Zest by Barbara Daly it is...

And jolly good it is too. I added a FlorMar coat to most fingers because it is a yellow and it's not completely streak-free and that's what I do these days. £3 for a small bottle but that's actually reasonable because it is a funky colour. I know it's not a Mimosa dupe btw. Heck, it may not even be yellow!

Compare this to Illamasqua Rare which drove me to the point of abject despair and this is a total win. It's only very slightly streaky and it's glossy. The photo is a Day 3 pic so the wear is very good. It doesn't give me lobster mitts so you can conclude I am well chuffed with this.

Anybody have much truck with Barbara Daly? It means I have to go into Tesco (hate Tesco) but that is sometimes unavoidable.

Jenni

2true Fast Dry Shade 5 - I shall call it RED PAINT

For it is indeed shiny, red paint. 2 coats of it. I love this brand with an exceeding great love.

I felt quite sophisticated wearing this - even the other hand was conventional. A vampy brown-red. Most unusual for me. And not entirely comfortable with that.

• How often do you wear red, if at all? 
• Do you like a plain creme red?
• Do you prefer red with a twist?
• What's your favourite and least favourite red?

Jenni

Pink Wednesday - er, NOT - 2true Fast Dry Shade 1

 

I'm not a Pink Wednesday-er. Got nothing against it. Just hate committing to things. No way I could guarantee always to wear pink on a particular day.

2 coats of lusciousness. This is my 3rd 2true polish. OMG these are fabulous. So glossy and highly-pigmented. I never trust "quick dry" claims and put them to the test by prodding at my nails but I think it probably IS fairly quick to dry. These are lush!

There are 9 shades in this range. I now have 6 and even though the remaining 3 are not unusual colours I'm going to get them because the texture/finish is so good.

Choose one shop. Superdrug or Boots?

Jenni

2true Fast Dry Shade 4

Flippin' heck. ANOTHER great polish from Superdrug. 3 for a fiver. 2 easy, quality coats. As easy as an easy-thing in Easytown. There are 9 polishes in this range. I now have 6. Simplicity itself.

It seems a bit brighter irl which made me think of China Glaze Electric Pineapple (which I do not have) but after checking the blogs I can see at once that this is far less yellow. I am to colour-matching what Gordon Brown is to stand-up comedy.

Jenni

2true Fast Dry 03 from Superdrug

Only 2 coats. 3 for a fiver from Superdrug. Crikey. You can't turn it down. As recommended by Helen of Just Nice Things. And she knows a good polish when she sees one. I know the bottles are only 7ml (a mini in US terms) but stap m' vitals and knock me down with a nail buffer if that isn't a fair bargain. The flash has washed this out slightly. In sun it's almost neon. But shiny!

http://www.just-nice-things.co.uk/

I know I was moaning about pink (MO Lili's Pink, to be precise) making me feel really 'old lady' but this is coral. And it's not frosty or shimmery. So I feel cool about it.

Do you feel awkward wearing particular shades? As if some colours simply don't suit your 'image'? Too edgy or not edgy enough? That kinda thing....


Jen