Giveaway - GOSH Holographic

It is but a humble bottle of polish I offer. Somewhat careworn and tattered (probably due to having been languishing in the back of my local NotSoSuperDrug for aeons) but unopened, unused, untried nonetheless. A virgin bottle of holo goodness. Although, I have to admit, I have never managed to make it work for me. It has never agreed with any base coat I use. I know some people prefer to apply it to unprepared nails to avoid streaks but I can't bear not to prep my nails. Be warned. The results can be spectacular but it is temperamental.

• Open to my first 300 followers only. This isn't a desperate gambit to acquire new followers. This includes Trixx who appears to be 301 but I stupidly managed to follow myself in the early days so 301 is the cut-off point.
• Open internationally as it's just 1 ickle bockle.
• 1 entry each for leaving your contact details in comments below and stating a. which polish in your collection you'd be MOST reluctant to giveaway b. which polish in the whole, wide world you wish you could have c. whether or not you already have this polish.
• If you don't have it then you get an extra entry as I'd prefer it to find a home with someone who doesn't have it already as it's one of those HTF/rare/niche/Holy Grail polishes. So I'm enhancing the odds for those who don't have it. And if you're a blogger I can check! Sneaky and suspicious,  moi?
• Closes (hm, now let me think) 9th August.

If I've forgotten anything then please let me know.

Bonne chance!

J

A Utopian Rainbow

i.e. Models Own Utopia + GOSH Rainbow mattified with Boots 17.

I am completely gaga for this combo of flakies + matte.
Good thing I have a back-up of Rainbow as I haven't seen it in Superdrug for a while.
I also have Nubar 2010 though so I should be OK for a while.

What are your essential back-up polishes?

Jenni

Matte flakies are better than shiny flakies..

Well, that's what I think. I put GOSH Rainbow over the 2true to disguise the bubbles. Then I put matte over one nail just to see the effect.

Eureka! Glossy shine distracts from the flakies. Matte enhances them. QED.

This is a post-industrial sci-fi alienation counter-culture mani.

Do you agree with the matt flakies proposition?

Jenni

Silver comparisons

I surely have enough polish now to do comparisons - hundreds but not a thousand, I think. But curiously there are few outright dupes.

I do like silver. It ended up NOT a straight silver post but wanted to go glittery.

Little finger - new Topshop polish Wilderness - a poxy 6ml - it looks like a proper size polish on the website - swizz! metallic silver and a good polish
Ring - Topshop White Witch (goes pink on!) + Diamond Cosmetics Glitter Silver
Middle - Misa Dance Fever
Index - Hansen Dividends which is like the Misa only darker and leaves bald spots and never dries and wound me up no end + GOSH Silver Star (see Dividends for how it applies....boo)
Thumb - Diamond Cosmetics Silver Brocade - very like Wilderness but a hint of glitter

I conclude:

• Topshop sold me a pig in a poke with a teeny mini that didn't say it was a mini
• Don't bother with White Witch
• Misa is one of the best brands bar none - buy Misa
• Hansen Dividends not very good and neither is the GOSH - these are generally 2 brands I don't have much success with though
• Diamond Cosmetics - such a shame you can't get this in the UK any longer because it's another GREAT brand and it's crazy cheap
• My skin is unsually dry and it may be attributable to the Hansen Kwik Off polish remover that I am using but that people report to be tough on the skin

Jenni

2 questions

1. Straight silver OR silver glitter?
2. Are the LFW models too thin? When I say too thin I mean unattractively thin. Not unhealthily - that's another issue. Too thin to be attractive.

Eyeko and GOSH - how not to be bored by pink..

I had a nude nail and some other nails. I can't remember what they were doing to annoy me but they had to be brought into line.

Dull pic. In both senses.

The nude nail is the one on the right. Eyeko Nude.

The others are Eyeko Petite. But as pretty as it was I had to mess with it. Anyway I'd put a few coats on and it was a bit bubbly. And there may have been dog hairs. Did I TELL you about that dog?

\

Oo, you little cutie-pies. 

GOSH Rainbow on middle and little.

Attitudes Oyster Pearl on ring.

You may not love this. I do.

A word to the wise. Get GOSH Rainbow. Don't say I never give you any good advice.

The accent nail yesterday didn't work either so the red jelly was replaced with blue foil. This works better and yet...

The blue nail is China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea.

Which has led me to a moment of illumination. It is this.

Blues don't suit me.

Consequently there will be a cluster (what is the collective noun) of polishes up for grabs. Should I do a blog sale. Or would you prefer a giveaway? I think I can guess! Ebay?

OK, if there is to be a giveaway can we begin with a survey, please?

A Your fave blue?

B A suggestion for the collective noun for polishes/varnishes (what you will).

Some of the polishes are likely to be:

China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea    (cue my habitual expression of disgust at the beverage-abomination that is known as iced tea)

BB Couture Sea of Cortez

Barielle Falling Star 

There will be about 20.

So - A and B, if you'd be so kind.

Jenni

Nightmare! Max Factor Blue Energy and Bourjois 1 Seconde 11

Honest to God. Today hasn't been a great day and this has put the icing on the bl00dy banana cake (I hate bananas)

I don't really bother about VNL but the Bourjois (3 coats) needed a topping of Mavala Gold Diamond to make it a bit less bland
The Max Factor (from a cheap etailer like the Bourjois) went on very nicely in 2 coats
But I'm trying not to leave such big gaps round the cuticle so I inevitably made a s0dding mess
The Bourjois goes on so easily. It has the fan-shaped brush that looks very odd but is perfect for my nails as my hands are somewhat small. Kiddie-paws.

Why blue and orange?

They are complementary colours on the colour wheel and should therefore make each other "sing".

IRL this looks a lot better - yes, I know, I WOULD say that...

So it does work and I have achieved my end to a certain extent.

To cheer me up, because even my camera wasn't cooperating and insisted on providing unnecessary amounts of flash, I now insert a pic of CG Sprinkles with GOSH Rainbow. Even this isn't true-to-life as it shows the pink rather cooler than as perceived by my (admittedly failing) eyes...

I hope there'll be something new in the post tomorrow that simply screams at me to be tried. Not very hopeful however as there is always a dearth of post on Monday. Does anyone else find this to be the case?

What is your favourite blue? Shall I do a poll? Or a quiz? Do you want a giveaway? Anyone?

A decidedly grumpy

Jennifer

Orly Not So Dusty Rose and GOSH Rainbow

All the US bloggers are showing Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. Yes?
Are we to be out-flakied? No.


This started with an orphan polish of mine. More about orphans some other time.
My first Orly - Not So Dusty Rose. 
I mucked about my layering with the Revlon so that had to go.
Bring on the untried Orly.
2 coats. Creme. Great. But I made a dent on the thumb-nail so I had to do something.
When in doubt, go GOSH.

I love the bottle pic of this because it does look fierce!

You pass over a bunch of GOSH and Rainbow looks like it might be a standard glitter topcoat. 

I love the way it can reveal green. gold, copper, blue .......blah de blah...

I tried to show its red properties in my pix but didn't succeed.

Believe me though, it flashes red over the Orly and I haven't seen that side of it before.

This shows the Orly. Trouble is my teeny hands can't get anywhere near round a bottle of polish. I enhanced the colour on this but I'm not sure that I should have. It is maybe looking too warm.

This is love. It's very cool and flatters my gnarled and ancient hands.

I'm not saying I'd spurn Hidden Treasure. I'd like to see a comparison. Can anyone out there do that, please? Rainbow v Hidden Treasure?

Jenni

I am waiting for the postperson and a haul.. (I hope) ...but in the meantime...

OK, start with yesterday's mani - technically 36 hours or thereabouts by now

Sinful UFO over the existing Asteroid

UFO and Hottie

Putting the UFO over the Asteroid warmed the pink which was looking too cool in the previous pix

The middle has GOSH Rainbow rather than Sinful UFO and remained cool with the GOSH adding some gold flakies that I couldn't catch in this pic

This is Hottie over the grey and peacock - except for ring finger which also has GOSH and you can clearly see the golden flakies

The Hottie emphasises the green/blue in Clouded Slate

Until I get the 4 hauls I am eagerly awaiting this will be today's mani

Jenni

Rimmel Green with Envy v The Edge Barcelona (dupes)

Here goes.
2 polishes that look alike in the bottle and even more so on the nail.

Bottle pix

The polish on the right looks slightly more green-leaning

On the hand

And...

This was becoming another big fat fail...
Both polishes went on well. 2 coats each was plenty.
The Rimmel was on index and little, The Edge on middle and ring
They looked fun, bright and deffo dupes.


Oh no! 
As soon as I applied CG Freeze Dry to the Edge nails I got hideous warping and shrinkage. Up to the point it was the superior polish and would have been opaque with 1 careful coat.
What to do? I added GOSH Rainbow.
It shows its bronze-gold aspects in this context so I'm happy enough.
The weather is a bit dreary so this is a bright mani and cheering.
The Rimmel is a teeny bit brush-stroke-city but possibly less than I was expecting.
The Barcelona is a great polish but I'm going to avoid the Fast Freeze next time.

Until next time...
Jenni