Tomorrow..

I'll be showing Essence Lilac Forever OR ELF Smoky Brown.
I've applied them but no time to take pix. This 5-day week lark is a pain. I'll soon be back to my usual 3 days though. Dashing off to GP for more pills!

Why matte is OLD news.....

Again - some very dodgy-looking fruit. And why no pix of the polish on the nail? But who needs advertising now we have blogs. Anyone else hate promo pix of bottles? The point is what exactly? Show me the polish on the nails, please.

Jenni

Confetti Happy Birthday

Cursed. By the purple-curse. Or rather the "it's purple but it looks blue in my photo" curse.

Shockingly inaccurate but the best I could do. It is a purple polish. I put one coat over the Orly Amethyst Decadence and it is clearly purple IRL. Very much in the vein of Milani Totally Cool and Sinful Daddy's Girl.

Good polish. Got this as a RAOK from the very busy Rebekah of For the love of nails.... Thanks, m'dear!

Yardley from 1968. Awful, terrible nails but LOOK at that purple jacket. Now that IS purple.

What RAOKs have you perpetrated or been lucky enough to receive?

Jenni

Barielle Electric Boogie

Don't get me wrong. I like Barielle. But when they had a BOGOF offer on their spring and summer 2010 collections I did struggle to find enough shades to justify the P&P. I prefer their older polishes.

Voila...EB.

As is so often the case when I haven't expected much of an item I was disproportionately pleased with this.

1 coat over the pre-existing blues (Illamasqua Force and Miss Sporty). You can see the previous mani easily enough. I was being lazy. I'm going to do this more and more though i.e. use an existing mani as a base for a different polish rather than start from scratch each time. Laxity and moral turpitude? Gosh, yes.

And just because I can, I give you Mary Quant.

I have footballer's legs so these socks don't suit me but does that deter me? Not a jot. I have a drawer full of long socks in various designs. They emphasise my muscular calves and make me look more like Wayne Rooney than is generally considered desirable but I love 'em.

Ad is early 70s. Obviously for the US market as it includes the word "fall". 

What differences between US and UK English have annoyed or confused you? I particularly detest the demise of the "shop" which we are losing in favour of "store". You buy things in shops with money. Shops have warehouses or stores where they.....store stuff.

Jenni

Orly Amethyst Decadence - February

1 very disappointing
2 looks better in the pix than I am finding it IRL

Sunlight. Garden.

3 coats but needs more. Looks very wishy-washy.
Had the weirdest consistency EVER. Thin but not runny. And dry! How is that possible?
Doesn't adhere to the tips well.
Comes over as old-lady pinkish tbh.

Inside. It's just feeble. Promising in the bottle but  all "fur coat and no knickers" on the nail. Boo.

So let's go for something far more ballsy.

From 1950. Big hat. Bling. A small stuffed bird. Hypo-allergenic. 

How often do YOU sport the classic red lips'n'nails combo?

Jenni

Illamasqua Force and Prism + Miss Sporty

OK, pic shows 3 nails.

Indoors.
The Miss Sporty looked a bit like the Illamasqua Force so I decided to compare.
So it goes like this...
L Miss S 2 coats
Mid Force 2 coats
R Force + Prism 2 coats + Prism makes 3

In sunshine. Obviously they're not the same. The coat of Prism (see bottle pic below) makes a subtle change and I'm going to play with layering it over black and green and other colours.

Nothing great about any of them.
The Illamasqua were reduced at asos. No way on earth would I pay £13 for them. The Miss Sporty is cheapo as we know. If anything, the Illamasqua doesn't dry as glossy as the Miss S.
I'm not really happy with the coverage but I'm back at work and not exactly back in da groove with m'nails. So 2 drossy coats will have to suffice.

 Unlike this lady. She's very soignee. Very nicely turned-out. 1965 this is from! 

What's your favourite berry?

Jen

Sally Hansen Pure Putty

It's not exciting but it is the sort of polish you wear when you need a rest from the blues and greens et al.

 After about a day at work.
2 coats in the sun. I love this.
Is it pink? It is on my summer hands. Is it nude? On some people, yes.
Anyway I like it.

 Indoors. And you can see the cool label so there you go.

I have just ordered 6 polishes from the US - much funkier colours.
I just want something different. Different brands. You can't really beat OPI and China Glaze for quality but they're just so ubiquitous. There are some new BB Couture I fancy so I may get those. The nailiverse needs new blood. I've been buying polish seriously now for a year so maybe I'm just jaded. Boo. New, innovative, different. C'mon, let's have some excitement. And I DO NOT mean Zoya bloomin' spoons.

What's the next new thing? A brand, a colour? A finish?

Jen

Catrice Clay-ton, My Hero

If this isn't a candidate for a stupid name (Stupid Nail Polish Names) then I don't know what is! It even gets a comma. That's how pretentious it is. I almost declined to feature it on grounds of appalling taste but my liking of the colour got the better of me.

I had to clip my nails. They grew quite fast in the Adriatic air and I don't like to feel my nails against my palm when I make a fist. Not that I'm a pugilist, you understand. Making fists.
2 coats in the sun after a day at work. Easy application. Very impressive for a cheapie.


Now look here. I know this next photo isn't in focus but it does show the gold shimmer. And I must add that this polish has grey, taupe, green AND gold aspects.  Hoping to go to Milan in October so I should be able to pick up some more Catrice then.

Lastly a holiday pic. 

The photo has no artistic merit but there is a tale to accompany it.

The chap in yellow is the boat-man from whom we hired a boat. You could never just hire a boat in the UK and be allowed to tootle off with it. Tedious bloody Health & Safety regs. Anyway, the daughter and the fiance thereof and I decided to take out a boat onto the sea. The fiance wanted me to steer out of the harbour because none of us had done this before and he didn't want to look an idiot. So I listened to the nice man (see above) and then he got out and I.....well, I tried to steer us out. Unfortunately I banged into every other craft in the place much to the amusement of onlookers. My OH ran off in acute embarrassment and the fiance had to take over. He had no trouble whatsoever in getting us onto the open sea and we had a fine old time. I don't think I caused major damage. In the end even my daughter was better at steering than me and her eyesight is really pretty poor but I am spatially-challenged at the best of times and can't understand why they don't have a steering wheel. If it's good enough for cars then it's good enough for me!

We sailed around this island.

Are you a good pilot/driver/captain? Can you use a tiller or a joystick?

Jenni

Essence and Catrice - brands new to me

Just got back from good ol' Croatia. Love it. Love it.
Didn't do much shopping. Just got 2 polishes.

I think they cost 14 kune in total. That's £1.75 now I come to think about it. For two! The Essence bottles (some of them) have these pretty striped caps. This is a bog-standard lilac, I know, but I had to have a striped top and most of them did not possess the much-coveted stripes.

Clay-ton, My Hero


????????????
What's that all about? Bonkers.

I'm going to try this first. I bet it's sheer as all-get-out so I'll layer it over something.

This is Porec. The easiest way to get to our hotel was by water taxi. My daughter and her fiance thought they were in an episode of Miami Vice because we got one that was very plush and the driver-fella went very fast and waggled it (I'm well-known for my grasp of nautical vocabulary, don't you know) from side to side and kicked up a lot of spray. I loved it too, I must admit.

Back to posting some actual nail polishes soon but I've got three straight days of work looming. How did 5 weeks and 2 days go so fast?

Jenni

Dear old Cutex...

Does this model look like Nicole Kidman or is it just me?

Maybe it is just me.


BUT before you run away with the idea that Cutex can't do funky. From the Sixties. Maybe early 70s. A bit pale and shimmery but  it does show there's more to Cutex than just pink/red. Cheeky hat. Love it.

See you soon now...

Jen

Yardley pink

70s. Cheesecloth. Hair. Collars. Eyeshadow.

But some funkier colours! Hurrah. Yellow and green were my faves in the 70s.
Isn't he just grim though? Something about this ad just makes me cringe. I wouldn't trust him as far as I couldn't throw him. He's a serial philanderer. Columbo would get the dirt on him for sure.

I admit it. You guessed. I'm on hols. But I am scheduling some real manis too.

I may get to read my comments. Haven't decided (at the time of writing) if I'm taking my Mac yet or if I will have the inclination to net-cafe or whatever. Back soon.

Jenni