A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Nails Inc still isn’t a favourite brand of mine.  I find the formula a little too thick – great for achieving opacity in 2 coats or less, but not so good for clumsy types like me.

Belgrave Place is a beautiful inky blue and although I love the colour, this polish isn’t a keeper for me.  Despite use of a base coat (I’m obviously not using one good enough), this stained my nails quite nastily upon removal.

Will I ever find a Nails Inc. polish I’m in love with?  The search continues – recommendations very welcome!

Sorry for so many NOTD posts, it feels like a bit of a lazy cop out as they’re much easier to do than full on reviews.  I have some MMU haul posts as well which I really need to be doing and I have a HG to share with you all – ‘citing!

A lovely, lovely nude that’s a dream to apply.  I enjoy being able to get away with keeping nudes on my nails a bit longer, especially this one which only suffers minimal and even tip wear.

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I love GOSH polishes, I find them consistently good quality, with lovely pigmented shades that are easy to apply – never needing more than 2 coats to achieve opacity.

This one is no exception… look!

Hello beautiful!

Carmine is a lovely shade which is pretty hard to describe (and photograph).  It’s a beautiful rich, sophisticated magenta with flashes of scarlet and gold.  Applies like a dream… this is 2 coats:

This photo sadly does not do it justice at all.  It looks scarlet here and doesn’t show off the beautiful hot magenta.  I think you can just about make out the magenta more towards the tips and the gold flashes more at the base of the nail (particularly on the little finger), but it’s far, far more apparent in real life.

I’m flippin’ loving GOSH this summer – and it’s back on a 3for2 in Superdrug at the moment!

A gorgeous, vibrant shade shot through with a sophisticated glitter.

This polish is fantastic and would easily make it into my top 10 list. 

It’s a lush cherry red that I can’t stop looking at!  It goes on smoothly and evenly.  The texture feels a little gritty thanks to the glitter, but it’s nothing that a sweep of top coat wouldn’t fix. 

The above image shows 1 coat(!) after 4 days of wear.  There is very minimal and even tip wear.  This is my first experience with China Glaze polishes and I’m so impressed by the formula of this one, I’m looking for more!  Anyone care to share their favourite CG polishes?

The perfect wine red for cool toned gals like me.  I always forget just how much I love this shade until I rediscover it in my little box of polishes.

A solid 2 coater, hardwearing and glossy with a lovely shimmer.

I have a slight problem with nail tip wear with this polish though, you might be able to make out on the tips of my ring and little finger in the above photo which was taken the morning after application.  I’m guilty of not wrapping my polish over the tips of my nails though, it always feels like such a sloppy thing to do.  Does it really aid longevity on the tips?

Anyone care to share their ‘classic’ faves?

Miners have a special offer on a range of their polishes at the moment costing just 97p a bottle.

I haven’t tried anything from their nail polish ranges yet so can’t comment on quality but seeing as I just made myself a mini haul of some pretty colours, I thought I’d share the love.  It’s a great excuse to try some colours that you wouldn’t normally be brave enough to purchase without spending too much!  I’ve gone for:

Purple Hologram
Lemon
Hologram Turquoise
Pale Mint
Rain Glow
Raw Edges
Babyziz

All for a grand total of £8.26 inc. P&P – Bargain!

Stock up on some cool colours for summer!

Yes it’s ridiculously cheap, yes it’s a lovely colour for pale cool toned skin.  No I won’t be applying it again unless I develop a masochistic streak.  5 coats…. 5 coats of colour (with another base coat inbetween), I kid you not and I can still see through my nail tip if I hold my hand to the light!

I have another Opia polish in Navy and that’s an absolute dream in terms of opacity (almost a perfectly smooth 1 coater)- so for a solitary £1 it’s always worth a punt if you see a colour you like.  Unfortunately, I can’t find any reference to the name of the shade of this polish.

Above image shot with the flash popped up.

Application was really easy due to the consistency being so thin and transparent.  If you like sheer polishes, I would totally recommend this.  If you don’t, steer well clear of this shade.

I have a couple of GOSH brushes which I love and picked up on a 3for2 last year in Superdrug, but I haven’t ventured any further into the GOSH range than that, until now.

After discovering my love for bare coloured polishes (but not Nails Inc.) I picked up GOSH Nail Polish in shade ‘Ginger’ to try out.  I also picked up ‘Tangerine’ but that’s for another day!

It’s a very pretty shade with a subtle but definite shimmer, it’s not particularly ‘ginger’ as far as I’m concerned.

Application was a dream in comparison to Nails Inc., this is a solid 2 thin coater which builds up a lovely solid opacity.   The consistency is smooth and runny enough to allow for quick drying between the two coats.  I’m seriously impressed.  It doesn’t have a hugely glossy finish despite the shimmer, but that’s nothing that a top coat doesn’t put right.

I’ll definitely be heading back to the GOSH range for some more colours for the summer.  Great stuff!

GOSH Nail Polishes are priced at £4.89 each and available from Superdrug.

[starreview tpl=14]

Did you grab June’s InStyle magazine yet?  I did and I’m currently sporting my new nails.

The magazine shelf at Asda had been ransacked and I could only find Coral and Bare (typically I wanted Berry), but no matter, I grabbed Bare as I totally wouldn’t be able to carry off the super bright Coral colour.

Here it is!

It’s a really, really lovely soft colour – milky beige with a hint of pink.  And that’s where the compliments end.

Applying it reminded me of when I used to paint my nails with Tippex in school science classes.  It was a chalky, draggy nightmare!

I have no other experience with Nails Inc. as a brand, and wonder whether the quality was lowered for this huge InStyle promotion.  I don’t know if that’s usual practice – but if it is, how stoopid?  It’s left me pretty uninterested in ever picking up another Nails Inc. product.

As I’ve said before, my application skills suck (I’m slowly getting better though!) – and this looks like the worst I’ve ever done.  Up close, you can really see the drag marks at the base of the nail and the cleaning up I had to do after drying took me longer than painting did (2 coats btw).

It doesn’t look so bad here, but trust me it is.  I don’t know if paler colours are less forgiving – so that may make a difference.

The quality of the brush also left a lot to be desired, I had to snip the end a little to make the bristles align.  Surely, this must just because it’s a free promotional item – you wouldn’t pay £10.50 RRP for polish like that or are Nails Inc. incredibly over-rated?  I dunno, but thanks to the shoddy 1st impression I’m curious but not inclined to spend money on their products to find out.

Any reader opinions on Nails Inc. would be appreciated – tell me I’ve got it all wrong, or save me from my curiosity and let me know that YES, Nails Inc. are indeed overrated.

Shame, cos I really do love that colour.

[starreview tpl=23]

The cover of June’s InStyle magazine will feature a free full size bottle of Nails Inc. polish worth £10.50.

3 colours to choose from: Berry, Bare and Coral.

Magazine is priced at £3.50.

On sale from the 30th April.

I was browsing the shelves of my local Boots looking for something to spend my latest ‘£2 off’ till spit on, when I spotted Bourjois’ So Laque! Nail Polish claiming to last up to 7 days thanks to the extra vinyl – woohoo!

I plumped for the Beige Glamour colourway, thinking I should go for something a little more conservative than the teal I was sporting that day…

So Laque! is currently on offer in Boots down to £3.37 from £5.37, so now is a great time to try out some new shades and if you’re organised enough not to have dumped the ‘£2 off’ till spit from last month, you can pick one of these varnishes up for a super purse friendly £1.37!

There weren’t that many shades available in my local store, but the Boots website claims to have 11 shades on offer:

I’m really liking Bleu Mysterieux and Rouge Diva in particular for my pale pink-toned skin (although those weren’t available in my little Boots).

Consistency of Beige Glamour is very thick but smooth and not at all gloopy, there’s no sheerness about this polish and you could easily get enough coverage from a single coat to achieve a nice opaque finish.

 The downside is that it’s pretty unforgiving to any mistakes that you may make with applying.  I actually preferred the colour I achieved from one coat as the 2nd turned the beige finish a deeper brown but my application skills demanded a second coat to achieve the glass-like finish I was after.  Definitely not one to apply whilst making the morning commute by train!

Drying time was perfectly acceptable and there’s not a hint of streakiness, super matt perfection!

I’m not sure I’d pay the RRP of £5.37 for Bourjois So Laque!, not when there’s so many other great brands out there vying for my attention – this polish hasn’t wowed me, but if it lives up to it’s 7 day wear promise then I’ll definitely be picking up some more shades while they’re still available at £3.37 each.

Review value rating is against the full RRP price.

[starreview]

Superdrug is a must visit for high-street huntresses, however, unless you have a particularly strong constitution I suggest avoiding visiting during school holidays or Saturday afternoons as you may struggle to get near the stands amid a wash of pre-teen girls and a fog of impulse body spray.

N.Y.C is not a brand I’m familliar with (yet!) – a little like Barry M and 2true, I’m slightly intimidated by the colours and the plethora of plastics, shrinkwraps and security tags attached the products in a vain attempt to stop the afore-mentioned pre-teens from nicking the goodies.

I was looking for some cheap polish for a mid afternoon pick-me-up and this colour caught my eye, it’s a shimmery metallic blue/green which totally reminds me of a bluebottle fly (you know, the pretty shimmery bit!).  Anyway, application is easy with a surprisingly good brush which makes for a full nail application in a couple of simple strokes.  It’s pretty sheer, and needed 3 coats to achieve the colour payoff as shown on my natty nails – something which I’d usually moan about, but application was so smooth that I didn’t struggle at all with 3 thin coats and didn’t grow any new grey hairs in the time it took to dry.

Price was a very reasonable £2.93, but Superdrug are currently offering 2 N.Y.C Nail Glossies for £2.99 (bargain!) so if you want to try some new colours now is a good time to have a look!

3 days after application – lasting well with no chipping yet!

[starreview]