Rococo Nail Apparel Purple Reign and 23ct Gold Leaf Lacquer

I may be a bit tardy to the party, but this is my first time wearing gold leaf nail polish.

This is Rococo's 'Purple Reign'  By *Rococo Nail Apparel. This polish has great coverage and I only needed two coats. The bottle also has a nice wide brush (my most favourite thing!)

'Purple Reign' and '23ct Gold Leaf Lacquer', available at Space NK You'll notice that the gold leaf has sunk to the bottom of the bottle - I'm pretty sure that this is not supposed to happen. I've just now had another look at the site and can see that my bottle of polish looks like it's missing 50% of the flakes.

Excuse the tip wear. This polish was on for three days!

The gold leaf pieces are quite large (brilliant), but they wouldn't stay suspended in the lacquer base (not so brilliant). The clear base was very thin, so trying to apply the flakes took some time. They would not come out of the bottle and I had to chase them around the bottle to scoop them out. Even after giving the bottle a good shake, I still had to fish for the flakes. If I simply dipped the brush into the bottle, the only thing that would come out was clear polish. 

Having tried Rococo polishes for the first time, I was really impressed with the 'Purple Reign'. It had great coverage and was beautifully pigmented. The '23ct Gold Leaf' Lacquer', however, was a bit disappointing because it was a chore to apply. I was able to enjoy this for three days without a chip, so I guess the positives outweighed the negatives in the end.

Have you tried any of the pigmented Rococo Nail Apparel polishes before?

xx
*Sent for my consideration and honest review

Kiss my nail strips!

 If you've kept up with my blog over the last two years, you will know that I am a lover of water decals and nail stickers. Not only are they a way to instantly jazz up a plain manicure, they are also quick and easy to use when you are in a hurry. These nail polish strips by *OMGNailStrips are right up my alley.

In one packet, you'll get two sheets of pre-cut nail stickers. They are so simple to use: just size the strips up on your own nails, remove the clear plastic covering on top of the pattern, peel the design off the cardboard backing paper and stick them onto your nails. You can stretch them (which is good if you have a high apex, or curve, to your nails) and they won't tear.

 Finished product.

The OMGNailStrips after one day of wear. There is some tip wear, but I'm not known for wearing washing up gloves and I had washed three heads of hair with these on.

Weird hand pose...

Have you worn these strips before? What do you think?

xx
*Sent to me for consideration

Painting with my eyes closed...

Tonight, I have a quick post showing you the results of boredom.

I was watching a few YouTube make up videos and saw that a few ladies decided to make videos with them putting on make up without mirrors. Some of them were pretty good! I thought I'd do the something similar - so I painted my nails with my eyes closed:

Absolutely abysmal.

Hmm. Not even the wonderous Rimmel Flat Brush could help me...

Dear, oh dear. I'm actually quite shocked at how badly I did!

Have you been bored enough to try this out? If you have, let me know :)

xx

Racer back nails!

Happy Friday, friends!

Tonight, I'm featuring a manicure created by Madeline Poole. I love her work so much because she has come up with some amazing concepts and works in the world of celebrity and session manicuring (something I am also working towards...slowly, ha!)

First, let me show you the polish I used as a base:

Maybelline's 'Audacious Asphalt'.
Two coats, one layer of Toma 45 second top coat (I didn't use a base coat because I'm wearing acrylics which have a uv gel top coat on them).

Generally, I'm not a fan of nudes, greys or beiges. This, however, I do like.

 This is quite a 'bright' grey. It catches the eye because it has a blue undertone.

Another shot of the 'racer back' nails look created by Madeline Poole. You can find a tutorial for this look right HERE.

Have a great weekend!

xx

Leighton Denny 8 Piece Mini Mani Collection

Happy Friday everyone.

I have something special to show you today - Leighton Denny 8 piece Mini Mani Collection from QVC!

Admittedly, I've never used any of the products created by Leighton Denny, but I'd heard that he had some amazing polishes. When I was offered the chance to review this nail polish set, I had to accept.

The set comprised of 5 colours.
L-R: High Flyer, Diamond Diva, Rampant Rose, Pleasing Purple and Butterfly Wings.

L-R: One For All (base and topcoat), Precision Corrector and Miracle Drops Speed and a precision brush.

Exciting, huh?

Let's have a look at the colours first...

 

High Flyer (4.6ml) -  a  turquoise shade enriched with silver glitter. This is two coats plus on layer of the One For All topcoat. This was my favourite shade. The brushes weren't wide and flat, but they were well made and the consistency of the polish was creamy.

Diamond Diva (4.6ml) -  molten silver shade which can be used as a French manicure tip. I chose to put it on the whole nail, however, because I don't like how the look of a French manicure on almond shaped nails. The polish is beautifully pigmented and would look amazing marbled with a black polish. This is two coats without a top coat.

 

Rampant Rose (4.6ml) - deep red with a touch of brown. Two coats of creamy perfection.

 Pleasing Purple (4.6ml) -  The website states that this is a 'navy blue with a subtle purple shimmer', but I suspect that they swapped the colours around. This is a PURPLE with a BLUE shimmer, in my opinion. Initially I didn't like this at all, but after three coats, it grew on me. You may be able to detect a smudge on the ring finger...I used the polish drying drops and they did nothing to speed up the drying process.

Butterfly Wings (4.6ml) - sheer peach with an iridescent shimmer. This was my least favourite shade, because I'm not fond of shimmers. I will admit that this shade would look amazing layered over a darker colour. This didn't actually occur to me until just now!!

Left: One For All (4.6ml) all-in-one base coat, top coat, ridge filler and clear gloss coat - perfect for when you're on the go...or so the blurb says.
 It is fine as a base coat and gives a lovely glossy shine when applied as a top coat, but because it is not fast drying, I simply would not buy this. This is not a reflection on the quality of the polish, I just prefer the convenience of a fast drying polish.

Middle: Precision Corrector (4.8ml) - a three-in-one product that tidies up nail polish mistakes; also the key easily creating the perfect French and Naked Moon manicures.
 I love this! Seasoned nail polish bloggers will all confirm that a good 'clean-up job' is imperative, when polishing nails.  This does not appear to be acetone, because it does not leave a dry, white mark on the cuticle area after use. It's not harsh on the skin and it removes spills with precision and speed. I don't know what is in this miracle elixir, but I love it.  The little brush contained in the pack is the perfect size and the hairs are stiff, so they don't splay when you are cleaning the cuticle area.

Right: Miracle Drops Speed (4.8ml) - specially formulated to radically speed up drying time, help stop smudging and add lustre to nails and cuticles.
Unfortunately, the only thing these drops did for me were make hydrate my cuticles! After a few minutes, my nails still smudged. Again, perhaps I'm just used to my normal fast drying topcoats, but I'm not used to having to wait for my polish to dry anymore!

Overall, this was a sweet little pack with some top quality polishes. If the top coat had been a speed-dry polish, I would have been in heaven.

If you go head over to the QVC website, you can find this set for the introductory price of £28.44. 

Have a great weekend!

xx

Party menu

Hi everyone.

This is a quick post to show you the menu I had for a nail polish party I did a few days before Christmas '12 (that makes it sound so far away, doesn't it?)

I can't wait until my next party - it was so much fun!

xx

What I've been wearing...

Hi friends.

Although I haven't been blogging everyday or posting pictures of nail art does not mean that I'm not wearing polish. Here are a few of the 'looks' I've been sporting recently:

This is 'Candy Shop' by Claire's. I actually won this in a giveaway hosted by Beau's Mom a few months back.

 

I used a creamy pale pink over this polish in an attempt to make a 'jelly sandwich'. I don't quite think it was a sucess, but I liked it nonetheless. Oh and here is me posing with me my new iPhone case.

 

This is a polish that one of my lovely Instagram friends send to me.

Okay, that's it from me. I hope you have a lovely weekend!

xx