Category Archives: Swatches

Nail Polish From Japan. Part 1 Eternal Basic Nuru 06

A rather lovely friend of mine went on holiday to Japan last year, and brought back some nail varnish! Seven bottles and a dot artist kit! 😀 Much better than a postcard!

The first polish I’m going to show you is from a company called Dear Laura, the range is Eternal Basic and the colour is Nuru 06. you can find the website (in English) Here

Nuru 06 is a pale turquoise creme polish, this really isn’t a colour I would have chosen myself, it’s good to try new things! After wearing it for a couple of days I’m starting to think it’s not that bad lol!

Eternal Basic Nuru 06

Eternal Basic Nuru 06

I found the formula for this polish to be on the thin side, and there was a bit of dragging and streaking while I was applying the second coat, but luckily the third coat built up the colour really well, and with the fourth coat it’s not noticeable at all.

The polish is really glossy, a lot more than my pictures are showing!

Eternal Basic Nuru 06

Eternal Basic Nuru 06

I have to say. How cute is this tiny bottle? I keep thinking it looks like a tiny blue pumpkin!

Eternal Basic Nuru 06

Eternal Basic Nuru 06

(And while I was painting my nails I may, or may not have been pretending to be a giant…)

Eternal Basic Nuru 06

Eternal Basic Nuru 06

This polish really didn’t smell too bad and it dried really quickly even with having to apply four coats!

I think I would like to try a some other colours from this polish range… but it’s very unlikely at the moment… One day tho 🙂


New Indie Nail Polish! Belle Glamour.

It’s not often that we get new indie polish makers here in the UK, But here is one! These polishes are from the new indie brand Belle Glamour.

I came across Belle Glamour on Facebook because Catriona was looking for people to do swatches and reviews of her new polish collections, in return for a discount…  Mmmm Discount on shiny polishes, how could I possibly refuse? Originally I was only going to get a couple, but a couple kind of turned into six. Oops!

After ordering the polishes they turned up within a few days! which seeing as I ordered them over Christmas was wonderful. They where really well packaged, all individually wrapped up in bubble wrap and tissue! And Catriona has been amazingly helpful!

These polishes are available for pre-order at  www.catrionascosmetics.weebly.com  and the shop will officially be opening on 24.01.2014. for more info you can sign up for the mailing list here!

There is also a Belle Glamour Facebook page Here and you can also follow on Instagram and Twitter with @mrscadrysdale and on Tumblr with Belle-Glamour.

Belle Glamour Midnight

Midnight

The first polish I have to show you is called Midnight, It’s a lovely metallic frosty black, This is two coats with base coat, and the application was a breeze!  It wasn’t streaky and there was no dragging at all!  I did find that the formula was a little thicker than I am used to but not so much that it was a problem in any way.

Belle Glamour Coven

Coven

Isn’t this such a cute polish! This colour is called Coven. This is three coats with base coat, with the first coat of this polish I was thinking that there wasn’t much pigment in this polish, but it built up really nicely and evenly with the next two coats, I think this will be the perfect polish for layering or some ‘pond’ nail art. I think that the Shimmer and the subtle holographic glitters make this polish really rather lovely.

Belle Glamour Matte Topcoat Over Midnight

Matte Topcoat Over Midnight

Here is the Matte topcoat over Midnight, this isn’t a flat matte, I found that this has more of a satin or wax finish, I think the closest product I can describe this to is the Latex varnishes from Illamasqua! This makes me really rather happy! 😀 I really do like the finish of this top coat! the application was really nice, very smooth, it didn’t smudge or move the colour underneath at all and it didn’t crinkle or go bubbly, also it dried really quickly.

Belle Glamour Bloody Roses

Bloody Roses

Bloody Roses is a wonderful Foxy metallic red, this was three coats with base coat, like Midnight, Bloody Roses is a tiny bit thicker than I’m used to, but it was wonderful to apply, it’s really well pigmented and the colour is simply stunning! This is three thin coats with base coat.

Belle Glamour Broken Hearted

Broken Hearted

Broken Hearted is a really cute glitter topper, it has black bar glitter and matte red hearts it also has a slight shimmer but my camera didn’t pick that up, this is one coat over nude from Barry M. I did have to dig about in the bottle a little bit for the hearts but I always find that’s the case with larger glitters. It was really easy to apply and there is a good amount of glitter in the mix! It also dries quickly and is very glossy 🙂

Belle Glamour In The Barrel

In The Barrel

In The Barrel is a lovely silver/gunmetal/pewter metallic pearl, and again the application of this polish was wonderful! there was no dragging or streaking and it dried really quickly! This is two coats over base coat.

I think these polishes are lovely, I’m looking forward to the Belle Glamour shop opening (yes i will be buying more) and I’m really looking forward to what Catriona comes up with in the future!


Urban Decay Twisted

Yay! my finger has nearly healed! I had a nasty washing up accident and It’s been looking horrible for days :/

I found my bottle of Twisted from Urban Decay while I was tidying up! 😀 And I couldn’t wait to show you all!

Urban Decay Twisted

Urban Decay Twisted

Look at the lovely gold sparklyness! I have to say that this is one of the few gold shades that I like, I’m not a big fan of yellow shades, This is more of an antique gold, there’s no metallic yellow here 😀

I was just going to do a quick swatch of this polish but then my Bundle Monster plates arrived! and I couldn’t wait to play with them! I Chose the CYO set, there are so many interesting images, completely different to any other BM collections!

Twisted With BM-406

Twisted With BM-406

Look! the images are just the right size for my finger nails *happy dance* I’ll do a full review of the set soon! 😀


Crackle Polish Experiment!

I’m not really the biggest fan of crackle polishes and somehow I have collected 11 bottles of the stuff!

So I decided that I should actually have a play with them rather than leaving them to gather dust! I chose Nina Ultra Pro in French White for the base colour and Black Shatter from OPI.

OPI Black Shatter over Nina Ultra Pro French White

OPI Black Shatter over Nina Ultra Pro French White

This is one coat of shatter polish, The OPI seems a lot more ‘crackly’ than some of my other shatter polishes, it shows more of the base colour, and it dries to be rather textured, this took two coats of top coat to smooth it out!

Braid Brush Strokes

Braid Brush Strokes

With brush strokes in different directions, (like braided nails but with one colour) the crackle effect is more controllable, and gives a much more even effect!

Black crackle sponged gradient.

Black Shatter sponged gradient.

I was really surprised at actually liking this, 🙂 I think it will look much better in different colours, perhaps silver and black or red with gold crackle polish for something a bit mote festive! But in black and white it looks like lightning!

Half crackle Mani

I taped off half of my nail before applying the shatter polish, The silver stripe is Night Moves from Barielle Shades, it’s just to hide the edge of the crackle polish as it was rather messy! 🙂


Deborah Lippmann Swatches, Modern Love, Across The Universe And Hit Me With Your Best Shot

As I was still feeling grumpy over having to cut my nails right down, I decided that the only way to make myself was to buy some more nail polish 😀

Deborah Lippman Polishes

Deborah Lippman Polishes

The colours are black which is called ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’, the Nude is ‘Modern Love’ and the Blue Glitter is ‘Across The Universe’.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

This is a really lovely colour, I was surprised that it is actually a frost finish rather than a metallic, the formula is lovely if a little thin, very fast drying, which is lucky as this was four coats.

Modern Love

Modern Love

Modern Love is a really nice nude colour, It has an almost grey tone, which I really love as I find most nude shades to be to pink or peachy. The Formula for this polish is fantastic, it is creamy with out being to thick, and flows easily from the brush, it’s really well pigmented and this took two coats.

Across The Universe

Across The Universe

Across the universe is a lovely dark blue jelly polish with green and light blue hex glitters and mid blue micro glitters. I will recommend at least two coats of base coat with this one, the glitters seem to be extra sticky and it was a pain to remove, even with the foil method! But it’s worth it as this polish is lovely! I used three coats. The amount of glitter in this polish means it is easier to dab the polish onto the nail rather than to use longer strokes.

I have to say that I am feeling a bit better about my short (er) nails now!


Chit Chat Glitter Nail Polish Swatches

Chit Chat Glitter Polishes

Chit Chat Glitter Polishes

While I was wandering about in town yesterday, I came across these for the bargain price if £1 each! 😀

I used a base of black on black by sinfulcolors so that the glitters show up really clearly 🙂  followed by two coats of the glitter polish

Chit Chat Pink Glitter

Chit Chat Pink Glitter

This pink glitter polish is really pretty, I found this polish a bit tricky to apply, the formula is a little bit thin, but the amount of glitter makes up for that!

Chit Chat Silver Glitter

Chit Chat Silver Glitter

I really don’t know what it is about my camera that makes it hate silver glitter so much… So sorry about the rubbish picture, it was the best one I could get!

There isn’t as much glitter in the formula for this polish as there was in the pink glitter, and it did take a bit of digging about in the bottle to get a good amount of glitter onto the brush. But it is easy to apply, and it definitely has the disco ball look! 🙂

Chit Chat Ariel Blue Holographic Polish

Chit Chat Ariel Blue Holographic Polish

This is a really pretty polish! I really like it over the black.

Chit Chat Violet Glitter

Chit Chat Violet Glitter

out of all four polishes, this one has the most glitter, It is a really pretty blue toned purple, I think this one will be perfect for a glitter gradient over a lighter coloured polish!

Chit Chat Glitter Polish

Chit Chat Glitter Polish

I have found that some glitter polishes tend to dry slightly textured or a bit lumpy and need a lot of top coat! but all of these polishes dry very smooth.  The drying time for the formula is a bit on the slow side, but for the price I paid for these polishes they are amazing value! 😀