This is a polish I bought months ago, and hadn't got round to trying yet. The Orly Color Blast range was new to large branches of Boots when I saw them, and the display was so beautiful that I was seduced into buying three bottles at about £9.50 each.
This is Royal Purple Color Flip.
This is three coats, with topcoat. The polish is quite sheer, but has a lovely jelly-like quality to it.
The polish is a bright pinky purple jelly with lots of shimmery blue-purple particles that give a blueish duochrome effect in the right light. The polish is much more purple in the bottle than it is on the nail, looking much pinker when it's applied.
This is really sheer - three coats still gave plenty of visible nail line, so next time I might try it over a creme base. I do think it's a really pretty colour though - it's bright and zingy and does have a lovely shimmer. I find it quite pricey for what it is though.
What I do really like about these polishes is the lid - it's a nice rubbery texture with a lined pattern which makes it really comfortable to hold easily.
I bought this orange polish a while ago now, but hadn't got round to wearing it. I saw a new display in a large Boots in Sheffield - everything looked fantastic! I ended up buying three. I think these were £9.50 each.
This is Amber Luxe Shimmer.
This is three coats, with topcoat. Whilst the end result is pretty stunning, and I do like the effect (glowy shimmery orange, it's right up my street!) I don't think I'm particularly impressed with this. Application is tricky; the first coat is very streaky, and this dries so quickly that it wasn't easy to get a totally smooth finish. The second coat made parts of the nail opaque, and parts still really sheer, so the application is also quite patchy.
This is really pretty, but I don't think it's nearly as good as OPI Take the Stage, or China Glaze Riveting or Bend Over Backwards, which all look similar but have much better formulas. As you can see, there's also a really interesting greenish gold duochrome appearance in parts of the bottle too, but that doesn't translate to the nail.
I then decided to stamp over this using the lovely gold holo from the other day, Freckles Polish Kicking Up Leaves (see swatches here) and MoYou London Mother Nature plate 02.
The contrast isn't particularly pronounced, but I think this makes a really pretty finished effect as it's quite subtle. I found this almost impossible to photograph clearly.
What do you think?
I was in a large Boots the other day and noticed a display of a brand I'd never seen before - Orly Color Blast. Google tells me that Color Blast is the high street 'cheaper' version of the Orly range. Not that much cheaper though, as these cost £9.50 each! The display was stunning, really gorgeous, and I ended up buying three!
This is Magenta Color Flip, 2 coats, with topcoat. Apparently the Color Flip range is the Color Blast duochrome range. This one shows a gorgeous red/orange in the bottle, which suckered me in immediately as I LOVE reds and oranges!
Application is really nice - it's even, smooth and clean, and the brush is really good. The lid is nice - it's rubbery and the ridges give a good grip.
On the downside, I can't really see any duochrome on the nails. There's a bit visible in the bottle, but it doesn't really translate to the nail.
On the other hand - it's a gorgeous, glowy, shiny colour! I do really like it.
Having said that, £9.50 is quite a lot for a high street brand, and I can't say that this colour is particularly unique. I do have a lot of glowy metallic reds! But this is beautiful!
I'm almost late again! This time of year is ridiculously busy for me, and I haven't had time this last week to blog (although my nails weren't bare the whole time), so I'm catching up over the weekend! This week the British Nail Bloggers are doing Black and White.
I started with a base of Essie Blanc, and then used striping tape and OPI 4 in the Morning to make this geometric design.
I also added a couple of black rhinestones and topcoat for a bit more shine.
I was pretty pleased with these - apart from one or two tiny splodges, the lines are really neat and even.
Inspired by something The Naily Mail said on Twitter, I then added a contrasting coat of red underneath the nails using Orly Ma Cherie (because it's a mini and the brush is nice and easy to get underneath my nails neatly).
I do this contrasting flip colour underneath my nails from time to time, usually when my nails are really long like this. They're too long really - they're starting to make it awkward to do some things. I'll have to shorten them soon, but I really hate filing or cutting, it sets my teeth on edge a bit, so I'll avoid it for a few more days (probably until one breaks!)
What do you think? I'm pleased with these, and I wish I'd left them on for work tomorrow. I'm not quite sure why I didn't!
We've got snow today! I got to leave work early and everything.
These are my first snowflake nails. I started with two coats of Orly Me Cherie, and added dots and a flake with a white striper pen (brand not known).
I would have liked the snowflake to be crisper, but it was really hard to hold my hand steady, and the striper polish was rather gloopy. However, it's ended up giving it a bit of a feathery sort of look, so maybe that's quite apt for a snowflake.
I made a new friend recently through Twitter, and based around nail varnish! The lovely @ari_kostan and I had a transatlantic nail varnish swap! It was so much fun to do, and so exciting!
Yesterday my parcel arrived, and despite our cautious little budget, she sent me LOOOADS of stuff! Look at all the goodies!
There's a China Glaze Christmas set thing, with a sparkly bauble and a gold foil (Champagne Bubbles) and a lovely dark silver/black glitter (Tinsel Town).
There are three amazing looking Milani polishes, a bright green foil (Racy Green), a bright purple foil (Purple Rush) and a bright blue foil that looks as though it has purple flashes in (Blue Lightening).
There's a cute little Orly bright red (that I can't read the label of because of being blind!) and an AMAZING looking Finger Paints flakie (Asylum) with flakes that seem to be pink and blue, rather than the more standard orange.
There are two stunning looking glitters from Sinful Colors - a bright greeny blue one (Nail Junkie) and a gorgeous gold and bronzey glitter (All About You) that reminds me of the Hunger Games China Glaze one that I have my eye on, Electrify.
And then last but not least, there's a Wet and Wild Party of 5 Glitters, which looks like a brighter, more colourful Happy Birthday!
What an amazing present! I'm so excited about them all!
