Zoya Kissy

This is Zoya Kissy, one of my many nail-related Christmas presents. Kissy was part of Zoya's 2011 Christmas collection, and it's been on my wish list for more than a year!

This is one coat of Kissy over a coat of Opi's Be a Dahlia Won't You?  Kissy is a glitterbomb full of tiny bright pinky red glitter, plus lots and lots of bright pink bar glitter and some silver holo bar glitter. 

I was overexcited on Christmas day, and slapped on three coats of Kissy over bare nails. It looked incredibly sparkly, but was the roughest finish ever and needed four coats of topcoat to even begin to feel bearable. It was a nightmare to remove too!

Layering this over a base was much easier! It still looks pretty much as sparkly, but without being quite so topcoat hungry. This is still two coats of topcoat though, as Kissy does dry with a very rough (and matte) finish. It's quite fiddly to apply, as you do have to be careful that the bar glitter doesn't overhang the edge of the nail. 

I think it's worth it though, don't you? It's so sparkly and so pretty. I love the depth you get from the different glitters and shades of pink. I really like how tinselly this looks too.   

Nails Inc Brick Lane - Graffiti Collection

Today I am wearing Nails Inc's Brick Lane, from their Graffiti Collection. I had a Nails Inc voucher, so I bought the juicy sheers (the orange posted yesterday, plus the cherry one) and this glitter, which caught my eye. I haven't seen anything online about the Graffiti collection, but there are four of them - a multi coloured one, a purple one, a navy one, and this monochrome one.

This is two coats of Barry M's Bright Pink, with one coat of Brick Lane Graffiti. Brick Lane has a clear base, with lots of tiny black microglitter, some semi-translucent white microglitter, some larger black and white hex glitter, and some black bar glitter. This isn't sparkly glitter at all, and on its own it dries rather matte. Please excuse my shocking cleanup! It was early morning and I had to get to work, and I wasn't completely awake yet! 

The glitter is a bit clumpy at times, so you need to be careful otherwise it does make some very opaque dark patches. You can see on my middle finger that the glitter came out rather quickly! I wasn't able to shift it around more before it dried. I prefer how this looks on my other fingers, where it's a little more sparse and defined. It did dry very rough and a bit scratchy, so I've got two coats of topcoat here.

I'm not sure what I think of this. I think I like it. Somehow it reminds me of pencil shavings, and those little bits of pencil dust you get if you've been drawing with a soft pencil.   

Barry M - Once Upon a Time

Today I wore China Glaze Beach Cruise-r, which I posted about previously here. On my ring fingers I added a coat of Barry M's Once Upon a Time, a gorgeous bar glitter that has now been discontinued.

Once Upon a Time is a clear base with lots of bar glitter in bright fuschia, pale green, and a bright holographic silver. I love how shiny it is!

It's so hard photographing neons!

China Glaze - Marry a Millionaire (again)

I decided to add China Glaze's Marry a Millionaire over the top of yesterday's Ultra Violet, as that was wearing slightly at the tips, but I wasn't ready to remove it. 

I posted about Marry a Millionaire back in December, when I bought it. I liked it then, but wasn't mad keen on it, and hadn't worn it since.

Here is one coat of Marry a Millionaire over Rimmel's Ultra Violet.  I think this looks much better than Marry a Millionaire on its own!  You get the full effect of the bling and sparkle in one coat instead of three, and instead of bare patches, you have the pretty purple of the base underneath.

Marry a Millionaire has tiny glitter in pink and purple, and long strands of bar glitter in green and (I think) purple. 

I wore this with my current favourite ring - this is made with Barry M Vivid Purple and Barry M Once Upon a Time. Several people stopped me to compliment my nails and my ring today! I must be doing something right!