China Glaze - Love, Marilyn

Last month, when I saw the OPI Muppets collection, I bought Fresh Frog of Bel Air. I also really wanted Gettin' Miss Piggy With It, which was a similar polish in red and silver. I didn't buy it at the time though, and then this week I saw the China Glaze Eye Candy collection, and bought the very similar looking Love, Marilyn. 

While I really liked Fresh Frog of Bel Air, my only issues with it were the terrible smell, and the fact that it was really hard to remove. It was also a bit patchy, and although three coats was opaque enough for me, there were some gaps between the glitter when you looked closely.


Love Marilyn doesn't have the very large glitter that is in the OPI; instead it has more evenly sized red and silver glitter in a clear base. The even sizing means it applies a lot more evenly than the OPI, and looked more covered after two layers, and pretty much totally opaque after three. It also lay a lot smoother on the nail than the OPI, and the silver was more evenly distributed among the red. And it didn't stink to high heaven either, so it wins on all counts.



I absolutely adore how this looks - it is so bright and sparkly and festive. I will definitely be wearing this again at Christmas. 

The final bit of good news was that just like the Blonde Bombshell in the same collection, I managed to get this to peel off perfectly after two days - the three coats and topcoat all bonded together into one, so perfect removal with no need for removers!

You can see in the closeup how sparkly it is - it's even reflecting off onto the rest of my hand!

(Also - do my cuticles look a bit better? I've been oiling them with China Glaze peppermint oil, which smells so amazing that I don't care if it doesn't work, I'll happily just sit and sniff my fingertips!)

China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle

Back in the early days of my nail varnish obsession, when I first started reading nail blogs, I found out about the wonderful China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. I saw all the wonderful photos and I wanted a bottle for myself. Oh, how I wanted one!  But I couldn't find one anywhere. Not in my local shop that stocks everything, not online, not anywhere.



Then the other day, I was in my little shop again, and hiding behind the Eye Candy display (ooooh, how pretty THEY are! I bought two!) there was one lone bottle of something dark green and sparkly. SURELY NOT? I thought, and hardly dared look, but yes, there it was! One solitary bottle of my long desired Emerald Sparkle!  

And what was even better - because it had apparently been there years, it was only £3.50! Result!

I wore it to work today, and lots of people commented on it, and wanted to look at it and know where I got it. It is almost impossible to photograph it, especially as I hardly saw any daylight today, so this is the best I can do. I will have to take more photos when we get some sun. 


This is three thin coats, although two would have been fine. It's a gorgeous dark, foresty green, with brighter green glitter that just seems to glow from within. It reminds me of Christmas trees and pine forests. I'm almost surprised that it doesn't smell of pine needles.  



Oh no! Look at my dry skin! Or rather - don't look! I swear I must be going blind, because I could NOT see that with my eyes. Oh dear. I'm still posting the photo though, because of the 25+ photos I took of this, this is - believe it or not - one of the better ones. Emerald Sparkle  = good, Elanor's dry skin = shocking!  I think it's not helping that I'm using remover every day at the moment. I must do some special treatments. Does anyone have any dry skin/cuticle advice? It would be much appreciated.

Children in Need - Spotty Nails

I thought I'd try out my brand new dotting tools with polka dot nails. I saw some Children in Need nail wraps in Boots that looked like this, and being both a cheapskate, and preferring to do things myself, I made my own.



I used two coats of Models Own Pro French White. This applied really well, and was lovely and smooth. I hated the look though, and I would never wear all white nails - they looked like Tippex! But for tips on a French manicure, I'm sure it would be lovely.



I then added random dots using Barry M Spring Green, Coral, Cobalt Blue and Yellow, and Rimmel Pro Heart on Fire, left them to dry for over an hour, and then added a topcoat of Sally Hansen Insta Dri. I was hoping that leaving for ages would stop the spots from leaking, but one or two did still smear very slightly with the topcoat. Oh well, I still liked the spotty look, and several people commented on my nails today. I will do spots again, but probably in different colours. 



I hate how dry my cuticles are looking these days, despite using lots of hand cream and a nice Dr Hauschka neem oil pen. I think I need to look for a decent cuticle cream this weekend.