Top 10 Seasonal Nail Products and Polishes

Hey all,

Long time no see! Been so run down with work, chocka with cold and whatever lurgies have been passed to me that blogging has taken a temporary back seat. I have however still been painting my nails to cheer myself up!

So here are my top 10 nail products for the season. I love this time of year - I love listening to xmas songs, I love buying presents for people and I love receiving presents too of course! But most of all I love that I get to see a bit more of my family and we get to spend some quality time together, even if it is only a few hours around the table.

Again, I haven't really put these in any order.. I would really be here until after Xmas if I had to decide!

Firstly is a basic product - cuticle balm. With the coldness setting in, my Raynauds has kicked in again - not sure if its related to my Raynauds or just the cold.. but my nails and skin have started to go downhill big style. So I've been slathering on the cuticle balm like theres no tomorrow. It has left my skin and cuticles much better, but I'm not commenting on my nails just yet. My favourites are Sunny's Miracle Balm and Cutie Balm by The Nail Junkie. I carry my Miracle Balm around for every day use, and I usually wear my Cutie Balm before bed when it has time to soak in. Sunny's Miracle Balms come in so many different scents its unreal - my favourite so far is Eucalyptus as its not an overpowering scent. The Nail Junkie's Cutie Balm is unscented and perfect for anyone with sensitive hands and skin (or a sensitive nose like myself!) I also have my own that I've made myself - they're fairly easy to make, I've played around with mine to improve the texture as my first although they did work were difficult to apply and a little on the gritty side (new on the left).

Another hand care product is my hand cream. I have millions of these and to be honest, I don't have a particular favourite. They have all worked well enough for me, but I did happen to really like the texture of one I got as a sample in a magazine - its got a nice texture - not sticky, overpowering or 'claggy'. It works in really nice and left my hands feeling lovely and I didn't need to reapply after washing my hands during the day - so it's on my list to buy. It's called Aveeno Hand Cream with colloidal oatmeal. 

Onto the polishes and other nail products. I think Xmas calls for some solid basic colours. Black, white, red, gold, silver, (blue and green) are my Xmas go-to's. I have always been a massive fan of Zoya Raven for my go to black, but as its hard to come by and also expensive, I have swapped and been using Sinful Colors Black to Black. For £1.99 I really can't fault it - it is a one coater on my short nails and has a nice and easy to level formula with a satin finish. However, my new find is the Kate Spade - New York Noir polish by Nails Inc. Its absolutely stunning. I actually only picked it up for the sake of it being free, but I am so glad I did - it really was worth the £2 price tag on the magazine! Even glossier than Zoya and a fraction of the price!

Zoya - Raven

Kate Spade - New York Noir by Nails Inc

Red is a hard choice. It is one of my most owned colours after pink (which I hardly ever wear - go figure!) and I have so many that I love. I really love jelly reds - most of which I own are very similar, if not dupes.. but seen as I love them so much I can't part with them! One is Poppy Red from the Beauty UK Gel FX collection. 

It's inexpensive and such a beautiful vibrant red - what I love the most is that it's something I can wear whenever I want - red isnt just a Xmas colour. Another very similar red that I love is Sinful Colors Gogo Girl. It has the same vibrant colour and jelly texture as Poppy Red, the only difference is that you would need more coats for the plumped Gel look that Poppy Red has and a good top coat to match the shine. The last red on my list is Crimson Rose, also by Beauty UK. I really expected to dislike this but it is so classy and demure, I just stare at my nails all the time. It is definitely an autumn winter polish, although I'm not sure it's a specific Xmas colour. Just so you're aware, I did get the two Beauty UK polishes as samples for review.

Gold and silver are no brainers - Barry M Gold and Silver Foil Effects. I don't own the latter, I usually steal it from Becca when I'm polishing at her house. I picked up the gold from a blog sale and use it for pretty much anything that requires gold. They stamp great and have fantastic coverage for general nail painting as well.

Glitters! OMG. This was the hardest part by far. I LOVE glitter. Its the biggest section in my helmers as I class glitter as my favourite colour - it has two drawers. There are so many shapes and sizes, I don't think I could ever pick just one, but I do love a good multi-coloured glitter (Ellagee Crazy He Calls Me or KBShimmer Wrapper's Delight are my Xmas faves). 

I also have a passion for circles. Circles here, circles there, big, small, holographic... I LOVE ME SOME CIRCLES! I have a few now with circles in them, and some of my favourites come from Nail Lacquer UK. I have Midnight Prince, Grape Juice, Choose the One, Heart or Love and Ariel which are all circles from Nail Lacquer UK. 

Nail Lacquer UK - Heart or Love

Can you really pass through the season and not have some love for iridescent flakies? I certainly cant! I only own two - Finger Paints Asylum and Sinful Colors Green Ocean. Neither are easy to come by, but they are both worth it if you can get them. Completely different in their own right, but both just beautiful! (I also own a couple of iridescent glitter polishes which also create the same sort of effect and are much easier to find - my favourite is my new Nail Lacquer UK - Snow Topper which also comes with cute snowflakes as well!)

Holos! Could I not mention holos? Definitely not. There are only two holos that I swear by and they are both Zoyas. Zoya Storm - a black scattered holo, and Zoya Blaze, a deep wine red scattered holo. I own back up bottles of both and am considering backups of my backups - no holos have ever come close for me on how beautiful these are!

And last but not least - stamping plates. I have only recently gotten my Xmas MoYou London plates but I'm surprised there are any etchings on as I have used them that much! I don't want to spoil the Xmas manis I've done as I have seperate posts coming.. so here's my most popular and favourite stamp so far (also a MoYou London plate!)

What're your top 10 favourite seasonal products?

Rachael xxx

Taras Talons - All Work and No Polish! Swatch

Hey all!

Another Taras Talons polish here - got a few more in my untried pile, but I'll break them up so I don't spoil you all at once haha!

This is a single mini (5ml) that caught my eye a few weeks back. I'm normally a bar glitter hater but its very sparse in this polish so I thought I'd give it a try. All work and no polish is a sheer grey base with a mix of black, white and pink glitters in a variety of hexes and bar glitters in black and white only. It can be built into an opaque look on its own, but I decided to layer it over Sally Hansen - Ion for quickness. 

I decided to wear it as an accent as you know how much I like non-matchy nails. So I went for 2 coats of Sally Hansen - Ion on my pinky and pointer, 2 coats of Catrice - Raspberry Fields Forever on my middle finger and 1 coat of AWANP over 2 coats of Ion on my ring finger and thumb (not shown).

I really like how it looks, I love glitters, and these matte glitters are great for an every day look. I love the variety of colours and glitters in this and surprisingly like the addition of the bars. It was a beautiful formula and had a nice variety of glitters that went easily onto the nail. I did fish for the bars though as they are quite sparse, but thats how I want the polish anyway so its not an issue!

Small thank you to Becca from KPC too as these are all her polishes (bar All Work and No Polish) as I was having a polish afternoon at her house! It was her birthday last week, so I took over her presents and we had a swatch fest! Happy birthday Becca, love ya lots! 

Anyway, back to the polish - what do you think?

Rachael xxx

Invogue Feather Effect Polishes - Swatch and Review Part 1

On the nail polish grape vine, these polishes have recently appeared as the thrifty polish buyers alternative to the Nails Inc Feathers collection.

There are four polishes in the collection - Sunset, Parakeet, On the Money and Jaye Bird. They're available from Superdrug online and apparently in some stores although I didnt find them anywhere near me. They're also a bargain price - only £3.49, when compared to the Nails Inc versions which are £11!

Each polish is made up of very fine bar glitter. I thought this might be an issue as I really dislike bar glitter (they never stay flat, they just look messy at all different directions) , but they are so very small in these polishes and very dense, that they look less like bars, they look.. i dont know.. less like bars anyway! :)

I thought I would split this into two posts - well, really I just wanted to keep one of these beauties on for more than 10 minutes! ;)

The first two I have for you are Sunset and Parakeet. I decided to choose the one that jumped out at me most, and the one that did the least. I was surprised that I love the latter more on my nails!

So - here's the first one. This is Sunset - a beautiful mix of orange and white fine hexes. I have used two coats and one coat of top coat. This still left the polish with a slightly rough texture, so I think it could do with another to even out. The bars are very dense and spread well - no dabbing required. Brush is average size, no issues and formula is easily workable.

I love the colours, but I don't think it does much for my skin tone. This ones in artificial light by the way!

The second is Parakeet. I was really unsure of this in the bottle - it looks quite.. grungy.

Again, I used two coats and one of top coat. It could do with another. I was pleasantly surprised at this. We've had a glorious day and i've spent a lot of it staring at my beautiful summery nails. <3

What do you think of Feather effect polishes? Yey or Ney? Do you own any?