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

Beauty UK Posh Polish Gel FX - Swatches and Review

**Products in this post were provided for an honest review**

Good morning everyone! I have the latest range of polishes from BeautyUK to share with you today. I am always happy to share more British brands and this is no exception!

There are six new shades in the brand new Gel FX collection - all gorgeous for the coming autumn and winter months. 

The colours are:

Midnight Iris, Crimson Rose, Himalayan Blue, Poppy Red, Pink Orchid and Café Cosmos.

They are all 9ml and will cost £3.49 each, available at Superdrug from this weekend - keep your eye out for them!

Here is a what BeautyUK say about them:

The silky and ultra-smooth, high coverage formula combined with the vivid shades makes this latest addition to the popular posh polish collection a must have item. Available in six on-trend catwalk colours, new GEL-FX not only provides a high gloss finish it also uses a plumping agent to make the nail appear fuller. Get your hands on the collection in 6 exotic-flower inspired shades.

Midnight Iris - an intense and mysterious dark inky blue.

Crimson Rose - a deep dark velvet red with hits of burgundy.

Pink Orchid - the essence of pink rich with berry coloured undertones.

Blue Himalayan - colour of the ocean with the waves of intense electric blue.

Cafe Cosmos - cushioned by the colour of the clouds in the grey winter sky.

Poppy Red - vibrant red exploding with festive spirit.

Onto the swatches! All swatches are WITHOUT topcoat to show you the finish of these polishes. I have used a base of OPI Nail Envy and two coats of each polish unless otherwise stated. I have altered colour settings on some photos to give you the most colour accurate photos I can.

(with flash - this is how it looks up close)

The first one I have to show you is Crimson Rose - one of my surprise favourites. In the bottle, this looks deceptively browner than it turns out on the nail. It is a vampy brown/red that looks almost black in certain lights and something I would normally avoid if I was out browsing for a new polish.

 (natural light)

(In shade)

The bottles are nice. A good size and at a good value price, so I was unsure of what the formula would be like. It is surprisingly nice - slightly thinner than the Gelly range by Barry M, but with just as much pigment and good coverage. This colour in particular is much redder with one coat, and levels out browner more burgundy with the second. It  It dries to a beautiful glossy finish as you can see. I was truly surprised at how much I liked this one. Be careful when you take it off, as I rubbed the wrong way and it stained my cuticles. No stainage on my nails though which is the main thing.

The second I have is the nude - Café Cosmos. A gorgeous light cream/beige creme that covered perfectly in just one coat. I have shortish nails, so this might not be the case for longer ones but it was perfect for me. Again, the formula was excellent - no streaks, levelled beautifully and dried in good time to a lovely shiny finish. Couldn't fault this one.

(both in natural light)

The next - the pink. There's always a pink. This is Pink Orchid. I am not a big pink fan, but its always good to have one as a back up, and this is one I'd recommend. Good formula like the others, full coverage in first coat, but I did use two here to level it out. Beautifully glossy and easy to apply.

(both natural light)


(shade)

The next - Midnight Iris. An inky, dark navy blue. This was a slightly thinner formula than the other five, but it was still super pigmented and covered fine. This was like Crimson Rose - so difficult to photograph as in certain lights it is almost black. Really nice work polish I think, but has endless possibilities with some nail art for a nice occasion.

(natural light)

(natural light)

This is Red Poppy - a totally different formula to the rest. This is what I refer to as 'tart red' - the best kind. Beautifully bright, slightly orange leaning but unlike the others as it is a true jelly. It doesnt fully cover the nail line  as you can see, so you might decide on a third coat - but I like it just as it is. It dries just as beautifully glossy as the rest as you can see.

 (both natural light)

And last, but definitely not least - Himalayan Blue. I own a ton of blues, but this is a new shade in my collection - what I would call a cornflower blue. Again, lovely formula and a glossy finish. Not what I would choose first for the time of year, but one can always find time for a nice injection of colour!

(natural light)

I wore this last colour for a full day and night - I would advise using a topcoat. It does stay glossy, however it doesnt hold up too well to wear and you could see a lot of dints (not much wear on the tips though which is good) so I would recommend a topcoat just to protect your mani for longer. 

Overall thoughts - I am so impressed with these. I will be holding out in hope that eventually the collection will get bigger and there will be more colours available. But the colours they have released are on the whole nice wintery colours that will get plenty of use with the odd less seasonal colour for whenever I need a colour pick me up! They have picked a nice selection too, so if you're picky about your colours there will at hopefully be at least one that piques your interest. Favourites? Definitely Crimson Rose and Himalayan Blue, but Poppy Red is close behind!

What do you think? Will you be grabbing any of these? Are you a fan of Gel effect polishes? What do you think of the price? 

Rachael xxx