A-Z challenge - H is for Essie Hip-anema

Today I have for you one of my favourite colour families. Red / orange. I have terribly shrimpy pink toned skin, so many colours just look terrible on my hands. But I do love orange leaning reds, orange and coral. 

I actually spotted this on 'the barrow' a little makeup/nails stand in the Metro Centre. They often have OPI, Essie, Sally Hansen and many other brands at reduced prices. They're generally older collections, but if I like a colour, I really don't mind how old or new it is. This only cost me £2.99.

This is Essie Hip-anema, which I pronounced 'Hip-anenema' to Becca who promptly laughed her head off. It's a beautiful red/orange jelly, with the perfect brightness for summer which had complete coverage at 2 coats. As you can see, there is a slight VNL, but thats not something that bothers me. I was also quite surprised as Essie do not usually wear well for me.. but this wore really well and lasted 4 days before I got any tip wear, and another day before I got the tiniest of chips. 

What colour could you just not live without?

Don't forget to check out everyone else's H Manis at the hub page!

Rach xxx

A-Z Challenge - D is for Asda Denim

Good morning!

Today I have a gorgeous denim polish for you. It's an absolute steal - only £1.99 and available in Asda. Forget buying the expensive Ciaté original - this is just stunning. A one coater (maybe only for my short nails) with a lovely smooth formula and a rich navy colour that dries to look just like denim.

I know some people are way over denim look nails, but I still love them! Do you?

Check out all the D manis here!

Rach xxx

Swatched - Zoya Mata Hari

OHHHHHHHHHHHHH EMMMMMMMMMMMM GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I found a purple. I. Found. A. Purple. Okay, so its verging on not really being purple, its what I would call metallic cherry coloured. But its still a purple really. And I LOVE IT!

Picked this little beauty up in a blog sale over at Princessly Polished. Rochelle is selling off her mom's Zoya polishes and I FLEW in there and bought up a whole lot of them ha! I worked out the overall price and I picked them all up for between £4-5 each including the postage which is amazingly good value considering what they cost over here!

So anyway, onto the formula. Perfect one coater! I love shimmery, metallicy polishes for this reason - they just level really well and this one is well pigmented and the formula is just the right consistency. Lovely!

What do you think? I will definitely be wearing this more come Autumn / Fall, but I still love it now anyway!

Do you like the colour? Do you own any Zoya polishes? Which Zoya is your favourite? 

Rachael xxx


Other posts you might like:
 

Swatched - OPI The Colour of Minnie

Hi all!

Today is just a swatch post of a polish I picked up recently (by recently, I mean in the last 2-3 months haha.. so slow at getting round to trying polishes!)

The barrow in the Metro Centre is one of my favourite places to shop - they recently acquired some of last years OPI collections - I picked up two polishes both from the Minnie collection 2012 - The Colour of Minnie, and I'm All Ears for only £3.99 each. Definitely money well spent!

I don't own many OPI polishes, but what I can say is both have fantastic formula (and should, for their suggested retail price here!). I'm only showing you the one today so I'll just talk about that one. I used two coats here over a base of Rimmel Stronger. The formula like I said is fantastic - its one of those polishes you just cant fail to get even - its beautifully smooth and has an almost jellylike texture. It dries glossy and has a faint pinky silver shimmer that is more noticeable in the bottle than on the nail.

This is probably close to perfect in shade for me. I do tend to go more for orange leaning reds for my skin tone, but I really love this pinky toned one and surprisingly I think it looks quite good! So did Chester obviously, as he decided to try photobombing me for attention, so I took a proper picture and he was happy :)

What do you think? Do you have this shade? Love it / don't love it? 

Rachael xxx

Sunday Swatch Spam - Sinful Colors Haul

If you saw my post a week or so back, you'll know I came across some Sinful Colors in the Pound Shop. You don't really see them here, so for £1 I definitely thought they were worth a try.

So i picked up 5 different shades in total. 4 in one trip then I found another odd one in a seperate trip.



The five colours I found were 841 - Daddy's Girl, 288 - Tapping Nails, 836 - Serena and Chloe, 833 - Show Me The Way and 948 - Last Chance.

Now I'm not usually a purple fan. I am a big fan of oranges, browns and greens - which in my eyes are autumn colours (but I'll wear them any time!). So I left the purple until last to swatch.

So i tested Show Me The Way first. This one is a light, almost neon bright green which reminds me massively of peas - its just that shade. It is rather sheer and has fine silver micro glitter. Application was very messy - it was so thin and runny - i had to take it off and reapply much thinner a couple of times as it ran down the brush and all over my fingers. In the photos are two coats - i would've done three but it was so faffy i had had enough!

Second i tested was Tapping Nails. This is my favourite definitely. A burnt orange creme with a silver shimmer - the application was much nicer - still quite thin and drying time was aaaages, but nowhere near as gloopy as Show Me The Way, but i still managed to make a mess, It stained quite a lot as well - i had to full on assault my fingers and they still have an orange tint to them. Here is 2 coats.

I decided not to fully swatch Serena and Chloe - i love the colour - it reminds me pf Lucozade :) so i decided to compare it with Tapping Nails. On my index finger, i have Tapping Nails alone. On my ring and little finger I have Serena and Chloe alone. In the middle, i have 2 coats of Tapping Nails and one coat of S&C which is my favourite combination. i found with all three of the glittery Sinfuls that the formula had a lot of shrinkage - it just kept pulling away from the edges no matter how much I reapplied - you can see it really clearly in the comparison swatch on my ring and little finger.

Last (before the purple) I swatched Last Chance. This is an almost matte dark forest green. I have 2 coats on - i thought i wouldve needed more as the first was terribly uneven and patchy but it evened up surprisingly well. In the photos it looks almost black - i really like it - a definite 'power' work colour for me. However removal was awful! I had nail envy underneath thank goodness so no nail staining but my fingers look like my dad was the Incredible Hulk. If you like Big Bang Theory, you know where Sheldon has the hands? I did show my OH my hands and make that comment... 'Hulk Smash!' And of course 'Hulk Sad!' that i now have ridiculously green stained fingertips!

(Just had to include it!)

Last, i swatched the Purple - Daddys Girl. I bought this because of the name, as i am not a purple fan at all - it doesnt suit me all that well i dont think. This wa really sheer and patchy - in the photos are 3 coats and im still not happy with them. The shrinkage was back again with this shade too, so straight away i felt like I'd already worn them for a day, rather than a matter of minutes! Not for me this shade, not at all. Into my collection it goes ready for when I need a glittery top coat or a tiny dab for some nail art! Also, you can see in the group photo, it wasn't as full as the other bottles? Good thing I'm not a fan really or I'd be disappointed!

Have you ever bought polish just because it was cheap? Or bought it just for the name? What do you think of Sinful Colors / these Sinful Colors?