Revlon - Girly

This particular nail polish has been sat in my stash for a couple of months now, to the point that I actually forget I even had it. But I reached for it this morning when deciding what to put on my nails! I'm drawn to a bit of sparkle and glitter and this polish is no exception. It's a light lilac, slightly pink nail polish which has small pieces of glitter and slightly bigger hexagonal pieces of glitter, suspended within the polish. The colours of the glitter really work well with the polish shade - there's bits of purple, pink, lilac and blue glitter in there.

I applied one coat of a clear gloss to my nails before applying a single coat of Girly. I would say that the nail polish colour itself was quite sheer which was slightly dissapointing, although I think with more coats the lilac/pink shade should be a bit more prominent. I think it may also work better with a purple or pink nail varnish base. I was really impressed with the glitter pay off with just one coat. This nail polish is packed with it but at just the right amount. In some cases I had to place it a little, but I found that just brushing over the nail a couple more times evened out the glitter, and gave me the finish I was after. I found I managed to get quite an equal amount of glitter with each of my nails, without much effort at all. A couple more coats would easily pack the nails full of glitter.

I found the finish looked really glossy, although the base coat I applied definitely helped. I think its a gorgeous polish and looks really sweet and girly once on the nails. I really do love the mix of colours on the glitter pieces and how they compliment one another! 

So what do you think? Have you tried Revlon's - Girly yet?

Sparkle - Glitter Nail Polishes

It goes without saying that I love a bit of glitter. So it may come as no surprise that I received a little handful of gorgeous glitter nail polishes for Christmas. Yes they're an absolute pain when it comes to removing the stuff but that doesn't put me off in the slightest!

Leighton Denny - Best Seller. This is a gorgeous deep red shade which contains specks of shimmer.

Leighton Denny - Angel Dust. A clear polish packed with lots of tiny specks of silver shimmer. I love the name of this polish I think it's very sweet and fits well with this shade.

Deborah Lippmann - Ruby Red Slippers. A black base shade filled with tiny pieces of red glitter and bigger hexagonal pieces of red glitter.

I also received the Essie - Winter 2012 Collection (Minis) which includes the shades; Leading Lady, Snap Happy and Beyond Crazy. I will probably do a separate post on this lovely little Essie set. 

I'm yet to properly apply these shades to my nails but I have had a little play with them and swatched each shade on a nail for you all to see! I think these are all beautiful shades and a lovely quality. I already own two other Lippmann polishes (Stairway To Heaven and Glitter In The Air) and despite the high price tag I think there are some really gorgeous shades available that, in my opinion, are difficult to compete with. 
I don't feel that the below image captures how beautiful these shades are in real life. I found it quite tricky to get a picture that is true to how these shades look on the nails. Best Seller and Angel Dust have a lot more shimmer and the black base of the Lippmann polish looks slightly darker in real life.

{L-R- Ruby Red Slippers, Best Seller and Angel Dust}          

The Denny polishes are my first ever owned products from the brand and although I can't comment on how well these polishes last on the nails I can say that these two shades are lovely, the packaging looks sleek and professional and one coat of Best Seller gave a full opaque look. Angel Dust is very subtle and pretty on it's own adding a very light hint of glitter and a clear gloss to the nails, as the specks are so tiny it's not too heavy and catches your eye as you move your hand around. I tried a layer of one coat over a darker shade and loved the effect it added. It added a very subtle glitter topcoat which on close inspection makes me think of tiny stars sparkling. I adore this polish... it's simple yet effective. The Lippmann polish required three coats to achieve a more opaque finish. One coat left the black base looking very light so more than one coat is definitely needed in my opinion. 

Considering I already own a handful of polishes containing some sort of glitter I love how these three polishes add something different and unique to my little collection. 

Barry M - Rose Quartz Glitter

Another nail polish post today... I know, I know I'm a little obsessed but this polish has quickly become one of my all time favourite's and I'm excited to share it with you all. I couldn't resist grabbing this little Barry M polish as it's absolutely beautiful. Rose Quartz Glitter is one of Barry M's newer polishes and is filled with tiny bits of silver glitter and slightly bigger pieces of pink hexagonal glitter within a clear polish base... and oh how it catches the light! This polish seriously sparkles, it's really stunning how all the tiny pieces of glitter catch the light and kick back other colours - it's seriously gorgeous.

There is the perfect ratio of glitter to clear polish with Rose Quartz Glitter - there is a lot of glitter within this so you don't have to fight to spread glitter evenly on the nail so it's very easy to apply and create different looks. With one coat you get a nice scatter of glitter across the nail but this is easy to build and within three coats you have a fairly opaque glittery nail.

I applied this over my ring fingers on top of Essie's - Not Just A Pretty Face and I absolutely love the combination, they both work very well together. 

{Nails: Essie's Not Just A Pretty Face. Ring Finger: Barry M's Rose Quartz Glitter 2 coats}

I honestly can't say enough good things about Rose Quartz Glitter, it was super easy to apply, dried quickly, is easy to build upon and looks stunning. I always feel like my pictures don't quite give these polish swatches enough justice (I blame poor lighting and my Iphone). Barry M polishes are £2.99 a bottle and can be purchased in Boots and Superdrug stores, so if you're a glitter fan I strongly recommend this little bargain!

Deborah Lippmann - Glitter In The Air

A few months ago now I posted about a Deborah Lippmann polish which I picked up as a little treat to myself (Stairway To Heavenm- HERE - to view). I mentioned in that post that I picked up a couple of Lippmann polishes, the other being Glitter In The Air! I struggled on which to pick from these two polishes so ended up with them both. They both stood out to me as they look beautiful in the bottle and both involve a bit of glitter! 

Glitter In The Air resembles a milky blue pastel shade, and like Stairway To Heaven, this polish contains bits of glitter. These pieces of glitter are in the colours pink and blue and range in sizes. The Lippmann site describes Glitter In The Air as a sheer "sky blue confetti" polish.

                                                                                                                                     

This polish applies nicely onto the nails so it's easy to achieve a lovely finish as the consistency of the polish is just right. It isn't runny or overly thick and I found the polish also dried fairly quickly which is always a bonus. The colour itself differs slightly from what you can see in the bottle. This polish is quite sheer so you don't quite get the blue shade that you see above, which is slightly disappointing. However with two coats you get a subtle milky pastel blue finish. Some people may not like the sheerness but I actually like the overall finish. I think it gives the nails a beautiful subtle shade and really compliments the bits of glitter. It's quite a unique, whimsical finish and is right up my street. This polish would look lovely layered over other shades, so achieving a bluer finish can be easy by just grabbing a blue polish and layering this over the top.

Similar to Stairway to Heaven there are also some very small pieces of iridescent glitter floating around, which I love as you can't spot them till you move your hand around. As this polish isn't the 'packed with glitter type' I'd definitely recommend two coats as with the first coat there are times where hardly any glitter is distributed onto the nail. Once the second coat has been applied you can achieve a nicer finish and have a more even cover of glitter. If you're looking for an opaque shade this isn't the polish for you. Although the shade wasn't quite as blue as I'd hoped I still really love the finish. In terms of longevity I've found that with two coats I had no chips or wear and tear for the best part of a week - quite impressive.

{One Coat}

{Two coats}

As you can see from the above swatches the finish is quite glossy particularly when in the light. I've included a swatch below away from direct sunlight - shows a more true to life finish I think.

At £16 a bottle these polishes aren't cheap, I justified picking a few polishes up as they were a bit of a treat and a brand that I'd always wanted to try. I hate falling in love with a shade and struggling to find similar more affordable versions so sometimes picking up the pricier ones are the only way. I have heard that Revlon's Whimsical is a great dupe for this polish but this isn't readily available in the UK - well not that I know of anyway. Although I would love to try it!

Overall I'm pleased with my purchases, Lippmann's polishes are definitely great quality and it always feels a treat when using them. There are a handful of really beautiful unique shades that are just too hard to ignore! I would also love to try Lets Go Crazy, Mermaids Dream and Ray Of Light (all glitter related shades- I really am obsessed). Lippmann does glitter like I've never seen before. 

Are you a Lippmann fan? Have you tried any Lippmann polishes?

Deborah Lippmann - Stairway To Heaven

Back in May, when I finally finished my University course, I decided to treat myself to a couple of Deborah Lippmann nail polishes. I often admire Lippmann's polishes when I spot them as I think there are some absolutely stunning shades. Not to mention the variety of glitter polishes that are also available (do I need to mention that I absolutely love glitter!?). 

One of the polishes that I picked up, if you hadn't already guessed from the title, was Stairway to Heaven. 

I'd describe this shade as an off white cream with various pieces of glitter in it. The Lippmann site describes this shade as "iridescent icicle glitter' which I think is quite a nice, fitting description. 

{Love the bottle shape! I think the name Stairway to Heaven really suits this shade}

The polish itself is quite thick and easy to apply giving a lovely glossy finish. Although the shade in the bottle looks like an off white cream, when on the nails this shade is a lot more subtle, almost clear looking. The colour once on the nails is a 'your nails but better' shade. It's very natural looking and I think compliments the glitter.  

The first coat gives a nice sparse layer of polish and glitter, however two coats gives a more even and fuller finish in terms of glitter distribution. There is plenty of glitter in this polish which is great, however the first coat at times doesn't always give an even glitter distribution on the nails. Although I found it easy enough to even the glitter out onto the nail without messing up the application via the brush. 

I absolutely love the pieces of glitter in this polish. There are a few hexagon shaped pieces and a few smaller square pieces. I love that the pieces are iridescent, in different lights the colour of the glitter almost changes. So when moving your fingers around you can catch bits of baby blue, light green, purple and pink coming from the glitter - huge fan of this. 

{Two coats. Ring finger is Stairway to Heaven painted over Ciate's Bon Bon}

Like many other glitter polishes Stairway to Heaven can look lovely on its own or layered over a bright or subtle shade. Unfortunately the above picture doesn't really give the finish justice, as it didn't quite capture all of the pieces of glitter that was actually on my nails - due to the iridescent pieces of glitter and me not having the best camera! However I did find some amazing swatches on Temptalia's blog, click HERE to check them out!

Overall I'm pretty impressed with this nail polish. I have tried and own a variety of different types of glitter nail polishes and don't feel that I own one that matches this - dupe/quality wise. Although the price tag seems pretty ridiculous I have to admit for a glitter junkie like me I will definitely be getting my moneys worth out of it. One of the reasons why I chose this shade was that I hadn't really spotted anything else quite like it. 

Deborah Lippmann's polishes can be purchased online or in House of Fraser. Polishes retail at around £16. Lippmann collection site; HERE

Have you tried any of Lippmann's polishes? I would love to hear what you think of them.

Pink Sparkles

I had to write a post on this gorgeous nail polish that I recently picked up in Boots last week. The nail polish is Revlon's 'Sparkling' and I absolutely love it. I'm drawn to glitter and sparkles and so this really did catch my eye. Sparkling is a clear nail varnish which contains small pieces of pink glitter. Most of the glitter are small pieces, but you also get the odd little pink hexagon pieces of glitter in there too. I just think it looks so pretty in the bottle. 

On Monday night I painted my nails with two coats of Rimmel's 'White Orchid'. This shade is somewhere between a very light pink and white. On top of this I painted one coat of Revlon's 'Sparkling' just to add a bit of colour and glitter. It is now Friday afternoon and both have stayed on my nails extremely well. Okay I have a few chips on one or two nails, but that's it. I don't think that's bad going. I love this combination. 

 I personally love having a nice neutral or bright colour on my nails with a bit of glitter on top, it makes a bit of a change every now and then. Are you a glitter fan? and do you have any favourite nail combinations?