Chanel Blue Boy Swatch

Here's another Chanel that I got with my Boots points. I have so much trouble picking from their colours, particularly since I always feel like it should be the 'special' (ie. non-duped) ones that I get... does that make sense?!

This beauty is Blue Boy from the 'Les Jeans de Chanel' trio released earlier this year and retails for £18.00. This is dusty perfection!

OPI Just Spotted The Lizard and Bundlemonster BM-212

Chanel Peridot was a long term lemming* of mine despite myself; this is one of those polishes with a colour and finish that I know I wouldn't have liked in my nuggle days but I now find mesmerising. My mum came home with Jessica Iridescent Eye one day (also a dupe) and that only made the lemming worse. So when OPI brought out dupetastic Just Spotted the Lizard of course I snapped it up immediately!

I used BM-212's 'peacock' design with this but on reflection that would work much better with a pinky purple! Anyhow, the OPI is beautiful and has definitively killed my Peridot lemming (leaving me free to get one of my number of other Chanel lems instead!)

*A note on lemming... I HATE this word. But there's really no better way to put it is there? x)

China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and Bundlemonster BM-322 houndstooth

China Glaze really nailed neons this year and Turned Up Turquoise and Pink Voltage were my polishes of the summer. I added black houndstooth on top using BM-322 which was definitely one of my favourite patterns from the new Bundlemonster plates. The stamping was a 'second day' addition so there was topcoat on top of the neon but none over the stamping.

Boots No 7 Cheeky Chops and polka dots

I love polka dots. Looove them. They are and always will be my go-to nail art when I want something cute but simple. This is Boots No 7 Cheeky Chops with China Glaze White on White polka dots. I got my dotting tools from eBay - the same seller doesn't have them listed any more but they're easy to find for a couple of quid. As usual, topped with Seche Vite! 

Ciaté Strawberry Milkshake, OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips and OPI Planks a Lot with zebra Konad stamping

In this NOTD from June I tried out a 3-colour gradient (The Nailasaurus and Kayla Shevonne have both written excellent tutorials on doing gradients). The gradient was a little shaky so of course I covered my shame with a bit of stamping! I used Konad plate M57 and Ciaté Strawberry Milkshake (light pink), OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips (bright pink) and OPI Planks a Lot (purple), all topped off with a coat of Seche Vite. For stamping I'm currently using a gloopy old bottle of Barry M black.

OPI Nicki Minaj - Fly and Metallic 4 Life

For this mani I teamed two polishes from the Nicki Minaj collection, using Fly as a base and Metallic 4 Life as an accent nail on my third finger. When the collection came out I only picked up these two colours, but I now regret not getting Pink Friday as well! I've since got a bottle of Did It On 'Em on clearance at Sallys and a mini bottle of Save Me in a Lena White sale. 

Boots No 7 Minty Fresh - Swatch

I got this polish during one of Boots' fairly regular promotions where you get a '£5 off No 7' voucher pretty much every time you buy anything. Their polishes are usually £7 so they're great to pick up during these promos! Only problem is I usually end up chain buying their polishes for the entire duration of the promo, as every time you buy something they give you another voucher...

This is three coats of Minty Fresh topped with Seche Vite. The application of the No 7 polishes I've tried is pretty good and this range, which was newly released earlier this year, has generally got good coverage from what I've seen - this probably would have been good with 2 coats, even in photos.

OPI Planks a Lot and China Glaze CG In The City

For this NOTD from March I matched pastel Planks a Lot with a glittery accent nail. I absolutely love all of the Pirates of the Caribbean collection, such gorgeous colours! The CG is from a mini set and the coverage is great.

Kiko 253 with Essence stamp

For this NOTD from way back in February I used Kiko 253 - sadly they appear to be one of those companies that don't name their polishes as I can't find one on the bottle anywhere! For the stamping I used an Essence plate. I got the polish and the plate on a trip to Berlin and the Kiko was on sale for a couple of euros.

Comparison post: GOSH Holographic vs. Holographic Hero

I got pretty excited when I spotted this little beauty in the GOSH stand in my local Superdrug - I'd read all the rumours about GOSH rereleasing their Holographic polish but really wasn't expecting to find it any time soon. Obviously I bought it straight away to compare it to my bottle of the precious original... Having spent £20 to get a bottle of the HTF Holographic original off eBay, how would the £5 Holographic Hero compare?

You can see the difference in the bottle immediately. As usual these pics don't do justice to either of the polishes so do bear that in mind... The original Holographic only showed a tiny bit of holo under the brightest light and usually looked silver in the bottle, but with the new Holo Hero you can see some of the holo in the bottle. It's not on an OPI DS level, but definitely there.

Here's a wheel swatch. The polish on the left is Marks & Spencer 'Rainbow' which I just threw in for my own amusement - it's much less holo than either of the GOSH polishes but beautiful nonetheless. As soon as I put the GOSH Holos on the wheel I could see that the original is stronger, and I got a few nuggles to verify that it wasn't any bias on my part. 

I took this pic after two coats (and before clean-up, soz) to show the dragging - Holo Hero dragged a bit less than Holographic I'd say. I didn't use any base or top coat for these swatches. It was difficult to tell if there's any massive differences in the applications of these because of the different ages - the older bottle is much thicker but how thin Holo Hero will be after a few months remains to be seen.

Finally, three coats of both polishes. L-R Holo, Holo Hero, Holo, Holo Hero.

Here's a bit of pic spam - just couldn't stop snapping these.

I was only planning to swatch these but I can't stop staring at them... may have to make this a full mani!

I'm still glad I have the original Holographic for my stash but the fact that there's a holo this great that's available on the high street for a fiver is amazing. I wish my photos did it justice! May well get a few back ups before they all disappear...

NOTDs of the past

Hi there, and welcome to my blog! 

I've loved painting my nails ever since my first bottle of peel-off Tinkerbell nail polish, but it's really taken off since I discovered the fabulous world of nail blogging about a year and a half ago. I love being inspired by other people's designs and seeing the great polishes available in other countries so I figured I'd dive right in!

Like many others before me, my first daily blog addiction was the amazing Erika of Chloe's Nails. So following in her footsteps I'll start off with a round-up of the various NOTDs I've posted on Twitter over the last few months! These are all mobile phone pics, a no-no I know - apologies for the poor quality and I'm working on it, I promise! See if you can spot where I got a phone upgrade ;-)

So for now I'll let the pics do the talking... Thanks for reading x

Black and white polka

Halloween blood drips

Blue flowers

Blue and white polka dots

Some very wobbly Christmas candy stripes!

Chanel Black Pearl

Barry M Croc Effect

OPI DS Original

Fimo cane flower

Fimo flower French

Nfu-Oh Flakie

Pink and white BM stamping

Gold with black crackle

Grey and silver Konad m57

BPS Hello Kitty

Sellotape lightning bolt

17 'Magnetized'

Multicoloured dots

Nails Inc Trafalgar Square - and some very poorly cuticles :(

Smudgy nautical

Barry M Cyan Blue and Pink Crackle

Polka dot skittle

Rimmel Royal Blue crackle

Ruby Pumps and a festive snowflake

Taupe with a hex glitter accent

Barry M Silver Foil Effects

Sponging and Konad m57 zebra stripes

BM stamping

Stars

OPI Warm and Fozzie

Black Pearl and a Christmas tree