Swatch: Accessorize Mermaid

This was the first of the Accessorize polishes I got when they brought their line out. They really are one of the  best UK ranges; they produce some beautiful shades and have been keeping up with all of the big trends such as caviar and metallics.

This is a beautiful turqouise glass fleck polish, which pulls ever so slightly more blue in real life than I was able to capture. The formula is great; it covers in two coats and is great for stamping, but it sadly loses points for removal - bit of a stainer, and you'll definitely need to use the foil method to avoid this one winding you up.

Nail art: Stripes and roses

For this nail art I used Essie Lapis of Luxury. I freehanded the stripes and polka dots using a striper brush and dotting tools, before adding the roses, also with dotting tools, and their leaves with a small nail art brush.

These roses are so simple but so cute and I got a load of compliments on this NOTD. The method I use is to put a blob of red and white together on my nails and use a dotting tool to swirl them together. Lots of bloggers have done tutorials for roses so it's worth having a look around if you want to try this technique!

Swatch: Bourjois Gris Nightomic

Recently when I was on the hunt for a new base coat in Superdrug there was a three for two on make-up. (Side note, what's with nail polish always being put in the category 'make-up'...?) This was the third that I got free. I picked it up totally on a whim but I'm so glad I did because this colour is gorgeous.

I absolutely love the brushes on these new design Bourjois polishes and the colour and formula was absolutely fantastic - with careful application you could easily get away with wearing this as a thick one-coater.

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...