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.

Swatch: Chanel Blue Satin

Just before Christmas, I went to Brighton armed with my Boots points all ready to get Chanel Malice but sadly it seems the rest of Sussex got there first! Unfortunately the nice lady at the Chanel desk thought it was a good idea to get her tester out and show me how gorgeous it was anyway. Thanks pal...

Anyhow, on to the polish. Blue Satin is a deep dark blue, which in the bottle has a beautiful electric blue shimmer. This barely translates to the nail at all even in real life... Really disappointing but it is still a beautiful colour and just as I am writing this, I have realised that this would make an excellent base for Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe!

I've included this slightly blurry picture as it's the only one I got that showed the beautiful lighter blue visible in the bottle. 

Like with the few other Chanels I have, the application of this was lovely and overall I'm pleased with the polish. I also got a lovely Chanel shopping bag with this which I'm now keeping my small collection in! Now I will just have to make sure I get my hands on Malice eventually to add to it...

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.

Accessorize 4D Nails in Stardom

So one day while I was browsing Instagram I spotted a picture of Accessorize's answer to the caviar/'fish egg' trend, so of course I rushed out and picked some up.

The display in Superdrug where I got these had already been plundered by the time I got down there so only these two 'shades' were left! They were on 3 for 2 so I picked up 'Idol' and two lots of 'Stardom', one of which I gave to my sis.

The instructions on the back of the packaging.

Here's the finished look. After all the kerfuffle when Ciate released their Caviar set I was a bit put off this trend (at that point theirs was the only 'set' available) but I received one of their sets from an old friend for my birthday and ended up adoring it. I love different textures in nail art and this definitely ticks that box!

At only £5 per set (against Ciate's £18) this is definitely the budget-friendly option, as well as being much more easily available to pick up from the high street. However the Ciate set was a better all-rounder in my opinion: firstly, the tray provided to catch the beads is much bigger - and I still manage to get a few beads outside the tray even using that one! The second benefit to the Ciate set is the useful little funnel you get. The bottles above for the Accessorize set have been designed with a funnel 'built in' to the bottle, so you can use it to dispense the beads with accuracy and to get any leftover beads back in the bottle. However, the funnel is way too small so the beads have a tendency to get stuck in the neck. In the end I settled for removing the funnel part altogether and this made application much easier. I then used the Ciate funnel to get the leftover beads back in the bottle!

As much as I love this look, sadly the beads had still pretty much all fallen off within a couple of hours and I am still searching for a way to get them to stay on longer... Watch this space!

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!

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.

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...