Tri-Polish Tuesdays - February round two!

Polishes used: Bella Pierre Pink Cadillac, OPI You Don't Know Jacques and Essence Here's My Number

The Tri-Polish Tuesdays is a weekly challenge that requires the use of three set polish colours throughout one month. With a limited colour palette, you have to get creative. This month is all about pink, grey and brown and since we're allowed to change polishes between weeks, I picked out three new bottles to show off. Last week my nails were about contrasts, this week they are much more subdued.

Tri-Polish Skittlette, and a bottle of Bella Pierre Pink Cadillac

I used Essence Here's My Number as the framing colour on my index and pinky fingers, and painted the middle and ring fingers with OPI You Don't Know Jacques. Then I sponged a glitter gradient on the middle finger with Bella Pierre Pink Cadillac, and used striping tape and layered the rough Essence Here's My Number on top of the brown on my ring finger.

Tri-Polish Skittlette - much sparkle.

The effect is at the same time subdued, and sparkly - almost classy! I really love the contrast of texture between the rough Here's My Number and smooth You Don't Know Jacques. Although, next time I would probably layer the grey over pink for a better visibility of the stripes.

Tri-Polish Skittlette in daylight.

Polishes I used:

• Bella Pierre Pink Cadillac - a mix of pale pink, silver and deeper pink glitters in two sizes, in a clear base. I bought it in a set in TK Max, and didn't use it much - but it turns out to be absolutely perfect for glitter gradients.
• OPI You Don't Know Jacques - gorgeous taupe that I insist counts as brown for this challenge. Two easy coats, excellent application and the perfect background for the pink glitter.
• Essence Here's My Number - a liquid sand type polish, with a gunmetal grey base and a smattering of holographic glitter which sparkles in every colour of the rainbow. Two coats for full coverage (one thick for striping). This polish is pleasantly textured - no sandpaper feel, or snagging here - and very pretty.

Thanks for looking!

An InLinkz Link-up

FingerFood's Theme Weeks - Hearts

Colours I used - Orly LA Sashay, OPI Off With Her Red, China Glaze Ravishing, Dahling and Color Club Poetic Hues

It's the week before Valentine's, so hearts are everywhere. While I'm not really fond of this holiday (call me a Grinch :D), I have recently found myself really enjoying red nail polish - and what better occasion for it than this?



I started with a skittle of the reds, with two nails painted in the lovely Color Club Poetic Hues. But actually getting the hearts onto my nails was a bit of a problem. I don't own any stamps, or stickers or charms that I could just slap on and call it a day. Oh, how I wish I did. I had to bring out my dotting tools, and <gasp> my detail brush, which I had made by clipping off most hair from a small paintbrush I had owned.

Heart skittle, with a dotted multi-red heart and painted tiny hearts. My middle finger has two coats of OPI Off With Her Red, and my pinky has two coats of Orly LA Sashay

As you can see, the tiny painted hearts are not perfect, but it was the fist time I wielded a detail brush, so I'm rewarding myself with some chocolate for that one. I actually had to erase and redo my index finger twice. The dotted heart was much more fun to do.

Heart skittle. The tiny hearts were pained with OPI Off With Her Red.

Overall, this was definitely a fun manicure to plan, and I learned quite a bit while doing it! Especially the fact that Seche Vite will smudge my dots even an hour after they'd been made (my right hand is a mess), and the Color Club Top Coat I've been getting in all those sets is actually good for something.

Polishes I used:

• Color Club Poetic Hues - a lovely pale peach shade, like a peach yoghurt. Opaque in two medium coats, somewhat streaky but easy to manage on the nail. A great base for nail art.
• OPI Off With Her Red - possibly my favourite red. Saturated, warm orange-leaning and opaque in two thin easy coats. It's actually slightly darker than the photos show.
• Orly LA Sashay - a shimmery deep burgundy, toeing the line between classic and vampy. Two suer easy coats.
• China Glaze Ravishing Dahling - a deep wine jelly that I used for dotting, and on my thumb. Opaque in two generous coats, and it would be excellent for layering over shimmer polish.

Thanks for looking!

An InLinkz Link-up

Saturday swatches - Jess glitters

I'm getting into the swatching rhythm - put on a podcasts, grab the polishes I want to show off and start painting! I still need to figure out a way to make sure my cuticles don't suffer throughout the constant acetone assault. Today, I'd like to show off a range of glitters from a brand called Jess. It's available in the UK at Poundland stores - they even have their own rack! As the retail place suggests, they are £1 per 9ml bottle, which is amazing value. The glitter range is pretty impressive - they have the basic gold, silver, holo and a variety of coloured ones.

A few general notes about the polishes as a group: They are all smelly, in the usual cheap nail polish way. They are goopy, but not overly so, and the glitter payoff is really great on each bottle. Sometimes a bit of dabbing is needed, especially if the larger glitters are concerned, but overall the application of these is painless. The brush is a standard round one - nothing bad, but also nothing worth writing home about.

So, let's get the swatches started.

First off, Jess Poppy - a pretty raspberry red microglitter in a clear base, with some lighter pink and holographic glitters mixed in.

Jess Poppy - one coat over Tiger 04, daylight

This polish was very camera-shy, and I couldn't really capture how sparkly it is. Perhaps I should have layered it over a more contrasting polish - I'm sure it would look amazing over black.

Jess Poppy - one coat over Tiger 04

The next polish is Jess Disco Diva. It's a mix of small hex lavender and pale blue glitters, with some large iridescent, holographic and lavender glitters thrown in. It's surprisingly complex, and very much cool toned.

Jess Disco Diva - one coat over NYC Wild With Passion

I layered it over a saturated berry purple, and it looked fab. I think it would also work very well with blue, black and pastel shades. The image below shows just how lovely the holographic sparkle is on this one.

Jess Disco Diva - one coat over NYC Wild With Passion. The sparkle!

Jess Bling is a mix of tiny green, gold and holographic glitters, with some large green hexes thrown in. Three glitter sizes, and a lot of large hexes give it a fair bit of coverage - I guess this one could be fine on it's own with 3 coats.

Jess Bling - one coat over Rimmel Sage Green

I layered it over a muted sage green, and it definitely blinged it up. I love greens, but for some reason I can't really bring myself to love this one, or at least not as a full mani. Weird.

Jess Bling - one coat over Rimmel Sage Green

Now we are getting to my two favourites. Jess Rock Chick is a complex mix of tiny red, black, silver and holographic glitters.I layered it over a pink foil, and it instantly brought it from flirty to edgy.

Jess Rock Chick - one coat over Body Collection Iced Violet

It's awesome - very sparkly, but not overly girly. Rock Chick is an apt name, and I can definitely see myself using it a lot in the future. Just look at the sparkle, and the complexity of this one. I also love how it's made up of really small glitters, and there's no fishing or dabbing needed.

Jess Rock Chick - one coat over Body Collection Iced Violet

Finally, my personal winner. It's Jess Ibiza - a mix of small blue, silver and holographic glitters in a clear base. It shines, it sparkles, and the blue is the most perfect deep blue sky ever.

Jess Ibiza - one coat over Jess Joy

I layered it over an icy blue foil, and it worked marvellously. This one seemed to have the strongest holographic sparkle, and the warm colours of the sparks contrast so well with the blue glitter. Just look at how it shines in normal daylight!

Jess Ibiza - one coat over Jess Joy

Overall, all of these glitters are great. None of the large hexes suffere from taco curving, although it wasn't exactly easy to get an even spread of them. The tiny glitters are excellent, and the addition of holographic sparkle to each polish elevates it from OK to a firm wow in my opinion. Definitely a quid well spent.

Thanks for reading!

FingerFood's Theme Weeks - Brithdays/Celebrations

Supplies used in this post - China Glaze For Audrey, H&M Green Bluish and Andrea Fullerton Nail Jewels.

Another first manicure in a new nail challenge! FingerFood's Theme Weeks is a one-weekly challenge that assigns a certain visual theme or an idea. This week it's birthdays or other celebrations. I was in a bit of a pickle here, since I have no appropriate stamping plates, and my freehand is atrocious. Luckily, my eyes fell on my China Glaze stash, and inspiration struck. You see, about a month ago my best friend was having a unicorn-themed birthday party, and I made her unicorn poop cupcakes, covered in light blue frosting, silver pearls, and edible shimmer. For Audrey happens to closely match the colour on that delicious frosting - then it was simply a case of finding some matching sparkles!
I recently went into H&M, and found some great glitters from both core and seasonal collections, and being who I am, Green Bluish caught my eye immediately. And look at the cutest little bottle it's in! The red blob reflected in the cap is me taking a photo :D

China Glaze For Audrey, with H&M Green Bluish on the ring finger, and one gem on the others.

This is the first time I've ever used nail gems - I got three packs of them in Superdrug on a sale. It looks like Andrea Fullerton is discontinuing at least some of their lines, and I was able to pick these beauties up for 80p per pack. Go and see if they're still there, if you can! I also got gold round studs, and a jewel-toned gem pack. This particular set is iridescent, with a purple and gold flash, but I wasn't really able to capture their sparkle on my camera. Perhaps if it was sunny here...

Birthday/Celebration manicure, with China Glaze For Audrey and H&M Green Bluish

I had no problems with getting the gems onto my nails, since the box came with a tiny rubber ended gem picker. I smothered them with Seche Vite, but I am not holding my breath for how long they will survive on my nails. Still, it's great for celebrations!

Polishes used:

• China Glaze For Audrey - Duck egg crème, opaque in two careful coats. This is the runniest polish I own, and it was a bit of a bother to apply without flooding the cuticles. I would recommend laying the first coat thin, as a thicker second coat seems happy to stay within the borders of the first one.
• H&M Green Bluish - a super pretty glitter in a clear base. It's a mix of sparse large silver hexes and smaller blue and green iridescent hexes in two sizes. I had to fish a bit for the silver hexes, and overall it's not a full coverage glitter. It dries fast, and would probably look amazing over dark colours as well.

Thanks for looking!

Here are some of the other challenge manicures:

Tri-Polish Tuesdays - February round one!

The Tri-Polish Tuesdays is a weekly challenge that requires the use of three set polish colours throughout one month. With a limited colour palette, you have to get creative. This month is all about pink, grey and brown, and a week ago I brought out all my matching swatch sticks to find the best combos. I was that excited.

As I was wearing a fairly pastel manicure over the weekend, I decided to go with darker colours for this week's challenge. And because I am still getting the hang of the whole nail art thing, I went with dotting as my main technique.

Tri-Polish Tuesdays dotticure, with OPI Nein! Nein! Nein!OK, Fine!, Wibo Extreme Nails 178 and Wibo Glamour Nails 2

Polishes I used:

• OPI Nein! Nein! Nein!OK, Fine! - dark grey base, opaque in two coats.
• Wibo Extreme Nails 178 - raspberry pink jelly with glassfleck shimmer for the pink dots
• Wibo Glamour Nails 2 - taupe crème with a golden shimmer for the brown dots

Tri-Polish Tuesdays dotticure

I was trying to get the pink dots form swirls, and I guess I managed on three out of four nails visible. My right hand is sporting a much simpler design. My technique is still wonky - I have a shaky hand, and can't yet control the size and placement of the dots very well. But I'm getting there!

Tri-Polish Tuesdays dotticure, side view.

Thanks for looking!

Tiger and Body Collection swatches

In my first post, I promised this blog would feature some swatches of the budget brands in UK - ones that are notoriously hard to find swatched online. It's time to deliver. I present to you four nail polishes from two cheap brands.


Tiger is a Ikea-wannabe store in St James shopping centre in Edinburgh. They have a lot of small items with Scandinavian sounding names, and they stock some cosmetics as well. I've already given you a tiny sample of a blue nail polish from them in this post, and now it's time for two more. They each cost £1, and all have the most amazing flat brush, not too wide, and very flexible. They also smell really weird - not like the W7 cheap varnish, but like plastic.



Tiger 04 is a gorgeous saturated berry jelly. It's glossy, it's smooth and opaque in two coats. It goes on very easily, helped by a good thickness and the excellent brush. On the flip side, it doesn't want to dry. Ever. When I wore it for a proper mani, it budged after 2 hours  - despite a helping of Seche Vite.

Tiger 04, two coats, no topcoat, in natural daylight.

I love how it looks on my hands - it's a very flattering shade, and it looks deliciously squishy. Too bad it's also literally squishy for way too long.

Tiger 04

Tiger 07 is a dusty salmon nude jelly. It's very glossy, and looks so squishy but it takes three coats to become opaque - or nearly so. It's more goopy than 04, and thus harder to apply. Sadly, it also suffers from the same issues as 04 - it just won't dry. The three coats only exacerbate the problem.

Tiger 07, three coats, no topcoat.

It looks very feminine and flattering on my hands, but I think there is still some VNL there, even if it's not really obvious in person.

Tiger 07

Overall, both colours are gorgeous, and the brush is awesome, but the drying issues mean that you need to have a lot of time to waste to actually be able to use these polishes.

The second set of polishes comes from a brand called Body Collection. I've bought these two for £1 from my local B&M store, and I've never seen them anywhere else. The brush is a typical round one, nothing to write home about, but not problematic either.

Iced Violet is a pink foil with a silver and pink shimmer. It applied well and had a very quick drying time. It's somewhat cooler toned in real life than the pictures show, and very shiny on it's own. It also dries very thin, so a ridge-filling base might come in handy.

Body Collection Iced Violet, two coats, no topcoat.

It's super sparkly in the sun, and while it retains some brush strokes, these are not really visible in real life.

Body Collection Iced Violet, two coats, no topcoat.

Coral is a salmon-pink base with a gorgeous fine golden shimmer throughout. It was also opaque in two coats, and was a bit harder to manoeuvre than Iced Violet. There are some brushstrokes visible, but they are subtle, and invisible in shade.

Body Cosmetics Coral, two coats, no topcoat.

The colour is pleasantly cool and vivid when not facing any light, but the real fireworks start in the sun! The orange-gold shimmer is really beautiful, an changes to cool-ish toned base into a warm peach or coral shade. Make no mistake, this is no 'hidden shimmer' polish - the gold flash is also visible under low light conditions.

Body Cosmetics Coral, two coats, no topcoat.

Overall, the two Body Cosmetics polishes were a good buy - good drying time and an excellent shine. If you have a B&M nearby, go and have a look - I recall seeing some Calvin Klein and W7 bottles there as well!