Nail Lacquer UK Sticks and Stones Red

Well, this just had to happen. Emily had Sticks and Stones Blue on her nails earlier in the week so I just had to try the red one. This is Nail Lacquer UK Sticks and Stones Red, and it is an absolute stunner. Maybe I like it even more than the blue one, tough decision!!
I really do like these graffiti style polishes, with lots of different bits. I own quite a few but as I was painting this on I was thinking how I think I like these two by Nail Lacquer UK more than the Nails Inc and China Glaze ones I already have, I think maybe because they seem cleaner somehow, more precise, perhaps it's because they are more matte? not sure, love them anyway!
This one is a mix of black and white sticks, and black, white, red and pink hexes and squares. The red is not a vibrant pillar box red, more a raspberry or strawberry red. I gave quite a bit of thought to the base I would use for this, not too dark or too light - the pink pieces are quite subtle and I didn't want to lose them. I was pretty certain I'd go with green, but thought it would be good to try some pinky reds too - so the last 2 pics are my pre-mani swatches.
I chose China Glaze Exotic Encounters because I liked the contrast, as well as wanting to try that polish anyway but actually I think all 4 greens look good. The glitter distribution was excellent, just one coat and it has dried nice and smoothly, with just one coat of top coat. I love the mix of colours in this, the silvery pink with the pinky red are just perfect.

Nail Lacquer UK Sticks and Stones Red

  

  

pre mani swatches - Nails Inc Bloomsbury Way, Leighton Denny Whatever,
 Nails Inc Power Pink, Nails Inc Victoria

pre mani swatches - Nails Inc Holland Park Gardens, OPI Thanks a Windmillion,
Nails Inc Haymarket, China Glaze Exotic Encounters

China Glaze Exotic Encounters

Well, here I am again, loving my latest polish! I hope no-one ever holds me to a favourite, it would be hard to choose, but this one falls very happily into the "quite dark, a bit dusky, and very easy to wear" category. China Glaze Exotic Encounters is a medium dark teal creme, slightly dusky in tone and more green than blue.
I don't have many CG, the majority are glitters, a few are shimmery and I think this is my only creme. Although I have a lot of blues and greens, I don't have anything quite like this, which is great, I can't bear dupes! but I do love this, its got that slight greyness to it that seems to appeal to me.
The first coat was a bit streaky but coverage was perfect with the second coat. Pics are taken with no top coat.

China Glaze Exotic Encounters

 

Cadillacquer Once More, With Feeling

In contrast to the bright nails that I blogged yesterday, this is what I was wearing. Something altogether more subtle, but still very beautiful. Cadillacquer Once More, With Feeling is a gorgeous shimmery blue, with a hint of pink in certain lights and a mix of different sized square glitters in pink and white. It's very delicate and quite sheer so I layered it over my favourite LD colour of the year (maybe of all time!) Leighton Denny Between Blue, as the blue tone is a pretty perfect match for Once More, With Feeling.
As you can see from the pics the pink shimmer is more apparent in the sunshine. I am really in love this this one! It's the 2nd Cadillaquer I have tried and I am not dissappointed. The glitter distribution is good - I used 2 coats here but I think one would have done.
I love these sort of shades that are just slightly dusky, rather than bright. I find them very wearable and if I didn't have so many to try, I'd be keeping this on for ages especially as blue is my most favourite colour for nails!

Cadillacquer Once More, With Feeling

 

 

Nail Lacquer UK Sticks and Stones Blue

I don't blog Emily's nails very often but she has kept them really nice this summer, and she loves this mani - her most favourite nails ever apparently.
She has Nails Inc Atomic on, probably for the 7th or 8th time. I was asked last week what was my most used varnish, I answered probably LD Little Thief or NI Porchester Square, but actually my most used by someone in the house other than me, 100% certain its Atomic!
She caught sight of Nail Lacquer UK Sticks and Stones Blue sat on the shelf waiting to be used and insisted that was what she wanted and it looks absolutely wonderful over Atomic. It's a great contrast and really shows this gorgeous glitter off. It has black and white sticks, black and white hexes, black squares, blue squares, small black, white and blue hexes, lovely little lilac/silver hexes and some lilac squares too, I think that’s everything!!
I will almost certainly be blogging this again, on my own nails and equally certain it won't be against orange! but I will be thinking of a good contrast for it, because I would want to lose any of it's lovely colours and shapes.

Nail Lacquer UK Sticks and Stones Blue

 

 

Nail Lacquer UK Grape Juice

I think I am now a convert to those polishes with large sequins and discs! I wasn't sure at first but this is the 4th one I've tried and I love it! This is Nail Lacquer UK's Grape Juice, it is the most juicy and gorgeous looking polish! I was actually going to put OPI Alcatraz Rocks on today, but spotted this on the shelf and thought, no - I want to wear this!. (Alcatraz is on my toes by the way and I LOVE it!!)

Grape Juice is a beautiful purple jelly base with large magenta discs and other smaller sequins.

I have layered it over 2 coats of Leighton Denny Rebel as it seemed a good match for the jelly base and as I did this mani I couldn't help thinking about Ribena!! Nail Lacquer UK really has captured the essence of juicy purple fruits in this polish.

Distribution of the larger discs was actually pretty easy, but maybe I could have done with a few more of the smaller sequins. I was going to fish for some more but the PVA base coat did not seem to work well with a rather streaky Rebel, so I decided to leave well alone and I am really happy with this mani.

Nail Lacquer UK Grape Juice

  

  

 

Pocket Money Polishes Wishing on a Star

 Another beautiful glitter from Charlie at Pocket Money Polishes! I ordered Wishing on a Star, when I ordered some of the Summer Fun Collection, this was not part of the collection, a lovely unique little glitter in a category all of its own! If it is similar to anything I think My Girl is the closest, in that it is all delicate pastel shades. This is a mix of matte stars and hexes in purple, pink, silver with tiny micro glitter. This is such a pretty mix that although I knew it would look lovely with virtually any pastel shade, grey, green, pink, lilac or blue, I decided it was so pretty I would contrast it with something much more neutral. I did consider a more nude shade, but decides I'd like to see the contrast against something darker so I chose Nails Inc Goodge Place and I think this makes the perfect base for these

pretty glitters.
The glitter distribution was great and finding a star for each finger was not a problem, a little bit of positioning with my cocktail stick and I was done.
Photographing it was a bit of a challenge, not quite sure why but it was a bit shy! and it was one of those days when invisible stray bits of glitter from a previous mani tried to hog the limelight, cuticles looked drier and more ragged, straight lines looked wobbly, but hopefully I have found enough pics to give you a flavour of how pretty this is and let you see why you NEED this! I particularly like the shot with the Denby coffee mug!

Pocket Money Polishes Wishing on a Star

Pocket Money Polishes Wishing on a Star with my Denby coffee mug

 

 

 

 

Nails Inc Goodge Place

A lovely elegant beauty for you today, this is another of my comfort polishes. Instant love, no waiting for it to grow on me, just paint it on and love it! This is Nails Inc Goodge Place, very similar to Leighton Denny Attention (another of my favourites) and a bit lighter than Nails Inc Fouberts Place (a real fave). Goodge Place is a gorgeous khaki green/grey creme, listed in my spreadsheet as green, but if there was a second column for overall classification, then it's a nude/neutral! If I did that I think 45% of my collection (the non glitter ones) would be in that category, 45% in dark, and less than 10% in bright.
This painted on nicely in two coats, and pics are taken here without a top coat.

Nails Inc Goodge Place

Iconic Effect Ocean Sparkle

Oooh I have had a real challenge with this one! and it feels entirely unfair because it is a beautiful polish and it deserved better but the nail varnish demons have been conspiring to make this a really troublesome manicure.
Iconic Effect Ocean Sparkle is a lovely green base that has a subtle shimmer and a mix of hexes and tiny glitters in various shades of teal and blue.
So, I had a unnamed Colorclub in a tealy green, that I thought would make a good base for this - no, it was streaky, watery and it is now in the bin! Then I used Nails Inc Haymarket and of course that went on beautifully, but this was not the right base, it's too blue and I realise that now. I should have used a more green base, maybe my Avon Peppermint. I think in my mind Ocean Sparkle was more blue, so when I painted it on it seemed wrong, then the top coat was all gloopy, added some Seche Restore, still gloopy so that's gone in the bin too. Finally I took some pics, and of course being green blue, the camera has failed dismally to pic up anything like what's on my nails!
Anyway, enough of my woeful whingeing about what went wrong, here are pics of a very pretty polish. Its greener than I thought it would be, not sure why as it's very clearly green when I look at the bottle, but even the camera thinks it's more bluey! Only one picture accurately captures what I can see.
Some of these pics are one coat of Ocean Sparkle, some are two coats - not sure there is a massive difference, obviously a few more glitters, but pretty either way. It painted on nicely, and dried well.

Iconic Effect Ocean Sparkle (looking green - like it does on my nails)

Iconic Effect Ocean Sparkle (looking more blue)

Nail Lacquer UK Choose the One

About a week ago, I was browsing facebook and spotted a post from Nail Lacquer about her latest collection of polishes called Hate or Love. It made me smile, it is so true, with these big circle glitters, people do seem to love them or hate them. In fact I looked and thought, no - bit too big for me! and I commented that they looked lovely but probably not for me but she had a cunning plan, they were available in minis, for people like me who weren't quite sure!

Well, they arrived this morning and I decided to try Choose The One. I was in the mood for a dark polish and I thought this would go beautifully with OPI Ski Teal We Drop

Choose The One is a mix of magenta pink discs, teal hexes of all sizes and huge teal discs, set in a pale teal jelly base. I absolutely love the contrast between the pink and light teal glitters and the dark teal of the OPI.

I used one coat here over the OPI, and the glitter distribution was good except NO huge discs! However, firstly, it still looked beautiful, the pink and teal are stunning glitters and I could happily have worn it as it was, but secondly, fishing for the glitters was actually quite easy and I found once I'd got them, placing them was easier when the other glitter was already in place. I caught some on the brush, but I also went probing with a cocktail stick to catch a few more and I used my stick to position them "randomly". I am really happy with the finished look and I love the way the glitters catch the light and the large discs change  from blue to green.

Nail Lacquer UK Choose the One