Nails Inspire Frosty Morning thermal polish

Today I have the 3rd and final thermal polish that I bought from Nails Inspire. I couldn't resist trying this one and I love it. This is Frosty Morning, and again very different to Satin Kiss and Fairy Lights.
This one is textured, and it's name is absolutely perfect, it really does look like a frosty morning, when the grass is crunchy and there are layers of white sparkly frost everywhere.
When warm it is white with a tinge of blue, and when cold it is a beautiful shade of sky blue with a hint of lilac,  and the mix with silvery glitter is extremely pretty. This is 2 coats with no top coat, it just looks and feels fantastic! I love that rough but not scratchy texture.
I didn't manage to catch any gradient shots except for the one of my thumb, but as you can see, I did take quite a few pics. The colour change on this one seems quite instant rather than gradually changing from tip down, although I think you can see it a bit on some of the warm shots.

Nails Inspire Frosty Morning - cold

 

 

Frosty Morning - warm

 

 

Captured a bit of the gradient here

Nails Inspire Satin Kiss thermal polish

I rarely use polishes from the same supplier consecutively, normally I feel I ought to alternate a bit but really I couldn't resist trying another thermal from Kim at Nails Inspire.
This is very different to Fairy Lights, Satin Kiss is a shimmery polish which changes from a dark russet red to a light coral red shade. I must admit to preferring the darker shade but again it's great fun watching it change and I have had some real challenges getting pictures. It's so cold at the moment that as soon as I go outside to get a picture, it darkens, from the tips upwards. It's a great Autumn into Winter polish, and there is a very pretty red shimmer that runs throughout, regardless of the temperature.
So, I have lots of pictures starting from cold, through to warm at the end with a few shots in the middle where I've managed to catch it changing and got some quite cool (or warm) gradients :)

Satin Kiss - cold

Satin Kiss - warm

 

Nails Inspire Fairy Lights thermal polish

This is a tricky blog post because I have really struggled to capture the excitement of this polish! I had heard of thermal polishes, seen swatches and of course seen a few videos of hands under hot and cold taps - Well, I had to do the same but when to comes to static pictures its very hard to capture what happens with these fantastic creations!
In case you don't know, thermal polishes contain magic!! well, maybe not quite, they contain some sort of pigment which changes colour with temperature and I got my first ever thermal this week from Nails Inspire.
Nails Inspire is a UK Indie run by lovely Kim, and Fairy Lights is one of her Christmas collection. They are available from her Etsy shop here, although currently out of stock. I believe a restock is due after 21st November so worth following her facebook page here if you want to catch one of these lovelies for yourself!
Fairy Lights is a mix of bright blue squares, and then hexes of varying sizes, in blue, green, purple, pink and silver, and some tiny green squares, in a base which changes from white when hot to deep magenta pink when cold. Most of the time for me they were at one extreme or the other, watching my son play football Saturday morning, very dark pink! back home later on as I thawed out next to the radiator, pure white!! They change very quickly as the temperature changes and I even noticed the tips going pink as I went outside to take a photo earlier and caught a chilly breeze! Great fun to watch under the tap, but so tricky to capture! The tips also changed when I had cold hands but emptied the dishwasher, or warm hands but went digging in the freezer for something.
You really just have to get one of these polishes and try for yourself, but this one is so pretty, the glitter is lovely and I adore the deep pink. I have had this on for 3 days now and am still watching excitedly to see it change colour.

Fairy Lights - cold

Fairy Lights - hot

Fairy Lights - hot but just catching the breeze with my fingertips

 

 

 

A  few shots just as they were warming up

  

    

Iconic Effect City Lights

Today I am wearing yet another lovely polish from Iconic Effect. City Lights is a mix of black and white hexes of varying sizes, black and white bar glitter and some gorgeous micro glitter which is purple, but then catches the light and you realise it is actually holographic and the range of colours is just stunning.
I have had this for a while and swatched it over a number of colours, obviously since it is black and white it needs a mid way sort of colour to show it off to its best. It looks lovely over some of my greens (I do like green with purple), and it looks great over purples too but I had in my mind I wanted it over grey. Well, Leighton Denny Zero Gravity was too light and Graycious too dark, hence the mission to find a mid grey.
Nails Inc Gilston Road is absolutely perfect, not too dark, not too light and with its hint of lilac, it is a fabulous base for City Lights. The contrast is just right and the holographic microglitter sparkle beautifully although the camera has only picked up that they are purple.
This is one coat of City Lights over Gilston Road and although I find it hard to see the black glitters against the black brush, I think I got a reasonable distribution of black & white.
Lots of pics! that always happens when I love a mani so much I can't bring myself to delete the pictures!

Iconic Effect City Lights

 

 

 

 

Nails Inc Gilston Road

Nails Inc Gilston Road is a beautiful mid grey creme, with just a hint of lilac in it. I think it is similar to Nails Inc Thames but just a touch cooler. I don't have Thames, I swapped it a while back when I thought I had too many greys. I must have a bit over zealous and I recently discovered I had a huge gap between Leighton Denny Zero Gravity and Leighton Denny Graycious. Luckily for me, Gilston Road came out in a recent Nails Inc auto delivery and a lovely lady on one of the nail pages didn't want it! Hooray for me, I literally pounced on it and I love it. It really is the perfect mid grey, it went on beautifully as Nails Incs almost always do, perfect coverage with two coats, super glossy, and no chips after 3 days of wear.

Nails Inc Gilston Road

  

 

Cabled Boot Toppers

I have just finished a small knitting project which I had planned to do in the spring but got waylaid by other things. Anyway these are perfect for Autumn, going into winter.
It seemed to me last winter there was a bit of a revival of the old leg warmer, and then a variation on the theme came the boot topper so having knitted umpteen pairs of gloves, I thought I'd give these a try.
There are a lot of lovely patterns out there but the pattern I chose is a pretty simple one. As usual I found it on Ravelry. The pattern I chose was Wavy Cable Boot Toppers by Robin Nickerson, but I did do a bit of adapting.
The pattern called for waves, but I went for the twisted rope like form of cable so I did back cables each time rather then alternating back and forwards. I used Stylecraft Life Chunky in Olive (100g ball) and 5mm needles. 100g wasn't enough, but that was all I had so I did the hidden part in some old Aran wool I had stashed away, 200g would have been plenty.
They were quick and easy to do and I think there are two ways to wear them, folded down as they were designed to be worn or more like a leg warmer. This works with my short boots as it gives the illusion of a longer boot, great if you are wearing a short skirt.
The pictures aren't great, not that easy to photograph your own feet!

Boot Topper folded down

Boot Topper alternative, tucked into boot

Boot Topper with left overs used for the hidden part.

Avon Fuchsia Force

Today I have a nice little bargain to show you. When magnetic nail polish first came out a couple of years ago I wasn't that interested, and certainly not at £11 a bottle that Nails Inc were charging, but I've seen the products demo'd a few times on QVC and the idea has grown on me.
When Avon brought out a range, at the introductory price of only £3 a bottle I decided what did I have to lose? especially as you can send them back if you don't like them! The magnets come separately on little wands, at 99p each so I splashed out and bought 3 magnets and 3 polishes. There are 4 magnet designs and 8 polishes to choose from, so it's a pretty good range and I have to say I am very impressed with the 3 I got.
I think this one is a little bit special. Avon Colour Attract magnetic nail polish, in Fuchsia Force has extra sparkle in the form of tiny micro glitters, invisible to the camera of course but I can see them! The other 2 colours I got, Spellbound Green and Blue Attraction are just shimmery, but they worked well when I swatched them. I am not sure if there is sparkle in any of the other shades.
Fuchsia Force is a lovely raspberry red/pink and once magnetised it makes me think of raspberry ripple, I love the intensity of the colour in the ripple and the sparkle is very pretty!
They were relatively easy to apply, if I had practiced I may have done a better job, on one finger I think I didn't hold the magnet long enough so the pattern is less distinct and my nails are quite curved so the ripple effect doesn't quite go from side to side but not bad for a first attempt. I am pretty surprised at how much I have enjoyed wearing this, the pinky red is a lovely shade, and the sparkle is an unexpected extra that I really like.

Avon Fuchsia Force

Flash pic to capture the sparkle