A England Dancing With Nureyev

When I first saw the A England Ballerina Collection, I knew that Dancing With Nureyev was the one I really wanted, so when Adina had her last sale, I leapt in and got it, along with Her Rose Adagio. I had dithered for a while in case it was too pale, and some swatches looked like the blue was quite subtle but actually its a lot bluer than I expected and I absolutely love it.
It is an interesting shade as in some lights I'd say it's a soft cornflower blue, in others it's quite steely. In the sunlight the holo is just gorgeous, stronger than my pictures have picked up and is pretty visible to the naked eye in most lights. I do find the holo has the effect of softening shades and I think that makes them very wearable.
The quality was lovely as ever, almost opaque in 1 coat; I have used 2 coats here and a topcoat. It painted on nicely, dried quickly and lasted well.
At the weekend I met up with some great friends who share my love of nail polish, so obviously it was extra important to have something special on my nails. I think I made a good choice, and luckily the sun shone, my nails looked the best that they could, and we all ate and chatted (mostly about nails) and had a wonderful time.

A England Dancing With Nureyev

 

 

 

 

Nails Inc Sao Paulo Streets

I have a lovely polish for you today, a real bargain too if you were lucky enough to pick them up 3 for 2 at a special reduced price at Tesco. This years Nails Inc InStyle polishes are Sao Paulo Streets, Cocacabana Coral ( a reddish coral) and Sugarloaf Sunset (vibrant pink).
I love my nude polishes and I haven't worn a pale nude for ages so I couldn't wait to try Sao Paulo Streets. It is fantastic; I wore it for 4 days without tiring of it, just a beautiful simple colour. This is one of the palest nudes I have, paler than Colville Mews and a little cooler. Although I'd call the shade cream, it has a pinky grey tinge to it rather than yellow and this may be why I loved it so much.
Perfect coverage in two coats, it lasted well, no chips and looked as good when I took it off as it did 4 days ago.
The coral is set to be a toenail colour for me, and I haven't tried the pink yet, swatches I've seen look good though, so all in all a good set from Instyle this year I think - when else would you get three Nails Incs for £5!!! and I'd happily have paid that just for Sao Paulo Streets.

Nails Inc Sao Paulo Streets

 

 

 

Liquid Sky Lacquer Are you a Good Witch?

Yay! still loving thermal polishes! Today's polish is the very pretty Are You a Good Witch? by Liquid Sky Lacquer.
I was lucky enough to snap this one up on a sale page recently, in fact I bought 3 LSL thermals in the space of about 10 minutes! Well, it was my birthday so I was feeling generous to myself!!
When warm this is a beautiful rose pink, which would not be a normal colour choice for me, but softened by the delicate holo it is just perfect and I love it! When cool, it is a lovely plummy purple shade, and again the holo is an added delight. All stages of transition are pretty too, as the pink darkens through to purple, the various shades go so well together and I was delighted to see that this polish often stayed in a gradient, with lovely dusky purple tips and shimmery pink nails - if I could do a 2 colour gradient, this is how I would want it to be!
This is a lovely quality polish - good coverage in 2 coats, whether warm or cool, which is another plus in my book! I am completely in love with thermal holos - I love how the holo softens the overall effect, and how pretty they are even when not in direct sunlight.
I took a million pictures, then took forever whittling it down to a manageable amount.

Liquid Sky Lacquer Are you a Good Witch?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Freckles Polish French Martini

Today I have a deliciously gorgeous holographic polish for you. Sadly the weather is awful and I've had to resort to indoor photos, which I am not really geared up for except that I do have a flash on my camera- no light-box though, so apologies in advance that although I've managed to capture the holo, the clarity is not there and the colour is rather variable :( The redder pictures are using flash, the bluer ones are under the fluorescent lamp I use for working, as close to a daylight bulb as I could get.
Freckles Polish is another UK Indie. It's been around a little while but a couple of weeks ago Julieann launched the Happy Hour Holos Collection, 6 beautiful polishes named after cocktails. You can buy them from here, and see some more swatches too.
Today's polish is French Martini (I had to go and google what that was: basically vodka, raspberry liquer and pineapple juice - sounds lovely!). It is a rich red purple shade, darker than raspberry to be honest although in very bright light my camera has it looking more red. The quality is fantastic, painted on so well, and virtually opaque in one coat. I did do two coats, but I was amazed at the coverage on the first coat. It dried well, with a nice glossy finish, I have topcoated it and I don't think it has disrupted the holo at all.
I am so pleased I bought this, it is excellent quality and the colour is just perfect, it's dark and vampy and I am very comfortable wearing it. The holo is great, stunning in the rare flashes of sunlight, still visible in most lights but even when its not apparent the colour is so delicious anyway. And I'm delighted to see  that since the weather is so rubbish, the colour is not a bad match for the gloves I made to go with my other red holos!

Freckles Polish French Martini

Freckles Polish French Martini - taken with flash

 

 

 

A couple of outdoor shots

 

 

Avon Gel Finish Mudslide

I don't really know too much about gel effect polishes, except lots of nail polish manufacturers seem to be making gel effect polishes, polishes that you apply like a normal polish but have the finish of a gel manicure, without the curing, and heat lamps.
I have never had a gel manicure so I don't have first hand experience of the differences, but I gather the polish should last much longer and stay glossy.
Avon Mudslide is my first gel effect polish, and whilst I loved the colour and the glossy finish, I am not convinced it lasted any longer than a normal creme polish.
I didn't top coat it as the Avon website implied that base and top coat were unnecessary. I'd already put a base coat on before I thought to check.
The polish applied well, a bit streaky on the first coat but beautifully glossy with complete opacity after two coats. I'd say it stayed glossy for the rest of the day but by the next morning, it was less shiny, and I had one tiny chip, but then that could happen with any polish.
At an introductory price of £3.50, I think the polish was good value, I'd probably top coat it next time but I do love the colour. Mudslide is a creamy chocolatey brown, with maybe a hint of grey so it's not too warm. I loved the colour, and I am glad I chose this for my first try, as it is not a dupe for any other polish I have.
Because of the tiny chip, I did put a glitter topper over this (I'll blog that later) and 2 days later it is still looking good, so while I am not sold on the gel concept, this is still a great polish.

Avon Gel Finish Mudslide

  

 

Liquid Sky Lacquer Iris Illusion

Today I have another lovely thermal polish for you, from Liquid Sky Lacquer. This is Iris Illusion and it changes from blue when warm to purple when cool. The polish also has a scattered holo effect which is very pretty and so sparkly in the sunlight or bright lights. The shades from blue through to purple are all shades you would associate with an iris, and this is very wearable at all stages. The warm shade, blue, is slightly dusky, along the lines of Leighton Denny Between Blue, OPI I have a Herring Problem and OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam - 3 of my favourite pale blue polishes, that have that tiny hint of greyness to them. The cool shade of purple is a beautiful soft mid purple, not too blue, not too red.
This was quite a thin polish and I did use 3 coats for full opacity, but I didn't need undies in the warm phase which was good, the polish remained opaque at all temperatures.
I really enjoyed wearing this, loving all stages of its transition although I didn't get the thermal gradient a lot, except by dipping my fingers in cold water, and the temperature evened out pretty quickly so I didn't capture the strongest effect on camera. One effect I did get quite a bit but failed to capture on camera was the reverse gradient where the tips of my nails had warmed up when I balled my hands into a fist although my hands were cold, but again as soon as I opened my hands up they cooled down really quickly and reverted to purple. 
So, my love of thermal polishes continues... 

Liquid Sky Lacquer Iris Illusion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anna Gorelova by Dance Legend No.11 Mavka

I feel bad about this one. Ever fallen in love with bottle pics and swatches only to find that it just isn't you? The bottle looks so pretty and even the box is cute with the little owl but for some reason I am not sure I like this on me.
The whole Anna Gorelova collection by Dance Legend looks lovely, and they are all available at Rainbow Connection.

Mavka is a rich green jelly with gold hexes in various sizes. It's got a lovely depth to it and the green and gold go beautifully together. It is a delightfully grassy, foresty green.

Because it is a jelly obviously the nail line would be visible, and since I didn't have a suitable green to use as undies, I layered this over Nails Inc Basil Street, which is as close to my natural nail colour as I could get to mask that line. I then did 2 layers of Mavka very carefully as I find with jellies I get a streaky effect if the layers overlap. The glitter distribution was good, and again you can't really dab them around as the jelly then becomes patchy. 

A beautiful polish, probably worth that extra bit of effort to apply it carefully, but sadly not for me, I think mainly because of the all gold glitter. I could layer this over a darker shade, with just one layer and I think I would like the glitter distribution better but then the gorgeous green base would be lost.
That said, I am glad I tried it, otherwise I'd have kept  longing for it and it is a very special polish.

Anna Gorelova by Dance Legend No.11 Mavka

   

  

 

 

how cute is this box?