Tuesday 27 September 2011

SpaRitual: Sacred Ground

Hey, lovelies... so I still don't have my new camera,, but I've managed to borrow one so that I can get back to blogging, hurrah! Sorry for the long wait!

I thought I'd celebrate by posting a mani I've been waiting to do for a long time now: Sacred Ground, from the Wilde collection at SpaRitual.

SpaRitual is a brand I have a lot of love for (and a lot of bottles of their polish, too). They're an eco-friendly brand who produce wonderful vegan friendly polishes; all their products are free from synthetic dyes as well as DBP and formaldehyde. They're a 'professional' brand, much bigger in the US than they are here - which means you usually only find their products in salons and spas, although you can buy them online in the UK from SpaRitual UK (very pleasant and helpful people, not at all put off by rabid nail bloggers ringing up to order polish 5 minutes before the end of office hours!).

Normally, SpaRitual have their strength in muted, natural colors and subtle shimmers and glitters (although they have their share of brighter blues and such like, you won't find any eye watering neons or garish glitter you can see from space). But when I saw the press release for their Autumn 2011 collection 'Wilde', my heart skipped a beat. 6 lovely bottles of vivid jewel tones, subtle yet gorgeous glitter and Autumn fruitfulness that made me wish it was already time to be standing by a bonfire, watching fireworks with a hot chocolate in hand (gorgeous nails on display, of course).

Of course, I had to buy all six - and here is the first, Sacred Ground.



Sacred Ground starts off with a charcoal grey/gunmetal coloured base that would be pretty on its own, but then they added lots of fine gold and blue/purple glitter and the whole thing became stunning. It's not garish, the glitter is quite subtle, but get it into sunshine or bright light and you'll be spending a lot of time staring at your nails! My camera didn't like capturing the glitter, so here's a very close up picture of the bottle, blurred, to show it more clearly.


Application is wonderful, considering it's a glitter it still goes on beautifully and dries well, I had no chipping after three days and only a little tip wear (the pictures here are after one day and a lot of typing, basecoat and two coats of polish, plus NO topcoat). The brush is fairly standard shaped but works well, I didn't have to do any clean up at all. It dries pretty smooth, not gritty at all. Removal isn't bad either, it takes a little more effort than a creme but I didn't have to resort to the dreaded tinfoil-and-cotton wool nightmare that glitter can demand.

A closeup of Sacred Ground on the nail. It's much prettier in person (curse you, substandard camera!). You can see some of the blue glitter and how it shines purple in some lights - the gold is the more dominant glitter but the blue definitely holds its own.

Isn't it pretty? I'll definitely be wearing this one again :)

Saturday 17 September 2011


Liebster Blog Award & Top 10 Award

I was tagged just recently by Polish'd Cindy from Nail'd and Polish'd for the Liebster Blog Award & the Top 10 Cosmetics List Award.  Cindy's blog is just wonderful, she takes gorgeous swatches and I wish my nails looked as good as hers! (Plus she has a great name, thanks fellow Cindy!)



1. Would you rather lose all of your mascaras, eyeliners, lipsticks and lipglosses or lose all of your palettes and eyeshadows? Definitely eyeshadows. I don't use shadow very often as I have hooded eyelids and most 'looks' don't work too well on me. I'm trying to learn to cut a crease but for now, my lids mostly stay bare. On the other hand, I never leave the house without at least mascara and preferably eyeliner and I'm pretty sure I'm actually addicted to lipstick ;p
2. Would you rather chop off all your hair or never be able to cut it again? Chop it off! I did that just recently having had it super long for years and it looks SO much better now. I love long hair but on me it just goes stringy and doesn't look good :/
3. Would you rather have a coral cheek or a pink cheek? I guess coral but really, I'm scared of blusher and almost never use it.
4. If you had $1000 to spend, would you rather buy clothes or makeup? Clothes
5. Would you rather apply lipstick as eyeliner or eyeliner as lipstick? Eyeliner as lipstick. Done right, and blended well, black liner with red lipstick can look amazing as part of a gothic look ;)
6. Would you rather only shop at MAC or Sephora? MAC (though I've never really tried Sephora, don't think we have them here)
7. Would you rather use only one eyeshadow color or one lip color the rest of your life? One eyeshadow.
8. Would you rather wear winter clothes in the summer or summer clothes in the winter? I'm cold blooded - I'd rather be roasting hot than not warm enough. So winter clothes in summer.
9. Would you rather have dark nails or bright nails all year round? I used to only wear dark colours so they are my comfort zone in a way. But I've really got into brights recently, they're so much fun!
10. Would you rather only be able to wear your hair in a pony tail or a messy bun? Pony tail
11. Would you rather never be able to paint your nails again or never use lipgloss? Never use lipgloss
12. Would you rather shave your eyebrows and have none at all? Shave them. That way they will grow back if you change your mind.
13. Would you rather live without makeup or nail polish? Nail polish. It's fun but my face sans makeup scares small children!

Here are the blogs I'm tagging for this award, all are under 300 followers (since this award is for newer/smaller blogs) but they're all lovely little gems and deserve many more - go check them out and give them your support! ^^
Tag:



 "Top 10 Cosmetics" List

**Rules of the Top 10 Award**
1. Thank the person who tagged you and link to their blog.
2. Put the Top 10 Award logo on your blog.
3. List your Top 10 cosmetics.
4. Choose 10 bloggers to tag, link to their blogs, and let them know.

My Top 10
1. Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer
2. 17 Falsifeye Mascara
3. Every single lipstick in the MUA collection!
4. MAC Rebel lipstick
5. Reb'l Fleur Perfume
6. CND Nail Polish 'Wildfire'
7. Essie Nail Polish 'Bordeaux'
8. Essie Nail Polish 'Jazz'
9. Black eyeliner (any kind)
10. Coconut Oil

In addition to the blogs above, I tag:
and anyone else who would like to do this!  Thanks again for the tag Cindy!

Wednesday 14 September 2011

I may never swatch again...

...according to the phone/camera delivery company, anyway. They literally send me a DAILY message now, which, summarised, reads 'we know we said you'd get your delivery today, but actually we mean tomorrow, ahaha.'

I've given up waiting (tomorrow never comes!) and have arranged to borrow a camera so that I can get back to blogging again.

I'm hoping to get something up by tomorrow night. Thanks for waiting so patiently :)

In the meantime, I've occupied my time by cataloguing all my nail polishes. I spend far too long deciding which colour to use next, so I'm going to let Random.org decide for me. It's like taking a magical mystery adventure :D

Saturday 10 September 2011

Camera woes

...and I spoke too soon when I said I'd have a new camera by the 9th. Delivery has been delayed until the 12th due to 'technical problems' (which I suspect means they forgot to process the order in time to make the 9th, or am I just too cynical?).

Thanks for being patient, glitterphiles! Hope you haven't all got bored and wandered off. To make up for the break, I have some great swatches planned, including an entire collection I've been excitedly waiting to get for months now!

Watch this space :)

Saturday 3 September 2011

I'm still here!

Just in case you were wondering 'why no manis recently? Is this blog still alive?', I thought I'd better do an update post. I'm still here, but my camera died. -cries-

I'll be getting a new one hopefully on the 9th September, so normal service will resume in about a week's time. Sorry to keep you waiting!