Rimmel Lycra Pro: 385 Hot List

Today's polish is the very lovely Hot List, from Rimmel's Lycra Pro range. I'm sure you're all completely sick of hearing me bang on ad nauseum about Lycra Pro and how great they all are; awesome brush shape, great formula, long lasting and almost no chips, great pigmentation, blah blah etc etc. So I'll spare you the waffle and just say that this polish is no exception to the Lycra Pro rule; it goes on like a dream, dries quickly, looks great and lasts AGES.

This one is especially exciting, however, because it's an almost exact dupe for the hugely popular (and hugely expensive) Chanel Paradoxal. I don't have Paradoxal to make the comparison myself, but there's any number of swatches out there and they're very close; the shimmer is slightly different but considering Paradoxal is currently retailing for £20-£30 on ebay and Hot List costs less than £5, plus Paradoxal is notoriously chip-prone (Hot List has so far been on my nails - two coats over one of Nail Envy plus one of top coat - for 5 whole days without any chips OR tip wear), it's more than close enough for me.

Hot List is a bit of a chameleon polish; technically it's a greyed-out dusky mauve but in some lights it looks much closer to dark beige or taupe, like this:

But there's more! There's a gorgeous purple shimmer running through Hot List which I'd call a 'hidden' shimmer; it only comes out when the light hits it, like this:

  

Isn't it gorgeous? It's such a sophisticated, classy, grown-up colour, infinitely work safe, but not in the least bit boring.

Check out this shot of the bottle's base that really shows the purple shimmer. It's nowhere near this pronounced on the nail but it's so pretty!

You might have noticed that I shortened my nails again and am trying out a new, more squared shape; I'm not convinced it suits me (plus it feels so weird compared to my normal oval/pointy comfort zone!). What do you think looks best on me?

Rimmel Lycra Pro : Night Flight

Can you believe we're already 11 days into the new year? It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating, now I'm back at work and it already feels like I never had a break at all. Boo, Hiss!

(excuse the cuticles - they don't like cold weather, no matter how much I coddle them with cuticle creams and such)

In an effort to cheer myself up after that 'back to work' feeling, I decided it was time for a dark, vampy manicure as it's been a while since the last time and dark nails always seem particularly appropriate when it's dark and wintery outside! Out came my bottle of Rimmel Lycra Pro in Night Flight.

Night Flight is a dark, dark, blackened aubergine creme. In most lights it looks black, but with a purple undertone that is more obvious in real life than in these photographs... it can't quite decide if it wants to be aubergine or indigo; in the bottle it looks more 'blurple' than on the nail, where the blue inky tinge is less obvious and it becomes more of an aubergine. I tried with two different cameras to capture the purple glow that this polish has, and the only shots that came close were these ones here.

A big pro for this polish is that, since it's a Lycra Pro, it has the lovely wide curved brush that Rimmel uses for its Pro range. It also comes with a good, pigmented, reasonably fast drying formula that goes on evenly and is opaque in two coats. The finish is glossy (so much so that in most of these pictures, it looks like there are marks in the polish, but it's actually reflections of other things in the room!).

Wear was really good, although since it's a dark polish the tipwear etc is much more obvious than it would be with something lighter. I used two coats and no topoat, and did a lot of typing as well as some hardcore manual work dismantling a machine at work, and after three days I had some tipwear and only the vaguest hint of a chip on my index finger (one of those that you only really notice in a close up photograph but in real life it's not obvious).

Overall rating for this polish would have to be an 8 out of 10. It goes on beautifully, dries well, lasts a decent amount of time and it's a gorgeous colour. The only con is the slightly increased tipwear compared to other Lycra Pro's (it won't meet the 10 day lasting period claimed by this range) but this is a common problem with dark colours anyway so not that surprising.

Rimmel I Love Lasting Finish : Double Espresso

Just a short post today; I had a severe allergic reaction to something (not sure what yet) earlier this week that lasted several days and I haven't felt up to epic blog posts (or indeed painting my nails in the first place).

However, my naked nails have been taunting me and today I caved in and did this quickie manicure: Rimmel I Love Lasting Finish in Double Espresso.

This is a rich chocolate brown micro-shimmer; smooth and glossy when dry. The brown is shot through with very fine gold metallic particles which are most visible in the bottle (colour shown lighter than real life to highlight the gold sheen more clearly):

They also show up fairly well in pictures of the polish once applied (please excuse the messy cuticles - it's actually coloured hair spray from DS's 'messy hair day' at school, which washes easily out of hair but stains cuticles so completely it even laughs in the face of acetone!):

Frustratingly, however, in 'real life' the shimmer is very hard to see without squinting at it from less than an inch away. This doesn't really matter though; it's a rich, dark velvety brown which is pretty with or without the shimmer. 

Pictured are two coats over a single base coat, no top coat. Application is good, like most Rimmel polishes; the brush is the traditional shape and holds just enough polish for one coat without smearing, applying unevenly or blobbing everywhere. The polish flows nicely and drying time isn't bad; a few minutes for the first coat, maybe ten for the second (and I did pretty thick coats as I was in a hurry at the time and didn't waste too much time scraping the brush after each dunk!).

Wear: I Love Lasting Finish is formulated to resist colour fade and chipping. After one day of wear without topcoat, I had no chips, and only a little tip wear on two nails (and I did a lot of typing today so that's not bad). 

Avon Nailwear Pro: Green with Envy

Morning all!

Today's mani is Avon Nailwear Pro in Green with Envy. Here we have two coats of basecoat and two coats of polish.

I have quite a few Avon polishes and they tend to vary in quality/longevity (the older ones I own are terrible for chipping but they seem to have improved their formula recently and the newer ones are much improved) -  this is one of the newer, and better ones I own. It's a very, very dark green creme (and quite hard to photograph without it just looking black -hence the strange lighting in these pictures, which was the only way I could seem to get the green to show). There isn't any shimmer or glitter, just a plain rich green which dries very glossy (all these pictures are without topcoat) and is opaque in two coats although you could get away with just one thick one if you preferred.

Green with Envy comes in the same standard 12ml square bottle as most Avon polishes. It goes on quite smoothly, although it's a little runny for my tastes - which makes it harder to do an even, thin coat without it blobbing all over the place. Because of this, both coats I applied were quite thick and took a long time to dry. I waited 45 minutes after the 2nd coat before going to bed - and woke up with not-too-bad-but-definitely-there sheet marks on the hand I did last :(

Two days after dong this mani I was still chip-free and the polish looked great, with only slight tip wear despite the lack of top coat. (Pictures were taken at the two day mark - you might be able to see the wear if you look closely). I think I'll get at least another two days out of it before the wear is too much to put up with.

Interestingly, Avon in the US uses different names for some of their polish colours- Green With Envy is the UK name, I'm not sure what it's called across the pond. But it's the only dark green they have so it shouldn't be too hard to spot!