Showing posts with label GlitterVault. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GlitterVault. Show all posts

Saturday, 20 August 2011

2 True Glossywear : Shade 14

First off, apologies for not having posted a mani for a while; I've been dealing with some RL issues that have kept me from blogging. I'm back though, and this time it's a dip into the GlitterVault again with 2 True Glossywear.


This uninventively named colour (don't you hate when things are just given a number? It's so uninspiring) has lurked at the bottom of my stash for a while now, though it's still available all new and shiny in the shops. 
(Apologies for the lack of cleanup - I originally didn't intend to blog this mani so pics are taken at my desk at work, later that day when I changed my mind about blogging it but had no cleanup kit at hand)


It's not that exciting looking in the bottle and it's depressingly sheer to apply (shown are three coats plus base and top, there are still some 'bald' patches though they're hard to see if you're not looking for them). It also dries slowly; hence the dent in my middle finger when, after half an hour, I gingerly tried to take my glasses out of my bag. And that's with a layer of quick drying topcoat, too.


Sounds terrible, doesn't it? But despite this rather negative write up, I actually really like this polish. It dries to a pretty decent, shiny, brushstroke-free metallic finish and is a good, bright, eyecatching blue that got me a surprising amount of compliments throughout the day. It also wears well, no chips and only a tiny bit of tip wear after almost a week, although it does tend to scratch a little bit owing to the metallic finish. It's not perfect, and if I come across another brand with a similar finish and colour that applies easier, I'll probably take the new one over this. But for now, I like this and will wear it again).

I also noticed something a little strange. My nails tasted kind of metallic whilst wearing this polish... not that I was sucking on them (!) but whenever I ate with my fingers or touched my mouth I noticed a faint metallic tang. It kind of reminded me of the smell of cheap, old fashioned tinsel. Now I'm wondering if this is common to all metallics and I just never noticed before, or if this is a unique phenomenon!

(Can you just picture me now, licking my nails every time I use a metallic from now on? If I disappear, I probably poisoned myself).


Wednesday, 8 June 2011

Laval Crystal Finish: Silver Glitter

So… Hai. These are my nails!



As you can see, they're not square like most bloggers (square doesn't suit me), but they are sparkly! That's because they're wearing my first ever blog mani: Laval Crystal Finish, in Silver Glitter.




There's a special reason for starting with this mani: it's the first nail polish I ever tried! (No, really. The same bottle and everything. Talk about a blast from my past!). 


Laval are still around today, and have probably changed their packaging and formula and just about everything else about a million times since I was given this particular bottle almost seventeen years ago. It's nothing special (not surprising considering its age), just small round particles of silver glitter in a clear base, but back then I thought it was the bomb. Glitter? On your nails? I was hooked instantly.


Originally, it was easy to apply, but now is so thick and gloopy, that it bears almost no resemblance to the original polish - you have to kind of 'splodge' it on rather than brush it, and it takes over half an hour for just one coat to dry. Pictured here are two coats, with basecoat but no topcoat (it really needed at least one or two more layers of glitter, but I was losing the will to live by then - second coat took almost two hours to dry!). But it's sparkly (more so in real life than in this picture), reminds me of being a teenager again, and it still makes me smile. It even got me three compliments on my 'pretty nails' today! Interestingly though, despite the mammoth drying time, this ancient relic has amazing staying power. Three days on and it hasn't even thought about chipping!


(Seeing as this is my first post, I should also probably apologise for how lame my camera is. It’s actually a phone camera, and not a very good one at that. Sadly, I can’t afford a new one right now, so I'm making do with this one until my birthday... in the meantime, hopefully you can at least get an idea of colour/texture etc from these shots, even if they don't look like they fell straight out of a glossy magazine!)