17 Fast Finish : Fury

It's August already! If you're in the UK you'll already know about the loooong rainy spell we had (OK so it was more like a biblical flood), followed by one measly week of actual summer sunshine. That was last week, and it didn't last - we're already back to rain :( It is in honour of the rain's return that I show you today's polish - Fury, by Boots 17. Mainly because if that one week is all the summer we get, I will be furious!!

Now I'm not going to lie. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with 17 polishes. They have some gorgeous colours, but the formula on every 17 polish I have tried before has kind of sucked - especially with the 'Fast Finish' polishes, which seem to take FOREVER to dry. However, I saw this colour, and I liked it so much I figured it would be worth another try. Armed with quick-drying topcoat, I dived in.

In the bottle, Fury is a rich antique gold with a subtle green duochrome shift. Once on the nail, you mostly lose the duochrome effect, although it retains a sort of green 'hint' to the gold, it's not very easy to see the two colours separately. Depending on the light, it's either the same sort of antique gold you see in the bottle and on this picture here, or else it's more of a coppery bronze colour like in the picture below.

Application wasn't as bad as I expected, although patience was required and I had to do a couple of fingers twice. You need to let each coat dry completely (I used two coats here) before adding the next or you get horrible brush marks and the polish underneath smudges. You also need to apply the polish quite thickly for it to look smooth, which can make it a bit of a pain getting a nice cuticle line. Finally, you'll need a lot of time, or a quick drying topcoat (I used Orly Sec 'N' Dry), because it may say Fast Finish on the bottle but frankly Slow Finish would have been a much better name. It's worth persevering though because the end result is actually a really nice colour and finish which wore surprisingly well. In these pictures I have already been wearing Fury for three days and the tipwear is only just starting to show.

What I liked about Fury:

It's a gorgeous colour, quite unusual - there's a lot of gold/green duochromes out there already but this one is more of a bronze/green.
It wore well - no tipwear until the end of the 3rd day.

What I didn't like about Fury:

It takes forever to dry
It needs very careful application to look good.

Bin it or Keep it?

Keep, because I like the colour so much - but if I found a dupe with a better formula then I would probably ditch this one and keep the dupe instead.

Ebalay Golden Green

Good morning, beauties!
My card reader is finally here (after a two week wait and three increasingly irritated emails to the company I bought it from! It was meant to be next day delivery, what a joke!) and guess what? The polish I put on to review for you all just WON'T play nicely with my camera. No matter what I try, I can't get the colour to look right. Luckily my camera phone seems much more accommodating and the colour looks a lot more accurate, but how frustrating to wait all that time and still not use my proper camera!

Anyway, enough ranting. I have another polish from Ebalay to show you, courtesy of KKCenterHK. Just like all of Ebalay's polishes it doesn't have a proper name, just a number, but KKCenterHK have given it the description 'Golden Green'.

In the bottle (which reminds me of an OPI one) it does indeed have a gold/green colour, with a pinky/purply duochrome shift. I tried it on its own and it is incredibly sheer. After 5 coats I still had a ton of VNL. The colour was sort of pretty, but I didn't like the colour enough to warrant the zillion coats it would need to achieve opacity (and it didn't look good left with the VNL). Undeterred, I layered it over black to see if that made a difference, because many duochromes look better with black underwear. (Again, pictures are taken on a camera phone, so please excuse their slight dodginess)

CHECK OUT THE PRETTY!!

I almost fainted when this gorgeous, emerald, super-sparkly colour appeared. Where was this hiding in that bottle of goldish murk??

It's not just green, either. There's a strong shift to purple in some lights (which even my camera phone struggled to capture, but in real life it's a lot more obvious.

All the pictures in which I managed to catch the purple are blurry. Hopefully you can still appreciate how pretty this polish is despite the blur.

There's almost no trace of the gold colour in the bottle: the green is a definite rich emerald colour. But sooooo pretty. Lots of people complimented me on this manicure.

What I liked about Golden Green:

- Over black, it's a stunning green/purple duochrome, very sparkly and eyecatching

- As well as the OPI like bottle, it has a brush similar to OPI too. Application was pretty easy.

- Drying time was pleasantly fast, even with multiple layers

- Wear was pretty good. I didn't get tipwear until day three and no chips at all.

What I didn't like about Golden Green:

- I don't think the formula is 3-free. It pongs a bit!

- It's so sheer that you have to layer it to avoid VNL. Unless you have very short nails, bottle colour without VNL would only be possible if you layered it over something like a nude or maybe a gold colour.

Overall this is a really gorgeous polish and worth buying for the effect over black alone.

Golden Glow is available HERE from KKCenterHK. It's priced quite reasonably at £4.60 ($7.24),  KKCenterHK also offer a 10% discount until the 31st January 2013 to anybody using the code glitter-mountain at the checkout. (Use of this code does not benefit me in any way)

Disclaimer: this polish was sent to me as a free sample for consideration. My opinions remain my own and are unaffected by this.

Ebalay : Olive Gold Dust

Hey, I'm back! Finally! Sorry I've been quiet for so long, it's been completely mad around here and blogging has been pretty much impossible. But I've missed you all and I'm back at last!

Today I have a special manicure to show you : 'Olive Gold Dust' from Ebalay. You'll have to excuse the number of pictures: it's absolutely gorgeous outside today and when the sun shines, it's a lot easier to take nice pictures of manicures!

This beautiful polish came from KKCenterHK. (Click HERE or the banner below to check out their website). When I saw this pretty olive/gold shade I knew I had to try it right away! KKcenterHK is located in Hong Kong and I'm in the UK: when I've ordered things from Hong Kong in the past it's sometimes taken a long time to get here but this only took about a week to arrive. Not bad for such a long journey.

The colour is really just called 'EBALAY 020' - not such an exciting name :( But the website describes it as Olive Gold Dust and I'd say this is pretty accurate so that's what I'm calling it from now on. In the bottle it's an olive green with dense, fine gold glitter. On the nail it loses some of the green and the gold becomes more dominant, though the green is still definitely there.

The glitter is so fine that I almost thought it might be a holo once I got it into the sunshine; it has that same sort of muted yet grainy appearance in the bottle that you see with polishes like GOSH holographic. Sadly it isn't holo at all, but it is extremely pretty and catches the sunlight beautifully. Because the glitter is fine, it's not too in your face; it's classy as well as sparkly and you could easily wear it to work.

Application looked like it might be a pain when I opened the bottle: the polish is pretty thick and I have to say I expected it to be gloopy and slow drying - but actually, it went on really smoothly and evenly. It's also so pigmented and full of glitter that you could easily use this as a one coat polish! (All pictures here are two coats, over Nail Envy, with Orly Sec'N'Dry topcoat).

Drying time was good, too. I thought I'd be there for ages waiting for the second coat to dry; but it took no longer than any other (thinner) polish. I did use quick drying topcoat, but not until the second coat was already touch dry. The brush was quite thick and soft and reminded me a little of an OPI brush. Mine was a little bent to one side, but it didn't make it any harder to paint my nails.

The bottle is a generous 15ml for £4.30 / $6.92 so you're getting a good amount of polish for quite a cheap price; in the UK this is about the same sort of price you'd pay for a low to mid range polish brand like Rimmel or Maybelline, but you'd probably get 5-10ml for that price so this is pretty good value.  

In the shade, the glitter is much less obvious; it looks more like a suede effect/textured metallic, or perhaps a glitter that's had a matte top coat added. It's still very pretty though.

It kind of looks like a sandy texture here, doesn't it? Like I dipped my nails in gold dust and it stuck, hence the name! Actually when it dries, it's got a slightly sandy feel to it - not gritty, but not completely smooth. This went away when I added the topcoat, though.

Close up bottle shot, to show the fine glitter! It's greener than this in real life, but my camera couldn't cope with showing that plus all the glitter all at the same time.

Overall, I really like this polish. It's a lovely yet slightly unusual colour, applies nicely and so far in 5 days of wear (including doing laundry, typing, washing my hands and general household chores) I haven't had any chips OR tipwear. It still looks like the day I first applied it. I couldn't really find any faults with it, other than I wish it had a proper name instead of a number and the formula could do with being a bit thinner. It also smells quite strong. I was also a bit confused because the bottle says 'Rose Water' on the bottom, as did the other bottle I was sent, yet neither polish is scented in any way. I guess they just have rose water as an ingredient?

EDIT: KKCenterhk have kindly offered any readers of Glitter Mountain a 10% discount on all their products until the 31st of January 2013. Just use the code glitter-mountain at the checkout! (please note, using this code does not benefit me in any way)

This is a PR sample sent to me for review by KKCenterhk. The opinions I have given are my own, honest and unbiased.

Barry M Instant Nail Effects : Gold Foil 320

Good news, I found the battery charger for my camera at last! You no longer have to put up with the dreadful camera phone pictures I've been inflicting on you recently :D

In way of celebration, I decided to paint my nails with Barry M Instant Nail Effects, in Gold Foil 320.

This blingtastic gold foil paint is supposed to look something like a Minx nail wrap, and, well, it doesn't really. It's nowhere near as shiny as a wrap and instead of polished, mirror-like gold, it has an almost-but-not-quite matte, 'brushed metal' kind of finish that I guess you could describe as 'satin metallic'. If nail wraps are the shiny effect of cooking foil, then this polish is the less shiny reverse side. However, it's still utterly gorgeous!

This polish is VERY pigmented; I kid you not when I say it was opaque in one coat; though I actually used two because it made it look smoother and more wrap-like than it appeared at just one coat. As it's such a smooth foil effect, it does unfortunately show up every imperfection in your nails, though it isn't as obvious in real life as it is in these pictures (close up photography and macro can be so brutal!). Regardless, unless your nails are in really good shape, you're going to need a good base coat, preferably a ridge filling one. You're also going to need to apply this stuff with confident, even brush strokes, because like most metallic foils, it's prone to brush marks if you stop to faff around or go back over already wet areas - though again this is less obvious in real life and also improved by adding a second coat. The formula helps make this easier than it could have been, since it's not too runny and not too thick and applies nicely; the brush isn't a bad shape either. Drying time is pretty decent; one coat dries very quickly, two takes a little longer, but nothing arduous.

Close up, with flash. As you can see, when the light hits it, this polish gleams! It might not be full on polished metal Minx effect, but it's very definitely gold, and actually I love the semi-matte effect; it means that most of the time this polish is subtle, not too in your face, and just shines and catches the eye when you move your fingers. I wore this at work and wasn't even the least self conscious about having garish nails. Two days later and there's still no tip wear or chipping anywhere. I'm really impressed!

Oh, and for those of you that are into stamping nail art; I'm told that this polish is very good for stamping!

Avon Nailwear Pro : Violetta Sparkle

Now that the trauma of TMI Thursday has passed, I thought I'd soothe my frayed nerves with glitter.

Enter Violetta Sparkle, from Avon.

Were my nerves soothed by this lovely glittery purple? 

Not in the least. I've spent all day trying to get a good picture of this polish. I've used two different cameras, four different rooms and about a million light sources. Unfortunately the camera that came closest to capturing this colour accurately was my camera phone, so you're going to have to ignore the kinda blurry pictures I'm afraid. But at least the colour's right!

(with flash)

Violetta Sparkle is a Cadbury purple jelly with lots and lots of gold glitter. It goes on quite nicely, no particular problems with application (though the brush is pretty bog standard and I don't especially like the square lid, which makes it less than comfortable to hold, but that's minor really). Like many other jellies it does need three coats to be opaque; I tried to get away with two because the purple was more obvious that way, but it dried patchy and I had to add a third, whereupon the purple became less of a Cadbury/royal purple and turned into a darker, more vampy shade. 

On the nail, it reminds me of a darker version of Orly Oui, or OPI It's My Year. Though in every single one of my shots, it looks darker on the nail than it does in real life. It's so frustrating trying to capture this sort of shade perfectly!

Drying time was okay, not especially fast, but not painfully slow either. It doesn't claim to be quick drying, so that's okay. Wear was a little disappointing, though. It didn't chip after two days, but there was tipwear by the end of the first day. Maybe if I'd wrapped my tips it would have helped, but it still appeared too fast for my liking.

See how it looks in the bottle here? That's how it looks on the nail in real life. The glitter is absolutely gorgeous - just enough to catch the light and twinkle beautifully, but not over the top. In some lights I even caught a green flash amongst the gold, but couldn't see any actual green glitter, so it must be something to do with the way this particular gold reflects at certain angles.

Finally I got an accurate shot of how it looks on the nail! This was picture no. 9364583853652. Or at least, that's what it felt like >.<

Overall, this polish is absolutely stunning. The colour is lovely, the glitter is beautiful. It's definitely one of those polishes that looks better on the nail than you thought it would when it was still in the bottle - I thought it was pretty to start with, but when I painted my nails with it, I kicked myself for not having tried it sooner. The only minus is the tipwear, and I suppose the need to use three coats is less than ideal (but then it's a jelly so I can hardly complain). Considering that Avon often play it safe with rather boring colours, I think they've outdone themselves this time. Let's hope they keep going like this (but also make it a bit longer lasting)!

EDIT: So... I was going to change this mani but first, I filed my nails. I often file them down while wearing a dark polish because it helps you see the shape better and helps protect the nail from being damaged by the file. And after I'd filed them, the polish still looked great (I filed off the tipwear). And since then, no more tipwear has appeared, and it's now 3 days later!! I don't know what the problem was first time round, because now it seems like a really long lasting polish. Go figure!

Beauty UK: Glam Nails - Aztec

OK so I admit it. I'm too addicted to last more than a couple of days without polish ;)

I caved yesterday and tried out a cute polish from Beauty UK. This is a brand I've only just started seeing round here, it's a pretty cheap drugstore type brand that I found hidden out of the way on a tiny, scruffy display in my local Superdrug and almost didn't look at it. On closer inspection, though, they seem to have some really nice stuff! Shame on the store for not putting it in a better spot!

They have some nice looking eye palettes, eye pencils and what not (including eyeliners with big sparkly gems on the packaging - the magpie in me is excited already), but as I am a polish addict first and foremost I decided to test the polishes first. I picked up two of them to try and here is the first: Glam Nails, in Aztec.

Glam Nails is the name for Beauty UK's standard polish collection: it doesn't make any wild claims about lasting forever or drying in milliseconds, but they do have cute, cheap little bottles and come in a pretty decent range of colours from brights to darks and in between. This one is a warm and shiny, metallic yellow gold and it applied nicely enough, nothing special about the formula or the brush but nothing horrible either. It took quite a long time to dry (shown here is three coats though it was opaque in two), but not painfully so, in order with most non-quick-drying polishes really, and didn't streak or bubble.

Once dried, the finish was pretty good: nicely metallic with a good foil sheen, but with minimal brush marks (something which can plague metallics and foils at times). Wear is good so far; after one day and plenty of typing there's minimal tip wear, nothing more. 

Overall I'm very impressed with this dinky cheapie; I'll definitely be trying out some more Beauty UK polishes and probably some of their other make up products too. 

Layering: Revlon Gold Get 'Em over Avon Green With Envy

Morning everyone!

Today I want to show you this accidental layering that I did just to test out the bottle of Revlon: Gold Get 'Em I bought at the weekend. I wondered what the finish was like, so I painted it over one nail of my existing mani for a quick look-see and I liked the effect so much I kept it and did the other 9 the same!

On it's own, Gold Get 'Em is a really sheer, shimmery gold (I'll do a post with it on its lonesome at a later date) but layered over the dark green of Green With Envy, it transforms into a beautiful rich colour that reminds me of aged copper verdigris.

It's bronzey and shiny and antique-metallic and (I'm told) expensive looking; I had quite a few compliments on this manicure :)