Ebalay : Purple Gold Dust

Happy Spring, everyone!

I had this plan to do a cute Easter manicure with pastels and stuff, but I haven't had two minutes to rub together and I've only painted my nails once in about a week now. But it's OK because the colour I have to show you today is gorgeous and spring-like anyway, so I still win :-p

Let me introduce you to the second of the two colours sent to me by KKCenterHK: Purple Gold Dust, by Ebalay. (Click HERE or the banner below to check out their website).

(Halogen light)

Like Olive Gold Dust (reviewed here), Purple Gold Dust is actually just given a number (#011) by Ebalay, however on the KKCenterHK website, it's described as Purple Gold Dust, so that's what I'll call it here.

(Halogen light)

Like Olive Gold Dust, Purple Gold Dust has a coloured base (though in this case the olive green has been replaced with a really pretty lavender purple) and it's absolutely jam packed with fine glitter, although this time the glitter is silver instead of gold. In certain lights, if you squint a bit, it kind of looks a bit golden in the bottle, but once it's on the nail, it's 100% silver and that's that.

(Halogen light)

The glitter in this polish is absolutely gorgeous - it's actually a bit more sparkly than the glitter in Olive Gold Dust, but still subtle enough to wear anywhere and any time. Unfortunately I couldn't get any natural sunlight while taking these pictures so you'll have to picture everything a bit more twinkly than it seems here.

(Halogen light)

 The formula is almost exactly the same as Olive Gold Dust : quite thick, possibly a bit thicker in fact, but it goes on smoothly and evenly and dries in a reasonably fast time considering how thick it is. It's pigmented enough/glittery enough that you could get away with one coat, though it looks much better with two.



(Natural light)

Since Olive Gold Dust lasted for such a long time without chipping (5 days before even tipwear!) I decided to put Purple Gold Dust to the test: I skipped topcoat completely (all pictures show two coats over two of Nail Envy) and STILL it refused to die! Without topcoat, I had a little bit of tipwear after 4 days, but quite honestly I still have this stuff on my nails today and 6 days after painting them, there's still no chips at all on my left hand. My right hand has only one coat - I wanted to see how it would wear that way - and although there's chipping, it's about the amount I'd normally expect to see after 3 or 4 days of a two coat manicure of your average polish. This stuff LASTS, people.
 

(Natural light)

From some angles/in some lights, it looks more silvery than purple. It's one of those polishes that changes colour, like a chameleon.

Close up bottle shot. Check out that sparkle!

Overall, I love this polish every bit as much as I did Olive Gold Dust. It applies well, lasts ages, costs little and looks stunning. It also removes easily, despite the glitter. Just like before, the only improvements I'd made would be to reduce the thickness of the formula a little and give it a slightly more interesting name.

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, use of 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 and I was not paid to carry out this review.



 



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?