2 True Crystal Nail Polish : Shade 2 Vampish Red

Let me introduce you to a rare gem in my collection: 2True Crystal Nail Polish in Shade 2, 'Vampish Red'.

Do you remember when I reviewed 2True's gorgeous limited edition turquoise and purple Crystal polishes, HERE and HERE? Both times, I was blown away; they had awesome formulas, applied beautifully, dried smooth and sparkly, and looked and wore like they cost one heck of a lot more than the £1.99 (3 for £5) I paid for them. Vampish Red, an almost metallic looking, vivid cherry red (it looks a little more pink toned in real life than in these pictures) is every bit as great as they were; it went on a treat, dried nicely, and with only two layers plus one of top coat, it's survived two days of housework, showers, bleaching my hair without gloves on and washing the dog, and there isn't even any tipwear yet.

I absolutely love this polish and I currently have it on both my fingers AND my toes. It looks great with my sandals (not that I can wear them outside the house since it's peeing down with rain and so cold I've had to turn the heating back on, but still). It has this lovely inner glow, too - I love when a polish does that, don't you? Although this range was supposed to be limited edition, the last time I was in Superdrug they still had all four shades. I'd definitely recommend you snap this one up pronto while it's still around!

Nail Art : Jubilee Nails

Happy Jubilee weekend, everyone!

Just in case you're not from the UK and you have no idea what I'm wittering on about, this weekend marked the official celebration of our Queen's 60th year Diamond Jubilee. Most of us had a four day weekend (today is the Diamond Jubilee bank holiday, the last of the 4 days of celebration) and the entire country turned into a sea of Union Jack bunting and tea parties on the village green. Yesterday I went to a Jubilee Fair in the town closest to us; we saw jousting, archery, stunt bikes, scrambled through laser gun mazes and danced the samba around the field. There was live music, food, arts and crafts, quad bikes, bungee jumping, fairground rides and all manner of celebration.

I felt rather festive so I decided to try my hand at a Jubilee manicure - here is the result!

Sorry it's not the best picture - I snapped it quickly on my phone camera before we dashed out of the door. I used Rimmel My Denim for the blue, Rimmel white french tip for the white, Nails Inc Victoria for the red, Barry M Red Glitter for the red sparkle and Mavala Silver Glitter for the silver. Oh, and some little crystals from the nail art box :)

I know it's not the neatest nail art ever, but I was really pressed for time and I'm happy with how it turned out considering it only took about half an hour!

What did you do for the jubilee? Did you have fun?

Nails Inc : Victoria & Albert

My new lighting is here! I was so excited to try it out that I didn't stop to paint my nails first, I just took pictures of whatever I was wearing at the time: Nails Inc, in Victoria & Albert. Please excuse the sheet marks, I didn't think I'd be photographing this manicure when I painted my nails, but the pictures turned out so nicely I just wanted to put them up anyway.

Victoria & Albert is a classic warm red jelly. It's a little sheer (jellies generally are, so this isn't a big deal) but it's opaque in two to three coats depending on how picky you are about visible nail line. (In these pictures, you see three coats over Nail Envy and a layer of Orly Sec 'N' Dry topcoat. Once dry, (and drying time is average on this polish - not unbearably slow, but slow enough I still got sheet marks after an hour of not touching anything), you're left with the kind of bright red that you'd expect to see on a 50s Hollywood movie star, most likely teamed with matching red lips and a slick of perfect black eyeliner. It's very glamorous!

I haven't been that impressed with the formula of the other Nails Inc polishes I've tried in the past, since they cost about £11 a bottle depending on where you buy them from, yet don't seem to wear very well on me. This one is actually the best I've tried so far: I still had significant tipwear within a few hours, but not as bad as the other ones I've tried. Interestingly, although tipwear appeared quickly, it stabilised and didn't seem to get much worse on the second day than they had been on the first. Oh, and it's been two days now and there are no chips anywhere.

Application was a little bit of a pain. Since it's a jelly, it's a bit runny. This would be less of a problem if it was teamed with a nice wide brush, but Nails Inc polishes come with a skinny one that tends to hold an excessive amount of polish compared to the small area of nail it covers. It's not very easy to get a nice even cuticle line without flooding your cuticle completely - and since cuticle cleanup with this kind of red usually stains your cuticles pink, I'd rather it just applied nicely in the first place, thanks.

Things I like about this polish:
It's a gorgeous colour with bags of Marilyn Monroe type Hollywood Glamour appeal. My husband actually proclaimed it a 'nice colour' without being asked for his opinion - considering he couldn't care less about nail polish 99% of the time, this is actually high praise indeed.
It matches my hair colour pretty closely (which is why I was wearing it in the first place).
If you're prepared to spend time on the application, and faff around cleaning up afterwards, it can look pretty great.

Things I don't like about this polish:
Tipwear : too much, too soon.
Application: too runny, and the brush is too narrow. It reminds me of a cheapy drugstore polish brush from when I was about 14 and they hadn't invented decent brushes yet.
Price: if I'm going to spend £11 on a polish, I want a better formula than this. I can spend £2 on Collection 2000 and get something that goes on easier and lasts longer.
Would I wear it again?
Yes, but only until I find something else that's the same colour but lasts longer and isn't such a pain to apply.

SpaRitual : Spirit Child

Hello lovelies! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, whatever you call this time of year!

Today I'd like to share with you an especially beautiful polish that I wore as my Christmas day manicure - SpaRitual 'Spirit Child', from the Wilde collection released in autumn this year. These are also hopefully the last pictures I will be posting that have been taken with my old camera - I FINALLY HAVE MY NEW SHINY CAMERA!!! Please excuse me while I happy dance all around the room ^.^

Anyway, Spirit child is a berry red shimmer that looks pretty in the bottle, but until now I'd not gotten around to trying it because it didn't 'grab' me like some other colours. Most of the swatches online didn't excite me that much, either. Now I've tried it, I realise it's STUNNING - but quite hard to take accurate photographs of. On the nail, it's a deep, rich, jewel toned, festive red that just... glows. It's extremely beautiful to look at (I got SO many compliments on this one). The shimmer isn't very obvious on the nail but in the bottle it's definitely there. In bright light it takes on a more berry tone, also pretty. When you photograph it, the berry tone seems to take over and it's all you can see. The bottle shot is about the most accurate of these three pictures, just imagine it slightly less berry toned :)

Application is pretty good - here you see three coats, but it was opaque in two. The reason for three coats here? I chipped it (my fault, not the polish) by smashing my finger against a cutlery rack less than an hour after it dried, and was pressed for time, so just repaired the chip and added a third coat everywhere to make it even! You can see the chip on my ring finger. Drying time was actually quite decent - Sparitual polishes can be rather slow to dry, but this one was significantly faster. I added a quick dry topcoat after the 3rd coat, but the 2nd one dried without assistance in a quite reasonable time. Wear was average to good - it was pretty worn and chipped at the end of the second day, but then again it had survived cooking an enormous dinner for 8 people and unwrapping lots of presents.. including the reluctant packaging of lots of kids' toys. (Why do they make it so hard to get those things out of the box?)

Avon Nailwear Pro : Ruby Slippers

Introducing Ruby Slippers, from Avon. Not to be confused with the China Glaze polish of the same name, this little gem is a lovely, cheerful, bright red polish with silver glitter and it's one of my go-to red shades, especially for toes. In some lights it's a knock your eye out scarlet, in others it takes on more of a cherry tone, and in all lights it makes me smile!

The silver glitter is quite prominent in the bottle, but on the nail it disappears into the red jelly finish and looks more like a red shimmer. This isn't a bad thing though, as it's still very pretty! (Please excuse the strange red patches on my fingers; I had a slight accident with some hair dye...)

Since it's a jelly it's a little sheer - pictured are two coats (with one of topcoat) and it's more or less opaque, though there is still a little VNL - this would most likely disappear if you added a third coat. Application is really easy - the brush is just a standard style, no frills one, and the square bottle lid makes it a little awkward to hold, but the polish itself applies beautifully, dries reasonably fast, and doesn't try to run into your cuticles.
Wear is okay - it chipped on the second day but that was after several hours of rearranging the spare room and general housework. 

Avon polishes used to be rather hit and miss, but they've definitely improved in recent times - and since they're so often on half price special offer, you can usually pick them up for as little as £3. No wonder I have  so many!