Seche Fast Dry One Coat NOTD - Signature

If you are a nail polish enthusiasts, you are bound to know about Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat. If not, please familiarise yourself because it is one of the bestselling top coats on the market. Now it was really only a matter of time until Seche would enter the world of nail colour. And, ta-da, in October 2012 Seche launched their very own collection of Seche Nail Lacquers in 33 beautiful colour options. The Fast Dry One Coat polishes promise to deliver full colour opacity in just one coat and to dry quickly and down to a naturally shiny finish.

Lucky me received aSeche - The Fast Dry One Coat nail polish in the shade Signature as part of my December Glossybox. Here is my recent NOTD:

Signature is described as a True Red Crème - £9.95 (14ml). I really liked the formula of this nail polish, smooth and it did dry quite fast. It definitely leaves a nice shiny finish which meant I skipped on a top coat – easy peasy! :) The shade is very much a true red which is vibrant yet classic and elegant.

Have you tried one of the Seche - Fast Dry One Coat Nail Lacquers yet?

Deborah Lippmann - Razzle Dazzle NOTD

Christmas is just around the corner and every part of me is getting in the festive spirit...even my nails!
Nothing screams Christmas to me like glitters so I decided to add a bit of sparkle to my look with this recent nail of the day.


I got this Deborah Lippmann polish as part of last years December Glossybox. Razzle Dazzle contains lots of cranberry coloured glitters in a blackened raspberry jelly base. The base is quite sheer which did mean it took three coats to achieve full opacity. The varnish applied smoothly and drying time is super quick but when the polish dried it was a little grainy so I added a layer of Seche Vite topcoat to smooth it out.

Above photo is with flash. It was hard to properly capture the glitter and how they catch the light in these photos but I have to say I loved rocking these festive sparkly nails. Overall I really liked Razzle Dazzle and I am now very keen try some more Deboral Lipmann nail polishes.

For example check out these two lovely limited edition 2012 holiday sets!

ROCK THIS TOWN set which includes: Moon Dance (deep lavender swirl glimmer), Chain Reaction (dirty brass glimmer) and Phoenix Rising (foxy copper glimmer).

SHE'S ALWAYS A WOMAN mini set which includes: Putty in your hands (putty taupe creme), Raspberry Beret (flecked berry) and My Prerogative (royal blue creme)

Deborah Lippmann nail polishes retail at £14 each sold in House of Fraser online and in selected stores. 

Have you tried any Deborah Lippmann nail polishes before?

ESSIE - Mamba NOTD

Mamba by Essie is one of the nail polishes I picked up when I was in New York but have to say I am still a bit undecided about this shade. Part of their 2011 Spring collection, Essie describes Mamba as a “shimmering café au lait” but I personally think it is more of a warm peachy nude colour with a brown undertone. The polish has a very slight shimmer and the formula is creamy and goes opaque in two coats.

Mamba is a great natural polish that is suitable for every season and appropriate with work or casual wear. However as the shade is quite peachy and a bit similar to my skin-colour I actually think Mamba would look best on people with either really fair or darker skin tones. Overall I’d say it is a good every day nude polish but at the moment OPI’s Tickle my France-y remains my holy grail nude nail polish!

What do you think – do you like the look of Mamba?

LOOK Beauty - Nail Pop in City NOTD

Did you know that UK LOOK magazine has their very own high street make-up range called LOOK Beauty; which is designed, tested and worn by the beauty brains from the magazine? Their collection contains lots of great products for your eyes, face, lips and nails and prices start from only £4 for say an eyeshadow and go up to £18 for a Glow, Bronze and Sculpt Kit. Plus a donation a donation will be given to their cancer charity, Look Good, Feel Beter, for every LOOK Beauty product sold.

The people at LOOK Beauty send me one of their Nail Pop shades recently, which I was more than happy to put to the test! Nail Pop promises hard-wearing, colour perfect nails in 30 trendy shades. I was sent the shade City...



City is a dark taupe grey shade. The formula is smooth, pretty fast drying and easy to apply. I found it was opaque and had a lovely shiny finish after just two coats. Overall I was pretty impressed and I love this shade for winter!

Nail Pop polishes are priced at £5 and you can buy them on the LOOK Beauty website or at Superdrug.

 

Have you tried anything from the LOOK Beauty collection?

 

Totally Fort Worth It?

When I was in America I picked up a new OPI nail polish that's described as “A shimmery lavender grey that’s so worthy of you.” Its Totally Fort Worth It is from their 2011 Texas collection.

In the bottle the polish looks like a grey with quite a strong pink shimmer through it but unfortunately when on your nails the shimmer hardly shows. This polish has quite a sheer formula meaning that it takes minimum 3-4 coats to get opaque cover. This is after 3 coats...

I found this nail polish a little underwhelming because I just was hoping for a grey with bit more oomph because of the pink shimmer but it turned out to be more a sheer shimmery silver.
So I thought what can I do to make my nails a bit more exciting? I know, add a Essie LuxEffects topcoat! Shine of the Times is a gorgeous multichromatic flaky glitter topcoat which shifts to every color except purple, but the most dominant colors are red/orange and green. There's a heavy amount of flake in here and it provides very good coverage with only one coat.

Tadaaa much better. What do you think?
It's even more gorgeous in real life but the shine was hard to capture on camera.

I think Shine of the Times is a must-have top coat. It looks fabulously pretty on top light polishes or fun and edgy over darker shades. Have you tried any of these two polishes or can you recommend a great Shine of the Times combo? Xoxo

Essie manicure: Demure Vixen & new Essie purchases

During London Fashion Week I popped by the HandPickedMedia LFW Lounge at One Aldwych to catch up with their lovely team, check out some cool brands and products on display and get a little pampered! Well they were offering Essie manicures... so how could I say no to that? I'm a big fan of Essie polishes because they are great quality and they offer a fun and large range of colours!

The hardest thing really was what colour to choose.....

After a lot of ummming and ahhhhing and with the help of the beautician, I decided on this pretty lady!

Demure Vixen is a iridescent cocoa mauve shade.

I really like this nail polish because it is modern whilstchic and goes with pretty much everything. I like its complexity because insome light it is more of a subtle taupe/nude shade but in bright light thelittle purple sparkles shine through to make it more of a vibrant lavender shade.Great long lasting formula and all you need is 2 coats to get an opaque evenfinish. You can see more (and better) swatches of Demure Vixen here.

 

As much as I love Essie nail polishes I do find that they are a wee bit pricey in the UK. So when I was in the States I took advantage of the fact they were only $8 (about £5!) there, to stock up and get a few new additions to my nail polish collection.

L-R: Luxeffects; Shine of the Times, Mamba and Mademoiselle

I can't wait to try these lovely new shades. What are your favourite Essie nail polishes?

 

More Shellac Nails: French Manicure

After my last experience with Shellac (read here) I just couldn't wait to get my nails done again! Having perfectly manicured nails for two weeks is proving addictive already :)
This time I went for classic, elegant and timeless; a french manicure!

PS....can you guess what I am holding here???

I love the classic look of a french manicure and having this chip free for 2 weeks is just brilliant!

They used CND polishes in the shades 'beau' and 'studio white' for this manicure.

TADA......Yes I am indeed holding a little blue box from Tiffany & Co! LUCKY ME :)

Why? Well it's my birthday tomorrow and it is a bit of a yearly tradition to get some T&C goodness for my birthday. See previous presents here and here. This present is from my parents and I can't wait to open it tomorrow morning. I already know what it is but you will just have to wait until I show you later this week :) This item has been on my Tiffany's wish list for a while...what's on your list?

I hope you all have an amazing weekend!
I will be celebrating turning another year older with friends over lots of prosecco and cake ♥

The ultimate long lasting manicure: Shellac Nails!

For ages now I have been meaning to try out the hype that is 'Shellac nails' and last night I finally went for my first CND Shellac manicure and I have to say I love it. Shellac offers a more nail-friendly solution by taking gels to the next level and it is the ultimate long lasting manicure! The special formulated polishes brush on just like regular nail polish. Nails are prepped in the same manner as a basic manicure but your polish will stay on, chip-free, for at least 14 days!

I got my nails done at Nails in London in EC4 London and the whole process only took about 30 minutes. The application process is simple. A clear base coat is applied, which is then ‘cured’ for 20 seconds in an ultraviolet light box. Two coats of coloured polish follow (I chose the CND shade Tropix), each of which needs two minutes under the UV lamp, then a high-gloss top-coat followed by a final 20-second blast of the UV light and, voila, your nails are all done!

And the amazing thing is they are dry – like ROCK HARD dry, no risk of smudging or scratching. It’s the weirdest feeling walking out and not having to be careful touching things; I kept thinking I was going to damage my manicure! But it didn’t :) I am super happy with the finished result and will be curious to see how long I can remain chip-free for!

Do you like the shade Tropix I got? I love Coral and thought it would be perfect for my holiday :)

My shellac manicure cost £35 which I think is pretty good value for money when you think how long lasting it is compared to a standard manicure! When the time comes to take the Shellac polish off your nail, you can easily get this done at the salon when you go for your next treatment and the best part is that it doesn’t actually damage the nail itself. Even though salons don’t recommend it I have seen a few tutorials on how you can remove shellac nails at home; read a good tutorial here (link).

Btw like my new iPhone cover? I picked it up yesterday for only £3.99 at H&M. It was one of those items that's in the baskets by the counter and I just couldn't resist taking it home!

So the verdict on Shellac Nails? I am hooked and will definitely get it done again. I think next time I will try a shellac french manicure. Have you ever had Shellac nails or are now intrigued to give this new revolution in manicures a go? Let me know your thoughts. xoxo

Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Capri Collection

Yes it’s that time of the year again where in the lead up to summer, Estée Lauder launches their annual Bronze Goddess collection! I absolutely love their Bronze Goddess products so was very excited to get to preview the 2012 collection last month in London. You can read my review of the 2011 Bronze Goddess ‘Soleil’ Collection here (link) This years collection was inspired by the seductive beauty of the Isle of Capri.
The Capri makeup look is sexy yet sophisticated including warm, glimmering gold and metallic hues and sun-kissed tones, complemented by rich brown and bright white. I think the collection definitely captures the feeling of summer, can please take me on a holiday there now?? ;)

Every year the collections includes their popular ‘Bronze Goddess’ fragrance plus a brand new limited edition. The Bronze Goddess Capri fragrance has a gorgeous warm summery but fresh scent which reminds me of being on holidays by the ocean.

The fragrance includes top notes of Lemon Leaves, Mandarin and Cassis, heart notes of Peony and Jasmine Samabac and base notes of creamy vanilla, amber wood, patchouli and musk.

 I adore the smell and also love the styling of the bottle. On recent sunny days I have sprayed myself with the stuff to get me in summer spirit and I am definitely packing this for my sunshine holidays this year.

NEW Bronze Goddess Capri Eau Fraiche/Skinscent, 100ml £40.00

Also in the Bronze Goddess Capri collection in the Pure Colour Illuminating Powder Gelee in Shimmering sands which is a gorgeous bronze shimmer powder for a beautiful warm sun-kissed glow. With clever prisma shine technology, featuring a tri-brid formula of liquid, powder and gel, the luminescent formula delivers a naturally radiant finish.

You can apply the product dry (as bronzer or highlight) or wet for a more vibrant look for example as an eye shadow or blended out on your collarbones for a sexy golden glow on your chest area.

Swatched: Top; dry and bottom; wet

The limited edition nail lacquer from the Capri collection is ‘Molton Lava’

Its a deep purple taupe with pinkish gold shimmer that runs throughout vanish! See some great swatches here (link). Think this will look especially smashing on my toes over summer time :)

The full Bronze Goddess Capri Makeup Collection includes: 

For Face:
NEW Pure Color Illuminating Powder Gelee in Shimmering Sands, £28.00

Bronze Goddess Luminous Liquid Bronzer, 30ml £21.50
Bronze Goddess Soft Matte Bronzer, £27.00
Bronze Goddess Soft Shimmer Bronzer, £27.00
Bronze Goddess Soft Duo Bronzer, £27.00

For Lips:
NEW Pure Color Gloss in Shimmering Mirage, £16.00
Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick in Tiger Eye, £18.50
Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick in Urban Auburn, £18.50

For Eyes:
NEW Pure Color Five Color Gelee Powder EyeShadow Palette in Bronze Sands, £35.00
NEW Pure Color Intense Kajal Eye Crayon Duo in White Sands/Molten Lava, £18.00
Sumptuous Waterproof Bold Volume™ Lifting Mascara in Black, £19.50

For Nails:

NEW Pure Color Nail Lacquer in Molten Lava, £14.00

Another standout item from this collection for me would be the limited edition Five Color Gelee Powder EyeShadow Palette in Bronze Sands. I love last years eyeshadow palette from the Bronze Goddess Soleil collection (read my review here) and I use it all the time! I like using a bronze/golden shade all over the lid and then popping a bright blue on my lower lash line.

I also really like this 'pop of aqua' look I created last summer; you can read the full post here (link)

The Bronze Goddess 2012 Capri Collection is available at Estée Lauder counters nationwide and at www.esteelauder.co.uk now. So what do you think of Estee Lauders' Bronze Goddess Capri collection this year; are you eyeing up any pieces in particular? xoxo