NOTD: Essie Watermelon

Back to my string of Essie polish swatches with Watermelon. This was the first one I picked up but possibly the least impressive of the lot. It's a very thin consistency which means it takes a few coats to get the colour in the bottle and it chips really easily. I've quickly learned that Essie is similar to OPI in that the consistency across the range is poor but the packaging is so cute and shade selection is great, I'm not writing them off just yet.

This particular shade was a bit blah compared to how wow it looked on the shelf. I'm sure I have dupes within my vast polish collection and it's just not as special as I'd first thought.

Essie recently launched a range of their best selling polishes in Boots

You can purchase them here for £7.99

Watermelon is included in the collection.

Miss BB

NOTD : Wet n Wild Tropicalia

This is my new favourite polish. Fact!

It wasn't too thin in formula and covered in one coat - I added a second out of habit - it lasted really well, 3 or 4 days chip free and it was only $2. I will be trawling the internet for more wet n wild polishes in the UK because this was really impressive. The colour is gorgeous and just generally I cannot recommend this enough. So so nice!

 

Are any of you obsessed with Wet n Wild nails?

Miss BB

NOTD: Essie Cute as a Button

 

This might just be my favourite Essie shade so far. It wasn't as easy to get the perfect opaque finish as I'd have liked but it was pretty chip resistant and the colour is so pretty. I've learnt that even within my modest collection the formula does differ bottle to bottle and although I love this it's not the best one I've tried. Another note about Essie is that they really do require a top coat or a good ridge filling base coat to achieve a glossy smooth finish. Not something I'd expected from what I consider to be a high end nail polish brand.

What are your experiences with Essie?

Miss BB

NOTD : Essie Fiji

I posted yesterday about Ole Caliente, the second Essie polish I chose from my new haul was Fiji. Now this wasn't quite as good. What you see here is 3 coats, it's still better than any other baby pink shade I've tried for opacity but it only lasted one day without chipping and for how long the application took I expected better. This is still the best quality shade of it's kind in my collection and will definitely see lots of use in the future but Ole Caliente wins on formula so far. I'm repainting tonight and undecided whether to go for Cute as a Button or Watermelon.. any preference as to which you'd like to see next?

I have my eye on a few others on BeautyBay right now, I've had some great suggestions of what to pick up but if you have any more leave me a comment.

Miss BB

NOTD : Essie Olé Caliente

This is officially my first Essie nail polish. I have very little to say.. how much can you say about a generic coral? The colour is nice but I have dupes, it's nothing special. The formula, however is amazing! I kid you not.. this is ONE coat! I'm hoping all the shades I bought are as good quality. This particular colour is part of the S/S'12 collection which was why I picked it up but let's face it.. you don't need it! It's a nice bright but I have some much nicer ones to show you over the next couple of weeks. One last thing, It was chip free without top coat for two days. Awesome!

 

I found Essie on Beauty Bay for just £7.75 - link 

That will be where I will be stocking up from now on.

Miss BB

NOTD - Rimmel Pink Amazon

 I would love to tell you that it's more pink in reality but it's really not. 

in store 'Pink Amazon' appeared to have a real raspberry tint but once I got it home... not so much. It's basically a pinky red.. kind of disappointing since I bought a true red at the same time but hey ho it will be used I'm sure. 

I love these Lycra Pro formulas and the extra wide brush makes application super quick and easy. They last a couple of days without any major chipping, nothing groundbreaking but a good drugstore product all the same.

Miss BB

Wedding Nails? #4

This colour is almost impossible to photograph. It's Models Own Pink Punch. It's coming off coral in the photos above but you can see a little better alongside the others below that its more a fluro hot pink. It's another contender and it seems I'm running out of time so I've included a few more options and a photo of my shoes to help the decision along. You can find my post with each to choose from here. Let me know whether you think I should go for a shade I've already showcased or maybe one of the others... I've appreciated all of your help so far and tonight I will be filming my makeup and hair video so I will let you know the winner then!

Miss BB

Wedding Nails? #3

Apologies for the shoddy paint job but this polish will be whipped off later to make way for a fresh manicure as tonight it my hen party (woop) I just wanted to show another wedding option before the weekend. Utopia was a popular choice with most from the first post so what I have on here is..

Models Own - Utopia 

Models Own - Beth's Blue on ring fingers

Barry M - Hologram over Beth's Blue

I like the "something blue" element and the sparkly accent nail on my ring finger. Before I put each choice to the vote there will be one super bright option.. watch this space!

Miss BB

Wedding Nails? #2

This is my favourite so far. It's wintry but sparkly and wedding-special at the same time.

Miners White Pearl with MAC Unconditionally Fabulous over the top. Love it! Look out for my collective post on my wedding blog next week to vote for your favourite!

Here it is with my rings.. aah!

Miss BB

Wedding Nails? #1

Over the next week I will be posting as many nail looks as I can to put to the vote. Which should I wear for the wedding? Quirky or traditional or somewhere in between? My Dress is short and my heels are pink so I think I need more than french tips.

*What Did I Use?*

OPI - Chapel of Love

Models Own - Utopia (on ring fingers) 

OPI - Coronation (over utopia on top two photos)

Sinful Colours - I Miss You (over Utopia on bottom two)

Miss BB

NYE Nails

WHAT I USED

BARRY M NAIL PAINT IN SILVER

NAILS INC GLITTER IN ELECTRIC AVENUE

RIMMEL NAIL POLISH IN BEIGE STYLE

I discovered if I layer a glitter over a metallic polish it has more staying power! I consider the Rimmel lycra wear shades to be quite long lasting but the nude nails have started to chip 4 days later and the silver is still going strong! I'm impressed! I'm also totally sold on the thumb and ring finger being painted alternate colours.. especially with glitter that's a pain to remove!

What did your nails wear for New Year?

Miss BB

NOTD - Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle

First off.. loving this! I know not everyone was overly enamoured of their December Glossybox but no matter what i got I think this would have won me over. I love me some glitter at Christmas time and having purchased from this brand before I was aware it's NOT CHEAP! I love the special glitter shades from Deborah Lippmann but I've only tried one polish from the brand previously and it chipped so quickly it really put me off trying any others. I have to say though..  after trying this one I'm already chomping at the bit to add to my collection. I've had it on my nails for a couple of days and it's showing very little sign of wear. I already knew that it would look fabulous but if it chips an hour after I've applied it I'm not interested. Glossybox absolutely got it right for me this month. They've made a customer of me where I'd written DL off as a bad job. This is going to be an expensive habit!

The polish is luxuriously dark and festive cranberry shade with an overload of raspberry glitter. I can't think of anything more fitting for the Holidays.

A full sized polish is 15ml and a mini is approx 9ml (I had to do some fl oz - ml calculations as I couldn't find a volume online on any UK site) I think that's a really nice size. For something like this that you wouldn't wear every day the mini size is ideal! FYI The polish on the right is 'Waking Up In Vegas' and the yellow colour shakes out.. it settles like that when it's left to sit.

Have you tried anything from Deborah Lippmann?

Miss BB

Paradoxal Dupe from 2True

I know these have been compared in the past but I had to share this for those of you that have missed it especially as right now you can buy 3 2True products for £4.99 from Superdrug here (£1.99 each)

I haven't splashed out on Chanel Paradoxal myself as 1. I don't love it enough to spend that kind of money and 2. I already have this shade (no.46) from 2True which is close enough for me! It was super difficult to photograph but hopefully you can make out the purple/blue shimmer running through the taupey-greige polish. I think the polish itself needs to be a touch more purple to be a true dupe but it's pretty darn close I'm sure you'll agree  and at £1.99 what have you got to lose?...well... £1.99 I suppose.

I couldn't do a dupe post without a photo of the original swatch, could I? So I had to borrow this one from  Lacquerized.com. Click on the photo to be taken to their original review post.

MissBB

NOTD - MAC Unconditionally Fabulous

I absolutely love this.. beautiful bottle of sparkly christmasness! 

It's so difficult to get a true to life photo, the glitter is so dense you can't really make out the individual pieces like you can in the photo. The light reflecting on my nails makes them glisten.. it really needs to be seen to be believed. Quite possibly the ultimate festive fingertips!

I wanted to do a sepearate NOTD post to show the polish I wore underneath it, Soft Grey from Beauty UK. Also really lovely but takes a good 3 coats to get an opaque finish. It's very much a budget product. None the less the combination of the two is gorgeous, don't you agree?

I can't wait to try the glitter over more of my favourite shades.

Miss BB

NOTD - Nails Inc. Victoria

Apologies for the terrible picture.. I just couldn't get a good photo of the colour so I figured natural light would be the best bet. I got this polish free in this months copy of Glamour. Of all the magazine subscriptions I've had over the years Glamour is the first one that always sends me the freebies you'd get if you bought at the newsagents... big love to them for that!

I like the shade, it's very fitting of the upcoming festive season and it will get some wear but as is always the case with these darker shades.. it's tricky to look even and neat. One or even two coats will likely look streaky and the more coats you add the more careful you have to be to be covering the same area on each nail. You can see here where I've over-shot around the edges and it doesn't look great... but that's really an application issue. The formula is great, as you'd expect from Nails Inc, and chipping time was average, 2 or 3 days and repainting was necessary. 

Did you get a Nails Inc freebie from Glamour this month?

NOTD - Leighton Denny Baby Doll

I'm not sure where to start with this one..love the colour and the formula does require less coats to get an opaque finish but because it's quite thick it's difficult to prevent the dreaded air bubbles. I will be giving it another try and attempt thinner coats but it's tricky. Luckily I got this in my October Glossybox and didn't spend my own money because again this is another high end polish that isn't amazing. I don't expect miracles but I just think when there are so many great drugstore brands out there the higher end stuff should be better, no?

NOTD - BarryM Peach Melba & Hologram

I'm sad to say this colour disappointed me. It will definitely be going away 'til Spring as it's not really an Autumn/Winter shade.. but I knew that when I bought it. It's just a tad more orange than I thought it would be. I'm glad I have it now as it's been on my wish list for a while and I'm sure it will get used but I don't know..I just expected to like it more than I did once I'd got it on. Isn't it always the way? The glitter over the top was a repurchase so I knew I'd like that but I did forget how tricky it was to get an even scattering of glitter.. it's worth the extra effort though. It's a great top coat to snazz up any manicure while letting the polish underneath shine through.

NOTD - Models Own Utopia

I've seen this blogged about and in store soooo many times and I don't know why it's taken me so long to purchase but it's now my new favourite polish. It's a very pale almost grey/lilac colour. Really unique and beautiful. I will be wearing this throughout winter despite it being more of a spring shade. I just love it! Models Own polishes never fail to disappoint for formula and chip resistancy. I would definitely recommend you go out and get this if you haven't got it already.