Vintage Vault - Sally Hansen - Twinkle

I'm back after all the christmas fun, I had a lovely christmas, I had plenty of good food, and lots of lovely presents, my boyfriend amazed me by getting me a boxset by my favorite band James with a signed print, I'd ordered one myself, but had to cancel it as money was tight and I wanted to spend it on presents for him and my family instead, I couldn't believe it when I unwrapped it, and was so excited that he'd somehow managed to get a signed print, I can't wait to frame it and put it on my wall. I hope you all had a great christmas too with your family and friends.

Right, enough waffling, onto the polish, I've been waiting for the perfect time to wear todays polish and Christmas time and new year is it, especially as todays polish is a vintage Sally Hansen Christmas polish. :-)

I picked up Twinkle in a joblot from ebay (I posted about it here), out of all of the polishes in the lot it was the one I was most excited about getting as it's so pretty. Twinkle is a clear base (although mine's a little milky) with the most amazing irridescent and multichrome bar glitter that flashes gold, green, blue and purple, it's also got small glitter that flashes gold. This polish really is the bee's knee's.

Revlon - Dripping Rubies

Todays Christmas polish is Revlon's Dripping Rubies, it's a beautiful festive red, and this is probably the classiest polish I'll have on my nails over the holiday period.

Dripping Rubies is a stunning blood red jelly packed with microglitter. I think this might be my favorite red polish, it's such a good red, from some angles it looks like it's a deep but bright red jelly, but when you turn your hand the light catches the microglitter and it sparkles, it's quite a chameleon like it's two polishes in one, I have to admit I did go around waving my hands under lights just to see the sparkle.

My photos do not do this polish justice, it was cloudy and I seem to be rubbish at capturing sparkle in photos, but I tried and underneath are my my best efforts to show you how beautiful this polish is.

Vintage Vault - Sally Hansen - Festive

Today it's a Christmas polish from the Vintage Vault, it's time for a Sally Hansen Christmas polish called Festive to come out to play. I saw this swatched over at a great blog (which you should check out if you don't follow it already) called The Scholarly Nail not long ago, Jacqui put it over black and it looked great, I really wanted to swatch this myself, and probably would've gone for black as well, but I couldn't improve on Jacqui's swatches so I thought I'd offer something a little different using the same polish instead.

This is one coat of Festive over white.

Maybelline MNY - 170A Gold Glitter

I hope you've all got your Christmas shopping done, I'm being my usual self and I'm leaving some stuff to the last minute, it wouldn't be christmas without a little bit of last minute shopping! I'm dying to go shopping for myself, I have a huge list of polish I want including three Barry M xmas polishes, and some vintage goodies but I'll have to be a good girl and wait till after christmas.

After the complete blingfest of the last two posts I thought I'd calm it down a bit and have something a bit more subtle but still festive.

I picked out 170A, a gold polish by Maybelline, it's from the MNY range and it's a pale gold base with gold glitter mixed in to give a bit of texture and sparkle.

Pink Tease - Diamond Shaped Holo Glitter

In my last post I showed you BYS's Crystal over Revlon's Black Star, after I had taken photos I added another polish on top as I wanted to show you a new polish I picked up from the poundshop last week.

When I was in the pound shop digging through the make-up section I spotted a small box on a shelf which caught my eye, it was a box of Pink Tease glitter nail polishes, now I see a lot of Pink Tease polish and make up at the poundshop, and generally it looks like it's not the best quality and the polishes aren't very exciting so I've never bothered with the brand before, but the glitter polishes looked interesting so I picked two up. One was a green holo glitter, and the other was a holo glitter that was rather unique and I had to get a bottle for my collection. I won't describe it just yet, I'll let the photos do the talking.

Just like the last post this one is photo heavy as well, I hope you don't mind.

BYS - Diamond Collection - Crystal

I've decided to get all festive and have posts featuring polishes that make me feel Christmasy (is Christmasy even a real word?). Now of course Christmas means glitter, so expect lots of it in my posts from now until New Year. :-)

My first polish is from BYS's Diamond Collection and it's called Crystal, it reminds me of fairy lights twinkling away on a Christams tree. It's a cheap market find (£1.20), but I do believe that it should be easy to find for some of you where BYS is sold.

Crystal is a clear base with a mix of two sized of holographic glitter, small and really small, and it really twinkles. There's just something about holographic polish and glitter that I love, I'm like a magpie with the stuff, I think I just love having a rainbow on my nails.

This polish is so pretty I took way too many photos, but I needed to show you the lovely holo glitter, get ready for some photo spam...

Vintage Vault - Revlon Drama

The best thing about starting a nail polish blog is that it makes me try polishes that I would otherwise overlook, I have a few polishes that just sit there untried, it's not that I don't like the look of them (I wouldn't have bought them otherwise), it's just that there's usually another polish that grabs my attention, I guess I have two types of polish in my collection, the attention seeking ones, and the wallflowers that are just patiently waiting to be noticed, you'll find that a lot of the time the wallflower's are much more interesting than the attention seekers. Well this wallflower has been noticed and will get to have her time in the spotlight. :-)

Drama (a pretty old Revlon) is a rich dark plum shimmer, I guess it's what most people would call a vampy shade, which is probably why I've never worn it, I'm not that into vampy shades, but when I do wear one I have to admit I tend to love them, they make me feel all grown up and sensible, not that I'll ever be either! :-)

Anyway, on to the polish....

China Glaze - It's Alive and Ick-A-Bod-y

I had completely forgotten I'd taken these photos of my Halloween manicure, so now they're a bit belated, but I'm posting them anyway.

I've only got about 10 China Glaze polishes and they're all glitters, I really want the latest glitters, but I've got to wait till after christmas to get them.  Anyway, two of my China Glazes are halloween ones, and this halloween I popped them on my nails and took some snaps.

The polishes I used were It's Alive from the 2011 Haunting collection, and Ick-A-Bod-Y from the Awakening collection from 2010.

I love both of these polishes and I couldn't decide which one should be on my nails for Holloween, my boyfriend said I should use both, so that's what I did, I think they work well together.

I couldn't just have one photo of my holloween manicure so here's some more of that glittery goodness, with a slightly arty background. :-)

November's Nail Polish Haul. :-)

Today we're going to have some bottle spam as I'm feeling lazy, and it's getting hard to do swatches as the light in my house is so bad now it's getting dark really early.

I sold a few old things on ebay last month so I treated myself, my lovely boyfriend got me a couple of things too, isn't he a sweetie. I hadn't got much polish for a few months, so I think I went a little crazy. :-)

Here's pics of my haul, be warned there's a lot!
 

Revlon Jaded, Nordic Sky & Blush Chrome

Revlon Punk, OPI The Living Daylights, Maybelline Aqua, Purple Rage

Vintage Vault - Revlon Rio Cool

Yesterday I showed you the super cute Rio Hot that looked like strawberry jam on my nails, well today I've got Rio Cool for you.

Like Rio Hot, Rio Cool is from the summer 2001 Revlon Rio Hot Collection. It's another sheer jelly polish with microglitter, and I like it just as much as I liked Rio Hot. The colour isn't as deep as Rio Hot, but it's still pigmented enough to still be green, and it's kinda funky looking which is why I like it, don't take my word for it though, have a look for yourself. :-)

Limited Editions and offers in Boots and Superdrug

After popping into town yesterday for a bit of window shopping, I thought it might be useful to any of my UK readers to know what offers are on polish at the moment as there's some sexy polish freebies doing the rounds. I can't remember all the offers but there's a few comparable offers on at Superdrug and Boots, so hopefully my info will help you know which store you want to go to.

First up it's the offers from Boots.

Barry M

Spend over £6.00 and get a free limited edition foil polish worth £3.99. Boots have a Gold and Pink Foil up for grabs. Not sure if you can buy them on their own. The Gold one looks like it's the only one available online.
Revlon

As the photo says, buy three Revlon polishes (including the Top Speeds) and you get the limited edition Sequin polish. Sequin is from a US collection, and is a layering glitter. Best bit about this offer is that if you buy 3 you only pay for 2, and you get Sequins on top, what a bargain.
Miss Sporty
It's 3 for 2 on Miss Sporty, time to get any you've had your eye on.
Models Own
When you buy any two Models Own products you'll get a free Models Own Nail Art Kit Xmas Gift, no idea if it's any good though, if it is let me know. :-)
Maybelline
It's 3 for 2 time on Maybelline.
Rimmel
Rimmel's are 3 for 2 as well, go grab those Metal Rush polishes, you won't regret it.

Next up is Superdrug...

Vintage Vault - Revlon Rio Hot

Vintage polish alert! I've got a very cute polish to show you today, and for once I can tell you which collection it was from, and what year. :-)

Say hello to Rio Hot, a super sweet red sheer jelly with microglitter.

The vague information that I managed to find is that Rio Hot is from the 2001 summer collection called Revlon Rio Hot. The polishes from this collection include Peach Light, Rio Cool, Pink Light and Rio Hot.

Barry M - Superdrug 2012 Xmas Limited Edition Polish

I went into Superdrug yesterday to take advantage of the last day of their 3 for 2 offer on make up, I went in to get some Barry M magnetic polishes that I've had my eye on and that my boyfriend will now be giving me for christmas as he paid for them :-).

Anyway, while looking at the Barry M stand I spotted a shiny new polish on the top of the stand so I grabbed it to make sure no one else got their grubby little mitts on it. Talking to a member of staff they seemed to know nothing about it, and just knew that it was a limited edition for christmas, they said they'd know more today as the new offers and shelf edging would be up. I figured I'd get it anyway as it would be part of the 3 for 2 offer and I really didn't want to leave without it as it looked so pretty

So, let me introduce you to Barry M's Superdrug Xmas Limited Edition 2012 (or SLE 2012 A as it says on the bottom of the bottle), if it has a proper name, can someone let me know, even if it's just called Blue Foil.

It's a super sexy metallic foil, and it's got a matching lid (like old Sally Hansens), how cool is that! The colour is a turquoise blue with flecks of pale gold mixed in.

I got it on my nails today so I could show you what it's like, here's a ton of photos, first off here it is in sunlight.

Enamoured - 80 years of Revlon

The reason I'm writting this post is because I want to celebrate Revlon's 80th birthday. Revlon are one of my favorite nail polish brands and at this point in time I have over 130 Revlon polishes in my collection, some are vintage ones like the amazing Zings while others are newer ones like Galaxy and Punk, you can see exactly which polishes I've by clicking on the My Collection tab above.

Revlon themselves are having a birthday bash in London this weekend, I had an invite to go tonight but I just couldn't afford the travel so I'm a bit gutted I won't be there, but it's open to anyone so if you fancy it pop along. Their celebration is an exhibtion at the London Film Museum in Covent Garden and it's open all weekend and is free.

For my part of the celebrations I thought I might share a few of my favorite bottles of Revlon polish, I'm going to be painting my nails with a Revlon polish later, but haven't decided what colour yet, I'll be sure to post about it once my nails are painted.
Anyway, here's some sexy Revlons, enjoy. :-)

Barry M - Lilac Foil and Lavender Hexograms

It seems like ages since I've had some Barry M on my nails, so I went through my stash to see what I'd got.

I came up with two polishes to try out, Lilac Foil as I love my Sally Hansen and Revlon chrome polishes so I wanted to see how this compared, and Lavender Hexograms which I've been trying to think of a polish this would go well with.

I've had Lavander Hexograms for a while now, I think I got it last christmas, and I got Lilac Foil not that long after, it was a free gift when you bought three barry M polishes from Superdrug, they've both been calling to me, but I never realised they were meant to be together.

First I'll show you Lilac Foil on it's own. First off, the colour on the nail is the same as in the bottle (I find it annoying when bottle colour doesn't match what it's like on your nail) so I'm happy about that. I did two coats, the formula was okay, thicker than a Sally Hansen or Revlon Chrome, but it went on okay. It shows your brush stokes which is a pain, but over all it's a pretty polish so I think I can forgive a brush stroke or two.

Pop Rocks - Groupie

After all the Olympic posts I promised you some nail polish and here it is. :-)

I wasn't sure which polish to show today, I'm always drawn to my old Revlons and Sally Hansens, but I wanted to show a brand I haven't used before, so I've got a polish made by Blue Cross under the name Pop Rocks, the polish is called Groupie.

 
When I got this polish from ebay I was dissapointed as I thought it was going to be a black base with glitter, obviously the seller's photo wasn't the best, but luckily I love this polish more than I would've if it was a black base.

London 2012 Olympics Part 5 - Night time at the Olympic Park

This is the last of my Olympic posts, you'll probably be glad to hear that, we can get back to nail polish after this. :-)

My last post was about the synchronised swimming which was great to watch, and after that I spent the rest of my day in the Olympic Park, this post is about my evening in the park.

Anish Kapoor's Orbit Tower

I had gone to London on my own, no-one I knew was interested in going when I ordered my tickets, but I was quite happy to be alone, it let me have the choice to go wherever I wanted whenever I felt like it. After the swimming I went to the huge McDonalds and got some food, I never buy McDonalds so in a way it was a treat and another experience to add to the day.

After lunch I took a walk around the park, it was a perfect summers day for a walk and I had wonderful surrounding. There were plenty of trees and flower beds (I actually took some flowers and dried them when I got home) so I walked by them instead of being in the middle of the crowds.

London 2012 Olympics Part 4 - Synchronised Swimming Finals

The other day, I wrote about going to the Olympic Park, today I'm going to tell you about what I went there to see.
My choosen sport was Synchronised Swimming, it was the first Olympic sport I ever saw on the TV when I was a kid and I've loved watching it ever since, so there was no way I was going to miss out on seeing it live. I went to London on 10th August and after some sight seeing at the Park it was time to go and find my seat in the Aquatics Centre.

Olympic Rings by the entrance to the Aquatics Centre.

The Aquatics Cenre, I love the graphics they used on the outside of the building.

The Aquatics Centre is huge, it was interesting to see the parts of the building that aren't on the TV, the building is concrete and steel, and very utilitarian, I quite liked it as I have a passion for interesting architecture. To get into the viewing area I had to climb alot of stairs, and then inside the viewing area to get to my seat I had to climb even steeper stairs until I was right at the top as that's where my seat was. Even though I was up high I could still still everything that was going on so it was well designed.As I was early I got to see the teams practicing in the pool so I got an extra treat, it was funny to see them all in the pool together and I did wonder how they managed to avoid each other. I took this time to take some photos nearer to the pool, some of my photos are below.

London 2012 Olympics Part 3 - Day time at the Olympic Park

The other week I told you about going to see an Olympic football match in my home city, well, today I'm going to share my Olympic Park adventure. I'm going to have three parts to this, one about the day time at the Olympic Park, one about the event I went to see, and another about the Park at night.

Having watched the Olympics everyday and all day since it started I couldn't wait to go to the Olympic Park myself.
When the tickets went on sale, I managed to get a ticket to one of my favorite Olympic Sports which is Synchronised Swimming on the 10th August. Being skint I wasn't sure if I could afford the travel, but luckily I managed to get super cheap coach tickets just 5 days before, and it really helped that a London tube ticket for the day was included with the ticket, so my day out didn't cost me much at all.

The day before I painted my nails, after learning how to paint Union Jacks for the football match I decided all my nails would be turned into little flags, it wasn't perfect, but I was really pleased with how it turned out.

My event wasn't until 3pm but I made sure I got there nice and early so I could take in the sights at the Olympic Park. My trip down was nice and easy, the weather was lovely although it was probably a little too hot for me.

I couldn't help but take plenty of photos during the day, and I thought it would be nice to share them rather than waffle on about how hot it was! :-) So here's some photos I took of the Olympic Park throughout the day, I hope you enjoy them.

London 2012 Olympics Part 2 - Watching the Football in Coventry

Last week I went to see an olympic football match in my home city Coventry. I'm very proud of my home city, it has such a rich and interesting history (might have to do a post or two about it if anyones interested) and hosting part of the London 2012 Olympics just adds to that.

I hadn't intended on going to the football, when tickets first went on sale I only requested them for two events, and both were at the Olympic park, I just never thought about the football. Olympic banners started appearing in Coventry and I started to get really excited about it all, and then we even got a huge set of Olympic rings, the final straw was when I heard that the British team were going to be playing a match at the City of Coventry Stadium, I just had to experience it so I went and got a ticket for me and my Dad. :-)

Compared to getting tickets for the venues in London, getting tickets for Coventry's stadium was a breeze, I just turned up outside and queued for 20 minutes and then got them, nice and easy.

Two days later and it was match day, I was so excited, I painted my nails especially, red and blue spots over white, with union jacks hand painted on my thumb nails, very patriotic, I thought I'd get into the spirit of it all and it was an excues to paint my nails and try some nail art. :-)

London 2012 Olympics Part 1 - Rings Inspired Manicure

I love the Olympics, I watch both the summer and winter Olympics, there's something about the whole thing that's just so inspiring. I hate the fact that as humans we destroy one another just because we are different from each other (or for greed) so when I see people from all around the world standing side by side, united for the same event it fills me will joy.

As well as seeing atheletes from the four corners of the world, I adore the opening ceremony, the first one I ever saw was the Los Angeles 1986 games, I was 10 and I remember being spellbound by the part when the audience used the cards they were given to create a giant moving mosaic, and I will never forget the guy with the rocket jet pack who flew into the stadium. From that year on I was hooked and I always look forward to the unique show each host country creates.

This year my home country is hosting it, I can't tell you how incredibly proud I am that we get to welcome the world to our shores, I hope everyone has a wonderful time while they're here. Anyway, I was of course really looking forward to it, and it didn't disappoint, as well as the lighting of the cauldron which was so beautiful, this part has to be one of my favorite parts of the show.

Vintage polish from my past - Part 2

I hope you're ready for some more old polish, as it's time for the second part of polish from my past.

I really have loved going through my old polish, it's funny that I went through a very short period of about a year painting my nails, and then stopped. I don't think I painted my nails until nearly seven years later and again it was only briefly, so it's nice to have kept the polish I had, some of them I really love and a couple are really quite cool as you're about to see.

L-R Tuesdays Girl, Star Gazer- Neon Green, 17- Unknown Purple, 17 - Green Genie, 17 - Light Reactive, Miss Selfridge - Purple Glitter

All of these are unusable at the moment, they've all thickened up, but then they are over 10 years old. I'm going to get some thinner so I can do swatches, although these aren't the most unique colours, apart from the last two, which are just too far gone, and that's my fault for trying to thin them with polish remover thinking that would do the trick, boy was I wrong!

Vintage polish from my past - Part 1

I've seen a few bloggers talk about their old makeup and I really enjoy those types of posts so I thought I might do a couple of my own, I hope you don't mind looking at manky old make up though!

What I love about posts that talk about vintage makeup is getting to look at how the packaging has changed, and what colours were being made. I also think it's a kind of snapshot of who a person was, I'm going to show you my oldest nail polish that I got when I was around 18 or so in the late 90's and you can tell I liked my bright colours! I hung around with Goths, but I was a cross between an Indie kid and Pop kid, which was a weird mix, so I always stuck out like a sore thumb, but I loved my bright colours, they reflected who I was and how I saw the world.

Anyway, I bet you want to see the old polish right? Let's get to it....

90's Rimmel - Banana Scented, Strawberry Scented, Mania & Zeitgeist

Max Factor Fantasy Fire vs Urban Decay Burnout

Hi guys, today I've got a comparision post for you. I've seen so many people blog about Fantasy Fire by Max Factor, so I held off posting about it for a while. I actually saw Fantasy Fire in Boots on the day of release, and I didn't have any spare cash to buy it that day, needless to say I was kicking myself for weeks as after that day I didn't see another bottle on the shelves for three weeks, so when I did see it I jumped on it, and took advantage of a three for two offer and got three bottles!

Anyway, I've seen comparisons with Clarins 230, aswell as Urban Decay's Toxic, I don't have either even I'd love to have them so I had a look in my stash to see if I could find anything like it. What I found was Urban Decay's Burnout

Here are the bottles of polish I've used for this post.

L-R Revlon - Rock, Max Factor - Fantasy Fire & Urban Decay - Burnout

Here's some close ups of that lovely colour changing shimmer.

Formula 1 Adventures - Silverstone Young Driver Test - 13th July 2012

Warning very long post alert!!!!!!

I thought I was lucky when I won a ticket for the FOTA Fan Forum the other week, I had a wonderful time and got to meet Frank Williams and Patrick Head, who are the guys behind my favorite F1 team Williams, so I didn't think that could be beaten, I figured it more than made up or not being able to go to the Grand Prix this year, it was like the racing gods were looking down on me. :-)

Anyway, I watched the British Grand Prix on the telly, it was a rainsoaked few days for everyone there, and no doubt that if I had gone I would've come home very muddy indeed, I spent most of the time imaging I was there and wondering how my friends were getting on, even though it was horribly muddy and wet this year I still would've given anything to be there.

Silverstone, quite possibly my favorite place in the world.

The week after the Grand Prix some of the teams decided to stay at the track and take part in a young driver test, this was only confirmed days before, but I heard about it and decided I'd try to blag my way in. I've been working on a F1 project for the last two years so I'm used to blagging my way in now, although I still don't take getting in for granted, I'm always over the moon when I do get in.

I set off with the aim to get some photos signed by the drivers to add to my collection, and I ended up with so much more than that...

Vintage Sally Hansen Hard As Nails - Lime Creme

Today I've got a pretty old sally Hansen Hard As Nails to show you. This is from when the bottle's were flat sided with tall caps, I don't ever remember seeing Sally Hansens in shops when I was younger, so I've no idea how old these are.

I got this in a great joblot from ebay, which had a ton of vintage Sally's in it, this is the first polish from that lot that I've swatched, I must get round to doing them all. If you want to see what else was in the haul you can see my post here. :-)

Anyway, enough yapping, here's Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in Lime Creme.

This is definetly an old polish, the formula was so different to what I'm used to, it was pretty thin and waterery, and streaky, really streaky, infact, I had to use four coats for this swatch to get it looking half decent. But there is a positive side to the old formula, it dried rock hard in minutes, I couldn't believe how quick it dried, in fact I'd say it's the fastest drying polish I own.

I really like the colour, I wouldn't really say it was lime like the name says, but it is a nice pastel yellow, which because of the super fast drying time, I wouldn't mind doing upto five coats each time I wear it. It's definetely a summer shade, and I'm really glad I got it.

Do you have any other Hard as Nails from this era, I'd love to know if they all dry as fast as this one did.

Cheerio for now,

Heather. :-)

Formula 1 Adventures - FOTA Fan Forum - 3rd July 2012

No nail polish today, today I'm going to tell you about my most recent Formula 1 adventure. :-)

This year I've been so skint there was no way I was going to the British Grand like I normally do, this really broke my heart, I love F1 so much, it's the only thing other than my family that has been with me nearly all my life. But the Formula 1 gods were looking down on me and decided to give me a little fix of my favorite sport.

Every year there's an event called the FOTA Fans Forum held in the UK, other countries hold them too, basically it's a chance for fans to listen to a few team principles and drivers (and other people from F1) being interviewed, and then there's a Q&A session afterwards.

There's around 200-300 tickets for each event and it's a lottery so it's just down to chance if you get a ticket, last year I tried to get a ticket as it was held at Mclarens Technology center and I'd love to have been able to go there, but it wasn't to be (although some of my friends won tickets so that was cool). This year it was being held at Williams F1's Conference Center, which I couldn't believe, Williams are my favorite team since 1986, so I had everything crossed that I'd win a ticket, and luckily for me I did!

So on 3rd July I borrowed my dad's car and sat nav and set off. I made sure I got there early, I wanted to get some photos signed, and there were a few people appearing that I really wanted to meet. The first thing I saw was this really funny topiary F1 car with mechanics changing it's wheels, it's so cool and really made me laugh. :-)

Once inside we got look around the Williams F1 car collection, which is one of the most amazing collcetions of F1 cars I've ever seen, it covers the whole history of the team, and it was such an honor to be able to see them all as it's not normally open to the public.

Vintage Sally Hansen Haul

Hey, I thought I show you this amazing Sally Hansen joblot I got off ebay, some of them aren't the most amazing colours, but there are a few that are 100% amazing and I can't tell you how happy I am to own them.

Get ready for some photo spam. :-)

L-R Satin Slip Frost, Raw Silk Frost, Rich Plum Creme, Chenille Creme, Amethyst Frost

L-R Butterscotch Pop, Divine Frost, Geranium Red Creme, Royal Purple Chrome. Denim Creme, Cultured Pearl Frost

Vintage Vault - Revlon Crystalline Virtual Violet

I thought we'd have a random vintage Revlon today, I've had this for a year and have never worn it, so when I was looking for something interesting to swatch this caught my eye, I thought it was time to see what it was like.

 Revlon Virtual Violet is a extremely pale silvered  lilac, I got it because I liked the name, but I've never worn it because it looked like it would be quite a sheer polish, and I'm not too mad about seeing my nails through my polish, let's just say I'm now regreting not putting this on my nails sooner.

I used three coats in the photos, the light wasn't great when I took them so it was difficult to show this polish at it's best, I'm begining to really curse the fact that no light comes directly into my house.

Anyway, first coat and I was not in love with this polish at all, it was thin and streaky, and looked like there was no chance it would be opaque, but after two (slighty thick coats) it turned into quite a beauty. I haven't had many polishes that have surprised me, but this one did, I've still got it on my nails as I didn't want to take it off.
 

Nail Mail - Maybelline Haul

Hey guys, I've got nail mail to show you!

I might've spent a few penny's on ebay lately, today I'm gonna show you the vintage Maybellines I got. Get ready for some photo spam. :-)

Maybelline - Electric Apple & Racing Green

Maybelline - Flamboyant Coral & Rich Plum

These four were a joblot, I really only really wanted Electric Apple and Racing Green, but I think that Flamboyant Coral and Rich Plum will be nice, and I can't believe how bright Flamboyant Coral is, people will see me coming when I use that one....

7 Shades Of Blue Round-up

As I did a round up post when I did seven days of green I thought I'd do the same with the blue polishes, it's amazing that after swatching all of these I never got smurf fingers!

You'll have to ignore that my hand looks a different colour in some of the photos, those were taken with a different light source so for some reason my hands look like red. Anyway, enjoy the polish spam....

Day 1 - Maybelline Express Finish - Ocean Blue

Day 2 - Sally Hansen Laquer Shine - Flash

7 Shades Of Blue - Day 7 - Rimmel Azure

Today's shade of blue is something that anyone in the UK can go and buy tomorrow if they like it, it's Rimmel Lasting Finish in Azure.

I thought it would be nice to feature something that is easy to find, I love seeing vintage polishes on other blogs, but it is nice to see stuff you can just pop out and buy the next day if you like it. No bottle shot today, it's straight onto the nails...

Azure is a wonderful bright blue, nearly the the colour colbalt, it's got a shimmer finish which lights it up from within, this polish really does glow.

7 Shades Of Blue - Day 6 - Barry M 287 Aqua Blue

Hey,

I thought we'd have something a little lighter after the richness of yesterdays L'Oreal, so todays shade of blue is Barry M's 287, also known as Aqua Blue.

This was another ebay find, it's one of the older Barry M's in the rounder bottles, I have to say I much prefer the modern bottles, much more sexy. :-) Anyway, let's get onto the polish...

7 Shades Of Blue - Day 5 - L'Oreal 235

Todays blue is an oldie but a goodie, and it's probably the oldest polish that I'm including in this series of posts, I wouldn't be surprised if it was nearly 10 years old.

One great thing about nail polish is that as long as the seal between cap and bottle is good most polishes will be perfect to use for years, and those that go a bit gloopy can still be saved by adding some thinner, I wouldn't put any of my 10 year old eye makeup on my face, but I have no issues with 10 year old polish on my nails. :-)

Okay, so not the best bottle shot ever, but I wanted to show you how beautiful it looks in the bottle, it's all glowing and lovely.

Now it's time to see what it looks like on the nail, I'm not even going to try to describe this polish, I'll let the polish itself and the several photos I took do all the talking...

7 Shades Of Blue - Day 4 - Revlon Smoke

Today's shade of blue is a vintage Revlon Top Speed. Smoke is a powdery blue with shimmer. I think this might be quite old, but I've no idea exactly how old, I really wish that these things had a release date on them. :-)

I adore these old Revlon bottles, I know the glass bottle shape hasn't changed over the years, but the cap has, and I think they just look so cool with the gold rings round the neck.

7 Shades Of Blue - Day 3 - Rimmel Electric

Hey, another day, and another blue polish for you. :-)

Today I've gone for something dark and sparkly in the form of Rimmel Electric, it's a dark blue base with blue micro glitter throughout, and it's from the Wear Maxx range.

This polish is probably at least five years old as I've had it for quite some time, it's one of the bottles I had before I seriously got into polish. Weirdly I've never actually worn this, being more into bright colours, I never found myself picking this one up, but after swatching it I can see that changing in the future...