Black and Purple Roses

Greetings All!

There are two things I like a lot on nails, that have been well documented on this blog - roses and stamping. So why not combine the two?

I love this stamp! BM323, stamped with Konad Black and Barry M Gelly in Plum, over a base of 2true shade 11. The combinations for this one are pretty much endless!

UK Indies - TarasTalons Goes Teeny!

*These products were provided for an honest review*

Greetings All!

Here's some fun news - TarasTalons now does miniature polishes! The same as the full size - one off, glittery little potions, but half the normal size! At 5ml they are a great way to test out the brand, or if you are a bit more responsible with your money than me lol. They cost £3.50 for non-custom polishes (£5.50 for those!) and you can get all kinds of savings by buying multiple bottles. They will be offered as individual bottles, but there are also collections! For the same price as a full sized bottle (£6.50) you get two polishes!

Because I am so awesome, I was fortunate enough to be sent two very special bottles of polish to help introduce the miniatures.

Before we launch into this...I cut my nails. Yes, my beautiful, long (for me!) talons are no more! Although I loved them dearly (it's the first time they've been so consistently long), I was living in constant fear of one breaking, and I was becoming one of those people who is always scared to break a nail. That's not really me, so I took the plunge and chopped them off! They're growing back quickly though - like, really quickly.

Anyhoo, now that bombshell has been dropped, say hello to some personalised polish!

This is one coat of Special girl polish, named after a rather fabulous blog I believe...exciting much?! This is incredibly textured, so much so that it was a little difficult getting it on the nail! I think it's more glitter than polish, which did make application a bit tricky. Worth it in the end though - this is what I wanted the OPI Liquid Sands to be like (but we don't talk about them). I like the combination of red and gold, and there's plenty of holo sparkle in there too. What there isn't is any black - I must have caught something on my middle finger, that I honestly didn't notice!

Prefer your polish smooth and shiny?

Bam! 2 coats of SV later. It really brings out the sparkle, although personally I prefer it without topcoat. It isn't quite this orange in real life *shakes fist at camera*, but it is quite a brick red colour.

Mini #2 is named after an incredibly talented individual, whose fresh and flawless approach to nail art has taken the world by storm. Hahahahaha no. It's named after me!

I'm Cazzy's Polish - yes you are! *Picture me grinning like an idiot* my name is on a bottle of polish! Take that, Zoya! This is 1 coat over Special girl polish. It was actually quite difficult to get a sparse covering - this baby was desperate to go full coverage! I'll be honest, I would have preferred a clear base to this slightly pearlescent one, but the glitter payoff is brilliant, and I was saying to myself only the other day that I needed more gold glitter toppers! I must also try it as a full coverage polish, which it so clearly wants to be lol.

You can buy Tara's polishes here, in full size and miniature, along with all kinds of nail art bits - striping tape, spikes, flowers, bows, all sorts! There will be more on that story at a later date!

Tough As Nails - Spacing Out

Greetings All!

This is just about it for indie month - I guess I'll have to buy more! I got this polish in a blog sale grab bag - you pay a fixed fee, and you get a random assortment of polishes. Again, the whole 'lucky dip' element appealed to me!

Spacing Out is a black jelly filled with all kinds of blueish and holographic glitter. This is one coat over Asda Gel Pro in Jet Black. Normally I would use it on it's own, but it's only a mini bottle so I'm rationing it a bit!

Unfortunately my camera could not cope at all with this polish, for whatever reason. I'm left with pictures that  (to me) kind of look more like a painting than a photograph! I like the effect though - imagine a painting of your nails! I kind of want one now, although that would be pretty weird on the wall.

Either way, there's nothing for me to dislike about this polish - it's got black, it's got glitter, it's got holographic goodness...lovely!

You can buy Tough As Nails Lacquer here

Tomorrow, things get a little different round here!

Darling Diva Polish - Naughty or Nice?

Greetings All!

I shared with you some of my DDPs yesterday (that's Darling Diva Polishes, not Diamond Dallas Page by the way, just in case you were wondering). I initially left these two out because they are Christmas polishes, but then I thought, you can have Christmas in July. Plus they aren't the most Christmassy looking polishes ever made. So why not share them?!

So, am I on the Naughty list, or the Nice list? Let's find out!

The Naughty List, 2ish coats over...a pink. I kind of forgot which one! Pretty naughty of me lol. I think it's Sally Hansen, maybe Ballet Rouge? It's definitely in that area, somewhere (why don't I make notes?!)

It's got blue, it's got black, and it's got holo. I like it, although I think I would like it more with a bit more black. I do like that it's not particularly festive-looking - I can get away with this in Summer!

Next is The Nice List. 2 coats over Revlon Devilish (I think I picked my side already!).

This has a very sheer red tinted base, but I didn't want to put it over plain red as I thought I might lose some of the glitter. Instead I chose the darkest red I have! This is slightly more Christmassy, but not so much that you could only wear it at Christmas. I like the white glitter, especially over Devilish!

I guess on balance, I'm leaning towards The Naughty List. I'm grumpy, I say mean things about people...*ahem* I mean it's a more versatile and less festive polish! I do like them both though. Maybe in December I'll combine them, and really confuse people lol.

Darling Diva Polishes are available from Etsy.

Which list are you on?

Glitzology Pixie Dust and Rhinestone Jumpsuit

Greetings All!

I'm still persevering with 'indie month' (only three days to go lol) and today I'm showing you two polishes from the first indie brand I ever bought! Glitzology had a 50% off sale when the world was supposed to end last December (lol!), so I bought some. Seven months later and I am truly hooked on indie polishes. I do have a particular soft spot for this brand though, as it popped my indie cherry!

I bought these two in a blog sale. Glitzology polishes can be a little hard to find - the Etsy shop has been closed since March, as Stacy injured her back, so really the only way to get them at the moment is from blog sales etc. Fingers crossed she gets well soon - Diet Cokehead is my biggest lemming lol

First up is Pixie Dust, which (to me) is a bit like Fairy Dust on steroids. This is 1 coat over W7 Mauve Suede, as it seemed to be the perfect matching shade.

Matte lilac hexes, turquoise iridescent squares, holo sparkle and lots of purple microglitter. Massive amounts of glitter. You could probably build it to full coverage in two coats. It's powerful, yet delicate. It reminds me of butterfly wings, but it is super sparkly! I chose well with the base colour I think - it looks the same on my nails as it does in the bottle! Next time I think I'll put it over black *drools*.

Next is Rhinestone Jumpsuit. I layered this over Barry M BLE 2012 A, again because it was the perfect shade to match. This is 1 coat (1 coat! SO much glitter in these polishes!)

I'm not quite sure what to think of this one! It's very, very jewel-like - it reminds me a lot of those jewel encrusted brooches you get, often in the shape of animals, like leopard or parrots. Again, you could get full coverage with this fairly easily, but I found that putting it over a glittery gold matches the gold glitter in the polish, and stops it from getting too thick and lumpy. I still haven't quite decided if I like this or not - it's very over the top, almost gaudy. Pimp nails, maybe? However there is a saying among us naily people, about nails being jewels, not tools. These certainly look like jewels!

Application with both of these was OK. My experience of Glitzology is that they're a little on the thick side, they don't spread as perfectly as you might like, and they can be quite lumpy (topcoat is a must!). However I don't mind a little extra work if the polish is pretty enough. These are pretty, and so full of glitter it almost defies physics! Seriously, there is more glitter in a bottle of Glitzology than you could actually fit in the bottle, somehow.

I will definitely be scouring the blog sales for more of these! And I hope Stacy gets better soon because she does beautiful work!

Sun-Tried-Day - Darling Diva Polish Swatchathon

Greetings All!

If you are a weird stalker type, you might remember I swatched my first Darling Diva polish a couple of months ago. I was very impressed with this polish, so of course I wandered over to Etsy to look at more! After drowning in choices, I noticed a little deal - 5 for 25, that is to say 5 polishes for $25 (plus shipping). You don't get to choose which polishes you want - you get a random selection. Personally I love this, because you get that wonderful moment when you open each one, not knowing what is in there. It's like Christmas! They are also polishes that are no longer sold, so you might get something quite hard to find! Either way, I am in!

I've bought two of these 'deals' so far. From ordering to arrival took less than a week (very impressive!), and I was very, very happy with the quick service, the secure packaging, and of course the polish!

So for today's SunTriedDay, I'm showing you a few swatches (only some - I haven't even tried them all on yet!).

Lush Lacquer - Black Friday

Greetings All!

OK, so now I'm just deliberately posting indie polishes lol. I've been making the effort to try them on while my nails are a bit longer, because I feel like it's a better canvas to show them off! Plus, of all the untried polishes, an indie polish looks the most sad!

This is the first Lush Lacquer I've tried (I do own another one, but it's an untried since January!), I've seen it around and admired it, so when I had the chance to buy it, I did! Black Friday is a black jelly with loads of colourful glitter in. For these swatches, I decided to wear it a couple of ways.

This is 3 coats with no undies

It was a bit thick and lumpy, but I wanted to see how it looked all by itself. I LOVE the jelly quality of the black, and it gives a pretty good depth of glitter. It was just a bit unmanageable!

Next I tried 2 coats over W7 Black.

This gives a much better finish, but you do lose the lovely jellyness.

And finally, matte!

I'm a little bit torn here - I much prefer it without undies, but it is so thick and lumpy, it looks like I've put on false nails made of plasticine! Over black, it just doesn't have the same wow factor. Maybe I could try layering it over something like gold or silver? We'll see! Apart from that, it's beautiful!

You can buy Lush Lacquer from Etsy.