Barry M Countess (+dupe?)

Hello hello hello!

So yet again I've been rubbish at posting - it's this wedding I tell you!  Come September I'll actually have time to paint my nails again.  The other half is away this weekend on his stag, and I've actually run out of wedding-related things to do (for the time being...) so I thought I should take the opportunity to write a few blog posts!

I'm still working through the back log of photos, so today I have a swatch of Countess, from the Barry M Royal textured glitter collection.  This is yet another polish that I bought really soon after it became available thinking I could get some swatches up while there still weren't many about...and then didn't post them for several months.

I decided just to pick up the one polish from this collection, since I have a well-established dislike of textured polish.  I thought at least one was worth a go though, since I hadn't tried any sparkly textures before.  For some reason I chose Countess - it is a mystery to me why I keep buying colours like this when I hate them on me, but there we go.

Here it is in all it's lumpy glory!

Yum...  So yeah, I hate it just as much as I hated all textures I tried before this.  It is super sparkly though!

Ooooooooooh!

So anyway, I was looking at this abomination on my nails and thinking it looked quite similar in colour to Cirque Planet Caravan.  Except that the Cirque isn't a texture of course.  So I did a quick comparison, adding some Seche Vite to the Barry M to smooth it out.  Cirque on index and ring, Barry M on the others!

So...I was kind of right?  Clearly not dupes but the colours are very similar - that sort of black base with purple shimmery particles through it.  The particles in Countess are clearly bigger than in Planet Caravan though.

I actually prefer the Barry M, it's more sparkly and I do love me some sparkle!  For me, the Cirque is just too dark and vampy.  In terms of formula though, you obviously need to topcoat the Barry M if you want it to look like this, and although I haven't done a wear-test with this particular polish, I generally find Barry M polishes chip after a day or two.  This is the only Cirque I own, and the application is lovely.  You may remember I used this for a comparison of two different top coats - turns out this polish just does not chip!  And it smells of lavender, always a bonus!

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend, whatever you're doing :)

GIVEAWAY! More prizes added!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER

Hello lovely ladies!  Just a reminder that there's still time to enter my #guessthepolish giveaway!  The competition will close at midnight Sunday, so get your guesses in before then.

A quick recap:

Just guess which UK brand the polish featured is from.  One winner will be chosen at random from all those who guess correctly to win a bottle of the mystery polish along with some other nail goodies (and maybe even some sweets if I'm feeling generous).

EXTRA PRIZE!  Another winner will be chosen from all remaining entries to win a bottle of the mystery polish.

So make sure you get your guesses in before the deadline.  You don't even need to be right to be in with a chance of winning!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER

If you'd rather enter on Facebook, you can do so HERE.

#guessthepolish

Evening ladies!

So, as promised, a little competition...

I was contacted by a company asking me to participate in hosting this competition (so you may have seen this on a few other blogs as well!) and it seemed like fun, so why the heck not!

It's simple enough, just guess what brand the polish is!

This colour is one of 22 released in a new core collection by this brand.  It's like seriously super shiny (not that it really matters because everything gets Seche Vited anyway, but I'm still impressed by a shiny polish).  I've had it on for 5 days now and my left hand is still chip-free (my right hand would be too but I broke a nail).  That's pretty good going seeing as everything seems to chip on me at the moment.  Nothing to do with the fact that my nails are feeling slightly sorry for themselves after I picked off gel polish (I'm suitably ashamed of myself).  I also love this colour - it's a proper true red.  Not pinky, not orangey, not dark, just RED.  Faaaabulous.

So...should I give you some clues?  Hmm...

OK...let's see...this is a British brand and it's widely available in the UK.  That's all you're getting.

To enter, just leave your guess of what brand this polish is from in the comments (or on the Facebook post here if you'd rather).  All those who guess correctly will be entered in to a prize draw (well...an Excel spreadsheet with a random number generator) and one winner chosen at random.  The winner will receive one bottle of the mystery polish plus a few extra goodies from myself :)  

Giveaway closes midnight on Sunday 8th June 2014.

This is unfortunately UK only - sorry international ladies, but if I try to send it abroad Royal Mail will just destroy it because they're mean like that :(  Also, goes without saying, but anonymous comments won't be eligible, as I'll have no idea who to contact if they win! Winners will be contacted through the account they use to enter - so if you use Facebook please keep an eye on your others folder. Winners will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

I think that's everything you need to know.  Good luck everyone!

EDIT:  Another prize added!  One winner will be chosen at random from ALL entries (even uncorrect ones) to win a second bottle of the mystery polish!

Born Pretty Lace Decals

Hello lovelies!

So it's a bank holiday weekend and naturally the weather is glorious!  Haha, I jest of course.  It's the middle of the afternoon and it's so grey outside that I've actually had to put the lights on.  And genuinely, I don't know how it's possible for there to be so much rain.  Another one of those moments I'm glad I love in a top floor flat.

British summer is the best.

Anyway, I really need to give the flat a good clean today ready for my fiance's return tomorrow.  But obviously I (and my nails) hate cleaning, so instead I'm posting this Born Pretty Store review.  This time I have some more of their wonderful decals, for quick, simple nail art :)

So these are the decals!

They're lace sort of designs, and you get 10 black and 10 white.

Let me firstly apologise for the quality of this photo...I did these while I was up in Liverpool and didn't have my light box!

Anyway, so yes, this is what I did with them:

I used them over OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons.  I think from the shape of them they're really intended for almond shaped nails, so they kind of didn't really fit very well on my nails.  And some on them I thought were very small compared to others (i.e. my middle finger) so I had to add in a few little black dots on all the nails to try and balance them out a bit.  And then I thought they still looked a bit odd with just a touch of black lace on the tips, so I sponged some Barry M Gold Foil on to try and make the rest of the nail a bit more interesting.  In hindsight, I'd sponge the gold on first so that you could put the lace overlapping it.

If you've read any of my Born Pretty Store reviews before, you'll know I'm a HUGE fan of their water decals.  But honestly?  I was really disappointed with these.  Not just the shape, because that might be fine for other nail shapes.  Not just the size, because that's down to personal taste.  But they were NOT easy to use.  They kept folding over on themselves when I slid them off the backing paper and I couldn't unstick them, which meant I ended up with bits that I couldn't use (so I stuck them off the end of my nail) making the decals smaller.  I've never had this problem with any other Born Pretty Store decals, so I don't know if these were thinner than all the others I've used or is it was just because of the sort of long thin shape of them.

If I haven't put you off though and you do want to try these out, you can see them here.  Each sheet costs £1.18, and as always you can get 10% off these or anything else on the website with the code LKL91.

Happy shopping! And I hope you all have a lovely weekend (fingers crossed for some sunshine tomorrow...).

Born Pretty Store Chains

I didn't disappear again, honest!  I had an exam last week so I went in to hermit revision mode.  Don't know why I bothered though - it was awful!  Wine in the pub afterwards was lovely though...all's well that ends well.

I have a few Born Pretty Store nail art products to show you again, the first of which is this chain:

I've seen these around for a while, and I'm always somewhat intrigued by them.  They don't seem like they'd be the easiest thing to use!

It turns out they weren't too bad actually :)  I snipped them with some nail scissors (easy enough as long as you cut between the beads!) and stuck them on with top coat.  I actually - you may want to sit down for this - used tweezers to position the chains.  I know right...  My mum bought me some great angled tweezers for Christmas which I now use for everything.

I did some skittles so you could get a few ideas how to wear them - that's a heart on my thumb in case you can't tell (it's totally obvious from a different angle, ahem...).  I just did this manicure for this review, but if I was wearing it longer I'd probably file down the beads overhanging the tip of my little finger if going for that sort of look.  The beads aren't too dense so I think it would be do-able.  And I almost forgot!  The polish is OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes.

If you like what you see, you can purchase this chain (and a whole host of other colours) here.  It's £1.54 and you get a whole metre.  That's a lot of beads.  Don't forget, you can use the code LKL91 for 10% off and shipping is free to wherever you may be in the world.  Happy shopping :)