Review: Born Pretty Store Flakies

It's the weekend, hurrah!  Although I did only work one day this week (and that wasn't work so much as watching people present and eating a free lunch)...but still, weekends mean family time :)  And even more so this weekend because the in-laws have come to stay!

Today I have the second item I received for review from Born Pretty Store.  Prepare yourself for holo flakie goodness.

Honestly, the pictures do not do this justice (blogger fail...oh well!).  I literally gasped when I applied it.  I do like me some sparkle...

I was a little confused by the instructions though.  Not that they weren't clear, more that I was a doubter.  So it says for a full coverage mirror look you should cure your no-wipe gel top coat and then dab it on - the pot even comes with a little applicator by the way!  Alternatively, for more of a flakie look, the instructions say to apply to your top coat before curing.  I didn't understand how it would stick after curing, so I went for the flakie look.

The flakes are mostly a lovely warm purple and dark blue.  Then there's also holo glitter in there so you get the flashes of that as well.  Frankly, it is perfection.  Oh and it's shown here over black polish for best effect of course.

I used this with gel polish as per the instructions (I'm a stickler for following the rules don't you know).  When I googled for reviews of it though whilst trying to sort out my confusion about when to apply it, most reviews I read had just used it on normal polish applied to wet top coat, so that's also an option.  If you don't use gel, you don't need to miss out!

You can find this glitter here, and the colour I've used is #3.  Don't forget, shipping is free to wherever you are in the world and you can get 10% off with the code LKL91.  And while you're there you might as well treat yourself to a few other bits...

Review: Born Pretty Store Thermal Gel Polish

Happy Thursday!

Our heatwave here in the UK is still going strong, and somehow I've survived.  We bought a gazebo earlier this week so now we can actually go out in the garden rather than cowering in the house with the blinds all closed (this skin was not made for sun exposure).

Today I have the first of my latest haul of Born Pretty Store products to show you.  Just so we're all clear from the offset - I LOVE THIS.

So what is this?  Well it's only the most fabulous thermal gel polish I have ever seen (also the only one, but let's not let that take anything away from it's wonderfulness).  I've long been a fan of thermal polishes, what with them basically being magic and all, but I haven't tried a gel one.  I was a bit dubious...I've found in the past that sometimes thermals don't work that well if you paint it on too thick, so I wondered how well it would work what with gels generally being thicker.

Well, it worked bloody wonderfully.

When it's warm, this polish is a sort of hot barbie pink.

When cold, it went to a really deep purpley mauve.  I know these are like the vaguest colour descriptions ever, but they were hard to pin down!

What I really loved about this polish is that most of the time it had an amazing gradient effect.  I have pretty cold hands and the last thermal polish I tried was just constantly the cold colour unless I put my fingers in hot water (which obviously I did).  I also love the gradual transition between the colours rather than a sharp line between the hot and cold colours.

The picture below shows the polish transitioning from warm to cold.

And lastly, for your amusement...  I have Raynauds but for some reason decided it would be a good idea to photograph this polish after taking the bins out in the cold.  Evidently my ring finger warmed up quicker than the others...

If you would like your very own fabulous thermal gel polish (and you should) you can find it here.  The colour I'm wearing is BP-11 Strawberry Shake.  Don't forget, shipping is always free and you can get 10% off your order using the code LKL91.  Happy shopping!

Born Pretty Store Shells

Bonjour!

I hope you're all having a lovely Tuesday.  They're better than Mondays at least.

I have another Born Pretty Store product to show you today.  Born Pretty Store sell about a million and one nail art products (don't quote me on that...), amongst which are these little shells.

I don't know what to call them...charms? Studs?  Anyway, you get the idea!

Now, I do like to use a stud or gem near the bottom of my nail (I did a post about it here in fact), so I thought that could be a manicure to do with these :)  Plus a little glitter gradient.  I toyed with using an aqua-ish colour for a nice mermaidy look, but I settled on a light purple in the end.

Now, because I'm a terrible blogger I can't actually tell you what polish this is.  Oops!  It's either OPI Planks A Lot or You're Such a Budapest.  I really should start making notes...  The glitter I do know!  It's Saffron 07.  I think the glitter is too chunky really - the shells are a bit lost amongst it.  Does anyone know a good fine silver glitter?  Ideally like Barry M Gold Glitter but silver (hopefully I'm not just being stupid and haven't noticed they also do a silver!).

The shells are easy to work with though :)  Could pick them up with a dampened toothpick as I normally do with all my studs, stuck on well with topcoat, and although they're a little bit 3D they don't stick out too much from the nail to be a problem.

If you'd like to 'get your shell on', check them out here.  They're only £1.63 a pack, and I didn't count how many there were, but suffice to say there's plenty for a fair few manicures..  I've shown you the 3mm ones here, but there's also a 5mm available, and both sizes available in gold.  As always, you can use the code LKL91 to get 10% off your order, and shipping is free worldwide.

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 :)

Review: Sparkly Nails

Hello everyone!

I have a few products for a new-to-me e-tailer tonight.  Sparkly Nails sell a huge range of nail art products, and even better, they're based in the UK!  That means no waiting 6 weeks to get your goodies :)

I was sent two products to review.  First up, some lovely Christmas water decals.

Now you all know I love a good water decal and these are no exception.  There's Christmas trees, baubles, "Merry Christmas"s and some pretty squiggles.  There are 20 decals in the pack, and I don't think you'd want to use one on every nail so you'd get a fair few manicures out of this.

I used OPI Flick Chick Cherry and Barry M Gold Glitter.  I didn't have any problems with the decals crinkling or the like, although I did find they needed more like 30 seconds soaking than the 15 seconds stated on the instructions.  I like that they're so delicate :)  That's exactly what you want from decals - something that you can't do freehand!

This pack costs £1.65 and you can see it here.

Next up, Father Christmas fimo!

I've never used fimo before so I don't really have anything to compare these to.  You get absolutely loads in the packet - I don't think you'd have to worry about running out of these!

I used OPI Flick Chick Cherry again, with a white nail art pen for the tips.  As you can see, the fimo pieces aren't all the same size.  Whether that matters or not depends on how you want to use them I suppose (or how OCD you are...it bothered me a little lol).  The thickness also varied a little - the one on the right was really thin and I had problems with it curling.  They are cute though, they make me laugh.  They look like little baby Santas...

These cost £1.20 and you can see them here.

There's still time to order them before Christmas as well!  UK Priority or Express will get them here in time if you order by 3pm Friday or Monday respectively.

I've just about finished packing to go home to my parents' for Christmas.  Unfortunately, there is no way my laptop's fitting in my bag, so I'm afraid I won't be blogging over Christmas.  I shall be back on 6th January.  So, I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a fabulous new year!

In Keeping With The Late Theme...

Hello lovelies :)

So 11th November was a little while ago, but today I have some poppy nails to show you.  These are water decals that I was sent from KKCenterHk.

I foolishly forgot to take a picture of the decals before I used them, so here's a picture from the website:

It's one of these full sheet ones that you just cut out the bit you want.  Shall I start with the negatives and end on a high...?  The sheet isn't big enough for all 10 nails.  I think you'd be lucky to get 7 nails maybe.  And I think I have fairly average width nails, not particularly wide.  Also they're very long - obviously that's a bonus if you have very long nails!  But it does mean if your nails are short or mid-length you're not going to fit the full design on.  That being said, I think the length of the design I managed to fit on my nails looked good :)

So here's the manicure I did!

 I used the decals over Barry M Matt White.  The decals were great to use, as always from KKCenterHK.  I used Barry M Red and Red Glitter for my accent nails, with a few splodges of glitter on the poppies as well.

You can see these decals here.  They cost $2.54 (about £1.55), and don't forget you can use the code polishedart for 10% off all orders.

I have something quite exciting coming up this week...  You may have seen the Crumpet's British Blogging Christmas, and I shall be making an appearance!  Keep your eyes peeled :)

Femme Fatale: Noble Garden & Sea Pony

Hello all :)  I hope you've had a lovely weekend (just a shame it has to end!).  I'm feeling a little delicate today...  My parents, sister and friend all came to stay this weekend for us to go to the National Wedding Show, and obviously we had to have a tipple to celebrate and...well...if I never see a glass of wine again I think I'll be happy.  Had a great weekend though!

Anyhoo, as promised, today I'm showing you the other two polishes I was sent by Femme Fatale.  They are Noble Garden and Sea Pony.

First up, Noble Garden!

What a polish.  Super super densely packed with all different size green glitters, with a sprinkling of different coloured large hexes (think pinks and oranges) and a scattering of little glitters that flash bluey-purple.  This is all in a clear base, so you can layer it over any colour you like (bet it'd look amazing over black or white!).

I used one coat of Noble Garden (yep, just one!) over Barry M Spring Green.  Application was great, with even coverage over the nail.  I reckon you could get this to full coverage without too many coats... (Should I have a go??).

Next up is Sea Pony.

Sea Pony has red and pink hex glitters in all sizes right up to those awesome extra large ones you can see, plus some small black and yellow glitters, which I think add a really interesting twist, and I love the depth that the black seems to add.  All this is suspended in a purple jelly base, which is full of these lovely teeny little bronze glitters.  The purple base is warmer than it appears here, but you know...my camera hates purple (makes me sad).

I used two coats of Sea Pony over Barry M Berry Ice Cream.  A little clumping occurred with the large hexes and I had to spread them around a bit to get a more even look, but I think this is fairly standard for glitters like this.  I finished this off with two coats of Seche Vite, just to make sure any bumps from those gorgeous massive glitters were smoothed out.

A really pretty polish with an unexpected mix of colours, and I just adore those large hexes - I think they look so good!  This one got the thumbs up from my other half :)

You can check out the full range of Femme Fatale polishes here.  They cost $10 (Australian dollars!), which is a little under £6.  Please note, the bottles I've shown here are just samples, the bottle you buy are 12ml!

Depending on where you are in the world, Femme Fatale polishes can also be purchased from:

Harlow & Co.

Color4Nails

Beauty So Fly

Norway Nails

International shipping is available direct from Femme Fatale for any British ladies (or anywhere else not served by these other suppliers!).  It is pricey though, as you'd expect, so it's worth considering group buys :)

If you have any other questions, just ask!  I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Sunday evening :)

KKCenterHk Ebalay Glitter Polish

Helloooo!  Get on my posting two days in a row, I'm a new woman!

Today I'm showing you a fab little glitter polish from KKCenterHk called EBALAY Charming Bronze Glitter Polish.

The glitter is primarily lovely bronze hexes, with a smattering of medium and small white hexes, and a few white bar glitters (skinny enough to be inoffensive!).

I layer it over Barry M Berry Ice Cream.  I think it's perfect for a glitter gradient like this :)  And although it looks beautifully soft here, it would be really striking over a darker colour.

Application was great, no issues whatsoever with the formula or brush.  I used my usual technique of two-ish coats here, and was happy with the amount of glitter and the distribution across my nail.

You can see this polish here.  It's $7.82 for a 15ml bottle (decent sized polishes - yay!), which is about a fiver in British money.  And, don't forget, you can get 10% off with the code polishedart.

I have a bit of a hectic weekend coming up, so I may do a disappearing act again until Sunday.  Tomorrow after work there's a retirement party for one of the ladies, then my parents (plus dog) are coming up Friday night, and I'm off to the National Wedding Show on Saturday!  If anyone knows of any dog-friendly pubs in the Maidstone area, do let me know!

BeautyUK: Queen of Hearts and Gold Digger

Morning all :)  I hope you're all having a lovely Sunday so far!  I'm about to begin my Sunday with a yummy cooked breakfast!

On Wednesday I showed you two glitter polishes from the BeautyUK Posh Polish range.  Today I'm showing you the other two polishes I was sent to review :)  These are Queen of Hearts and Gold Digger.

First up is Queen of Hearts.  I thought from the bottle that this was going to be quite dark and not the sort of polish I'd like, but actually it's really pretty on the nail.  It's made up of medium matte black and shiny pink hexes, with black microglitter.  It's actually quite a delicate-looking polish.

I used two coats of Queen of Hearts over OPI Skull & Glossbones.  Great coverage and great formula.  I think this would also be really pretty over a light pink.

Next up is Gold Digger.  This is primarily gold hexes, with a sprinkling of larger silver holo hexes.  The coverage of this was much better than I expected - I used two coats here.  You could probably get this to full coverage with a few more coats (or fake it with a shiny gold basecoat).

Here I'm showing it over Jessica Ruffled Bottoms.  I think this would benefit from a few more of the larger hexes, I ended up with only 1 or 2 on each nail and they weren't very noticeable.  Interestingly though, I bought this polish a year or so ago and my version is different - the glitter is a darker gold, and it has silver square glitters instead of the large hexes.  Don't know why they changed it, but I think the squares were a bit more interesting, but then the formula and coverage with this one are much better.  I could do a comparison if people would be interested in seeing that?

You can find these polishes here for £3.49 each, or they're also available in Superdrug :)

BeautyUK: Intergalactic and Twinkle Twinkle

Hello lovelies :)

I spent all night last night painting my nails (and er...drinking a bottle of wine) so I should hopefully have lots of posts coming up for you soon!

Today I'm showing you some glitter polishes I was sent from BeautyUK.  BeaultyUK is a British brand that produce colourful and affordable cosmetics.  You may have seen them in your local Superdrug :)

The polishes I was sent for review were glitters from the Posh Polish collection.  Today I'm showing you Intergalactic and Twinkle Twinkle, and you'll have to pop back later this week to see what else I was sent!

Rather than saving the best until last, I've decided to start with my favourite!  Intergalactic is a multicoloured glitter, made up of both square and hex glitters.

Intergalactic contains large hexes in gold and red, large squares in purple, green and red, medium hexes in blue, red, green and gold, as well as teeny little purple glitters.  It's pretty hard not to love a multicoloured glitter, and this is certainly no exception.  I love the little twist having some square glitters in it (and it also means you can totally justify buying it if you already own something like Technic Carnival).

Application was great - I used my normal two coat method here for this glitter gradient over OPI Skull and Glossbones.  The consistency was good, and the glitter's really dense.  Happy nail painter here.

Next up is Twinkle Twinkle.  From the bottle this looked like it was just going to be silver bar glitter, but I was totally wrong.

It's actually primarily silver holographic microshimmer, with a sprinkling of silver holo bar glitters.  Again, great consistency and glitter payoff.  I used two coats here - one was pretty enough for the microshimmer, but two gave a nice amount of bars I thought - over Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream.

Overall, I'm really pleased with these polishes - the quality is great and I think they're a bit different from what most high street brands offer.  It's nice to see brands coming up with new ideas rather than just recreating what the bigger brands have done!

BeautyUK Posh Polishes retail for £3.49 and you can check out the whole collection here.  They're also available in Superdrug, so you can pop in for an impulse buy as well!

A Little Parisian Stamping

Bonjour my lovelies.  TGIF!  Do you have anything nice planned for the weekend?  I'm off to a conference in Brighton on Monday, so me and my OH have decided to make a weekend of it.  Tomorrow night we're staying in a hotel with a jacuzzi in the room...pretty darn swish.

Today I have another product I was sent from Born Pretty Store to show you!  Born Pretty Store has a huge selection of nail art products, including loooaaads of stamping plates, which is what I'm showing you today :)

This plate is QA42, and it has lots of Paris-y images!  There are four different versions of the Eiffel Tower (which is actually the reason I chose it, and I've ended up not using any of those images!), as well as the Moulin Rouge and a couple of airmail-type images.  And Big Ben.  I don't quite understand why that's there, but there we go!

First of all I decided to use the airmail images.  I struggled a little with the image transfer, but no more than I usually do with Konad or MoYou, so I can safely say that's down to operator error.  As I mentioned when I last reviewed a Born Pretty Store plate, they don't have any backing on them.  I read a review once that said the edges were sharp, but I jabbed at myself with it (all in the name of a thorough review!) and it was fine.

I used Barry M Matt White and Bright Red for my base colours.  Then I stamped with Barry M Gold Foil and Konad Red, and added some airmail envelope tipes with my Sharpies.  I probably should've used some tape to make this neater, but you know how I hate tape...

Next I decided to go for the Moulin Rouge image!

When we went to Paris we didn't really have much time to look at the Moulin Rouge...it's in probably the dodgiest area I've ever been, so we took a quick photo and were on our way!  Then we passed a shop that had Eiffel Tower shaped...er...toys in the window.  All very charming.

Anyhoo, I used Barry M Black and stamped with Konad Red again, then added a couple of rhinestones to my other nails.

All in all, I think the Born Pretty Store stamping plates are as good a quality as any others, and at £1.29 each they're a lot cheaper than some of the alternatives out there.  You can check out this particular plate here.  Don't forget, shipping is free worldwide, and you can get 10% of any purchase with the code LKL91 (and you can use it as many times as you like!).

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Starry Starry Nails

Hello lovelies :)

Sorry I've been a little quiet recently!  I've had these photos on my laptop ready to go for days, but motivation to write a post has been at zero.  And last night I fell asleep whilst watching Coronation Street and so went to bed at 8pm.  And I'm still tired, how does that even happen??

Tomorrow I shall be venturing into theatre for the first time to watch a sentinel node surgery.  Fingers crossed I won't faint!  Then on Saturday, HOPEFULLY, my lovely fiance should finally be home!  Fingers super super crossed!

So anyway, what am I showing you today?  Some more fab products from Born Pretty Store :)  For anyone who hasn't come across Born Pretty Store before, they sell a whole array of nail art supplies and polishes (and other cosmetics if you're so inclined) at super cheap prices.  Today I'm showing you some glittery star stickers!

This is only half the pack (it's folded over).  It is seriously huge.  We're talking about 700 stickers, in a range of sizes.  So you won't have to rebuy anytime soon!

First of all I went for an all-over starry look.

I used Barry M Grey for my base and then randomly stuck some stickers everywhere, cutting some of them in half because I think they look nice when they go off the edges :)  I will reiterate that these are stickers...not that that isn't clearly stated on the pack...but...er...  I cut out my first star, dunked it into my glass of water, and waited 10 seconds.  Tried to slide it off and it wouldn't budge.  OK, must need a little bit longer.  Stuck it back in for another 20 seconds.  Still wouldn't budge.  Hmm...this is going to take a while!  Stuck it in for another 30 seconds.  STILL wouldn't budge!  As I was trying to force the thing to slide off, I bent the paper and it popped off...  Oops, not a water decal.  Most definitely a sticker.  And very easy to peel off the paper.

The stickers sat quite happily on my nails, no sticking up or curling or the like, and I don't thin top coat dulled the glitter at all.

For my second manicure I decided to use the stickers like I like to use studs, over Barry M Matt White and Orly Miss Conduct.  I used different size stars on all my nails :)  I hadn't quite given my white polish long enough to dry here, so I couldn't press my stickers down properly, which is why the corners look slightly raised here.  Top tip: don't be impatient.

Verdict?  I think they're fab.  And they're also available in other colours if you're not a fan of pink.  You can see them here.  One sheet costs only 99 cents (65p) with free shipping to wherever you are in the world.  Don't forget, if you decide to buy these or anything else on the website, you can use the code LKL91 for 10% off.

What do you all have planned for the bank holiday (if you're in the UK!) weekend?

Nelly Polish: Bodmin and Beeny

Hello lovelies :)

I had a lovely day in work today.  I started my placement in Nuclear Medicine last week, so today I was sitting in on some scans going on.  All very interesting :)  And the day just goes so much quicker when I'm not just sitting at my desk trying to get reports written!

As promised, today I'm showing you a brand new UK indie brand - Nelly Polish.  International readers, there's no need to stop reading!  We all know it's been a nightmare shipping polishes from the UK since Royal Mail decided to be big old meanies and clamp down on people posting polish.  Hilary from Nelly Polish was not to be stopped though!  Instead, she created dry nail polishes.

Yep, dry.  If you're in the UK, you can of course buy the ready made stuff.  But for all you international lovelies, you can buy the dry product and then just add your own clear polish.  This isn't just a case of she send you some pigment and glitter and you essentially make your own polish; the dry mix also includes the ingredients for the suspension base.  And it's all perfectly safe and legal to ship abroad, woohoo!

On with the pretties!

The lovely Hilary sent me two polishes to share with you - Bodmin and Beeny, from her first collection 'The Fungooms', based on the children's website created by her husband (argh, how cute!).

As you can see, Bodmin is already made up, and Beeny was sent to me as the dried product to try out (I have plenty of cheap clear polish that I've accumulated!).

First up, Bodmin!

Bodmin is a teal jelly, packed with green hex glitter of various sizes!  It's a little tealer than my camera wanted to show.  Application was great, and I used three coats here and was happy with the opacity :)  I didn't have to fish for glitters or anything and, as you can see, you get plenty of glitter on your nails!

Nelly Polishes dry to a matt finish, so I used a coat of Seche Vite (as if I wouldn't have anyway...)

Next up, Beeny!  This is where the fun starts...

The dried version of Nelly Polishes come in two forms - like I have here, where it's in the bottle, metal balls and all, and you just need to add some clear polish, or in a sachet that you can add to a bottle of clear polish.  Hilary includes instructions with her polishes, but essentially...shake shake shake.

I used W7 top coat to make up this polish.

Beeny is quite sheer, so I used two coats over a coat of Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream.  Beeny is a slightly dusty light blue, with small and medium orange hex glitter (although I'd say they look more red).

I think it's quite an unusual colour combination, but it's really pretty.  Beeny didn't seem as packed with glitter as Bodmin, so I did have to dab a little bit to get it where I wanted.

I've left Beeny sit for two days now, and those glitters aren't sinking.  There has been a little separation of the clear polish from the mixture at the top (which Hilary does warn can happen with particularly thin clear polish), but a quick shake and it's good to go.

If I'm honest, I wasn't expecting too much from these polishes.  I thought the idea was absolutely BRILLIANT, but I thought you might be sacrificing on quality for the novelty of it being dried.  But not at all!  The quality is fab, and they're sooo pretty (I actually gasped when I unwrapped Bodmin).  So give these a go!  And I'm sure you've got some cheap top coats lying around that could go to better use!

There are three ways to buy Nelly Polishes:

Nelly Polish: £6.50 (UK only)

Bottled Nelly Mixture: £5

Nelly Mixture Sachet: £4

The price of indies is what generally puts me off buying them.  But you can't complain about these prices!  Pop on over to the Nelly Polish website and see if any of the colours take your fancy :)