Hot Neon Mattes and Cool Polka Dots

I managed to get the lovely Traci at The Trace Face Philes to send me the fab China Glaze Poolside Collection Neons which had to be worn with a different colour on each nail... like so!

The yellow and orange were a little sheer and there was a bit of VNL even with 4 coats.  Although not sold as matte they have a lovely matte finish to them.  Perfect for such bright neons.


Well, they were just asking for a polka dot touch weren't they?!!

This is only my 2nd or 3rd use of my dotting tools and I think the first time I've used them actually on my nails, not on a nail wheel.  The dots weren't perfect but I was pretty impressed with how they turned out.  I used a random white I had to create the dots.


I had so many compliments on this mani!!!  They really caught peoples' eyes and I kept being asked who had done my nails for me!  So I think I'll have another got at this some time.  Sometimes it's hard to see it properly on your nails, but now I'm looking at it in the pics I'm really pleased!

Magnetic Mani - A Success and a Failure!!

Although magnetic nail polish came out last year, there seems to have been a revival this spring with new brands coming out with magnetic polishes, such as Barry M, along with some new magnet designs.  So I've been having a bit of a play and I had one really successful mani, and one really pants one!

First up is the successful mani I did using Nabi Magnetic Polish sent to me by my friend Ana.  I thought this was a lovely polish with a great shimmer to it.  I used the China Glaze star magnet to create this and was really impressed with it.  I found that if I held the magnet for 30 seconds it created a much stronger, defined effect but once the magnet was moved away it blurred more.

I accented my ring finger with a scattered holo top coat.

So, I really liked this mani which made me want to try the new magnetics I'd picked up from Barry M.

These are fresh colours with a couple of magnet designs we've not seen before. The black has a silver shimmer to it, the red is a pretty red, and the blue has a very denim look, which is THE colour this season.  There is another colour as well but it wasn't in stock when I picked these up.  I decided to go for the blue polish, but with what looked like a fishnet effect magnet on the black bottle.

Sadly, although a fairly pretty effect, it doesn't come out on the nail as a fishnet, more just wavy lines.  I need to play around with how long you leave the magnet over the nail as I think it would affect the pattern on the nail.  Where I really messed up on this mani was topping it with my half used, gloopy Seche Vite.  Because the SV was gloopy I didn't get a proper coverage on the nail so it left streaks, which meant it chipped pretty easily as you can see on my thumb.

The SV also blurred the magnetic effect a bit.  I didn't put SV on my pinky and you can see the difference as to how much more defined the effect is without the topcoat.  Another time I'd use drops.

Chipping on my thumb where I couldn't get an even cover with SV

You can just see how much more defined the effect is without the topcoat on my pinky.

What do you think of magnetic polishes?  Do you get on with them?  I find them quite time consuming to do but enjoy the effects.

Why Do I Collect Polish?

People often ask me why I've got so many bottles of polish.  'You can't possibly wear them all' they say.  Or, 'How do you know that you haven't already bought that particular polish?'  'Why do you need so many', and 'but they're all the same colours just different brands' are also favourite comments.  So here's a chance for me to set the record straight and explain my personal fascination about nail polish.


Firstly, it's not just about wearing it on the nails.  It's about the bottle of polish itself.  There's nothing so pretty as a whole load of polishes in different colours from the same brand in matching bottles.  No wonder so many polishaholics display their stash on shelves.  They can look so beautiful.  And every polish lover has her own way of organising her stash.


Secondly, why does anybody collect anything?  Some people collect stamps, others, china, others collect funny little toys or whimsies.  I collect polish, and at least my collection is useful, it doesn't just get stored in a book or cupboard to be looked at occasionally.  Everyone can see my collection on my nails :)


Every colour is a little bit different.  Yes, there occasional dupes, but usually every colour is slightly different, or has a different effect.  It might be matte, shimmery, glass flecked, glossy, jelly.  And it's fun tracking down that hard to find polish, or receiving a totally unexpected, surprising polish in a swap.


That's why I collect polish - what about you?

A display of essie polishes - look how pretty they all are!!

Dollish Polish Random Dancing

I decided to wear this gorgeous polish, Random Dancing handmade by Dollish Polish over Color Club's Foil Me Once.  I'm really into the indie polishes around at the minute - it's no wonder there's a shortage of base with so many people now making their own polishes.  Random Dancing is a purple base with multi-coloured square glitters.

I always apply my polish at night when the kids are in bed.  When my 1 year old came in my bed as usual in the morning after I applied this polish, she immediately grabbed my hands, inspected my nails, looked at them for ages and then tried to eat them - I think she thought they were sweets, that's how pretty this polish is!

Flash Giveaway Winner and Amazing Haul!!!

Right, sorry for the delay in getting back to you, the kids are off and I've got the most awful cold!


Well, when I counted up all the polishes they came to the grand sum of 68!!!  Which was pretty scary for just one day's haul!  There was one person who got it bang on and that was Sharon Dong.  Sharon I'm going to try to contact you because I forgot to ask for email addresses (doh) but please email me at glitterglam@writeme.com if you see this post in the meantime.


Anyway, here are the polishes!


First up, my polishes from my friend Pamela who sends awesome packages!  This one made me laugh because it came wrapped up in a box from a packet of light bulbs and tampons!!!


There's such a mix here! Including the Color Club foil collection - I'm not usually a foil fan but these are gorgeous shimmery foils.  Also a load of pretty glitters and some other lovely polishes.

21 gorgeous polishes from Pamela

Then my A England order arrived - just 2 polishes in this package!  Such holo gorgeousness.

Princess Tears and Bridal Veil

Then my first ever order from Llarowe.  The 5 on the top were what I ordered specifically and the polishes on the bottom came in my 'scratch and dent' bag - although I could find any scratches or dents!  I'm really struggling to take bottle pictures at the mo, the middle bottom one is a pale pink with fuschia and holo glitter.  The 2 in the square bottles are lovely pastel holos.

My first Llarowe :)- another 7 polishes

Next up is my ebay order which is a box set of polishes along with nail files.  Several of the polishes are duochromes.  They're cute but I'm not sure on keeping them so they might turn up in my blog sale :)

And another 7 polishes!

Then there's my Boots haul - these polishes are all for swaps tho I may have picked up a few extras ;)

Boots haul - ouch!  30 bottles (ooops!)

Well, there you have it - 68 bottles of polish and if you don't believe me - count 'em!!

New fave polish - Haze Glaze Mystique

I'm really into the indie brands of polish around at the minute - gorgeous, heavy glitter polishes made by fellow polish addicts, so they make what people want.  Sadly there aren't any over here in the UK, let alone Wales, so I'm having to ship mine in from the States.


One of my first batch of indie polishes that arrived were from the lovely Hazel at Haze Glaze.  As soon as I saw Mystique I fell in love with it.  Sadly my pictures don't really do the colour of it justice but it is a lovely blue jelly base with a hint of green, with lots of different size glitters, including my fave large hexagons.


Unlike a lot of the big glitter polishes, it was really easy to get loads of glitter particles out of the bottle and onto my nail, even the big hexes.  I was super impressed and will be obtaining more!!!

Too much polish - so a flash giveaway!!!

Time for a bit of fun.  On Saturday I had an amazing haul day.  Even more than my mega haul post back in March.  I received some epic nail mail which I have yet to post about it because it was so epic and I also bought a load of polishes that I need to send off as swaps.  Even I haven't counted up how much polish I ended up with that day.  So, as a bit of fun, a flash contest to see if you guys can guess how many bottles of polish (including top coats etc) I acquired on Saturday.


So you're not guessing totally in the dark I'll give a heads up as to what came through my door:


Polish swap from a dear friend in my nail polish facebook group
Purchase from ebay
Purchases from 2 other online stores
Purchases from Boots stores for 6 other swaps


The winner gets a bottle of Models Own Hed Kandi Ibiza Mix.  I really struggled to photograph this but trust me it is gorgeous.

To enter you need to be a follower of my blog using Google Friends Connect or like my Facebook page here.  Then please leave me a comment on this post with your GFC name or Facebook name along with your guess.  


The winner will be the person who guesses correctly the number of bottles of polish I acquired on Saturday.  If more than one person gets the correct number I will draw at random from the correct answers.  If no-one gets the correct number I will pick the closest answer.  Again, if there is more than one closest answer I will pick at random from those answers.  I have provided the prize for this giveaway.  The competition is open internationally and closes at midnight BST 11th April 2012

Fantasy Fire Giveaway Winner

First of all I have to say I am totally overwhelmed by the response I got to my giveaway.  I think I must have got about 300 new followers!!!  Thank you all and I hope to keep you entertained.  I will shortly be announcing a new giveaway to celebrate 300 followers but now I'd like to announce the winner of my Fantasy Fire giveaway...


Stephanie Jones


Congratulations Stephanie, your prize will be on its way after the Easter break.


Sorry to all those who didn't win but if you still want to get your hands on a bottle of Fantasy Fire I can still get hold of some in the shops and would be willing to buy and post a bottle to you - for further information please email me at glitterglam@writeme.com.