China Glaze All That Glitters

I just can’t resist a good dash of glitter… that is how I ended up walking past Sally’s Hair and Beauty one minute, and coming out with SEVEN new nail polishes five minutes later – eek!

I got two sets from China Glaze, one a Ho Ho Ho trio (£12.99) which I’ll write a post on later and the All That Glitters set of 4 mini colours (£9.99). Full size China Glaze polishes are 14ml and each of the minis are 9.6ml which is actually a perfect size for me as I never manage to use up nail varnishes before they start going gloopy.

I love all of these colours and I’m definitely going to get a lot of use out of all of them this autumn and winter. Today I started off by trying out Glitter All The Way, a gorgeous dark, cool toned multi-coloured glitter containing indigo, gold, green and red. Here I’m wearing two coats plus a top coat.

I’d say that with two coats the coverage is pretty much opaque, so there’s no need for a coloured base underneath – although there were a few tiny gaps here and there, but they’re really not noticeable from a short distance. The glitter particles lie nice and flat on the nail and with a top coat the finish isn’t rough at all.

I’ll update this post with nail shots of the other shades as I wear them.

03/11/2012

Here’s the first update! Champagne Kisses is a gorgeous beige glitter, containing so much shimmer it’s bordering on holographic. The finish is a bit gritty due to all the glitter but the finish is good – I went 2 days before I got some minor chipping, but I could definitely wear this for 4 to 7 days before needing to redo my nails.

Sparkling Cement

Today I just have a quick nail post to show off the sparkly greige nails that I’m sporting at the moment. For some reason I really like to match my nails to the weather (I don’t know why! I just always feel inspired by nature and love channelling the weather on my nails) so as the last of the summer is gently fading away and autumn is beginning to peep through these seemed fitting.

Here are the products that I used to create this look. I always use a base coat to protect the surface of my nails (I find that it really makes a difference to the condition of my nails afterwards) and at the moment I’ve just started using Illamasqua’s base coat. (I loved my previous base coat but it was by German brand P2 which isn’t readily available in the UK so I had to switch). It’s OK but a bit thin so sometimes I feel like I could do with a bit more protection underneath certain nail varnishes, eg those that are bad for staining.

The greige I used was 091 Smoky Canvas by Revlon which gives opaque coverage in 2 coats. I then added a couple of coats of O.P.I’s Care to Danse (that is how O.P.I spell it but if it’s a pun I’m not sure that I get it…) which I have a tiny mini bottle of from their NY Ballet minis collection this spring. I do like it but would hesitate to pay the asking price for a full sized bottle. Finally I finished off as always with the China Glaze No Chips Top Coat which I think is AMAZING and will be rushing out to buy again as soon as I finish it. This stuff extends the life of my nail varnishes like nothing else I have ever tried before and I at the moment I seem to be managing to average 5 days with my varnishes. Did I mention that I love this stuff??

Above left – right: Illamasqua base coat, Revlon 091 Smoky Canvas, O.P.I Care to Danse, China Glaze No Chips Top Coat, butterfly clip V&A museum shop

Silver Bling Nails

It’s been the wettest summer so far that I can remember since having moved to London but the sun’s finally managed to peek out from behind the grey clouds for a few hours these past few days so I decided to embrace the sunshine while it lasted and paint my nails with a mega-bling chunky glitter polish.

This is Techno by China Glaze which I got in a 2-for-£10 offer in Sally’s Hair and Beauty.  The price (mid) to quality (high) ratio of China Glaze means that it’s my favourite make of nail varnish at the moment.

I really like this nail varnish.  It can be worn as a top coat or on its own for some unadulterated glittery bling.  There’s a mixture of fine silver glitter and larger hexagonal chunks and you get a decent amount out on the brush each time without having to resort to scooping.  Here I’m wearing 3 coats as I wanted really dense coverage but it also looked good with one and two coats.  As with any glitter it was difficult to capture a good representation of the sparkle in just one photo so I put together a small collage with a few snaps from different angles.

Tree Hugger nails

I bought a ton of new make-up this weekend…but don’t worry, I actually broke my New Year’s Resolution not to buy more make-up ages ago so all my guilty feelings are out of the way already ha ha.  I thought I’d start working my way through posting about my new goodies with a quick post on one of the new nail varnishes that I picked up.

Every spring I always go on the hunt for the perfect green nail varnish.  Ideally I’m looking for a pistachio, but this shade from China Glaze looked like good fun and only worked out at £5 thanks to a special offer (there’s a Sally’s Hair and Beauty on Shaftesbury Avenue in Soho that has a limited range of China Glaze polishes) so I decided to pick it up anyway even though my search for my ideal green goes on.

I only discovered China Glaze polishes in December but now I have five shades and a topcoat and I’m becoming a big fan.  They’re probably my second favourite brand of nail polish after BarryM even though the quality of China Glaze is slightly better but you have to love BarryM for their amazing range of colours at only £2.99 a pop (China Glaze costs around twice as much).

Deck the Halls by China Glaze

I have some more festive nails to show you tonight, but it’s only fair that I warn you first to prepare yourselves for some major bling!

I got this Christmas trio by China Glaze from Sally’s Hair and Beauty for £12.98.  I’d never tried China Glaze nail polish before and I was keen to do something Christmassy with my nails so this seemed like it would provide me with some good inspiration.

The pack comes with three 14ml nail polishes in Poinsetta (bright red), Twinkle lights (multi-coloured glitter) and Champagne Bubbles (gold + silver glitter).  The glitter in Champagne Bubbles isn’t that obvious from looking at it in the bottle but you can see it clearly once it’s on the nail.

The brushes are long and thin and very nice to work with.  I don’t know how much you’ll be able to tell from these shots but anyway here’s a look at Poinsetta.

I found the application really easy.  The brush holds the varnish really well and allowed for a lot of control.  Here’s how my nails looked after one coat of Poinsetta and Champagne Bubbles.

As you can see the varnish is quite thin which meant that the first coat dried very quickly.  I added a second coat after a couple of minutes which was enough for a nice even finish.

Poinsetta is definitely my favourite of the two, it has such a bright and even finish.  I’ll definitely be wearing it throughout the year, whereas I found Champagne Bubbles a bit ‘80s and brash so I think I’d just save this for the festive season.

I’m really having a glitter phase at the moment so I went ahead and added a topping of Twinkle Lights.  It’s absolutely packed with glitter in gold, green and red and these are the results after just one coat on top of Poinsetta and Champagne Bubbles.

Funnily enough, although I prefer Poinsetta on its own I think that Twinkle Lights looks better over Champagne Bubbles.  I’ll definitely be trying Twinkle Lights both on its own and over different colours too. 

I’m really pleased with the results so far – the consistency of the polish is perfect as it’s thin enough to dry quickly but opaque after 2 coats, and the glitter top coat only requires one coat for dense coverage so yes, it’s a definite thumbs up from me for this festive trio.