NOTD: Technic Carnival "Jawbreaker Nails"

Yet another product that I received from Fiona today! Clearly the girl knows how to put together a giveaway. So many gems!
I've seen this particular nail varnish all over the blogosphere and beyond being hailed as a dupe for OPI's Rainbow Connection and Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday (which will set you back more than £10) - and a fabulously cheap dupe at that. Sadly I don't have Rainbow Connection or Happy Birthday to compare but there are a ton of comparisons out and about on the internet!

Here's a slightly blurry photo to give you a good idea of what's inside Carnival. It contains a mix of medium and small sized hexagonal glitter pieces in gold, red, blue, green and silver suspended in a fairly thick, clear polish. A lot of people have worn this over a nude base but I personally wanted it to really jump out and decided to apply over white polish.

I plumped for White Tip by Famous. I actually bought it about 18 months ago and the company has since gone under a serious rebranding so I can't comment on the quality of the products that they now make but I can say that they're a hell of a lot cheaper! I bought mine in my local Superdrug (Famous counter has since disappeared) but you can find the products online here. Not a lot can be said about White Tip, it was opaque in two coats and had a fair drying time.
Technic's polishes come in OPI-shaped bottles and contain 15ml of product. The glass is thick and heavy based which makes it much less likely to tip over than some other brands. Application was a bit awkward and did need some "blobbing" to get it spread evenly across the nail. I found the best technique was to brush it against the tip of the nail (leaving a big blob of glitter on top) and then apply from there, dragging it backwards down the nail.

Once dry my boyfriend took one look at them and declared that my nails looked like tiny jawbreakers! I thought that was so adorable and had to agree! They certainly do have a jawbreaker-esque feel about them. I wore this to my cousin's 14th birthday party and she and her friends loved them. Seal of approval if I ever heard it. Like pretty much every glitter polish, it's a pain to remove, but I think it's worth it.

So there you have it, an amazingly cheap glitter polish that's near impossible to hate, despite the blobbing. I've seen people saying that they've found this for 99p but the cheapest place I've found it (and from a company I now trust) is at Love Thy Make Up for £1.25. Technic is a company that is fast cementing a place in my heart and I actually bought a whole host of Technic goodies that I can't wait to share with you!

Have you tried Carnival or either of the dupes? Do you have an Technic recommendations?

Lauren