NOTD: Models Own in Juicy Jules and Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Prickly Pear

It's taken me a long time to purchase any of the Gelly Hi-Shines from Barry M and I'm not really sure why... Fast forward from 3 weeks ago and I've now got a mini collection of six shades which I'll be reviewing once I've finished swatching but, spoiler alert, I really like them! Prickly Pear is a beautiful pastel lilac which is perfect for Spring. I decided to pair it with Models Own Juicy Jules just to inject a little girly glamour into the look. I've recently been on a week long varnish ban to give my nails a rest since they were beginning to get a little dry and even flaky in some places. I can report that after some intensive moisturising they're back on form and look lovely and healthy! I definitely recommend taking a week out and applying some thick moisturiser (I used The Body Shop Shea Body Butter) if your nails are looking less than perfect. It felt really weird having naked nails for so long and I feel much better now I have my colourful talons back!

I think this is a fab combo. Sadly the glitter wasn't photographing very well but I can assure you it looks lovely and catches the light beautifully with pink and green shimmers. I'm wearing two coats of Prickly Pear here and one coat of Juicy Jules. This is the first time I've tried to do something like this using a glitter polish but it was really easy and worth the little extra effort.

Have you been embracing the Spring shades lately (despite the weather not cooperating)? What do you think of my look?

Lauren

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

Christmas NOTD: Nails Inc, Aldford Street

As you all know I was recently very very lucky and won a giveaway from Ellie at Misellyre which included three Nails Inc polishes. The second I saw Aldford Street (a bright gold glitter) I knew it would be adorning my fingers for Christmas.

It's not quite so thick as it looks on my fingers because I painted on four gorgeous layers of the stuff. I was originally going to do just one layer over a layer of Barry M's Nude, but comically I literally could not open the bottle so I had to give up on that. Frankly I'm glad I did because I don't think it would have looked half as nice as this does! I didn't really need four layers, I just kept on painting away because it was so pretty and I wanted to see how good it could get (seriously good.) It's a beautiful multi-faceted shade that includes tiny specks of green and pink shimmer sparsely strewn throughout the polish. You can't see them straight away, in fact I've found that they can only be seen in low artificial light. It dries amazingly fast and is a lot more forgiving to smudges (I had one teensy accident on my right index finger when I put my socks on)This is actually my first ever glitter nail varnish and if they're all like this, then I'm a convert.

What's your favourite glitter polish?

Lauren