Graceful Glamour UK

With flash.  I'm not really a bright red nail polish wearer, but as you know I've been trying to broaden my horizons in the polish department so I thought I would try a Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear one. I've been really loving this line and I've got Cherry Red to show you.  She is a really lovely bright, true pillar box, creamy red. I can't believe how much I adore this colour! There is no shimmer art all, but somehow she manages to almost glow. Without flash, artificial light. I couldn't fault the formula one little bit. She was pretty much opaque at one coat, but you know I always like to add a second. The formula is neither too runny or thick, and is very forgiving. Drying time is good and you get a beautiful shiny finish. These pictures are with Sally Hansen Continuous Treatment as a base coat and no top coat. That's all from me for now, I hope you are well. Take care, byeeeeeee x :-)

With flash  I've been absolutely loving bright colours at the moment, I'm sure you've realised by now. For this weeks Pink Wednesday I decided to go for Sally Hansen's Hot Magenta . She is an absolutely stunning shiny, shimmery hot magenta. I suppose that was probably a given considering the name, but she really is true to it. Formula wise she is a smooth two coat dream, glides perfectly on to the nail and drying time is very quick between coats. I'm absolutely adoring this Xtreme Wear line of polishes and I'm absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt going to be purchasing more of them. Without Flash  I wanted to add a little something extra so applied four of my Ciate Roses, and a large pearl to the ring finger. I'll keep it quick as it's very late and I've had a tough day. Are you rocking a pink mani this Wednesday? I'd love to know what you are wearing. Take care all, byeeeeeee x :-)

With flash. I am in a very good mood today as I finally went to see the house I have been waiting for. Not only that, but because the house isn't finished yet, the landlord is going to decorate according to how I want it! How good is that? I get to decide on tiles in both the kitchen and bathroom and then the paint for the rest of the rooms. I am meeting with him in two weeks to finalise the decisions. Today I have another polish from Borghese, Castello Blue. This is a nice very pale dusty blue, with lots  of grey in. The colour is very creamy with zero shimmer.  Formula wise I hated her! She was streaky, terribly difficult to work with and took three very awkward coats to reach opacity.  To be honest though, she could have used a fourth, but as I decided to stamp I left it at three.There was terrible drag from the brush for the second and third coats which was also a pain. Drying time was good, but also made application more difficult when overlapping. ...

With flash. Now, you may have realised, but I'm really getting in to my blue and purple nail polishes recently. It's really strange, as up until recently I only had a handful, can you believe it? It's funny, I feel like I'm growing as a 'polishista'. Hmmmm, is that even a word? But hopefully you'll get what I mean. You may have seen I got this little lady in a recent haul and I have to say, the bottle is teeny tiny! I am of course talking about Essie Smooth Sailing . As soon as I saw her I was really excited as the colour appeared in the bottle to be very similar to one of my favourite polishes, OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam.  Smooth Sailing is a gorgeous periwinkle blue with silver shimmer that sometimes flashes a little pink in the bottle, but on the nail I can only see silver.  Without flash, artificial light.  Compared to the OPI she is slightly deeper blue and less dusty. The shimmer is only silver, whereas the IDGAR's...

2 Coats With Flash A couple of weeks ago I did a mani based on a film for the We Love Nails group and I chose Cinderella, if you didn't see it you can click here  . At the time I promised you a review of the base colour, Jessie's Girl in Stiletto  so here you go.  This is another of the polishes from 2011 JulieG Collection . I have been so happy with the polishes from the rest of this collection, and this little lady is no exception. She is a taupe, but not like any I've ever seen. I would call her a browny, beigey, grey taupe with a fabulous silver shimmer. I like to call her my nude with attitude! I don't have anything that is even remotely similar in my collection so she's a great addition.  As above but no flash and taken in artificial light. Similar to the other polishes in this collection, the formula was beautifully smooth and very forgiving. I did use two coats for my mani, but I reckon if you are careful you could do it in just one....

SC Starfish, 2 Coats With Flash.  I know I said I was going to show you the stamping tomorrow, but as I had it ready I thought I would let you see it a little early. I had a pretty horrible experience yesterday, I was quite innocently walking to the shops with my little girl in her buggy and a car reversed up the curb and hit us. Basically, the man driving the offending vehicle couldn't get out of his parking space, and didn't look as he reversed straight in to us! But to make matters worse when I screamed and was upset he'd hit us, he started shouting at me saying I should have realised he was blocked in and that he would have to mount the pavement and waited for him to do so. Hmmmm.  For my base colour I decided to go with Star Fish from Sinful Colors . She is a beautiful soft dusky pink with a slight lilac undertone and a crelly texture. I was actually kind of surprised by this as she looked rather more creamy in the bottle but I'm really pleased as s...

No flash Well here we all are then, where on earth has this week gone? In fact, how the devil did we get to July without me realising it?! I really notice how time is flying by how grown up my daughter is getting. I know, I know, she's only just over 15 months old, but this time last year she was a little baby who didn't even sit up yet and now she's running around, talking and playing football! As you know I've been really loving the Sally Insta Dri line of polishes and today I have swatches of Metallic Momentum to show you. She is a stunningly beautiful silver foil, but with a beige olive tinge to her. It's such an interesting colour and very different to anything I have, or have seen available. With Flash Her formula is very nice and opaque and as usual for my Insta Dri swatches the index and middle fingers have 2 coats, and the ring  and pinky have just the one. As you can tell, the one coat is beautifully opaque, but two just gives it some extra...

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. Finally I'm starting to get a bit more sorted with all my boxes thank God, as I was starting to think it was a never ending job. I also heard from my letting agent and I can see a brand new house that I've been waiting for, yay! It is a bit smaller than my last house, but it will be fine for me and my little girl. I already think I'm going to take it, but I know I should look before finally making up my mind. With Flash So today I have another of the Sinful Colors polishes, Let's Talk . Now I have to tell you that my pictures do this colour no justice at all, it seemed like every time I took a picture, the colour changed! I suppose it didn't help that I had to take my pictures in the evening under a fairly 'sucky' light. I would say that the picture without flash is probably closer to her real beauty. From the other bloggers swatches of her, I think they had similar problems to me as they all seem to differ quit...

With Flash  Well, I still haven't managed to sort out everything from the house. I don't know how long it's going to take me to get through, but it seems the more I sort, the more mess I'm in! I know that apart from Laser yesterday, I've been mostly going for some bright colours recently so I thought I'd tone it down a bit and go for something completely different. Sinful Colors Winterberry is a very different and interesting gal indeed! In some lights she looks like a deep purpley taupe with silver shimmer, and in others she looks more grey with just a slight purple undertone. Yes she's more comfortable when it's cold outside, but she's braving the heat with me today. No Flash  Formula wise, this went on like a dream much the same as the other Sinful Colors polishes I've tried. One coat would have been ok, but you know me, I HAVE to use two! Drying time was nice and quick  and the beautiful shiny finish meant that I didn't nee...

With Flash   My goodness, it never rains but it pours. I thought that once I was moved out of my house I would have much more time to do blogging and catch up on my reading lists etc, but boy was I wrong! First off, I have way too much stuff to fit in my parents house and garage so I'm having to condense by re-packing and also throwing out/donating to charity shops. But to make things worse, my poor little girl has four back teeth coming through, tummy problems and just will not sleep at night. But look how much I've rambled, so let's get on with todays nail polish. This post is all about Sally Hansen's Laser . This is one of the polishes from their HD line so I had high hopes for her. She is essentially a blue jelly base, with very dense blue glitter that can sometimes flash purple in the right light. I have to admit, this one looks much better in the bottle as the purple is kind of lost on the nail, boooooo! No flash As you can tell, I didn't get...

Je ssies Girl cupcake Frosting, 2 Coats, no top coat, with flash. Here we have another stunning nail polish from Jessie's Girl , this time it's Cupcake Frosting . Until a couple of months ago I would never have worn a bright pink like this, but as my polish obsession is just starting to take off, I'm beginning to be a little more adventurous. Actually, I've been pushing myself more and more out of my comfort zone and my collection is beginning to be much more varied and fun! Let me start with the colour, she is a stunning medium bright pink with a cream finish. There are some blue undertones in there which makes her great for pale girls like me. I think I need some more bright pinks like her, what do you think? As above without flash.  The formula was a dream the same as the other Jessie's Girl polishes I've used, goes on smoothly, very forgiving and dries quickly. To get this lovely opaque finish I used two coats but no top coat, and look at tha...

Borghese Milano Taupe with flash. Whoooopppppsss! This post was meant to go up before the swirly stamping one, but with all the confusion of moving properly from my house this week, I'm afraid this was saved as a draft instead of being scheduled. But here she is, the beautiful Milano Taupe.  As you know my polish tastes are branching out somewhat from the nudes and pastel pinks, but when I saw this little beauty on Cosmetic Kingdom, I had to pop her in my basket. It seems that 'taupe' seems to be a popular colour at the moment but there are so many different variations of what it is. There seems to be grey, purple, brown or pink ones and to be honest, I would say she sits somewhere between the purple and pink 'taupey land'.  The formula was nice, it seems a little thin on the first coat but levels up and is more opaque with the second, but I still needed a third for a better finish. What I didn't like about this was the brush, with a weir...

Hi all, I hope you are having a better day than me. I'm finding myself more and more stressed all of the time at the moment and seriously need a holiday! It's mostly due to my current housing situation and a few other things too. So if my next few posts make me sound a little tightly wound, then you'll realise why.  I recently got a few nice polishes in a haul and everyone seemed to be most interested in the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri's so I thought I would do a few swatches and review for you. These seem to be fairly popular in the blogging world as you can use them for stamping. My swatches show two coats on the index and middle, and just the one on the ring and pinkie for Pink Blink and Blue-Away but just one coat for Raspberry Race. I only used one coat for Raspberry Race as she looked opaque enough to me, but in the pictures it shows I could have used a second. Let's start with Pink Blink, she is a beautiful pale pink cream which is very girl and sweet. ...

Orly Top 2 Bottom, 2 coats SH Wild Life, no top coat, with flash.  Today I have the beautiful shiny Sally Hansen Wild Life from the Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear line. I got this together with some other polishes in my haul from Cosmetic Kingdom ( click here to see the haul ). First of all i just want to say WOW! Isn't she striking? These were taken in the evening so my lighting is not the best, but I'm hoping you can tell how incredible she is. I'd call her a fuchsia which leans purple with a stunning metallic finish.  Formula wise she is quite thin, but also pigmented  and easy to work with, so two coats is enough to give you this lovely opaque coverage. The drying time is super duper quick and this lovely shiny finish is with no top coat, just her natural loveliness. This felt so smooth and nice after just a few minutes, I even went rooting around in my handbag for something and I'm happy to report no casualties!  As above, no flash, in ...

Orly Top 2 Bottom, 2 coats JG Mermaids Lagoon, no top coat, with flash. This is my first experience with a Jessie's Girl Polish, but I have to say I'm very pleased. The first time I heard about Jessie's Girl Cosmetics was on JulieG's Youtube channel (she's fab btw) so it's actually kind of great that my first product from them happens to be from the JulieG Nail Polish Collection! This gorgeous teal delight is called Mermaids Lagoon , and I think this is a fantastic name for her. She is a deep teal colour with some gorgeous subtle golden shimmer. I'm so out of my comfort zone with this colour, but I'm finding myself more and more happy outside of it. As above, no flash. I couldn't ask for more in the way of formula, this was opaque in just one coat, but really pops with a second coat. I think that the golden shimmer also seems to shine through more with the second coat. Drying time is kind of average but the finish is just lovely so ...

Orly Top 2 Bottom, 2 Coats OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?, Orly Top 2 Bottom, with flash.  Hi all, here I am again. Today I have a really interesting nudey polish to show you called,  Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh ? This nude little gal is originally from this years Holland Collection. This is one polish of three that  that I got in a recent haul ( click here to see the haul ). This is a really nice creamy nude which is a cross between putty and khaki. It's so refreshing to see a nude that has green undertones, it makes it really neutral but different to allot of other nudes out there. The formula was really nice on this one, she's a great creme polish to work with and is a little thicker than some other nudes, so you only need to paint two coats to get this fab opaque coverage. She dries lovely and quick between coats, and gives you a nice shiny finish. The pictures shown are with Orly's Top 2 Bottom top coat, although it was fairly shiny without it. ...

Orly Top 2 Bottom, 2 coats Ciate Jelly Bean, no top coat, with flash. I know,I know, I'm doing an awful lot of posts about nail polish recently, but I can't help it! I think that you should always write about what you know and what you are really loving at the moment. I am completely polish obsessed and proud of it. This Juicy little beauty really does look good enough to eat, doesn't she? Ciate Jelly Bean is a fantastic bright pink with some very subtle blue shimmer throughout. The blue shimmer looks allot more prominent in the bottle and almost disappears on the nail. To be honest I think this beautiful pink stands on it's own without the shimmer though. What do you think? Formula wise this lovely creme polish is outstanding as I've found with the other Ciate I've tried. She was opaque with the first coat, but as you know I always have to do two, and I think the extra coat makes the colour more vibrant. Drying time was good and a lovely finish, it ...

Before you say/ think it, I know what a terrible clean up job! But as I was going to stamp over it a few minutes after I took these pictures, I just did it quickly because I was losing daylight. I'm finding this stamping business very addictive and feeling the need to stamp over nearly all my mani's at the mo. So I'm going to talk to you about Essie's French Affair . As I've mentioned more than once, I'm absolutely loving Essie as a brand and this polish is no exception. This pretty little lady was from last years A French Affair Collection. I really liked the polishes from that collection and I have two others, Topless and Barefoot, and Sand Tropez. She is a gorgeous pale pink cream with a tint of lavender. I was a little worried how the formula would be as I'd seen a couple of reviews that said it was troublesome. I had no problems with her and my pictures show three coats to give a nice opaque creamy finish. This is another win for Essie a...

Orly Top 2 Bottom, 2 coats Ciate Bon Bon,,  Stamping White Konad, Orly in a Snap Top Coat , with flash.  Puja from Cute Nails has set up a new group called We Love Nails . I will be doing a nail challenge every week on a Tuesday. If you'd like to know more,  click here   to check out the post on Puja's blog, This weeks challenge was to do a french or reverse mani, so I got my stamping plates out! I decided to use one of my new freebie polishes as the base colour and I chose Ciate Bon Bon . She is a beautiful purpleish taupe and sooo pretty! I wont go too much in to detail about this polish now, as I have a review of her coming soon!  As above, no flash. For the stamping I used this absolutely gorgeous design from my Bundle Monster plate BM217 with Konad White. The design is actually flowers, but I think it gives a beautiful lacey effect, don't you? I have to admit, I found it a little difficult lining up the design on t...

Orly Top To Bottom, 2 coats OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam, Orly In A Snap,  with flash. I've really been getting in to my stamping lately, but this polish is so pretty that I had to leave it alone in all it's glory. I only got this in my nail mail yesterday (click here if you haven't seen it) and I knew I wanted to put it on straight away, so here it is. Let me introduce you to OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam . This gorgeous polish is from the recent Holland Collection and I'd admired her on other blogs.  She is a gorgeous dusty mid-blue with subtle purple undertones and some special shimmer in it. The shimmer is special as in some lights it looks silver and in others gold, ooh magic! The way the shimmer seems to sit on the colour, it gives it a nice textured appearance and this is what makes it unusual. As above without flash  Formula wise it went on really well. The first coat had some patches, but by the second coat that all evens out for a beau...