Cirque – Queen Majesty

Here are the sparkles I had on my nails over the weekend. Actually quite a bit longer than just the weekend as Thursday and Friday were local holidays soi think I had this on for about 5 days. I rarely get to test the durability of a polish but I was amazed that after a long weekend of camping and going to the beach my nails looked pretty much as awesome as when they were freshly painted! There was zero chipping and minimal tip wear and this polish looked insanely beautiful in the bright sunshine!

I was impressed with the amount of sparkle when I put it on in the evening but utterly amazed by just how glittery it was while sitting on the beach admiring my nails, tilting them to see all the amazing sparkles and reflections in the light.

I used two coats of Queen Majesty over two coats of Picture Polish’s Violet Femme. This is the first polish I’ve bought from Cirque and I’ll definitely be back for more cos I love this one!

My picture was taken indoors under artificial lights and it just looks so much better in natural light. I will have a trawl through my holiday snaps and see if I have a shot that shows them in their full glory and add it in later.

L’Oreal Pistachio Drage and Coco Tweed

These are the last of the L’Oreal polishes I bought and decided to swatch and share with you. The tweed topper is also my least favourite of the three I tried. Where I really liked the unusual colour combinations in Jackie and Grace Tweed, Coco Tweed in black and white just doesn’t excite me as much. I think I like the subtlety of the other polishes more and feel they’re a lot more wearable for me. They also feel pretty and summery which is great now that it’s hot and sunny every day and I’ve got all my summer clothes out. Coco Tweed is probably more suited to autumn and winter which is not what I’m feeling right now! It does apply really easily, just like the other Tweeds.

I do, however, love Pistachio Drage which is a perfect pale green, very fresh and spring like with a nice application (2 coats in the picture). I can see myself getting a lot of use out of this one.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my swatches. I usually stick with nail art on this blog but think it’s nice to have something different from time to time, especially when I find a polish or collection that I think is fun and worth showing.

L’Oreal Peach Neglige and Jackie Tweed

Here’s the second of the L’Oreal polish combinations I bought in the three for two sale. I was most excited about Grace Tweed but bought the other two in the collection as well and am really surprised by how much I like Jackie Tweed!

I was really sceptical about these polishes when I saw them in the bottle but they look so much nicer on the nail than I thought they would. Jackie Tweed makes me think of ice-cream sprinkles and is a really fun one for summer.

I’d realised I didn’t own much in the way of peach polishes so was really happy to find a peach I liked and I think the tweed topper goes well with this shade

Sunday Sparkle: Voodoo – Giddy Polish

This is the last of the Giddy Polishes I have to show you. It’s very different from the other three polishes in the Magic Collection. It’s described as “a deep purple with beautiful blue, purple and red shimmer” which is a pretty accurate description.

It’s a lovely polish which applies well, the photo shows two coats of Voodoo on its own (no undies needed here). It’s also a nightmare to photograph! In some lights it looks absolutely amazing with the different colour micro glitters really sparkling and the purple base looking really rich. In the wrong light it just doesn’t look quite so amazing and seems a bit flat.

I liked this polish a lot and can see myself using it again in the future. I don’t think it’s quite as original and unusual as the other polishes in the collection but not everything has to be new to be good and this is a great, shimmery, sparkly polish.

In case you missed any of my previous posts here’s a quick pic showing the 4 polishes in the Magic Collection by Giddy Polish which I bought from her shop on Etsy.

Sunday Sparkle: Fairy Tears – Giddy Polish

Here’s the second polish from Giddy Polish’s Magic collection. It’s described as having “a light grey base, filled with beautiful bar glitters and different sizes of silver glitters”. The bar glitters are pink and turquoise and there is plenty of glitter in this one. Again, I noticed a lot of the glitter had sunk to the bottom and I couldn’t seem to get it to re-suspend but even one coat of the polish looked very glittery and with two coats, which I would expect to use with most glitter polishes, it looks great! It’s also very easy to apply and can be painted on without having to worry too much about the even distribution of glitter on the nail.

I like the cloudy grey base. Here I layered the polish over Sally Hansen’s Licorice which is a very dark grey, but the pale cloudy grey base of this polish really lightened it up. I have a feeling this would look nice over a silver base and might try that out next time.

It’s a very pretty polish and an unusual colour combination, so nice to have something a bit different in my collection. I don’t think I love it quite as much as Emotion Wizard which I swatched here last week, but it’s a fun and slightly more subtle glitter which is very wearable.

I bought this polish and the others in the Magic collection from The GiddyDesign store on Etsy.

Sunday Sparkle: Emotion Wizard – Giddy Polish

Today’s glittery offering comes from Giddy Polish – a Norway based indie polish which I came across while browsing Etsy for European indies. I treated myself to the Magic Collection which consists of 4 gorgeous looking polishes. This is the first I’ve actually tried on my nails.

It is described as “a seagreen base, filled with lots of blue and green glitters, in different shapes and sizes.” I layered it over Don’t Mess with OPI by OPI and the picture shows 4 coats of Emotion Wizard. I could have used fewer coats and it did look good after 2 or 3 but I wanted to try and get more depth in the glitter and jelly.

At first I was disappointed because a lot of the glitter seemed to have sunk to the bottom, especially the larger pieces and even with a bit of fishing, shaking and stirring I couldn’t get to them. But as I layered the polish on I decided it really didn’t matter because I really liked it the way it was! I liked the combination of glitter sizes, shapes and colours in the cloudy base and it was very easy and smooth to apply (once I stopped worrying about the larger pieces of glitter) and I loved the depth that multiple layers created.

I’m looking forward to trying out the other polishes in the Magic Collection!

Let it Glitter – Miami Mix

I have another polish from Let It Glitter to show you today. This one is called Miami Mix and contains bright blue and pink hex pieces as well as white bar glitter in a clear base. It’s another non-metallic glitter and I love the neon colours in it.
I decided to layer it over a yellow polish (Sumner Place by Nails Inc) as it made me think of Miami sunshine! I think it looks great over yellow but would also be really fun over so many other colours. I plan to try this polish and Tropical which I swatches last week over black some time soon to really make the most of their bright neon glitter pieces.
It was relatively easy to apply and the picture shows two coats of Miami Mix. I dabbed the second coat on to try and get a more even spread of glitter and with a little bit of encouragement it wasn’t difficult to get good coverage. As with Tropical it’s not a densely packed glitter so you’d need a lot of coats to get full coverage, but I think the fun of these polishes is the neon polka dot effect that they create.

Sunday Sparkle: She Walks in Beauty

Making my nails bright and sparkly today is the gorgeous She Walks in Beauty by A England – a brand I always make a point of buying a few bottles of each time I’m in the UK.

The combination of various sized gold and pale pink glitter pieces is really pretty and felt like an appropriate sparkle for the end of the Valentines weekend. It’s a very girly glitter which is easy to apply and get good, even coverage with. Just one coat looks amazing as a topper, two coats gives a much denser, glitter heavy effect. It’s also a great polish for using in glitter gradients but today just wanted to coat my nails in it!

I layered it over Warwick Avenue by Nails Inc which I thought it went with really well, the only problem is that they match so well that it’s a bit difficult to see the pale pink glitter pieces in the photo.

If you can’t already tell, this pretty glitter has made it a very happy and sparkly Sunday indeed!

Sunday Sparkle: Fitzroy Square

I own a fair number of glitter polishes but don’t wear them as often as I’d like as I always feel like I should save them for a night out or an event befitting sparkly nails. Well at this grey and dreary time of year I’ve decided Sunday will be Sparkle day from now on and I’ll give my glitter polishes a bit of an outing to cheer up these sad wintery days.

First up is Fitzroy Square by Nails Inc which is a beautiful green and turquoise glitter with medium and fine pieces in it. It says it’s a 3D glitter and came as part of a collection of Nails Inc 3D Glitters. I couldn’t make up my mind what polish to layer it over so decided on an ombre of green/turquoise polishes. The darkest polish (on my index finger) is Stylenomics by Essie, then Emerald by Rituals (on my middle finger and I also used this colour on my thumb) after that Take it Mint by Catrice (on my ring finger) and finally CE82 by Layla. I’ve only used one coat of Fitzroy Square over each of these polishes except over CE82 as it looked a bit patchy so I added a second coat. You can see that it’s a very densely packed glitter which covers really well!

My sparkly nails have certainly brought some fun and brightness to my rainy Sunday!