Illamasqua Persoid- make it work for you

I received Illamasqua Persoid for Christmas and went in cautiously knowing that other people have had problems with the formula. I decided to show it to you four different ways- two coats alone and layered over 3 different colours (Black, Purple and Blue). The idea behind Persoid is gorgeous, it's a black base with green shimmer and tiny holo glitters alongside purple hexes which flash holo as well.

Here's what the first coat of each colour looked like: OPI Tomorrow Never Dies, Barry M Espresso, Illamasqua Persoid and OPI Eurso Euro.

I wanted to show you the lumpy texture of Persoid before top coat- not so nice:

Here are they all at their best showing off the glorious green shimmer and purple hexes.

I like this the most on my little and index fingers and the key here was to wipe a lot of the polish off the brush and go in with a thin layer over the top of another polish. That gives you the same colour as two coats alone with slightly less visible glitter and a smoother texture which is totally smooth with a single layer of top coat. So there you are, Persoid is at its best when paired with a base polish but be careful to use a thin coat. Out of these I would wear it over the purple OPI.

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Octopus Baby Hat

I may have fooled you into thinking that I only knit sensible things... May I disabuse that notion by showing you this baby hat I knitted :). I can't show you it on the baby because it is to be posted to Australia for an Ozzie baby.

This is based on a pattern by Martha Johnson however I changed my octopus and fish a bit.  The hat by itself is lovely, with a wavy pattern made to look like the sea. Next time I would have switched to grey to do the top section so that it looked like the octopus was sat on a rock.

The you knit the octopus and sew him on top

I loved the effect this pink variegated yarn gave to the octopus and I gave him a smile.

Finally I embroidered the fish in orange onto the hat to prevent adding bulk. I love how this turned out and I'm excited to send it to Australia to the baby's parents.

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A England Dancing with Nureyev

I have been eyeing up the A England Ballerina collection for a while so when I came by Dancing with Nureyev second hand I was very excited to try it. It went on straight after my Christmas mani came off (which was Deborah Lippmann Ray of Light for the curious). I am showing you two coats with an accent nail of a sponged tip over white.

When the sun came out for a few minutes I ran around the house trying to find my camera to capture a sun shot so you could see the amazing holo contained within this polish- just look at my index and middle fingers!

This polish appears a cornflower blue with holo most of the time but after a couple of days wear I noticed that it has a violet duo chrome hidden within as well (like Ascalon). You can see it in the photo below quite clearly. And to add to the awesomeness you can still see glints of holo even in quite grey light.

I love how the holo picked up in this last photo- just gorgeous.

I am very glad I got hold of this polish and will definitely be considering others from the range shortly. The formula was excellent as is the trend with A England polishes. I will hopefully be trying this out in a full gradient very soon so look out for that :).

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Tara's Talons Advent Calendar Review

This year I had a Nail polish Advent calendar from Tara's Talons- one new polish everyday for advent, how could I refuse! I know Tara has already started taking pre orders for next year's calendar so I thought I would show you what was in mine.

Those of you with keen eyes will have spotted the missing nail polish- it has vanished into my helmer. First off the majority of these are hits for me, there are a couple I don't really like but there are also a few that I absolutely adore :). There is a good variety of colours and finishes here.

So here we have Dasher, Bauble, Three Wise Men, Prancer. The corals- a jelly glitter, a creme, a crelly glitter and a shimmer(doesn't really show well over the black). I really like Three Wise Men, a deep coral polish with gold glitter, however I don't know how I'll use Prancer.

Dancer, Rudolph, Christmas Fairy, Vixen: Two jelly glitters, a shimmer and a creme. My favourite here is Rudolph but I really like all four of these- Vixen is an amazing purple colour.

The purples; Silent Night, Donner, Deck the Halls, Letter to Santa. My favourite is Deck the halls a glorious purple and gold mix. Many of these look better with top coat/undies to smooth over the glitter a little.

The blues; Blitzen, Comet, Angel, Carollers. Blitzen and Comet are both duo chromes with a blue/purple shift. And then Angel is a creme and Carollers a glitter. The duo chromes are subtly different from each other but given that they have been all the rage this year I am very pleased to see them.

The greens; Cupid, Santa's Helper, Merry Christmas, Happy Elf. I love love love Santa's Helper a sage green polish with glints of gold. Might have to ask Tara to make me up a full bottle of this!

The glitters; Naughty or Nice, Crackers, Mistletoe, Tinsel. I like all of these ones but Crackers is amazing, a dense red and gold glitter with sparse other colours thrown in for added interest.

I would definitely purchase refills for next year. Tara's Talons polishes are always very high quality. Each polish here is unique or limited edition although the names are the same in every calendar. 

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Crafty Bits

I like to think I'm a crafty person (read as I like to try lots of things) however picking up new hobbies can be very expensive so I do have a few old favourites that I always return to and knitting is one of these. This weekend I spent both evenings knitting a pair of hand warmers for Stuart from this gorgeous Blue faced Leicester yarn

The hand warmers modelled expertly here by Stuart (at 7am) knitted up really quickly and the yarn feels lovely and squishy.

The variegated effect is more pronounced because I held the strands double but I quite like the slightly crazy look of these. I have enough yarn left to make something else although I haven't decided what yet.

So there you have a slightly off track post. I have also been doing some quilling which you might have seen on my twitter :). If you fancy learning how to knit I highly recommend it- I learnt two years ago from books and you tube tutorials and consider myself pretty sufficient now.

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Barry M Lady

A few months ago Barry M brought out a new textured collection and Lady was one of them.

It's a glorious textured polish white with hints of gold glitter in it that I just about captured in these photos.

It is perfect for nail art where you want to mimic the look of fresh snow- or just as an eye catching manicure in its own right.

The only problem I have with this polish is that even at the three coats shown here it is still a little sheer and textured nail polishes are notoriously slow drying so the more coats you have to apply the longer you have to wait to do anything. Other than that I love it.

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Monkey See Monkey Do with Snowflakes

I think everyone in the blogging community who stamps has this design from Moyou but I really couldn't resist using it over Colors by Llarowe Monkey See, Monkey Do an amazing blue glitter with full linear holo- this polish is literally the most glittery thing I've ever put on my nails!

I got the Moyou plate with the smaller designs (Festive 06-I think) because otherwise I struggle to fit the patterns on my nail bed. This combination of colours is just perfect and the holo just adds a little magic :). I stamped with my Konad White.

Monkey See Monkey Do is so complex- some holo polishes look really boring in grey light but not MSMD, it just glitters away as you can see in these two pictures.

I only own two Colors by Llarowe polishes but they have both been excellent and there are definitely a few more I would love to get my hands on (or on my hands) when I have a little bit more money.

This has been a very heavily winter themed week! I promise no more snowflakes at least until Monday ;)

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Christmas Guest Post on The Crumpet

I just wanted to let you know that I'll be guesting on The Crumpet today with my Snow Queen inspired nail art. I thought I'd share with you a picture of my design process for this manicure and please hop over to The Crumpet to see how it developed front his into a full manicure :) (only two of these designs made it).

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My First Snowflakes

I am an avid follower of Mr. Candipants and when I saw her snowflakes design I decided to cut down one of my nail art brushes and try them out and I am so pleased with the results.

The base for this is the amazing Colors by Llarowe Moonshine a deep wine coloured jelly polish with silver micro glitter. This combination of the jelly and glitter makes the polish incredibly sparkly. I painted on the snowflakes in Konad White and paired it with an accent nail of NYC Full Metal Jacket topped with Fandom Cosmetics Rumbelle.

This is a stunning manicure and I am loving wearing it this winter season.

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NYC Full Metal Jacket and Rumbelle

It's fairly rare that I go back to a polish and just wear it on its own after my initial swatch however Fandom Cosmetics Rumbelle is one of the most perfect Christmas glitters I own. I put it over the top of NYC Full Metal Jacket a gold foil polish with two coats shown here.

Rumbelle is a mixture of gold holographic particles, blue hexagonal glitters and small white circular glitters in a  clear base. It looks amazing on gold- a proper festive combination.

I placed quite a lot of the white circles to get an even distribution on the nail but there were no problems getting them out of the bottle at all. This size is perfect for my smaller nail beds as they don't stand away from my nail.

Look at that extra glitteryness, it looks like sparkly snow falling to the ground.

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Wassail Nail Art

When I was doing my swatches of the Ethereal Lacquer polishes I couldn't resist adding a little stamping to this beautiful polish. This lightbulb image is from the Bundle Monster Create your own set.

I stamped with NYC Full Metal Jacket my go to gold stamper and love how this turned out :)

Just look at the  sparkle on that- stunning!

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Ethereal Lacquer Swatches

I had somewhat of an Ethereal Lacquer splurge the other week, buying three that I really liked the finish of. I love this jelly finish with holographic flecks in it. Two of these are exclusive to the UK store Rainbow Connection.
Boxing Day

Boxing day has a purple base, it is opaque in two coats but dries to a slightly satin finish so you need a glossy top coat to add the shine which brings out the holographic glitter in this to its best effect.

I didn't manage to capture the sparkle in this polish but I will be trying again when I next wear it.
Oracle

Oracle is a teal jelly with teal micro glitters and some holo flecks. This is two coats and it is amazing! Bright and interesting- a lovely finish.

Wassail

I have saved my favourite of the three for last, Wassail is a deep pink holo jelly. Again two coats with a top coat for shine work perfectly.

Ethereal Lacquer is one of my favourite indie polish brands, they have some gorgeous colours and effects and I love all six that I have from them.

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Nimbus and Pahlish Half Moon

On top of Smitten Polish Nimbus I decided to do a half moon using Pahlish Prayer for Rain a blue jelly glitter. I only used one coat of the Pahlish on top of Nimbus which meant that the jelly picked up a pale blue tone matching Nimbus really well.

This is very wintery and cool toned, perfect to wear for the start of December.

Tomorrow I have some Ethereal Lacquer swatches for you.

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Smitten Polish Nimbus

When I first saw this Smitten Polish collection this one really stood out to me, a dove grey holographic polish. I love light holographic polishes just as much as I love the dark ones where the holo stands out. This polish just seems to have another dimension to it when it catches the light, it is perfect.

I live in England and the days are very dull at the moment so this was the best picture I could get to show off some of the holo sparkle of this polish

This is two coats and you can still see a little nail line but it doesn't bother me too much.

Tomorrow I'll show you the nail art I did with this polish using another of my new untrieds.

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