Christmas NOTD 2013: Essie Toggle To The Top

Thought I'd squeeze one last post in before the big day! In honesty, I did have another Last Minute Gift post I wanted to do but I ended up having a bit of a mad 'here, there and everywhere' kind of weekend so never got chance to post it. Anyhoo, it's Christmas Eve now and I'm performing my last minute beauty rituals so I thought I'd show you my fresh Christmas Manicure courtesy of the Essie Winter Collection...

Jeez, I am so messy with dark polishes aren't I haha. The photos haven't turned out amazing either due to my parents having the DARKEST house in the world and the weather being so ghastly. 

Toggle to The Top came as part of my Essie Winter 2013 Mini-Collection (see my post Here) and I just knew it would be my first choice for Christmas Day. Essie describe it as Sparkling, Crushed Garnet Red and that's pretty much spot on really. I love that it's a little bit more grown up that your average 'Dorothy' inspired red glitter polishes. 

Here I've done two coats topped off with a layer of Seche Vite. It's certainly a beautiful polish. Only slight grumble is that it seems to be coming away at the tips already. Or maybe I'm just noticing it more because it's a darker colour. Either way it's not the end of the world. No doubt they'll be changing again by New Years Eve. 

What colour will you be wearing on your nails tomorrow?? Do you go for sparkle??

NEW: Bourjois Halloween Nail Effects

Good afternoon beauty lovers!

I make no secret of the fact that I love Halloween. It's my perfect excuse to watch every gory movie I own and eat lots of sweets. It's also a very well known fact that I ADORE Bourjois nail colours and, when I was told that they had come up with three new shades in honour of this ghoulish holiday, I almost burst with joy! They have indeed come up with a haunting gel-effect 1 Seconde polish as well as two devilishly glam topcoats which work over almost any other shade. 

The Shades Are...

Ghost Lovers - A Devilishly Delightful Metallic Silver Topcoat

Dangerous Wish - A Ghoulishly Gorgeous jet black polish with holographic gold/yellow glitters running through it

and

Enchanting Potion - A Spine-tinglingly Sparkly Gold Glitter Topcoat

I was lucky enough to receive Dangerous Wish* at a recent event and gave it it's first test run last week! Sadly I do not have swatches for the two topcoats but they are easily Google-able or you can pop into your nearest stockist. 

If I'm honest, I don't think these photos do this polish any justice at all. The sheer SPARKLE of it really is so pretty and hard to capture on camera. The glitters vary in size and are predominently a slightly yellow/green shade of gold but has a brilliant holographic, multicoloured sparkle to it. 

In  this photo I'm wearing two coats of Dangerous Wish with a layer of Seche Vite topcoat. The polish was much easier to apply than some other glitter shades that I own, the brush is a really great shape and the glitter is very evenly distributed through the black. I didn't have to keep going back and filling in gaps. The other thing I would like to say is that this polish lasts for AGES! I've had it on for an entire week and it honestly hasn't budged or chipped. The 1-Seconde Gel formula really is fantastic and so durable, expecially when teamed with the mighty Seche Vite. This polish is sure to endure through whatever horrors you run into this Halloween. 

As I'm still wearing it I can't really comment as yet on whether it's a nightmare to remove or not but, to be honest, it's kind of a given with glitter polishes isn't it. The upside with this polish is that you get a good long run of it before undertaking such a task. 

These polishes launched this month and are available from all Bourjois stockists as well as online.

RRP £5.99 for 9ml

What murderous shades will you be painting your nails this Halloween?? Do you love Bourjois Polishes?? Will you be picking up these colours??

Monday Manicure #1

Good morning my beauties!!

I've been brainstorming in the last week as to how i can change up my blog a bit and incorperate more posts that i felt my blog has been lacking lately. I hit on the fact that nail polish is something that doesn't get enough attention at the moment and, as i've recently been painting my nails more and more frequently (usually on the train up to University on a Sunday afternoon), i decided that i would dedicate Mondays to my nails! So i'm getting the ball rolling today with this little beauty....

Look Beauty Nail Pop:

Dorothy

Because red glitter nails are for LIFE, not just for Christmas! I enjoyed glitter nails so much over the festive period that i have carried it over into 2013.

Look Beauty currently have 50% off ALL their beauty products in Superdrug and online. I've only ever tried their lipsticks before (read my review of Toffee Cup HERE) so i decided i just HAD to purchase a couple of their nail polishes. I picked up this one and another, which will no doubt be coming up very soon in another Monday Mani post. 

(In natural light)

This is 2 coats of Dorothy followed by Seche Vite topcoat (that's another post, i love it!)

(With Flash - Check out the pathetic, short middle nail that broke yesterday. Grrrrrrr)

This polish is visually stunning! These photos really don't do it justice. The glitters are quite fine, but not too much so and really catch the light perfectly. 2 coats provides decent opacity but i think i'd maybe go for 3 in future. It really is a dead ringer for the Ruby Slippers Dorothy wears in the Wizard of Oz! Wonder if i click my fingers 3 times i'll be transported to another realm haha...

Longevity-wise, this polish holds its own. I've had it on since Saturday night and it's just starting to come away from the tips. No chipping as yet. To be fair i haven't done anything very strenuous though. I like the size of the brush and the formula is easy enough to work with. I'm a messy self- manicurist and i  only had minimal tidying up to do after applying this. 

Look Beauty Nail Pops are currently on sale at £2.50 each (usual price is £5) and are available in a wide range of colours from selected Superdrug stores and from lookbeauty.co.uk 

I think i may have to make another trip because i'm hooked!!

What shades have you picked up in the sale?? Do you go mad for glitter polish??