Freshly Painted: Revlon Midnight Affair

Revlon Nail Enamel in Midnight Affair

I chose Midnight Affair by Revlon for my first Freshly Painted in a while, the colour is a dark, inky blue, although the flash in my photo above picks up on the shimmer in the polish. In reality the colour is nowhere near as vibrant and only looks shimmery in the bottle, when on the nails it's very dark - similar to the colour seen on my index finger above.

As with most Revlon polishes I've tried the formula is thin and easy to work with. I'm not sure if this colour is still available or whether it was limited edition, but the navy makes a nice change to the summer brights I've been wearing for the last few months.

Revlon Red

Revlon Red, £6.49

Oh look another Revlon nail enamel!

This is the iconic shade Revlon Red, it's a classic red and a great staple. The formula was really thin (which I love), easy to apply, and it only took 2 coats to achieve the finished effect. Sadly thin polishes normally come with a down side and that is extreme chipping, this polish was no different and chipped like crazy, definitely one to pair with a top coat! 

Revlon Nail Enamel

Revlon Nail Enamel Classy and Charming £6.49

My love for Revlon nail polish continues, I recently picked up these 2 lovely pastel shades. I think they are from Revlon's spring collection however I can't find any info about them on the Revlon website.

Charming

The first shade is Charming which is a beautiful lilac shade, it's bright, vibrant, fresh and everything I want in a spring nail polish. The formula was lovely to apply and dried to a glossy finish, best of all my nails were still glossy (but chipped) a week after application which is a real bonus for me, I hate it when nail polish goes dull. This polish was really easy to remove which was an added bonus.

Classy

The next shade I chose is Classy. I really dithered over buying this polish, on first impressions I thought it was a bit of an old lady colour and not really that special, then I spied the promo picture (I can't remember who the model was...maybe Jesssica Biel, Emma Stone or Olivia Wilde?!) and really fell in love with the colour. Application was easy and I was left with a polished, glossy finish. I think this colour looks expensive, for some reason it always makes me think of Stepford Wives...I think it would be the perfect nail colour for them...am I selling it to you yet? This is a grown up pink shade, which looks quite neutral on the nails and gives my nails a polished feeling. Unsurprisingly my mum loved this colour.

I've heard a rumour that Revlon are releasing a whole host of nail polishes this year to celebrate their 80th Birthday, this is fantastic news! I love Revlon nail enamels, in fact I think I own more Revlon shades than any other polish, they are decent quality at a good price and I can't wait to see the new colours!

Freshly Painted: Models Own Utopia

Models Own - Utopia, £5

I seem to be purchasing quite a few items off my wishlist recently, this includes Utopia by Models Own. Utopia is an interesting murky, lilac, pink colour, for some reason it makes me think of pink concrete.

I put off purchasing this shade as I wasn't sure if it was pretty enough, but after seeing it on countless blogs I began to really love the look of it on the nails. The formula is standard Models Own and easy to apply, taking two coats to achieve the look in the photo.

I think this is the perfect February nail colour, it has all the pastely pink goodness of spring (not to mention Valentines Day) but is coupled with the murkiness reminiscent of grey clouds, rain and even snow(!) that we get around this time of year.

Look Nail Polish

I've been really impressed with the relatively new Look Make Up range, not only have the products received rave reviews from bloggers but the packaging is very cute and the range of nail polish colours is amazing! Unfortunately my local Superdrug doesn't stock the range (boo) but on a recent shopping trip to a bigger store I managed to pick up three nail polishes.

From L to R: Kimono, Hotpants and Vintage, £5 each

The nail polishes or 'nail pops' are a good size and priced at £5 for 10 ml. I know I'm not the only one who wishes Superdrug wouldn't plaster the products with those ugly security stickers, not pretty Superdrug..not pretty! Rant over and onto the swatches:

Vintage

Vintage is such a beautiful shade and I think it's my favourite out of the three. The colour is a gorgeous light blue which looks pretty and fresh worn on the nails. The formula is good and gives an even coverage, drying to a polished, glossy finish. I think this is a really lovely shade for Spring and I'm keen to wear this on my nails again soon.

Kimono

I bought this shade because it resembles a certain Peridot by Chanel. As you can see from the photographs it looks different depending on the lighting, changing from golden green to a shimmering bronzed colour. This is such an interesting nail polish to wear and given that I don't own a green polish I felt it deserved a place in my collection. This is a great polish to buy if you love the look of Peridot but don't want to pay Chanel prices.

Hotpants

Hotpants (love the name!) was my final nail polish purchase, I own nothing similar and really loved the gorgeous bronze colour of this polish. I find both Kimono and Hotpants dry quickly and look beautiful after just one coat (although I always apply two) the finish is shimmery and catches the light beautifully. I think this makes a great everyday colour and the bronze shade goes with anything.

I am keen to try out other products from the Look range especially as I've heard great things about the eyeshadows, blushers and mascara. One thing I am disappointed about is that I can't seem to find a website for the range, also it doesn't seem to be available on the Superdrug website although they do have a facebook page. I really hope the range becomes available online soon as I would love to browse/buy online.

Freshly Painted: 17 Magnetized Nail Polish in Teal

17 Magnetized Nail Polish in Teal, £5.99, Boots

I did indeed jump on the magnetized bandwagon and opted to buy one of the cheapest versions out there by 17, I've actually had this polish for quite a while but have never gotten round to posting about it before. My colour of choice was Teal, I don't think any of the colours in 17's limited range of magnetic polishes are that amazing, they are all murky shades due to the metal particles in the polish.

To use, you paint the polish onto your nails - one coat is probably enough but I use two- you then hover the cap over your nail to create a magnetized effect, I tend to hold the magnet for around 15-20 seconds per nail. The magnet gives nails a rippled effect which is pretty enough but I'm not totally in love with it. As with other 'gimmicky' nail polishes I find I receive a tonne of compliments/comments when I wear this on my nails, it is a very unique look after all!

For 17 this is a pretty expensive nail polish, however as a magnetized polish it works really well and I don't see the need to spend more money on higher priced versions of magnetized polish, such as those by Nails Inc. All in all if you like the magnetized look then 17 is probably the best value magnetized polish you can buy!

Essie Van D'Go

Essie Van D'Go, £9.50

I have been on a bit of a nail varnish spree recently and as a result have quite a few shades to blog about! First up is Essie Van D'Go which has been on my wishlist (on the left hand side of this blog) for sometime now. I snagged it during an Asos sale where i paid £6 for it (normal price £9.50).

This polish is a very girly colour it's a milky, peachy, pink (more peach than pink) when I first applied it I was pretty shocked at how milky it was, my first thought was that it was so white based it resembled peach coloured tippex! Some people have commented on how it has a slight neon quality, I'm not sure I would agree but it's definitely a bright, creamy, salmon pink shade! I also find this polish looks different in certain lights, in brighter light it looks pinker whereas in dim light it seems more peachy/corally.

It took 3 coats to achieve a good finish and I found it slightly patchy on application, the brush head is really thin and in all honesty a bit rubbish which surprised me as Essie is a pretty expensive nail polish brand. Overall, I really like this shade, it's different from any other colour I own and would be great to wear during summer, especially as the peachy tone makes my skin look a little bit tanned! :)

Barry M Croc Nail Effect

Barry M Croc Nail Effect, £3.99

Another nail post...but I've been wanting to talk about this product for ages!! If my memory serves me correctly it was released in November and naturally I immediately rushed out to buy it. I'm not a fan of the regular crackle polishes, I have never bought one and I have no desire to give my nails the 'shattered' look, 'croc' effect on the other hand, now that's something that floats my boat and in my opinion is a grown up version of crackle polish.

It works exactly the same way as a shatter polish in the sense that you paint your nails with a basecoat (I always pair croc effect with a gold polish, as seen on the bottle cap), when the base coat is tacky you apply the croc effect and watch the crocodile skin effect appear. In my experience you only need a very thin layer of the croc effect polish, a thicker layer tends to result in bigger cracks and the crocodile effect is slightly lost - as seen on my middle finger in the above photo.

I have included this picture for no reason other than the
fact I was really impressed with how my thumbnail
turned out!

When applied well I adore the look of this polish, it is a really interesting nail effect and I always get tonnes of compliments/people asking me about my nails when I wear it. I have to say the effect looks a lot better in real life, my pics don't do it justice! As with all Barry M polishes it is reasonably priced at £3.99 and can be bought from the Barry M website as well as Boots and Superdrug.

Freshly Painted: Nails Inc London

Nails Inc 'London' Diet Coke collaboration

With work looming tomorrow (after a 2 week break!) the glittery New Year's nails had to come off.

Tomorrow I am starting a new job, something which I am hugely excited about. Wanting to look somewhat professional I began my search for the perfect nail polish in my collection, I wanted something neutral and unoffensive (my plan is to slowly introduce brighter colours, and perhaps even glitter!!). Nails Inc London seemed to satisfy all my demands, it's a nude/taupe colour which looks pretty yet understated. This is such a great colour and unfortunately my bottle is starting to look slightly old and crusty, any chance of re-releasing this with another Diet Coke collaboration?!

New Year's Nails

Barry M Nail Paint in Matte White, £2.99
Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday, £16.00

New Year's is definitely an opportunity for sparkles and I love any excuse to wear Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday, which is my current favourite nail polish. 

I painted a couple of coats of the Barry M polish on my nails and topped it with a few layers of the Deborah Lippmann polish to reach my desired level of 'sparkalage'. I love the effect of the two polishes together, the white base colour really highlights the multi-coloured sparkles and it's definitely a fun look to wear.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

Freshly Painted: Revlon Cherries in the Snow

Revlon Cherries in the Snow £6.49

Another Revlon nail polish, I seriously have an addiction to these things! 

I refuse to believe anyone's nail polish collection is complete without this colour, Cherries in the Snow is a classic Revlon polish along with the relaunched Fire and Ice shade. Cherries in the Snow is a gorgeous pinky-red polish, the perfect girly alternative to a classic pillar box red. To me, this colour is a real staple and one I reach for a lot during the winter months, especially around Christmas and New Year when I crave berry coloured nails.

Revlon Cherries in the Snow Lipstick £7.49

I also own the accompanying Cherries in the Snow lipstick, the shade is a beautiful berry red colour. I have to confess I have never been brave enough to wear this colour out of the house...lipsticks aren't really my thing and this is one bold colour! I do however like to apply a teeny tiny amount and use a lip balm over the top to give my lips a glossy finish with a hint of colour.

Freshly Painted: Winter Nails

twinkle twinkle

Models Own Juicy Jules £5.00, Natural Collection Topaz £1.89

Seeing as Christmas is the season of all things sparkly, I thought I would extend the festive celebrations to my nails. I started by applying Natural Collection polish in Topaz which is a prime example of the age old saying you get what you pay for. Yes, it's a super cheap polish but it's also brushstroke hell on application, making a flawless finish near impossible. In the bottle Topaz is a beautiful shimmery light blue colour, however the blue doesn't transfer to the nails and it appears more silvery, I actually think it's alright for the price and is a good bog standard silver colour. 

To add some sparkle I haphazardly added some Models Own Juicy Jules to the tips and as if by magic some winter wonderland nails were created. I think these two polishes compliment each other perfectly, Juicy Jules is beyond beautiful! I have played around with different ways to wear the two together and originally just painted my ring finger with Juicy Jules, I received so many compliments on my nails that I've decided to pair the two together again, but this time adding Juicy Jules to every nail....my motto is the more sparkles the better!

Apologies the photos aren't great, these were taken with a pretty rubbish camera at night time! Can I also just say hello and a big thank you to my new followers, it really means a lot that you stopped by! x

Freshly Painted: No 7 Stay Perfect Damson Dream

No 7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in Damson Dream 100
£7.00, Boots

This is the first No7 Stay Perfect nail colour I have bought, I have never really looked at the range of shades available before as I tend to favour other brands of nail polish, but whilst browsing I noticed they had loads of lovely colours. No surprises to find this was purchased with a £5 off No 7 voucher making it a barginous £2.

The colour is lovely, it's a deep, jewel toned, dark pinky berry colour, which has a slight shimmer running through it. I would say it's quite a watery formula, the bottom picture is after 4 coats, I initially applied 2 coats but wasn't happy with the colour and felt the need to apply more.

This is a lovely shade especially for autumn and the formula is ok but I don't think I'd pay full price for it. Also please excuse the state of my nails in the picture, it was a rather hurried paint job and my nails are a bit of a state at the moment.

Freshly Painted: Bourjois So Laque! in Orange Creation

Bourjois So Laque! Ultra Shine in 42 Orange Creation
£5.99, Boots

Seeing as I'm not dressing up this year - so bummed as I would definitely have gone as a Pan Am air hostess or a Zombie or maybe Sookie Stackhouse from True Blood? Oh the possibilities!!

I love dressing up for Halloween, it's pretty much the only time of year when I am willing to dress up...oh and on a side note 'sexy' outfits are not acceptable, no sexy cat or sexy witch and the Ann Summer's outfits aren't cool either...this is Halloween we're talking about! Anyway, rant over.

Sadly Halloween has been a bit of a wash out this year, no parties and I'm too old for trick or treating so instead I thought I'd paint my nails orange in the spirit of Halloween.

I saw this colour tweeted by Glamour magazine, and seeing as I didn't already own an orange I went out and bought a bottle. I've used the So Laque polishes before and this one wasn't much different, as expected the polish was on the thick and gloopy side which isn't great and makes application a bit tricky. I was slightly disappointed at how un-shiny the polish is, especially as it's advertised as Ultra Shine, I was hoping for a really glossy, orange nail and this just isn't shiny enough for my liking!

The colour is fab and perfect for Halloween although I probably would wear it at other times of the year too. The colour is a bright orange I would describe it as a hot orange, but if you're looking for an orange nail polish I wouldn't necessarily recommend this one. I imagine Rimmel, Barry M and Maxfactor make similar shades and probably with a better formula.

Freshly Painted: Nails Inc Special K Red

This nail polish was a freebie which I won through a promotional competition between Nails Inc and Kellogg's Special K. The colour, named Special K Red, is a pure, classic red shade which drys to a glossy finish, I absolutely love it! I also particularly like the blingy red bottle which stands out in my nail polish collection.

If you want to win one grab one of the promotional packs of Special K (chocolate and strawberry is my favourite) head over to the Special K website, enter the code found inside the pack and fingers crossed you'll win one, they give away 100 per day so I'm guessing your chances are good! It's well worth entering for such a fab freebie and they post it to you for free.

Freshly Painted: Models Own Juicy Jules

Models Own Juicy Jules £5

No flash (please excuse the state of my nails!)

Yet another glitter polish I feel needs a mention! Juicy Jules is a clear polish which contains thousands of particles of silver glitter, when worn the effect on the nails is stunning. This is such an eye catching nail varnish and makes it look like you're wearing teeny tiny diamonds all over your nails.

Whilst the glitter is silver (see bottom photo) when it catches the light the polish sparkles in lots of different colours giving a kind of holographic effect, as can be seen in the top photo which was taken with a flash. I like the look of totally covering my nail with this polish, which took around 4 thin coats, however it could be lightly applied over any nail polish to add some sparkle.

Application was easy and the polish is a nice consistency, I also found it dried super quick which suits my impatient nature. The only downside for me is that the glitter gives your nails a pitted look, however this is inevitable with any glitter polish, regardless of brand. One thing I am certain of is that this is going to be a complete pain to remove, maybe I'll just keep it on forever? :)

Freshly Painted: Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday

Deborah Lippman 'Happy Birthday' £16.00, House of Fraser

I have wanted this shade for ages, I tested it out before I want on holiday and loved it so much that I bought it as soon as I got back.

In short this nail varnish is fab. I am generally not a glitter polish fan but recently I have been going crazy for them, although I think this one is my favourite so far. Happy Birthday (how cute is the name?) is a mutlicolour glitter polish compromising of different sized glitter chunks, great for giving a can't stop staring at your nails effect. The name suits it perfectly, I never thought I'd go for the party-popper-just-exploded-on-your-nails look, but I really love it! Overall it's a very fun polish to wear.

I wanted to go OTT so I completely covered my nails in it (which took around 4 thin coats + touch ups) however it also looks lovely lightly applied over a nude coloured polish giving a more subtle look. I think the only thing I'm going to hate about this polish is removing it, glitter varnishes are always a complete nightmare to get off!!

Freshly Painted: Chanel Black Pearl

Chanel Black Pearl £17.50, Chanel

Whilst everyone is now fixated on Peridot, Black Pearl was last year's Chanel shade of choice. Whilst I poured over the pictures and lusted after the shade, I put off buying it as £17 for a nail polish is rather extortionate expensive. I waited and waited for a decent drugstore dupe, I must have googled it about a million times to see if any other blogger out there had come across one, there were a few similar shades but nothing that I deemed a close enough match. After months of searching I decided enough was enough and marched straight to the Chanel counter, where I bought this baby.

I literally couldn't wait to try it out, I'd seen picture after picture and admired it at the Chanel counter but now it was mine *evil laugh*. I can confirm that it is as beautiful on as it is in the bottle, to me it's more than just a grey polish, I love the pearly, milky quality and the teal metallic tinge running through it. It looks understated and expensive. Application is a breeze, two coats and a top coat and you're ready to go, it's not particularly streaky and drys relatively quickly

Is it worth £17? Probably not, the quality of the nail polish is the same as any other drug store polishes yet the colour is one that I have never seen replicated to the same standard anywhere else and that is why I had to have the Chanel.

I've popped this colour on my nails for the time being as I'm off on holiday this week, where I will be returning back to Summer's hot pinks and corals - just when I was getting used to the Autumn shades - but I'm sure I'll be reaching for Black Pearl when I get home.

Freshly Painted: Revlon Facets of Fuchsia

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia £6.49, Superdrug

I still can't get over how beautiful this polish is, Facets of Fuchsia is one of three polishes from Revlon's Autumn/Winter collection. The main colour is a black polish which contains hundreds of particles of purple glitter, the effect is stunning, it's a rich, sparkly purple and I LOVE it! I actually can't stop staring at my nails when I'm wearing this polish.

On application the first coat is streaky and the black base colour seems very watery. A second coat is enough to give you beautiful sparkly nails, however I always put a third coat on as the polish contains large and small particles of glitter, and an added third layer means more sparkles on the nail.

The purple is the most perfect colour for Autumn and I am already thinking that this would be a great nail polish to wear for Christmas parties. Many other bloggers have commented how this polish is similar to Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance, well done Revlon for bringing us such an affordable dupe!

Freshly Painted: Collection 2000 Hot Looks in Big Hair

Collection 2000 Hot Looks in 29 Big Hair, £1.79, Superdrug

I can't get enough of the Collection 2000 Hot Looks polishes, aside from the super low price tag the colours in the range are fab and they are fast drying too! This shade is called Big Hair and it is an amazingly bright red. It was actually my mum who said I needed to buy this nail polish and I'm so pleased I did, it's a really classic red colour and cost next to nothing.