Darling Diva Polish Material Girl

Darling Diva Polish Material Girl 

Darling Diva Polish Material Girl is just so *girly* - I love it! It's a hot pink jelly with a variety of pink and holographic glitters - some hex, some circular that all just comes together into a super-feminine polish.

Darling Diva Polish Material Girl 

As Material Girl is quite sheer, I chose to layer it over a polish almost identical to the base colour to avoid visible nail line. I think Material Girl would be fine on it's own on short nails, but I try to avoid vnl in my manis  mainly to disguise the fact that my nail beds are all different lengths! I used Barbara Daly Think Pink as my undies for this mani, which is a Tesco brand. Sally Hansen Insta Dri Presto Pink is almost identical.

Application of Material Girl was really easy, the formula is good and no fishing for the glitters is required. I didn't do any placement of glitters, this is just how they came out the bottle - I prefer a random distribution on my nails! I used three coats of Material Girl here - I was going to stop at two  but I really liked the jelly sandwich effect I was getting as the coats built up so I decided to add another coat. I used just one coat of Seche Vite quick drying top coat to smooth this manicure out.

In more subdued light, Material Girl takes on a brighter denser pink hue!

Darling Diva Polish Material Girl 

And here are a few macro shots to show the detail of the smaller glitters - look at that holo microglitter!

Darling Diva Polish Material Girl 

I received Darling Diva Polish Material Girl as a sample for review; you can buy Darling Diva polishes from their Etsy Shop or from Llarowe or Mei Mei's Signatures - all these sellers ship worldwide. Norway Nails also stocks Darling Diva polishes and ships within Europe. You can follow Darling Diva on facebook for news of new colours and restock updates.

Sinful Colors Rise & Shine / Elevation Polish Marmolada

Elevation Polish Marmolada over Sinful Colors Rise & Shine

Elevation Polish Marmolada is a soft aqua-grey jelly with silver, blue and lilac circular glitter in various sizes.
Most of the swatches I've seen have been over blue, grey or just alone........... for example my friend Ida wore it over OPI What's with the Cattitude, Sheila at Pointless Cafe wore it over Nails Inc Thames and Sminkan just wore it alone....... so I decided I'd be a bit different and wear it over a bright green!

The green I chose was Sinful Colors Rise & Shine; Sinful Colors polishes have just recently become available in the UK (at Boots) and this was one of the colours that jumped of the shelf at me. It's a bright teal-emerald and in certain lights has a light bluish shimmer. I love this colour - I wore it for several days before putting on Marmolda and even got real-life compliments on it - a rare thing in this part of the world!

 Sinful Colors Rise & Shine

I used two coats of Sinful Rise & Shine and a coat of Seche Vite quick drying top coat for this mani. Application was very easy - way better than I'd expect for the price! I think I'm probably a Sinful Colours convert after wearing this one (just as well as I got a three for two deal)! I've read that Rise & Shine can stain on some people, but I didn't have any problems with staining. I used my usual 'base coat', Sally Hansen Maximum Growth. This is sold more as a strengthening treatment than a base coat; I don't believe for a moment it makes my nails (or anybody else's) grow any faster but it dries quickly to a glossy finish I like and find very easy to apply my polishes over. Not sure if this specifically avoided the polish staining my nails, but if you get this colour I'd definitely recommend using some sort of base coat. In fact I'm always wary of greens and teals staining!

Anyway, on to the glitter! Here's a bottle shot of Elevation Polish Marmolada. It has silver, aqua and lilac circular glitters of various sizes. 

Elevation Polish Marmolada over Sinful Colors Rise & Shine

I just added one coat of Marmolada over my Rise & Shine. The application was perfect and totally streak free. Finished off with another coat of Seche Vite, I carried on wearing this mani until the growth around my cuticles was too much!

I purchased Sinful Colors Rise & Shine from my local Boots and Elevation Marmolada direct from Lulu at her Elevation Polish website. Lulu posts updates about restocks etc on her blog.

Enchanted Polish Kids

Enchanted Polish Kids

I was lucky enough to get a couple of Enchanted Polishes at the last restock! This one is 'Kids', a fantastic teal blue holo with a lilac duochrome shift.

This polish looks similar to Ozotic 532 in the bottle, but the big difference is that whilst the Ozotic multichromes and holographic multichromes are quite transparent and need a base to show them off to full effect, this polish is fully opaque and needs no undies. This mani is just two coats, plus Seche Vite quick drying topcoat. Yes, SV! I took a chance, and the SV doesn't diminish the holo at all.

I don't think I need to add many words to this post - I've taken lots of pictures in different lights and at different angles, and I'm going to let them speak for themselves!

First, in strong sunlight, it's a light teal with a violet shift

Enchanted Polish Kids

And in slightly less direct light, the colours appear a little richer....

Enchanted Polish Kids

A bit of tipping and tilting shows off the violet tones....

And the blue...

Enchanted Polish Kids

And a fuzzy shot to show the holo...

Enchanted Polish Kids

And finally a couple of closer shots showing the pigments in a bit more detail...

Enchanted Polish Kids

So........ another fantastic polish from Enchanted! This is my third Enchanted polish, the others I have are Octopus's Garden and Spinkled which are equally wonderful. If trying to compare Kids to Octopus's Garden, I'd say that Kids is a holo with duochrome and Octopus's Garden is a duochrome with holo!

I purchased Enchanted Polish Kids direct from Enchanted Polish's website; be aware Enchanted Polish is extremely popular and sells out very quickly, but  Chelsea posts updates on her facebook page. Another good way to keep updated on restocks is to sign up for the newsletter. Llarowe also carries Enchanted Polish, but again most colours sell out pretty quickly. Both Enchanted Polish and Llarowe ship internationally.

Untried Polish Challenge Day 4 *Three Colours* - OPI Sparkle-icious

OPI Sparkle-icious

Three colours of tiny glitter in one polish! This has pink, blue and a sort of *gold* glitter in a clear base. So I've pulled it out of my untried box for my 'three colours' choice....

I think it's the gold that's the reason this bottle has been sitting in my untried box for a while. There are only a couple of polish colours I'm not happy wearing, and gold is on of them. It makes my skin look a completely weird colour.

But putting these three glitter colours together gives a very attractive bronzy looking shade from a distance, and I love it! I was completely wrong to put off wearing this for so long!

OPI Sparkle-icious

Here are a few macros in dlifferent angles and with different levels of sun. You can see how the colours kind of 'mesh' together to form an overall bronzy colour in lower light. In the first macro, in very bright, direct sunlight, you can see that close up, the glitters don't really cover the whole nail at all.

OPI Sparkle-icious

I used three coats of OPI Sparkle-icious for this mani. No undies, as I wanted to see how the polish worked on its own, but I'm sure it would layer really well - maybe over a hot pink like OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries or a bright teal like Butter London Slapper. I might even try a hot pink to teal gradient sometime and put a layer of Sparkle-icious on top! Sparkle-icious is rather gritty, I used Sinful Colors Gel Tech top coat to smooth it out before adding a coat of Seche Vite quick drying top coat.

OPI Sparkle-icious was from their Burlesque collection released in Autumn 2010 and sadly is now discontinued. I got this bottle in a swap over a year ago!

OPI Sparkle-icious

Other bloggers taking part in this untried challenge are:

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side
Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish 

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors
Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish 

Scofflaw Flotsam & Jetsam

Scofflaw Flotsam & Jetsam

Scofflaw is one of the newer indie brands; I think Finch, the creator, just set up shop at the beginning of this year. I was completely blown away when I first saw pictures of Scofflaw polishes, especially this one. I just had to have it! Flotsam & Jetsam is a sheer, pale mint green with purple and turquoise shard glitter and microglitter. There is also a very pretty green shimmer in there too.

I have to say I don't think I've done this polish justice with my photos. I loved it so much I ended up wearing this mani for four days (and it looked as good on the last day as the first) but it's a very difficult colour to photograph! My fingers are not as red as they look! The picture above is with light from above (taken on the table where I usually do my macro shots). The next few pictures are near the window, and you can see that with light behind, the overall effect is much more delicate.

Scofflaw Flotsam & Jetsam

Flotsam is floating wreckage of a ship, and jetsam is ship's cargo or equipment that is cast ashore to lighten the load and ultimately washes up on shore. The colours in the polish remind me of bits of smashed up coloured glass floating around in the froth on the sea - I think the polish is very aptly named! 

Here's a bottle shot and a macro

Scofflaw Flotsam & Jetsam

Flotsam & Jetsam was a nice consistency and easy to apply; I used three coats, plus a thick coat of Sinful Colors Gel Tech topcoat - which seems to smooth out glitters a treat and dries quite quickly.

Scofflaw Flotsam & Jetsam

I purchased Scofflaw Flotsam & Jetsam directly from Finch (along with three other colours, which I'll be wearing and posting about soon). Here's a link to her etsy store and facebook page. Llarowe also stocks Scofflaw polishes. Obviously, because the polishes are awesome they sell out quick!

Picture Polish Denim

Picture Polish Denim is a wonderful periwinkle blue polish packed full of silvery flakies. This is just two coats of Denim with Seche Vite quick drying topcoat. Please excuse the less than perfect edges to this mani; it's one I did whilst on holiday last week on the Isle of Mull last week and I didn't take my clean-up brush!

The day I wore this mani I had one of the nicest tandem bicycle rides ever - about 45 miles around the North  part of Mull. It was a beautiful sunny day (it rained the rest of the week), and although some of the hills were steep and challenging, the views were spectacular. This is a *happy polish* now, I'll remember that day whenever I wear it! Previously it had been a less happy polish - it reminded me of the last time I wore it - on a cold, snowy day in December 2011 when I ended up with borderline hypothermia running a local fell race.

Here's a picture I took looking over Loch Na Keal towards Ben More when we stopped for a banana after the hardest climb of the day

View across Loch Na Keal, Mull, May 2013

I've had this polish for a couple of years, I bought it from a friend who got it sent from Australia but ultimately decided it it didn't suit her after all. Fortunately, Picture Polish products are easy to obtain outside of Australia now and this is still one of their core range - you can buy this polish from Llarowe (she ships worldwide).

Untried Polish Challenge Day 3 *One Colour* - BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan

BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan

I chose this rich teal-blue for my 'one colour' polish in the Untried Challenge today.

I decided that I'm going to work through these themes in order from now onwards, so I can be sure to do them all! So far I've done *Two Colours* (W7 Metallic Venus) and *Was a Gift* (Rescue Beauty Lounge Insouciant) and today I've chosen BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan for *One Colour*. Then I'll work through the list until I get to the end!

I also want to clarify what I call an untried. I've got a box of polishes under my desk that have been around for a while, that I've not worn. When I first buy a polish, it sits on my desk for a while (and this while is variable, especially if a buy a few polishes at a time) until either I wear it (after which it goes away in my helmer), or I decide I'm not going to wear it for a while, and then it goes in my untried box. Apart from *Newest* - which be the last polish I bought on the day I get there - everything I use in this challenge is going to come from my untried box, not the 'new' polishes on my desk.

Now let's look at BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan!

BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan

BB Couture is a brand that's not readily available in the UK, and this is the first BB Couture polish I've tried. I bought it in a blog sale a few months back, and as often happens, I bought three polishes together and one of them - this one- somehow got overlooked!

It's a shade that's been around for a few years; a dusky, teal-leaning blue with a sort of grey silver shimmer. I think it might have been the shimmer that has put me off wearing this polish up till now - in the bottle it looks like a strong, almost metallic shimmer but on the nail it's actually quite subtle and rather beautiful.

Application was very striaghtforward; this mani is just two coats plus Seche Vite quick drying topcoat. I love the colour, the formula and the finish and I'll be looking out for other colours in this brand! My last pic was taken in direct light and the colour looks brighter and stronger here.

BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan

I think this shade must be discontinued as I can't find it on BB Couture's website, but they do have some interesting colours there!

Other bloggers taking part in this untried challenge are:

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side
Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish 

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors
Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish