Simply Ravishing - Nails Of The Day - Sensationail Colour Gel Polish - Ravishing Raisin*

Whilst organising my photos for my upcoming empties catch ups, I found some nail pictures that I hadn't shared with you, so before I start playing catch up again for the zillionth time I thought I'd share a nice, easy to wear gel polish with you.

Like so many of my nail polishes now, I ordered this one online, and despite being able to see a tiny picture of it, given the name Ravishing Raisin, I  assumed that the polish would probably be darker and more purple toned, but as you can see I couldn't have been more wrong.

Sensationail Colour Gel Polish in Ravishing Raisin, is in fact a gorgeous, almost peachy, pinky, nude, with a bit of rose gold, and some almost holographic sparkle thrown in for good measure. 

Whilst I was initially a bit disappointed that it wasn't quite the shade I thought it was, my disappointment quickly faded when I applied it. It's such a pretty shade that's really easy to wear, and will work for any occasion on pretty much any length of nails.

Despite my less than perfect manicure like most Sensationail polishes it was pretty easy to apply, I used their dehydrator, primer, base coat, top coat and lamp, and it took me less than 20 minutes. If you want quite a sheer, paler finish you could just apply one coat, but I've gone for two coats here. The colour does change slightly with every application, so if you want more coverage and a darker finish, or if you have really white tips that can show through some polishes just apply another coat.

The wear time on me was decent compared to about 3 or 4 days with normal polish, I can get a giid 10 days on most nails with polishes like these, and on some nails I can even achieve the full 14 that Sensationail claim. I just tend to redo or touch up the nails that chip or come away and keep it one for the full two weeks before removing it which saves me a lot of time and effort compared to normal polish. I did notice that the finish on the polish dulled down as time went on but you could always add another coat of top coat to keep that shine.

Although this colour wasn't really what I expected it to be I do love it, it's so easy to wear, and it has in fact become one of my most worn shades. Ravishing Raisin is one of Sensationail's original shades so it can be quite hard to find now but it is currently available for less than £6 on Amazon , and for a similar price on eBay. 

Alas my nails aren't anywhere near as nice as this at the moment, so I've brought out the big guns, aka the builder gel, to try and get them nice for Christmas - so fingers crossed that a bit of BIAB, and a ton of cuticle oil does it thing, I'll keep you posted either way ;) Have you made the switch to gel polish yet? I'm pretty new to it and it's definitely a case of trial and error at the moment lol so if you're a fan please let me know what your favourite products and brands for home use are - I'd love to hear your recommendations x 

Thank you as per usual for reading, and thank you so much again for all of your comments and messages on my last post, I really do appreciate it xx

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Happy Halloween - A Fail And A Little Nails Of The Day Featuring Born Pretty Gel Color BP-MC02*

I know I keep saying it but this year really has flown by, I find it so hard to believe that it's Halloween already. I'm not the biggest Halloween stan, but I am partial to a pumpkin or two. I can't show you this years carving attempt because it's so terrifying - it was a bit soft to carve so I ended up improvising with a sharp knife and some BBQ skewers, to create a weird plague doctor, bird, bat, mothman hybrid - I don't know about the trick or treaters, but it will definitely scare away the evil spirits - LOL. Anyway the innards of said pumpkin are now bubbling away to create a panful of Delia Smith's Pumpkin & Toasted Sweetcorn Soup (check out the recipe here if you have some spare pumpkin flesh), and the horror exterior is ready for all the little witches and ghosts with their pumpkin pails. 

I got any cute Halloween outfit pics or recipes to share with you this year, so instead I'm sharing a little nails of the day post with you featuring my lovely pumpkin before I attacked it with a sharp knife!

This is the Born Pretty Gel Color in the catchily names shade BP-MC02. I bought this particular colour in a set of Autumn themed shades from Amazon in October of last year, when I was on the hunt for a pumpkin toned orange gel polish.

This isn't bright neon orange by any means it's definitely noticeable but it's a touch more muted, with maybe some yellow tones in it. 

This is a gel polish so you do need either a UV or LED lamp to seal it. I used some nail dehydrator, primer, and then a base coat and applied two coats of polish, and then a coat of top coat sealing under the lamp between every polish layer. I used my Sensationail LED lamp, and I've got to say the instructions were a touch vague - it said to seal for 30-120 seconds, so I went for about 90 seconds for this polish and it seemed to set pretty well.

The finish as you can see is very shiny, but I think that it could also work with a matte top coat. My nails are super short here so it's never the easiest paint job but despite the less than perfect paint job. this was pretty easy to paint with, the brush was fine and the polish was a nice consistency.

As for wear time, it's actually quite hard to judge, having your hands deep in the guts of pumpkin, full of enzymes and fruit acids doesn't do a lot for a manicure, well it didn't do much for mine! By the time I'd finished my carving attempt I'd lost 1 nail on my left hand and 4 on my right! The leaflet that came with the set I got said it could last up to 3 weeks, so who knows. I still think I'll experiment a bit more with timings, and different top and base coats when I use it again to try and see what works the best, but all in all a decent polish, and a nice seasonal shade.

Alas this particular shade is now pretty hard to find, as I say I bought in a kit about this time last year and believe it or not the last one sold out on Amazon earlier this week! However there is currently a set of 6 polishes also available from Amazon for £9.99 that contains a very similar colour. There are loads of very reasonably priced Born Pretty polishes, again including some similar sets and colours available on eBay and obviously direct from Born Pretty.

So whatever you're doing this evening be it trick or treating, sitting with the lights off hiding from said trick or treaters and ignoring the whole thing , having a party or just having a nice night in, I hope you have a very Happy Halloween, and also if you're celebrating a very Happy Diwali x 

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When I'm Feeling Blue - Nails Of The Day - Sensationail Colour Gel Polish - Steel A Kiss*

Hey My Darlings - It's been a while again but I thought I'd ease myself back into the whole blogging thing this Bank Holiday Monday with a little nails of the day post.

I'm not going to lie I actually photographed this manicure a couple of months ago now and it's been sat in my drafts for goodness knows how long but it's too pretty not to share. My nails are currently super short again, but there are some signs of growth there, and when they are long enough to paint and stick under the lamp again, I will more than likely be applying this shade again.

Sensationail Colour Gel Polish in Steel A Kiss is by probably the most used gel polish in my collection, and I'm sure you can see just why I love it.

There are two things that I really love when it comes to nail polish, the colour blue, and sparkles, and this particular shade ticks both of these boxes. This gorgeous almost denim blue shade is crammed full of almost holographic sparkle - I'm probably not showing it in the best light here but wiggle your fingers in strong sunlight, or even a really bright indoor light and watch those sparkles flash! 

Application was a breeze, I used all of the Sensationail prep products and their top and base coat, and a full manicure probably took me less than 20 minutes. The finish is smooth and  super glossy and the wear time as you would expect from a gel polish is excellent - I got nearly 2 and a half weeks out of this particular mani with only minimal tip wear, and a couple of tiny chips.

Obviously the one drawback of gel polishes is the removal but despite the shimmer and sparkle this was pretty easy to remove without any chunky of glitter with both gel polish remover (acetone), and the gel polish remover liquid that looks like nail varnish. Both methods as you would expect are a bit drying on the nails and cuticles but I usually just load up on cuticle oil and hand cream for a few days to counteract any dryness. 

As the Phil Collins song goes "when I'm feeling blue all I have to do is take a look at you, then I'm not so blue" and for me that certainly applies to this nail polish - It just makes me happy every time I wear it and I will definitely be picking up another bottle.

The original Sensationail polishes are quite hard to find now but in my opinion they're worth tracking down. This particular polish the Sensationail Colour Gel Polish in Steel A Kiss, is still available though on Amazon for the pretty bargaintastic price of just £5.96. Obviously you need an LED lamp etc. but if you have all that, for me it's a no brainer x Are you a sparkly polish fan ? Let me know in the comments x 

*This Post Contains Affiliate Links

Nails Of The Day - Orly Color Blast - Rose Chrome Foil

Hi Guys x I hope you are all having a nice weekend, It's raining quite heavily here today so I've been keeping cosy and working on a few blog posts starting off with a nails of the day from the Orly Color Blast range.

Although the regular Orly range is still alive and kicking I can't seem to find many of the Color Blast polishes online bar a few on eBay, and Amazon. From what I remember I think that they were originally on sale in Superdrug in the UK, and I actually remember buying this particular shade because my mam saw someone wearing something similar and kept going on about how nice it was.

I don't think Rose Chrome Foil would ever win any awards for the most creative of names but it's certainly pretty accurate. Described as a rose pink metallic foil, it's an almost cool toned rose gold, crammed full of smooth sparkles.

In a slightly different shaped bottle to the other Orly polishes I own, the polishes in the Color Blast have a ribbed, rubber grip style lid for improved application, and a long medium to thin brush, perfect if you have smaller or shorter nails.

I'm not going to lie if you're a polish perfectionist like me, this particular polish will frustrate the hell out of you. You get a fair bit of coverage with the first coat but for full depth of colour you really need two or three. The trouble with it being a smooth foil is that you can see every single mistake, and brush mark. I'm probably wearing about 3 coats here because I kept trying to perfect but try as I might you can still see the odd imperfection. The temptation is to apply one really thick coat but you'd probably wait an age for it to dry and smudge it in the meantime - so if you have a colour like this go slow, apply thin coats and give it a few minutes to try between each one.

If you aren't as much a perfectionist as I am, then all you'll see is a gorgeous, glossy, smooth finish, metallic foil with just a hint of sparkle. Drying time as I say wasn't bad and the wear time was actually even better. After a few days I noticed some minor tip wear, and it was another few days after that before it started to chip. Bear in mind though it's one of those polishes that once it chips you can't just paint over it and touch it up, as I say polishes like this literally show up any imperfections, so it's easier just remove the polish from the offending finger and repaint it.

I don't think that my issues with this polish are really anything to do with the formulation, the bottle or the brush, I always have similar issues with foil and metallic shades it's just the way that the shades translate, and I think that I am just too much of a perfectionist for them. That being said though, if you don't look too close, and fixate on the brush marks, it's actually a very nice, hardwearing polish, that I've actually worn two or three times now, because it literally goes with any outfit; It's sort of a neutral with a sparkly dressed up twist, and Mummy Lou has always commented about how pretty it is when I've worn it (her own nails are too short for polish, and I'm sorry for saying this but she's also a bit of nail biter!). 

As I say I can't find this particular polish anywhere online now but I'm sure most brands will have a similar rose gold metallic in their inventory, and Orly actually have a shade Rage, in their main line that looks similar, if a little pinker, and there us also a colour in the Orly BREATHABLE range, called Fairy Godmother which also looks similar x Let me know your thoughts on this polish and I'll see you soon with an empties post x 

Nails Of The Day - Beauty Pie Wondercolour Nail Polish - Violetta*

It's fair to say that posts have been a little thin on the ground recently, and I guess it's also fair to say that nail posts have been almost non existent! Despite using my body weight in hand creams, cuticle oils, and nail strengtheners, my nails have by and large, remained stubby, short and dry. However for whatever reason over the last week or so they seemed to have a mini growth spurt, so I had a little sort through some of my most recent nail polish buys, and got painting! Alas within a few days they'd all snapped off again so this post is dedicated to their memory ;)

I've been a Beauty Pie member for nearly a year and a half now and so far so good, I haven't gone daft and changed my entire beauty routine overnight but I've just been picking up the odd thing to try and by and large I've been pretty impressed with the things that I've bought, with the Soul Providers Re-Energizing Dry Oil Sugar Scrub being my standout buy so far. 

I've bought a few make up bits now, some of which I'm going to try and feature in a future post or two, but this was my first time trying one of their nail polishes. I have to say that if you're looking for an exciting nail polish brand, with different colours, finishes and textures, then the polishes from Beauty Pie probably aren't for you. Their shades and finishes are all pretty safe, and pretty wearable, but what you are getting from Beauty Pie are high end, salon quality polishes. All of their nail products are both vegan and cruelty free, and they are 7 free, so they are free from 7 common polish nasties including toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, ethyl tosylamide, xylene, camphor, and triphenyl phosphate. Containing nourishing coconut oil, they promise a quick drying, long lasting, chip resistant, breathable formula.

Annoyingly Beauty Pie seem to like to discontinue things especially make up items and shades, and even though this polish is quite a recent addition to my collection, this particular shade - Violetta - seems to have already been discontinued :( If you're a regular reader you should know buy now that I'm rather partial to purple and lilac nail polishes, and this one is a gorgeous pale, milky lilac shade, that's perfect with spring pastels, and perfect for making your summer tan jump out.

The polishes come boxed and in a no nonsense plain glass bottle with a black cap. With a short and stubby handle the brush itself is quite short and wide. 

The polish had quite a thick consistency and whilst I normally love a wide brush, and cream finishes are usually okay to paint, I did struggle a bit with this one. The brush was just a little too wide for some of my nails, and if you look closely some of the edges aren't exactly straight! 

The formula itself was pretty self levelling but after one coat a few nails were a bit streaky and you could see the odd brush stroke. it wasn't bad but as per usual I went for two coats, which was enough for a lovely smooth finish. The end product was really glossy even without a top coat and the dry time was pretty decent. Look carefully and you'll probably see the odd mistake and less than perfect patch but whether that's down to the polish or the fact that I'm a bit out of practise when it comes to apply nail polish, you decide ;)

As per usual for the purpose of testing a polish, I skipped a top coat, and despite their chip resistant claims, within 24 hours I did experience a tiny bit of tip wear on my right hand. I just painted it over though, and the rest of my nails lasted a good 4 days before I needed to remove it, which is pretty good going for me x

Although I had a few issues with both the application and Beauty Pie's chip resistant claims I was actually pretty pleased with how this polish performed I liked the colour, the wear time was decent, and it didn't leave me nail looking white, and flaky when it started to chip off. As I say this shade appears to have been discontinued by Beauty Pie but you never know it might come back. I've actually ordered another polish from them to try so fingers crossed I can get my nails to grow a bit before it arrives. The core range of Beauty Pie Wondercolour Nail Polishes have an RRP of £15 but members cab buy them for around £7 each. If you fancy trying Beauty Pie for yourself please check out my link here to find out how it works and to sign up for yourself x Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon with another post x 

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Nails Of The Day - Morgan Taylor Platinum - Disco Days

Okay, slight change of plan! The Foodie Friday post that I promised you will now go live next Friday, and in the meantime I will have another empties post that will go up on Monday, and today I've got a nails of the day post for you and it's another holo!

Although I think I've showed you a few Morgan Taylor polishes in previous haul posts and advent calendar unboxing this is the first time I've tried one properly on the blog. If you haven't heard of them before, Morgan Taylor is a US based professional nail polish brand, with other 30 years of experience in the nail business. As well as been known for their innovative colours, and textures, they are also cruelty free, and formaldehyde, toluene, and DBP free.

From their 2018 Platinum collection, this polish, Disco Days, like all of Morgan Taylor's other lacquers comes in a custom designed bottle, which is specially designed with deeper and clearer glass so you see the colour bottle and you can see exactly what you are buying.

Inspired by radiant gems and minerals from the earth, all of the polishes in the platinum range were infused with rare and precious elements which is exactly what this polish reminds me of.

Officially described as 'green holographic' for me it's more of a blue / green, almost turquoise shade which is crammed full of fabulous multi coloured holographic sparkle, which changes in the light and when you move your hands. It's almost impossible to capture just how beautiful this polish actually is but the above photographs are taken in natural light, and all of the photographs below are taken with the camera flash, so you can hopefully just some of the shifts in colour and sparkle.

Like all Morgan Taylor polishes Disco Days, has a lightweight, easy to control, and easy to hold cap but  since this colour was from a special and more luxurious range, it has a gorgeous shiny, chrome, silver lid. The brush inside is quite short, which again makes it easy to control, it's quite a wide brush and it has a curved top which fits the cuticle perfectly.

It was really easy to paint with and to control, and it only took one or two stripes to cover my nails. The first coat was a little bit streaky on some nails, so I went for my usual two coats. The finish as you can see is super smooth and shiny even without a top coat.

When it comes to wear time, holographic polishes can work in one of two ways, like the original GOSH Holographic they can only last for around 24 hours without chipping, or they can go on for ever, and thankfully this particular lacquer fell in the second category. Even with no top coat I got a full week out of this polish before I started to see the odd chip and a bit of tip wear, and I've currently got it on my toes and despite being nearly two weeks in, it still looks decent!

Is there such a thing as the perfect nail polish? I'm not sure if there is but for me this one is pretty damn close! It was a dream to paint, the brush and formulations was perfect, the wear time was fantastic, and the colour and finish was to die for. I'm so, so happy with this colour that I've already ordered another polish or two from the Platinum collection, and I'm going to be digging out a few of my previously ignored Morgan Taylor polishes to try. Although it's a few years old now Morgan Taylor Platinum - Disco Days is still available online - although the RRP is £11.50 for a 15ml bottle, you can get it for around £8.63 from eBay, Amazon, and from Nail Polish Direct. If you love holographic polishes like I do then you need this one in your life! I've currently got two awful nails on my main photograph hand, but once they grow up a little bit more, I've got a whole load more nails of the day posts planned including some more holos from Maggie Ann, OPI, Nails Inc, and A-England, as well as a whole load of other creams, shimmers and glitters x So if you like nail polishes and nail posts make sure your subscribed x 

Nails Of The Day - Ciate - 023 Speed Dial*

Hi Guys x I hope you've all had a lovely long Easter weekend, it's been a strange one not seeing family and friends again, but we've made the best of it, I've done a bit of cleaning, I've filled a few charity bags, and I've consumed just a little bit of chocolate.

Before I play Glossybox catch up again I thought I'd share another belated nails of the day with you, again from way back in October, when my nails were long and I was on the hunt for the perfect orange nail polish.

Thanks to their ever popular Mini Mani Month Advent Calendars I have quite a few mini Ciate nail polishes in my collection. They usually produce a new calendar every Christmas filled different products from their range, and 5ml mini and 13.5ml full sized bottles of nail polish. They are a great way of either starting a nail polish collection, or for trying out new colours or formulations without too much of a risk.

I haven't bought a Mini Mani Month calendar for quite a few years now, as you can probably tell from this old style Ciate bottle with the sorely missed, fabric bow, so this particular polish, 023 Speed Dial, isn't the newest polish in my collection but since it had an orange tinge in the bottle I decided to give it a try.

Alas like OPI Mod-ern Girl, although it did look quite orange in the bottle, it was much more of a coral, orange, red on the nails. 

The one good thing about Ciate minis is that they are true mini versions of the full sized polishes - Because the polish is so small, the brush handle is quite short and as a result fairly easy to control.

The first coat was pretty sheer, and you could still clearly see the white tips of my nails through it. It actually took 3 coats to achieve the finish that you can see here. It dried fairly quickly though so it was worth applying that extra coat.

As you can see the finish was super glossy, smooth and almost mirror like. As per usual when I'm testing out a polish I skipped a top coat and it stayed relatively chip free on my be it very long nails for around 3 or 4 days.

Although again the colour wasn't quite what I expected it to be, it was super pretty and it was the perfect colour to cheer up a dull autumn or even snowy! spring day. Alas like so many of the polishes in my extensive collection this one isn't the easiest shade to find now. I can imagine it would be fairly easy to dupe, but if you want to add Speed Dial to your collection that you maybe able to find it in both this 5ml mini size, and in the full 13.5ml size from various discount retailers, as well as on Amazon and eBay x Let me know your thoughts on this polish in the comments and I will see you later in the week with a skincare review x 

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