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 - Another Unnamed Primark PS...Gel Effect Nail Polish (2)*

 Hi Guys x I hope you're all having a nice weekend x I've had a pretty quiet one so far, and since I don't have anything planned, I think it's going to stay that way, plenty of self care, and a little bit of blog work. I'm currently working on my review of the July 2020 edition of Glossybox UK, which should be up next week but in the meantime, I thought I'd share a quick nails of the day with you.

Many moons ago back in 2016, when my Primark hauls were a regular thing, I picked up a couple of nail polishes from their Gel Effect Nail Polish range. Annoyingly they didn't have names but the first one, a beautiful lilac, blue, forget me not, periwinkle shade, really surprised me, you can read my full review here but the coverage was good, and it wore well. I recently rediscovered the other bottle that I bought and since again it was a nice spring and summer pastel I thought that it was the perfect time to try it out.

I love lilac and purples, but I'm also a huge fan of turquoise, minty green, aqua shades like this one, I just wish that it had a name, so if you can think of a good one (since Primark obviously couldn't!) then let me know in the comments x 

The polishes in this range, come in a very Nails Inc alike, square bottle. with the same pull off cap and textured lid. The brush itself is quite short and stubby but it's also quite wide, so you only need one or two swipes on each nail.

The polish itself felt quite thick and gloopy. The coverage on the first coat was decent but it looked pretty streaky and you could clearly see brush marks. I achieved full coverage with two coats but it still looked a touch streaky, and there were visible brush marks on quite a few nails.

I'm not sure whether it was down to the age of the polish, or the humidity that we've had over the last few week but this polish seemed to take an age to dry. From a distance it looked okay, it was really glossy and shiny, but look a bit closer and there are definitely some imperfections, brush streaks, and unevenness. 

I don't know whether it was down to the thickness of the polish but unlike the previous colour the wear time wasn't great, it chipped in less than 24 hours, and within 48 hours most nails were chipped and I'd actually lost two full nails of polish. As per usual I didn't use a top coat but potentially that would have improved the wear time.

As I say the periwinkle polish really surprised me but whether it was down to age, time or even a different formulation. this one just wasn't even close. The consistency seemed off, it took ages to dry, and the finish and wear time, were a real let down. I haven't been to Primark since before Christmas so I have no idea if Primark even still sell these polishes, but if you do see this particular shade I would advise that you give it a wide berth, and spend your money on one of the many similar colours on the market instead.

*This Post Contains Added Affiliate Links

Nails Of The Day - NYX - NP141 Aurora - Reshot And Rewritten*

Thanks to all of the rain this week it's taken me much longer than expected to finish editing my next two Glossybox unboxing catch up's, so in the meantime I've got a cheeky little nails of the day for you.

If you've been around since the very early days of LouLouLand then you might have already seen my talk about this nail polish way, way back in 2010. To be honest though the photos that accompanied the post were so bad, that I relegated it to my drafts folder, so I could rewrite and reshoot it. Then believe it or not, I ended up losing the polish, not that hard when you have as many nail polishes as I do, but whilst sorting through some old make up bags earlier this week, I rediscovered it and in a desperate attempt to feel a bit more summery I decided to give it another try.

I think I bought this polish from Cherry Culture way back when NYX wasn't that widely available in the UK. At a glance it looks like a bog standard pastel peach but it actually a whole lot more. NYX Nails Nail Polish in NP141 Aurora is indeed a pretty pastel peach that perfect for the summer months but rather than being a flat cream, what sets Aurora a part is the fact it's shot through with a superfine gold shimmer. I've taken these pictures with the flash so you can see just how pretty this polish actually is x

It comes in a curvy, slightly squat looking bottle. The brush is of decent thickness and quality and given the slightly textured cap it's pretty easy to control. Even though this polish is now well over 10 years old, the consistency was just right, it wasn't too thin and it hadn't gone thick or gloopy. The gold sparkle has slightly in the bottle but the application was fairly easily, and the sparkle is so fine that it was still distributed evenly throughout the polish.

Whilst the coverage was decent the first coat was still slightly patchy, it dried quite quickly though so there was no problem adding a second coat. Full coverage was achieved on all nails with 2 coats, and it dried down quickly leaving a lovely smooth and glossy finish.The wear time in all honesty wasn't the best, I saw my first chip after less than 24 hours, but it's nothing that a good top coat wouldn't fix.

Bar the wear time I have to say that I was so, so impressed with this polish. It may be more than 10 years old now, but it was still pretty much as good as new, the formulation is still on point and the depth of the colour and the coverage are also spot on. I've had a little look online and alas the entire NYX Cosmetics nail polish range appears to have been discontinued, bar the odd polish on Amazon, eBay, and discount beauty retailers such as Beauty Outlets, so this particular polish may be pretty much impossible to find, but I'm sure there will be a dupe out there somewhere - If you can think of one let me know in the comments x

*This Post Contains An Added Affiliate Link

Nails Of The Day - Milani 3D Holographic Nail Lacquer - 512 Cyberspace - Reshot And Rewritten

Before I start on a run of unboxings and reviews I thought I'd share another re shot and rewritten nails of the day post with you. I originally talked about, and bought this polish way back in 2010 from an American based website called Cherry Culture.

Cherry Culture was a brilliant site that used to stock brands like Beauty Blender, NYX and Milani, and ship them over to the UK, long before they available in UK stores. I bought quite a bit from the them but one of the brands that I really came to love was Milani. I was always really impressed with the quality and the prices were incredible. Alas Cherry Culture now only seems to stock their own brand of products but the good news is that we can get an all be it limited, and slightly more expensive than I remember, range of Milani products in the UK from various retailers including Boots, Beauty Bay and Just My Look.

Something that doesn't seem to have made the trip across the Atlantic though are their nail polishes, which is a real shame. I only own 4 or 5 of them but the quality was excellent and they were great value for money. You can still buy their nail polishes in a few countries but from the research that I've done, their 3D Holographic range seems to have been discontinued. As a result of that I wasn't too sure about whether I was going to share this with you again, but it's so beautiful I that think it's worth sharing.

Milani 3D Holographic Nail Lacquer in 512 Cyberspace, is a gorgeous light blue, that is crammed full of holographic sparkle. With a long thin brush, it applied like a dream, there was no bittiness, or patchiness, just a formula and a nice even finish. To achieve the full depth of sparkle and the colour that you can see here I applied around 2 - 3 coats on each nail. As a result it takes a little bit longer to apply but it dries quickly and it leaves such a smooth, glossy multi dimensional finish, that it's well worth taking a little bit longer to apply it properly.

Now being a holographic polish it changes colour slightly, and dances, and sparkles when it hits the light. I've taken all of the photos that you can see above in natural light, but like in the photographs below,  when you add a bit of sunlight, incandescent light or even a camera flash it comes to life

I really don't think any of my photographs do this polish justice, it's so sparkly and gorgeous, and the wear time was excellent too. In fact even though this particular bottle is nearly 10 years old now, it's as good if not better, than it ever was.

As I say there is probably no chance that you'll be able to get your hands on this one now, but thankfully holographic polishes are a lot more accessible than they used to be, so you should be able to get your hands on something similar. I actually have a few similar shades in my collection including a real beauty from Maggie Anne, that I'll be sharing with in some future nails of the day posts. It's still a shame that this particular range has been discontinued by Milani, and I really hope that they consider bringing not only this range back, but also bringing their nail polish range back to the UK. Are you an fan of holographic nail polishes? Let me know in the comments x

Nails Of The Day - China Glaze - 625 For Audrey - Reshot And Rewritten

Hi Guys, I hope you're all having a nice weekend, before I get into a couple of pretty long posts, I thought I'd share another blast from the past nails of the day with you.

I first talked about this polish way back in 2010, but after re reading the original post and hating everything about it, I thought I'd dig it out and re shoot it, and rewrite it.

The bottle is showing its age now but don't let that detract you from just how beautiful this colour actually is. China Glaze For Audrey, is a beautiful turquoise, blue, green cream, very reminiscent of a certain posh jewellery companies packaging, and as result intrinsically linked to iconic, and legendary actress Audrey Hepburn. Thanks to the online nail and manicure community this polish has reached almost legendary status in it's own right, and it still remains one of China Glaze's top sellers, 9 years after I bought my bottle.

Even though this is an old polishes, China Glaze's varnishes still have quite a thin brush. Fine if you have short or thin nails like mine, but it isn't the best if you have wider or longer nails. Coat number 1 was very, very streaky. 2 coats was enough on most nails but if you look really closely you can still see a few streaks and a few brush marks and even a few bubbles!

Given it's age it was pretty quick drying but I think I was a little bit impatient when I applied it and I was guilty of not waiting long enough for it to dry in between coats, hence the bubbling. I applied it with a base coat of OPI Nail Envy, and no top coat, and it started to chip with 24 hours, which isn't that unusual for me.

I don't whether it's down to its age or my memory playing tricks on me, but I definitely remember being more impressed with this polish when I first got it. Don't get me wrong I love the colour, but in this case I just wasn't that impressed with the application, the finish or the wear time.

Despite the fact that For Audrey comes from one of my favourite colour families when it comes to polishes, and I probably have lots of similar shades, this particular polish is so iconic, that I'm going to hang on it. I actually took these pictures about a month ago now, and since then I've used it a couple of times, and by applying thinner coats, giving them longer to dry, and paring it with a decent top coat, I definitely achieved a nicer finish and a longer lasting manicure. It just shows you that with a little bit of extra care, and attention, you can bring an old polish back to life

If you fancy trying For Audrey for yourself, it's still widely available for around £5.95 for a 14ml bottle, from various retailers including Amazon, ebay, and Nail Polish Direct.

A Blast From The Past - Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polish - 640 Twinkle

I first blogged about Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polish in Twinkle, way back in 2010, after purchasing it on a whim in my small village chemists. Although I wasn't really that happy with the post or the photographs, I had no plans to rewrite it or re shoot it. Then of course Photobucket started charging for their services and a lot of my old pictures disappeared, so I deleted the post and to be honest I forgot all about it.

Recently though I was having a sort through my extensive nail polish collection and I rediscovered quite a few polishes that I'd forgotten about. Time hasn't been kind to some of them and even on first glance the bin was the best place for them, but this one looked okay in the bottle so I thought I'd give it a go.

Rimmel Twinkle is a fabulous pink, lilac shade, packed full of tiny specks of silver and multicoloured sparkle. In some lights it looks warmer and more pink toned, and in others the sparkle really comes into its own and it looks cooler, with more lilac tones.

My memory isn't that great but it doesn't apply quite as well as I remember it, but the brush is decent and that always makes a big difference. Given it's age I think the consistency is a little bit thicker than what I remember, but at the same time the coverage wasn't quite as good. The first coat was a bit streaky and a bit patchy, but I found that two coats were enough to give full coverage on most nails.

Now this is one of Rimmel's 60 Seconds polishes, which are designed to dry in believe it or not, 60 seconds or less, but I found that it took a couple of minutes, again probably down to age.

The finish wasn't quite as nice as I remembered either, without a top coat it had quite a rough feel, which was a bit surprising considering the fineness of the sparkle; You could also see a few visible brushstrokes which is one of my biggest pet hates when it comes to nail polish.

Given its age, I was actually really impressed with the wear time, I know polishes with sparkle usually last a bit longer and this one was no exception. I always skip top coat when I'm trying out a polish, and even without it this lasted for nearly 3 days without any chips or wear. I'm notoriously hard on my hands so that was pretty decent by my standards. Again down to the glitter content I was expecting it to be quite hard to remove but because the glitter is so fine it actually wasn't too bad, with just the odd bit of sparkle hanging around on the nails and transferring onto the skin.

This isn't the easiest colour or finish to capture on camera, it's hard to capture a uniform colour in all of the pictures, and as always it's hard to show off the true sparkle on camera. I had a few goes and the eagle eyed Instagram watchers amongst you may have have already seen, a since deleted picture of this polish. I've had a play though and whilst I still don't think my pictures do the sparkle justice, these shot taken at night with the flash, give you a better idea of what it actually looks like on the nails.

Given that I first talked about this polish around 9 years ago now, it's not really any surprise that the formulations seems to have changed slightly, and whilst  Twinkle appears to have been discontinued by Rimmel, my bottle certainly isn't ready for the bin just yet. Despite a few drawbacks, it's a really pretty, wearable shade, that's perfect for when you want a safe colour, but with a bit of glamour at the same time x I'm now off to see what else I can rediscover so I'd love to know if you've rediscovered any beauty products recently? Let me know you rediscoveries in the comments  - I'd love to hear from you x

Nails Of The Day - Rimmel I Love Fruities Lasting Finish - 053 Apricot Punch

Before I start on a run of unboxing posts - I thought I'd share a quick re shot and redone post with you. Although I said in my last post that my nails were pretty shocking at the moment, after a week and a bit of TLC my nails don't actually look too bad. and whilst they're still quite short, they're long enough to paint.

I originally posted this review way back in 2010, and after looking back at a few older posts, I realised just how bad this one actually was, the pictures were awful and the writing was even worse, so when I rediscovered this polish in a long forgotten make up I thought I'd paint my nails, and take some pictures

Although the weather seems to have turned today, it really feels as though summer is on its way, we've had a few warm and sunny days recently, and this fabulous slightly washed out bright coral, orange seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

Despite its age this polish really impressed me, it was a touch thicker than it originally was but if anything that seemed to make the application even easier. The first coat was a touch streaky but I managed to achieve the full coverage that you see here in just two thin coats.

It dried pretty quickly and most crucially for me the wear time was superb. I really didn't expect much from a nearly 10 year old, relatively budget friendly nail polish. I'm notoriously hard on my nail polish and I managed a good three days with this one even without a top coat. Normally when I'm testing a polish I go without a top coat to test the wear time, but in this case I went without for a different reason.

One of the quirks of this particular polish is the scent, now you shouldn't go around smelling nail polish, it's full of all sorts of things that you probably shouldn't be sniffing, and this one for a time is no different. When you first apply it is smells like nail polish, but when it's dry it has a subtle, fruity apricot scent. Why on earth would you want to smell your nails? I really have no idea, but at some point I obviously thought it was a good idea, and added a few more scented polishes from Models Own to my collection.

Alas given its age this polish has now been discontinued and will be very hard if not impossible to find, but if your can forget the scented element, that I would think that it should be quite easily to find something similar. It really is the perfect summer colour which will look great both with a tan and with all of the bright summer fashions that are now flooding the high street. This polish surprised me on so many levels, I can't quite believe that a polish this old from a drugstore brand could still perform so well, it just shows you that despite what everyone says, you really shouldn't throw anything out, even 10 year old scented nail polish! Please tell me that I wasn't the only one to buy into the scented nail polish trend, let me know if you succumbed as well x