NotD: Color Club 'London Calling'

Another Nail of the Day, this time from Color Club. This is my all time favourite polish - London Calling. It's a pastel mint green polish with a hint of neon. It's very special!

Flash off and on, two coats of London Calling with Seche Vite top coat.

This polish is the one I always get compliments on from both men and women. It's such a beautiful shade, and I haven't seen any other polish like it. The formula, as with all Color Club polishes, is amazing.

As far as I know it only comes in a mini size, it was part of the limited edition Wanderlust collection that was made for Birchbox. I bought the collection from the Birchbox store but sadly it's not available any more :(

Do you love this shade as much as me? What's your favourite Color Club polish?

Love, Sarah NailsfromNothing xx 

China Glaze haul & NotD: China Glaze - Neon and On

I'll keep this one short and sweet and let the polishes speak for themselves :)

Here's my latest nail mail - 7 lovely China Glaze polishes!

Left-right: Feel the Breeze, Neon and On, Petal to the Metal, Bottoms Up, That's Shore Bright, Too Yacht to Handle, Highlight of my Summer

Most of these polishes are from the On the Shore Sunsational collection. They were £3.99 each from Nail Polish Direct. Their prices are very competitive, shipping is free and my orders always get dispatched and arrive quickly.

I had a hard time choosing which one to wear (at one point I had one on each finger) but I finally settled for this one as I can't resist a neon. I'm truly hooked on neon polishes at the moment! Here is Neon and On:

Here I am wearing two coats with Seche Vite top coat. The photos are taken with flash both off and on. Neon is pretty hard to photograph accurately, but this picture came out quite well. This polish is a peachy-pink in some lights and a bright neon pink in others. I adore it! The first coat goes on a little streaky but it evened out with another coat.

What do you think of this shade, and China Glaze polishes in general? Are you a fan like me? 

Love, Sarah NailsfromNothing xx

Dupe? Tarte 'Rainforest After Dark' palette VS I <3 Makeup 'Go!' palette

Hello all! Today's post is a comparison between two 'dupe' palettes.

A bit of background first. I saw the Tarte 'Rainforest After Dark' palette reviewed by Grav3yardgirl on Youtube, and immediately fell in love with it. It's only available in the US at the moment, and with a price tag of just over £30, I waited a few weeks until pay day to order it. 

In the meantime, I came across a strikingly similar-looking palette from I <3 Makeup. This is a sister brand of Makeup Revolution, who I have a slight obsession with (a full stash post is coming up soon, I have so many of their products! I did start a post but as I've bought so much in the meantime I have to start again). Anyway, this palette is called the Go! palette and costs just £6.49. 

Pay day came around and I ordered both palettes (along with loads of other goodies :D). As I <3 Makeup is UK based, their palette arrived first which gave me chance to play around with it. When the Tarte palette arrived, I was finally able to put them side by side and do a full comparison. So, how similar are they? Is there a dupe here? Let's see... 

Exterior/packaging

Photos taken with and without flash. Tarte palette on the left, Go! palette on the right:

Tarte - unusual wood-effect top, with brown plastic sides and bottom. The top is also decorated with a gold snake which has a purple jewel on its head. It's just gorgeous, the packaging is what attracted me to this palette. It's by far the heavier out of the two. This palette feels premium and solid. It came in a purple snakeskin-effect box which is also beautiful (forgot to take a pic - sorry!).

I <3 Makeup -  the same size and thickness as the Tarte palette, but much lighter. This palette is made from black plastic, except the lid which is transparent. This is handy as there are four palettes in this range, so if you had more than one you'd be able to easily see which is which without having to open them. The edges are rounded and it feels nice in your hand. Doesn't feel as solid or expensive as the Tarte palette, but still looks pretty :)

Interior/layout

This is where the palettes have the most similarities! 

Tarte - made up of nine sections - a large circular blush in the centre, a medium-sized highlighter and bronzer at the top and six small eyeshadows along the bottom. There is a large mirror in the lid.

I <3 Makeup - the same amount of sections, and all exactly the same sizes as the Tarte palette. One small difference - the highlighter and blush have swapped places. No mirror in this one due to the transparent lid.

Shades/swatches

Tarte - rose pink matte blush, champagne gold shimmer highlighter, caramel brown matte bronzer.

Three matte eyeshadows (pale pink, tan brown and chocolate brown), two glitter eyeshadows (pinky lilac and plum) and one metallic gold eyeshadow.

Bronzer, blush and highlighter along the top, eyeshadows along the bottom. For some reason, when looking at the palette, I swatched these from right to left. This palette is very highly pigmented. This doesn't show up greatly in this picture, but check out the swatches of the Go! palette below to see the difference. I needed very little product to achieve these swatches. 

Random note - I don't like the smell of this palette at all. I can't describe it exactly but, as a lot of Tarte products are made from clay, I have a feeling that's what this smell is. It's not enough to put me off using it, but it's just not an attractive scent to me.

I <3 Makeup -  candy pink matte blush, pink shimmer highlighter and slightly warmer brown matte bronzer. Only one matte shade (cream), one glitter shade (darker plum) and four almost metallic shades (taupe, copper, rose gold and pink).

All the shades in this palette, even the bronzer, have much warmer tones. I found no duplicate shades at all. 

If you compare both swatch pictures, you can see how much more pigmented the Tarte palette is. I used twice as much product and still got less colour. I have a feeling I'll be able to blend these easier as they are more subtle, but I will also end up using them up faster. This has a standard makeup scent, very subtle but pleasant. 

Final verdict - dupe?

At first glance, these two palettes are very similar. However, after seeing them up close and swatching them, they are pretty different - enough to justify having both - and I love them both for different reasons.

I prefer the shades of the Go! palette, and it's much better value at £6.49. The Tarte palette has much more luxurious packaging and stronger pigmentation, but its price reflects that at just over £30 (excluding P&P from the US). I can't pick a favourite. 

So... close, but not quite a dupe.

Links for more info (no commission):

Tarte 'Rainforest After Dark' palette

I <3 Makeup 'Go!' palette

What do you think of these palettes?

Which one gets your vote?

I hope you enjoyed this blog post :)

Love, Sarah NailsfromNothing xx

NOTD: Layla 'Emerald Divine'

Today's Nail of the Day is another holo polish from Layla:

Base coat - Dance Legend Aquagenetic

Polish - Layla 'Emerald Divine' (two coats)

Top coat - none

Emerald green is a green linear hologram polish which dries to a slightly matte finish. Using an aqua base coat is essential with these polishes as it can be a nightmare to apply otherwise. Totally worth it though as the finished effecf is gorgeous!

You can use a topcoat to make it glossy and help stop it wearing off, but I find top coats (even HK girl) can dull the linear holo effect with some polishes.

I bought my Laylas from Amazon amd they cost between £5-£6.

I loooove the Layla holos! Do you have any? What do you think of them? 

Lots of love, Sarah NailsfromNothing

NotD: Steampunk inspired nails

I felt like doing something creative with my nails, so here they are - my take on steampunk nails :)

I love the steampunk style and I'd love to do some cosplay, but this is as far as I've got with it for now!

I used OPI 'Warm Me Up' as my base, and some tiny clock pieces from www.she-sells-seashells.co.uk :) 

NotD: Colors By Llarowe 'CBL Addicts Blue Me Away'

Today's Nail of the Day is a Colors By Llarowe polish.

It's called 'CBL Addicts Blue Me Away' and it's my very first CBL :)

I've seen a lot of their polishes swatched and thought they looked incredible, so when I saw this for sale on a Facebook nail group I just couldn't resist!

It looked incredible in the bottle, and I couldn't wait to try it on.

         

Colors by Llarowe - CBL Addicts Blue Me Away (two coats, no top coat)

CBL Addicts Blue Me Away is a slightly teal-toned navy blue (which doesn't show with the flash on) with a stunning linear holo effect. I adore linear holos so this one is going to be a firm favourite in my collection :)

This polish is opaque after one generous coat. It's a thick but buttery formula (very similar to A-England polishes) and it's so easy to apply. It's also easy to overload the brush so watch out for that, although it may not be as much of an issue for people who don't have really tiny nail beds like me!

I used two coats but you could get away with one. I tend not to use top coats with linear holo polishes as it usually spoils the effect.

That holo <3

My previous favourite navy holo was A-England 'Tristam', which is similar in shade and texture but has a scattered holo effect rather than linear. I looove my Tristam, but linear always wins for me ;) 

So there was my first Colors by Llarowe polish. I have a feeling that this won't be my last, so watch this space for more CBL Nail of the Days!

Love, Sarah NailsfromNothing xx

My Stash: Nail polish

This week, on the All Things Nails Facebook group, we are having a theme week called 'Show Us Your Stash!'.

I took some pictures of my stash to post on the page and I thought I'd share them with my lovely blog readers too.

Here it is, all tucked up safely in my Helmer...

Drawer one - Nails Inc:

Drawer two - Barry M and MUA:

Drawer three - A England, Avon, China Glaze, Moyra, Layla and Mavala: 

Drawer four - Ciate, OPI, Rimmel, Models Own:

Drawer five - Dollish Polish, misc indies and other brands:

Drawer six - top coat, base coat and nail accessories:

So there's my stash. I will need another Helmer soon :D 

For those who don't know, the Helmer is a mini filing cabinet from IKEA which lots of nail polish enthusiasts use as storage. They are £25 each and the drawers are just the right height for polish bottles :)

I changed the handles on mine and I plan to customise it further.

They come in different colours and can be bought from the IKEA website or in store, usually in amongst the office storage.

I need to do a recount of how many polishes I have, but I know I'm over the 400 mark!

How many polishes do you own and how do you store them?

Love, Sarah NailfromNothing xx

Moyra Sugar Sand effect polishes

Here's my latest Moyra haul :D 

I loved the polishes from my first order so much that I just had to order more. 

I couldn't wait to get my hands on the new Sugar Sand effect range, so as soon as they were available I ordered four Sugar Sand polishes and also one from their Classic Collection.

L-R: Angel Dust, Daydream, Feel You, Cinema

L-R: Angel Dust, Daydream, Feel You, Cinema

   

                              

Classic No. 15 with flash (and Moomins!)

L-R: No. 15, Angel Dust, Cinema, Feel You, Daydream (no flash)

L-R: No. 15, Angel Dust, Cinema, Feel You, Daydream (with flash)

On my thumb nail I am wearing a polish from their Classic Collection, 'No. 15'.

No. 15 is a sheer pink with silver and multicoloured glitter. This one needs a few coats to build up the colour.

The Sugar Sand effect polishes have a textured finish with a pearly glitter running through them. They are unbelievably pretty!

All of the above polishes do need quite a few coats to be completely opaque (above I'm wearing four coats, no top coat) but the plus side is that application is sooo smooth and easy, and drying time is fast.

Angel Dust would probably need a fifth coat to be opaque - as you can see from the photos my nail line is still visible - so next time I will start with a base of matching polish and layer this on top. 

Yet again, Moyra did not disappoint. These polishes cost just £3.50 each (yep!) and are available from http://www.moyra-shop.co.uk/ or the Moyra UK Facebook page. 'Like' their page to keep up to date with swatches and new collections!

Love, Sarah NailsfromNothing xx

NotD: Nails Inc 'Sumner Place'

I've always hated the thought of wearing a yellow nail polish. I'm not a fan of yellow in general, but there's something about most shades of yellow that just look horrendous with my skin tone.

I bought a mini Nails Inc 'Sumner Place' a few weeks ago as part of a set. I overlooked it at first but because it was more of a pastel/lemon sorbet yellow I thought I'd try it for nail art. But today I had a moment of madness and decided to whack it on... and I absolutely love it!

Nails Inc 'Sumner Place' - two (thick) coats topped with HK Girl top coat.

It looks so much better on my skin than I thought any yellow ever could - it actually makes me a look little more tanned (I am white... very white).

Out of all the various pastel shades I have (blues, greens, pinks etc) this one looks the nicest on.

What do you think of yellow polishes - yes or no?

Love, Sarah NailsfromNothing xx

Selfridges 'The Beauty Project' Beauty Box

Hello beautiful!

Today I picked up my special-edition Selfridges beauty box.

The theme for this box is 'The Beauty Project', which is a Selfridges-run campaign that aims to look at the definition of beauty and what it means in today's society.

Selfridges have dedicated May 2014 to celebrating beauty in all its forms, and as part of this they have curated this fabulous box which contains a mixture of essential, high-end and cult products. It contains everything from make up to haircare to skincare. Even sun lotion!

This box was just £30. They sold out very fast and I'm so lucky to have got my hands on one! Here she is:

There was no product card included, but it's all pretty self-explanatory. 

Here's a rundown of the contents:

•Selfridges - Exclusive make-up bag

•Nars - Mini Deep Throat blusher

•Dermalogica - Daily Microfoliant 13g

•Laura Mercier - Foundation Primer

•Kiehl's – Ultra Facial Cleanser 30ml

•Percy & Reed – Dry Shampoo 150ml

•Lancaster – Silky Milk Tanning Lotion SPF 15

•Tangle Teezer – Original Pink

•Eyeko – Mini Black Magic Mascara

•Paul & Joe – Blotting Paper

•Carmex - Limited Edition

•Phyto – Phyto 7 Limited Edition

•EOS – Berry Hand Cream

•Ole Henrikeon – truth to go™ cleansing wipes travel pack

The total value of these products is over £120, so at £30 I think this box is fabulous value for money! I know I will use everything, so I just couldn't miss out on this one.

Apart from the Carmex lip balm and the Percy & Reed dry shampoo I have never tried any of these products before. I'd love to hear from anyone that uses any of these items. Let me know what you think of them :)

Love, Sarah NailsfromNothing xx

My favourites: Korean beauty products <3 #1 Tonymoly - Delight Tony Tint 'Red'

This is the first in a series of 'My Favourites' posts, where I will pick out my star products from various categories.

Today I want to show you my favourite (so far!) Korean make up item.

It's a lip tint/stain by Tonymoly, who are a huge brand over in Korea. It has such a beautiful colour and finish! Here it is:

I received this product in two of my Memeboxes (which I adore and will post separately about - I am currently drowning in beauty boxes so goodness knows when I'll get chance!).

The version I have is a mini version, but the full-sized version is very inexpensive.

The packaging on the mini version is plain but still very cute - especially the lid which forms a heart shape at the top.

As you can see above, mine came in shade 'Red' but they also do pink and orange versions too.

In Korea, they have a certain way of wearing these lip tints, as described on the product card above. It's known as a gradient lip or 'Korean Lip' and looks like this: 

I personally prefer to put it all over my lips, using a lip liner to keep it neat.

It's a water-based tint which means it's quite fast drying but I'd leave it at least five minutes before eating/drinking/kissing etc :)

I found that throughout the day it does transfer and wear off a little, but nothing like what a regular lipstick would. I consider this to be long-lasting, for my needs at least.

Tonymoly Delight Tony Tint (mini) can be found in selected Memeboxes at us.memebox.com

Alternatively, you can purchase the full-sized or mini versions (along with the other two shades) on eBay. I have so many Korean products on my watch list!

Please note, this product ships directly from Korea so shipping times will be longer, but it's sooo worth the wait!

What do you think of this lip tint? What's your favourite Korean make up product?

Lots of love, Sarah NailsfromNothing xx

Nail Mail - Nails Inc collections

Here is today's nail mail - three lovely collections from Nails Inc. I ordered these on Thursday evening and I've been dying to get my hands on them!*

Each collection comprises of eight polishes. They are a nice mixture of glossy, shimmer, metallic and glitter/special effects polishes.

There were three sets to choose from, so naturally I chose all three!

I haven't seen most of these for sale on Nails Inc's website individually (I already have all the ones from the website that I like!) so I was really excited to see something different :)

Here's a look at all three collections:

I'm in love! There's a couple that will end up going on eBay or going up for swaps (the browns/golds) but my goodness there are some stunning polishes here.

Each collection was priced at £20. However, as I have the Nails Inc VIP membership I managed to use three of my membership benefits on this order.

Firstly I got 10% off the order, then I used the £5 birthday month discount code they sent me (had to use it before the end of April, perfect excuse to buy!) plus I also had £5 worth of loyalty points to use.

This brought the order total to £45.50 (postage was free). £45.50 for 24 Nails Inc polishes! What a bargain. 

The VIP membership is well worth the one-off £5 fee (for 12 months of membership). On this order alone I saved £15.50, and I've saved loads on previous orders, too. I will include a link at the bottom of this post for more information on the VIP membership.

Anyway, back to the polishes!

Here's a look at each collection individually:

The 'Blossom' Collection

A collection of floral, girly, spring shades. Some of these polishes are matte which I didn't know until I swatched.

The 'Picnic Perfect' Collection

A lovely collection of bright summer shades.

The 'Glow On' Collection

A collection of neutrals and metallics. 

I'm so excited to try these out! I can't believe how many of these I haven't seen before. Then again I don't watch the QVC shows or anything. I only usually buy Nails Inc directly from their website, so it's possible that some of these polishes are either older shades or were exclusive to QVC in the past. If they are I'm not bothered in the slightest as they are gorgeous and such a bargain.

Epic nail mail!

Linkies:

Nails Inc VIP membership

http://www.nailsinc.com/vip

Love, Sarah NailsfromNothing xx

*Amusing (ish) story

The DPD man was supposed to deliver them between 8:30-9:30am so I was ready and waiting, all excited, and then the tracking tells me there's been a delay but my order will still arrive before 6pm. Whaaaat! Then I see a local news story about a lorry catching fire on the very motorway he has to travel down, at the same time that he was driving down it! I was having palpitations and visions of a DPD truck on fire with my lovely (flammable) polishes inside!

Luckily DPD man was not on fire, nor was his lorry or my polishes. It was a truck full of pet food that caught fire and nobody was hurt thankfully, but it caused hours of delays for a lot of people as the motorway was completely closed during rush hour.

My polishes finally arrived at about 2pm. I felt so sorry for DPD man, he was rushed off his feet and six hours behind! By the way, I call him DPD man because it's the same guy every time, and I'm not actually stalking him (unless he is bringing me nail polish) but the DPD tracking is incredibly detailed and informative. You know where your parcel is at all times. I loooove DPD! 

NotD - Glam Polish 'Kaleidoscope Eyes'

Here's todays Nail of the Day!

I received this yesterday from Rainbow Connection and I absolutely love it.

Here is Glam Polish 'Kaleidoscope Eyes':

                  Base coat: Orly Bonder (one coat)

                  Polishes: Sally Hansen 'Sea' (one coat) and

                  Glam Polish 'Kaleidoscope Eyes' (two coats)

                  Top coat: Glisten & Glow HK Girl (one coat)

This is my first polish from Glam Polish and I think it's beautiful. I want more!

It has so many different colours and sizes of glitter and hex shapes, all suspended in a pale mint creamy base.

It's so easy to apply. I'm not looking forward to removing it but hopefully it won't be too difficult!

Kaleidoscope Eyes and other Glam Polish shades can be bought for £9.80-£10.80 from www.rainbow-connection.co.uk

Sarah NailsfromNothing xx

MUA lipsticks

                         

Here I have some swatches of the MUA lipsticks from my last post (Superdrug Haul part 1).

These lipsticks cost £1 each, I bought them from Superdrug but you can also buy them from MUA's website.

There are 21 lipsticks in the MUA range. This consists of 16 standard finishes and 5 matte finishes.

I have one matte and five standard lipsticks to show you today. Here is a photo of them with and without the flash:

Left-right: shades 14, 4, 12, 3, 2 and Matte 'Wild Berry'

And here they all are swatched on the back of my hand:

                  

Top-bottom: shades 14, 4, 12, 3, 2 and Matte 'Wild Berry'

Now, it's sometimes hard to see what a lipstick is going to look like on your lips if you've only seen a swatch on the back of someone's hand... so I decided to put them all on for you to see...

Shade 14 'Bare'

Out of all the standard, non-matte lipsticks that I've tried I'd say this was the most matte-looking. It still has a bit of a shine to it but I think it's a little too chalky looking on me. It's probably more the shade than anything, but I'm going to try it again when I have the rest of my warpaint on and see if it looks any better.

Shade 4

This is a pale candy-pink shade. It's very sheer which means you have to keep applying to build up colour - it reminds me more of a tinted lip balm. The colour can end up quite uneven, because you have to keep adding more layers meaning you just end up just moving the colour around.

However, I am actually quite glad it's a more sheer finish and not a chalky, dry-looking candy pink, as on most people that looks horrendous. Think Nicki Minaj.

Shade 12

This is a coral-pink shade. It's a very pretty shade but it's the only one I bought that has glitter in it. To be honest I would have preferred it without the glitter as it looks a bit OTT on me. Easy to apply but slightly gritty because of the glitter.

Shade 3

I loooove this! It's a bright fuschia with a very slight coral tone to it. Absolutely gorgeous and a dream to apply. It brings out my blue eyes too :)

Shade 2

This is a shimmery berry pink/purple shade. This one was also a dream to apply, most of these polishes are very creamy and smooth and they feel moisturising on the lips. A very pretty colour.

Shade 'Wild Berry' (Matte)

This wasn't completely matte on the lips but was a lot less shiny than the others. Out of all the lipsticks, this one was the hardest to apply. With very little colour payoff, I really had to be quite rough with it to get any colour to come off. Therefore, like the candy pink shade above, it ended up quite streaky and uneven. Not sure if everyone's is like this or if mine is just faulty? It'd be helpful to know if anyone else has this shade :)

I started to rush towards the end so you may see some are neater than others!

With most of these I also used a matching MUA lipliner, also £1 each.

Lipliners in 'Softly Lined', 'Pink Me Up' and 'Brooding Plum' (which isn't plum at all!)

It's a shame that most of the lipstick range don't have names, just shade numbers. This was the same with their nail polish range but then they re-released it with redesigned bottles and they gave each shade a name. 

I can't comment on the lasting power of these as I just tried them on for this post but I don't think they are meant to be particularly long-lasting. I may be pleasantly surprised, though :)

I will definitely be buying more shades in this range, you really can't go wrong for £1!

What do you think of the MUA lipstick range? Can you recommend any of the other shades?

Love, Sarah NailsfromNothing xx