OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Evening! I've got another OPI Skyfall collection colour to share with you today. OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service has a greyish blue base with a green, turquoise, pink and purple shimmer. The shimmer is pretty special in that it's really lots of very small flakes (my camera is rubbish at extreme macro shots, but A Polish Addict has a great one here). It's really really beautiful. It had an easy application but the formula was a little sheer and needed three coats for opacity.

So I mentioned recently that when I reached thirty followers I'd have a giveaway. I've already bought the polishes but I was wondering if anyone knows the rules about posting polish within the UK and abroad? I had a look on the Royal Mail website but it wasn't very clear and basically seemed to say, 'Nail polish bad'. Obviously others have done it though so there must be ways!

Essie Fest

Hi guys! In another attempt to break away from blues, here's Essie Very Structured with Essie As Gold As It Gets. VS is a dark terracotta colour, somewhere between red and brown. I bought it in the mini set last year but have only just got round to wearing it - for shaaaame! To jazz it up a bit I layered AGAIG, a gold flake top coat, and then used GOSH Matte Effect over it.

Nubar Opulent Pearl

Yesterday I showed you the pretty coral shade Nails Inc Drury Lane, and today I'm showing you what I layered over it: Nubar Opulent Pearl. It's a flakie polish that predates Nubar 2010, and instead of the red/gold/green shifting flakies it has ones of every colour. I tried it over white a while ago and it was pretty much a huge FAIL. Fortunately, today's layering was much more successful!

The effect is quite subtle, but I like how it adds a little something extra to Drury Lane without overpowering it. WIN.

Andrea Fulerton Rain Fall

Given how much rain there's been here recently, I couldn't not try out a polish called Rain Fall! This is actually an Andrea Fulerton Trio - it's comprised of two polishes that you can wear alone or layer together to create a third colour. Rain Fall consists of a bright metallic blue polish and a darker blue one with green/blue flakies. I forgot to photograph the former before layering the latter over it (oops!), so here they are together:

Ironically, the sun emerged just as I was photographing it. Thank you, Mother Nature!

The formula was unremarkable. I used one coat of the metallic blue and one coat of the flakie polish, which gave full coverage. I really like this combination - it reminds me less of rain than it does a tropical ocean. Which gave me an idea...

I bought some Big Ruby nail tattoos ages ago and keep forgetting to use them. One of the designs I got was sea creatures, so I dug them out and used a different picture for each nail. I think they turned out pretty well:

At the risk of giving anyone else an earworm, I now have 'Under the Sea' from The Little Mermaid stuck in my head...

Topshop Gypsy Night

I've been trying to curb my nail polish buying recently with some success. There's a particular polish that I've been lusting after for a while, Topshop Gypsy Night, and for the last few weeks I have found myself debating whether or not to get it. I bookmarked its page on the Topshop website and I kept looking at it every so often, like nail porn. Then, on Thursday, I popped into my nearest Topshop on my way home from work (confession: it wasn't exactly on my route, I took a little detour) to find they'd revamped the make-up section and made it ah-mazing. Even better, they had Gypsy Night in stock! Well, it was like fate, wasn't it? So Gypsy Night came home with me, as did AWOL, which I'll show you another day.

Gypsy Night is such an interesting polish - I haven't seen anything quite like it before. It's a black jelly with flakies and holographic glitter. The flakies flash the red/gold/green combination seen in Nubar 2010, but they're a bit smaller. As with most jellies it's quite sheer, so I layered one coat over a black creme for the photos below. It dries very smooth, but I used a top coat anyway.

I love this polish even more than I thought I would. It looks even better in real life than it does in my photos. And does it remind anyone else a bit of galaxy nails?!

China Glaze Frostbite

My favourite nail colours - and in fact, colours in general - to wear are blues and purples. Sometimes I like them dark and vampy; more often than not, however, I like them as bright as possible. Especially when it's winter and the weather is grim, it cheers me up to look down at my brightly-coloured nails. Given that today is supposedly the most depressing day of the year, what better polish to show you than the brightest blue in my collection?

One of my favourite blues to wear is China Glaze Frostbite. It's a shimmery, lit-from-within blue. I find it to be a bit runny so you have to be more careful than usual during application, but it's such an incredibly vivid colour that I think it's worth the extra effort.

I was playing around with it the other day and layered a coat of Nails Inc Privileged, a blue/green flakie top coat, over it to make it even glowier. Then - as though that weren't enough - I stuck a couple of snowflake nail stickers that I found in my local Sally's on my thumb and ring finger.

Although not outrageous by my standards, the final design was the sort that made my parents give me a bemused look. So really, I consider it a success!

Nails Inc Gossip Girl Collection: Blair

I'm a big fan of Gossip Girl so I was really excited to learn Nails Inc have released three nail polish duos inspired by the TV series, a solid lacquer and an 'overglaze' top coat. I was even MORE excited when I found out these top coats are actually flakie polishes. Nails Inc are doing flakes (yay)!

The duos are Blair (deep teal with a blue/green overglaze top coat), Serena (black with electric blue overglaze) and Lily (dark plum with red/green overglaze). The overglaze polishes are comprised of irregular opalescent flakes in a clear base. When I first heard of them I immediately thought of Nubar 2010 - of these, Lily sounds the most similiar to it - and as I already have 2010, I decided Blair sounded the most exciting. Plus, she's my favourite character.

I forgot to take a photo of the teal base on its own, but I'm not sure it would have shown up very well anyway as it's so dark it almost looks black. You can tell it's teal in the right lighting, though, and I actually think it would work very well on its own without the overglaze top coat, too. I did two coats, but it was opaque enough that one coat would probably have sufficed. The overglaze itself I did one coat of, and ohmygoodness it's beautiful!

Isn't it lovely? I honestly can't stop staring at my nails. The flakes go practically the whole spectrum of blues and greens, from electric blue to turquoise to bright green. It's so pretty. It makes my nails look lovely and shimmery, but the overall look is still dark enough that it's appropriate for winter.

The formula on these was great. The teal base was perhaps a tad thick, but this didn't make it too difficult to work with. The overglaze went on perfectly. My only real complaint (as it usually is with Nails Inc) is the price. Each Gossip Girl set costs £20, which isn't cheap, although I'm tempted to say it's worth it because the overglaze top coat is so gorgeous. I'd love it if they sold these separately. Pretty please?