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...

Valentine's Day Mani #1 - Red, Red Rose

Oh my luve is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
Oh my luve is like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.
- Robert Burns

I made a pilgrimage to Colourcopia before Christmas and bought a bunch of nail polishes. For those who haven't heard of it, it's a store that sells an extensive collection of OPI and Nicole by OPI polishes in Westfield shopping centre. It is basically heaven. One of the things I picked up was the OPI & Serena Williams Glam Slam! US duo, so today I'm showing you Love is a Racket from it.

Love is a Racket is a cherry red glass fleck. The flecks are much more apparent in real life than they are in my photos, unfortunately. I used two coats for full opacity.

I don't wear many reds to be honest, but I really like this one as it's not a bog-standard red creme. And as Valentine's Day is only a couple of days away, I added nail stickers from Claire's to my thumb and ring fingers to make it a pseudo Valentine's manicure!

P.S. As you can see, I've filed my nails down to little nubbins! This wasn't entirely through choice; the nail on my index finger broke, so I had to shorten the others to make them match. Sigh.

China Glaze Devotion

For the last six months I've been living in a part of the country that seems to be stuck in a sort of 1950s time warp. It is the fashion version of no man's land. So imagine my surprise when I got distracted by the window display in a nail salon and found they were selling China Glaze nail polishes! After doing a little happy dance I popped in a bought a couple, including Devotion (a silver foil) and Grape Juice (a shimmery purple).

I used Devotion on my fingernails in preparation for a night out a couple of days ago. I haven't tried China Glaze polishes before, and I must admit I was a little disappointed with the formula. I've found that metallics are often either very runny or very thick, and this was definitely the former. It needed two coats to make it opaque and dried a bit streaky, although this evened out after I put a top coat on. It also bubbled a little, despite the fact I waited a good five to ten minutes between each coat. I love the colour though - it's a very bright silver that really stands out:

As you can see, I also used one of Claire's nail stickers on my ring finger. I'm a big fan of these. They're pretty cheap (£3 for the set) and they just make a standard manicure look a bit more fun:

I'm on day four of this manicure now and it has yet to chip, which is a pleasant surprise. The formula on Devotion may have been a disappointment, but I'm also wearing China Glaze Grape Juice on my toes and it applied much better; it wasn't nearly as thin. I won't post a photo of it though because frankly I think feet are kind of gross and I don't want to subject anyone to looking at mine (you're welcome). So would I buy China Glaze polishes again? Probably...