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:
In my opinion, Topshop nail polishes are really underrated. I hardly ever find them mentioned on other blogs, which is a shame as they have interesting colours and a fantastic formula. Hypnotic is no exception. It applied perfectly and built up well - this is three coats. I believe it's part of a collection of four polishes called Sisters of the New Moon, priced at £6.50 each.
Jo'mina is a vivid light purple. I wouldn't call it lilac because it's too bright. I've heard it's very difficult to photograph the colour accurately, and it's true! I almost wanted to cry with frustration when I was taking photos of it because it just looked too blue. Happily, when I looked at the photos on my laptop they weren't too bad, but just imagine this colour as a thousand times more bright and in-your-face in real life, okay?
Pretty gorgeous, isn't it? I wore it like this for a couple of days before realising that the only thing that could possibly top it on its own...was with Max Factor Fantasy Fire on top. I've shown you Fantasy Fire before here, and unless you've been living under a rock you've probably heard of it. It's a sheer purple polish with a red/gold/green multichrome shimmer. I like it with Barry M Indigo as a base - but I love it with Illamasqua Jo'mina. The brightness of Jo'mina still shines through but doesn't overpower the shimmery loveliness. I used two coats (eh, I have four bottles, I don't need to be stingy!) over Jo'mina. Take a look:
And a bonus photo of it blurry so you can see how sparkly it is:
An-y-way, I decided to use the English flag as my inspiration as it's patriotic *cough* and easy *cough* but with a little twist. I used a recent addition to my nail polish collection, Layla Mercury Twilight, a silver linear holographic, as my base (you will be seeing proper swatches of this polish very soon). I then used a striper brush to make the cross shape using China Glaze Ruby Pumps, a red glitter. On with the photos!
So there we have it: my blingy English nails. Is anyone else doing anything to celebrate St George's Day?
The pattern isn't very exciting and it bubbled a little, but oh well. Hopefully once I've done it a few more times I'll be able to iron out any kinks. I only did it as an accent on my thumb and ring finger because it was quicker/easier. I used a cutepolish tutorial on YouTube, which I found very helpful.
The water marble actually worked best on the thumb of my right hand:
Now that I've lost my water marbling virginity and it wasn't as much of a faff as I expected, I'm keen to try other patterns/colours. So watch this space...
In the bottle, Belgrave Square is a bright pink shimmer. On the nails, it is so much more. The big surprise is...it's a jelly! Nails Inc are really known for their creme shades (although their glitters are amazing too) so I was pleasantly surprised to find this polish is different. It reminds me of strawberry sorbet. It's so cute and squishy-looking.
I used three coats, which made it more or less opaque. As with most Nails Inc polishes, the formula was superlative. I actually ended up wearing this for several days, I liked it so much.
Electric Beat and Sweet Hook are the only two polishes I picked up from the Electropop Collection. I wanted Gothic Lolita as well, but by the time I got down to my nearest Sally's it had sold out. Sad.
