Avalon - a-england

I finally made the jump and ordered 'Avalon' from a-england. Why did it take me so long? I generally don't wear a lot of purple polish, not because a don't like it, I just don't seem to wear it. Well 'Avalon' went and changed that for me!

'Avalon' is the most wonderfully royal purple I've ever seen! The purple is insanely intense.

'Avalon' feels so rich and regal. It is a bright, "look-at me" colour, but it remains elegant and maintains a certain sophistication.

What sets this polish apart is its amazing shimmer. 'Avalon' is full of all sorts of shimmer including red and blue shimmer as well as plenty of purple shimmer. It's so pretty in the sun!

In indirect light, 'Avalon' almost looks like a duochrome. It seems to flash electric blue.

I just had to add in this one last photo. This was taken after 6 days of wearing this polish! 6 days!!! Amazing. Polish never lasts this long on me for several reasons - generally I get bored pretty quickly and want to change it, but also I'm not always super careful with my nails and they tend to chip after a couple of days (especially at work with hands always in water etc). So 'Avalon' lasting 6 days is pretty much a record for me.


The formula of 'Avalon' was exactly what I have come to expect from a-england polishes. It was easy, easy, easy to apply. It's the sort of polish which is just the right type of thick - buttery and so easy to spread on the nail. These photos show 2 coats and in some photos you can see a tiny bit of VNL, but in real life this was perfectly opaque.

a-england polishes can be purchased from their website. The polishes are £9 and Adina offers free worldwide shipping!

Indigo Illusion - Nubar

I simply cannot get enough of multichrome and holo polishes at the moment! I used to be a crème lover and I still am, but I'm now getting into all sorts of things, including (shock horror) glitters! Anywho... I have a multichrome polish from Nubar to show you today. This is 'Indigo Illusion'...

'Indigo Illusion' is mainly blue/purple shifting, but you will soon see that there's a lot more to this polish than that!

In the sun, 'Indigo Illusion' shows off a subtle silver shimmer that just adds to the appeal of this polish. You can begin to see the greeny shift starting to appear around the sides of my nails.

Continuing on the tour of the colours of this beauty... Here's a taste of the green and gold with the purple. The shifts in this polish are a bit clearer and more defined in real life and as always, you need to see this polish with your own eyes to get its full glory.

A little more gold...

And finally, at extreme angles you get the full force of the green/gold shift. 'Indigo Illusion' is such a chameleon of a polish. I love polishes that change so much it looks like you're wearing a whole different polish in some lights.


Formula wise... When I started putting 'Indigo Illusion' on, I have to say I was a bit worried... It was super sheer and patchy. I thought for sure it was going to need a LOT of coats. Turns out it built up nicely and these photos show 3 coats, which I think is pretty decent! I would say you have to be a little bit careful with brush strokes but not overly so. This polish is really thin so it spreads nice and easily.
When I ordered this polish I got a few other Nubar multichromes and I'm so glad I did! I'll show you the other three soon no doubt (weather permitting now that we are well and truly heading towards those cloudy winter months).

Aquadelic - China Glaze

First things first! I'm so excited! I have recently ordered my first indie polishes! I feel like a kid in a candy store right now. Trouble is I have just let myself in to this dangerously addictive side of the polish world (yes even more addictive than regular nail polish) and now I don't think there's any turning back! Anyway hopefully soon-ish you'll see some Dollish Polish and some Lac Attack polishes featuring on here.

For now though, I have a fabulous polish that my Mum surprised me with when she last visited in March... 'Aquadelic' is from China Glaze's recent 'Electropop' collection. This is such a happy summery polish! I got a fair number of compliments on it too which is always a good sign.

'Aquadelic' is a bright blue/green polish. I have had real difficulty putting my finger on what colour this is... When I was wearing it, all I could think of was Tiffany Blue and I think that's a pretty reasonable description of 'Aquadelic'.

At first when I put this polish on and I saw my fingers become ever so slightly lobster-hued, I thought perhaps I didn't really suit 'Aquadelic', but the longer I wore it, the more I loved it and I ended up not wanting to take it off! This photo was taken in full direct sunlight and you can see how my fingers have turned a lovely shade of red.

In indirect light, the red-look of my fingers became entirely un-noticeable and the love of 'Aquadelic' could properly begin. In lower light like this, the green becomes a little more apparent.

Formula... 'Aquadelic' was a little bit tricky in the formula department. The polish spread super easily, but maybe too easily. It tended to pool around the cuticles and would pool a lot on the brush. You can see that the polish is slightly thicker than I like it on the nails, but overall it wasn't too much of a drama. The photos all show 2 coats of 'Aquadelic' on top of Orly 'Bonder' with Essie 'Good To Go' on top (which I think is fast becoming a favourite top coat).

Bungle Jungle - Essie

It's study avoidance time! What better way to procrastinate than with my blog? Todays polish is worth it though, I have Essie 'Bungle Jungle' to show you and boy is it pretty. As far as I can tell, this polish was originally released in the Winter '06 collection 'Hot For Spots', but I got it for half price (about $12.50) in the Smith and Caughey sale and for once in my life I bought it having never even heard of it before (thank goodness I did).

See! What did I tell you! 'Bungle Jungle' is the most eye-searingly gorgeous red that I own. It's such an intense cherry red, the kind that will certainly make people notice your nails.

'Bungle Jungle' has this subtle gold shimmer all through it that appears fairly obvious in the bottle but is particularly shy on the nail. In the right light though, this beauty shines spectacularly.

In low light, everything just becomes even richer. This polish seems to have so much depth to it! And you can see quite clearly what I meant about the gold shimmer in the bottle.

This is how 'Bungle Jungle' looks in most lights. The shimmer is not obvious but as I said, it just gives the polish a certain depth and a little bit of an edge.

A sneaky close-up look at this reveals that shimmer. It almost has a slight iridescent quality to it... Or maybe that's just my eyes? Either way... I love it.


Oh dear another gushy post from me, but I hope you can all see that this polish deserves every single gush. I secretly love red polish and this one is quite possibly my favourite. At first I was disappointed that the shimmer didn't really transfer onto the nail but now, I just love it the way it is. How can I make this even better?... The formula... 'Bungle Jungle' was a pleasure to apply. Perfectly thin and easy flowing. This is the Essie formula that I seem to always hear about but hadn't really experienced. I used three coats on my right hand (as seen in the photos) but I left it at two coats on my left hand and that was enough. I used Orly 'Bonder' as my base coat and Essie 'Good To Go' on top.

P.S. I love this polish so much, I couldn't help but make the photos extra-large for your viewing pleasure! :)

Hot Pink Comparison

I thought it might be about time for another comparison post... This time I have two hot pink shades with shimmer that flashes blue. These photos are of China Glaze '108 Degrees' (middle finger and pinkie) and OPI 'It's All Greek To Me' (index and ring fingers).

These polishes have a pretty similar base colour and in the bottle they do look remarkably close (see below). The difference is all in the shimmer...

'It's All Greek To Me' has a much finer shimmer, whereas '108 Degrees' verges more towards tiny glitter. Both polishes show that brilliant blue flash that I just love.

In this indirect light, you can see that the shimmer in '108' degrees' stays fairly obvious whereas the shimmer in 'It's All Greek To Me' gives off a sort of pearly look (minus the streaky nightmare in frost/pearl application).


Both of these polish are shown with 3 coats (I think... I left my notes in Wellington!) and no top coat. They are both gorgeously shiny without a top coat, although, if I was actually wearing them I wouldn't skip this step. I don't often wear colours like these so I don't own both ('108 Degrees' belongs to my Mum) but for my obsessive self they are just different enough to warrant owning both. For those slightly less convinced that even the smallest difference means you should purchase, then you probably don't need both. I guess it comes down to which shimmer you prefer. I'm on the fence with this one, I quite like them both (especially in the sun)!

Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window - OPI

Today I have for you another polish from OPI's Touring America collection from 2011. This is the type of colour that I love (I know I say that about everything). I love earthy, dirty colours and this one is the perfect representation of that... 'Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window'.

'Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window' is a perfect olive green. I know that some people think of this as being an ugly polish, but sometimes it's the "ugliest" colours that are the most gorgeous.

In sunlight, 'Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window' darkens up a bit and becomes a little less yellow-toned.

Indoors, in less light this polish blackens out further. I really love this shade so much!


'Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window' has an easy formula. It flows nicely and is perfectly thin. These photos show two coats and on some of my fingers this looks too sheer but believe me, in real life you would never know.

Easter Mani

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter break. We just got home last night. It was so good to see the family even if it was only for a few days.

I am showing you what I wore during Easter today. It was a bit of a fail, but I'm still learning and this is my place to show you what I do and so I figure I may as well show you everything.

I just wanted to do something colourful and fun. As you can see I put the sparkly top coat on too soon and the pink layer ran. It's OK though, without my camera lens pointed at it, you really wouldn't notice in real life.

One photo in indirect light. I loved wearing this mani, it was a bit of fun. 

For this I used OPI 'Alpine Snow' for the base and then the dots were (blue - yellow) OPI 'No Room For The Blues', China Glaze 'Aquadelic', OPI 'Dim Sum Plum' and OPI 'The "It" Color'. I also used a coat of OPI 'Servin' Up Sparkle' on top which just brightened up the look.

Riveting - China Glaze

I am having blogging withdrawal! I have been slightly AWOL as I am visiting my family for a few days during the Easter break. I have just had the most delicious family dinner and am SO full as I type this.

I have finally got a few of The Hunger Games polishes from China Glaze and I absolutely love the ones I got. This is 'Riveting' which, as the name suggests, really is riveting.

'Riveting' is a gorgeous bright, burnt orange with glitter that seems to shift between orange and gold. The glitter in this beauty is the kind of glitter I mentioned in my last post ('I Don't Give A Rotterdam') - sort of flakie, sort of glass flecked, but not quite either. I just can't get enough of it.

'Riveting' is the polish representing District 3 (technology), but I have just started the book and while I read it, this is what comes to mind during the opening ceremonies - "The girl who was on fire".

In more indirect light, 'Riveting' still shines like nothing else. The glitter particles seem to always be prominent. I love how they seem as though they are floating in a viscous fluid. This polish has a real depth to it.

Close-up... See the suspended look of the glitter... Love...


So from all my gushing, it's probably safe to assume that I love this polish. I am certainly one for a polish that stands out in the crowd and 'Riveting' is certainly an eye-catcher! The formula on this was thinner than I expected, but definitely not in a bad way. The first coat was surprisingly sheer, but it built up really nicely. Two coats was nearly enough (in fact it was enough for my left hand), but for the sake of photos, I am showing you three coats. I used Orly 'Bonder' as the base coat and Essie 'Good To Go' on top.

I Don't Give A Rotterdam! - OPI

Today I've got another beauty to show you from OPI's recent Holland Collection. I absolutely love the shimmers from this collection and this one is no exception. This is 'I Don't Give A Rotterdam!'...

'I Don't Give A Rotterdam!' is an absolutely gorgeous grey hued blue with silver shimmer that verges on being a cross between flakes and glass flecks (see the macro pic at the bottom). This is the type of shimmer that features in a couple of the Holland Collection polishes.

This is such a flattering cornflower blue. So wearable but given an edge with the gorgeous sparkle. If my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, I'm pretty sure that the shimmer would shift from silver to gold...

Here's the mac-tastic view of this beauty. I am loving this kind of shimmer so much at the moment. Can't seem to get enough of it! The shimmer's pretty dense, as you can see and is quite obvious in most lights too.

The formula of 'I don't Give A Rotterdam!' was pretty great. A little sheer so 3 coats was needed but it built up really nicely. I really do love this collection so you can be sure you'll be seeing more of it in due course. Until then, it's back to the books for me. Boy am I looking forward to Easter break where I can have more time on my nails and a few days off studying :)