Crumpet Reviews HITS MARI MOON 3-free polishes - Holos and Glitters

Hi Goddesses

I’m sure that many of you are like me and love HITS polishes, and that you own a few of their holos or duochromes.  They are a relatively cheap brand that pack a great punch …. But also come with a pong.  Finally, though, HITS are 3-free, and here are the first of the re-releases.  All of these polishes were sent to me for review by the lovely Sally Magpies.

Unashamedly I’m going to start with my favourite – So Unique.  Not only is it a red to purple duochrome, (which is enough to make me pee my pants), it’s also a scattered holo-oh-oh.    Wow doesn’t get anymore OH than this.

In most lights, this leans from violet to purple, scattered with crazy lights.  Get her angled just right though, and the ruby begins to blaze through, warming to a colour just short of burnt orange.  This is magnificent, utterly magnificent.

There’s not many polishes these days that I think could capture and hold my attention for a lifetime, but I really do think this is one of them.  It’s just amazing.  Purple.  AND red.  Purple.  Yes!  AND red.  Wow, it just doesn’t get any better than this.

Art Lover is another delicious duochrome holo and reminds me very much of a whole host of other polishes, especially some by Enchanted Polish.  This is a soft focus blue to purple shifter, with occasional golden whisps at the edges.

There’s a cashmere softness to this polish, a real delicacy that makes it super cute and lovely.  The shades are slightly muted, and the combined effect is quite swoony.

There’s a lot of chameleon activity going on – this never looked the same any 2 seconds in a row.

The first of the 2 glitters is called Space Grunge (awesome name, but doesn’t it look more mermaidy?).  This is teal-y turquoise glitterfest.

The best thing about this polish is how it shifts in the light, with flashes of green, blue and everything in between.

Finally one that IS called mermaid, even if it looks nothing like one – Seapunk Mermaid Glitter.  This is super fine duochrome glitter in a clear base.

Now, learn from me here.  Although this looks opaque in the bottle – it isn’t.  This was 4 coats.  4!!!  It was not fun.

So I then layered it over Barry M Blackberry, and although the colour changing properties ARE awesome, I just hate super fine glitter.  As you can see from the photos – it got EVERYWHERE, and there was just no cleaning it up.

So, looks lovely, but comes with a free dose of glitter herpes.

All of these polishes and more are on their way to your favourite e-tailers.  If you’re in the UK, click HERE to go straight to Sally Magpies, or click on her logo in my sidebar.

These polishes were sent to me for an honest review.  Enjoy xx :)

The Secret Diary of a Polishaholic - Before Day 1

Dear Diary

This post a thinly fictionalised account of my own experiences.  All names have been changed to protect the guilty.
Today's post is a snapshot of what life is like BEFORE you become a polishaholic :)

Day -5 to 0

So a friend on Facebook dared me to count my nail polishes- I have 15 !!  OMG that’s outrageous!  Who needs 15 nail polishes ha ha.  What am I thinking?

Ok now I have 16.  Went into town and saw a lovely new Rimmel.  Yes it’s very similar to 4 other polishes I have, but that’s not the point.   It’s my favourite colour – browny-pinky-reddy.    I’m going to wear it tomorrow for work.

Ah it looks really nice.  Damn, wish I hadn’t checked it was dry though, now it’s got a fingerprint on it.  I can smooth it though.  Shit.  Now there’s a lumpy bit.  Never mind, no one will notice.

Work’s a bit boring today.  Never mind, it gives me time to peel off all the bits of polish on my finger.  I don’t know why people waste time getting these bits off with remover, picking them off is so much more fun and OW, pulled too hard.  Bastard.  Big bit of skin hanging off now.  I’ll nibble it down, it’s ok.

Saaaaake..  Big bastard chunk of polish has chipped off.  Gggrr, why won’t this staple come out?  I’m sure it will.  Puuuulllll.  Dammit, now I have a chip in my nail too.  Bummer.

Bedtime soon.  Oh nearly forgot, I should fill those chipped bits in.  There we go.  Bit of a ridge, but no one will notice.  God I’m good.

Siiiiiigh work is boring again.  This training session is snoozy.  Maybe I’ll just pick some polish off …..

Dammit, meant to repaint my nails last night.  Oh well, no one will notice.  Besides, it looks like grungey chic, doesn’t it, with polish just halfway up.  Also, people with perfect nails just don’t understand - it’s only because I have such a stressful job AND I’m a mother AND it was Grey’s Anatomy last night that I didn’t do them.  There’s just not enough hours in the day sometimes.

Oh well, I’ll paint them at the weekend.  They’ll still look glam if I do them once a week.

Back In Time - Crumpet a la June 2012

Hi Goddesses

Well, this weekend sees the launch of a lot of new features on The Crumpet, and whilst this is one I’ve toyed with in the past, it’s taken a big oomph up the ass from my bestie Missy to actually get it going.

How it works is like this – on the 1st of every month, we’re both going to redo one mani from this time last year.  Lord knows I have enough disasters to ahem improve on.   Then on the 15th of the month, we swap, and I will be recreating one of Missy’s from this time last year, and she will be doing one of mine.  Cool, huh?  So here we go.

June last year was an utterly crazy month on the blog, but it was a turning point in Crumpet history.  I had Celebration 500 going on, the Summer Challenge, a Superheroes and Villains Challenge, all manner of stuff – I think nearly 90 posts worth, so choosing something to redo has been a bit difficult.   Eventually I picked this – an Acid Wash mani.

I remember when I did this I was so proud.   Another blogger (Jamie at Nails Adored) had recently done one and called it a Grunge mani, and it had 1000s of views, 100s of pins on pinterest, and I was convinced mine would get the same.  NO.   I didn’t understand why – it was awesome!

Well, NO.  In hindsight, it was messy, the colours are just nasty and … oh dear.  It wasn’t until I saw Smashley Sparkles do this genius version, that I realised the error of my ways – clean vertical lines = so much better!

So for this version, that’s what I did.  No crazy this-way-and-that, no messiness, just as clean as I could be (which isn’t easy for a Crumpet).    My polishes were Layla CE04 as the base, then Lilypad Lacquer Bubble Yummo, OPI Koala Bear-y, and finally Barry M Gelly Blackberry.

This was the other thing I learnt – you need to move from pale to dark to get the best effects.  I also stuck to one colour family, as I remember last year the colours polluted each other and didn’t look true.

I absolutely love how this turned out.  Thankfully it IS loads better than the original haha and it just proves that improvement is sometimes about just practicing.  The thing I most notice these days is not that I am necessarily better, but my dexterity in using the tools is – hence more confident lines, and thankfully, better manis.

Don’t forget to head over and see what Missy recreated, and we’ll be back with part 2 on the 15th xx  Enjoy :)

The Crumpet - A Whole Lotta New Coming Your Way :)

Hi Goddesses

Today is an exciting day :)  It's the first of the month, AND the dawn of a new era on The Crumpet.

For the last few weeks, I have been plotting where I want to take the blog for the rest of the year, and what features seem to get the best response.  This has led to a few changes in how I am going to do things and also leads to some exciting new content which I hope you're gonna LOVE.

So what's in store?

CRUMPET CHATS TO

Every Sunday, there will be a magazine length article on someone in the nail community.   It could be a blogger, a polish maker, and e-tailer or someone else of influence.  It starts tomorrow with a blogger some of us have a BIG crush on :)

THE SECRET DIARY OF A POLISHAHOLIC

This is the one I'm most excited about.   We have all taken this road together, and whilst some of us may be further down it, we ALL had the same initial experiences, from OMG There Are HOLOS?  to How The Hell Do I Get This Glitter Off My Nails lol.    So TSDOAP is a slightly fictionalised account of my own polish journey and the addictions, obsessions and crazinesses that occurred along the way.

DROOL BRITANNIA

Lots and lots of British polishes !!!

BACK IN TIME

Each month, me and my bestie Missy from Gnarly Gnails are going to be recreating a mani we did this time last year.  We will then be recreating a mani the OTHER person did this time last year - fun stuffs!!!  By the way, that's supposed to start today and I still haven't written it lol.

CRUMPET'S CHOICE

You've started to see these posts.   They seem to involve the number 7 a lot, and I've got lots of fabbies lined up, like my 7 Essential Nail Art Products, 7 Stamping Tricks, My 7 Favourite Zoyas - so stay tuned!

HOW TO

This is a new one but one I've wanted to do for so long - it's a series of tutorials to help you get better at nail art, or learn how to correct mistakes - let's face it, I've a LOT of mistakes you can learn from lol.   I haven't decided yet whether to do these as photos or videos, on nails or swatch sticks - do you have a preference?

And amidst all that, there's still -

The Digit-al Dozen

Theme Week

Tri Polish Challenge

Work Wear Wednesday

Amateur Nail Art Contest

Blogger of the Month

My Favourite Things

Crumpet Reviews

and The Other Stuff, the new round up way to show you other polishes I've worn but not blogged.

Phew!  It's going to be GREAT.  A huge thank you to Missy for all the graphic help she has given me and I really think you're gonna LOVE IT.

See you later for the first of the new stuff :)  Enjoy xx