Barry M Watermelon meets ...... Shimmer Cristina

Hi Goddesses

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know of my love / hate relationship with green.   Green is one of my very favourite colours in life, but just not one that I can often successfully wear on my nails.  So on paper, today's mani should be a living hell, but it's a surprising winner in many ways.

Let's start at the Barry end first.  When I bought the Gellies, I was confident Watermelon would end up being a gift or a swap, but I am surprisingly entranced by it.   It's pretty much as dark as green can go and yet still retain its greeny glory.

The Gelly-ness of it makes it all the more gorgeous.  Dark and shiny, it looks fabulous.   It's also the most opaque of all the Gellies, and is a genuine 1 coater.

For anyone who loves green, I imagine this is going to quickly become a must have.

I've paired it with a green Shimmer polish.  I ordered my first Shimmers a couple of weeks ago, and the lovely Cindy added in 2 extra bottles for me to review, of which this is the first.

Cristina is named after one of my big polish crushes - Cris from Let Them Have Polish.  It's green to match her eyes, and there's something in the crash of the colour blend that seems especially appropriate too.

As you know, me and green?  Meh.  However, this is as close as a green can get to my heart.  Seriously, if I was ever going to love a green polish or glitter, this is the one.

Why ?  Because aside from being darkly green, this is also lavishly sprinkled with fuchsia glitter.  That's right.  Fuchsia.  And it's this delicious clash which makes this polish so spectacular.

Somehow, the fuchsia ADDS to the green, rather than subtracts, upping the ante and highlighting the frostiness where the glitter veers blue.  It creates a genuine kaleidoscopic majesty.  Love.  Honestly.


Enjoy xx :)

31DC - Day 29 - Supernatural

Hi Goddesses

We're nearly at the end !!  Wooo hoooo!  I have to say, this has been one of the most relaxed challenges I've ever done, mainly because I had at least a third of the manis in the vault before we started, and then because well, 30 days doesn't seem so long when you've done 90 day challenges lol !

Today is Supernatural day.  I think I had TOO many ideas for this one, and with Hallowe'en around the corner, it became a bit of a compromise.  In the end, I found a really cute stamping image and decided to stamp the China Glaze New Bohemians over black, if only to find out what Laurie keeps blathering on about!

So here they are, cute ickle ghosts.  This little guy lives on BM-223.  So far, I've been REALLY underwhelmed with the Bohemians, but Laurie has done some amazing things with them (her blog is HERE.)

And do you know what, I'm still underwhelmed.  I forgive China Glaze though, because they've had an otherwise brilliant year, but compared to HITS, Ozotics and even w7, these just don't hit my duochrome spot.

As a result, I'm a little bit meh about the mani too - I wish I'd framed it with something sparkly or ethereal to give it more of an otherworldly quality.  Oh well, you mani and you learn!

Enjoy xx :)

31 DC - Day 28 - Inspired By A Flag

Hi Goddesses

Ugh today has been a long day.  I am full of snot from a particularly heavy cold, have just been for a meal out and STILL have a blog post to do before I can call it an early night and listen to the Ryder Cup.

Inspired By A Flag was a tricky one for me, but only because I did soooooo many variations of the Union Jack this summer.  Because of that, I couldn't bear to do it again, but then I really struggled for something else to represent.  In the end I wondered what flags there were to represent causes rather than countries, and that's where today's mani came from.

Today we have the Peace Flag - rainbow gradient lushness and look, letters !!!!   As soon as I found it on Google, it seemed soooo appropriate given our troubled times, and I also loved how it harked back to the 60s, and a much simpler era.

The base of this mani is a gradient of 5 nail polishes.  I LOVE how these all mooshed together.   I felt it would be too much to do 7 polishes, so I eliminated a couple!  I ended up using Max Factor Red Passion, and Barry M in Yellow, Spring Green, Cyan Blue and Indigo.

For the gradient, I dribbled the polish in lines on my piece of plastic that I use, allowing them to overlap a little, and then used a smooth make-up sponge to apply.  I think I used  3 applications to get enough polish on the nail.   Now this next part is personal preference, but I deliberately didn't line my sponge up perfectly every time I reapplied the polish - I thought it added to the gradient to do it this way. Here is the gradient on its own - pretty damn gorgeous if I do say so myself.

And finally I used a thin brush and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls to add the lettering - I quite like that the lettering ended up being simple and childlike.

Enjoy!  xx :)

Barry M Gelly Prickly Pear Meets ...... Darling Diva Carrie

Hi Goddesses

Today is a lovely combination, totally fairyish :)  It's the sublime Pricky Pear, layered with a topper from Darling Diva.

Ok, Prickly Pear first.  From the very first photos of the Gellies, THIS was the polish I wanted to try.  I had high hopes for her, and she did not disappoint.

Light as a feather, fluffy as a cloud, Prickly Pear is just dreamy. 

However, this is the LEAST opaque of the Gellies, and required 3 coats.  I think once I've used it a couple of times and it's thickened slightly, I should be able to get away with 2.

Frankly, I have no idea whasoever what a Prickly Pear is, but I do so love this polish.  I think this is one of those "comfort polishes" a lot of us will reach for when we need something to make us feel good.

And so on to Carrie from Darling Diva.  I've bought a few polishes from this seller (store HERE) but this is the first one that's made it to the blog.   Her polishes have a lot of creativity, and they're not all glitters; she especially stocks a lot of holos.   I also feel very warmly towards her just cos her contact name is CerealKiller lol.

Carrie is a beauty.  Opalescent flakes suspended in a juicy violet jelly (not really dark enough to become opaque).   This just twinkles and sparkles on the nail like girly fairylight.

There's a lot of My Little Pony vibing out of this mani lol, and it's also like a tweenies party in fairy discoland.   I think these 2 polishes mesh perfectly, one adding to the dreamy girliness of the other.  The glitter is the very definition of subtlety, barely there, yet glowing like fireflies.

In the bottle, this is pure fairy jelly, spectral and full of wonder.   Alzarine Claws (another great blog) has also worn this this week and raptured about it.   Personally, I can't wait to try it over a dark base, just to see what happens to those yummy pearly squares :)

Enjoy xx :)