day two hundred and forty two, illamasqua fern

ahhh THIS is the illamasqua i know and love!!! gorgeous colour, strong opacity and a good formula. it restores my faith in humanity to know that it was just a 2 polish stumble...not a brand wide problem. illamasqua you still hold a place in my heart!

fern is a really pretty bright medium blue with gorgeous glass flecked shimmer throughout. the shimmer definitely had a lot of light blue in it, it almost reminded me of bb couture sea of cortez but they are incredibly different. they're only the same in that they are blue polishes with shimmer/glitter in them.

it catches the light something beautiful, it feels so tropical and beautiful. it totally matched the amazing weather we had for three whole days in London, sunshine and temps in the 70s (F)! of course that all ended yesterday and we're back to dreary, windy and rainy weather. so i've asked everyone i know to remind me that i need to pick up a lamp while i'm out window shopping tomorrow (i might be banned from buying anything [including nail polish] as i picked up 3 pairs of christian louboutin shoes [shoes are my other love! well..handbags too, but i own more shoes than bags]) because while i remember to update this blog everyday....i have a horrendous memory and now with the sunshine gone swatching is IMPOSSIBLE without a lamp. i just don't get enough light anywhere in my flat to capture the colour correctly. so that's my story!

anyway, back to fern. this was definitely a 3 coater, it isn't a jelly base but it's not 100% creme either..it sort of bridges the gap, and you all know i HATE visible nail line so i put on my required 3rd coat. it's definitely a fun colour, i feel like i should wear it and go hula dancing or something. it's been 5.5 years since i left los angeles for London and i don't regret it a bit but i must admit my sense of temperature and sunshine is now very skewed...so things are either London dreary or hawaii tropical.

okay, enough rambling!

(i think my bottom of the bottle pictures are a little silly but i always want to know what the WHOLE bottle looks like...so you all have to indulge in my whims because...well...i'm the author! haha!)

day two hundred and forty one, zoya america

Please note these images are not colour accurate, if you would like to see how this colour actually appears click on this link

okay! please read the little disclaimer i put at the top, i had a TERRIBLE time photographing this polish...which is weird because i had no issue at all when i was comparing it to lippmann. just goes to show how weird my camera can be sometimes! that and i accidentally broke the lamp i usually use for swatching when i can't get the colour to capture accurately (serves me right for leaving it on the floor and piling a bunch of stuff on top of it!). so while i am lamp-less, these photos will  have to make do!

i really like this colour (despite the fact that it is a kissing cousin with lippmann's it's raining men minus a hint of orange!) and it reminds me of 50s pinups (which i adore...i'm a big vintage pulp fan!) and matching lipstick and pumps. definitely a fun, vibrant colour. it's eye catching and sexy but playful too! it's all, "look how attention getting i am, i'm so fierce!" and at the same time it goes, "oh i'm so fun, let's go twist down at the sock hop!"


YES i do indulge in the personification of my nail polish and any other thing i can think of...life's more fun that way!

anyway, enough of my crazy, onto the polish! (as i get better at swatching i'm going to try and introduce watermarks to my photos. thankfully my photos have never been stolen...but i would hate for someone to steal my photos because i work quite hard on my blog!) [PLEASE remember these images went super pink...this is actually a bright red, click on the link at the top if you want to see colour accurate swatches]

day two hundred and forty, rescue beauty lounge coral

i think one of my favourite parts about nail polish is how the same colour can be interpreted in so many different ways. i've shown you a few different corals already, some are pink, some are orange, some are peach...and today's rescue beauty lounge coral is nothing like the ones i've shown you already!

i'm a huge art fan but i lack any real artistic talent myself so i like to express myself with different nail polishes and i think i can safely say i have one for every mood.

this is a gorgeous reddish/pink leaning coral and might get tacked onto my mental list of interview appropriate colours. it's way less neutral than the ones i usually wear (namely Lippmann Collection "Secret Love") but it's pretty, feminine and doesn't detract from your image...if anything it just subtly enhances it! i think i could talk until i was blue in the face about how much i love rescue beauty lounge and i still wouldn't be done. the woman behind RBL, ji is so focussed on her customers and the value of her product...there aren't a lot of brands i would pay $18 for and not grimace, let's face it, it's a LOT of money to part with. i haven't made a RBL purchase in a long time...not since the trio of blogger's polish. partly because i already have all the RBL i want and also because of cost. i'm doing a lot of swapping instead of buying lately, i had to work really hard to find a job in this economy and it's not even a full time one. it is hard to cut back on luxuries and nail polish is one area i've had to cut back on (amongst everything else). but needless to say that i have been setting aside my pennies and the second the surf collection is back in stock i'm pouncing on it!

i love the glossiness found in ALL rescue beauty lounge polishes, i love that they apply smoothly and never drag around my cuticles and never have bald patches.

in closing...it's WORTH the money (provided you have it to spare! i know i have to remind myself that it is just nail polish...and sometimes other things take precedence.)

enough seriousness, onto the POLISH! (picture heavy!!)

day two hundred and thirty nine, bb couture pipe bender

ignore everything i've ever said about greens, what i like, what is my favourite. forget it ALL because this one...is like...KING of green. all hail this polish. it's THAT GOOD!

pipe bender is part of the bb couture for men range but thankfully you don't have to be a man to own, buy or wear it! phew! it's a great deep green packed with shimmer...but the part that really blows my mind? it's got a BLUE FLASH. CONSTANTLY. it never goes away! i can't stop staring at it, it's the most AMAZING green i've EVER SEEN! seriously! how did i ever exist without this polish in my life!?!?!

i can't even talk about it, it's that amazing, i have to show you the pictures before i burst. is it blue!? is it green!? is it green and blue!? *explode*

day two hundred and thirty eight, rimmel london perfect plum

i love finding unexpected goodies in drugstore lines! it's like finding a secret pot of gold. rimmel london is everywhere in London, they're one of the standard drugstore lines carried in pretty much all drugstore chains and even in some supermarkets. i actually picked this polish up a good while ago...i know it's not a recent acquisition but it's been languishing in the bottom of my collection for ages! i decided it was time to give it its' 5 minutes of fame!

i'm really pleased by this polish, it's a lovely medium purple with a blue flash. totally unexpected, the blue flash that is! i just expected a humdrum purple which is probably why it's been ignored for so long but the sunlight hit it and i couldn't believe it, totally impressed! rimmel polishes tend to be pretty run of the mill, they're not fantastic but they're decent for £3-something. 3 coats is not just my quirk on these polishes, it's a necessity. but after the 3rd coat it's even and opaque throughout.

day two hundred and thirty seven, zoya casey

this is where i start contradicting myself. but it's just who i am! usually i hate vamps...i don't see the point in wearing a colour that just looks black! zoya "casey" is probably the vampiest vamp colour in vamp-donia. seriously. it's a deep red...i've gotta say, my bottle and application of casey is way darker than i've seen on other blogs. mine is basically a black. the first coat is obviously a purple-red but i went with 3 coats and there's not a hint of this colour to be seen except at the edges. maybe i should've stuck with two? but even so...for some reason...i LOVE this vamp! there's just something sinful about wearing a colour and having it seem so dark and mysterious. i can't even describe it. it's incredibly dark and i just...love it. i don't know why! this is like...makeup for your alter ego. it's bad girl polish! haha!


i must admit, i feel SUPER spoiled by all the sunshine we've had the last week in London. it makes me feel like a proper nail blogger to take sunshine swatches!!!

day two hundred and thirty six, asda bronze

first things first! yesterday someone asked me if my pictures were with a basecoat and topcoat. i ALWAYS use a basecoat (my nails are pretty weak and thin), and i am always wearing a topcoat unless i specifically say i'm not! :)

so this is the part where my mind gets blown. in the UK we have levels of grocery stores in terms of posh-ness. there are the super fancy ones, the fancy ones, the normal ones, the cheap ones and the trashy cheap ones. asda falls in the cheap category. they have their own line of nail polish and i usually ignore it because for £1.53 it can't be that great and it's ASDA, they're supposed to be rubbish! but i bought this one on a whim and i'm stunned. it's AMAZING! it's this beautiful bronze with red, gold and green shimmer packed throughout. i mean...it's breathtaking! this isn't what i expected from a £1.53 bottle of nail polish. application was a little on the thin and streaky side but with 3 coats it wasn't a problem.

seriously. i'm amazed!

day two hundred and thirty five, sally hansen salon crushed velvet

not an entirely original colour, similar to orgasm cosmetics 'dripping wet' this is another purple with magenta shimmer. i don't care that it isn't original, this is quickly becoming one of my favourite ways to have purple nail polish. it just glows and is so beautiful! just a short description tonight, i'm exhausted! but TGIF!

day two hundred and thirty four, zoya tallulah (+konad)

did you guys hear about Essie being bought by L'Oreal!? congratulations to her...what a big coup! but at the same time...Essie has made cruelty free polishes and L'Oreal is one of the biggest animal testing companies around....so it will be interesting to see what happens. L'Oreal owns shu uemera, kiehl's, the body shop, lancome and maybelline and apparently they are no longer cruelty free. it's worth discussing if you're interested!


but ANYWAY, onto today! another one from my zoya swap, i'm super excited about it, i LOVE it! it's called 'tallulah' from the ooh-la-la collection of summer 2009. it's a gorgeous electric blue with multicoloured shimmer. i can't stop staring at my hands! i usually don't konad (even though i like to) because i'm not very good at it and i can never figure out what colour and what design to use. also i overthink it because i worry about it detracting from the polish i'm trying to show! but i stamped....i don't remember what plate but i used china glaze 2030 (i said it was a great stamping polish!). i really like this particular konad because it's supposed to look random and i don't have to stress if it's perfectly aligned or covering my full nail!


image heavy...i got a bit carried away!