Diamond Cosmetics Cheery Cherry October 20, 2009

So Lucy requested Cheery Cherry from my polish haul.  I applied two coats and just wasn’t feeling it for some reason, so I went with a third.  Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood to appreciate red that day, but I was looking at it thinking “boring” (don’t get me wrong it is a nice colour but I’ve been in a bit of a colour funk lately) so I decided to Konad it.  As such I don’t have any pictures of it bare, as it were, and there was soooo much gloss that the pictures haven’t come out great because there was major glare from the sun, but here it is.  (Konaded with Konad Dark Purple special polish and M63)

It looks a bit rubbish on the pictures but it looked really really nice in person.

I’ve had a bit of good news lately which I will probably share at some point but in celebration I bought myself a bottle of Gosh polish.  I’ve had my eyes on it for a while now, it’s called Rainbow and it is a bottle of opal-esque flakies in clear topcoat and it is lovely!  So I will be showing some pics of that soon and then I will get round to wearing Helen’s suggestion 🙂

Thanks for reading, hope you are all well 🙂

My polish collection (picture heavy) October 14, 2009

Okay ladies, I am about to post pictures of my polish collection – they’re not exactly the best in terms of quality or colour accuracy but here they are.  I’m so used to looking at all my colours that I’m finding it difficult to choose what to wear when I change my polish so I would like some help!  Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think I should wear next.  I will be able to go through them one at a time to select my next manicure and the one after that etc (assuming I get any comments lol)

You may notice I have a few issues with blue/green and blue/purple colours, I have a slight colour blindness so if you think anything is in the wrong group that’s why!

Oh and to save me typing long long names, DC = Diamond Cosmetics, CG = China Glaze,  BM = Barry M, C2000 = Collection 2000,  C2000HL = Collection 2000 Hot Looks, SH = Sally Hansen and NI = Nails Inc!

Here we go:

Miss Sporty Silver | DC Matte Smoke | Maybelline Mirror Image | CG OMG | Barry M Matt White (it's not matte!) | Technic Jet Black | DC I'm Raven About You | DC Matte Black | Constance Carroll Wizard

Wild and Crazy Purple Glitter (It's green and black - go figure) | Beauty UK Purple Glitter | Beauty UK Silver Glitter | DC Silver Glitter | DC Opal Glitter

Piggy Polish Island Hopping | BM Block Orange | Miss Sporty Yellow | Jade Suppressed Temptation

Stargazer Red (no number sticker) | DC You Set My Heart Ablaze | No Name Red | BM Red Glitter | Cosmo Porsche Red | NI Knightsbridge

DC Hue Are You? | DC Cheery Cherry | Miss Sporty Red | DC Blackberry | Rimmel Black Cherries | DC Matte Burgundy | C2000 Midnight Rouge | CG Lubu Heels

DC Party Hearty | No Name Gold | BM Gold | NI Battersea Power Station | DC Yukon Gold | DC Chainmail Charm | DC Decadence | DC Joust For Kicks | NI Mount Street | NI Friendly Selfridges

DC Don't Teal My Heart Away | DC Oh, Tiff! | George Streamer | C2000HL Button Moon

DC Never So Ever-Green | Stargazer 135 | Sinful Colors San Francisco | BM Racing Green | BM Green Glitter | C2000HL Ninja | La Femme Ultra green (Major neon, doesn't look it here)

NI Marco Polo House | DC Mystical Knights | DC Midnight Blue | BM Blue Glitter | George Indigo Dazzle

SH Chic Cobalt | DC Metallic Blue | BM Blue Glitter | Rimmel Azure | C2000 Hello Sailor

DC Midnight Passion | NI St John's Wood | Orly Cashmere Cardigan | C2000HL BMX Bandit

BM Vivid Purple | DC Metallic Venom | DC Monarch Masquerade | Stargazer 125 | NI Buckingham Palace | DC Drift Away | DC Hi Ho Silver

Revlon Night Light | Milani Cloud 9

Miss Sporty Pink | Massini Sheer Denim | DC Iced Plum | NI Fulham Road

No Name Pink | C2000HL Hoola Hoop | NI Brompton Road | NI Regent's Place | NI King's Road | C2000HL Dynasty

C2000HL Vixen | SH Plum Sequin | DC Sparkling Sherry | BM Shocking Pink | DC Feelin' Groovy | DC Matte Mulberry | No Name Purple

So that’s my whole collection (well not counting Konad polishes etc)  so please, PLEASE pick me something to wear!  (Feel free to choose a colour to go under a glitter if you’d like to see a glitter.)

Thank you!

Lots more Diamond Cosmetics Swatches September 19, 2009

After this post, I have only three more Diamond Swatches to do for you guys.  This is good as it means I can start wearing polish PROPERLY again!  I’m going to rattle through these guys.  I had no drying time issues with any of them, I really loved all the colours (yes really!) especially Decadence and Sparkling Sherry, and the big surprise of the bunch for me was Midnight Blue which is a purpl-y navy blue.  Just lovely!  I’ll try to do better write ups of the diamonds when I post proper posts of them where I’ve worn them as a proper manicure, rather than a quick swatch.

Diamond Cosmetics, Decadence

Diamond Cosmetics, Sparkling Sherry

Diamond Cosmetics, Matte Black

Diamond Cosmetics, You Set My Heart Ablaze

Diamond Cosmetics, Blackberry

Diamond Cosmetics, Midnight Passion

Diamond Cosmetics, Metallic Venom

Diamond Cosmetics, Midnight Blue

Also, Nails Inc had an offer on recently (it may still be on, I don’t know) where you could  buy a set of 9 of their colours and a bottle of base coat for £27.  So I did! Lol.  It came the other day all boxed in a nice display case/gift box thingy, and I was pleasantly surprised.  I had been looking at all my polishes in colour groups the night before it arrived, and I noticed that I have a lot of pinks (despite not really being a pink fan), not as many purples as I’d expected to have, and hardly any brown shades.  In fact all the brown-family shades I have are all from the Diamond haul I’ve just got.  So, this is what I received:

Top L-R: Kensington Gardens (growth treatment), Regents Place, Mount Street, Marco Polo House (looks lovely, very like Midnight Blue by Diamond), Battersea Power Station (which looks like Yuk in a bottle!)

Bottom L-R: Buckingham Palace (can’t wait to try), Knightsbridge (looks interesting!), St john’s Wood (HAS to be swatched against Cashmere Cardigan and Button Moon!), Brompton Place, Fulham Road.

So, three more pinks to add to my pink collection (sigh), and two browns.  Fab! Lol.

Well, thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend!  😀

Monarch Masquerade and Drift Away September 16, 2009

Hello Ladies!  Hope you are all well.  I have two more Diamond swatches for you today, both purples.  The pictures aren’t great because we’ve had totally grey, dull, overcast weather the last couple of days so there hasn’t been much in the way of sun for picture taking but never mind, can’t expect much else in the North of England in September! 

Here is Monarch Masquerade (which I absolutely love!)

Diamond Cosmetics, Monarch Masquerade

This is SUCH a lovely colour.  I am a sucker for metallic dark purples, I have to admit, so I was always going to like this one!  It has real richness and depth to it, which I’m noticing a lot with the darker shades of Diamond.  Definitely a good thing!  It reminds me of the foil on the old Cadbury’s chocolate bars: I’m hungry now!! which is no bad thing!  (I Googled for that Image and saw a picture of Cadbury Top Deck which I had forgotten existed!  I want some now!!)  Anyway before I get TOO distracted….

Diamond Cosmetics, Drift Away

This is also pretty nice.  And, it also reminds me of something, but I can’t place what!  It’s a flat creme, but I also found it a bit jellyish (or at least what I would term jelly).  I really liked it.  I had no drying issues with this one either (or Monarch Masquerade for that matter) so I was extra pleased!! 

I just want to add, the sun has come out now for the first time in three days!  I bet by the time I get Drift Away off and a new colour on, it will have disappeared again!!

 

Thanks for reading!  😀

Playing Catch Up September 7, 2009

Hi Ladies!  Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, and when I have done it hasn’t been with any pictures of nails but I’m playing catch up today.  Just a quick note for those of you who are waiting for Diamond from me, it still hasn’t arrived but I will let you know when it does!

Ok first things first, today I received a parcel from the wonderful Kris who writes for Polish or Perish and I was gobsmacked! We’d arranged a little swap as Kris wanted to get her hands on some Stargazer, and I was desperate for Orly Cashmere Cardigan and China Glaze Lubu Heels. What I didn’t expect was the SIX extra polishes she included!! Thank you so much Kris!! Here is a little (not very good) picture of the goodies she sent me:

Cosmo "Porsche Red" | Lubu Heels | Sinful Colors "San Francisco" | Cashmere Cardigan | Milani "Cloud 9" | Jade "Suppressed Temptation" | Piggy Polish "Island Hopping" | Massini "Sheer Denim"

 Here is the lovely mani I was wearing a few days ago: 

 

Sorry about the lines in that lact picture, that happens sometimes when I take pictures under my desk lamp for some reason.  The pink is Collection 2000 Hot Looks Vixen.  I can’t take credit for the loveliness of this though as I totally ripped it off from the FAB KonADDICT blog, which is an absolutely brilliat resource for all you nail art-ers out there.

And this little beauty which turned out SO CUTE if I do say so myself, was all my own creation.  In case you’re interested, I used Barry M in White, the Red was my “no name” from a make-up kit, Barry M Orange Block, Miss Sporty Yellow, Collection 2000 Hot Looks Ninja, Rimmel Azure, Stargazer 125 and Barry M Vivd Purple.  From that list of colours I bet you can guess what I made……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RAINBOWS!

Right Hand (I don't much like the index or middle fingers but the ring and pinky are AWESOME!)

See?!

Awesome Cute-Kitsch!! Love this!

How totally awesome is that manicure!!  If it hadn’t taken me over an hour I’d totally be doing it again at some point in the future!!!

 

Thanks for reading.  I hope you all have a fantastic week!  Mine has got off to a great start!  😀

Stargazer 125 Swatch August 15, 2009

Remember how I said that the swatches on the Stargazer website are weird?!  Well I was ordering some polish for a swap and I decided to net myself a bottle too, so I ordered this:

 

That is the swatch on their website for polish number 125.  To me it looks like a dark purple with a silver-y almost glitter sheen to it, and perhaps some nice black tones in there too.   So the bottle came and it didn’t look too far different to the swatch, but different enough for me to have been alarmed if I didn’t know already that it wouldn’t be the same as the swatch.  Don’t get me wrong I know swatches on screen aren’t always accurate due to monitor differences etc, but this clearly seems to have a teeny micro glitter type finish to it.

So, I started to paint it on and discovered, which I was NOT expecting from the appearance of the bottle OR the swatch that IT IS SHEER!  Totally threw me, and at this point I did actually get out the invoice and check that it was the right polich that I had been sent.  It was.  Three coats later and we are pretty close to  bottle colour.  It’s a nice colour don’t get me wrong but it just doesn’t do it for me, which is odd as I am a purple lover.  Maybe cos of the surprise of discovering it was totally NOT what I’d expected.  Anyway these pictures are FOUR coats!  There isn’t much difference between four and three, but I’d got loads of bubbles in and dented a couple of nails through carelessness when drying so I put an extra coat on to try to even things out.

Sorry for the rambling!

 

Just because I decided to make my point even further, here is the swatch for Stargazer 128 from their website:

and here is 128, the bottle and on me:

See the difference?!

Also:

That’s 135 which I haven’t properly swatched yet but you can see here (majorly bad rushed application):

Misleading to say the least!!  Come on Stargazer!  Sort it out!

Thanks for reading! 😀

Stargazer 128 Swatch/Review July 29, 2009

I have to admit I am pretty wowed by this polish.  Stargazer have been around a good few years, but have recently started having concessions in New Look stores for their make-up range.  They also have a website with a buy online facility, Stargazer and it is worth noting that their polishes are 50p cheaper on their site than if you bought them from New Look, but obviously there is a postage charge to factor in there too.

For a budget line of polish, I am really pleased with this range so far. Granted, I have only swatched four of their colours, and only gone on to do one full manicure with one colour so far, but I am getting a very good feeling about this range! The bottles are great, I love them, and they’re 14ml instead of the usual 10-12ml, their colours are really nice – I had looked on the website a while back and wasn’t too impressed by the colours but yesterday when I saw them in the shop, I was pretty wowed. In fact I almost bought 8 bottles instead of four as I just couldn’t decided on which I wanted, as the choice was so difficult!

The formula was really nice although I have to say that these polishes have a strong smell, but not one I normally associate with nail polish – it’s quite a plastiky smell, quite odd. There is no information on either the bottles or the website about the formula so I don’t know if it’s b3f or not, but the website does say they don’t test on animals which is nice.

The brush is perhaps a little chunkier than I would like, but definitely not unmanageable, in fact in these pictures which will follow, I haven’t done any cleanup and they’re not too bad. I haven’t topcoated this as I didn’t want to risk dulling the duo shimmer before I took my pictures, and I painted them over 12 hours ago and I have no chipping or anything.

Drying time is good, not too long at all, in fact I would verge on calling them quick dry and they do actually dry, not go tacky or sticky. They dry to a nice normal smooth, solid finish. Thumbs up all round!

Ok now for the pics! All two coats on top of a basecoat, no topcoat (as mentioned) . I tried to get as many different variations in the colour as possible as it tends to swing from gold through bronze, orange and purple, with a little green flash in there too, but I don’t think i captured it very well really. Anyway here are the pics!

So, the colour?  AMAZING, I love it!  It’s really really nice, I love the duo-ness, I love the sheen and the shimmer.  It was definitely improved by appplying so well, I’m always a little put off even by a beautiful colour if it doesn’t apply well.  I am a definite Stargazer convert, and I will be back for more of their range!  The only thing I would say is that this perhaps needs a third coat as there was a teeny bit of VNL when I was looking at my nails last night, with the living room lights on, but in daytime light it’s pretty much totally invisible.

Thanks for readin, I’ll be swatching another soon!