Review: Polished London

What They Say…

“For a fast drying, long wearing mani or pedi, check out the coolest nail polish colours from Polished London. With the latest nail colour trends from here and around the world you are sure to find the perfect colour for any occasion.

We are pleased to promote a formulation that is 4 FREE! Which means our formulations do not contain any DBP or ‘dibutyl phthalate’ or camphor, which are forms of a plasticizer that makes nail polish flexible. We have excluded Toluene also which is a colourless liquid used as a solvent and of course no Formaldehyde. All these ingredients have research to suggest that they can be harmful to our bodies and we choose to provide you with safer alternatives.”

What I Say…

I have become a little bit of a polish junky lately. I don’t know why it happened, I just know that sometime around August last year I became obsessed with nail polish. O.P.I, China Glaze, Butter London…I have quite the collection, but right now I want to introduce you to a brilliant budget polish I have discovered and adored. Polished London.

I first saw a Polished stand in my local Terry White Chemist. The nice round bottles in various colours drew my attention, as did the fact that the polishes were 3-Free. I like a good product with no nasties, so I was quite intrigued, especially since I haven’t found many 4-Free products under $10. Alas, I was a little broke that day and did not purchase.

Fate, has its own plan however and I was excited to find the Fuscia shade in my Valentine’s edition of Glossybox. So I tried it out and found it gives great colour payoff, applies like an absolute dream with no clumps or bubbles and is super quick drying. All great plus points.

Then, the kind folk at Polished London send me some to try and it was like Christmas and Easter mixed together…Lets go with Eastmas! So here in all their glory are the gorgeous shades and the funky perfect to apply silver crackle coat!

Just Dusk is a lovely warm latte colour with a hint of pink. A fantastic nude and neautral shade I can see complimenting every look and will be great for work.

Bambino is a fun barbie pink. Girly, feminine and very very fun!

Duchess has a little bit of a shimmer….a truely royal baby pink…the only colour that needed 3 coats.

Madam Muck is a bright hot pink that just screams look at me….no seriously…Look at me!

and finally….Just look at that sexy silver shatter in the group shot above! Gorgeous!

What I Like…

Gorgeous colour range, top quality, free from nasties and a budget friendly price. Dries quickly and the brush is easy to work with! I will absolutely be purchasing more colours from the range!

What I Dislike…

The bottle shape can be difficult to work with, and the plastic lid isn’t the most durable. Looks like it would crack under pressure.

The Polished London range is available from most Terry White and Amcal Chemists for $8.95 AUD.

***This product was provided for review, but as always my opinions are my own.

Gorgeous Nails with Gelish!

Hello lovelies! Remember all the fun I said I had on Australia Day eve? Well on impulse I decided to get my nails done. I have huge issues with my nails looking awful unpolished, but I’m also not great at the whole polish application thing, so occassionally I like to get my nails done. In the old days when I was young and dumb I went with acrylic nails and even worse I sould pick them off my natural nail so of course my nails suffered.

More recently I tried Biosculpt Gels, but I didn’t find them long lasting and I fell in love with Shellac, but wasn’t a fan of the salon I had them done in or the $50 price tag.

So, wandering around the shopping centre I discovered a salon who offered Gelish. Of course, I googled as I shopped then went back and booked an appointment. Gelish works in as far as I can tell exactly the same way as Shellac. The nail is filed and buffed, a base is applied, UV cured, followed by colour, cure, colour, cure, topcoat and another cure.

What I love is that unlike Shellac there are 84 shades currently on offer and the full set only cost me $40. It is supposed to last 2-3 weeks but we shall see how it goes. Biosculpt lasted less than two weeks on me (and was thicker on the nail), Shellac lasted over three and was great…I am hoping for the same results from Gelish!

From This…

To This…

What do you think of my nails? Have you tried Gelish?

Review: Pretty Woman Nail Foils

Picture it. Melbourne. New Years Eve 2011. A woman running around trying to get ready in 40+ degree heat. Running late and popping out the door, driving down the road and looking down to….icky nails. This was my dellemma. Then, when popping into Woolworths looking for Panadol, what should stand out almost screaming ‘pick me, pick me’? These Pretty Woman Nail Foils (Well not these specifically, the ones you can see on my nails below.)

What I Like…

These are so easy to apply and they last for ages. Unlike those Sally Hansen ones that give me so much trouble these are sticky, can be cut to size and are amazing. I also love that absolutely everything you need is in the package. The foils themselves, a handy file/buffer, cuticle stick, nail scissors and a cute little push down rubber tool.

What I Dislike…

From memory these were either the same price or slightly more expensive than the Sally Hansen nail foils. I think anything over $10 for a disposable product is a little pricey.

The Pretty Woman Nail Foils are available from Woolworths online and in stores.

Did you sign up for the Great Beast and Beauty Valentine’s Blog Swap? A great way to make new friends globally, send some love and receive a nice Valentine’s surprise!

NOTD: Butter London Blowing Raspberries

I had a great time at the Emma Louise gig last night. Buckley Ward were ok, but if you haven’t heard of Charlie Mayfair or Emma Louise I suggest you download their EP’s off iTunes now. Charlie Mayfair were good (click the link to download their track Tell Her free off their site now). I especially loved it when they did a song in the midst of the audience, but Emma Louise…wow! She had the most amazingly haunting voice to listen too. I’m sure you have all heard Jungle but you should be listening to 1000 Sundowns. Beautiful.

So, onto the NOTD choice…I wanted something that would go with my cherry print dress and so I picked up Butter London‘s Blowing Raspberries polish from OZSALE a month or so ago for about $13. They have good flash sales and that is where I bought a stash of China Glaze, OPI and Essie polishes recently as well as some Revlon and L’Oreal goodies for a fraction of the price.

I picked the shade because it looked to be a nice pinkish red as you can see when you compare it to the red cherries on the print of my dress and because I thought the shade name was kinda cute…see I’m fickle like that!

Ignore my horribly application, but as you can see its a rich pinky red that only needed two coats to cover the entire nail. I like the consistency, it’s thick without being gluggy and the brush was just wide enough to give good coverage.

A fun girly pop of colour that I can see myself wearing a lot this summer. What shade is on your nails right now?