Max Factor Fantasy Fire - Clarins Dupe?

Hello :D What a great nail haul day I've had. I planned just to pop in to Illamasqua to see if they had any raindrops left (for swaps) but ended up in a few other places. I actually bought the last of the raindrops they had, the nice lady had to dig it out from a box in the back which was great of her. I'll get round to swatching it soon. I then went to TK Maxx and found both sets of color clubs boho fall collection for £7.99, I think they'll make great bases for layering and stamping. And lastly I went to superdrug to look for Nail Pop, they have a flakey topcoat I want to play with, but no luck finding it so I had a look round at Gosh, nothing new there. As I was about to leave I noticed some cute mini bottles on the Max Factor stand, I don't think I own any of there polishes. I'm so glad I took a closer peek...(sorry that was a bit wordy)

Its not a dead on dupe by any means, its more purple in real life and from what I remember clarins had more of a red base, over a dark colour I don't think it'd look that different, considering this is only £3.99 :)

Now I owned Clarins 230 for a whole week a year or so ago, I didn't get what was so special about it so I re sold it, I think I just wasnt ready for it and I've been looking at evil ebay to re purchase it but I dont think I will now, this seems just as pretty. I cant wait to layer it over some other colours, any suggestions?

Just a quick one :)

We actually have some sun this morning so I took a quick picture of St George, excuse the tip wear, i did a lot of cleaning yesterday and this morning, so its impressive there's no chips to be honest.

You can pick these up from http://www.a-england.co.uk/ along with the mythicals. If they aren't on the site yet you can email Adina at hello@a-england.co.uk.

A England Legend Collection!!!

I was so happy when I got my shipping notice last night for the 4 Legends I'd pre ordered :) I certainly wasn't expecting them to turn up today, I don't think I've ever been so excited to see the postman. Before I get to the photo's I just want to say how amazing A-England nail varnish is, I only own 6 of them but they are all perfect, they go on so smoothly and easily and are richly pigmented, mostly one coaters. Oh and Adina, the lady behind the magic, is super sweet :)

This is them in the bottles

I really couldn't decide which one to swatch first so I did a quick one of each, I did them over a-englands camelot (which I always use if I need a dark base). As it turns out they didn't need a base at all :

Top to bottom we have Saint George, Dragon, Ascalon and Princess Tears.

I cleaned off the black base to do the colours on their own. I'll start with the top. My favourite today is St George, its not sunny here, and this one looks beautiful even without the sun, it looks dark green and super shiny. I made the mistake of swatching this one first and couldn't bring myself to take it off so I used my other hand for swatching :) With the flash you can see it's more of a green and blue colour. Super holographic, possibly the most gorgeous colour I own.

I swatched the Dragon next. Its similar to nubar reclaim but I think it is more holographic as I can see the effect even without the sun/flash. Goes on smoothly with one coat and dried quickly, like all the a-englands I have. It even has a slight gold duochrome as well.

Next was Ascalon which is grey, I'm a big fan of greys and this one is stunning. The holographic shimmer is really strong and I cant wait to wear this out when if we get some sunshine :) There was a slight duochrome to this one too.

And last but not least is Princess Tears, its my least favourite at the moment but I think it will grow on me, I normally like my pinks very pink, so if you like something a little more subtle its fantastic. It has been described as lavender so maybe thats better. The holographic affect is strong in this one, it was the only one I used two coats as it was a little more sheer than the others.

Blue Monday

Today is known as blue monday, it is apparently the most depressing day of the year http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9017631/Blue-Monday-is-most-depressing-day-of-the-year-research-claims.html.
I'm not feeling at all blue, I got a letter from college for an interview about a nails extension course starting next month and I started my blog but I thought in honour of blue monday, I'd franken a blue polish :)
Its my first attempt so its not perfect, I think I added a little too much pigment. I used a few shades of blue mac pigments I had laying around with some blue, silver and holographic glitters I got with a nail kit.
Edit: I re-swatched, re-photographed and added some holographic hexagons to it :)

Here it is without the added hexagons:

And with the hexagons (excuse the claw hand):

And with a flash, on my dog :) (old camera phone pic)

I'm happy with my first attempt :) Its just right for a blue monday, a silver-grey-blue with rainbows when the sun comes out.

First Blog Post...Eek

Well this is my first blog and first blog post, I'm not really sure where to begin so I'll just jump straight in there;

This is 2 of my favourite Illamasqua nail varnishes, the one that appears purple is actually a really pretty pink called Obsess, I'm not sure why I cant get this to be true to colour, camera issues maybe but it is more fuchsia in real life with a purple undertone, and the green is Radium which has a glowing yellow shimmer to it.

I added a little pink skull to my ring finger to help tie in the two. One final thing to mention about Illamasqua varnish, I have 5 or 6 of them and they are great, colour wise, formula wise, almost one coaters and they last for ages so if you have the chance to buy some go for it :)


And... that's my first post, I'm going to go "franken" my first polish to celebrate, I have an OPI called I Juggle Men that I think will be a great base.