Leighton Denny - Message In A Bottle

Hi Everyone,

Well, if there was a message in this bottle, it's 'Buy Me NOW!'.

It shouted to me from the M+S Beauty Hall. I seem to be there a lot lately. Foolish, but wonderful!

Anyway, this polish is almost identical to my beloved Accessorize Colorado - shown here! The grey is slightly paler, and the shimmer more noticeable. The formula is also better too! Granted, it's a lot more expensive... but... I couldn't help it.

This applied beautifully! I used two coats, but three would have been perfect, as a slight bit of VNL shows up under the flash. It was fine in normal daylight... but an extra coat for good luck never hurt anyone!

In comparison the the Accessorize version, this seems that little bit more refined. Softer, and a little bit cleaner. I love it.

What do you think? Leighton Denny, or Accessorize? Or Nails Inc of course?

Let me know,

Love Charlotte x

Accessorize Colorado - Covent Garden Ballet Dupe?

Hi Everyone,

Today's post is something of a victory for me. Well, kinda...

You see, my friend Beth - you know, my fairy glam-mother, has also become addicted to polish. Which is awesome! She now buys a LOT more polish, and has a tendency to buy more for me too! <3

Anyway, she text me one night, asking if I knew of any dupes for a Nails Inc polish, called Covent Garden Ballet. Oooh, I said. Haven't seen much of that one!

So off I googled for a swatch. It's a beautiful soft grey (I do love grey) with a pink shimmer running through it.  My heart sank as I realised I was falling in love lust with this polish. My heart sank further when I realised that this was only available as part of a set - the A-Listers Collection. I hate paying full price for one Nails Inc polish, so buying an extra three I don't want? Sacrilege!

I googled and I googled. I was very sad to report that I had not found a dupe. Very sad. As this particular polish was stuck in my brain now. STUCK!

Covent Garden Ballet

Let's fast forward to last Bank Holiday weekend, when Beth came to stay! Weeeeee!

A montage of words describing said weekend: Pimms, noms, shopping and lounging. Awesome.

On one of our various shopping trips, we stumbled into my local Debenhams store to peruse the beauty counters. It has had a bit of a face-lift, so everything was moved about. We finally found a Nails Inc counter and spent a few minutes checking out the range. There was a special little stand dedicated to the A-Listers Collection. So Beth grabbed the tester and gave it a swatch.

Very pretty. Looked like a good formula too, I'd say two coats for opacity. I cried a little inside.

Beth confessed, she had ordered the set on ASOS as they had it on offer with free delivery.

/Sigh.

We wandered around the shops, with me sighing and mumbling about how surely some other brands will bring something similar out soon. Or how I should just try experimenting with pale greys and sheer pink shimmers. You know, convincing myself NOT to order one too!

Into Superdrug we go, land of more bargainous beauty! We're about to go charging through the aisles, and I stop at the Accessorize stand. I quite like a few of their polishes, as you may remember if you read my blog regularly. The prices had changed slightly. The polishes were normally £4 each. Now a lot of them were just £2.95. (You can almost imagine me rubbing my hands together with glee, can't you?!) And, they had 3 for 2 on. There was definitely a squeal of approval.

There are a couple of colours I really like, but didn't buy as I already have similar shades. 3 for 2 cancelled out any sensible ideals I may have had, and Soft Jade went straight into the basket. As I was perusing, I spotted this. It looked familiar...

A soft grey - check. Pink shimmer - check.

I yelled for Beth, managed no further intelligent words and shoved one at her! Sorry Beth :)

We shared a look that said one thing. We found our Holy Grail. A dupe. A CHEAP dupe at £2.95. We both bought one.

Now for the important stuff. I hate to admit it, but the formula isn't particularly good on this one. It's ok, but the Nails Inc one looked better. My swatches showed three coats for opacity, with a top coat to finish and remove any streaks. The shimmer is there, but not as evident as the CGB. Despite all of this, I would still buy the Accessorize over the Nails Inc. I hate being forced to buy three polishes I don't want. I might have been convinced to fork out the £11 for one, but £25? Nah.

Take a look for yourself. And yes, I have some blurred photos - they caught the pink shimmer better!!

So what do you think? A worthy dupe, or will you be buying the Nails Inc version instead?

I think I'll be going back to Superdrug for a back-up!

Happy polishing,

Love Charlotte x

A little Haul - and Swatches!

Hi everyone!

The precious time of the month that is payday came (and went) and with it came a little splurge on some new polish.

I had been lusting after a couple of polishes and could not talk myself out of it. I tried, but temptation got to me.

My objects of desire? These!

First up is Sally Hansen's Eel Skin. I saw this on Amazon and it became a real brain worm for me. I couldn't stop thinking about this beautiful grey. So soft and elegant.


And you know what? This applies like an absolute dream.



The brush is lovely.It has curves in all the right places, and is just soft enough without being too soft. The rubber grip on the handle is genius.



I found it so easy to paint with this polish. And it's just beautiful.

This was about £2 plus p+p on Amazon. I recommend.


Next up is an inevitable purchase.  Now this polish seems to be somewhat unpopular on many blogs, but I have to disagree. I don't have anything like this. Nor have I seen anything like it before.

This is China Glaze's Hook and Line from the Hunger Games Collection. This, is gorgeous.

This is probably what I would call Eel Skin lol! It's soft, metallic sheen looks like fish scales. The way it shimmers from grey to brown.

I love it. I can forgive the visible brush strokes for the fantastic colour. I have been perving at this polish for far too long. 

Love it or hate it. You will not change my mind about this. It looks like soft metal. The type of metal, that if you bit it, you'd leave teeth marks.

Yes, I know I'm getting strange again. But a great polish does that to me!

One day, I will take photos that do this polish justice.













Finally, I got myself a nifty little dupe of OPI's Rainbow Connection. You know, the one that sold out EVERYWHERE and costs a small fortune.

This is another Amazon purchase. It cost £1.50. Not £11. I decided to get the dupe as it is not a polish I will wear that often. I prefer my glitters to have fewer colours in all at once, but who could really, actually, honestly resist this at £1.50?

Not me ;)

This is one coat over Hook and Line - it's a polish called Carnival by Technic.

It's a pretty polish, jam packed with red, pink, blue, green, silver and gold multi-sized glitters. If you feel like you need Rainbow Connection, but not the price tag - get this. I don't see how you could be disappointed!

And yes, in case you were wondering, my nails are shorter. I broke one. My left thumb nail. I didn't cry, surprisingly. But I did decide to file my nails down to attempt to keep them strong. Ish.

Not exactly nubbins, but they feel short to me after having them long for ages! Why is it always my thumb nails that break first??!

(Mourns lost nails in quiet contemplation)



Thanks for reading, if there are any other dupes I ought to know about - let me know!

Love Charlotte x