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Here we have Leighton Denny's "Up in the Air" polish, which is a cool toned, slightly lilac silver. Applies beautifully, as all Leighton Denny polishes do, and is fully opaque in two coats. It has a subtle metallic sheen which unfortunately means you do get a few brush marks on the nail if your final coat isn't applied quite thickly and quickly.

Incidentally, I didn't buy this polish myself. If you follow us on Twitter, you might recall that I received a HQHair order containing a smashed bottle of Seche Vite (sob), which I immediately reported to both HQHair and everyone on Twitter. BeautyBay.com, who seem to really have their proverbial finger on the social media pulse, replied to me with an offer of a free polish to cheer me up, as they were in a festive mood. Which was jolly nice of them, and virtually guarantees that next time I need any beauty goodies, I'll be heading towards their site. After all the crappy customer service I've had recently, it's lovely to have some that goes above and beyond, even for an as yet non-customer.

If you'd like to try this out for yourself, you can get it from BeautyBay for £10.

Inspired by MizzWorthy, who has picked up another shade from the range! I don't usually go for colours that are flesh toned (it's paler sans flash) or peachy, but I made an exception for this OPI Designer polish, in Vintage. It has that gorgeous holographic sparkle that's so pretty.

It's also helping me to slightly get over the lack of amazingly blingy glitters on our shores.

Time for a gratuitous close up!


If you'd like to try one of these yourself, you can find them plentifully on eBay from £8 to £16 - the RRP is usually £16.

It's gone decidedly nail-focused around here lately, what with all these freebie Nails Inc shades and Gemma's adventures with Zoya and China Glaze. Here's the latest shade to adorn my nails, Illamasqua's Hectic.

It's a cream finish mid-tone khaki that I purchased over the summer during my first stages of fascination with Illamasqua but only now am I actually getting around to writing about it.

It applies translucent, and unlike its label-mate Muse it does take about three coats to get an opaque finish. Once dried however the lasting, shiny wear is very similar.

The thing I love most about this polish is the unique colour - the fact that it wears so well is just a bonus!

Hectic is available from Illamasqua, prices £12.50 for a 15ml bottle.

This is the first time I've used a China Glaze polish; the formula is quite thin and easily spreadable, but maybe a bit too thin for my liking - I missed my nail a coupla times and painted my cuticles too (oops).

But at least that gave me something to do while waiting for my dentist appointment, hey?

Anyway, this is Raspberry Festival, a very pretty red with tiny tiny raspberry coloured sparkles. It sort of screams FESTIVE at me, but that's probably because the Christmas onslaught has started and I'm a famous scrooge.

UPDATE: This lasted a grand total of one day before it chipped badly enough that I took it off. I'll try it again later this week, maybe it requires a more hardcore topcoat than my current one.

As Sarah posted about a while back, Glamour are giving away Nails Inc polish with their December issue. After reading Sarah's post, I went out and bought a copy - ending up with this gorgeous shade, Shoreditch, and a magazine to read while it dried, for just £2. Bargain.

It's a bright, slightly orangey-pink colour with a cream finish, which to me just says "cheerful". Not a particularly wintery colour, but I know I could do with an injection of summer with all this rain we're having.

Nails Inc polishes are usually £10.50 at NailsInc.com, or from salons and concessions nationwide.

Excuse the ragged and nibbled cuticles, I'm due a proper manicure any day now! As my nails are rather short at the moment (I lopped them off before going on holiday), I decided to go dark. Zoya Freja is a deep gunmetal grey-silver, which is a nice compromise if you don't like to go full-on black on the nails. It goes on beautifully opaque in two coats and dries to a shimmery metallic finish.

I topped that off with some of my Inglot XL6 polish, which didn't work so well on it's own, but looks rather pretty on top of the Zoya base colour.

Here's nails inc's "Victoria" polish as worn on my short nails. It's a very very deep red, though it just about manages not to look brown when worn. A true red-black. This is three coats.

Glamour magazine are giving away Victoria with their December issue along with 3 other shades - Tate (bright red), South Molton Street (neutral pink) and Piccadilly Circus (hot pink). You can see the shades at the nails inc website.

Glamour costs £2, so even if you don't read the magazine this is an £8.50 saving on the RRP of these shades. Worth buying a couple! All shades are boxed, so you could also give them as gifts if you're not a particular fan of the colours.

I'm endlessly fascinated by the awesome techniques and trends that arise from the nail polish blogger community, and when I found this tutorial for gradient nails on Do Not Refreeze recently, I just had to have a go. She uses eyeshadow sponges to dab a second colour over a one-colour mani to create this effect.

As you can see from the pictures above, I was far too eager to get pictures and didn't clean up around the edges of my nails. But apart from that I'm really pleased with the effect. I've had several compliments in the last couple of days while wearing this blue gradient mani.

Here are the three colours I used - the Bourjois blue-violet is the base coat, and the shading was mostly No.7 Poolside Blue topped off with this Barry M sky blue shade. Needless to say I generously smothered the whole lot in Seche Vite to achieve a smooth and glossy finish after I'd finished shading.

To add my 2p's worth to Leanne's tutorial: I found that the first nail I did with the sponge was by far the easiest and produced a much neater gradient. As the polish on the sponge started to dry and become tacky it was harder to work with later on and by the final nail it was downright awkward. So if you have a few sponges spare, consider using a fresh one midway through your shading process to make life easier.


Here's my "brush" and "palette" - so glad I haven't chucked out all of my sponge applicators. I knew they'd come in handy one day.

A couple more images of the results:

This is OPI's Past, Present and Fuschia, which is a deep, vibrant fuschia with a hot pink and blue flash.  I was quite scared of it in the bottle; it looked very loud, and I was a bit worried I end up with 80s nails.  On the nail, though, it's bright, but not excessively so, and very cheerful.

This polish has OPI's Pro Wide brush.  If you've not had the pleasure of using an OPI with this kind of brush - it's an extra wide brush with plenty of bristles, and with it, it's pretty easy to cover most of the nail in one stroke.  Love it.  If all polishes came with a brush like this, I'd be one happy lady.

Now, the photo above makes the polish look a bit more rose toned than it appears in daylight - it's been very hard to photograph.  The photo to the right is the closest I could get to how it looks in real life.

If you love this colour and want to grab it for yourself, you can find it in a set with two more subtle pinks at QVC, where three polishes will cost you £24.

This is Essie's Spaghetti Strap, a pale pink cream which is just sheer enough to let the whites of the nail shine through for a French effect, while being opaque enough to even out the colour of the nail bed.

It's a very grown up colour.  So much so that I've been peering at my fingertips a lot whilst wearing it - I'm much used to brights and glitter, so this level of sophistication is not something I'm used to!  I can imagine this would be a fantastic wedding colour, and is also appropriate for interviews or for work.

This is my first Essie; the formula is smooth, of medium thickness, and very easy to apply.  The polish is spreadable and two coats provided a very even finish.  Wear is pretty decent - two days later and I can't really see any tipwear, even if I look closely.  That said this is a pale and fairly natural colour, and shades like these disguise tipwear very well.  I will definitely be trying out more Essie polishes.

Also, mental note - keep cuticle oil on desk and stop nibbling fingers when concentrating.

If you'd like to grab a bit of grown up sophistication for yourself, you can find this polish at BeautyBay.com for the reasonable price of £7.50 for 15ml, which is a nice mid-end price - cheaper than OPI, but better quality than cheaper high street brands.

Would you wear this colour?  Is the French manicure look passe or is it still a classic?

Disclosure - PR sample

Here are two new limited edition polishes from Eyeko - Rain ("for city nails") and Saucy ("for naughty nails"). Each costs £3.50 for 8.5ml.

Rain is an absolute stunner. It's a shade that's midway between grey and blue. If I was feeling lyrical I'd say it was an accurate representation of the London sky, which is always somewhere between cloudy and blue, sometimes depending on your own outlook. There's a subtle shimmer to this polish, but the finish is still predominantly creme. It's a thin but opaque formula, and applies easily without much dragging. I found that two coats was plenty to achieve an even, thorough coverage. Love this.

Saucy I was less intrigued by when I first saw it - a red polish is a red polish, right? It has the same thin and opaque consistency as Rain and applies smoothly. No shimmer in this one, it's a straight creme with a glossy finish. Again, two coats was plenty to get even coverage. Once dried, I found that I really liked the shade as well - it's darker than your average red and definitely stands apart from the others in my collection.


As the pictures show, there is slight tip-wear on the red (after one day in this case). For £3.50 though, I'm not complaining.

Both polishes are available to buy online from Eyeko.

Earlier this year, Illamasqua ran a competition, asking entrants to provide inspiration for two new shades of nail polish. As you can see from the picture above, they ended up picking three winners, whose designs will be transformed into Shrapnel, Raindrops, and Eclipse. Here are the descriptions from Illamasqua -
* Shrapnel by Loren Perry – a pink-based metallic copper inspired by the dazzling shine of a new penny.

* Raindrops by Ann Black – a creamy pale grey with a sheer silver sparkle inspired by watching raindrops running down the window while riding the monorail in Seattle.

* Eclipse by Dami Lawal – a deep grey/purple blue that reflects the theatricality of a lunar eclipse 

After several years as a niche brand catering particularly to women with dark skintones, Sleek have branched out and become a major drugtore player with shades to suit anyone/everyone. Perhaps their best-known product is the i-Divine palette, but there's plenty more tricks up their sleeve. They're busily expanding their range, and the "Nailed" polishes are the latest addition.

I picked up "Turquoise" (aka shade 19), one of 30 bright, classic and neutral shades available from the range. My local Superdrug only had a handful and this was easily the standout, but after perusing the shades on the website, I'm also tempted by the bright orange "Burnt Amber" and greigey "Truffle" colours they're offering.

The brush that comes with the bottle is pretty standard - it's not one of those user-friendly flattened brushes, unfortunately, but it does an OK job. The formula, with "Turquoise" at least, is thick to the point of gloopy, and very tricky to apply without dragging or leaving an uneven finish. Sleek say that "Nailed" polishes "provide complete coverage with only one stroke", but I'm afraid that as far as I can see this is a massive fib. It took me three coats to get a reasonably even, opaque result.

Hard work pays off however - this is one of the longest-wearing nail polishes I've ever owned. It actually stayed on long enough that I started to see bare patches by my cuticles where it had started to grow out. You may be able to see this in the second photo, which was taken after four days of wear. Pretty much unheard of for me (except on my toenails). I'm extremely impressed to get this result from a £3.49 polish.

You can buy the full range of nail colours direct from the Sleek website at £3.49 each. Sleek is also available from Superdrug, however the Nailed polishes are not currently on the website. (You can find them in stores though.)

I've recently really been digging cream finish polishes, so the almost metallic shimmer on this beautiful ocean turquoise shade is making for a really refreshing change. This is my first go with a Revlon polish, and as I'd heard, the formula is pretty fantastic.  This photo was taken after three days wear, and there's virtually no tipwear and no chipping whatsoever.

Application was lovely too - the polish is fairly thin, easy to spread, and while it took three coats to get full opacity, it dried pretty quickly with no bubbles, streaking or bumps.

Interestingly, this polish, which was part of Revlon's Scent of Summer collection, is scented when dry.  The fragrance reminded me of the Oceanus perfume I used to love from the Body Shop, and it's quite noticeable when the polish is just dry.  It does fade pretty quickly though, which is a good thing - I'm sure I would have attracted some strange looks if I'd spent the entire weekend sniffing my nails.

Unfortunately, while I can find info on the whole Scent of Summer collection, I can't find out if anywhere in the UK actually stocked these polishes.  I will do my best to find one - in the meantime though, if you'd like to try this one for yourself, beg an American buddy to help you out!

After my recent fail with Models Own cream colours, I was ready to give up and go back to wearing all glitter, all the time.  I'm glad that this pretty GOSH polish caught my eye and persuaded me to try again; it's a beautiful, slightly dusty mid-blue cream which, despite going on a little thick and gloopy, dried to a relatively smooth finish.  It's not the smoothest finish ever, but it looks good enough that the slight variation in thickness in places doesn't bother me.

This photo was taken after three days of wear, and as you can see the tipwear is pretty minimal.  It did start chipping after three days (that's why I've hidden my little finger behind the polish bottle) and had to be removed, but for a mere £5, three days isn't bad at all.

If you like this shade and would like to try it for yourself, you can grab it at Superdrug stores, or if you're feeling lucky, try to win it in our latest giveaway.

I just love that you can, if you so choose, purchase a shade of nail polish that is exactly a match for wet cement. It looks slightly cooler in the bottle but there's definitely a dirty khaki hint once it's on the nail. Consistency is quite watery, which I believe is typical of Essie polishes. It layers up well enough though. Retails at around £9 per bottle. This is three coats plus Seche Vite.

Click through for more pics.

This is Models Own Disco Mix, a super glittery mix of blue and fuschia.  It takes a good three coats to get this kind of opaque glitter finish, but in my sparkle-loving opinion, it's well worth it.

Application is pretty much the same as with other glitter heavy polishes - not particularly smooth, slightly thick, but rather quick drying.  It did need a coat or two of Seche Vite to ensure a glossy finish, which I find to be the norm.

This photo was taken after three days of wear - there's a bit of tipwear, but in general, it's worn very well.  Unlike some other glitter polishes, it's not started flaking off in great sheets either.  Compared to my last experience with a Models Own polish, this is a great improvement!

If you'd like to try this out for yourself, you can get Disco Mix direct from Models Own, and now in branches of Boots, for £5.

I was tempted into ordering five polishes from Models Own the other week.  When they arrived, I was slightly surprised to see that the colours were somewhat different to how they were portrayed on the website.  This rather pretty spearminty turquoise cream was in the pastels section - but in real life it's rather bright.

Application is okay; the polishes are quite thick, and require fast work and at least two coats to get a good smooth finish.  The colour is beautiful; bright and clean, although it did require a good coat of Seche Vite to get a glossy finish.

Wear wasn't so fantastic.  One day after application, I had to touch up a few small chips and reseal the edges of my nails.  After another day, my nails were looking decidedly ragged.  So, not one to go for if you don't want to repaint every couple of days.

If you'd like to try it out for yourself, it's available from the Models Own website for a budget friendly £5.

This little Lasting Fix polish is one of a selection of copycat Spring pastels that 17 have brought out in the last couple of months. There's also a pink, a purple, and a pale yellow that Amanda Wright models here.

I picked this one up after seeing the gorgeous pastel blue-turquoise Lisa Eldridge wears in this video.

This polish may cost a mere £2.99, but the shade is a stunner and I've had quite a few compliments on it.  It's just blue enough to still be a blue and not a turquoise, but it's a blue with an unusual greenish warmth that really stands out.

I didn't expect to be able to emulate whatever's on Lisa's nails for under £3, but I have to say that with 2 coats and a wholesome topping of the magical wizard's-glaze that is Seche Vite, this lasted as well as any high-end polish that I own, as well as looking the business.

Lasting Fix polishes are currently on offer at Boots - you can get 2 for £5, though as usual Boots only have a fraction of the shades on their site, and these spring ones not included.

(NB Boots if you're short on content editors for your site, my rates are super-reasonable.)

This is a deep aubergine cream colour from the newly opened Makeup Store in Carnaby Street.  The shop itself is lovely, if a little on the small side, and stuffed full of a wide range of products in a rainbow of colours.

The nail varnish, which costs £11, is easy to apply, has a decent brush, and dries relatively quickly.  This is two coats - in some lights it looks a little patchy, so I think next time I use it I'll be going for 3 full coats.  Formula wise, this isn't anything particularly special, but it works.

I was slightly disappointed by the way that the colour on the nail.  In the bottle, the aubergine colour looks slightly blue toned, slightly dusty.  On the nail, the dustiness is lost and it's just a standard dark purple cream.  Still, it's not a colour I already own, so I will keep using it.

I can't find any online retailers of the Makeup Store products - and the stores in the UK are both in London, at Westfield and on Carnaby Street.  If you'd like to try this, a trip to London might have to be in order, or you could phone the stores and see if they'll do mail order for you.