My Nail Polish Collection - The Blues

As promised - here's a blog post!  Today I've been sorting out my nail polish collection and tidying it into a new box.  Before I started blogging I rarely used to wear colour on my nails, but now I wear lots of outlandish colours and I think that nail polish is one of my beauty 'things'.  I've rushed out to buy the latest Chanel must-have and gone to considerable lengths to get my hands on certain colours.  Gone are the days of having a french manicure and a few reds, pinks, lavenders and a single brozey/gold polish which all fitted neatly into a small makeup bag.  Over the past 8 months my collection of polishes has expanded rapidly and I've had to change my storage several different time!

I know that I still don't have a huge collection - I have around 60 polishes, and I must admit that there are some that I've never worn, and some polishes that cost a lot of money and I've only worn once!!!  There are also a lot of brands I've never tried - China Glaze, Barielle, Orly and Leighton Denny are all on my wish list of brands to try. 

Rather than bombard you with a huge post full of polishes, I thought I'd break them down into colour groups.  So first off - the blues:

Left to right are Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe, Marvala Smoky Blue, Nails Inc Diet Coke Collection Denim, GOSH Gypsy Blue and Rimmel Sky High.

I've done NOTDs with the Lippman and Mavala polishes, but none of the others, so let me know if you're interested in seeing them.  I've worn all of them except the Nails Inc polish, and I like the colour of all the polishes.  I've bought all of these polishes over the last year - if you'd told me I'd have 5 blue polishes a year ago I would've laughed!  I bought the Rimmel one first, last spring, and I thought it was quite a bold and daring colour at the time.  I restricted its use just to my toes!  Now I'd think nothing of wearing the Mavala polish on my fingers to work... oh how things have changed.

By the way - I have the blue Mac Wonder Woman polish on order as well - I can't wait!

I have a few more of these colour themed posts to come - let me know if you're interested in seeing any NOTDs of any of the colours.

Thanks for reading!  xx

I take it back...

OK, it appears that you can now buy some, but not all the Deborah Lippmann polishes online from House of Fraser here.  You couldn't buy them before online.

Across the Universe is not in stock and Happy Birthday is not there.  I'm quite lusting Marquee Moon, but then I love Television and it's one of my favourite songs.  Must resist!

NOTD - Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

Well, after the saga of getting hold of this polish, the stunning Across the Universe by Deborah Lippmann, I've now had a chance to apply it - what do you think?

It's a beautiful polish, that builds up layer upon layer to create a stunning, multi-dimensional glitter look.  The first coat was very thin, with sparse glitter and a transparent black/blue coloured base.  However, I kept painting on layers to get the effect you  can see, with the glitter appearing to recede to give the 'galaxy' effect and the base coat darkening to an opaque midnight blue.  I think this is four layers, but I could've got away with three.  I painted my nails in poor, artificial light, and initially I wasn't happy with the results.  However, when I saw the effect this morning in daylight, I totally changed my mind and I love it!

The polish was easy to work with and apply, the brush was manouverable and it dried relatively quickly.  However, I do appear to have some duvet-smudged nails, but I think this is because I painted so many layers on. I should've added a top coat before taking the pics.

I'm very pleased I bought this, and I can see that this will be a favourite for special occasions and when I just need a bit of glamorous glitter.  I did break my beauty diet to buy this, but I'm going to forgive myself for that, as I've been searching for it for two months!  It cost £16.

Deborah Lippmann polishes are supposedly available at House of Fraser Apothecarys across the country.  They were in stock in the Victoria Street branch in London, and Charlie reports that they are in stock in Exeter.  I'd advise ringing first before making a special trip to get one though.

Thanks for reading!  xx

It's Only Available in London...

WARNING - this is a bit of rant!

I've recently been on a bit of a quest to get my hands on Across the Universe, the beautiful nail polish by Deborah Lippmann.  These were 'apparently' available in House of Fraser Apothecary departments throughout the country.  However, I have been to House of Frasers in Bath, Bristol, Cardiff (hello - Cardiff is a Capital City) and finally Victoria Street in London before I managed to get my hands on it today.  It wasn't available online, so this has been a bit of a mission.

I'm lucky that I work all over the country, so I haven't made a special trip to any of these stores other than the one in Bristol.  However, it has made me think about the London-centric attitude of the beauty industry.  Admittedly, the availability of products around the country has improved vastly over recent years, and with internet shopping, ladies all over the country can get products delivered to their door.  However, so many products are still launched exclusively at London stores before the rest of the nation is allowed to buy them.  I mean, can I buy Illamasqua in Bristol?  I can't - they don't sell it anywhere, despite having Debenhams, Harvey Nicks, HoF and John Lewis.  And how many products are exclusive to Selfridges (especially Chanel)?  A lot, and there is no Selfridges near me. Bristol was terrible for shopping before Cabot Circus opened, but it's certainly a lot better now.  Before I moved to Bristol, I lived in Brighton which is great  for shopping and easy to go for a shopping trip to London as well, and I grew up in London, so I was spoilt for choice then.

As I've said before, I do frequently visit central London for work - it sometimes feel like I commute to London daily - so this doesn't necessarily apply to me.  However, I realise that I am very lucky that my work pays for my jaunts to browse high end beauty products.  And I should add that I don't take the p**s with work time either - I pop in to Selfridges or Illamasqua or HoF on what would be my lunch break.  However, despite Bristol being relatively close to London and quick to get to, it's still extremely expensive to go for a quick shopping trip.  You wouldn't pay upwards of £70 in travel/parking to go shopping in your local town centre - you're likely to draw the line at £10 I reckon. 

Quite frankly, why should we have to go to London to buy certain products?  They should be available everywhere.  There are probably plently of beauty addicts living in the Scottish highlands and other remote parts of the nation who are prepared to part with the cash to buy high end cosmetics.  It's not an easy thing to hop on a train and travel several hundred miles just to buy a particular lipstick.

I suppose that this is the beauty of blogs and in particular, swatches.  Many websites are notoriously unreliable for swatches, so at least seeing other bloggers' experiences and photographs of products allows you to purchase online without being totally blind.  Whilst this is great, nothing beats swatching a product in person, particularly when it's very expensive, and I don't want to go to London to do that!

Anyway, if you do live in London, I'm jealous of you having lots of beauty delights on your doorstep - I just think they should be available elsewhere as well.  Being a 'proper' Londoner myself, although now in exile, the London-centric nature of things has taken a bit of time to dawn on me, despite working in the retail property industry (hence my frequent visits to London!).  Anyway, sorry for my rant!  Does anyone have any thoughts on this?  Is it because all the beauty companies are based in the big smoke?