NOTD - Attitude Deep Azure

Attitude Deep Azure is a gorgeous deep royal navy shade packed with shimmer. The shimmer flashes dark purple and blue depending on which angle your looking at the polish, it actually reminds me a lot of OPI Ink (2nd photo), and similar to Ink the purple tones in this polish are nearly impossible to capture on camera.

Attitude - Deep Azure

OPI Ink

Application wise, the consistency of Attitude polishes is usually a little on the gloopy side and this is definitely the case with Deep Azure, so things can get a little messy, but the colour is completely opaque at 2 coats. I also found that a coat of Seche Vite is needed to really bring out the shimmer in this shade! You can really see the purple tones of Deep Azure in the bottle in the next photo:

All in all a great colour, I always seem to reach for shades like this when I'm feeling a little tired of Black Polish, but still fancy something dark. They have the same awesome vampy contrast that black polish has, while having an extra depth of shimmer and colour to them, making them more interesting and fun to look at :)

I'm really enjoying Attitude polishes at the moment, they retail here in the UK for very cheap (around £2) and the quality is simply great at that price. They do have some lovely unusual shades as well, I've got a couple more I really need to try out including a duochrome! :)

Winning Competition Entry - Black Swan Themed Manicure

Today was a very exciting day for me :D I just found out I've won a nail art competition hosted by Thats So Fresh. You can see the full details of the competition on this page:
http://thatssofresh.blogspot.com/2011/02/winner.html

Thanks so much to Thats so Fresh for hosting this wonderful competition and having such an awesome prize (6 Konad plates of your choice)! It's the first time I've ever won a competition and it really means a lot :D anyway here are the photos I entered:

Black Swan Manicure

Hope you enjoy :D Wooo I'm so happy :D

NOTD - Back in Black - my fave black polishes

I felt like doing a different kind of post today, and the theme: Black Nail Polish, here are some swatches of my favourite black nail polishes from my collection (in no particular order):

Attitude Night Sky

Night Sky is a Black Polish layered with a silver metallic finish, the final effect on the nails is stunning, and really looks a lot like leather, this one is definitely a favourite, it has a lot more depth to it than a standard creme and really looks lovely on the nails. Attitude Nail Polish is extremley reasonable in price (this one cost £2.38) and this one is just as hard wearing as any OPI, they also have a lovely wide brush, not quite as wide as OPI's but I find it even easier to apply, this one reached full opacity at 2 coats 

China Glaze Black Diamond (from Ski Collection)

Black Diamond is a gorgeous charcoal black packed with shimmery particles that flash silver/green/pink if you click the pics for a close up you can see this effect a little better. This was 2 coats (though its practically opaque in 1), it applied very smoothly and has an awesome shimmery finish. Really love this one!

China Glaze Liquid Leather 

After comparing Attitude's Night Sky to leather, I feel that this gorgeous black creme/jelly from China Glaze should be called Liquid Vinyl or PVC, as its finish is a lot closer to that look than leather. Non the less Liquid Leather is pretty much my go-to black nail polish, even though I always have a nightmare applying it, the brush and consistency is fine, I just always seem to make a mess applying it, I thought this was true of all black polishes, but Attitude's Night Sky was not remotely messy to apply, so I'm a little baffled lol, perhaps its to do with the non-wide China Glaze Brush? Anyway, China Glaze's Liquid Leather is perfect if your after a standard black creme polish!

 China Glaze Liquid Leather with OPI Standing Room Only 

Here's how China Glaze's Liquid Leather looks topped with OPIs Standing Room Only, a gorgeous holographic black :D

Now for some mattes:

OPI Obscurity (from go goth minis 2010) 

you can click here if you'd like to see the rest of this collection

OPI Obscurity is a matte black polish (you can always add a top coat if you prefer it glossy) it's practically opaque at 1 coat, but I applied 2 here, it dries extremely quickly, and here it has been applied with no base or top coat. 

Illamasqua Scorn (From Throb Collection)

My First Illamasqua polish. This one is hands down my favourite black nail polish, it dries with a rubber like matte finish, although not quite as matte as OPI Obscurity, but it looks so much better on the nail! OPI's Obscurity does no favours for ridges, whereas Illamasqua's Scorn applies thickly and extremely smoothly for a matte polish. The finish is stunning and ridge free, it's opaque at 1 coat but I applied 2 in these photos (no base or top coat). Price wise Illamasqua is probably the most expensive polish I've ever bought retailing at £13.50, but the easy application and perfect finish does make up for that a bit :) plus the bottles are gorgeous!! :) I'll be posting swatches and a full review of their Throb collection soon :)

So what's your favourite black polish? any awesome ones I've missed???

NOTD - Mischa with GOSH Rainbow and Attitude Aurora

Decided to spice up my last NOTD (Andrea Fulerton - Mischa) with a couple of my favourite glitter polishes: GOSH Rainbow and Attitude Aurora :D here's some pics:

Mischa with GOSH Rainbow

no flash

no flash

GOSH Rainbow, shows up a lot better without flash, it is almost identical to an Inglot Polish I have (202), here's a quick reminder how that one looks pictured here on top of OPI Sanguine:

Mischa with Attitude Aurora

no flash

The Aurora Glitter top coat, actually shows up a lot better in the pics with a flash, it really gives the polish an almost holographic look as the glitter particles are very small, definitely seems to work better with 1 coat :D

NOTD - Orly Lunar Eclipse with holo glitter New Years Eve Mani

Happy New Year!!!!!

I wanted a striking blue polish to go with my jewellery for new year's eve, something along the lines of OPI's Designer Series - Glamour, which I sadly don't own :'( so recently when I was in Stock Shop (an utterly awesome hair and nail supply place in London Whetstone) I found a rather exciting glitter polish by Attitude called Aurora, and it was under £3 which I can't argue with :D

Bottle Pics 

Essentially it is a holographic glitter top coat, but the glitter is extremely fine, so I bought it hoping it would leave a similar effect to OPI Designer Series polishes, so the next step was to find the right shade of blue, I recently purchased the Orly Cosmic FX range which luckily had the perfect electric blue, Lunar Eclipse:

So here's how the final Mani looked :D

OPI Chip Skip

Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy 1 coat

Orly Cosmic FX Lunar Eclipse 3 coats

Attitude Aurora 1 coat

Top Coat Seche Vite

Here are some more pics with a little blur to show the stunning holo effect of this polish :D

 

I think I need to buy another bottle of Aurora, as I forsee much usage in the future, the effect is absolutely stunning, and because the glitter particles are so fine, you really get a similar effect to OPI Designer Series polishes :D I absolutely cannot wait to try this top coat over more polishes, the final effect of this mani is very near to OPI Designer Series Glamour :D the glitter is slightly sparser, but perhaps another coat would help that, shall have to try two coats next time :D