Manic.Monday: Peachy Keen with China Glaze

It's Monday again, and time to polish up on our polishes. A month or so ago I bought some lovely new nail polishes for spring and summer and one of those was China Glaze Peachy Keen (£4.38) which is a beautiful and radiant light coral color - simply perfect for summer. Yes I know it's still a few months to go before we're there, and I may not feel the warm sun on my face yet, but I can still channel a summery look on my nails

At the moment China Glaze isn't readily available on the high street in the UK, which is a real shame since it's an excellent brand with an amazing range of colors. So far I have tried three different shades and I have been extremely happy with all of them. Usually the formula has a great consistency and the polishes come with a superb wide brush that covers so much of the nail that you only need one brush stroke for each coat. With Peach Keen I found that the formula for some reason is a little bit thinner than the other shades that I have tried, so I had to wipe of the brush quite a few times to make sure that I only got a tiny drop of formula on the brush to avoid making a complete mess of the application. The pigmentation is so rich that despite using much less than I usually would, you still get a lovely opaque color with just one coat. As you know I usually apply two coats, which is also what I'm wearing in the photo however with China Glaze I have start to not use a top coat since the formula contains an ultra shine strengthening ingredient which also helps to make the polish chip resistant, and on average I would say that it lasts for about four days before you need to touch up.

Since the formula of Peachy Keen was a bit thinner I must admit that some of the nails got a slightly thicker coat than I would have wanted and I could tell that the wear wasn't as long lasting as it usually is, and I unfortunately noticed chipping already the day after I had applied the color on quite a few of my nails. However since it's such an easy to apply and quick drying polish I won't hold this against it and I've really enjoyed wearing this happy, sunny and summery versatile peachy color and I'm sure it'll look even more beautiful with a tan. You can easily get China Glaze online, and I prefer to get my stash from Beautybay.com since they often have some amazing deals and free delivery. If you haven't tried China Glaze yet I would highly recommend that you browse the fantastic range of shades and treat yourself to some gorgeous new polishes for summer.

Manic.Monday: Keep calm and paint on + Winner of international giveaway

Before we talk about this Manic.Monday's beautiful nail polishes I want to quickly mention that the international giveaway to celebrate 1000 followers has been closed. Thank you very VERY much for all the lovely comments of support and to everyone who entered the giveaway, I'm so happy that there were so many entries. I'm very happy to announce that the lucky person to win the five L'Oréal Glam Shine Balmy Glosses is Anastasiya Klimova - massive congratulations to you, and I hope you'll enjoy the balmy glosses!

I think it's safe to say that I've shed the dark and vampy berry Winter nail polish shades and have moved on to lighter brighter and happier shades, I guess I'm celebrating Spring a tad bit early. When it comes to clothes I'm not really a pastel girl and while I think it looks fabulous on others I'm more into mono chrome or earthy tones, but pastels on my nails - that's a different story altogether and you could say that I'm an equal polish shade opportunity girl. This year I've been organised enough to plan ahead a little bit so in the sales I managed to pick up some gorgeous shades that will be right on trend this Spring & Summer and one of those bargains is the lovely China Glaze Keep calm and paint on (£6.36).

I discovered China Glaze fairly recently and was so impressed by it that I quickly got myself another couple of polishes - after all there are more than 300 shades to choose from so there's bound to be something for everyone and for a polish-aholic like myself it's an absolute dream brand. The formula is great and easy to work with; it has just the right consistency and a wonderful wide brush - the type that fans out covering more or less the entire nail, which means that you get a lovely and even coverage in one quick brush stroke. This was the first lighter shade I had tried from China Glaze so I was a bit worried that it would be very sheer, however I soon discovered that it has the same rich pigmentation as the darker colors so it quickly gives a nice opaque finish. You could wear just one coat even of this lighter shade, however as you'll know by now I like my finish nice and solid so in the photo I'm wearing two coats. The China Glaze nail polishes contain China Clay, which is a high shine ingredient which also strengthens the nails, so you won't really need a separate top coat and it lasts 4-5 days before it starts to chip, which is above average in my book. Keep calm and paint on (love that name...) is a gorgeous pastel shade - a shimmery mint green with a blue undertone that looks so crisp and fresh without being sugary sweet and I know that this is going to be one of my favorite shades this season.

To add another dimension to this fresh and clean look I've applied a coat of the Ciaté Confetti (£9) which is a stunning glitter polish with millions of tiny holographic sparkles that give a brilliant shine and radiance. The glitter is so dense in this polish that it's easy to spread it evenly across the nail and you also only need one coat for a highly luminous finish and you can use this either as a top coat or on it's own (I would recommend using at least two coats) for a truly gleaming look. Since the particles in the polish are so fine, it's surprisingly easy to remove this glitter coat - no need to bring out the strongest, nastiest acetone or to use other tricks to get rid of it. It's such a pretty effect polish and I don't think there's a base shade in the world that it wouldn't work great with.

If you were to only have one single glitter polish, for me it would need to be Confetti because of the amazing lustre, and if you were to have only one single nail polish for Spring - I would be very happy with this beautiful crisp honeydew color, and since I have both I'll just follow the advice; Keep Calm and Paint On!

Enough is never enough

What is it about nail polish that makes you just want more and more of them? Have they put something in the formula, so that when you lovingly do your mani on a pampering Tuesday night in your PJs over a nice hot chocolate it goes straight to your head with the message - buy more of me? Whatever it is, it's got its hooks into millions of us, and I for one willingly oblige!

You could argue that after 24 days of a new mini polish every day - YES, I'm talking about the Ciaté advent calendar - I should have had my need for nail polish met, and in theory at least I should also have had enough of Ciaté. BUT.... when Ciaté has a sale on and you can get the most incredible shades starting at £4 - you start to think about what's missing from the polished polish collection. I realised that I didn't have a very particular shade of glimmer, and that gap would be filled perfectly by the stunning Ciaté shade The Hamptons (£4) which is a sparkly turquoise blue green exactly like the color of the sea in the Caribbean. I was also missing a lovely creamy and dreamy pastel lilac, but with Spinning Teacup (£4) I'm all set.

As you know I'm all about experimenting with different nail effects and for me Ciaté is market leading, in terms of coming up with innovative new concepts. Admittedly the sets can be a bit expensive, so even better reason to pick up a bargain in the sales. A modern classic by now is the velvet look and I bagged myself the Velvet Manicure in Blue Suede (£5), and it's also the shade that started the very eye catching and original trend. Another little set that I picked up is the Caviar Manicure in Cotton Candy (£5) which is a lovely sherbet colored bead mix of pink, orange, baby blue and silver beads - perfect for the pastel Spring & Summer trend.

China Glaze isn't a brand that you see mentioned very often in the UK, which is a bit strange because it really has a great formula and a wonderful range of shades. After my first nice and wide brush with it (see what I did there...) in the shade With Love, reviewed in my Red Edition, I was very impressed by China Glaze and decided that I would get some more shades in the BeautyBay.com New Year Sales. There were several offers on with up to an amazing 75% off but I stuck to my list and quota, and got exactly what I had planned. yeay - go me! After a lot of browsing of all the colors, one more beautiful than the other I bought two timeless and sophisticated shades; Queen B (£6.26), a creamy muted deep dusky purple blue and Mahogany Magic (£6.26) which is a lovely genuine golden chocolate brown. I also wanted to get some colors that will go well with all the beautiful Spring & Summer make up collections that will be released very soon, so I also decided on the fresh and fruity light coral shade Peachy Keen (£6.26) and Keep Calm, Paint On (£6.26), a lovely cool, blue pastel green Honeydew with a subtle shimmer.

As it is the beginning of the year, there have been a lot of posts about Top 3 or 5 or 10 products in 2013, and some have also covered nail polishes. I've really enjoyed reading those posts, but every time I've thought to myself that I could probably never decide on top 10, or have mercy - top 3?! I would get stuck on even trying to decide on which my top 3 blue or purple polishes are. I hate to state the obvious, but in my case when it comes to nail polish: enough is never enough.

Red edition

For me the color I most associate with the festive season is red. As a primary color it's a forceful and dynamic shade that is often linked with strong emotions like love, passion, action, courage or even anger but at this time of year for me it evokes feelings of joy and hope. There are so many shades of red in the spectrum from the lighter, softer shades that are almost coral pink to the dark brown blood red vampy shades, which is why the hunt for the perfect red lipstick or nail polish is never really over, something I think every beauty junkie will agree with. Red is definitely my shade of choice this season and here are a few of my favorite red products that will be worn a lot this Christmas.

There are so many gorgeous red nail polish shades this season but as soon as I saw China Glaze (£4.95) in the shade With Love, I knew that this would be my Christmas polish. I was really looking forward to wearing this shade since I'd never used China Glaze before, but had read some great reviews of this US brand and I'm sure I'm not the only one. China Glaze has an enormous range of shades in every color of the rainbow and there are over 300 to choose from. With Love is a true glamorous red shade with a hint of orange that creates the radiant, almost scarlet color. The formula is just the right density - not too watery, not too thick and together with the lovely wide brush it's easy to get an even streak free coverage that dries quickly, with no effort at all. It has a rich pigmentation so one coat of this fabulous red is actually enough for an opaque finish, however personally I prefer to wear two coats.

All the China Glaze nail polishes contain something called China Clay, which is the same material that adds shine to porcelain and it also strengthens the nails, so you'll automatically get a high shine finish without using an additional top coat. On me the finish stays flawless for about 4-5 days, which I think is quite good and then I might need to top up the high shine with a top coat. I love this nail polish and have worn it both on its own (getting so many compliments for it) and as a base shade for festive nail effects and if you haven't yet tried China Glaze, I highly recommend it - you won't be disappointed.

From left to right (in artificial light):

China Glaze - 112 With Love

China Glaze 112 With Love & Nails Inc Snowflake effect

China Glaze 112 With Love & Nails Inc Snow Globe

China Glaze 112 With Love & Nails Inc Party Shoes

China Glaze 112 With Love & Rimmel Disco Ball

From left to right (in natural light):

China Glaze - 112 With Love

China Glaze 112 With Love & Nails Inc Snowflake effect

China Glaze 112 With Love & Nails Inc Snow Globe

China Glaze 112 With Love & Nails Inc Party Shoes

China Glaze 112 With Love & Rimmel Disco Ball

If you've read some of my latest eye makeup posts, you'll know that I've been experimenting with using a lot of red and darker berry shades and I've also tried some new interesting formulas. First we had the well known and loved Maybelline 24 hr colour tattoo, then for me Bourjois' 24 hr cream to shadow proved to be even better than that, and now we have the creme de la creme with Estée Lauder's Gelée Powder EyeShadow (£19) in Cyber Red. It comes in a stylish little compact and has a lovely multi dimensional pattern to us, that's almost too pretty to mess up and the concept behind it is very interesting; gel, powder and liquid in one. It has an incredibly soft and smooth consistency that easily glides onto the eyelid and stays without any creasing or fading all throughout the day. There are 6 metallic, intense shade in the range at the moment and they can be used either dry or wet, depending on which color intensity you're going for. This is a lovely warm and dynamic burgundy red with incredible sheen to it, and I've loved wearing it with just a dark eyeliner and lots of mascara. After a recommendation from one of you lovely readers, I use an almost white base shade before applying Cyber Red and the shade really pops and comes into its own. Thanks for that great tip!

As I've started to wear a red statement lip a lot this Christmas season I've also realised the importance of using a lip pencil, something I didn't use to bother with. But when you wear a vibrant red, or another strong shade a lip pencil is almost a must, not only for defining and maybe even correcting the shape of your lips but also to prevent any bleeding and to make the shade last longer. I've invested in some of the No7 Precision Lips Pencils (£6.75) and for me they are just perfect; soft, smooth and moisturising and they don't dry or fade in a horrible way. For a punchy red statement lip the shade Fire is perfect and it would work well with a range of red shades both lighter and darker and I've paired this lip pencil with the Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquer (£6.49) in Big Bang. I've mentioned this amazing Rimmel product a few times before, and I'm sorry for repeating myself but honestly this is one of the best lip products on the high street. The formula is so moisturising but still intense and it gives a lovely high shine. Big Bang is a glorious, vivid clear red shade which is so lovely with a neutral or even nude eye look and with this shade you don't need anything else, it does all the talking. 

From top to bottom (in artificial light):

Estée Lauder Eye shadow - Cyber Ruby

No 7 Lip liner - Fire 

Rimmel Apocalips - Big Bang

From top to bottom (in natural light):

Estée Lauder Eye shadow - Cyber Ruby

No 7 Lip liner - Fire 

Rimmel Apocalips - Big Bang

Last among some of my favourite red products is the fantastic EdP from Tom Ford - Jasmin Rouge EdP (£140 for 50 ml) which I have done a review of previously. It's a wonderful and sensual exotic blend of different types of jasmine, spice and clary sage that creates a very bold and glamorous statement. It's floral but not sweet, intense but not over powering and classic and contemporary all at the same time. This is the purest jasmine scent that I have ever tried and it's completely intoxicating. As you probably know I LOVE perfume and have quite a collection and I usually wear something different every day, but if I had to choose just one single scent to wear for the rest of my life, this would be it - and for me to say that, really does say something about this scent.

A warm, vibrant red is indeed the primary festive color above all, and although it may be a predictable color to wear, it's a classic - after all I wouldn't want to criticize what Santa wears since I hope he'll bring me something nice in a few days...