SOSU X Suzanne Jackson

Two weeks ago I attended the Cocoa Brown launch of their new Bronzing Gels (I’ll have a post on them in the coming weeks). In the swag bags we got at the event was a Sosu nail polish by Suzanne Jackson, which I was really happy about as I hadn’t tried any of them yet.

I’ve heard nothing but good things about the polish and have even heard that it can last up to two weeks so I was pretty intrigued to test it out.

I received the polish in Cast a Spell, a gorgeous purple that can only be described as a witches purple so the name is very apt.

The polish didn’t last two weeks on me but I did get a good week out of it with very little chipping. The left hand had no chipping at all and the right hand had only minimal chipping. The gloss and shine stayed all week which I was very impressed by, I would say it has more of a Vinylux effect rather than the gel like effect that you would get off Shellac nails but it's still very impressive. I think a lot of people who have had the nail polish last for longer than a week wore it over fake nails which would mean that it lasts a little longer than on natural nails.

The colour is very opaque with only one coat being needed but I did two anyway just for luck. I also used the CND Vinylux top coat over it.

I have one problem with the polish and that’s just the brush applicator, when dipping it into the bottle it did get a bit messy around the top of the bottle. I’ve heard that she has changed the brush applicator in her new collection so hopefully that will stop any excess polish being left on the top of the bottle.

I’m not sure what put me off not buying her polishes any sooner but after trying this one out I think I will pick up a couple, they are well worth the €7.99. You can buy them in Penneys nationwide as well as local pharmacies – a full list of sellers can be found here. They are priced at €7.99.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy Polish

When it comes to gel effect polishes I have a very high standard for what it takes for me to really love the product.

1)      If you’re going to sell me a gel polish it has to be as good as a Shellac or Vinylux.

2)      Has to last at least 5-7 days without chipping

3)      Stay glossy for the time being on my nails

4)      Can’t take long to dry – that goes for all polishes with me though

I bought a load of Vinylux polishes when I was at the Irish Beauty show a few months ago and they have set a really high bar for what I think of other polishes. I have however found it hard to source some, I know you can buy them online but I’m trying to cut back on my online spending.

This is a good thing though as I found a new love in the polish world that I think could possible trump my Vinylux ones.

The Colour Stay Gel Envy polishes from Revlon are possibly the best drugstore polishes I have ever tried. They tick all the boxes for me in what I look for in a gel polish.

They last all week, the shine never dulls, they are highly pigmented and when it does chip it’s usually by the end of the week and they are so tiny that unless my hands are right in your face you won’t notice them.

The price point is very similar to the Vinylux polishes. They retail for €9.29 in Boots and have an amazing colour range with 30 colours to choose from plus a top coat.

You will need to buy the top coat when getting the polish, its key that you do as this is what keeps your nails in tip top chip free condition and makes your nails super shiny.

The colours are highly pigmented, at least the ones I’ve tried so far have been. You could get away with one coat but I still pop two on. With two layers of colour and one top coat you would think it would take forever to dry but it is quite quick a drying formula so you can be back to business in no time at all.

If you love long wear nail polishes as much as I do then give the Revlon Colour Stay Gel Envy polishes a go. Anyone of my friends and family that I have recommended the polish to have loved it, so get out there and get some. Oh and Boots have a 3for2 offer on at the moment so no excuses.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo 

Maxfactor Gel Shine Lacquer

I was recently sent these gorgeous Maxfactor Gel Shine Lacquer polishes. They are “high shine and intense colour that lasts, for an instant glamour transformation”.

These polishes claim to give “intense colour pay-out with high shine and up to 7 days wear”.

I am immediately drawn to any polishes that have gel in the title or promises to give the same results as any UV gel polish.

I didn’t test all the colours unfortunately, I didn’t manage to try the brighter colours before I got Shellac on my nails. I had Sheen Merlot on my nails for over a week though so I think I have a good idea of how they work.

 

I chose Sheen Merlot (Burgundy) over Vivid Vermillion (Neon Orange) and Twinkling Pink (Bright Fuchsia) as I am forever drawn to plums and reds.

It does have a very high colour pay out as it didn’t take too much for the nail to be completely covered without seeing any of the nail bed. By the end of the week I only had one or two chips which I was really impressed by.

The only thing I was disappointed by was the fact that I didn’t seem have a very gel like finish. It could have been that colour though because I did swatch the other colours and they did seem a bit thicker on the nails than Sheen Merlot.

I did love the colour I tested and while it didn’t have too much of a gel look it was very pigmented and did last for almost a full week which I was really impressed by. They retail for €10.39 each.

Do you think you’ll buy them?

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah

Collection Lasting Gel Color | Review

I bought these during my Boots Haul last week. They were on offer - 2 for €6.50 or €3.99 each, so obviously I had to buy the two. I love gel effect nails so I was excited to try these, I had tried the Models Own Hypergel polish and wasn’t impressed at all so the fact that these where much cheaper than the Models Own I my expectations weren’t too high but still optimistic at the same time.

Vixen Red

Raspberry

I love the brush, it’s wide and gets the full nail pretty much on one swipe a bit like the Rimmel 60 Seconds nail polish or the YSL polishes, I hate really thin brushes they never work the way I want them too.

Firstly as a beauty blogger I want to try everything at once and as I’ve had Shellac on for so long I couldn’t wait to get my nails painted and polished again so I put one colour on each hand.

On my left hand I tried Vixen Red, from the bottle it looks like a deep burgundy red but when applied it has more of a plum hew to it. With the application I applied two coats to get a full colour, one coat was too thin. With this hand I applied a top coat when I was finished and the drying time was very short, it almost instantly dried to touch but it needed a short few minutes before it was fully dry. I love these kinds of colours especially for the autumn.

After over a week’s wear the red had hardly chipped other than looking a bit dull around the tip of the nail.

No chips after a full week of wear

On my right hand I had the colour Raspberry, it’s like a hot pink but a little darker another one of my favourite colours but this one is more suited for the summer. On this hand I didn’t put any top coat on just to see if it made any difference having it with or without it. Again after a week there is literally just one obvious chip and a little dulling around the tip of the nails.

 

The application on the colour was much better than the Vixen Red, the colour is thick enough and only needed one coat but I put two on just for luck.

Only one obvious chip after a full week

I’m so impressed by these polishes, they have a high shine that has stayed for the week, no chipping with or without a top coat and they are a bargain at only €3.99. They look more like a normal polish on the nails rather than having gel on the nail but I’ll let that slide as the overall quality is really good.

Thanks for reading J

Love Sarah xoxo

Reveiw | Tanya Burr Lip Gloss and Nails Part 1

I love watching Youtube for tutorials, hauls and to see what vloggers think of the latest products, so when I saw that one of my faves Tanya Burr had released her own range of lip glosses and nail polishes I knew I had to get them. 

For this post i'm just going to write about the nail polishes. There are 10 polishes in total and each of them have their own unique names that Tanya chose herself.

Penguin Chic - a taupe like grey

Riding Hood - such a lovely pillar box red 

Mini Marshmallows - a light baby pink

Peaches and cream - a peachy cream colour 

Midnight Sparkles - a dark sparkly purple

Bright and Early - bubble-gum pink

Be Bright, Be Happy, Be You - a little hot pink 

New York Night - a dark purple

Mischief Managed - a pinkie red

Little Duck - a pastel green

I bought my 3 on www.cloud10beauty.com, I chose Riding Hood, Midnight Sparkles and Be Bright, Be Happy, Be you. The quality of these polishes are really good, I paid €7.50 for each polish which I think is reasonable enough for what you get. 

Be Bright, Be Beautiful, Be You and Riding Hood:

When I first put these colours on my nails I was blown away firstly by the shine and secondly from the coverage. Even from just one coat there was such a high coverage.

Be Bright, Be Beautiful, Be You

The shine is just amazing and the coverage is so thick it almost looks gel like. I really love a wet look nail so this really ticked the box for me. 

Riding Hood

Midnight Sparkle

I don't think my photo does this polish any justice. In person it really is a sparkly purple, it reminds me of a supernova deep space colour. I tried to use my camera and my IPhone camera but this was the best shot I could get. There wasn't as much of a shine as the other two polishes and the sparkle disappeared a bit but i'm thinking if I put a lighter polish underneath maybe it will make it pop a bit more.

Midnight Sparkle

The varnishes promise to be chip resistant and they live up to that. I didn't put a top coat on my nails just to see how long they would last on their own and after a week there was only minimal chipping so I presume if I put a top coat on it will last for a good few days.

I love the packaging although I did have a hard time opening 2 of the polishes and had to get my dad to open them because i'm so weak.
Overall I do love them and if I see them in my local stores maybe I'll buy them, it's just a bit of effort to buy them online.

Enjoy your weekend girls and keep an eye out over the next few days for my review on Tanya's lip glosses.

Love Sarah xoxo

Models Own Hypergel review

Hello Hello!!

Nails! Apart from lip products anything to do with nails is definitely my second love.

Last year I went month's getting gel nails but I could tell that they were starting to ruin my real nails underneath so I had to take them off. The result was hideous paper thin nails, fortunately after a lot of hand cream, cuticle oils and some repairing nail varnishes they are finally starting to get back to normal. 

Now I've never had Shellac nails but my friend raves about them so when I saw that Models Own had brought out a nail varnish that gave the same type of effect for only €7.65 I was intrigued. I had seen some reviews from other bloggers about the varnish that spoke well about it and figured I'll have to try them. Boots where doing a 3 for 2 offer at the time so I bought Coral Glaze - a lovely peachy coral, Cerise Shine - a hot Barbie pink and Cornflower Gleam - a baby sky blue.

They have 10 shades altogether containing lotus flower oil and the result should be a high shine gel finish.

The first time I put the Cornflower gleam on my fingers and I immediately noticed that the colour is so pigmented and really only a single coat was needed without seeing any of the original nail. Now I did this while sitting in my room about a half an hour before I was going to get into bed, thinking it would be enough time to let them dry. Well was I mistaken, usually I'll give nails a good ten minutes before I start doing anything so after a half an hour of me bouncing around my room to Beyonce I figured they would be bone dry, but they started to come off when they got hit, they smudged and basically it was a hot mess.

I tried it again for a second time the next day, leaving it a little longer but the same result happened but to a lesser extent, as you can see in the picture below.

So for the 3rd time I tried the Cerise Shine on my left hand and the Cornflower Gleam on my right (I left the Coral Glaze in work so haven't tested that one yet). I took my time on this occasion, knowing that they take forever to dry I sat down and made sure I had no distractions. Initially I was happy with the result, it's a high shine and they did look like they had gel on them. 

    

 

After nearly an hour and a half of doing my nails and letting them dry I noticed that the smooth sheen was gone and replaced by bubbles, the only time I had seen this happen was when I got cheap gel nails done! I Googled it thinking maybe it was something I had done wrong but I couldn't pin point anything. 

After an hour I decided it should be OK to move around again but as soon as the nails touched off anything they did get dented. I'm not usually one to moan too much about a product but after 3 times of putting the varnish on this really has to be one of the worst varnishes I've bought for my nails. It could be that it's thicker and it is only a new product so maybe they just need to do a few more tweaks, but I like to be able to put on my varnish and go. After an hour I really should not be worrying about my nails not being fully dry.

The only positive I can come to are that the pigments are amazing, the colours do really pop and will compliment your spring wardrobe and if i'm honest that's the only plus I can think of :(

Love Sarah xoxo