Candeo Colors - Jellybean

I am loving these indie nail polish brands at the moment. They have made such amazing and unique creations. Today I have a polish from Candeo Colors called Jellybean.

This is an amazing and unique nail polish. How many of you have seen anything else like it? It is made up of some smaller glitter in shades of lime green and pink with larger hexagonal pink turquoise and purple glitters. All of these are suspended in a pastel yellow base. It is just perfect for Spring time. It reminds me of Easter actually although it is fine to wear it during any time you want. It doesn't remind me much of jellybeans as I think of much brighter colours but it does look like the speckled varieties that you can get.

The formula is brilliant. The glitter is suspended really nicely so it isn't a struggle to apply it. I'm wearing two coats in the pictures which achieved full coverage, no base colour needed which I love. I really like the labels too, the chameleon is really sweet.

More photos of it below...

Leighton Denny Friends of Dorothy Collection

I am a HUGE Leighton Denny fan, I simply love his range and have the majority of his colours. They are a pleasure to work with, they glide on effortlessly, wear well and are super shiny. There is a new kit available on QVC called the Friends of Dorothy Collection, it is a collection designed by one of Leighton's QVC viewers for a competition to come up with a theme for a QVC exclusive collection. This was the winner, inspired by the Wizard of Oz which I think is a great idea.

There are four shades in the kit, a chunky rainbow party style glitter, a deep shimmery green with blue micro shimmer shot through it, a yellow cream and a red glitter with green glitter mixed in. It all comes in a nice box so would be a perfect present for any nail polish or Wizard of Oz fan.

The colours themselves are the same great formulation I expect from Leighton. I'm never disappointed with his polish. The green and yellow are two coaters. The glitters work best with three coats to make sure there are no gaps between the particles.

Ruby Slippers (red glitter) works as a full coverage glitter or can be used over another colour. It is not sparse however so it will still be quite dense over another shade so might be best to pair is with a red or even a green to go with the green glitter that is in it. Maybe a white or a gold would look good too. It would be a great colour for Christmas.

Over the Rainbow (rainbow glitter) is a little harder to work with, you do need to make sure it is dry between coats or you will end up dragging the coat beneath around. It is best to pat the glitter on and you can go to touch up any gaps at the end.  I didn't manage to get the glitter to stick to the tips of my nail because I was being inpatient so I went back later and added it there to get full coverage. It is very forgiving to would be good for ridged nails. It can also be used as a topper for other colours if applied thinly.

This is a little comparison between other multi coloured glitters I have.

L-R: Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday, Leighton Denny Over the Rainbow, OPI Mad as a Hatter

Emerald City (shimmery green) is my favourite from the collection. It is simply beautiful. You could get away with just one coat but I always use two for longevity and to get the full depth of colour.

Brick Road (yellow cream) is a core shade in Leighton's line so can be bought at any time. This is probably my least favourite in the kit. I found it harder to wear against my skin tone. The awful manicure I did wasn't helping either. It is still a nice shade of yellow, it isn't too garish (think the shade of yellow that is hot dog mustard... ewww) is is more pastel but still remains bright. If you are familiar with Chanel's Mimosa, is it along the same lines of that but minus the shimmer. I think this would work better when I have a bit of a tan, it is definitely a Summer shade.

Here are a couple of manicures I've done with these shades. I liked the green and rainbow one but hated the yellow and red one, I removed it the next day :(

Jennifer x

Lava Nails

This was a bit of a 'happy accident' as they started out rather crap and I hated them but was too lazy to start over. I thought I'd add some black crackle to see if I could rectify them by making them look even more messed up... without being messed up... if you see what I mean lol. Deliberate looking. I actually thought they resembled lava flows when I had finished, like the liquid lava with the solidified lava on top when it turns grey-black. I liked it and wore it for a full week and even my boyfriend liked it (he was biased though because it involved the colour orange which is his favourite).

I used Chanel Mimosa for the yellow base then used Butter London sheer jelly polish in Chuffed for the orange. I applied it straight from the brush in thin layers making a gradient towards the tip. You could sponge it on instead or use a more opaque colour when sponging and fade it upwards towards the cuticle instead if you didn't have a sheer or jelly shade. Then I used BarryM black crackle on top and sealed it all with a coat of Seche Vite - my top coat of choice, I'm on my third bottle of this now!

This would be really easy to change up the colours to whatever you wanted and I will be trying it again in the future, I'm thinking of purple and blue with silver shatter on top!

I'm off work sick today so I'm going to try to mess around with some makeup to create some different looks while I have a chance and will be getting those up soon :)

Jennifer xx

Les Fleurs D'Ete De Chanel Summer 2011 Collection - Mimosa & Morning Rose Review

Hiya! I hope everyone in the UK is enjoying their start to the Bank Holiday weekend, sucks if you are working though :( Thankfully I am staying at my boyfriend's house which is nice to have a little break from London for a few days.

L-R: Morning Rose, Mimosa

L-R: Morning Rose, Mimosa

Today I have a review of two of the Chanel Summer nail polish colours, the highly anticipated Mimosa and beautiful Morning Rose. There was also another shade released called Beige Petale but that didn't appeal to me at all, I loves my bright colours! As soon as I saw the press releases for these I just loved the yellow shade. I only had one yellow polish, Barry M yellow - do not recommend unless you want to have finger that look like they've been dipped in a pot of American mustard... bleugh, not a good look and I was actually told by somebody else that is what my nails looked like :( Chanel's offering looked much more flattering.

I recently did a post on OPI's Fiercely Fiona which is a really pretty yellow but Mimosa is quite different, it is brighter and is shot through with a pretty golden shimmer which gives the colour some depth so it doesn't look flat. Chanel are very good at putting trendy colours out there but making them flattering.

Morning Rose is a jellyish colour and again shot through with gold shimmer although bigger particles in this shade. I wouldn't say it was a proper jelly because it is quite opaque but you can see the shimmer floating within the polish just like in a jelly finish. I found capturing the glitter difficult for both of these colours because the sun refused to come out and it has been horrible in London for the past few days so I couldn't re shoot the photos unfortunately. The pink is a nice flattering shade, it is a medium pink and has slight peach tones in it. Both of these colours are perfect for Summer.

Application was smooth on both, Mimosa needed a third coat to get true bottle colour and I used a third coat of Morning Rose because I didn't paint the second coat very well but I think a third coat gives it a bit more depth with the extra shimmer going through it. The polishes retail at £17 so they are expensive but Chanel often bring out really unique shades which you can't get elsewhere. The bottles hold 13ml/0.4fl oz of lacquer.

Here are a few pictures at different angles, hopefully the shimmer is visible in some of them. Mimosa isn't quite as bright in real life, I'd say one shade lighter but Morning Rose is pretty accurate on my screen.

L-R: Mimosa, Morning Rose

L-R: Mimosa, Morning Rose

L-R: Mimosa, Morning Rose

Mimosa

Morning Rose

I think they are sold out online now which is a shame so if you would like these colours I would call/visit your local Chanel counter to see if they have it there.

- Jennifer

OPI Fiercely Fiona

This has been on my want list for a while, it is from the OPI Shrek Forever After Collection which came out last Summer. I have a few of the other colours and love the formula so decided to get this one too as I didn't own a good yellow. I got mine from ASOS on sale £7.35. I love it. The formula is just how I'd hoped it would be, the same consitency as the other Shrek polishes I own - all two coats. It doesn't streak at all and applies evenly and levels itself out. The colour really appeals to me, I think it works well on my skintone and isn't too yellow, instead being more of a primrose yellow, making it more wearable. I've taken it off today and I miss it so I think this is going to become a favorite for me. Yellow is also a trend colour for this Summer with Chanel bringing out their yellow Mimosa nail polish soon.

So do you like yellow nail polish?

- Jennifer

Surf Baby FOTD

I played with some of my new Surf Baby products today, I was quite happy with how it came out. I also really like yellow on my eyes, this was the first time I'd tried it.

What I used:

MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation

Bobbi Brown Corrector and Concealer with powder.

Collection 2000 translucent powder through t-zone.

MAC Lush-Light Bronze Studio Careblend Powder on cheeks, into hairline, up to temples.

Urban Decay Primer Potion

MAC Sun Blonde Eye shadow all over lid

MAC Surf USA Eye shadow through crease, blended into the yellow and then blended upwards to get the true colour. Also along lower lashes.

Urban Decay Virgin Eye shadow under brow bone and blended into Surf USA.

MAC Spiked brow pencil

Bobbi Brown Longwear Gel Liner in Black Ink

Chanel Imitable Intense Mascara

MAC Hibiscus Lipstick

I felt very summery today :)

- Jennifer