Ciate Freebie Geebies

It has been said that I love a bargain, and it is also notable that I am a sucker for bulk buying, so with this post I'm reviewing the three Ciate polishes that are pleasantly awaiting this month's Marie Claire readers. I have to say, normally I am not a regular buyer of beauty magazines at all, so these polishes actually came to my attention via a beauty blogger. The review they gave was a little bit of a meandering mess of polish lingo and actually didn't really make very much sense to me, describing the Jelly Bean polish in particular to be a Gel finish, which made me think, there is no way they Marie Claire would be giving away Gel polishes to their readers and also, do Ciate even do a Gel polish? This I am still not sure on but, they also mentioned a blue polish in the give-away, which I am yet to find, however really wanted to. So any way, whenever I find a review that makes me question things like this, I have to find the product in question, and I did, three of them... and their beautiful. Frankly I can hold my head up high and feel no shame in buying three of the same magazine, at £3.70 a pop, for the free gift because I made a massive saving, in comparison to buying three RRP'd Ciate shades. £15.90 off!

For you money you get three very different shades which are all named after sweeties and are all delicious! Purple Sherbet, is a really subtle, pastel, lilac. It's a super girlie creme polish with a super high gloss finish. I must say that each of the polishes, to me, seem to have the most wonderfully glossy look once they've dried and I think this is what the review I read was trying to convey. The Purple Sherbet shade is right on trend for the coming summer months, and makes a really nice contrast to a slightly less feminine wardrobe choice. I've never bought Ciate polishes before, but I have to say, I love the formula, they all seemed to dry within seconds and their pigments are yummy. The polish are on the thinner side, but you don't get any compromise between this and coverage, even though this is a thinner, paler colour I think if you wanted a super lucid, delicate coat you could apply one coat of shade and then a nice glossy top coat, in my pictures however I used two coats.

The second creme finish to choose from in the beautifully dusky, almost mauvey coloured Bon Bon. Again, super high gloss polish with a really lovely formula, and over all very subtle looking varnish. For me it feels like a very grown up, classy tone and because it's so neutral it compliments almost every outfit.

The last of the lovely lot is a vibrant, deep pink shade called Jelly Bean. The finish with this with has a slight pearly shimmer to it, taking it from being a standard deep pink to something a little bit more interesting. Again lovely glossy polish that dries almost straight away. This bright colour is really flattering on sunny days, really uplifting, when I've worn it I always get comments on how pretty it is.

Definitely had my eyes opened to Ciate as a brand with these, and it's a great way to try out a new brand for a fraction of the retail price. Xxx.

When life gives you lemons...

I am still endeavouring to swatch all of my polishes, so it's just a quick post today, but my swatch today is Models Own Lemon Meringue. It's name says it all really, and it's exactly what you would expect, a beautifully light, refreshing, pastel yellow. I must say, it's definitely becoming one of my favourite summer shades, mainly because it's such an uplifting colour which goes with almost every outfit.

As I've said before, when it comes to paler shades you may expect a compromise between tone and coverage, but with Models Own I generally do not have this problem. When it comes to Lemon Meringue I definitely don't, the cover on this polish is amazing. It paints on really well and I very rarely find a problem with a layer balding or looking thin. The pictures here were painting with two coats, for the sake of the photographs, but in day light would have been lovely with one coat and a high quality top coat. It also dries wonderfully, very quick, very little waiting around or messing about.

One of my favourite brands, and easily my favourite yellow right now. Xxx.

One whole year after I stopped biting my nails

This time last year I was on holiday with my man in beautiful Rome, and it was there were I decided to stop biting my nails, and honestly I couldn't be prouder of myself. After feeling crappy about biting my nails, thinking they looked awful and disgusting, worrying about people seeing them and dealing with the pain of severely bitten talons, I am so glad that I managed to curb a 19 year habit. I really do think that this was one of the most fantastic choices I have ever made, which may sound a little bit over dramatic but I don't really care, because it's true. If I hadn't turned this corner and sorted it out I never would have discovered the passion I have for nails and nail art. This my seem like I very shallow thing to feel passionate about but I don't mind, even if it is. When I stopped biting, and gained a little bit of length to my nails I began painting them constantly, catching up on all the learning and nail experimentations us ladies mostly do when we're little girls. I wanted to try every polish, every brand and every colour ever, all at once, because I never had the opportunity before. As I became more confident with painting block colour I started to play around with designs, most leopard print to start with as you don't need specific brushes or tools it's easy to do with just an orange stick. This is where I came to the realisation that patterns distract people from shorter nails, something I particularly loved, because when you're starting to grow your nails you can start to think that people look at your nails and think "Why would you bother to paint nails so short?" and if there's some form of nail art to look at they're more likely to think "Cool, zebra print!". Anyway, from there I started to take pictures and branch out with techniques and designs and this is turn led to the confidence to start publishing my opinions and designs on here and my Tumblr, and confidence I me. In both my ability to complete something, changing things for the better, and my ability to be creative. So I am super proud of my last year in nails, because I can now stop thinking about my nails as something to be hidden and start seeing them as ten little opportunities to feel good about myself, be creative and make people think "Wow, that's cool!".

I know this was a little bit of a self-indulgent, self aggrandising post and I'm sorry about that, it's just that when I was looking for inspiration to stop biting I saw very accomplished nail blogs and no real posts about the pride you feel when you see a difference in yourself and start to feel good about something you've done. Xxx.

Essie Watermelon Swatcheroo

I went shopping, again, and picked up the most beautiful hot pink shade and I couldn't be happier. Lately I have been swinging towards cooler, bluey green hues as far as polish is concerned, but when I saw Watermelon by Essie I just had to own it! I purchased this lush little bottle at Boots for £7.99, a little bit on the pricey side, but you know you're getting a high class product, so for I treat it's money well spent. As you would expect from the name it's a delicious deep, warm, pink colour. Now normally when I see a polish close to this colour, it tends to have a pearlescent or metalic finish, and sometimes a girl just wants yummy, glossy, pink! So as you can imagine I was very happy to add this little cutie to be ever expanding collection.

There are several reasons why my Essie love is steadily growing, one of which is their brush. I find that, even with some of the more budget polishes, a high quality brush really can make the difference between loving a brand and just avoiding them all together, with most Essie polishes, you get the most fantastic brush.

It's a flat edged, tapered and thick brush, three factors that I always search for in a brush. It's thick bristles mean that it picks up and holds colour really well, which helps to avoid those heart stopping moments when you think you're going to drip paint on your newest of the new dress! The flat edge means that it's easier to clean off excess and you can also get a nice clean stroke of paint with each sweep down the nail, meaning less bubbles, less balded spots and less thick gloopy re-do sweeps. The tapered tip of the brush may well be my favourite thing about this brush. It perfectly fits the line of you cuticles, now I am an extremely lazy but extremely fussy little thing when it comes to painting my nails, Meaning that I hate clean-ups, but not quite as much a I hate polished cuticles, so when I paint my nails I will attempt to get it spot on first time round. This picture above was taken without a clean up. This brush makes it pretty much impossible to over paint your nails and hit skin. HALLELUJAH, PRAISE THE NAIL PAINTING LORD!

One of the other, many, reasons I love Essie is the quality of the polish. It's always just the right consistency and loaded with pigment so you know that the finish you're going to get will be packed with colour and dry super fast. Making it my brand of choice for the "in a rush mani" I find myself frequently experiencing! Now I know that it is on the more expensive end of polishes, but you can occasionally find these on offer or even a discount store so shop around if you're just testing the water with this brand and then break the bank if you love it as much a I do, £7.99 I'm glad to have paid! Xxx.

Gone Fishing swatch.

It's my second post du jour, and this one's a cheeky little Topshop swatch! Gone Fishing is a gorgeous mint green and it's yummy! It paints on really well, and it's nearly a one coat varnish, which is something that I always look for. It's a really fresh pastel green which is super summery. It's a very girlie kitschy shade which I tend to wear when I'm sporting slightly less feminine outfits, just to keep things contrasting and cute.It also works really well with contrasting colours and nail art patterns, over all beautiful shade, highly recommended!