Essie/Nails Inc/TopShop

Whilst rummaging through ever expanding nail polish collection I came across a common thing. I seem to like turquoise.

Turquoise and Caicos, Haymarket. Pool Party

These three could be related. Distant cousins perhaps.  In the bottles they all have their slight differences but once you apply them to the nails they pretty much look the same.

SwatchesTurquoise and Caicos, Haymarket. Pool Party

When it comes to comparing the polishes and how they apply I will say that TopShops Pool Party is sprinting ahead.  Nails Inc Haymarket is seconds behind leaving Essie Turquoise and Caicos covered in dust.

I own quite a few Essie polishes now and this one is slightly disappointing. It takes three coats to get a good coverage whilst Haymarket and Pool Party you can just apply two.  Pool Party if applied thick enough could actually be applied in just one coat. Amazing huh?!

Now for prices.  The most expensive is Haymarket at a tad expensive £11.  Second up is Essie at £7.99. Then there is my favourite Pool Party at £5.  If I had to repurchase any of these it would certainly be Pool Party.  Not because it is cheaper (but that does help) but because it just better than the rest.  Simple really.

Angela xox

* Nails Inc Haymarket was a PR event gift.  I did not buy this with my own money however the Essie and TopShop polishes were purchased with my own hard earned cash :-)

Friday Favourite # 3

We all love a bit of bling!  Come on admit it!

When it comes in the form of nail polish glitter then I love bling even more....though I'm not the biggest fan, due to the fact glitter polishes are like the most stubborn kind of polish to remove. A hammer and chisel does come in handy sometimes!

Nails Inc Nail Jewellery in Royal Arcade*

I picked up Royal Arcade when I went to a PR event earlier this year.  I wish I got my mitts on more of their glitter polishes are they are such a good quality and very pretty.

The polish itself is clear and it contains a mixture of small fine pieces and small and large hexagonal pieces of bright sapphire blue glitter.  Hopefully you'll be able to tell in my pictures - fingers crossed.

This looks great especially as a top coat over another polish.  I have it on top of Pool Party.  You can also use it alone if you wish, but I think as a top coat it gives a regular polished look something a little extra!

Happy Friday everybody!

Angela xox

*PR Event Gift

Topshop ~ Pool Party

For my holiday to Jersey I thought I'd get into the holiday mood and paint my nails with my new polish called Pool Party.  Jersey is known for being the warmest and sunniest place in the British Isles, sadly it's been a bit soggy since me and the hubby arrived.  But Pool Party has brightened my day!

Pool Party

Pool Party is a bluey greeny turquoise aqua - it's a bit of a hard polish to categorise.  When I asked the hubby what he thought he said 'Tiffany Box' sprung to mind.  So I think I'll stick to the hubby's description.  It is very simiular to Nails Inc's Haymarket, if not slightly darker...but they could certainly be relations.

Nails Inc Royal Arcade ring finger with Topshop Pool Party

Two coats of Pool Party will do perfectly, one coat alone is a little streaky but will do if you're in a rush.  For something extra I have added a coat of Nails Inc Royal Arcade which is a blue glitter to my ring finger.  I think it makes this pop even more.

I am building myself quite a collection of Topshop polishes, I think they are amazing quality and the range of colours they have is excellent.
What are you loving right now?

Angela xox

Notting Hill Gate ~ Nails Inc

With spring looming in the air somewhere, there is nothing quite like a pop of colour to brighten up your day.

Nails Inc Notting Hill Gate does just that.  Part of the Neon Collection this certainly gives your nails some va va vroom!  With its bright neon pink colour this is certainly an eye catcher!

The collection is out now on the Nails Inc website here.

Angela xox

Nails Inc Porchester Road Give Away!!!

If you read back on my previous post you'll know I accidentally picked up two of the same polish at a recent event.  So to share the Nails Inc love I'm going to give away!

If you win you receive a brand new bottle of Porchester Road which is worth £11.  It is simply the best colour ever.

This is my bottle, yours will be untouched

The give away will end on Sunday 20th May.  I will contact you that day requesting your details of where to send the polish.  Don't be scared to enter . . . it doesn't matter where you live, if you win I will send to you.  But the moon is a little to far to send this :-D

The rules: 

• You have to follow me by GFC on my blog and enter a comment and tell me what your favourite polish is.
• Leave your twitter/email info. so if you win I can contact you.
• You can only comment once, however if you tweet about the giveaway (be sure to include @jollybeachang so I know) or mention it on your blog - let me know you have done so because that will enter you again.

Good luck!!

Angela xox

Nails Inc goodies + NPOTW

As you know I attended an Nails Inc event last week.  The lovely people there let us choose 10 polishes to take away with us.  This is what I picked up.

Notice anything odd in this picture . . .?

I picked up some fabulous shades which I'm really happy about, there isn't one polish here I don't like.  The Neon polishes are so funky and fresh.  Great colours for summer . . . whenever it arrives!

Blue: Kensington Park Road, Pink: Notting Hill Gate, 

Orange/Yellow: Westbourne Grove and Purple: Holland Park.

The Neon Collection is so much fun, especially for spring/summer.  Which is slightly more fun with these neon colours are they react under neon lighting, so you will truly be glowing.  So if your off clubbing you will talk of the evening with your nails.

The swatches are beautiful I achieved these by just two coats.  However on Kensington Park Road (blue) I've added the Nails Inc Jewellery polish Royal Arcade which is a cool.  A very summery combo indeed. 

Nail Jewellery Royal Arcade and Black Taxi

Following the Royal Arcade combination above, I also teamed it with Black Taxi. This turns a plain boring black into something more stylish.  

Royal Arcade alone, Royal Arcade over Black Taxi and Black Taxi alone

Now I show above that I picked up a Magnetic polish in the shade Soho, but I'm going to do a separate post on that. I also managed to bag these two below, which are my favourites.  I love everything I got but these are just something special. 

Porchester Square and Haymarket

Porchester Square has been given Hero Shade stamp approval.  Hero Shade literally means one of Nails Inc's best selling polishes.  The muted mushroom beige-gray-taupe is something every girl should own.  Every girl should also own Haymarket which is basically a Tiffany box squeezed into a bottle.

I love duck egg blue colours I think they are so lovely.  Both these shades are so fashionable.

Porchester Square on the nails

Now if you noticed in my group photo at the beginning of the post I had two of the Porchester Square polishes.  Yes I overly keen and accidentally picked up two. . .doh!  Now I could keep it for myself, but I thought I would share the Porchester love and give it away.  My next post shall explain all the details.

Angela xox

Nails Inc Event

Picture heavy post, I'm sorry they are not the best quality as I only had my Blackberry!

Thursday just gone I was a lucky lucky girl and was asked by the lovely people of Nails Inc to attend an event.  When I received the email a small squeal left my mouth as I was so excited!

So through the thunder, lightening, hail and the raining cats and dogs - I hailed a cab and made my way to event.  This is only my second ever event and I was very pleased . . .it made my day.  The last one I attended was the Eyeko 10th Birthday Bash in 2010.

The event was 6pm til 8pm and as I only work 10 minutes away by cab I arrived about 6.10pm,  I think I was about the 5th person to walk through the door.  The room was beautiful. . . Nails Inc ladies with beaming smiles, manicurists, cupcakes (yum yum) wine, nibbles and NAIL POLISH!!!!  Heaven oh yeah!!!!

Laid out were up and coming collections and some recent releases.

The Sprinkles Effects Collection is a gorgeous quartet of unique glitter polishes.  Seeing the swatches of these remind me of cupcakes as they look simply delicious.  You can achieve a fabulous look from just two coats. I'm sorry I only have 3 of the swatches as the Sugarhouse one was missing, but you can get the idea of how lovely they are.  This collection hit Nails Inc stores in June and the polishes are £11 each.

Pale Blue: Sweets Way, Teal: Pudding Lane, Pink: Topping Lane and Grey: Sugarhouse Lane

The Nail Jewellery Collection which is out now consists of four glitter polishes in diamond (Burlington Arcade), pink diamond (Princes Arcade) and emerald (Piccadilly Arcade) sapphire (Royal Arcade).  I managed to get hold of Royal Arcade and I can't wait to give it a try, as I swatched it over Black Taxi and it looks amazing!  A nails of the day post will definitely be one route soon showing that off!

Nails Inc were also showing their cool Couture scheme where you can personalise your very own bottle if perhaps you wish to give someone special a Nail Inc polish.  Different colour polishes, caps, stones diamond's, studs and you can even change the name.  The box can even be tailor made with a special message added too to make it even more personal.  Such a cool idea for Mums, sisters, best friends, best maids or even a naughty gift for yourself! Pretty unique concept I think.  Prices for this range between £16 - £20.

Couture Nails Inc!  Beautiful

Adorning the far wall was the Save The Nail line, showing my favourite Toughen Up Base Coat which I blogged about here.  I'm interested in try out more of this line as it truly has rescued my nails.

The Save The Nail clan

Whilst standing around taking it all in and taking pictures I was asked if I'd like a manicure.  Hell yeah!  I opted for the polish Wembley which is part of Metallic Collection which will be launched in June costing £25.00.  The collection is made up of three colours: bronze (Horseguards Parade), silver (Greenwich Park) and gold (Wembley) which are obviously the theme of the Olympic medals which Team GB will win! Go Team GB!

Silver: Greenwich Park, Bronze: Horseguards Parade & Gold: Wembley

Here's my Nails Inc manicure, one coat was beautiful but two is stunning.  The quality of these Metallic polishes are amazing and definitely worth a look.  What you see in the bottle is what you get on your nails!

Natural lighting

Flash

If Nails Inc couldn't make the night any better they also showered us in goodies.  We were allowed to pick 10 polishes from the 'sweetie' cart.  I will show them in a up coming post this week.  I will also be giving one of them away . . . as I picked up a duplicate by accident. Doh!  Here are some more pictures for you to see....

Clockwise: 

The Neon Collection, The Sweetie Cart, Crystal Colour Limited Edition,

A handsome plastic dude and Bridge the Ridge Top Coat

I had a fantastic time thanks to Nails Inc they were truly amazing hosts.  Have I shown you anything that has taken your fancy?  Will you be hot footing it to a Nails Inc counter?!  I know I shall be . . .

Angela xox

Do your nails need tender loving care????

Well I may have found what you are looking for....

 

Save The Nail - Toughen Up Base Coat ~ From Boots £7.50

 

I had a whole list of things that were going on with my nails...

• Bendy
• Weak
• Splitting
• Peeling

They were not in the best of conditions.  So after having a rant and moan to one of my best friends she recommended this product by the lovely people of Nails Inc.  She had a similar case of bendy, peeling nails and had bought this and said it worked wonders.  With a recommendation as good as that I hopped and skipped to Boots and bought my very own bottle.  And I have to say in all honesty this has truly rescued my nails and brought them back to life!

So to resurrect your nails you can one of two things which the box says:

1... Every day for seven days apply this and then at the end of the seven days remove completely and restart the process. 

or

2... Just use this as a regular base coat under your nail polish.

Simple!

I chose number one to start with... my nails needed some loving so I applied to my nails every day for seven days.  The end result after the seven days was amazing.  My nails felt so strong and hard as nails.  After the initial wearing for seven days I then carried on using it for a second week (same process) then there after I used as a base coat.

Using this I have found I no longer suffer from peeling, bending, splitting.  The result is well worth it!  My nails have got so long I now have to cut them back as they don't seem to break any more.

 

L-R ~ Before polish and after application

For £7.50 this is definitely a must if you have nails that are just like mine.  I suffer from none of the above now thanks to this.  There are other 'Save The Nail' products which are available to buy online at Boots here.  The line seems to be exclusive to Boots!  I would check them out if you want some nail TLC!!!!

Angela xox

InStyle and EasyLiving Magazine offers...

It's that time in the UK again, where all the magazines are coming out with their freebies.  I love it when magazines do this.  Last night I bought both InStyle and EasyLiving (Both cost £3.70)

EasyLiving are giving away a free Cath Kidson bag.  There are two styles to collect or choose from.  One of the styles matches my umbrella so I had to get it really. The bag isn't majorly big, just the perfect size for your lunch box and book for the train I think.  Also with the magazine there is Cath Kidson catalogue.  Where there is a voucher for 15% off a Cath Kidson order.   Yay!!!

InStyle magazine is giving away a Nails Inc Polish!!!!  Happy days!!!  There are three different colours, a browny taupe, dark forest green and a bright orange.  I opted for the orange shade...

  Bright and funky!!!  Very in at the moment!!!

It was a rushed application at midnight last night, so it's not a perfect swatch.  Have to say I really like this.  Oranges are really in at the moment and I don't actually own a bright orange.  So this was my first choice out of the three.

I know there are more magazine offers going on at the moment, but I thought two was enough for me to handle right now :-)

Angela xox

P.S., I believe these offers are for the UK only....sorry everyone else :-(

Sale hauling and dups!

I love Boxing Day sales.  I don't normally venture out into them but this year I decided to give it ago.  It probably helped that I had to return some Christmas presents that were the wrong size, so I had a pretty good reason to pop out.

I went into TK Maxx and picked up these great buys...

 2 x Nails Inc Collection Sets and CHI Nourish Intense

The Nails Inc polishes had a £25.00 original price tag on them. TK Maxx had them reduced to £14.99 which is such a excellent price.  The CHI was £13.00 reduced to £4.99.  Massive savings all round.

These are all the polishes in the sets.  Nice range of colours also.

Swatches of all the polishes:

Sorry for the dodgy application of my polish, was rushing

Seeing the Harriet Walk green polish got me thinking I'd seen this kind a colour before.  Collection 2000 Bonga Beat  is extremely similar if not a duplicate to Nails Inc Harriet Walk.  Be it a slight difference.  See...

Lovely greens all round

The Nails Inc is more of a Teal colour and the Collection 2000 is a Minty Spearmint colour.  The colour 2000 is only £1.79 cool price to pay.

So everyone thats it for now...  Happy New Year to you all!!!! See you in 2011!!!

Lots of blogging love, Angela xox