Small Wicked Weekend Haul

It's the 3rd of March and it's time for my first post of the year! YAY! Today I have a small haul post for you. On Friday, I went to see Wicked in London with my sister-in-law, my niece, a friend of my niece and her mother. Wicked was awesome! And I was proud of myself for not getting lost in London because I have zero sense of direction and find train and tube stations really confusing. On Saturday, we went to Bluewater shopping centre. Which was very different to the way I normally shop because this involved two 8 year old girls and they don't really want to go into the same stores I do :)

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The stage. With the Time Dragon and a map of Oz.

Took these on my wander around before the show.

Westminster Cathedral.

Dragon on a pillar at Bluewater.

I loved this statue and dome!

On Thursday, I posted this on my page.

It's Deborah Lippmann One Short Day.

Here's a close up of the necklace from Dusty Pixie Designs.

Programme from the show.

An Oz keychain without the chain.

Glinda's bubble necklace!

Toothless from Build-a-Bear!!

Some headbands from Claire's Accessories.

Kinda disappointed with the top headband that already looks

crappy and I've only worn it for less than an hour.

These last couple of things I received in the mail this weekend.

Kate Spade bag that I got off ebay.

Pahlish Bespoke Batch Boo Give Love! and Midnight at the Majestic.

Hope you had a great weekend and have a great week! I'll try to post a little more often but there's no telling what's going to happen ♥

Stairway to Heaven vs Ascension

Today I have my first ever comparison post for you! Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven and Ninja Polish Ascension. When I got Stairway to Heaven I wanted to love it. It looked gorgeous in the bottle and the swatches I'd seen looked amazing. I put it on and I wasn't very impressed but I was in a hurry when I applied it, so I thought that was the reason. I tried it again a little while later and I still wasn't too impressed. It was really hard to work with (the glitter wouldn't lay where I wanted it to or it wouldn't spread evenly) and it had to have several coats because of not spreading evenly and since there were so many coats, it starting to become gloopy and looked horrible. Also, it looked cloudy because of the white base. I put it away and didn't really think about it again. Then I was asked by Ninja Polish if I could do a comparison post for their new polish called Ascension. They look really similar but I saw straight away that it was in a clear base instead of the milky base and I got all excited. I applied them both over Illamasqua Boosh and I fell in love with Ascension. It's everything I wanted Stairway to Heaven to be and more! Really easy to apply and build up. It spreads evenly and there are zero problems with application. Ascension was created to be a dupe for Stairway to Heaven, so it's no wonder that it's almost exactly the same. On with the pictures!

 *click to enlarge!*

 

Ascension on Index and Ring fingers
Stairway to Heaven on Middle and Pinky fingers

The colors of the glitter aren't exactly the same but I actually prefer the colors of Ascension to Stairway to Heaven. I don't really like the milky base of Stairway to Heaven, so I LOVE that Ascension is in a clear base. It makes it so much prettier. I had to actually add a lot of polish thinner to Stairway to Heaven before I could use it for this mani. It was so thick that it wasn't even moving around in the bottle and was sort of sitting in the bottle like jelly. The milky/cloudy look of Stairway to Heaven might be different on a different base but black shows off the colors so much better. In this comparison Ascension wins, hands down. I love it and I can't wait to try it over some different base colors! It can be purchased here at Ninja Polish and don't forget to like their Facebook page as they always update there when they're going to be stocking their hard to get polishes (such as all the varieties of Floam).

*Ascension was sent as a PR sample to be compared to Stairway to Heaven.

Holo Day - May 19, 2012

I'm part of a group on Facebook where we decided that, as bloggers and as nail polish lovers, we'd have a day where we all wear Holographic nail polish! I live in England, so it's not often that I actually have a sunny day to get a good picture of the beautifulness (not a word, but it works here) of holographic nail polish. A while ago I saw a blog where the lady put Hits Ares over a black cream polish. I got Hits Ares not too long after that, mostly because of that post. When I got it, I wondered what all the other Hits that I have would look like over black! Here's what I got:

*click to enlarge and see beautifulness better!*
Hits Zeus on thumb.

Top to bottom: Hits Ares, Dionisio, Hera and Demeter.

All over Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory base color.

Avon Peeling and Brittleness Solver as base coat.

Essie Good to Go as top coat.

I think that Zeus, Dionisio and Hera look the best over black (although Dionisio isn't all that much different to what it normally looks like). Ares might have been better if I had used a polish thinner and thinned it out a bit. Demeter does NOT look good over the black. I won't be trying that again. I think this is a nice way to wear all of them (except Demeter) and it'll also save you using a lot of coats of the small bottles that Hits comes in. This brand CAN use a top coat over it and I did. Some holographic polishes can't use top coats as it dulls the holo effect and makes it look horrible. Hits is a Brazilian brand that can be purchased at Llarowe and at Ninja Polish. Prices and shipping are really reasonable on both sites and they both ship internationally! 

Please check out all the other blogs participating in Holo Day!!!

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream

When I first saw the swatches for Mermaid's Dream, I wasn't completely sold on it. I thought it looked really gritty, even with a top coat, and I couldn't decide if I wanted it. Then I saw it at House of Fraser in Sheffield and I knew it had to be mine. It has small blue glitter and fine gold glitter in a sea foam green almost metallic base. It's gorgeous. I think the best way to wear this is definately to layer it otherwise you end up with the really gritty texture. I layered Mermaid's Dream over Illamasqua Strike, which is a metallic turquoise and it's perfect with Mermaid's Dream. The earrings I purchased at Kohls while I was in NY in December. I purchased Mermaid's Dream at House of Fraser for some ridiculous price but I think it would have cost about the same to have it sent from someone in the states once you add in the cost of shipping internationally.

Indirect Sun

Mermaid's Dream over Illamasqua Strike

Avon Peeling and Brittleness Solver as base

Essie Good to Go as top coat

Direct Sun

Mermaid's Dream over Illamasqua Strike

As I mentioned, Deborah Lippmann can be purchased at House of Fraser in the UK. I believe it's the only place that stocks it in store. There are a few other sites that you can purchase it from as well. Beauty Bay offers free worldwide delivery so if you're in Europe, it might be helpful to ship from there if there aren't any sites that sell DL in your country. I know it is hard to get some places. You can also get it from Amazon.co.uk. Illamasqua can be purchased from their main site or from Asos.com (free worldwide delivery as well, although they won't ship nail polish outside of Europe) and at one of their counters in a few select Debenhams and Selfridges and also from those 2 store's websites. Check the Illamasqua site for locations.