Loreal Paris Nail Polish: Tea and Crumpets!

Good morning my dears!

Hope you all are well and ate lots and lots of turkey and did some Black Friday shopping! I went shopping on Saturday and scored five polishes off my wish list. They were never up here on the blog though b/c I'm horrible at updating those pages!

Today I have for you the last of the Loreal Paris Polishes from tr British collection. This one is called Tea And Crumpets. It is a fantastic nude color. Defnitly a palette cleanser for me. I don't have anything like this in my stash.

It's a very pale nude/grey cream that is opaque in 3 coats, the first coat is sheer and patchy but buy the second coat it starts to even itself out. If your too quick to apply each coat you can get some unevenness and visible brush strokes.

I plan on using this polish for the base color for some nail art ! I started over Thanksgiving trying out different designs and decided on my first tape mani. I haven't really attempted one because I always screw if up! But this time I managed quite well! Usually people use scotch tape but I didn't have that on hand so I used masking tape and just ran it over my hand once or twice and then placed it where I wanted it to go.

I then used China Glaze Pink Plumeria on the part that wasn't taped off. I have to say that the manicure is very work appropriate and just overall nice and clean. I feel like one could get away with wearing such a manicure in a more strict office setting.

Okay that's it for this post! Stay tuned for the next one and check out the pictures below! All taken in natural light!

Loreal Paris! Rainy Piccadilly!

Good morning!

For those of us on the east coast I'm sure many are preparing for the Nor'easter that is headed our way! Here in upstate we are expecting rain and maybe that dreaded 'S' word!

Today's polish is then very fitting for the type of weather we are about to receive, it is another Loreal Paris polish from their British collection. It is called (and this is one of my favorite names) Rainy Piccadilly!

For those who are not familiar with Piccadilly Square it is sort of Like New York's Time Square.

This polish is a stunning dusty navy blue creme. It is pretty much how we would picture a rainy day in a bottle.

I was originally on the fence about this polish. I didn't initially want to get this polish since I am not a huge fan of dark blue polishes. As soon as I saw it in real life I thought I had to try it, I thought maybe it would be close to Sinful Color's Rainstorm but it isn't its darker and dusty-er. Rainstorm which will be on the blog eventually is more dirty looking if that's even possible.

The formula on Rainy Piccadilly is okay, standard for a creme polish. I know I probably sound like a broken record right now saying that the first coat was streaky. It was beyond streaky, very patchy and it created a lot of bald spots. I seriously considered taking it off because I thought it was going to be too difficult to work with. Upon the third coat it seemed to even it self out and become opaque.

Clean up was the usual, the bits of my cuticles that touched the polish did have slight staining, if I had taken more time with my old angled brush I use to clean up with I could have probably gotten rid of it. My worst fear though was that this polish was going to stain my nails! I kept thinking back to a story my bestie told me when she tried Pacific Blue from Sally Hansen, and how it stained her nails and she even used a white polish underneath. By now I was regretting not putting undies on my nails!

I wore this polish for three days straight, and no major problems until of course I was at work on Saturday morning and a chipped my middle finger on my photographing hand and now have a nub. :(
Since Saturday was so busy I did see a lot of tip wear but the first two days were pretty good.


Now I've been trying a different type of base coat when apply my polishes lately, Alaina over at The Little Canvas tweeted that she had been using a matte top coat as a base coat and her polishes haven't been chipping. Now I had been using Orly Bonder every single time and my polish  has chipped but not as bad as it was before I used Bonder, but still I would love to make it through one night of work without any chips. So I decided to try it, I used my NY Color matte top coat and it worked amazing!

I definitely recommend it if you are having trouble with chipping, and the best thing is, is that NY Color Matte top coat only about two bucks! Talk about affordable!

So when it came time to remove Rainy Piccadilly I prayed to the nail gods that my fingers nails would not be blue. Here is where I think maybe the base coat had a hand in it, my nails came out clean as a whistle. So after all that worrying, I had no need to be.

I think if you are a lover of blue polish and lovely creme finish than maybe Rainy Piccadilly is a polish that should join your polish family!

Talk to you all soon! Nicole

Loreal Paris Nail Polish: Brit Invasion!

Hello! Its Friday once again, and I'm glad its the weekend! My dad will hopefully be coming home tomorrow if he can catch the train on Long Island!

Today I bring you a nail polish that I was super excited to find finally, after thinking no drugstore in my area was going to get it. A while back Loreal put out a collection of nail polishes that all have names that are relative to England! I am obsessed with England, I want to visit there someday, maybe meet a nice British boy and meet Benedict Cumberbatch. If you watch the show Sherlock that airs on PBS here in the states every so often or if you have watched it on Netflix, both seasons are up on there then you know who I am talking about! He is also going to be in the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek Sequel! Yeah I'm a nerd *pushes up her nerdy glasses*.

I apologize for my rant but I love British Television I just think its a tiny bit better than U.S shows and plus the U.K has Doctor Who. Do not get me started on that!

So I think the polish I have today is very fitting for my obsession! Its called Brit Invasion! About two weeks ago or so I posted a picture on instagram of the three polishes I snagged from the collection and asked which polish did you want me to wear after the Halloween nail season was over, and only one person responded. Amanda from The Nail Polish Enthusiast said Brit Invasion, so Amanda this one is for you! And for me too because I love this polish!

Brit Invasion is dark taupe polish with golden shimmer added in. It is most certainly a fall color but I would wear it all year round. I do stick to certain seasons to wear certain polishes but sometimes you just have to break the rules and go all out!

I got this polish along with the other two at Walmart, I've been finding a lot of great polishes at Walmart lately. The three retailed for $4.97 each, which I feel is reasonable since in Rite Aid or CVS they would be like $7.99. Prices may differ in your area, just to remind you.

I liked the formula on this polish, a little sheer on the first coat but I've noticed that with a lot of polishes I have purchased recently. Once you add on the second to third coats you are good to go. The shimmer in this polish is beautiful, I can't wait to see it in the sun, whenever the sun decides to come back out. Even though Hurricane Sandy is gone, the clouds are still here, I can't tell you how much I want to see sunshine!

Okay so on to the pictures!

 Can you see all the pretty shimmer!? It truly is a lovely polish!

So that's it for this post! Talk to you all soon! <3 Nicole