Sunday 27 May 2012

Ebalay Glow 003 - Purple Translucent Glow

Good morning! I have something really fun to show you today.


You'd be forgiven for thinking this just looks like a slightly different version of the Beauty UK Mauve Flash polish I showed you last time; that's because it IS Mauve Flash. I used it as a base coat for this little chap here:


Introducing Glow 003, by Ebalay. (Don't mind the blob on the lid, it had a bit of an incident on the way here from KKCenterHK, who sent this to me for reviewing. It's alright now, though). Glow 003 is the unimaginatively named purple version of their range of glow in the dark topcoats. Yes, it looks pink in these pictures, but that's just because my camera doesn't enjoy purple in the same way I do. Imagine this colour, but a bit more purple-y.


Glow 003 is the most translucent purple known to man. Don't even bother trying to layer it up to opacity, it just won't happen. But then again, it IS a topcoat, so I wasn't expecting to be able to do that anyway. On opening the bottle, I have to admit my heart sank, because it's so thick (it wouldn't even drip off the brush) I didn't know how I'd ever be able to get it onto my nails. I was worrying about nothing, though; it went on just fine. Appearances can be deceptive, I guess.


The thick formula didn't stop it from drying quickly, either. I used two coats here. Close up, you can see tiny little transparent particles suspended in the purplish base; they aren't glitter, or shimmer, and I did wonder what they were for. They give your base colour a slightly milky effect, but otherwise you can't really tell you're wearing this. 


Switch off the lights and the particles reveal themselves: they're glow glitter! I was surprised how well this polish glowed, since I've seen swatches of other glow in the dark polish that weren't anywhere near this bright. For some reason, my camera couldn't pick up the brightness as well as my eyes could - all of this pictures are much less glowy than reality. In fact, my first pictures were frustratingly black - I could see the glow, but not photograph it. Just to see what would happen, I charged the bottle and my nails up with a UV blacklight for maximum glow. The result was amazing! In real life, the UV-charged glow was insane. If you wear this polish in a nightclub, you might need sunglasses to shield your eyes against your own nails! When I took pictures of it, the shots looked more like the glow you get from normal light (and which I'd failed to capture before). I guess my camera just loses a lot of the glow, but at least I can show you what it looks like to the naked eye now!


Again, this is what you'd see with the naked eye if you'd stood in your kitchen and held your hands up to the light, then turned it off. Imagine this ten times brighter and that's what you'd see on a blacklit dance floor.


Isn't it fun? Obviously this is a bit of a novelty polish, I mean you have to turn the lights off before you can appreciate what's special about it. And I don't often go to nightclubs so I can't really make use of the cool dance floor effect. But I really liked the purple glow and it was fun to play with in the dark. I could see people having a great time with this at Halloween.

Ebalay Glow 003 is available HERE from KKCenterHK. It's priced quite reasonably at £5.63 (just over $9.00), but right now everything on their website is 25% off for their 5 year anniversary! KKCenterHK also offer a 10% discount until the 31st January 2013 to anybody using the code glitter-mountain at the checkout. (Use of this code does not benefit me in any way)


Disclaimer: this polish was sent to me as a free sample for consideration. My opinions remain my own and are unaffected by this.



Saturday 26 May 2012

Beauty UK Glam Nails : Mauve Flash

Good morning! It's a lovely sunny day here in the UK and I've finally managed to find time for writing a post! I have a couple of things lined up already and I'm really excited to get back to blogging :)

Today I'd like to show you a polish I've actually worn several times now. Beauty UK Glam Nails, in Mauve Flash:



This unassuming, dinky little 9ml bottle contains a raspberry pink jelly that looks just so pretty on the nail... it's not really mauve (so what's with the name, I'm not sure) since it's most definitely pink - but it is on the purple, berry toned side of pink, even more so in real life than it is in these pictures. I don't know why, but in every picture I took, the bottle was a lot closer to the real colour than my nails were: the one above is about the closest of all.


Since it's a jelly, it goes on sheer: it took me four coats to get it opaque, though three coats was alright if you didn't mind faint VNL. It takes quite a long time to dry (typical of a lot of jellies) but this can be fixed easily with a fast drying top coat. I didn't use top coat at all because I had plans for this manicure; all will become clear in my next review :-p


I was surprised to see that Mauve Flash actually dries with a sort of satin, almost rubbery look to it. It also lacks that annoying tendency to flood the cuticles that jellies often have: a definite plus at clean-up time!


Isn't it pretty? It isn't the most unusual colour out there, but I like it. I'm such a sucker for berry shades, magentas and the like. Wear was pretty good, I had a little tipwear after 24 hours but nothing too bad and that's without topcoat. 


The only criticism I have is the packaging. The Beauty UK label is printed onto a clear sticker rather than directly onto the bottle, and on my bottle, it was doing its best to come off; it was bubbling and wrinkled and it looked a bit naff. I suspect I had a duff bottle, though, as the other colours I've got aren't doing this. I'll forgive the label though as I literally only paid £1.99 for this polish and it behaves a heck of a lot better than a lot of my pricier purchases. In fact the whole Beauty UK brand is pretty awesome; it's sold in Superdrug and almost every product I've tried (nail polish, lipstick, eyeshadow pencils, blusher) has been a lot better than I was expecting for the super cheap price tag. 

Have you tried any Beauty UK products? Which ones were your favourites?