Holiday Haul

Yesterday I travelled back from North Brabant in the Netherlands where I'd enjoyed a fantastic week with our 6 children, and just a wee spot of polish shopping.....

We've been to this area a few times already so I had a good idea of what brands would be available in the Oosterhout, in the local town.  It's worth mentioning that shopping in Holland is so much more pleasurable for me than in the UK - although Oosterhout doesn't appear to be a particularly affluent area and has a few discount stores, there are no boarded up empty shops, charity shops, amusement arcades, bookmakers or take away joints on the high street.  Most of the shops are small, the only department type store is HEMA (think Woolworths in IKEA style!).
The boys aren't shoppers, so I'm able to drive into town with my daughters whilst they stay playing happily at the holiday park with Dad, leaving my daughters and I free to stroll at leisure.

In addition to a large under cover shopping centre there's a bustling high street, where I was surprised to find a small C&A which I thought bit the dust years ago.........!

 

Oosterhout on a busy Saturday afternoon

 

 

Anyway, on to the polish.

 

I shop in a small chemist in the undercover shopping centre which sells Pupa, Herome, Da, Savina and Collistar in addition to brands available in the UK such as Max Factor, Rimmel, L'oreal and the entire range of W7.

 

I also go into Douglas, which sells high end fragrance and cosmetics, and polishes such as their own brand Absolute, NYX, Anny, Collistar and Beyu.

I adore Douglas, they always offer to gift wrap your shopping (no charge) and put little samples in with your purchases.  The girls in the shop are also keen to practise their English - as this area isn't really marketed towards Brits not everyone here speaks English.

 

The Dutch equivalent of UK chain Savers is Kruidvat; they sell essence, Catrice, Rimmel, L'Oreal and Max Factor.  I also needed some deodorant (there's always one packing failure!) and found gorgeous smelling Bourjois antiperspirants in here too.

 

Here's what I came home with:

 

Essence Polish Removers: Coconut and Papaya (which smells like that first alcopop you tried when you were 14) and Strawberry and Passion Fruit which smells overwhelmingly of acetone with just a hint of strawberry. 

Essence Caring Nail Oil

Essence Nail Art Tattoo Pen

Catrice Polishes in Pimp my Shrimp, Lilactric, I Got the Flower (Limited Edition Shade from the Glamazona collection), Miss Piggy's BF, Petrolpolitan (which is hiding its gorgeous blue shimmer in the photo) and a new shade called Mermaid my Day.

Rimmel Cocktail Colour in Cutie Colada (not available in the UK for some reason) and Anny Never Can Say Goodbye

Beyu Shimmering Top Coats in 784, 787, 760 and 752

 

A close up of the glitters in 760 and 752

 

I also ventured into the nearby city of Breda as the local Kruidvat didn't have any of the peel off gel nail base, or the regular peel off base that I was looking for.  I did find the gel base but alas, none of the regular peel off was to be found.

 

Breda's an interesting city, my daughter and I walked in via the theatre and arty quarter and could have spent hours moseying around in the narrow streets.  I thought I might stumble across Sephora, but not this time.  To be perfectly honest we were quite happy taking in the scenery and architecture.

 

 

Can you blame us?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ninja Polish Chameleon

This is a polish that I was eagerly awaiting once I'd ordered it, it's from Ninja's new 'Dragon' collection http://www.ninjapolish.com/Dragon-c-359/.  I'm also the proud owner of 'Enter the Dragon' which I'll share soon.

I love Ninja's own polishes, they rarely fail to disappoint and usually offer a little something more exciting, unusual or unique; which is probably why they're rather frustratingly more often out of stock than in.

This one is a mix of fine indigo, bronze and magenta glitter, being heavy on the indigo.

 

I was expecting a tint of colour in in the base, but it's clear - I was a tad worried as I started to apply it as the coverage was looking a bit dodgy, but built up albeit a bit lumpily after three generous coats.

In the sunshine the sparkly indigo is dominant and the bronze and magenta are hiding.....

 

       

 

Indoors or in the shade however, the bronze in particular makes a comeback:

 

 



 

The magenta glitter's struggling, and makes only the briefest of appearances which is a shame, I would like to have seen a stronger presence. It's also visibly uneven despite two coats of Seche.

 

Overall, I'd say I was slightly disappointed with this polish, but that may be partly due to the fact that my expectations were possibly too high and with it being newly released there weren't a whole lot of swatches or reviews to check out prior to purchase.  It's still unique and interesting, and its glitter shades would make it a sultry autumnal polish.





Whoa! How did I get here?

I remember not so long ago stating quite decisively to my friends and fellow polish nutters on the Nail Polish Addicts Anonymous Forum "I am not, and will never be a blogger".

I can't say for certain what changed, except that I started to enjoy sharing my polish pictures on the forum and chatting (often at great length) to the other members.  Their kind encouragement has contributed greatly to the production of Polishtry and I salute and thank them all.

I highly recommend the Nail Polish Addicts Anonymous forum, but take heed - it is as addictive as polish itself........

http://npaa.forumotion.co.uk/

Anyway, let's get on with it.

I've chosen to kick off with a polish that my sister brought back for me from the States a couple of weeks ago.  She knows my taste in polish well (if in doubt go for greens and purples) and picked this one out herself.  A most excellent choice indeed Fleab!

It's Pure Ice (Bari Cosmetics) Saddle Me Up, a mid green super sparkler. I'm clutching it tightly - I'm not letting go of this green goddess in a hurry...

 

 

 

 



It has a bright, yellow leaning base with gold and green glass fleck.  There's nothing notable about the bottle or brush, both serve their purpose with no frills.  It covers well, I used three coats over OPI Nail Envy for the photos and topped it off with Seche Vite. 

I do like glass flecks and have quite a few in my collection - this one brought Zoya Ivanka to mind, so I whipped it out to compare:

 

 

In this photo Ivanka's above Saddle Me Up.  The Pure Ice is warmer, yellower and surprisingly for the price (just a few dollars) much sparklier.  I adore Ivanka, and have been hankering after the lighter toned green, Zoya Apple for a while. Now I have this one I think can safely cross it off my 'wanted' list as I imagine it's a very similar shade to Saddle Me Up.

That's it for my first effort, if things in this post aren't quite in the right place or look a bit squiffy, please bear with me as I'm literally making it up as I go along ,and will tweak and tart as I get the hang of it!