Morgan Taylor 'Polished Up Punk' Swatches & Review + Nail Art

* Product provided for review

Hello! I know I sound like a record stuck on repeat, but apologies yet again for being so absent. I've been away from home so much over the past month it feels like I've hardly been here...but things have settled down now, so here I am!

I was delighted to be contacted by Morgan Taylor recently and asked to review a couple of polishes from their 'Glam Rock' collection (which I believe was for Winter 2014). The Glam Rock collection is described as 'A mixture of funky metallic shades and glitters to bring out the rebel in you!' and consists of six polishes:

Left to right, they are:

Better in Leather – Black silver glitter

Little Misfit – Lavender and aqua duo chrome
Polished Up Punk - Navy crème
Pretty Wild – Lavender greige crème 
Rebel With A Cause – Deep burgundy pearl
Studs and Stilettos – Gunmetal glitter

If you're not familiar with the Morgan Taylor brand, here's a little blurb from the company:

'Morgan Taylor has been created by Gelish founders Danny Haile and David Daniel. The specialist formula is made from raw ingredients enhances finish, coverage and wear ensuring that not only your nails will look gorgeous but they will stay that way too!RRP £10.99 each from Sallyexpress.com'

The polish I'm showing you today is the navy crème, 'Polished Up Punk'*.  I also received 'Little Misfit', the duochrome, so expect to see that one at some point in the near future!

'Polished Up Punk', two coats plus top coat

'Polished Up Punk' is a dark navy which appears blackened in some lights, but remains just on the right side of black - by which I mean that it is almost always discernibly blue and not black. I think its depth is more apparent in the nail art photos below. It's a very winter-appropriate colour and I always think these kinds of shades look especially foxy on short nails. I found the formula very nice: it was neither too runny nor too thick, spread smoothly and had great opacity - I used two coats plus top coat here, but you could conceivably get away with one if you were careful. I also really liked the shape of the brush, which is flat but not too wide (I know a lot of people can't stand super-wide brushes) and a sensible length. Please excuse the slight scuff marks in the above photos - my goopy top coat was responsible, not the polish itself! I didn't wear this manicure long enough to comment authoritatively on wear time, but I wouldn't expect any problems if worn with a good top coat.

Aaand I wouldn't feel like I was blogging properly if I didn't throw in some nail art, so...

Baroque 'n' Roll | Nail Art

Bahahaha. Yes, that excruciating pun did just happen. I'm not even going to apologise for it.

Hello and Happy New Year! How I've missed my wee blog. November and December were really rather busy months for me and I ended up being away from home quite a bit, so sadly nail art had to take a back seat. I'd say it was a pretty productive time, though, and I'm looking forward to what 2014 will bring... I hope it will be a joyful, prosperous year for you all. :)

Nail art!

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013

Celebrating the Year of the Blogger!

HIYA POLISHED PALS!  Can you tell I'm excited?!  I'M EXCITED.  I was utterly over the moon when I received the email inviting me to take part in piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013, not least because I had never had the opportunity to try their polishes before.  For those unfamiliar with Blog Fest, it is an annual event run by PP and involving bloggers from all around the world and this year, Blog Fest is celebrating amazing nail art.  Three lucky participants will also be chosen to create a PP collaboration shade each, for release in 2014.  The voting will take place on PP's special Blog Fest 2013 Pinterest board - if you'd like to see the other entries and take part in the voting, you can find that here: http://pinterest.com/picturepolish/

I was sent these three shades to play with:

Ocean - 'An octopus garden in the shade...'

Ruby Blou - 'Dazzling red, sparkling blue'

Atomic - ' WARNING...totally explosive!'

As you can see, Ocean and Atomic were created by Kelly's Kolors and Samarium's Swatches respectively - I hope I've done their beautiful creations justice!  So without further ado, here is my contribution to Blog Fest 2013!

Ta daaah!  Being so used to working with cremes, I was initially unsure how best to show off these three shades, but I am pleased with how they turned out.   If you'd like to recreate the look, you're in luck, because here is my FIRST EVER TUTORIAL!

1: After applying base coat, paint your base colour - this is three thin coats of Atomic.

2: Using a nail art brush - or the bottle brush, if you're so inclined - paint the shapes of your flowers.*

3: Outline your flowers in black, using a nail art brush or pen, then frame the rest of your nail (which I forgot to take a picture of, oops).  Don't frame the parts where the flowers are!

4: Glitter placement - plop some Ruby Blou on a bit of paper/tin foil and use a toothpick/dotting tool/weapon of choice to pick up individual pieces of glitter and arrange them roughly to form the centres of your flowers.

5: Add top coat & clean up if necessary, and you're done!

*When I used Ruby Blou as a base, I painted the flowers in black and added Atomic over the top afterwards.

The polishes themselves are really beautiful.  Ocean is super sparkly with holo-ish flakes in a turquoise jelly base.  It is quite sheer but the formula is lovely, so it truly isn't a hassle to layer it up.  Ruby Blou is a delightful mix of large and small hex (I think) glitters in red, blue and silver, suspended in a clear base.  Atomic isn't something I would necessarily have thought of as a 'me' colour, but it really is incredibly gorgeous and so complex.  The base is a silvery white shimmery affair, but there are loads of little flakes in there too - I see pink and green and gold reflections and sparkles.  I've included some bottle photos especially to try to capture some of the more complex elements of Ocean and Atomic.

Pretty special, right?  

What do you think?  Are you a piCture pOlish fan?  I'm certainly impressed!  You can find PP's polishes on their website or at one of their worldwide distributors.  If you're in the UK (& perhaps Europe?) you can find piCture pOlish at the wonderful Sally Magpies.  

HAPPY BLOG FEST 2013 EVERYONE!  I can't wait to check out all the other bloggers!

 pOlish On-line Store     Facebook     Twitter     Pinterest     Instagram


EDIT: Now you can check out some of the other BlogFesters' posts below and add your own, if you haven't already!

A England (& Kiko) Stained Glass Nail Art

HIYAAA!  Welcome to my brand spanking new blog!  I've been posting nail art on my Tumblr for a while now and I'm super excited finally to have somewhere I can write as many words and post as many pictures as I like.  Oh, and I'm Kirstie, by the way.  NAIL ART TIME.

Much as I love Scotland, sunshine isn't something we enjoy a whole lot of.  However, it does mean I really appreciate a good sunny spell when it comes along.  And when I say, 'Appreciate', I mean:

Hello holo!  Direct sunlight.

SHAZAM.  This is all five of the A England polishes I owned (I've since got hold of my sixth) painted in varying sizes & shapes with a nail art brush, over a base of Kiko 399, a pale gold holo.  For me, all the colourful sparkles are really reminiscent of stained glass.  The way the different shapes are laid out and fitted together kind of also made me think of a tortoise's shell...I felt a bit like I was walking about with magical tortoise nails.  (Please don't judge me.)

I can't even express how much I love Adina's (A England's) polishes.  Even out of the sun, I still think they look so beautiful, really complex and unique.  The colours are gorgeous and rich, and some of them even have duochrome!  It's pretty evident that a lot of love goes into creating A England collections.

Green/gold duochrome WHAT UP!

When this idea first popped into my head I thought maybe I was just delirious with sunshine after a miserable winter.  I almost talked myself out of it on the basis that it would be 'Too much'.  Hahaha, no.  BEST. DECISION. EVER.

Pretty sure I've saved the best picture 'til last...

With flash.  The purple of Princess Tears gets me every time!

Seriously, I think this has to be one of my favourite manicures ever.  It just makes me so happy every time I look at it!  

I hope you've enjoyed this inaugural Nail Cake post - I'd love to know what you think!  Are you a holo/A England lover, too?