Showing posts with label duochrome. Show all posts
Showing posts with label duochrome. Show all posts

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

NOTD: Formula X for Sephora in Legend




I picked up this rather lovely polish in the States recently.  I don't know much about Formula X, but their stand of polishes at Sephora was gigantic - literally hundreds of shades.  Being a magpie, I chose one of the Shifter shades, a set of 5 duochrome finish polishes.  This one, Legend, is described as maroon and rainbow metallic, which I'm not entirely convinced captures it.  The base colour flashes from navy to purple to deep red, and it's brought alive by pink, purple, red and blue glass flecks.  It's dazzling, but very, very difficult to describe!

Not only is it dazzling, it also wears like iron.  Three coats gives solid, multi-dimensional colour, and with a slick of Seche Vite I've had this manicure wear for six days straight with no chips at all.  After that, it's chips a plenty, but by then I'm ready for a change anyway.  At $12.50, the Formula X polishes aren't cheap, but they are rather lovely - next time I'm back in the US I'm definitely taking a look at the metallics.

Disclosure: Bought by me in Sephora, where I showed a remarkable amount of restraint by only buying one nail polish.

This post originated at www.londonbeautyreview.com. If you're reading it elsewhere, it's been stolen, violating my copyright.

Wednesday, 11 September 2013

NOTD: Peace & Love & OPI



This rather glorious green-gunmetal-purple duochrome is called Peace & Love & OPI, and it's from OPI's latest collection, themed around San Francisco.  I went to the launch of it a few months ago (print lead times, dahling) and this was the standout colour of the collection - everyone loves a duochrome and this is an absolute corker.  It's a moody, cloudy colour with a really pretty colour shift, and it's perfect for autumn.

Application was good - two coats made it opaque, although I had to add a third just to be rid of a tiny bit of visible nail line.  It dried quickly and smoothly, didn't drag, and remains beautiful even under a thick coat of protective topcoat.  Wear is average at around three or four days before tipwear sets in, but hey, even if it only lasted a day, I'd still wear it.

Find it now at BeautyBay, where it'll cost you a totally-worth-it-for-an-autumnal-treat £11.50.



Disclosure: PR sample

This post originated at www.londonbeautyreview.com. If you're reading it elsewhere, it's been stolen, violating our copyright.

Saturday, 8 June 2013

NOTD: Andrea Fulerton Trio in Garden of Eden


It's a while since we featured one of these double-ended polishes from Andrea Fulerton - 2 years in fact. The news is: they're still great.


I was a little skeptical about Garden of Eden when I saw it in Superdrug. I couldn't imagine how a grass green creme and a shimmery pink would work well together. I should have had more faith in Andrea though, because the pink layers lightly over the green to create a beautiful and unexpected duochrome-like effect.


I love duochromes, and have seen and tried most of the colour-shifts currently available - blue-green, brown/red-green, purple-blue etc. A green base with a pink highlight is a new one for me, and I have to say, I really like it.


The accent colour on the little finger is a different polish, GOSH Berry Me. (Is it just me or is that a really morbid name?)

Andrea Fulerton Trio polishes are £7.99 from Superdrug.

Psst - if you haven't entered yet, you may be interested in our John Frieda Sheer Blonde giveaway, closing Sat 15 June.

This post originated at www.londonbeautyreview.com. If you're reading it elsewhere, it's been stolen, violating our copyright.

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

NOTD: Nails Inc Stratford Mirror Metallic



This subtle, pretty duochrome is one of Nails Incs Special Effects polishes, which complement their main colour range. It travels between a khaki-ish gold and a metallic rose pink - it's a bit like a toned down version of the purple/green or red/gold duochrome polishes you commonly see.



Unlike many Nails Inc polsihes, which tend to be quite opaque, this took three coats to get full coverage. I think maybe this is intended as a topcoat, which might be why.



Stratford polish, £11 for 10ml from Nails Inc online

Disclosure - PR sample

Friday, 9 November 2012

NOTD: Sephora Purple Jewelry



This is another Paris pick-up from Sephora. It's a flaky topcoat strongly reminiscent of GOSH Rainbow. In the bottle it seems to have blue and purple shift as well as red/orange/green. However, when worn it's mainly an orange/green shift. Still very pretty though.


The consistency is quite gloopy but it goes on smoothly and has a good density of flakes. This manicure is 2 coats. The base colour is an old Bourjois So Lacque shade called Cerise Noire.


Purple Jewelry cost 4.90 euro for 5ml at Sephora. (I'm not linking because I can't see it on the site, but it was in plentiful supply at the Champs Elysee branch of Sephora in late October 2012.)

Tuesday, 9 October 2012

NOTD: Eye Candy Colour Flip Green With Envy



This duochrome bobby dazzler hails from the unlikely shores of... well, your local Big Sainsbury's, actually. You'll find it and its fellow polishes (including two other duochromes) alongside the yoghurts and the loo rolls in Britain's orangest supermarket.


They're sold on cards (good for those who like to know their polish hasn't been tinkered with before purchase) and will likely be hanging on hooks at the end of the aisle with all the hair dye, shower gel etc.


Despite being a supermarket special, this polish isn't cheap - it goes for around £8 for 10ml. 


The coverage of this is excellent. The manicure here shows 3 coats but you could get away with 2. It chipped a bit, as you can see from the pictures (taken at 3 days' wear). But basically the headline is that this is a superb duochrome with an impressively broad spectrum of colours within its shimmery, metallic repertoire. Well worth a look if you've got a mind to treat yourself during the weekly shop.


Disclosure - PR sample

Wednesday, 15 August 2012

NOTD - Models Own Indian Ocean vs Essie Lapis of Luxury



Indian Ocean is one of the Models Own Beetlejuice duochromes. It's been knocking around for a while now, and I scoured Boots branches for it on release, but this was the first time I got around to wearing it. Following the advice given on other blogs, I layered it with a sky blue shade, Essie's Lapis of Luxury. The reason being that this polish is so very sheer that it's only a hair's breadth from being classed as a topcoat. It would have taken about 10 coats to hit opacity otherwise, and with a duochrome this pretty, I don't want the bottle to run out too soon.


A workmate described this as looking "like the belly of a really cool fish", and I think she's captured it perfectly. It has small glass-fleck particles - it's not quite a pearl or metallic finish, the particles are too big - that shift from pink to yellow. 


I wore this polish to the Olympics. It's got blue, and red (ish), and the white's kind of implicit, so it's maybe a patriotic manicure, just about?

Models Own is currently on a buy-one-get-one-half-price deal at Boots. You can buy Indian Ocean for £5

Saturday, 28 July 2012

EOTD: Fyrinnae love

One of the few days this week where I actually made time to apply more than one shade of eyeshadow:


I used Fyrinnae's Calavera Cupcakes (a pale blue-ish silvery shimmer) on the majority of the lid, and Steampunk (a brown-green colour shift/duochrome shade) near the lashline, blended upwards.


It's easy for me to pass over loose colours in my stash, especially when I don't have a good brush clean and to hand. But Fyrinnae's colours are well worth the extra effort. The complexity and richness of the colours is exceptional - which explains why they've ridden out the mineral makeup gold-rush and kept armies of loyal customers despite having long shipping times.

If you haven't tried them yet, go to http://www.fyrinnae.com/ and pick up some of their sample sizes - you won't be disappointed.

Thursday, 26 July 2012

NOTD: Angel Annie by Darling Diva Polish


Hello, glowy polish.  I bought this terribly pretty, pink/lilac/silver shade with green flash from Darling Diva Polish on Etsy, largely because Charlotte was singing the praises of one of the other shades they make.  When it arrived, I was a little bit meh about it - I thought I'd bought a dull, slightly silvery pale pink which wasn't bright, sparkly, or otherwise attention grabbing enough for my usual polish tastes.

BUT.  I was wrong.  Admittedly, it does look like a silvery pale pink in some lights, but in others, it shows a strong green, milky pearl flash, and in others again, it looks distinctly lavender.  Granted, it's not the showiest duochrome I've ever seen, but it's still amazingly pretty.


In the sun, it's just WOW.  The holographic effect is strong and beautiful, and over the icy pink-lilac base, it looks simply stunning.

These photos show three coats of polish plus topcoat.  Application was buttery smooth and easy.  The polish wears like iron too - the first time I wore it I managed five days wear with barely any tipwear before I got bored and changed it for something else.  Lovely stuff.


Angel Annie costs $12 (around £7.95) from Darling Diva Polish on Etsy.  The brand also does some amazing glitter shade (very Lippmann, with a smaller pricetag) which are seriously tempting me at the moment.

Friday, 13 July 2012

NOTD - Flake-a-holic



I amused myself this Sunday evening by layering two different flakey topcoats over Rococo's VIP, a cool-ish red creme. The yellowy-gold flakes are GOSH Rainbow, and the more subtle blueish pink are Look Beauty Pearl Effect top coat.


I like it, but I think it needs a third flakey dimension to totally complete the flaked out-ness. Any recommendations?

Disclosure - Rococo VIP is a PR sample

Thursday, 31 May 2012

Duochrome Showdown: OPI vs Topshop vs Revlon vs Barry M



I don't know. You wait ages for one grey-green-lilac duochrome polish to come along and then three turn up at once.


I thought OPI's Not Like In The Movies was a one-of-a-kind sort of shade, but in the last couple of months I've come across three other polishes that disprove that theory - Revlon's Smoldering (sic), which I picked up in the US in January, Barry M's Silvery Lilac, which came out last month, and lastly Topshop Hypnotic, part of the Sisters of the New Moon summer collection.

All of them have a medium shimmer finish with tiny speck-sized silver microglitter, and all of them shift from purple through silver to green depending on the light.


What I found really interesting though, is that two of the polishes shift in a *different direction* to the others. While Not Like In the Movies is being green, Smoldering is being purple. Same with the Barry M and Topshop shades - somehow they react differently to the light and shift in opposite directions.

Which can only mean...


Reverse-shift duochrome accent nail! I think I've gone to makeup-nerd heaven.


In terms of showdown-ness, I must apologise, because this isn't an especially good post for those looking to snap up a dupe: only one of the polishes is a permanent shade from a UK brand (that's the Barry M). Truthfully, all of them perform well, with OPI perhaps a little more pigmented than the others. But unless you have access to US brands or you're quick enough to catch either the OPI or the Topshop colours before they go, you're stuck with Barry. (No offence, Barry.)

If you fancy doing the reverse duochrome thing, Barry M vs Topshop is the cheapest and most accessible way to go.

OPI Not Like in the Movies is available from a few sites, costing around £10 for 15ml. I just spotted it here for £10.50
Topshop Hypnotic - £6.50 for 8ml
Barry M Silvery Lilac - £2.99 for 10ml
Revlon Smoldering - $4.99 for 15ml (US only - but if you've found this in the UK please do let us know)

Somewhat disturbingly, none of these are PR samples. Disturbing because it means I went out and bought four basically identical polishes using my own ill-gotten money.

Monday, 14 May 2012

NOTD - AEOS vegan nail lacquer in Maha Chohan


Summer's done a bit of a u-turn here in London. It was getting all sunshiney and sandal-esque during March, but has since gone chilly and rainy again. To inject a modicum of summer spirit, here's an NOTD featuring a dreamy duochrome blue from AEOS. (That's Advanced Energetic Organic Skincare.)


AEOS is a brand with an esoteric, new-age vibe about it - its products are based around a belief in colour energies, and all its skincare lines are produced organically at the parent company Aura Soma's bio-dynamic Lincolnshire farm. I can't really understand what bio-dynamic farming means, but the impression I got at the brand's press event last autumn was "organic and then some." Unsurprisingly this polish is vegan, 3-free and produced in accordance with the brand's earth-friendly principles.

This manicure shows around 4 coats. Drying time was average. I wore it for over a week before chipping got too unsightly and I whipped it off in favour of a (different) duochrome from Revlon.


Aura Soma's philosophy is that its customers will choose the products that are right for them according to what colour they are. Perhaps in choosing this polish I'm craving some blue skies...

The AEOS site is down at the time of writing, but you can buy the polish online from 11essence.co.uk, costing £11.99 for 14ml.

Disclosure - PR sample

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Max Factor Fantasy Fire and Moon Dust Max Colour Effect Minis


I recently spotted this little purply-blue-red duochrome polish in Boots that I thought was kind of sweet. You probably won't have heard of it. It's called Fantasy Fire. (OK, I'm kidding - if you haven't picked up the insane hype over this polish you're probably in a very tiny minority indeed.)

What to say? Well, I don't own the Clarins polish this is allegedly a dupe for, so I can't say whether it's a true dupe or not, but I can tell you that it's very very sheer. This is about 5 coats and it still gave out a distinct "jelly" vibe once dried. So given its scarcity and how small the 5ml bottle is, this may be best layered over a blue creme of a similar hue. (Try Boujois So Laque in Bleu Violet 31 or Boots No 7 Stay Perfect in Violetta.)



In terms of colour shift, the duochrome particles in this travel from teal blue through to warm red via a coppery gold sort of colour. I've tried to capture both above.


At the same time as chancing on and seizing picking up Fantasy Fire, I also bought Moon Dust, which is a greyish purple shimmer with a more subtle duochome thing going on. It's got a shimmer that's made up of small metallic particles, rather than being that pure metallic-type finish that's prone to brushstroke marks. I really like this one too. It's less "wow" than Fantasy Fire, but it's got a sort of glowing multi-hued appeal.


The wear on both of these was really good, with around 5 days wear before chipping. You can find Max Factor Max Colour Effects Mini nail polishes at most branches of Boots and Superdrug, costing £3.99 each.

Have you tried Fantasy Fire or any of its fellow polishes? Do you think it's overhyped, or is your curiosity piqued?

EDIT: Reader Liseyduck has pointed out that Maxfactor is part of P&G, an organisation who conduct animal testing. More here at uncaged.co.uk

Here is P&G's statement on their use of animal testing

Saturday, 10 March 2012

New Models Own Beetlejuice colours out from 19 March


L-R Copper Pot, Tropical Sun, Indian Ocean - three new additions to Models Own's Beetlejuice duochrome collection. They're available from 19th March from modelsownit.com

Will you be indulging?

Sunday, 1 January 2012

NOTD: Look Beauty Nail Pop in Kimono


It's a well known fact that we love a good duochrome here at LBR, and Look Beauty's Kimono is a real humdinger.  A gorgeous olive green / khaki / golden bronze one, at that.  I can see why this is being highlighted as a dupe for Chanel's coveted Peridot - it's got that same highly metallic, sparkling finish, albeit a little greener than Peridot.

This is two reasonably thin coats - the polish is a medium-thin textured, easily spreadable affair which virtually applied itself and dried pretty darn quickly.  Like many metallic finish polishes, it wasn't particularly glossy once dry, and seemed to eat the topcoat I applied a little - but with a finish this pretty, I'm not entirely convinced that a high gloss finish is needed.

The wear was excellent - five days with no chips and minimal tipwear before I removed it for a bit of a change.  All in all, impressive stuff for a polish that costs a mere £5.  I'll definitely be investigating more of the shades in the Look Beauty range!  If this colour does it for you, you'll find it at Superdrug (although sadly not online).

Monday, 31 October 2011

NOTD: Models Own Beetlejuice Collection: Pinky Brown


Another day, another beautiful Models Own duochrome shade from the Beetlejuice collection.  Yesterday's offering, Aqua Violet, was a subtle duochrome, flashing between a foily teal and a dusky purple.  Today we have a much stronger colour to show you - Pinky Brown.  This shade is a real corker - the base colour is a burgundy, almost speckled with pink flecks, which shifts to a golden, coppery brown.  The duochrome is much stronger, and it takes very little nail tilting to spot the different colours on the nail.


Gorgeous.  Pinky Brown will launch from 10am, Tuesday 1st November, on the Models Own website, along with its four duochrome sisters, and will cost you £5.  I will definitely be picking up a few more from the range - will you?  Let us know in the comments!

Sunday, 30 October 2011

NOTD: Models Own Beetlejuice Collection: Aqua Violet


Models Own are certainly making a splash at the moment, whipping duochrome lovers into a veritable frenzy with Beetlejuice, a collection of five colour shifting polishes.  They're due to launch on Tuesday 1st November, and as usual for Models Own, they're very reasonably priced at just £5 each.

Aqua Violet is a fairly subtle duochrome, shifting from a bright, almost foily teal to a dusky purple.  It's hard to see the purple shift without tilting your nails at some fairly extreme angles, but it's still incredibly pretty.



Aqua Violet, along with its four duochrome sisters, will be available exclusively from the Models Own website from 10am on Tuesday 1st November, where it will cost you £5.

Disclosure: PR sample



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