Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Surprise Polish!


Today I have a whole load of surprise polish to show you!

Most weekends Mr. Pound Store Manicure visits a local Sunday market with his parents. It's a combination of a flea market and some regular stalls and there are always a few people selling discount cosmetics. Last weekend I sent him off with a two pound coin and instructions to buy a surprise polish or two for me if any caught his eye. I'm not quite sure what I expected, but the results of this experiment were rather hit and miss!

The hit is a rich dark browny-burgundy with a lovely shimmer to it. It is from the Rimmel Underground Play Fast range, which I believe was made for the U.S. market and was never sold in the U.K., and was discontinued about five years ago. The shade is called Rave and I really like it. It applies well, dries fast and is work-appropriate without being boring. It's probably not a polish I would have picked up for myself because it is far too sensible, but I think I will get quite a lot of wear out of it.

I used this polish on some false nails and used a dotting tool with Filthy Gorgeous in shade Breeze, because who wants plain nails?


The other polish he picked up is a truly ghastly miss. Mr Pound Store Manicure is usually very good at knowing my taste so I really don't know what he was thinking with this one! It's a Maybelline Express Finish polish in shade Lemon, which is a pale yellow with a frost finish. I'm not a fan of yellow and I rarely wear it because it does not suit my pale skin at all. I also hate frost finish polishes. Not only is this polish really streaky to apply, but it just will not dry! Maybe it's because it is quite an old polish, but I have another Maybelline Express Finish polish that is about twelve years old and that still dries quickly so I don't know why this shade doesn't. Even if it did dry properly I don't think I would ever wear this polish. Yuck!


Yesterday I received an even bigger nail polish surprise. My wonderful Mother-In-Law decided to donate all her old polish to me as she no longer paints her nails. Once I'd thrown away the few polishes that had dried out I was left with 25 hardly used bottles of polish. Most of them are Avon polishes or small ColourWorks bottles that look like they came as part of gift sets, but there was also a No. 7, a L'Oreal and quite a few mystery polishes without any labels at all. I swatched all of them this afternoon and there are some really nice shades.


The most exciting thing about the selection of polishes is that I don't own anything similar to most of the shades. My Mother-In-Law has always had a more feminine style than me so her polish collection was full of pinks, reds and nudes with shimmer and pearl finishes - much more girly than the shades I buy. My favourites of the lot are a metallic golden-bronze Avon shade, appropriately called Fabulous, that looks really luxe and L'Oreal Ruby Noir, which is a dark shimmery red-purple. I'm sure that many of these polishes will get used whenever I need my nails to look more subdued and grown-up as they are almost all work-appropriate shades.


I am so grateful to my Mother-In-Law for all this polish, particularly as I have just started a temporary self-imposed ban on polish buying. I have just started trying to give up smoking so I am bribing myself with the promise of lots of polish if and when I succeed. I have put together a little goody-box containing five new drool-worthy polishes which Mr. Pound Store Polish has hidden and is only allowed to give back to me once I have been smoke free for two weeks. Once I make it to a month as a non-smoker, I have promised myself that I can use the money that I'll have saved by not buying tobacco to buy all of the Makeup Revolution nail polish collections in one glorious splurge. If the promise of a parcel containing 50 bottles of polish doesn't get me to quit, I don't know what will!

Have you tried any of the Makeup Revolution polishes yet?

4 comments:

  1. That's such a cool idea to send your husband out for a surprise polish buy! Well, if he brings home nice polishes anyway :) Rave does look really pretty! And the polishes from your mother-in-law also look so great, I actually adore all shades!

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    1. I think next time I send him out to get surprise polish I will have to make sure he knows not to buy polishes that have split or anything yellow. The polishes from my mother-in-law are great and she just phoned and told me that she found another big box of polish under her bed so I might have even more next week!

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  2. What a nice selection! So pretties there!

    Nice dotting too like the colour combo :-)

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    1. Thanks :D
      There are some really pretty shades. I think some of the bottles of polish are almost as old as I am, and I'm no spring chicken!

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