Whittling down the untrieds - New Look Gold Giles Salute

It has occurred to me the other day that many of my untried have actually been tried once but didn't 'make the grade' - that is, something made me stop painting, take the polish off and use another one. This is certainly the case with today's polish, Salute by Gold Giles (sold in New Look). The application is dreadful - gloopy, sticky and smelly, with a drying time that makes it impossible to do anything for an hour. Oh, and it bubbles. Can't think why I haven't used it earlier......

It's a shame, as the colour is actually quite nice. Not great, but nice. It's a military style green, a sort of army green. But as you can see, despite waiting a while for each layer to dry, it still bubbled:(  

Given the green, I had to try this nail art out - camouflage! I added studs cos I was scared that my nails would just blend into the background otherwise lol. Thinking about it, gold studs would have been better, but still, I kind of like this manicure. I would try a darker brown if I did this again; for this I used Models Own Prey and an unnamed green also by New Look. Still, not bad.

I think I might have to try this design in neon - something is calling me to rock neon camouflage! 

New Look Green - Giles Gold

Ahhhh, this is my Christmas green - it makes me think of Christmas trees, warm heavy blankets, holly......

It's a oldie, I think I bought this over a year ago and whilst I'm fairly sure I swatched it at the time, I'm doing it again because a) it's THE Christmas Green and b) my swatches are so much better now. Not perfect, but better:)

The problem with this polish is twofold; the smell (bleurgh) and the drying time. You can see a patched up smudge on my pinkie, I smudged it hours after I painted them; fail!  I seem to remember it was £1 from New Look, so I can't really complain. But for this colour, I don't care:)

 I see this being used in some Christmas tree nail art asap!

Pink drippy nails

Ah, the Christmas sales; so many polishes to buy, so little time! After a quick nip to New Look, I came back with a clutch of polishes. I picked up a few from their ranges by Giles and Kelly Brook (swatches to follow later), and decided to use the pink nail art pen by Giles for my first ever drippy nails!

I decided to drip from the tips on one hand, and from the base on the other. Please excuse the fact that my left hand is flipping wonky, I'm left handed so free-handing with my right hand was insanely hard. But I'm pleased with the results - so I'm going to keep on training my right hand to do my evil nail bidding:) 

As you can see, the pink polish isn't as a opaque as it needed to be. It was easy to apply, but I really do think that a nail art pen should be opaque in one coat. It also bubbled very badly, which was annoying, and took foreeeeeeeeeeeeeeever to dry; it still felt tacky the next day. 

I'm not sure I'd buy these pens again, but to be fair the nail art pen comes in a pack of two (hot pink and a plummy purple) and each pen comes with a huge stash of matching coloured nail crystals, which are actually the reason I bought these. It's £2.99 for both, so I can't really complain that they aren't of the highest quality! 

I'm off to prep my New Years Eve nails - I sense a glittery mash up coming.......