Sparklea - Harry Potter Collection

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Those are the words that started us on our magical journey with Harry and co, and from there the fandom has grown and grown.  At the beginning of the year when Sparklea Nail Polish announced that she was releasing a Harry Potter collection, I was right there in line ready to get my hands on these magical polishes.

 

Models Own: Southern Lights

Hi all,

As you may have seen I got lots of new polishes for Christmas and I still haven't been able to try them all yet, but I went with one from the Wonderland collection this week, Southern Lights.

I have had my eye on both Southern and Northern Lights for a while now, so I was very pleased my friend picked them for my present.

This is such a pretty colour and unfortunately I couldn't get a picture that would do it justice.  It is super super sparkly.  The polish is jam packed with loads of holographic glitter particles along with lilac glitter so give the shimmy effect.  When my nails catch the light it is just amazing!

 On first coat it was a bit patchy which I have to say I wasn't expecting, but with a second coat it's perfect.  This isn't the easiest glitter to use as it's quite thick, and I was worried at first that it wasn't going to dry, but I am very happy with the results.

I cannot wait to try out the rest of the Wonderland collection.  What's your favourite? Have you tried any of the Wonderland collection? 

Purple Reverse Glitter Gradient featuring Nina Ultra Pro

Hello all,

This week I decided to use some more of my new polishes.  I got a set of three from Nina Ultra Pro and I decided to use all three to create a reverse glitter gradient.  I really loved the last glitter gradient I did, so thought I would try another one.  I have to say that I love this one even more!

I started off with a base of Royal Purple.  On it's own this is such a gorgeous colour.  It's a deep purple with a metallic blue-ish shimmer running through it.  I used two coats to give a nice even coverage over the whole nail.  I found this quite tricky at first because the brushes are so wide.  The next step was to use Boys 'n' Berries for the first staged of the glitter gradient.  I started off by removing most of the polish from the brush, dabbing what remained of the polish by my cuticle and dragging in lightly down the nail.  This meant that there was a tiny bit of glitter over the whole of the nail, but not so much as to ruin the effect.  After this I continued the same steps again, but only pulling the brush part way down the nail.  I continued this using more polish and shorter strokes the closer I got to my cuticles before just dabbing a lot of the glitter polish at the very top.  Whilst this looked lovely on it's own, I am a bit of a sucker for glitter so I also added on some of the Holographic Topcoat.  Again I wiped most of the excess polish off the brush before starting to layer this glitter up as well.

I am so pleased with the finished effect.  Boys 'n' Berries had tiny specks of purple glitter alongside slightly bigger circles of glitter in a clear base giving great dimension to the sparkle.  Holographic Topcoat is made up of tiny gold specks of glitter with larger holographic glitter particles.  The overall effect is super shimmery and sparkly and I think this is one of my favourite manicures for a while.

the only negative thing I would have to say about the Nina Ultra Pro polishes is that the brush is huge! I practically needed only one swipe of the brush over all my nails and they were covered.  Now whilst this sounds like it could be a good thing, it did make trying to be neat very tricky!  But with the colours being so amazing I really think I can forgive them the brush!

I really love all things shiny and would love to see if you have done a glitter gradient... why not leave me a link to have a nosey of?