Taupe-ish Comparisons

Prompted by some disussion in the comments on the amazing Helen & Sheenie's Nice Things blog here are some comparison shots I took several months ago of my collection of mushroomy/taupey colours, primarily $OPI Metro Chic and Nails Inc Jermyn Street.



From l-r $OPI Metro Chic, Nails Inc Jermyn Street, Mary Quant B-23,Zoya Pasha


Bottle shots



I tweaked the colour on this shot, increasing the warmth and I think this is a more accurate colour shot.

Jermyn Street & Metro Chic are definitely similar but not dupes. Metro Chic is a tad darker and on me has less of a lavender hint, whereas Jermyn Street is lighter and slightly more purpley - on me at least!

I love them both though, they're slightly edgy and different but not too out there.

Nails Inc Winter Collection

Along with the recent Nails Inc Colour Burst offer (9 random polishes plus a basecoat for £27 - more on that later) I decided it would be churlish not to order the new Autumn Winter Collection.

The four colours (for £20)are:

Victoria Gate - Glossy purple
Hampstead Heath - Burnt red
Berkeley Square - Dark grey
Belgravia - Warm brown




I'm not sure about Hampstead Heath being burnt red, it looks more pinkish IRL than the picture but I haven't swatched or worn it yet so I'll withhold judgement.

And Belgravia looks to be more of a taupe leaning brown and has has a fine pinky/blue shimmer in the bottle.

So far I've only tried Victoria Gate which I wore as a full mani to my customer meeting on Friday and the amazing Josh Ritter gig in Oxford in the evening


This is two coats & topcoat in the shade.

As usual for Nails Inc application was good, although I didn't do a very good job on the cleanup!

HTF Week

It's HTF (Hard to Find) week on my favourite nail board so in the final gasps of the week here are some of my HTFs.

Revlon Streetwear is a much loved and much missed discontinued line from Revlon. From what I've read it was Revlon's attempt to combat the competitive threat from new brands Hard Candy and Urban Decay. As such Revlon went all out to create an amazing collection of unusual, edgy and funky shades.

I have a small collection of Streetwear polishes, 12-15 bottles I think although as my polish collection is currently split across two houses I'm not exactly sure!

I definitely have Streetwears from the US and UK collections. I'm not sure if the collections had different colours but the UK ones are made in the EEC and the US ones in the US.

The following are all from the UK/EEC collection

First up is Burnt - definitely my favourite out of the ones I got this week off ebay


Burnt is a gorgeous slightly greyed olive green with gold shimmer. A very unusual colour that really works. This is 2 coats in shade


And in sunlight you can really see the shimmer



Next up is Copper, a lovely bright copper which is almost a foil. I was surprised how good this looked on as I didn't think the colour would suit my skintone at all. Again 2 coats in shade


And in Sun

Next is Gold Mine

A slightly cool gold, again 2 coats



This is Dijon, an unsual mustard colour with a gold shimmer. This is 2 coats in the shade where it looks softer and more muted


In sunlight it's much more of a recognisable mustard colour.
Again I didn't expect to like this on at all but I it looks ok on, the gold shimmer seems to lift it.


This is Raw. It looks awesome in the bottle and I really wanted this to be better than it is. This is 5 coats, yes 5! And I still have VNL (visible nail line)

It's primarily blue with a touch of grey and a strong pink flash


In the sun it looks more shimmery and you can see the pink flash.


I've saved the best for last


This is Dark, a dark purple with silvery blue glitter. Isn't it just gorgeous? I don't think the glitter is as pronounced as other blue/purples with glitter like Essie's Starry Starry Night (which I don't own) but it is totally gorgeous. This is slightly off colour wise, it looks more blue here, it's actually more purple IRL.

The formula/application on these was ok, they were all fairly runny but not too difficult to control. The biggest problem for me was the very long brush which didn't suit my small nails at all.

But overall I love these, great colours, good application and big bottles!

My name's Cali and I'm a polishaholic

They say the first step with an addiction is to admit it. So, my name's Cali and I'm addicted to nail polish.

I finally realised this when I found myself in Selfridges paying a significant amount of money for three bottles of infamous Illamasqua nail polish. I'd found myself powerless to resist the glowing reviews and general air of excitement surrounding this new makeup brand.

The final confirmation came when I tried them out and decided they were worth every penny!

I chose three of the most talked about colours, Rampage, Milf and Muse.

Enough of the talking, let's see the polish...

Rampage is a glorious dark green that's not at all blackened. It's not a dupe for the much desired Nars Zulu, a long discontinued dark green jelly that has almost cult status in the nail polish world. But I'm never going to see Zulu and to be honest I'm not sure if jelly's are really my thing and Zulu has looked kinda streaky in many of the swatches I've seen. Whereas the application and formula of Rampage is just perfect.



This is 3 coats. But not my best swatch picture - I've been practising since!

Milf (gotta love that name) - this is an unusual pale green creme. I wasn't sure if this would work with my skintone, but it's lush. Again fantastic application.



Lastly, but by no means least is Muse.



Muse is a mid to dark toned teal. As with all of these I couldn't stop looking at my nails whilst wearing it.

So, were they really worth the money? I'd have to say yes. The application was great, I had to do barely any cleanup with these and the opacity, finish and drying time were all spot on.

If only they weren't so expensive I'd buy the lot!