Ciate - Superficial

Dark Teal creme

One of the first Ciaté Paint Pots I got and it's a stunner. I don't think this is from a particular collection - I got it as part of a hat box deal.





Superficial is a gorgeous, deep teal creme. Application, brush and opacity were all great and of course the bottle is a cutie.

This is 2 coats, no top coat.

This colour, while stunning, is not particularly unique - check out my previous Teal comparison post for details. I should probably do another comparison with RBL Teal included too.

Zoya Crystal

Silvery blue foil with gold  flakes

We're off to a housewarming party at our good friends, Matt and Liz, tonight so I wanted to try one of my new Zoyas. The one that called to me was Crystal because the colour combination is so unusual and it's a suitably 'party' colour without being a complete in your face glitterbomb!





I'm planning to wear this with a navy dress which I think will work well.


Closeup of the finish

Crystal is a silvery blue foil with gorgeous flakes of gold, an unusual combination that really works. For my collection this colour is very unique and I love it.

Crystal is from the Zoya Flame collection from Winter 2010.

This is a full mani, so basecoat, 3 coats of polish and as Zoya doesn't play well with Seche Vite (or any fast drying topcoats) I topped with 2 coats of a random slow dry topocoat. Be interesting to see how it wears.

Haul Pics

l-r Savita, Mimi, Julieanne, Crystal


l-r Valerie, Edyta, Shawn, Ivanka

Lovely Zoyas from the recent Zoya '3-free' promotion. Unfortunately those deals only run in the US so my lovely friend Carl who lives in New Hampshire acts as my delivery address and nail polish mule!  So these come courtesy of Carl who got them as far as Orlando and then my Frolleague, Tim, who bought them back to the UK.  Thanks guys!




I also picked up a few (ahem) of the Andrea Fulerton Trios from Superdrug just before Christmas when they were 3 for 2. Don't they look pretty all lined up!

Swatches of these coming up.

Butter London - Charles Dickens

Burgundy creme

Burgundy/maroon creme.  Swatch is 2 coats, no topcoat.  Application and brush were fine.

It's nice but nothing exciting - I bought it in the ASOS sale as at the time I didn't have any butter Londons.

I think of this as a midpoint butter London bottle, ie the outer cap comes off to make it easier to paint with (like a Chanel bottle) but it doesn't have the butter London bird on the cap like the latest bottles.

Rimmel - Electric 397

Dark blue with glitter

Yet another TJ Hughes bargain.






Electric is a Rimmel Wear Maxx, presumably a long wearing formula.

It's a dark/navy blue with lots of fine blue glitter and this is 2 coats, no topcoat. 

It's pretty, who doesn't love a dark blue glitter,  but I'm pretty certain I've got a few others like this....  One for the de-duping pile I think.

Pink - 103

Cool brown shimmer

Speed Queen, another unknown brand is made by Pink Cosmetics London (a somewhat duffly named company based in Wilmslow, not London) is another TJ Hughes find.





103 is a very cool toned brown shimmer.

This was one coat wonder if you're careful. I have 2 coats on first and middle but only one coat on my ring and pinkie

The formula was very gloopy and the brush was fat with polish but somehow it still applied ok!

Kubiss - 63

Spring green creme

The other Kubiss I picked up, purely because the colour caught my eye and I don't think I have anything quite like it!





63 is a spring green creme with a fine, mint green shimmer

This took 3 coats, partly to get opacity and partly because I kept dinting it and draping my hair through, so apologies for the not exactly pristine finish.

It's got a slightly squishy feel to it and overall I like it, it's definitely unusual...

Kubis - No 29

Purple shimmer

I picked up a couple of these Kubiss nail polishes in TJ Hughes, I'd never seen or heard of them before. After a bit of digging it turns out they're made by Pascalle Ltd, a white label company. IIRC they were about £2.

 



This is 29 (grrggh no names), a pretty purple shimmer with fine pink glitter

It took 2-3 coats - there was some cuticle drag and it was a bit gloopy but nothing too awful.

Overall a pretty colour, although not terribly unique and not too terrible application. A somewhat cautious winner.

Accessorize - Bronze

Gorgeous bronze duochrome

Stumbled across swatch pictures of another Accessorize polish that I didn't share.

And it's a beauty so forgive the number of pictures but I really wanted to capture the amazing duochrome of this polish









Bronze is a warm pinky bronze with greeny gold undertones- I'm not sure that's a very good description but hopefully the pictures speak for themselves.

2 coats - no topcoat.

This is another winner from Accessorize - I'm so pleased that a new cosmetics brand has come out with such an amazing selection of nail polishes across a number of finishes and colours. Let's hope they can continue in the same vein.

Nails Inc - Cashmere Collection Preview

Single nail swatches showing the Cashmere Collection

It's fair to say I lose all willpower on the nails inc site. Last week I was placing an order for one of their one day specials when I spotted the Cashmere Collection, four muted soft colours - I was sold.

Here's the blurb




Hyde Park mews – mushroom brown

Cromwell Road – pink mink (how cute is that description?!)

Sydney Street – heather grey

Fulham Palace Road – iced coffee

I didn't have time to do full swatches but I was so excited I wanted to show you a quick single nail swatch of each of them - I wouldn't say these were totally colour accurate it was late in a very grey day so to me these look a little muted. 


Fulham Palace Road - my second fave


Cromwell Road - you can't see it much here but this has lots of fine shimmer


Hyde Park Mews - browner than it looks here..


Sydney Street - hands down my favourite - a lovely dusky mauve with lots of fine shimmer

Nails Inc - Foubert's Place

Limited Edition Khaki creme inspired by Fashion Week collections

When placing my order for the Fabulous Five earlier this week I spied this interesting Limited Edition colour, Foubert's Place.

According to Nails Inc, Khaki was all over Fashion Week and this colour is inspired by the collections at Elie Tahari, Kinder Aggugini, John Galliano and Yves Saint Laurent. I'm not a big follower of Fashion Week so I can't confirm that but it's certainly an unusual/interesting colour.


Here it is with 2 coats, though if you were careful you might get away with one, it's the usual highly pigmented creme I've come to expect and love from nails inc.

It looks a little darker on the nail than in the bottle and the light here was terrible today, very dull so my swatch appears darker than IRL. I'd say it was a mid to dark khaki (browny green) shade.



When I placed the order I thought it might be similar to another nails inc shade, Kew Gardens, that I got as a mini in some collection or another, but as you can see Kew Gardens is much lighter and browner. Neither would look out of place in a camouflague print but they're no dupes.

Del Sol - Rock Star

Blue glitter that changes to teal with sunlight

The other Del Sol Colour Changing polish that Jasmine sent me was Rock Star


Before sun Rock Star is sheerish mid blue base with blue glitter.


After a minute or so the colour is developing greener tones


And after a couple of minutes exposure to sunlight it has developed into a deep greenish blue which makes me think of a deep mysterious pool with lots of swaying weeds.


Although slightly sheer it builds ok , this is 4 coats, again I wonder how it would work layered over a complimentary colour?

Application was good and removal wasn't bad for a glitter.

I really liked this polish, both variations are gorgeous colours but the sunlight version has hidden depths!

Updated to say that Del Sol Colour Changing polish is available in the UK for £7.95 from R8Beauty