Nails Inc - St John's Wood

Periwinkle blue/purple creme

St John's Wood is defnitely one of my favourite Nails Inc polishes - it's a fantastic, pretty unique colour that's super opaque and easy to apply.  It's not hard to find either, somehow I've ended up with six bottles from various nails inc offers (I really must find the time for a blog sale!)

Probably the only downside of St John's Wood is it isn't very shiny - it really needs a good coat of top coat to make it sing.

Swatches shown here are 2 coats, without top coat and  application was darn near perfect.  In reality it's a shade more purple than shown here...

Again this is one of the colours available from Sephora, although of course it'll come in  the new style bottles rather than my 'vintage' style one shown here!

Nails Inc - Thames

Mid to dark grey creme

Next up in my nails inc/Sephora collection is Thames.

Thames is a mid to dark slightly blue toned grey creme.

Nails inc describe it as a dark cement grey.

Swatch is 2 coats, no top coat.

This is another classic, well behaved nails inc creme, application & pigmentation are fantastic

Nails Inc - St James's

Bright red creme

Next up in my Nails Inc Sephora collection is St James's

I love this polish, I've always been a red fan but kinda gave up on them because all the ones I'd tried seemed to take too many coats before they were opaque...

Not so St James's...

This swatch is 2 coats, and it's almost opaque in one.

St James's is a bright red creme, I don't think it's orange toned or pink toned, it seems like a straight up red.

It's actually not a plain creme, there is a small amount of shimmer, it's not massively visible but does add a bit more interest to this great red.

Application and formula were great. If you're looking for a fantasic red creme you could do a lot worse than St James's

Nails Inc - Brompton Place

Bubblegum pink creme

Now that my favourite nail polish brand, nails inc, has launched in the US at Sephora it turned out to be a great encouragement for me to swatch some more of my, ahem, extensive collection. In particular those colours that are available from Sephora.

I've used the shade list available on the nails inc webite which also has details of which Sephora stores will carry the line.

So far I've swatched 14 of the colours and I think there are probably a couple I've already shared.

First up is Brompton Place

Nails Inc describe Brompton Place as a bubblegum pink creme.

I'm a huge nails inc fan and one of the reasons is the amazing formula, especially with the cremes.

Brompton Place is a great example, application was fantastic, especially for a bordering on pastel colour. It dried pretty quick and is lovely and shiny.

I know some people have trouble with the cap (it's not removable) but I honestly don't have any issues with it (and I've got tiny hands!)

Swatch shown is 2 coats and no top coat

Models Own Pro - Stormy Night

Dark grey shimmer with hidden pink glitter

The second of the Models Own Pro range I picked up was Stormy Night. 

In the bottle it's a promising grey shimmer with fine sparkly pink glittery pieces.

Unfortunately once on the nail the pink sparkles all but disappear

Now it just looks like a regular grey shimmer.

Application was great. Swatch is 2 coats with top coat to try and bring out the sparkles, in vain.

Overall this was a disappointment, you can't really see the pink at all, it just looks grey.

Thumbs down from me.

Models Own Pro - Green Envy

Dark green shimmer with sparkles

Models Own have launched a new Pro range.  I'm not entirely sure when it came out or where you can get hold of them, (useful I know!) - I spotted them in Boots in Reading at the weekend and I'm pretty sure they are exclusive to Boots.

As you can see the bottles are sqaure as opposed to Models Own usual round bottles and I think they may be bigger too. 

They have quite a range of colours but I don't know if it was the lighting, the price (£8) or because I was rushed but only a few called out to me.

First up is Green Envy, a blackened fir green shimmer with tiny sparkly particles, which are blue and green - check out the close-up shot...

Application was a breeze and it dries super fast.  Swatch is 2 coats with top coat.

I really like this one, it's a great dark green that never looks black and the sparkles look great in the sunshine.

Maybelline - Atomic Violine

Dusky purple with foilish shimmer

Maybelline- Atomic Violine

Atomic Violine from the Forever Strong range (with extra Iron!) is a slightly dusky purple with blue, pink and purple foilish glitter

Application was fine, swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat

This was super difficult to remove for some reason, like it welded to my nails... Maybe I should do a wear test on this one.

LA Colors - Metallic Pink

Metallic pink foil

 

I picked up a handful of LA Colors in a now defunct pound shop in Slough a few years back. At the time I'd never heard of the brand but £1 seemed like a good price to give them a try!

The first one I tried Purple Ice was pretty but too sheer, this one however was opaque in 2 coats.

Metallic Pink kinda does what it says, it's a pink foil!

Swatch shown is 2 coats, no top coat.

Catrice - Plum Play with Me

Mid-purple creme

Plum Play with Me is a mid-dark purple creme

I found this one a bit tricky to work with, it dries fast and I couldn't seem to get the right amount on the brush

On the positive side it's a fab colour which reminds me of the Nubar purple collection and it's very shiny!

Swatch is 2 coats with no top coat

Maybelline - Colorama Cherry Sweet

Raspberry jelly with fine glitter

I thought Cherry Sweet was going to be super sheer so I decided to avoid the pain of building it to opacity and go for the shortcut of layering it over 2 coats of Ciate Marilyn (a red creme).  Since then I've seen Cherry Sweet on a couple of other blogs and it seems to only need 3 coats for opacity - my bad!

Cherry Sweet is a raspberry jelly with fine pink & silver glitter.

It's pretty and the glitter payoff is pretty good - I must try this again on its' own.

Catrice - Black Beauty

Black packed with copper flakes

 

 After yesterday's disaster I thought I'd redress the balance with a fab Catrice

This is a different type of Catrice polish, 60 Seconds Nail Couture in a taller, narrower bottle. Pretty sure this is the only one of this type I have.

Black Beauty is a gorgeous black (it looks more brown to me but given the name I'm assuming black!) with lots of sparkly copper coloured shimmery flakes.  Easy to apply and dries smooth and glossy. Fabulous.

Swatch is 2 coats, with no top coat but look how shiny it is?! Definitely a winner

Catrice - Mirror, Mirror

Silver chrome/frost





Oh dear, you can see from the mess I made of this swatch that me and this polish really didn't get along.

Brushstrokey, streaky and I even got a ding on my index finger - gawd.

These terrible swatches belong to Catrice Mirror, Mirror from the Glamourama Collection
I'd describe Mirror Mirror as a silver chrome with a dollop of frost

Swatch shown is 3 coats, no top coat.

Yuk...

Models Own - Blue Lagoon

Mid blue with shimmer

Gah, been away too long, sorry gals.  In my defence I was away a week on hols (Mallorca with the OH and the kids, good but not v. relaxing!)

So in an attempt to get back in the saddle here's a quick post featuring a summery Models Own.

Blue Lagoon from Models Own is a mid blue creme with fine silver shimmer.




Swatch is 2 coats with no top coat.

I really like this and it's not like anything else I have!