Tuesday 18 December 2012

Jessica - Heirloom

Silver sparkly shimmer   

There's not much sunlight or even daylight at the moment to capture all the new sparkly polishes I've picked up so I'm also digging through my extensive unposted swatches.

Came across this Jessica swatch for Heirloom.

I don't have a lot of Jessica polishes or know very much about the brand but I *think* they might be a UK salon brand?

And this is my first Jessica swatch on the blog...

Sunlight

Shade

Heirloom is a silver shimmer with lots of fine metallic sparkles that definitely look a little gold toned to my eye.
The goldish sparkles lift this one above your regular silver shimmer - you can see them better in the shade picture, especially if you click to enlarge.

As you can see I had a bit of a mare with the cleanup on this one, this is one of those polishes with the super fine glittery bits that seem to stick to everything!

Swatch shown is 2 coats and although I can't find my notes for this swatch it looks like application was not a breeze...

This is also a mini Jessica bottle - 7.4ml (0.25floz)

Anyone out there a fan of Jessica?  I know they also do a gel polish, Gel-eration that seems to be pretty popular.


Monday 17 December 2012

Mavala - Electric Green

Bright green shimmer/pearl    

Sunlight

Shade

Electric Green is a bright shimmery green with fine lighter greeny-gold sparkles.

The Mavala bottle describes it as a pearl but I think that all polish is either 'cream', 'pearl' or not specified in Mavala's world!

It does have a pearly base but to me there's too much sparkly shimmer visible for it to be a true pearl.

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.  You can see a hint of vnl (if you squint) but nothing too heinous!  Application was good as usual.

Monday 10 December 2012

Leighton Denny - Up In The Air


Grey pearly shimmer    

Oh dear, my nails inc month ended and it all went to pot...  I was mad busy at work, way behind on Christmas prep and we went to Paris for a weekend.

Unfortunately it's really not as glamorous or exciting as it sounds!  The 13 & 15 yr old stepsons wanted to go to Minecon, the Minecraft convention so it was a weekend in Disneyland Paris with thousands of, mostly teenage, gaming geeks... I did manage to escape into Paris proper for a bit of shopping though.


So here's Up In The Air from Leighton Denny






I'd call it a slightly lilac toned, warm grey pearly shimmer. The lilac tones are more visible out of sunlight (bottle pic).

Swatch is 3 coats with no topcoat.

It is slightly pearly and  brushstrokey but lovely all the same.  Reminds me a little of Zoya Harley although that is definitely a cooler, blue based grey.

Friday 30 November 2012

Final Nails Inc November - Rainbow Street

Multicoloured glitter bomb    

So for the last polish in Nails Inc November I thought I'd break out the glitter....

Rainbow Street came as part of a 7-piece QVC TSV.



You can see the texture in this sunlight shot...




Rainbow Street is a multicoloured glitter with red, purple, blue gold, silver and pink large glitter pieces in  a clear base.  This has pretty good coverage, you might get to full coverage with 3 or 4 coats.

The glitter dries bumpy, my swatch is without top coat, you'd need a couple of coats of a good thick, levelling top coat to even this one out.

Swatch shown is 2 coats over yesterday's Primrose Park  - you can still see the base colour but not too much.

Phew, so my nails inc month is over.

I think the challenge of all nails inc, all month kept my momentum going - after last month this has been my highest number of posts in a month.  Although it hasn't made a huge dent in the number of unswatched/unshown nails inc in my collection!!  Unfortunately I don't have the kind of job/life to be able to blog every day....

I hope you enjoyed this small window into my nails inc obsession!

Thursday 29 November 2012

Nails Inc November - Mirror Metallic - Primrose Park

Blue metallic/chrome finish shimmer    

Primrose Park is another of the Mirror Metallic collection I picked up from QVC.

This one is slightly different from Swiss Cottage that I showed the other day and Stratford (that you haven't seen yet) in that I couldn't see any duochrome in this one

That said, it is still scrumptious!



Full sun


The pink in this is just the reflection of my top!

Primrose Park is a glowy metallic blue.  Application was good, not as good as a regular nails inc creme as it was slightly gloopy but nothing too awful.  And miraculously for a chrome/metallic finish it's barely brushstrokey at all!

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

Wednesday 28 November 2012

Nails Inc November - Pimlico Road

Red flaky shimmer jelly   

Just 3 more days of Nails Inc November left...

Next up is Pimlico Road





Pimlico Road is a orangey red jelly with red, pink and gold flaky shimmer

Swatch shown is 3 coats with no top coat.  I'd probably advise you apply this over a coat of underwear polish if the slight vnl is going to bother you.

It doesn't bother me as it's so sparkly and glossy and really the vnl only shows up in full sunshine...

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Nails Inc November - Queensgate Terrace

Mid blue creme    







Queensgate Terrace is a slighty dusky, mildy periwinkle mid blue creme.

This is pretty much a one-coat wonder - the swatch shows 2 for completeness.

Nails inc don't seem to do a lot of blue cremes which is a shame because this one is fabulous, opaque and shiny is just 2 coats.

Monday 26 November 2012

Nails Inc November - Portman Place

Bright purple jelly/creme   




Portman Place is a fabulous bright purple with a jellyish finish.  That jelly aspect to the finish means it's super glossy.

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

Application was the usual Nails Inc goodness...

Love this one, I'm a big purple lover and this polish definitely ticks my boxes!

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Nails Inc November - Sheraton Street

Dusky blue creme   








Sheraton Street is a gorgeous dusky blue creme.

This could probably be a one-coat wonder if you were careful

Swatch shown in 2 coats with no topcoat.

This was part of a QVC 7 Piece All Style Collection which contained cremes, shimmers, sprinkles and glitter polishes.  But this one called to me straight away and I wasn't disappointed.

It's not as bright or as turquoise as the classic For Audrey.

Monday 19 November 2012

Nails Inc November - Special Effects/Mirror Metallic - Swiss Cottage

Green/Gold/Turquoise Duochrome Metallic    

Swiss Cottage is one of 3 polishes I picked up recently from QVC as a Mirrored Metallic Collection and it's definitely the stand-out although perhaps not too unique.

And being a duochrome I took lots of pics to capture the colour shift.

Bottle Shot

Full Sunlight








Swiss Cottage has a base green colour which sometimes looks more blue/green with a strong gold duochrome.

Swatch is 2 coats with no top coat.

In the sunlight picture it loses all the duochrome but shows a very pretty fine sparkle.

It's definitely in the same family as Chanel's Peridot (and dupes) although I think Swiss Cottage might be more green/blue leaning and less warm gold than Peridot, but only a comparison will tell!


Wednesday 14 November 2012

Nails Inc November - Dulwich


Nude jellyish creme   






Dulwich (the w is silent so it's like dull-itch rolled together!) is a nude creme with more than a hint of jelly.  Look how shiny it is!

This one definitely works as a mannequin hands polish or BBB (Band-aid But Better) with my skintone

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

I don't know much about Dulwich the place, it's in South London and Enid Blyton was born there...

Saturday 10 November 2012

Nails Inc November - Union Street

Pinky purple neon   


Neon/satin finish with no topcoat

With topcoat


Union Street, which I think may only exist as a mini, is a pinky purple neonish jellyish nightmare of a polish

Now, given that I'm doing a whole month of nails inc polishes, you'd be right in thinking I'm a bit of a fan.... unfortunately this polish is, hands down, the worst Nails Inc I've ever used!

The formula was thin and streaky and I had to keep several yards away from my cuticles when applying as this polish seemed magnetically attracted to flooding them!

Swatches are shown with 3 coats, I still have vnl and it's pretty patchy on some nails.  But I had no confidence that more coats would improve things.

And to add insult to injury it doesn't look much like the bottle colour which a fab bright purple.

I know I should probably try it layered over some underwear, but I lost the will - life's too short for bad polish!

I wasn't the only one to have trouble with this one, Primps & Preens blogged it and had similar problems

To be fair to nails inc, one super duff polish out of 400+ colours isn't bad odds...

But still, steer clear of this one people...

Friday 9 November 2012

Nails Inc November - Eagle Street

Dusky pink/brown creme   




Eagle Street is a dusky 40s looking pink/brown creme

Swatch shown is just one coat and application was great.

Good points, it's a one-coat-wonder

Bad points, I'm really not sure how flattering it is with my skintone!


Wednesday 7 November 2012

Nails inc November - Chalk Farm

Periwinkle creme 

Chalk Farm is a gorgeous violet leaning towards periwinkle blue creme.




As ever the photos show this slightly more blue than it is in real life.

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.  This is your regular intensely pigmented nails inc creme.

The colour reminded me of a much loved polish in a similar hue, St John's Wood  so I thought I'd do a quick comparison...
L-R St John's Wood, Chalk Farm

And as you can see they cousins, not siblings -  St John's Wood is darker and more purple toned than Chalk Farm.  But both are gorgeous!