Saturday 30 March 2013

Leighton Denny - The Heiress


Lilac/periwinkle mid purple creme

So, even if the weather here in the UK isn't playing ball, I'm going to pretend it is Spring and show you a lovely spring purple, Leighton Denny's The Heiress






Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.  Formula was wonderful as it always is for Leighton Denny.

Love this colour, it's definitely my favourite shade of purple and after looking at it a while it started to look slightly familiar....

So I dug out one of my all time favourite Nails Inc shades, St John's Wood for a comparison



The comparison is St John's Wood on index and little finger, Heiress on middle and ring.  If we're being picky they're not total dupes, SJW is a tad darker/more intenses  but we're really splitting hairs - they're as good as dupes.

Although both retail for around the same amount Nails Inc is much easier to pick up cheaply on ebay....  I'd say formula is comparable, both awesome cremes.  As for longevity, I've never done a comparison - something to add to the todo list!

Tuesday 19 March 2013

Nailgirls - Blue #1

Blue/blurple shimmer   

Nailgirls is a new brand to me, I've seen them on other blogs but as they only seemed to be available from their website and there had never been a must-have colour I hadn't got round to picking any up.  But then they cropped up in 4-bottle collections on Cocosa which is one of those private sale sites (a high-end one at that!).

Nailgirls polish retails at £10.50 and the 4-packs were £17.00 so not a bad deal although obviously you couldn't choose the shades...

So enough gabbing, here is the snappily named Blue #1


Nailgirls bottles are large, 15ml and the same shape as Pop Beauty and very similar to American Apparel






Blue #1 is a blurple leaning blue shimmer with silver, blue and purple fine shimmer.  

Application was ok, the formula was kinda thin - I have 2 thick coats on my ring finger and 3 thin coats on others.

It's a pretty colour but not massively unique...

Anyone else tried nailgirls polish or been to their salon in London?

Thursday 14 March 2013

Nails Inc - Southwark

Bright royal blue crelly







Wow, this has to be the brightest Nails Inc blue I own.

Southwark is a bright, almost neon, royal/cobalt  blue polish.  As for the finish it's either a jellyish creme or a almost opaque jelly... that makes it a crelly right?!

As you can see this was somewhat tricky to photograph, the bright blue seemed to cause an issue with the focusing so some of the shots are a little 'soft'.

What a fabulous colour and this was only 2 coats for the swatch and it didn't leave me with Smurf fingers - result!

Monday 11 March 2013

Nails Inc - New King's Road


Deep blue with fine gold shimmer  






New King's Road is from the Midas Touch collection that I think was originally a QVC collection but has also turned up in TK Maxx.

New King's Road is a dark blue creme with cool gold fine flaky shimmer that's nicely visible in and out of the sun.

And this swatch is just one (thick) coat!  I do love a one coat wonder...  though most other reviews seem to be 2 coats so your mileage may vary...

Friday 8 March 2013

W7 - The Fab Four Elegant Collection Minis - Fuchsia


Fuchsia pink shimmer with micro sparkles  





Fuchsia is a mid/dark fuchsia with micro sparkles that are really only visible in sunlight

Swatch is 3 coats with no top coat.  It's pretty but nothing too exciting.

This is another TK Maxx bargain, I think this was £4 for a collection of 4 mini polishes.  And as you can see the W7 mini bottles are the same as OPI's minis.

Rest of the collection to follow...

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Barielle - Rachel Red


Pink toned red creme  




I've been picking up a few of the Barielle collections from TK Maxx over the past year - they seem to be retailing at £9.99 for 5 polishes.  Which is a complete bargain in my book.  My experience with Barielle polishes has always been pretty good.

Rachel Red, like Mazie Rose is from the Red Haute Mamas set

Rachel Red is a slightly pink toned red creme.  It's also slightly soft looking, not as far as dusty though.

The formula on this one is fab, it's almost a one-coater and it's pretty rare to find that in a red polish!

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

Friday 1 March 2013

Pop Beauty Nail Glam - Midnight Minx


Blurple shimmer with fine glitter






Midnight Minx is a bluely blurple shimmer with fine blue and magenta glitter that you can hopefully just see in the bottle shot.

Midnight Minx is from the Autumn 2012 collection and I picked it up in the ASOS sale.

Swatches are 2 coats with no top coat.  I've seen other reviews that show this with one coat but there's no way my bottle was going to be opaque at one coat!

It's not a very shiny finish so would definitely benefit from a nice glossy topcoat.