Leighton Denny - Caught Red Handed

Glowy red shimmer  

The fact that I've eaten toast, cereal and a burrito on the train for evening meals means it's been one of those weeks!  Ah, well at least it's Friday now!

Caught Red Handed is a glowy red shimmer that has a hint of sparkle in full sunlight (3rd pic)

Swatch is 2 coats with no top coat and application was great.

Gorgeous, looks almost like the metallic finish of red tinsel!

Here's how it's described on Leighton's site..

A bright iridescent red that gives a 'naughty but nice' impression. Caught Red Handed creates nails with more than their share of Va-Va-Voom! Superb depth of colour, a metallic 3-D shimmer and an incredible high gloss shine

L'Oreal Color Riche - Divine Purple

Rich purple shimmer  

Divine Purple is definitely a divine colour, a gorgeous rich purple shimmer.  It almost looks like a hint of duochrome in the bottle but I couldn't see any on my nails...

This polish had great formula and opacity - Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

This didn't dry with much of a shine and would be improved by top coat.

So what's the downside?  Apart from the pretty tiny bottles (only 5ml) for me, the killer is the hideous fat brush, just far too fat and blobby for my small, narrow nails.  But I love the colour.  Solution is probably to decant into another bottle!

Barielle - Teaser

Dark green creme for St Patrick's Day  

Something green for St Paddy's...

Teaser is a deep green creme that definitely leans a little blue, not the apple-green you mostly see on St Patrick's Day...

Formula was fabulous, swatch is 2 coats with no top coat but it was almost a one-coat-wonder and so shiny...

Leighton Denny - Honey Pot

Suede finish copper shimmer  

Honey Pot is a suede finish copper shimmer

The suede finish was a bit of a surprise and the polish/finish combination is pretty different than the colour appears in the bottle.

Looking at it close up, it's speckled finish of mainly copper and some silver and, of course, dries with a suede finish - not quite matte but a long way from shiny.

Honey Pot was part of the Per Suede Me collection that might've been a QVC exclusive.

Swatch shown is 2 coats, no top coat in the first pics, one coat of topcoat added for the final picture to see how it looks shiny!

Leighton Denny - Rampant Rose

Deep dusky pink creme  

Rampant Rose is a deep creamy, pink shade with a hint of dusky brick tones...

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat but look how super shiny it is.

Fantastic application, brush, formula on this one.

Accessorize - Storm

Purple toned grey pearl  

Storm is a purple/grey pearl, as such it's a little brush-strokey, but I can totally live with that.

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

Stunning colour, I must dig this out to wear again.

Accessorize launched with a bang a few years back with a number of stunning foils, including a dupe for a the colour of the moment at the time, Mac's Bad Fairy, but I must admit I haven't paid much attention to them since.  Time to check out their recent collections I think.  Any recommendations?

Catrice - Dirty Berry

Purple scattered holo  

I'm still growing my nails out after a series of breaks.  It's been 6 months since the mega-stress of wedding planning which seemed to really take it out on my nails and I've had 7 out of 10 break.  Which means I'm mining Picasa for old swatches I haven't shared - this one is from 2011!

Dirty Berry is a dusky lilac fine scattered holo.  The holo effect isn't strong and out of the sun it looks more like a silver speckle.

Swatch shown is 2 coats with top coat as I dinged one of my fingers

I love this, the muted blue toned purple is lovely and although the holo isn't super strong it adds up to a very pretty polish.

Nails Inc - Hampstead Gardens

Mustard creme  

Oh boy...  this is one of the fugliest colours I own.

Nails Inc launched this as a trend shade in early 2012 and described it as follows:

"Hampstead Gardens is a chic mustard nail polish to help you nail next season's hottest trend."

It might have been a trend but it's really not for me.  I'm not good with yellow at the best of times (in Colour theory I'm a cool summer) but this very warm, baby poo colour is totally not up my street.  On to the details...

Hampstead Gardens is a mustard creme that applies darker on the nail.

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

The formula is great, even for a yellow leaning polish, and look at the shine.  But the colour, just no.....

But we're all different so if you're feeling the love for the this one you can pick it up for only £5 from the nails inc site

Nails Inc - Haverstock Hill

Warm dark silver shimmer  

Haverstock Hill is a warm, dark silver shimmer.  I know warm silver is a strange description but I couldn't think of a better term, this isn't beige or brown or taupe but there's definitely a slight warm brown feeling to it.

This polish is from a QVC collection back in 2012, I think.

Swatch shown is 2 coats, with no top coat. It's a little thin, I probably should've done 3 coats and apologies for the slightly messy swatch, I didn't do cleanup on these for some reason!

Leighton Denny - Daylight Robbery

Blue with secret shimmer  

Daylight Robbery is a gorgeous slightly greyed blue creme with masses of paler blue secret shimmer

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

Formula, as with most Leighton's was super.

Sorry for the lapse in blogging, rest of life and work took the front seat for a while but I should be back on it now!