Butter London - Stroppy

Purple Foil  

Oooh I do love a good purple.  When I was in my 20's I was obsessed with purple and red clothing (and flowers).  But now I'm older and have had my colours 'done' I can't really wear this kind of true, royal purple and I've managed to train myself out of beelining for this shade in the shops.

Stroppy is a purple foil which I thought had a touch of duochrome, but I think it's just packed with pink and blue foil shimmer.

Application was fine, it's a little thin and these swatches are 3 coats, no top coat.  Not ideal but for this colour it's worth it to me.

Stunning!

Stroppy was from Butter London's Summer 2014 Collection, called Lolly Brights.  I picked it up cheap from an online sale site - I think it was £4 or £5.

GOSH - Frou Frou

Metallic silvery pink foil

More old swatches, again from 2009!  I haven't had the time or nails to do much swatching recently so I'm digging through my old, unposted pics.

This one is  quite a win, it's Frou Frou from GOSH.  Frou Frou is a silvery pale pink metallic polish that dries smooth.  Is it a metallic or a foil? Or are they the same thing?

Swatches are 3 coats with no top coat but it's easy to apply and fast to dry.

Kleancolor - Metallic Fuchsia

Foil finish fuchsia  

My first Kleancolor on the blog, from my small collection of foil finish polishes from this US brand that I picked up somewhere random.

Metallic Fuchsia is a shimmer/foil finish cool, purple leaning fuchsia.

Swatches shown are 2 coats with no top coat.

I like the colour/finish but boy this polish has a super strong, chemical scent and takes forever to dry!
And to add insult to injury it stained my nails even with basecoat!

Probably why I've only swatched one of this collection so far!

Vintage Valentines - Urban Decay - AC/DC

Purple foil  

Definitely one of the most desirable vintage brands, Urban Decay was first released way back in 1996.

All of my Urban Decay polishes are second generation from around 2001.  I did have a first generation polish (a silver holo) in the iconic bottle but stupidly threw it away as it had dried out - before I knew that practically any polish could be revived with enough thinner!  I have mentally kicked myself so many times since that sad occasion....

AC/DC is a slightly blackened muted cool purple foil.

Application was great, swatches are 2 coats, no top coat.

Urban Decay polishes do pop up on ebay quite regularly if you fancy dipping a toe in these vintage polish waters...

Urban Decay is now owned by the cosmetics giant L'Oreal.

Vintage Valentines - 17 - Space Babe

Lilac/silver pearly foil  

Welcome to the second Vintage Valentine!  

This polish comes from 17,  which I don't think is a particularly 'covetable' or collectable brand.    

17 or Seventeen is a Boots exclusive brand aimed at a younger market (15-19 year olds according to the internet).  The brand itself is over 40 years old, launched in 1968.  I'm not sure how old this polish is but this version of the 17 packaging was launched in 1998.

Space Babe is an Advanced Wear One Coat Polish in a lilac/grey pearl/foil.

Application was ok, but of course it's pretty brush-strokey and I did two coats for completeness.

It's quite pretty and has a soft glow, almost like brushed steel

Vintage Varnish - Sparkle & Fade - Silver foil

Silver foil

Not much more to say about this one, it's a silver foil.  Not a super bright, shiny silver foil

Looks kinda brushstrokey in sunlight but almost like a foil/pearl hybrid in indirect light.

Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat.

It's fine but a pretty standard colour/finish.

Vintage Varnish - Sparkle & Fade Gold foil

Cool gold foil  

This is an unusual one, a slightly greenish cool gold foil.  As with some foils it's a little brushstrokey but nothing too awful

Swatches are 2 coats but really only needed one.

I don't think it works great with my skintone but it's a unique colour for my collection

Zoya - Rica

Orange/coral duochrome foil  

The sun is shining, the sky is blue so I've gone with some summery, sparkly goodness today.

Zoya Rica is an orange/coral foil with very slight duochrome tendencies which brings out the gold shimmer .  It's bright and very sparkly

Swatches shown are 3 coats with no top coat.

Zoya does this finish so well that even though orange isn't really my colour it looks amazing!

Hema Brilliant with Diamond Powder - 11

Mottled gold foil  

Another un-named Hema.

Hema Brilliant with Diamond Powder - 11 is a mottled gold foil, out of the sun it looks like a dappled mix of warm, cool and rose golds.  In full sunlight it flashes back as a antique gold foil.

Application was good and swatches shown are 3 coats, no top coat.

This was a bargain €3 for a generous 11ml bottle.

Miss Sporty - Clubbing Colours 311

Sheer silver foil  

Another vintage Miss Sporty, again a Clubbing Colours Metal Shine polish.

This time it's 311 but this one wasn't such a success.

311 is a sheer silver, more of a foil finish than 208 but with one big downside.

This swatch is 4 coats and I still have VNL.  That's a big fat fail in my book.  It's pretty but not unique enough to warrant 4 coats...

Max Factor Max Effects Mini - Silver

Warm silver foil  

Silver is a warm silver foil with copper, steel and silver foil pieces.  It's an interesting finish and combination of different silver foil pieces...  Click on the images to see bigger versions to see the foil in closeup.

And now for the bad news, this is 4 bloody coats and can still see visible nail line on my  index finger!

This is going straight to the recycle pile!

Nail Addict by Famous - Angel

Purple foil with chunky & fine glitter  

Angel is a pinky plum foil with chunkyish pink glitter and some fine darker purple glitter


Formula is oddly thick/gloopy like the foil/glitter is suspended in the polish

It's also pretty sheer - I needed 3 thick coats for opaqueness...

Nailgirls - Silver #2

Silver foil  

I'm not really a fan of these non-names but you have to admit that Silver pretty much cover this one!

Silver #2 is a very foily silver foil.  So foily that my camera wouldn't focus on my nails in some of the shots.

It's got an almost cheesy sci-fi feel to it, like you'd have to pair it with a tin foil jumpsuit and a ray gun!

Application was fine and the swatch is 2 coats, no top coat

W7 - Metallic Jupiter

Dark plum foil duochrome   

The last of my W7 metallics - Metallic Jupiter

Jupiter is a return to the foily metallic finish from W7.  

Jupiter is a dark plum with a hint of copper duochrome

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

I also tried this one out with a pinky gold crackle from P2

Without topcoat

With a coat of Seche Vite

I'm not really a fan of crackle but this one intrigued me with its mixture of pinky lilac base and gold foily shimmer.  It definitely looks better with the Seche Vite in my view!