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.

D'Orleac - 29

Burgundy Gold Foil Shimmer

D'Orleac 29 is an interesting burgundy/gold foil.  The base is a deep burgundy foily shimmer and then there's a strong flash of yellow gold foil shimmer running through.  Which ends up being quite lovely.  Which is why it should have a name!

Application was good, nothing notable about the brush and swatches shown are 2 coats, no top coat.

I think D'Orleac is a Spanish cosmetics brand.  I bought this and a selection of other colours and nail care products from a French online sale site and this shade cost me £2!

Butter London - Bramble

Royal Purple creme  

Bramble is a stunning royal purple creme.

Application was great and swatches are shown with two coats, no top coat.

I picked this up from TK Maxx for £4 which given Butter London retail for £12 here in the UK that's my kinda bargain!

TK Maxx seemed to have had loads more single polishes available over the past year and I've found lots of great deals.

BarryM Aquarium - Persian

Gorgeous purple bronze duochrome  

Happy New Year to all my Readers! 

May your year be full of gorgeous polishes at bargain prices with no pesky nail breaks.  

Well that's what I'm hoping for!


2015 was my lowest posting year so far so I'm going to try and get back in the zone for 2016....

My last post of 2015 was a duochrome and my first of 2016 is too!

Which means lots of pics to show off the duochrome gorgeousness

Duochrome just at the tips

Full Sun to show the sparkles

Max Duochrome in bottle and on nails!

Aquarium was a collection launched back in Spring 2014, initially with four mirror duochromes and two glitter topcoats.   In Autumn they added another duochrome and another glitter.  The duochrome was Persian.

Persian is a stunning purple/bronze shifting mirror duochrome.  The shift is strong and the colours really work well together.  And the 'base' purple is stunning in it's own right.  I love it!

I always forget to apply duochromes over black so these swatches are 3 coats with no top coat.

Go - 91

Teal purple duochrome  

More from 2009, this is Go - 91.  A polish this lovely really deserves a name but unfortunately it is stuck with 91.

91 is a teal green/purple duochrome.

Swatches are 2 coats with no top coat which is brilliant coverage from a £2 polish.

In the bottle it's much more green than on the nail and in the sunlight it sparkles, in the shade it's almost a pearl.

I think I picked this up from an Indian fashion shop in Slough that had a small selection of cheapie cosmetics.

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.

Pixi - Sexsea

Bright coral creme  

Oh dear, only one picture of this, but that's probably for the best as it was a nightmare.

This was a 'new' brand compulsion (ie a brand I didn't have) -  and it cost a totally unworth-it £5 from ASOS back in 2009.

Sexsea (I should've known from that name!) is a bright coral creme

It was horrible to apply, the brush is ok, longish and neat but it kept dropping big blobs on my nail no matter how well I wiped.

And this is 3 coats and I still have VNL.

The bottle is tall and slim and at only 7ml barely bigger than a mini.

Just horrid.  Avoid in the unlikely event you come across this.  From a quick google it seems Pixi is now sold in Marks & Spencer and direct from Pixi Beauty but the polish names are different so hopefully the formula is too!

Deborah Milano - Purple Batik 15

Pink glass fleck 

This is super pretty, if rather sheer - and it's definitely not purple - who comes up with these names!

Purple Batik is a raspberry glass fleck shimmer.  You can see in the bottle shot there's also some mild holo action going on but I couldn't see that on my nails at all.

Swatches shown are 3 coats with no top coat and it's still a little sheer in the blurry full sun pic.

As you'd expect from the name, Deborah Milano is an Italian brand, I picked this up from a French sale site but the brand has now launched in the UK and the Prêt-à-Porter polishes are currently on offer for just £1!

Nails Inc November - Arlington Street

Purple shimmer  

For the last day of a somewhat sporadic Nails Inc November I've chosen something with a hint of glitter.

Arlington Street is a gorgeous purple shimmer with lots of blue and pink micro-glitter.  In the bottle there's a hint of duo-chrome but as you can see nothing that shows in my pics!

Application was ok, swatches are 3 coats and I do still have a couple of baldish patches.

Again I think this might've been a QVC exclusive but from a bottle comparison it looks to be very similar, if not a dupe of, Franklin's Row.

Nails Inc November - Berkeley Mews

Navy Shimmer  

Berkeley Mews is a blackened slightly blurple navy shimmer that's wonderfully opaque.

Swatches shown are two coats you could probably get away with one if you were careful.  

Pretty sure this was a QVC special which they described as Navy Metallic but I think that's pushing it a bit!

Not a current colour but it pops up on ebay pretty often.

Nails Inc November - Pool

Bright blue creme  

Another old swatch of an even older polish...

Obviously from a short lived time when I was adding the polish name to the photo - safe to say I don't have the time to do that anymore!

Pool is a long discontinued shade, from at least 2009 and I think may have been exclusive to ASOS. It certainly doesn't fit the Nails Inc London naming convention.

It's a wonderful bright, mid-blue creme.  Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat and I think you can see from my fingers that this might be a stainer!

Nails Inc hasn't done a lot of this kind of shade, from a quick rootle in the blue/grey/glitter drawer it looks to be somewhat similar to All Saints Road although I think that's more muted and maybe more of a dupe for another vintage Nails Inc,  Royal Court.

Nails Inc November - Brighton

Hot pink shimmer

Brighton is a slightly muted hot pink shimmer.  This is from the Colour & Care range which has vitamins A&E added - in case you needed that!

This one is definitely on the sheer side, swatches are 3 coats and I still have some VNL.

I think this shade is from 2009.

I have a few similar Nails Inc shades in my (extensive) collection so I did a quick comparison swatch.

Comparison l-r Brighton, Sloane Street, Montrose Place, Brighton

Sloane Street is a cooler pink, with a stronger shimmer and Montrose Place is also a cooler, deeper pink with a stronger, sparklier shimmer and only took 2 coats.

Nails Inc November - Lowndes Square

Dusky purple creme  

Some stubby swatches from a while ago.

This is Lowndes Square, a dusky purple/lilac creme with a hint of brown/mink that totally doesn't show in my swatches!

Lowndes Square is from the Autumn/Winter Collection 2010, so pretty near vintage!

Swatches shown are 2 coats, no top coat.