Nails Inc - Basil St

Pale neutral toffee creme

A classic nude from Nails Inc, Basil St. is an old shade that's only recently found it's way into my collection.

 It looks slightly too pink in the bottle shot, the swatch pics are more colour accurate.

Basil St is a BBB shade.  On me it's a little more brown toned than my skin but it's definitely a classic neutral that shouldn't offend anyone or any workplace.

 It's a regular, well behaved nails inc creme, this was two coats with no top coat and it's wonderfully shiny.

Essence - Street Styler

 Tealish blue with shimmer and flakies

I picked up a couple of shades from the Essence Urban Messages collection on my recent Germany trip.  First up is Street Styler.

Street Styler is a teal leaning mid blue with a fine blue secret shimmer and small silver flakies.  This combination really works, the colour doesn't look flat and although the shimmer and flakes are fine they're visible and super pretty in the sunlight


Application and formula were good and the swatch is 2 coats, with no top coat.

I'm back!

Gah, 3 weeks away from the blog.  I have good reasons, I promise!

First week I was on holiday in Turkey with my beloved - fantastic, relaxing, blissful, just what we needed, seems like such a long time ago now.

Second week I was at a conference in Berlin for work - less blissful, not helped by catching horrible gastric flu mid week.  Being ill when you're away from home and don't speak the language is crap.  And then this week has been a continuation of the lurgy.  I think I might finally be getting over it...

Of course it being a trip to Germany (again) I managed a bit of polish shopping, and even picked up a couple in Turkey!

Essence magnet, magnetics x2 and a a glitter top coat.

 A couple of Essence top coats from a weird rotating display.  2 x Essence nudes.

 4 x Misslyn.  Haven't seen or tried this brand before, are they new?

 2 x P2 (have loved all the ones I've tried before) and a P2 crackle.  I'm not really a crackle fan but this one looked so pretty I couldn't resist.

 Turkish polish!  Alix Avien.  They were about a pound each so I'm not expecting much!

And I succumbed to Peridot in Duty Free.  I kept looking a pictures and swatches and trying to find anywhere in the UK I could buy it online for less than silly money and then there it was in Duty Free, reader, my willpower deserted me. 

Swatches and reviews to follow.

Models Own - Bloo

Pale blue creme

I really wanted to like this, but unfortunately the secret shimmer visible in the bottle wasn't visible at all on the nail.

I suppose you could argue that it adds a depth to the polish but I would really have preferred it to be a bit more in your face.

This was 2 coats, no top coat.

Apologies for the rather sporadic posting, work has been super hectic and then tomorrow I'm off to Turkey with my beloved for a week of R&R. Hooray! We need it....

Illamasqua - Raindrops

Grey jelly with silvery blue flakies

Thought I'd give you a break from the Sephora Nails Inc and show you a recent bargain I picked up from the Illamasqua sale that turned out to be so pretty.  

Raindrops was one of the winners of the Illamasqua competition from 2010 to design your dream colour.

I was nervous about this one, I knew it was going to be sheer and that some folk had found it streaky and too sheer and I'm not generally a sheer or a jelly fan.

But I loved it, I did 3 careful, thickish coats and it was fine. Better than fine, really pretty. Application was good, despite the sheerness.

Raindrops is a blue-toned grey jelly with mixed size pale silver flakies. They're not massively visible but they do add an extra dimension to the polish.

For me this polish was a welcome surprise and a great deal at £5 in the sale.

Nails Inc - Saville Row

Deep plum creme

Here's number 9 of my Nails inc that are available from Sephora

Nails inc describe Saville Row as deep glossy plum which I'd say was pretty accurate.

Swatch is 2 coats, no top coat. Application was good, as always.

It's not a particularly exciting colour, but it's a good classic colour, done well.

In comparison with other, similar, nails inc colours, Victoria is much more of a dark red/plum and has jelly tendancies. I also thought it might be similar to Tower Bridge but that's much darker, almost black.

Nails Inc - Jermyn Street

Classic Taupe creme

I can't quite believe I haven't already shown you Jermyn Street, it's not just one of my favourite nails inc colours, it's one of my favourite, most used nail colours of all time. 

I like taupe so much our entire house is painted in a pale taupe although Dulux, in their wisdom, call it Expresso Delight.

This is often my choice when I need to do a fast, safe-ish (colourwise), reliable manicure.

Swatch is 2 coats, no top coat and application was wonderful.

Nails inc call it the perfect taupe and they won't get much argument from me.  Comparing to other taupes this leans brown with hints of purple and grey.

I know there have been a gazillion variations of this colour but this is definitely one of the stars.

Anyone else been inspired to paint something by a nail polish colour?

Nails Inc - Foubert's Place

Grey olive creme

I've actually shared this Limited Edition nails inc before but I wasn't entirely happy with the photos I look so as it's one of the polishes sold by selected Sephora I thought I'd grab the opportunity to take new pictures.

Foubert's Place is a slightly greyed olive green creme that looks different in different lights and is distinctly different on the nail to how it looks in the bottle.

Which is a long winded explanation of why there are 4 pictures of a polish I've already photographed!

Application was the usual perfection for a nails inc creme, this swatch is 2 coats with no top coat.

Despite the problems with capturing the polish I do really like it, but then I'm a fan of anything slightly greyed. And green to boot.  And the pics are better this time.  What do you think?

Nails Inc - Floral Street

White creme

This is number 6 in my collection of nails inc that are now available at selected Sephora.

And it's a first for me, an opaque white, Floral Street

Nails inc describe Floral Street as brilliant white and I'd go along with that, it's definitely a pure white and I was a little aprehensive that this would apply and look like tippex, but I was pleasantly surprised; application was good and while it's definitely stark it doesn't look too much like the manicures I used to do as a 13 year old whilst bored in double physics...

And although I don't have any other experience of white cremes I've read enough to think that 2 coats to non-streaky opaqueness isn't half bad.

Nails Inc - Belgrave Place

Blurple creme

Another classic nails inc colour is Belgrave Place, a deep blue creme with a good dose of purple. This isn't a particularly unique colour, I've used this in a previous comparison post but still a great colour/polish.

Belgrave Place is a great blurple, though of course given the challenges of photographing purples this shows more blue in the photos than IRL (I have tweaked these pics to attempt to make them more colour accurate)

It's very opaque, swatch shown is 2 coats with no topcoat, I probably could've done 1 thick one...  And it's super glossy.

And, before I forget, this is one of the nails inc colours available in the US from selected Sephora

Nails Inc - St John's Wood

Periwinkle blue/purple creme

St John's Wood is defnitely one of my favourite Nails Inc polishes - it's a fantastic, pretty unique colour that's super opaque and easy to apply.  It's not hard to find either, somehow I've ended up with six bottles from various nails inc offers (I really must find the time for a blog sale!)

Probably the only downside of St John's Wood is it isn't very shiny - it really needs a good coat of top coat to make it sing.

Swatches shown here are 2 coats, without top coat and  application was darn near perfect.  In reality it's a shade more purple than shown here...

Again this is one of the colours available from Sephora, although of course it'll come in  the new style bottles rather than my 'vintage' style one shown here!

Nails Inc - Thames

Mid to dark grey creme

Next up in my nails inc/Sephora collection is Thames.

Thames is a mid to dark slightly blue toned grey creme.

Nails inc describe it as a dark cement grey.

Swatch is 2 coats, no top coat.

This is another classic, well behaved nails inc creme, application & pigmentation are fantastic

Nails Inc - St James's

Bright red creme

Next up in my Nails Inc Sephora collection is St James's

I love this polish, I've always been a red fan but kinda gave up on them because all the ones I'd tried seemed to take too many coats before they were opaque...

Not so St James's...

This swatch is 2 coats, and it's almost opaque in one.

St James's is a bright red creme, I don't think it's orange toned or pink toned, it seems like a straight up red.

It's actually not a plain creme, there is a small amount of shimmer, it's not massively visible but does add a bit more interest to this great red.

Application and formula were great. If you're looking for a fantasic red creme you could do a lot worse than St James's