Catrice - Forget-Me-Not

Purple packed with purple/pink shimmer 

I'm sharing these old swatches (2011!) because I'm wearing this polish today (Nov 2023) and because I miss blogging.  

I know nail blogging is pretty much dead and I'm not going to start a resurgence but I might share a few old swatches as I downsize my collection.

Nails Inc - Old Queen Street

White shimmer with gold flash

 Old Queen Street is a soft white shimmer with a gold flash

Swatch is 2 coats with no top coat

Nails Inc - Mercer Street

Bright blue creme gel effect  

It's a lovely sunny day here in Ascot so I thought I'd go for something bright.

Mercer Street is a bright, mid blue creme in a gel effect finish.

Application was good, swatches are 2 coats with no top coat,  but as you can see from my slightly dodgy cleanup this is a bit of a 'stainer' like a lot of blues and it's difficult to get a clean line.
But super shiny!

Nails Inc - The Boltons

Red gel-effect shimmer

The Boltons, here in Gel Effect, is a classic red shimmer

Application was good and these swatches are only one coat!

I wasn't familiar with The Boltons as a place in London so did a bit of googling.  It's in the Royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea and is one of the top 10 most expensive streets in Britain with an average home cost of £13million - eeek!

Nails Inc - Marylebone Road

Spring green creme  

We've had warmer weather, several days of sunshine and all the trees are in bud so I'm officially calling Spring!  So here's a lovely spring green creme.

Marylebone Road was part of the Picnic Perfect collection in 2014.  It's a light green, not super pastel but not strong either.

As you can see the shade varies depending on the light, looking more pastel or warmer in different conditions.

Application wasn't great - like a lot of pastels this had pretty streaky application and I had to apply 3 coats to get it looking ok

Nails Inc - Gel Effect - Old Bond Street

Deep purple creme  

Old Bond Street is a deep purple creme gel effect polish

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

I didn't test the wear on these so couldn't say if the gel-effect is just a glossy finish or long wear too.

The Nails Inc site indicates that these are glossy and long wearing but I don't believe that any regular polish could last as long as soak off gel polish.

And of course, Nails Inc have since changed the bottles for the Gel Effect range to the super chunky concave bottles.

Rococo - Spellbound

Blue-green with foil shimmer

After my generally good results with Rococo polishes from the SpaceNK bargains last year, I picked up a couple more in the treasure trove that is TK Maxx!

Spellbound is a gorgeous slightly green blue packed with fine blue shimmery foil.  Although it does look a bit glitter like it's not gritty at all, the foil gives a much smoother finish.

The shimmeryness isn't quite as visible on the nail as in the bottle, but she's still very pretty!

Application was good and swatches are 2 coats, no top coat.

RRP for Rococo is around the £12, I paid £3 in TK.

Nails Inc Gel Effect - St James

True red  creme

OMG, March - how did that happen?  I was away twice in February (Lisbon and Venice) so I'm afraid blogging took a bit of a back seat.

My Venice trip was to celebrate my 50th birthday!  So this is officially my first blog post as a 50 something blogger.  I'm pretty sure there aren't many others out there but give me a shout if you are!

On to the nails....

St James is one of my favourite Nails Inc colours, a fabulous true blue red with a very secret shimmer.

This is a 'Gel Effect' version with plumping effect, so extra shiny.

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

St James is a super old Nails Inc colour dating back to 2008 at least... obviously the Gel Effect version is much more recent.

Sinful - Trend Matters Velvet - Kurtsey (DemiMatte)

Periwinkle blue/lilac with fine gold shimmer

Kurtsey is a soft cornflower blue with fine gold shimmer/pearl.  It definitely looks more lilac in my pics than in real life where it's more blue.

As name suggests it dries with a satin finish and a soft glow.

Application was fine but this took 3 coats to full opacity.  But I forgive as it's so pretty!

This is from the rather extensive Sinful collaboration with Kylie Jenner in 2016.  I happened to spot a small collection in Superdrug - I always forget that Sinful is now available in the UK.

Barry M - Limited Edition - Golden Sands

Pinkish nude with gold shimmer  

Golden Sands is a Boots exclusive Barry M.

It's a peach nude creme that is packed with gold flakie shimmer - super pretty!

Swatches are 2 coats with no top coat.  As you can see this polish doesn't have a super shiny finish.

Unfortunately this was limited edition for Summer 2016 so you might have trouble getting hold of this one.

Nails Inc - Mayfair

Off-white pearl  

Happy New Year - a bit of a slow start to the year (and a quiet December) but my plan is to keep chipping away at my blog in 2017!

Mayfair is an pearl finish polish in a slightly off white, I think Nails Inc called it oyster white.  There's a smidge of pink and some warm grey/putty in there I'd say.  

Swatches were 2 coats (but 3 on my pinky finger) and for a white pearl finish the brush strokes weren't too bad at all.

I'm not much of a fan of white polishes but I don't mind this - it's clean but soft.

And there are many, many Nails Inc Mayfairs - Mayfar Mews, Mayfair Gardens,  Mayfair Lane and Mayfair Court!

All That Jazz - Hello, Mr. Wolf!

Cool brown creme  

  

After seeing this new-to-me UK brand on another blog I picked up a couple of 4-bottle collections from ebay.

Hello, Mr Wolf! is a cool toned milky brown creme.

Application was good, swatches shown are two coats with no top coat.  And you can see it's not super shiny without one.

The bottles are a generous 15ml and this one was from The Enchanted Forest Collection.  The collections are available from the All That Jazz site for £29.98

Nails Inc November - Alice & Olivia - Sheer Beauty

Peach nude creme  

Sheer Beauty is an extremely misnamed peach nude creme

It's not sheer and it was certainly not a beauty.  The formula was horrible, it pulled back on every coat and even with three coats there are some baldish patches - bleurrgghh.

Swatches shown are 3 coats, no top coat.

I picked this polish up as part of a cute set of two mini polishes, a full size shimmer and this lovely printed bag.  Thankfully I didn't pay full price and the other two polishes are good.

The Alice & Olivia collection is a collaboration with alice + olivia by Stacey Bendet, a fairly high end fashion line.