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.

Catrice 60 Seconds - Vibrant Violet

Dark pink creme  

Total fail on the polish name, how on earth is this violet??!

This is Catrice 60 Seconds Nail Couture in 200 Vibrant Violet.  Except it's not violet at all, it's a deep pink creme, ah well.

Application was great, despite being a touted as a quick dry and it was nearly opaque in 1 coat

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.  Lovely and shiny.

Again this is one from the archives, I picked this up in 2010 and it might've been released in 2009 - oddly there are a few available on ebay uk....

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.

Catrice - Am I Blue or Green

Pastel turquoise creme

My first thought on looking at this was how much it reminded me of Illamasqua Nudge but I don't have that polish to compare and couldn't find any comparisons in the blogosphere.  So just know that in my mind they're pretty dupey!

Am I Blue or Green is a pastel blue leaning turquoise creme.

This polish claims to only need 2 coats and I'd say it meets that claim.  And for a pastel the application and coverage were great

My swatch shows 2 coats on each except pointer which has 3 as I overspread the first coat - d'oh

Oh I wish Catrice were available in the UK....

Catrice - Plum Play with Me

Mid-purple creme

Plum Play with Me is a mid-dark purple creme

I found this one a bit tricky to work with, it dries fast and I couldn't seem to get the right amount on the brush

On the positive side it's a fab colour which reminds me of the Nubar purple collection and it's very shiny!

Swatch is 2 coats with no top coat

Catrice - Black Beauty

Black packed with copper flakes

 

 After yesterday's disaster I thought I'd redress the balance with a fab Catrice

This is a different type of Catrice polish, 60 Seconds Nail Couture in a taller, narrower bottle. Pretty sure this is the only one of this type I have.

Black Beauty is a gorgeous black (it looks more brown to me but given the name I'm assuming black!) with lots of sparkly copper coloured shimmery flakes.  Easy to apply and dries smooth and glossy. Fabulous.

Swatch is 2 coats, with no top coat but look how shiny it is?! Definitely a winner

Catrice - Mirror, Mirror

Silver chrome/frost





Oh dear, you can see from the mess I made of this swatch that me and this polish really didn't get along.

Brushstrokey, streaky and I even got a ding on my index finger - gawd.

These terrible swatches belong to Catrice Mirror, Mirror from the Glamourama Collection
I'd describe Mirror Mirror as a silver chrome with a dollop of frost

Swatch shown is 3 coats, no top coat.

Yuk...

Catrice - Big Spender Wanted!

Rose pink with fine gold shimmer

Weird name huh? And the feminist in me balks at the sentiment. Ah well, it's a pretty colour, slightly dusky pink with a pretty gold shimmer

Swatch is 2 coats, no top coat. Application, formula and brush were all good.

Catrice - Petit Four As Dessert

pale taupe with secret shimmer

After a busy week at work with a couple of flights, (one of which I spent 2 hours on the plane @LHR waiting for BA to find a First Officer to help fly the plane) I'm getting started on swatching & reviewing my most recent haul from Germany.

First up is one from the Catrice Ultimate Nudes collection, generally this collection was a little too nude for me, if you know what I mean, but this one as a lightish taupe/mushroom shade stood out and the secret shimmer clinched the deal.





Petit Four As Dessert is a pale taupe creme with secret shimmer.
Swatch shown is 3 coats with no top coat.

It's more sheer than I'd like but pretty with the shimmer

Germany Polish Haul

Yes, another one...

I work for a global IT company in Technical Sales and one or twice a year we get sent off on an enablement event, usually 3-5 days of 1-2 hour sessions to learn about new products, updates and strategy.

The region I'm part of is called North East and includes Germany and the Nordics so in the last 14 months I've been to the Stuttgart area of Germany 4 times! Don't get me wrong, I like Germany and the nail polish shopping is excellent as you'll see from my haul pics.

But the other main region in Europe is South West and their enablement event was in Barcelona - need I say more?!

Having been to this location before, and due to all the shops in Stuttgart city centre being closed on Sunday (remember when the UK used to be like that?!) I shopped at the same two stores in the small town we were located in, DM and Ihr Platz.

Anyhow, enough whingeing about free trips to Europe - on with the haul pics.

P2 Sun Collection (part of)

Essence @Holographics.com collection (no, they're not Holo but duochrome!)

P2

P2 LE and Essence Paradoxal dupe?

Catrice

Catrice, look at that beauty in the middle!

Catrice - why am I suddenly drawn to Orange?

Essence toppers

Catrice

Catrice - Looking Greyt

And the last from the Expect the Unexpected LE Collection that I got is Looking Greyt - I think there was one other, a pinky purple creme?





Looking Greyt is a darkish blue-toned grey.
And this is that rare beast, a one coat wonder!

Again great formula and application - these really are fab for drugstore polishes - I wish they sold them in the UK...

Catrice- Purposely Purple

Next up is Purposely Purple, again from the Expect the Unexpected LE Collection

 
It's a mid purple creme, not massively unique but nice all the same.
This is 2 coats, no top coat. Again the formula was great and super opaque.


I thought this could be pretty dupey so I did a quick & dirty comparison with Ciate Talent Scout and Nails Inc Duchess Street.


l-r Talent Scout, Duchess Street, Purposely Purple, Purposely Purple

IRL Talent Scout is close but slightly lighter & pinker, Duchess Street is darker.

Catrice - Spruced Up

Here's the first of those Catrice's from Germany

This is Spruced Up from the Expect the Unexpected LE Collection




As hinted by the name this is a fir green/teal creme. Formula and application were great and this is 2 coats.

It's a lovely colour and I can see myself wearing this a lot over the winter.

And I really like how Catrice add different prints to the bottle for their limited edition collections.

Mini Germany Haul

Hey, I'm back from *another* trip to Germany. Unfortunately the strong storms in the UK last week meant our flight was delayed and we got back a day late.

Sadly this didn't give me more time for polish shopping as the town we were staying in, Herrenberg, is pretty small and didn't have any great places to buy polish.

I did pick up a few from Ihr Platz, the local drugstore though - hey what's a business trip without polish!


Catrice LE's


More Catrice LE's and a sparkly Maybelline

And these were waiting for me when I got home



Swatches to follow

Germany Haul

Sorry for the lack of posts but I've been away rather a lot this month (work and fun related) so haven't had much time for blogging.

But of course I did find a little time for haulage.

First trip was to a conference in Dusseldorf - unfortunately the conference venue was a little way out of the city and so it was tricky to find time to shop but thanks to a long lunch hour one day and speedy cab journey across the city I managed to hit Kaufhof, a German department store, which the wonders of the interweb told me were a Catrice stockist. Actually their Catrice selection wasn't great but they did have some other goodies - read on for haul and bottle shots!


I picked up this sweet collection of Alessandro polishes. They're a German brand, cute bottles and finishes but not great value - I think they're nearly 4 Euros for a teeny 5ml bottle. But several of them have lots of lovely shimmer that will hopefully be visible on the nail


950 - Golden Goddess


949 - Green Green Baby


947 - Hottie


289 - can't find a name for this one...


853 - Desert Rose


281 - no name again...


Picked up an interesting Art Deco at the airport and a couple of Essences in Kaufhof (Fabuless and Choose Me!)


Choose Me


Art Deco 285


And these are uma - never seen or heard of these before but the colours looked sparkly and fun!


l-r Supernova, Flirty (which is much more pink than this pic)


And these are mini uma's l-r artic blue, cherry blossom, sunburst



Some more Essence's and a couple of Catrice
l-r Most Wanted, Walk of Fame, From Dusk To Dawn, Wine-tastic


Closeup of Wine-Tastic

Also a couple more in the airport that I'll share in another post!