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 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.

Nails Inc November - Instyle Bare

Creamy nude creme  

Instyle Bare is a soft peachy nude creme with a great shine.

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

As the name suggests it was a covermount giveaway with Instyle magazine way back in 2009.

Nails Inc November - Brooklyn

Nude pearl with pink flash  

The final polish in the 2011 Mad Men themed collection, it turned out I did have Brooklyn after all!

Brooklyn is a slightly sludgy, greyish nude pearl with a pretty strong pink flash.

Swatches shown are 2 coats, no top coat and pretty visible nail line.  I obviously decided that 3 coats wouldn't be enough either so stuck to two!

I am a big Mad Men fan, the styling, fashion, Don Draper (of course), cocktails, the level of detail etc but oddly I don't associate  Brooklyn with the show very much.

Vintage Varnish - Sparkle & Fade - Nude/Peach

Nude/Peach creme  

Another Sparkle & Fade...

This one is a nude/peach creme.  It reminds me of a really rich thick cream or vintage lingerie.  But more peach!

Application was ok, this swatch is 3 coats, no top coat.  Not sure how well this works with my skintone but I do like it.

I also found this article from Elle UK back in 2008 which seems to indicate that Models Own was first launched into Urban Outfitters - so is it a coincidence that the bottles for Sparkle & Fade are the same as Models Own?!

Nubar - Gem

Pink/taupe scattered holo  

Gem is from Nubar's 2010 Prism collection which was all holo's IIRC.

It's a pretty pinkish taupe shimmering polish with scattered slightly chunky holo sparkles

The formula was a little thin, this swatch is 3 coats with no top coat and regular base coat.

Definitely a great example of a subtle holo.

Andrea Fulerton - Matthew

Pale nude shimmer with pink flash

Eeek - this polish does not work with my skintone and was a bit of a mare to apply and looks patchy in some of the pics.  That makes it a total fail for me.

Matthew from Andrea Fulerton is a nude shimmer with a mild pink  flash.

Application was mildy tricky and streaky.  Swatch shown is 3 coats and you can still see some VNL.

Yuk.

Nails Inc November - Dulwich

Nude jellyish creme   

Dulwich (the w is silent so it's like dull-itch rolled together!) is a nude creme with more than a hint of jelly.  Look how shiny it is!

This one definitely works as a mannequin hands polish or BBB (Band-aid But Better) with my skintone

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

I don't know much about Dulwich the place, it's in South London and Enid Blyton was born there...

Paul & Joe 23 aka Dress Up?

Sheer nude with holo glitter

The third of the trio is probably the only one I'll keep, for the uniqueness.

Dress Up is a sheer (sound familiar?!) nude with biggish holo glitter

Again, did I mention  it was sheer?! the swatch is 3 coats and of course I still have visible nail line.

Next time I will definitely layer this over a nude underwear coat.

As well as sheer it was also gloopy - joy.

So overall my first experience of Paul & Joe polish was not a winner.

Was I just unlucky?  Are all the other polishes super opaque and apply like butter?  Put me out of my misery!

Models Own - Nude Beige

Nude creme

 Models Own Nude Beige is one of those 'does what it says on the bottle'.  It's a lovely, easy to apply nude beige creme.

Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat and as you can see it's lovely and shiny.

I really like this one, as you know I'm a big fan of taupe/mushroom polishes and although this one is lighter than most it still has a hint of grey to stop it being BBB

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

Basic - 120

nude creme

Another of those Basic mini's from the German drugstore.






This is 120, a nude beige creme

It's a bit 'mannequin hands' on me, but I do quite like it. Also this is the only bottle which has those palm trees on so I assume it was some kind of special edition

Nails Inc - Limited Edition Royal Collection - Part I

Royal Wedding themed collection of four polishes

Oh blimey, two days to go and I still haven't posted this collection!

First up, let me say, I'm not a Royalist nor a particular fan of Wills and Kate, but I am a fan of extra Bank Holidays (yay) and a sucker for Limited Edition collections (foolish, I know) and hey the whole world has gone Royal Wedding crazy!!

So the Royal Collection is a set of "4 limited edition glossy nail polishes to nail the regal look" according to Nails inc.

They come in a gold tinged presentation box, all the polishes have appropriately royal names and more unusually they have gold coloured caps rather than the usual silver.





So onto the polishes...

First up is Balmoral – a delicate biscuit nude


Direct Sun



Indirect light


Swatch is 2 coats with no topcoat. Application was the usual nails inc goodness.

This is a nice neutral nude, very work appropriate.

The second polish is Sandringham – a glossy metallic red







Again application was great and swatch is 2 coats with no top coat.

Sandringham is a lovely shimmery red, it's definitely got that lit from within glow.

Tune in tomorrow for the other two polishes in this collection.

Zoya - Skye

Nude pink creme





Zoya Skye is a dusky pink/nude creme, the swatch is shown with 3 coats, no topcoat.

Slightly troublesome application for me, in hindsight maybe I should've used Barielle Camo. On me it's almost a BBB but just doesn't quite suit my skintone.

BobbyPin Nail Collection from Boots

I thought I'd share these swatches as all the Christmas gift sets seem to be half price in Boots now.

This is a BobbyPin gift set with 4 polishes, two toe separators and a leopard print nail file, all presented in a squarish zip up clear bag.

Both the bag and the polishes have line drawing artwork - which I like and almost makes up for no polish names or numbers!

Bobbypin is created by jeffrey fulvimari, who google informs me is a fashion illustrator best known for illustrating Madonnas children's book.




I could only find my swatch pictures for two of the colours - I'm sure I swatched all of them but they're hiding, pesky pics!


First up is Stripey Hat Lady - a nude shimmer.


This is 2 coats, no topcoat and application was fine.  As you can see the bottles are of the Nails Inc style with the lid being as wide as the polish bottle which I know some gals find tricky.  The polish consistency and brush were fine, although the brush was a little short so you might run into problems towards the bottom of the bottle.  The bottles are also pretty wee at 4.5ml - a little bigger than an OPI mini but smaller than an Orly mini.

I really like this colour, it's subtle and elegant - definitively a conservative work friendly shade.


Next up is Wavy Haired Earring Lady - a cool toned mid purple pearl/chrome. 



Again this is two coats and application was good. And not too bad on the brushstroke front given the finish.

The other two colours are a dusky pink shimmer (Wavy Haired Necklace) and a bright red creme (Sunglasses Lady).  They'll turn up as soon as I hit publish, right?!

[edit] I took new pictures for Sunglasses Lady - a bright red creme, this is two coats, probably could've used 3



The original price for this set was £10 so £2.50 per polish if you don't include the extras. Not too bad a price but this set was in the Boots gift promotion where you got 3 for the price of 2 so I didn't pay that much. And of course post-Xmas it'll be £5 which is definitely worth a punt if you can find some.