ASOS Paint Pots by Ciaté

I spotted these new polishes while browsing on ASOS (always a dangerous activity!) I've got quite a selection of the original Ciaté paint pots so of course I couldn't resist trying one of these

 
 
I picked Mary-Kate, a black creme with gold shimmer (and a touch of blue/pink shimmer too)

Application was good but this is one of those polishes that eats topcoat! This is 2 coats of polish and 3 coats of Seche Vite and it's still not madly glossy!

I like the fact that they'e carried the sweet bottle bow across to this line too.

 
Click the pic for a bigger version to see the shimmer.

Overall I really liked this polish.

Anyone else tried any of these?

H&M Polishes

 

I picked these up a couple of months ago at H&M on Oxford Street. I didn't know H&M sold nail polish so I was pretty excited to spot these and squeeed at the colours!

 
 
First up is Enchantress Emma, a turquoise blue with blue shimmer.

Gorgeous colour but this was very slow to dry and this is 3 coats and I still have VNL


 

Next is Fashionista, a mid royal purple shimmer. I *love* this colour, it's just beautiful and this is only 2 coats. This is definitely the star of the show for me.

 


Finally - Sophisticated Susanna, a bright coral with slight shimmer. Again this is
2 coats.

Overall the bright, unique (for me) colours and the right amount of shimmer in these polishes compensated for the minor application issues.

I can't remember how much they were, I think less than £5 each though

New Brand Compulsion

I have a compulsion, not just for nail polish, but to buy nail polish brands I don't have or haven't seen before. No doubt close cousin to the compulsion to buy first issues of magazines and why removal men will always curse and mutter under their breath as they have to move *another* heavy box full of magazines!

So the other week I found myself browsing on the Debenhams site in the beauty section. For non-UK readers Debenhams is a mid-market department store that sells a variety of branded and own-brand goods. I don't usually shop there for beauty items, I'm not really a high-end beauty gal and the only nail polish I'd seen was Nails Inc at scary full price!

Out of habit I did a search on nail polish which threw up lots of exciting (for me!) new brands.

First up is Urban Retreat. According to their website Urban Retreat are a pioneer in luxury hair and beauty, a beauty paradise with a vast range of lavish treatments, services, and products from some of the finest brands in the world, all under one roof.

Who knew? I certainly didn't. What I did glean was that the polishes were created by Leighton Denny, probably the UK's most high profile nail technician who has his own eponymous polish brand, one I don't own, yet. I just can't get past his prices, they retail around £10 and there's never been a colour I just *had* to have.

All the Urban Retreat colours were half price at £5 for two bottles.

So I ordered up all three duos, Metallic, Glam and Classic. Each contains two 8ml bottles in complimentary colours.

I've only swatched one so far, from the Glam collection called 'UR Envied'

 


It's a bright fuchsia pink shimmer with a strong purple flash. It's a nice bright colour, not my usual style and made me feel a bit 80's.

This was two coats, application wasn't great as the brush was too long and somehow splayed at the end and combined with the slightly gloopy polish made it all quite hard work. I felt like I was fighting the polish all the time and I did a lot of muttering about the *big fat brush*.

Unfortunately this has made me less likely to invest in Leighton Denny - surely they have better brushes?

Green Glitter - My Bonfire Night mani

Just a quick post to show the glittery green mani I wore over the weekend to my family's annual bonfire night party.

 
 

It's two coats of the awesome Barielle Date Night with two coats of Nyx Lime Sparkle. I really like how this turned out and couldn't stop looking at my nails. As ever, click for *really* big pics but don't look too close at the cuticles - my hand cream/cuticle oil/lemony flutter habit has uninhabited itself.

I'm sure most folk reading this will already be aware of Date Night but for the uninitiated, Date night is a fantastic emerald green shimmer that Barielle released in 2008 as part of the Fall Affair collection. I was lucky enough to find these in a CVS when I was in the US earlier this year. It applies flawlessly, dries fast and is opaque in 2 coats.

NYX is another US brand but this one I picked up on my cheapie haul the other weekend. It was one of the most expensive cheapies at £3.30 but totally worth it.

Unfortunately over the weekend my middle fingernail (which I was patching with a succession of silk wraps & ibd - if there's a way to make them last longer than 24hrs I need to know?!) broke off completely and I haven't got the heart to file all the others down to match.

Cheapies

Last weekend I was over in Slough. It's fair to say that Slough is not the most high end shopping experience, so after splurging at TK Maxx (TJ Maxx to US readers) I went cheapie hunting and boy, did I haul! I picked up 20 polishes, all of which were less than £3 each and most were less than £2. Some brands I'd heard of (NYX, Star Gazer, Wet n' Wild, Sleek and W7) and some were new to me (X-Plode, Make-up Academy and Go) and a mixture of US and UK brands.

First up is Mystery from Make-up Academy






It's a slightly grey toned dark blue shimmer with the blue leaning towards Air Force blue and some fine silver glitteriness.

This is 2 coats with topcoat. For a polish that cost £1.99 the application was pretty sweet, the brush was a good length and shape and the polish was opaque in two coats.

I really like this colour, the shimmer is good and I like the fact that it's not your bog standard deep blue shimmer, of which I have too many to mention!

I bought this (and two other colours) from Savers, a discount drugstore and I'm assuming it's their own brand and is unique to them.

Salzburg Haul

Apologies for the lack of posting - As well as the ongoing building work (see Builder's Tea), I've been away on a business trip to Salzburg

I was hoping to pickup some unusual polish but limited trawling of the pharmacies and nail bars near my hotel only yielded a small selection of OPI DS and some Essies - all of which were madly expensive. The euro exchange rate isn't good news for Brits shopping in Europe.

But then in the airport on the way home I was idly walking round the duty free shop, past the teddy bear's wearing leiderhosen and the chocolate Mozart balls when I stumbled upon a small nail polish stand where I spotted these beauties.

 

They're only minis but check out the awesome flakiness (click for huge pics) - if these apply anything like the bottle I'll be very pleased.

And they were only 3 euros each which didn't seem a bad price.

I think Alessandro are a German brand - anyone got any experience of these?

Urban Decay - ID

I'd been waiting for the right colour to try my bottle of Urban Decay ID over and Beverley Hills from The Hills Collection by Nails Inc looked like a good choice

  
 

Here it is in sunlight to show the awesome sparkles (click for bigger pics).

ID is a pinkish coral with huge amounts of fine gold, green and pink sparkle. It's sheer though so you'd need lots of coats for opacity on its own, or much better to layer it.

Nails Inc - The Hills Collection

So I bought this collection because it had new colours, not because I'm some huge fan of The Hills, in fact I don't know what The Hills is, other than a TV show!

I tweeted that I was swatching this collection even though I didn't know what The Hills was and this was the response from my pal, Sam:

"OMG you're like, SO not with the programme, literally. It's like a totally kewl reality show set in LA. Durrrr"

Thanks for the update Sam, I think that tells me all I need to know about the show and why I don't watch it!

On with the swatches...

First up is Rodeo Drive, a dark teal, this is in shade

and in sun


This is 2 coats and a great colour. I'm hoping do some comparisons soon but it's definitely no dupe for Illamasqua Muse or Ciate Superficial which are both lighter.

Beverley Hills.

 

Shade

and this is in sunlight

Nails inc call it a raspberry red, to me it was more of a coral with a slight jelly finish

This is 3 coats and I still have some visible VNL.

Next up is Hollywood, my first neon.

Like most neons this dries with a level of matte finish, in this case more of a satin than true matte.

The true intensity of the neon is also impossible to capture. In reality it's a much brighter pink than the photo shows!

This was 3 coats as it was a bit streaky.

I also popped on a top coat to check out the shiny version

Last up is Melrose Avenue

This is a dark blurple, Nails Inc call it an indigo which seems right. I did tweak this a little to get the colour more accurate, like most blurples it photographed more blue than the real colour.

Formula on this wasn't great, I had to do 3 coats which is almost unheard of with Nails Inc.

In fact in general I'd say this collection wasn't up to Nails Inc usual very high standard. A couple took 3 coats to be even and opaque. Some great colours but overall not a great collection.

Zoya Mieko

 

This is Mieko, a raspberry pink with strong gold shimmer, it's such a pretty colour, almost lit from within, I couldn't stop looking at it and the sparkles really catch the light

It's slightly sheer so this is 3 coats & Seche Vite topcoat. I wore this as a full mani, it didn't chip but I did have major tip pull, which was probably caused by the SV.

 

Bottle Love

I got this and all my other Zoyas that you'll see soon from the Zoya Polish Exchange

Here's how it worked
The Zoya Great Nail Polish Exchange* lets you get rid of unwanted polish (any brand other than Zoya, used or unused - empty or full) in exchange for fresh new Zoya Nail Polish. Yep, that's right, "get something for nothing"** Zoya professional nail lacquer in exchange for unwanted polish. So pack up it and trade it in - there's never been a better time to discover Zoya's award winning, long-lasting, formaldehyde, toluene, camphor and dibutyl phthalate free nail polish.

You had to pay $3 each bottle for shipping and handling, pretty cheap considering Zoya retails for £9.25/bottle in the UK. The catch was it was only open to US addresses but thanks to my good pal Carl who lives in the US and his family who have kindly tranported polish back for me I was able to take part. I shipped my 'unwanted' polish over from the UK (that's another story - after all who has unwanted polish?!) and get them delivered to a US address

Nails Inc Winter Collection 09/10 cont...

Here's the rest of the Nails Inc Autumn/Winter 09 Collection

Previous post on Victoria Gate

First up is Hampstead Heath, a slightly muted plum/raspberry creme - I still don't think it's burnt red as the Nails Inc site describes but it's a nice shade.


Hampstead Heath - Sun


Hampstead Heath - Shade

Apologies for the smeary bottle in these ones!

This is 2 coats with TC


Next is Berkley Square, a blue toned dark grey creme. Love this. Again two coats plus topcoat.

Last, but by no means least, is Belgravia, described as a warm brown shimmer which I suppose is accurate but doesn't begin the cover the gorgeousness of this polish


Belgravia - Sun


Belgravia - Shade

It's a slightly cool brown with masses of fine pink and blue shimmer


Bottle shot in an attempt to show the shimmer

In all I think this is a good collection, Hampstead Heath is probably the least exciting of the four but the others are all great.

As usual with Nails Inc these are all very pigmented and easy to work with. I got these from the Nails Inc website. They're also available from ASOS and it looks like QVC have a slightly different Autumn/Winter collection with 5 shades, some of which are different.

Taupe-ish Comparisons

Prompted by some disussion in the comments on the amazing Helen & Sheenie's Nice Things blog here are some comparison shots I took several months ago of my collection of mushroomy/taupey colours, primarily $OPI Metro Chic and Nails Inc Jermyn Street.



From l-r $OPI Metro Chic, Nails Inc Jermyn Street, Mary Quant B-23,Zoya Pasha


Bottle shots



I tweaked the colour on this shot, increasing the warmth and I think this is a more accurate colour shot.

Jermyn Street & Metro Chic are definitely similar but not dupes. Metro Chic is a tad darker and on me has less of a lavender hint, whereas Jermyn Street is lighter and slightly more purpley - on me at least!

I love them both though, they're slightly edgy and different but not too out there.

Nails Inc Winter Collection

Along with the recent Nails Inc Colour Burst offer (9 random polishes plus a basecoat for £27 - more on that later) I decided it would be churlish not to order the new Autumn Winter Collection.

The four colours (for £20)are:

Victoria Gate - Glossy purple
Hampstead Heath - Burnt red
Berkeley Square - Dark grey
Belgravia - Warm brown




I'm not sure about Hampstead Heath being burnt red, it looks more pinkish IRL than the picture but I haven't swatched or worn it yet so I'll withhold judgement.

And Belgravia looks to be more of a taupe leaning brown and has has a fine pinky/blue shimmer in the bottle.

So far I've only tried Victoria Gate which I wore as a full mani to my customer meeting on Friday and the amazing Josh Ritter gig in Oxford in the evening


This is two coats & topcoat in the shade.

As usual for Nails Inc application was good, although I didn't do a very good job on the cleanup!

HTF Week

It's HTF (Hard to Find) week on my favourite nail board so in the final gasps of the week here are some of my HTFs.

Revlon Streetwear is a much loved and much missed discontinued line from Revlon. From what I've read it was Revlon's attempt to combat the competitive threat from new brands Hard Candy and Urban Decay. As such Revlon went all out to create an amazing collection of unusual, edgy and funky shades.

I have a small collection of Streetwear polishes, 12-15 bottles I think although as my polish collection is currently split across two houses I'm not exactly sure!

I definitely have Streetwears from the US and UK collections. I'm not sure if the collections had different colours but the UK ones are made in the EEC and the US ones in the US.

The following are all from the UK/EEC collection

First up is Burnt - definitely my favourite out of the ones I got this week off ebay


Burnt is a gorgeous slightly greyed olive green with gold shimmer. A very unusual colour that really works. This is 2 coats in shade


And in sunlight you can really see the shimmer



Next up is Copper, a lovely bright copper which is almost a foil. I was surprised how good this looked on as I didn't think the colour would suit my skintone at all. Again 2 coats in shade


And in Sun

Next is Gold Mine

A slightly cool gold, again 2 coats



This is Dijon, an unsual mustard colour with a gold shimmer. This is 2 coats in the shade where it looks softer and more muted


In sunlight it's much more of a recognisable mustard colour.
Again I didn't expect to like this on at all but I it looks ok on, the gold shimmer seems to lift it.


This is Raw. It looks awesome in the bottle and I really wanted this to be better than it is. This is 5 coats, yes 5! And I still have VNL (visible nail line)

It's primarily blue with a touch of grey and a strong pink flash


In the sun it looks more shimmery and you can see the pink flash.


I've saved the best for last


This is Dark, a dark purple with silvery blue glitter. Isn't it just gorgeous? I don't think the glitter is as pronounced as other blue/purples with glitter like Essie's Starry Starry Night (which I don't own) but it is totally gorgeous. This is slightly off colour wise, it looks more blue here, it's actually more purple IRL.

The formula/application on these was ok, they were all fairly runny but not too difficult to control. The biggest problem for me was the very long brush which didn't suit my small nails at all.

But overall I love these, great colours, good application and big bottles!