Nails Inc November - Elizabeth Street

Delicate Nude Creme   

This shade, along with Victoria and St John's Wood are the Nails inc shades I have most duplicates of, at least 5 of each!  I haven't ever worn this one though.  You know, me and sheers....!

Elizabeth Street is a milky cream but with a small amount of pearlyness
Nails inc describe it as a delicate nude cream

Swatch is 2 coats over nails inc soho silk

Application was ok, slightly streaky..

I actually quite like this one, it does give a delicate feel to my nails and my nails look clean and soft.  Ideal bridal mani I'd say  if I was that way inclined!

And for UK gals, this is one of the colours featured as a freebie with the December issue of Glamour magazine. The magazine is only £2 so you can grab yourself a bargain!

Nails Inc November - Fulham Road

Pinky lilac shimmer   

Fulham Road is a sheer mid to light pinky lilac shimmer.  There's also masses of fine sparkly pale pink shimmer that you can see well in the second, sunlight shot.

Swatch is 3 coats and you can still see a hint of vnl.  Shiny though!

This is a strange one, I suppose it might appeal if you usually wear  pale pinks and french mani type colours and want something different but can't or don't want to move too far from your comfort zone.  

It's pretty and mildly sparkly but isn't going to offend anyone, unless it's with the VNL!

This could also be interesting as a layering polish over a base colour that wasn't too different.

Nails Inc November - Holbein Place

Denim blue pearly shimmer   

Holbein Place is from a QVC party collection, possibly Winter 2010

It's a deep denim blue pearly shimmer, verging on metallic I suppose.

Swatch show is just one coat and no top coat.

Love the colour and I love a one-coater which means I can forgive the slight frostiness of the finish.

Nails Inc November - Ebury Mews

Chalky pearlescent lilac   

Ebury Mews is a very strange polish.  Let's start with the easy part, the colour, it's a pale pinkish lilac.  It's got a strong white base, that's almost chalky.  But it's also pearlescent, with a pale lilac/pink pearlised finish.  Very unusual in my collection.

Swatches are shown with 2 coats.  Application was slightly streaky probably because of the white base

This one is another vintage polish but it crops up frequently on ebay for peanutes.  And there's a few Ebury polishes, as well as Ebury Mews there's also Ebury Place and Ebury Bridge that I know of...

Nails Inc November - Miami Purple

Bright purple neon jelly

This week, with arrivals from ebay, QVC and Nails Inc themselves,  my Nails Inc collection topped over 400 unique colours... I know, I have a problem!

But I thought I'd make the most of my 'problem' and do a whole month of Nails Inc swatches, this will encourage me to swatch more of my collection (I've done pretty much all my purples, reds, pinks and sheers so far and lots of randoms) and photobomb you all with Nails Inc, my favourite brand for a whole month!

So let's kick off with an oldie, sorry vintage, colour from my collection, Miami Purple.

I think Miami Purple was released in 2008 but it does still pop up on (UK) ebay now and again.

Miami Purple is a neon purple plum jelly

Swatches shown are 3 coats, first one without topcoat so you can see the neon satin finish, last two with topcoat to show off the jellyness.

It's obviously fairly sheer and was kinda runny but given that application wasn't too bad.

And one last point to beware of - this stained my nails using OPI natural nail basecoat.

Nails Inc - Draycott Place

Deep orange creme for Halloween  

Hmmm, I didn't set up that scheduled post very well - this obviously shouldn't gone out yesterday!

As regular readers will know I'm not one for nail art (I've never tried Konading, freehand painting, taping or even a French mani!) so I'm afraid a orange mani is the best you'll get from me for Halloween!

This is Draycott Place from Nails Inc.

It's a  deep orange creme

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat and unfortunately you can see a not very well covered repair on my ring finger - apologies!

Butter London - Perfect Prezzie

Deep burgundy red shimmer   

Another Butter London with some slightly elusive shimmer.

You can see masses of of fine golden shimmer in the bottle - look, swathes of it!

That doesn't transfer to the nail, don't get me wrong, you can certainly see the shimmer on the nail but it's nowhere near as visible as in the bottle - ah well, the joys of nail polish eh?!

Application was great, the formula, brush and application were all fab.

And it's pretty much opaque in one coat, the second (shown in the swatch pics) just adds depth

Butter London - Fash Pack

Grey toned brown creme  

Some more Butter London swatches from the Picasa archive!

Here is Butter London's Fash Pack

It's a deep/dark greige I suppose, but definitely more brown leaning than some and without a purple tinge.  I'd describe it as a slightly grey toned brown creme with some very secret gold shimmer that really isn't very visible at all - can you spot it?

Application was great and the swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

I do like it, just wish the shimmer was a little more front and centre....

Alix Avien - 243 (Paradoxal dupe)

Purple/taupe with purple shimmer

I picked up this polish on hols in Turkey last year, from a quick google search I'm pretty sure it's a native Turkish brand which is cool.

Obviously it's not the most unique of colours, I'm sure it was created as a dupe for Chanel Paradoxal, but hey, it's a good dupe and was a lot cheaper than Chanel!

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

Formula was gloopy and a little tricky to work with.  I wore this on holiday and it lasted well

It's pretty of course, just like the original!

Barbara Daly - Glamour

Vampy purple shimmer  

Glamour is a gorgeous purple shimmer. The shimmer is purple and pink and really makes the polish glow

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat and the polish is nice and shiny.

Barbara Daly make-up was created by the eponymous British make-up artist and is exclusive to Tesco, the biggest supermarket chain in the UK.

The polishes retail for £3 IIRC

China Glaze - Laced Up

Bubblegum pink creme

Blimey, my first China Glaze swatch!  Not sure how that happened as I have a reasonable collection of them including a great joblot haul I picked up from ebay for a song.

Laced Up is a fabulously pink creme from the China Glaze Summer 2009 collection so this must've been one I picked up on ebay.

Application was fine although as you may be  able see in the pics that I had some problems with the polish not self-levelling.  Would easily be fixed by a coat of top coat though.

Swatch shown is 2 coats, no top coat.

Overall it's nice but nothing unique, in fact I have another China Glaze, Rich & Famous which looks very similar.

Essence - Show Your Feet - Purple Magic

Purple shimmer for toes

Don't panic - there are no toes in this blogpost!

So, a first for this blog, toe nail polish.

What makes it toe nail polish you might be asking?

...an antibacterial formula, long lasting and great coverage with just one coat - according to the bottle

Antibacterial formula?  Now I'm no chemist or doctor but my gut feel is that the cocktail of chemicals that make up your average nail polish is pretty inhospitable to bacteria at the best of times, right?  And generally I'm not a fan of antibacterial chemicals being added to stuff as it just gives all the nasty bugs time to get used to the low doses and become immune.  Anyhow, rant over.

Purple Magic is a purple shimmer with very fine pink and grey shimmer.   I love the colour if not the concept!

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat and as you can see it's not v. shiny and would benefit from top coat to gloss it up!

What you think of the Toe Nail Polish concept?  Marketing gone mad or a useful addition given some folks feet?!

Barielle - Gotta Have Fate

Coral jelly

Gotta Have Fate is a fabulous coral jelly that I got as part of a boxset from TK Maxx.

I've picked up several of those boxsets, they're a complete bargain at £10 for 5 polishes.

Not to mention that Barielle are almost impossible to find in the UK through normal stockists....

Gotta Have Fate is a fantastically pigmented jelly
Swatch shown is just 2 coats with no top coat - it's so very shiny