Deborah Milano - 87

Bright purple shimmer  

Now you all know I'm a taupe lover but boy do I love an intense purple shimmer too, one of my all time favourite polishes is a L'Oreal Jet Set in a similar colour - 225.

So here's a similar shade from Deborah Milano, 87.

Swatches shown are two coats, no top coat, but looking at the full sun pics I probably needed a third coat, I can see a little thinness around the cuticle.

Deborah Milano is Italy's No1 Makeup brand and is now available in the UK!  The Pret à Porter polishes are available for  £3.50

Flormar - Blue Industry 450

Dark turquoise crelly  

Another polish from my long weekend in Istanbul (wonderful place despite the snow!) back in February when  I managed to grab a quick hours shopping on our last day including the Flormar and Golden Rose stores.

Blue Industry is a slightly teal leaning turquoise blue crelly, is that petrol blue?

Application was good and swatches are 2 coats, no top coat.  As it's a crelly there's a hint of nail line amongst the squishiness.

There's something quite old-school about the Flormar bottles, a combination of the tall handle and white plastic I think....

Leighton Denny - Morning Dew

Cool green creme  

Here's the second of my Harper's Bazaar covermount freebies, Morning Dew.

 

Morning Dew is a cool green creme that leans towards turquoise

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

Ooops just realise you can see the break in my index finger nail, time to top up the superglue!

Leighton Denny - It's an Honour

Cool taupe shimmer/pearl  

Free with this months issue (October - Michelle Dockery cover) of Harper's Bazaar is a choice of 6 shades of Leighton Denny polish.   Now the magazine isn't something I'd normally buy and it's a rather hefty tome with a price tag to match of £4.40.

But £4.40 for a choice from six full size Leighton Denny polishes?  That's my kind of deal.  I think this is the 4th year Harper's have done a LD covermount.

I picked up two copies earlier this week with Morning Dew, a cool green creme and It's an Honour, featured today.

 

It's an Honour is a taupe (my fave) but it's unusual shade of taupe, being very cool and quite light, almost like it's been mixed with silver.  And the finish is somewhere between shimmer and pearl to me.

Application was good, I do like the narrow LD brushes and swatches shown are 2 thick coats, if you stick to thin you'll need 3.

I really like this colour, very work appropriate but still interesting.

UK readers, have you availed of the freebie polish?!

Fashion Make Up - 139

Greyed blue creme  

 

139 is a gorgeous Airforce blue creme.  I totally love this shade of blue.

The bottle is 11ml and unfortunately comes with a super wide brush which I just managed to work with my narrow nails although my little finger was a close run thing.  Oh and the bottle says "7 days wear" - hmm, unlikely!

Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat and this is very shiny and 'enamel' looking.

Fashion Make-Up is a French brand I've never heard of and this cost me the grand total of £1.40 from a French sale site.

Butter London - Muggins

Pale mauve creme  

Muggins is a pale lilac/mauve with a hint of grey in the mix.

Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat and application was fine for me, although I noticed several other swatchers needed 3 coats and found it a bit tricky.

This was another TK Maxx purchase for just £4....

Soigné Botanique - Pistache

Pale grey/green creme  

Soigné Botanique is a new brand to me, this one came in a monthly beauty box.

The name means elegant & well groomed and the polish is made in France, which seems appropriate!

Pistache is a Grey/Sage Green creme.

I really like this colour, I'm a big fan of grey and the green tinge lifts it.

Pistache is part of the Macaroon collection and all the shade names in the range are French.

Soigné RRP is £11, bottle size is 10ml, which is the same as Nails Inc but somehow seems smaller!  Although they have a great sale on at the moment with loads of polishes at £4.95.

SuperDry - Scrambler Green

Pale green creme  

Another SuperDry from TK Maxx which only cost me £3

Scrambler Green is a light green creme, maybe a little pistachio leaning.

Application was good, swatches are 2 coats which was just about enough...

No idea what the name means, to me a scrambler is a motorbike, maybe it's different in the world of SuperDry...

Butter London - Brick Lane

Burnt orange shimmer

Sorry for the lack of post readers, I've been away on holiday - two weeks in Iceland which was brilliant, such amazing landscapes and natural beauty and masses of fun activities!

Anyhow back to the swatches...

Hmmm, bottle shot is kinda soft focus!

Brick Lane is a gorgeous rich burnt orange shimmer.  The shimmer is golden and complements the orange nicely.

Swatches shown are two coats, no top coat.

Brick Lane is also the name of the six piece mini collection - my first BL mini's and they're good, same format bottle just a little smaller and brush was still very workable.

Superdry - Blue Mercury

Intense mid blue crelly

I didn't know Superdry did cosmetics until I spotted this in TK Maxx but to be fair I've never been in a Superdry store (if such a thing exists).  God I sound old!

Anyhow, on to the polish...

Mercury Blue is a fabulous bright blue crelly.  The bottles are 10ml and there's a variety of different bottle overprinting styles available.

Application was good, the brush is regular style, ie not wide/flat.

Swatches shown are 3 coats, with no top coat.  Three coats is not great but it's such a great colour and shine I'm prepared to forgive it!

Anyone else tried Superdry polishes?  I picked mine up for a bargainous £2 in TK, I think the original retail was around £6.

Alessandro - Midnight Violet

Mid purple creme  

Here's Midnight Violet from Alessandro's Summer of Love collection.

Midnight Violet is a mid-toned purple creme.  It's a mini sized bottle at only 5ml but actually this seems to be the most common Alessandro size so I don't know if they'd call it mini.

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

Alessandro is a German brand, I have bought some on trips to Germany but pretty sure this one came from an internet order from a French private sale site!   I really like Alessandro products, their hand creams in particular are excellent, but they can be a little expensive at full retail. Thankfully thanks to the sale site this only cost me £1.20!

Golden Rose - Rich Color 34

Rich burgundy shimmer  

Golden Rose Rich Color in 34 is a rich, shimmering plum/burgundy.

This was almost a one-coat wonder for me and the polish is marketed as a one-coat product, but these swatches are 2 coats for full depth of colour.

And the one-step maxi brush wasn't too bad at all.  I think I'm realising that not all wide or maxi brushes are terrible for me - although there is still a special place in hell for the MeMeMe maxi wide brushes!

Golden Rose - Paris 140

Deep grey/navy crelly 

Another from my Istanbul haul...

140 is a greyed navy crelly, which applies both darker but slightly less grey than it looks in the bottle.

Application was great and these swatches are 3 coats, no top coat.

But look at that shine!  I can see the sky and the green bush outside my window reflected in the shine.