Nails Inc Instyle - Boys of Summer

Bright pink creme  

I showed the first of the Instyle covermount polishes from 2015 last month - here's the next one - the theme was 80's anthems...

Boys of Summer is a cool toned bright pink creme

Application was great as you'd expect from a Nails Inc creme

Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat.

Layla - Hologram Effect - Cloudy Violet

Purple linear holo  

It's the late May Bank Holiday here in the UK and I'm off the rest of the week too - heading off to Marrakesh on Wednesday for 5 days  - so excited!

So I'd thought I'd got for a polish with a holiday feeling, even if unfortunately, the sun isn't shining in my part of England...

Cloudy Violet is a gorgeous purple linear holo - totally stunning.

Application was good once I'd worked out the best base coat to use.  The polish is very thin/runny but covers well.

Swatches are 2 coats over Gosh f/x base

OPI - Berlin There, Done That

Taupe creme  

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Oh OPI - you and your amusing polish names.  Though I suppose with the number of polishes that OPI have released (more than any other modern brand?) they would've likely run out of names if they'd stuck to anything more themed or traditional!

And don't get me started on Nails Inc's annoying habit of reusing polish names, sometimes 3 times...

So Berlin There, Done That is a mid-toned taupe creme, it looks purple-ish in shade and milky coffee in sun.  BTDT is unsurprisingly from the Germany Collection back in 2012.

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

Nails Inc - Gel Effect - Hyde Park Place

Soft grey creme 

Hyde Park Place is a mid-tone grey creme that doesn't lean particularly warm or cool.  In sunlight it's a bit warmer but nothing drastic.

Application was good, swatches are 2 coats with no top coat and as a gel effect polish it's suitably glossy with an almost wet look.

I do like the self-coloured caps on these Nails Incs but I'll save my rant about all the different bottle types they seem to have now for another day!

Rococo - Purple Haze

Light purple pearl  

Purple Haze is a light purple pearl.  As such it's a bit brush-strokey and rather dated looking.

Application was tricky, unlike a previous Rococo the brush was ok on this one but it was very runny and of course the brush-stroke issue with a pearl makes things more difficult.

Rococo call this finish 'Luxe'

Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat.

Can't say this one really floats my boat - good job it was only £1.50 in the SpaceNK sale!  A total bargain as Rococo normally retail at £12...

Deborah - 110

Purple shimmer  

Apologies - this one is a bit blurry...

Deborah 110, despite the lack of name, is a stunning purple shimmer,

Application was a little tricky, the polish has an annoying fat brush and this did take 3 coats to cover fully.

Oh but so worth it, this is another polish that reminds me of my beloved L'Oreal Jet Set 225 which I really must swatch and share!

Kiko - Pearly Golden Sesame 479

Taupe packed with golden flaky shimmer  

You know those frustrating polishes where you fall in love with the gorgeous shimmer in the bottle but once you've applied it to your nails it's all but disappeared?

This isn't that polish!  If anything the shimmer is even more visible and packed in on the nail - what a refreshing surprise!

I picked up Pearly Golden Sesame in the Kiko store because it's a light taupe with golden flaky shimmer, what's not to like?   I was expecting a taupe with some gold shimmer, a bit like Leighton Denny Coconutty, but on the nail this almost looks more gold than taupe!

Pearly Golden Sesame is a light taupe packed with fine golden flaky shimmer, application was good and swatches are just 2 coats with no top coat.

Total win from me, I really like the taupe/gold combination and it's so pretty on the nail.  Thumbs up to Kiko

P2 - Crazy Beauty

Soft blue creme  

Wowser, this is a stunner - I do love a periwinkle blue....

Crazy Beauty from P2 is a gel-look periwinkle blue creme.  Super glossy looking as you'd expect from a gel-effect polish.

Application was fine, these have wide, flat-ish brushes but they aren't too hard to handle for me.

Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat.

Unfortunately P2 isn't available in the UK, this is an older one I got on a work trip to Germany.

Nails Inc - Instyle - The Tide is High

Pale blue creme  

The sun has been making an appearance here today so I thought I'd go with this lovely spring pastel from Nails Inc.

The Tide is High is a minty pale blue creme.

Application was ok, as it common with these pastel shades it was a little streaky and swatches are 2 coats which isn't bad.

The Tide is High is a freebie from a recent-ish Instyle covermount, well July 2015 if truth be told so not that recent!

The theme of the four choices was 80's Anthems, other shades were Love Will Tear Us Apart, Boys Of Summer and When Doves Cry.

Although these shades were only available with a magazine nearly a year ago you can usually pick up most magazine covermounts from ebay - I presume from all the leftover mags?  At the moment you can get all four shades for £4 plus p&p at the moment - steal!

Rococo - Peace Out

Bright warm green creme  

Recently I picked up a handful of Rococo polishes from the SpaceNK sale.  Mostly because they were only £1.50, which for a brand that retails at £12 seemed like quite the bargain.  And because I didn't have any Rococo in my stash.

Peace Out is a cross between a lime and khaki green, it's bright but also a bit murky, I don't think I have anything similar to this - it's definitely more yellow toned than the OPI Shrek greens

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

Nails Inc - Reeves Mews

Bright teal crelly  

Reeves Mews is a bright teal crelly -  the pictures make it look a bit more blue than it is in real life.

Application was of course good and the swatches are 3 coats as the formula is definitely on the crelly side.  But of course that makes it gorgeously shiny!

This shade is from several years back, perhaps 2012?  But as with most Nails Inc colours is relatively easy to pick up from ebay in the UK.

Ciaté - Iced Frappe

Taupe creme 

I have a bunch of these Ciaté mini bottles, mostly from the Ciaté advent calendars that seem to have become a standard offering from the brand and which usually appear in TK Maxx at some point.  This is the first of the mini's I've shown.

The bottles are 5ml, pretty standard for a mini and rather than the fabric bow attached to the full size bottles, these have a bow printed on the label.

Iced Frappe is a lovely soft milky taupe/mushroom shade, quite pale for a taupe and with a hint of purple.

Taupe's are definitely one of my favourite colour groups so I like this very much.

Application was fine, I didn't have any issues with the mini brush or bottle.

Swatches shown are 2 coats, no top coat but you can see it's pretty glossy even without top coat.

Ünt Sun Envy - The Plunge NV075

Soft mid blue creme  

The sun was briefly shining on this Easter Sunday so I'd thought I'd go with something soft and spring like

Ünt is a skincare and cosmetics company based out of Taiwan but who sell and market across the globe with free shipping to the UK. According to their website the name stands for Untitled, no mention of how that umlaut crept in!

I first discovered them through the recommendation of Simply Nailogical on youtube who raves about Ünt's peelable base coat (which isn't glue based like a lot of others) - and her bag of 'peelies' is surely a thing of wonder!

When placing my order for said basecoat I also added a handful of other items including this gel-effect polish.

The Plunge is a soft blue creme with maybe a hint of periwinkle?

Application was good and the swatches show 3 coats with no top coat.

I've had mixed results so far with the peelable based coat, more testing required!