Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Topcoat

I saw this in Boots the other day and couldn't resist! I love a nice glossy topcoat!

This is Nails Inc's Kensington Caviar Gel Effect Plumping Top Coat. It was £12 in Boots, which isn't cheap, but which is cheaper than many other good topcoats. I was definitely attracted to the idea of gel look nails, without actually having gel nails. 

I decided to compare it to some of my other topcoats. Left to right we have Seche Vite, Dior Gel Coat, Nails Inc Kensington Caviar and Sally Hansen Mega Shine.

This is one coat of each over Zoya Chynna, which is a highly textured pixie dust polish. Index is Seche, middle is Dior, ring is Nails Inc, and little finger is Sally Hansen.

I LOVE Seche Vite - it's really magical for drying quickly, and is glossy and long lasting. However, over textured polishes it sinks right in and needs at least 3 coats to be glossy, so it's not the best for this. This photo is two coats of each topcoat, although the second coats of the Dior and the Nails Inc are very thin, and the second coat of the Seche is actually a second and a third!

The Dior Gel Coat is really really nice; super glossy and long lasting. It isn't cheap though, at about £18, which seems very extravagant!  The Sally Hansen is ok, but isn't particularly glossy. It's shiny, but not very thick, so it often needs two or three coats.

The Nails Inc topcoat is really good! It's more or less indistinguishable from the Dior one (I prefer the Dior brush, but the Nails Inc one is fine). This last photo is with Nails Inc over the disappointing Sally H, and over the Seche (which still left some texture after three coats) and over the thumb.

Also - isn't Zoya Chynna amazing with topcoat?!

Half Moon Mani - Kleancolor Salsa Much

This is one of my American swap polishes, Kleancolor's Salsa Much. 

I'm wearing it as a half moon over Nails Inc Colville Mews, a pale yellow-toned nude. This is two coats of Colville Mews, and two coats of Salsa Much, with topcoat.

Salsa Much is a clear base with lots of tiny glitter in shades of red, gold and some blue. The glitter is very fine, and ends up leaving the look of an overall pinky red colour. 

Salsa Much is ok - it isn't as sparkly as I would have expected it to be, and it ended up looking a bit underwhelming, to be honest. 

I think wearing it as a half moon makes it marginally more interesting than just on its own... but I'm still not blown away. Maybe I need to wear it over black or something?

Nails Inc - Cherry Juicy Sheer, aka Royal Ascot

This is another of the Nails Inc Juicy Sheer collection, the Cherry one. These only appear to be called Juicy Sheers on the Nails Inc website - everywhere on the bottle is only labelled with the names. This one is Royal Ascot.

Royal Ascot is a sheer, red jelly. This is two coats, with topcoat. 

(indooors, artificial light)
 
Royal Ascot has a really smooth application, which dries to a gorgeous shine. One coat gives a subtle blush-like colour. Two coats is still sheer obviously, with plenty of visible nail line, but the colour deepens to a really nice tomato-ey red. In some lights (indoor, artificial light) this looked a little orangey, and in others (outdoor sunlight) this looked far more cherry-red.


(natural light)
 
I bet this would look great as a jelly sandwich with some gold (or maybe black?) glitter. 
  

Hallowe'en Zombie Corpse Nails

A few days ago I saw this wonderful mani at The Nail Network, and decided I wanted to have a go myself. So here is my zombie corpse dripping blood mani!

First I painted a coat of Nails Inc Colville Mews, a pale whitish nude, as a base. Then I sponged (my first attempt at sponging!) what was intended to look like dead or bruised flesh all over them. I used Barry M Yellow (my bruises always have tonnes of yellow round the edges) and a blend of Barry M Dusky Mauve and Berry Ice Cream. This ended up being a lot more yellow than I had intended, but I decided to carry on anyway. I added a matte topcoat (Rimmel Pro Matte Topcoat) for the really dead look.

Then when this was really dry, I freehanded the blood dribbles using Barry M Raspberry, a dotting tool and the polish brush.  

The blood dribbles took quite a while to dry, and it took a lot of strength not to cave and use Seche Vite on top. I'm glad I didn't, because I think the contrast between matte and shiny makes a difference to this look.

I'm quite pleased with how this turned out, especially with it being my first attempt at sponging. I'm a bit horrified at how dry and untidy my cuticles look AGAIN! I think I need to do something about the lighting and or my eyesight, because I couldn't see this until after I'd taken the photos.

Nails Inc Brick Lane - Graffiti Collection

Today I am wearing Nails Inc's Brick Lane, from their Graffiti Collection. I had a Nails Inc voucher, so I bought the juicy sheers (the orange posted yesterday, plus the cherry one) and this glitter, which caught my eye. I haven't seen anything online about the Graffiti collection, but there are four of them - a multi coloured one, a purple one, a navy one, and this monochrome one.

This is two coats of Barry M's Bright Pink, with one coat of Brick Lane Graffiti. Brick Lane has a clear base, with lots of tiny black microglitter, some semi-translucent white microglitter, some larger black and white hex glitter, and some black bar glitter. This isn't sparkly glitter at all, and on its own it dries rather matte. Please excuse my shocking cleanup! It was early morning and I had to get to work, and I wasn't completely awake yet! 

The glitter is a bit clumpy at times, so you need to be careful otherwise it does make some very opaque dark patches. You can see on my middle finger that the glitter came out rather quickly! I wasn't able to shift it around more before it dried. I prefer how this looks on my other fingers, where it's a little more sparse and defined. It did dry very rough and a bit scratchy, so I've got two coats of topcoat here.

I'm not sure what I think of this. I think I like it. Somehow it reminds me of pencil shavings, and those little bits of pencil dust you get if you've been drawing with a soft pencil.   

Nails Inc Chelsea Flower Show - Orange Juicy Sheer

This is one of the Nails Inc Juicy Sheer collection. On the label this is called Chelsea Flower Show, but it's also called Orange Juicy Sheer on their website. 

This is two coats of Chelsea Flower Show, and no topcoat. Application was really smooth and easy, and though the polish took a bit longer to dry than usual, I really like how this looks.

It's a pretty, shiny, sheer orange. I don't have a problem with visible nail line, although I know some people do. I'm going to try this with glitter in a jelly sandwich at some point soon! I love how juicy and squishy this looks!

Blue Ombre Nails

I bought yet another new Barry M creme the other day, Cyan Blue. While I was messing around trying it out alongside other blues, I decided to do an ombre.

Little finger is Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, ring finger is Barry M Cyan Blue, middle finger is Barry M Cobalt Blue. Index is Nails Inc Baker Street, and thumb is Barry M Navy Blue.

In real life the difference between the blues is more obvious, but for some reason my camera has made the Blueberry Ice Cream and Cyan Blue very similar, and the Cobalt and Baker Street very similar. In reality, they aren't!

The only one of these that isn't a simple creme is Barry M's Navy Blue, which always makes me think of the paint on some cars. It's got a lovely deep shimmery quality to it.

Mickey wanted to get in this photo!

I'm a bit worried that I was sure I'd cleaned up neatly and that my cuticles looked fine - but then in the photos they look all dry and messy still! I really think I must need an eye test!

After a day of these, I decided to add some silver. This is Barielle's Night Moves, part of the cheapy set I found in TKMaxx a couple of weeks ago. It's a nice looking silver, I like it!  I did these lines with sellotape - just added two bits on each nail and painted in between.  

The lines aren't exactly even, but they're close enough.

Nails Inc - Wardour Mews

This is another of the Nails Inc set that I got in TKMaxx for a bargain price. This is two coats of Wardour Mews, with topcoat, and - because why on earth not? - a matching ring.

Wardour Mews is a gorgeous deep purple-y lilac jelly packed full of tiny gold glitter that gives a lovely foil finish. This polish is a bit less duochrome on the nail than it is in the bottle, but it still moves between a rich purple colour and a lovely warm pinky gold, and like many polishes of this kind, really comes alive in the sunshine.

Application was the usual Nails Inc good quality. Nice and smooth, dries quickly with no lumps or streaks or bald patches. Nice brush, and the polish lasted well too - I wore this for two days before taking it off, and it still looked perfect. 

I really love this colour! This is definitely one to keep!

Nails Inc New Burlington Place - and more pendants

This is one of my new Nails Inc polishes. I found a set of 4 (New Burlington Place, Wardour Mews, Lexington Street and Symons Street) for £15, so just under £4 each. 

This is two coats of New Burlington Place, with topcoat.

New Burlington Place is a gorgeous shimmery reddish bronze colour, with a foil finish and a duochrome edge to it. The duochrome is more visible in the bottle, but it's still there on the nail, especially in low light. It shifts from a bright fuschia red to a golden bronze colour.

Application was lovely - really smooth and even. I like the brush, it's smooth and easy to use. I'm not overly fond of Nails Inc bottle caps though - they're quite large to hold, which makes them a bit clunky to turn round in your hand. 

I love this look!  I liked it so much that I also made a pendant to go with it. 





What do you think?

Nails Inc Jubilee

Last time I tried this, it was a major nail FAIL. Today, I am happier.

This is two coats of Nails Inc Jubilee, with no basecoat and no topcoat (I suspect the base coat of causing the issues last time). There are some bald patches, but they didn't show in real life. 

Jubilee is a mix of red, silver and blue glitter in a clear base, with a gorgeous sparkly diamante cap on the bottle. There wasn't much sunlight when I took these photos, but it was SO sparkly once the sun came out.

I liked this so much that I made a ring to go with it too.
 

Nails Inc Sugar House Lane

This is another of the Nails Inc Sprinkles Collection, Sugar House Lane.

Rather than wearing it on its own, I decided to do tips only. This is one coat of Sugar House Lane over a base of two coats of Essie's Sand Tropez. 

Sugar House Lane is a sheer nude base with black and white glitter. It dries rather matte, so I added topcoat for a bit more shine.

I like this, but I'm not blown away by it. It reminds me of chocolate chip cookies, or maybe cookie dough ice cream.

Here is is in close up.

(Sugar House Lane is apparently in Newham, east London. It looks a bit grotty and industrial on Google Maps, but it's just round the corner from the Olympic stadium, so maybe it's a bit nicer these days. On second thoughts, I just saw it on the news - it's where the "slums" have been built for the Olympics' cleaners, and it looks horrendous, so no, they haven't jazzed it up. Nails Inc have however named a pretty nail varnish after it, so that's ok then.)