Illamasqua Nail Varnish In Jan

The Bottle

One coat of the polish

One coat of polish

The brush

Two coats of colour

Two coats of colour

Nails after three days

Price I Paid

This retails at £9-14 depending on where you shop.

Design

The bottle looks quite smart a bit like the Chanel glass bottles but obviously with the Illamasqua logo on.  The brush is pretty thin and rubbish unfortunately which made application more difficult but this might be good if you have very small nails.  What was really odd was that the lid fell off after the first day and I have no photo of it but I am now left with a brush attached to what looks like the inside of the cap? I can't work out if this is supposed to happen!

Colour

I really like this colour varnish it is quite unique and I have never tried it out before.  It seemed to go with almost everything I owned which was nice.  

Texture

This nail polish is very opaque and I could almost have got away with just using one coat!  It lasted three days without chipping but on the fourth day I ended up with a huge chip on my thumb and alot of the polish seemed to come off all at once.  Even so for the three days it lasted it did pretty well and looked great.  It was not a shiny as other polishes I have but I think that added to the charm of the colour.

Smell

Nail polish smell..

Overall Reaction

I was very impressed with this polish and would probably consider buying Illamasqua polishes again.  The only slight problem is that Illamasqua is a theatrical make and therefore a lot of the colours are quite "quirky" and not suitable for everyday wear.

9/10

Nails Inc Nail Varnish in Colville Mews

1st Coat

2nd coat

3rd Coat and Bottle

Price I Paid

This is a mini version of the bottle that came in a set.  I have no idea how I actually got this colour as I didn't buy it myself which makes me think it is probably my mum's and somehow ended up in my room at uni? The full size bottle retails for £11.  There are frequently offers on with nails inc products so have a shop around.

Design

The bottle is really sleek, I really like this mini polish because the lid is quite small which makes the brush much easier to control than the full size versions.  Kits containing a few mini colours are great as i get bored of colours very quickly.

Colour

This is definitely my favorite nude polish out of the ones that I have tried.  In the photographs my hands were a bit cold and had gone kind of red.  Although you can still see that the polish is more of a brown hue, I would probably compare it to the colour of those fair skin coloured tights.  What i particularly like is that this polish does not contain any grey tones. I have a bit of an obsession with this because colours that are very light and slightly grey toned, along with my pale skin, remind me of those zombie's hands that burst out of the ground as they come back to 'life' in films.  Probably something a bit weird but I don't like to have dead looking hands!

Texture

Annoyingly this colour is very sheer and therefore required three coats to create an opaque colour.  Each coat dried in about five minutes so this was not particularly a problem as I was busy watching Waterloo Road on catch up.  That program is a bit rubbish but i'm absolutely hooked as I started watching from the beginning and have got to know the stories of all the characters.

In the past I have been very disappointed with Nails Inc and the lasting power of their nail varnishes.  I did not use a base or top coat  with these so that I could see how long the colour itself truly lasts.  It lasted okay, on the third day there was a slight chip which was a bit annoying but it lasted much better than the previous colour I tried which was Warwick Way.  I would probably use this polish again if my mum doesn't ask for it back!

Smell

As with all nail polishes it is best to open a window or paint your nails outside as it has a strong smell.

Ingredients

Nails inc do not make any effort to eliminate the dangerous chemicals in their nail varnishes in the way that Nubar and others strive to.

Overall Reaction 

I really like the colour of this polish and the lasting power is alright.  As with the previous polish it might do better with a base and top coat.

I would score this product 7/10