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

Barry M Gelly Nail Polish In Dragon - Review and Nail Swatch

This is a photograph from day 5 of wearing this polish

The Brush

.

Price I Paid

£3.99 

Design

I quite like the design of this bottle, it does not feel too cheap and tacky.  However, the brush is a huge letdown.  I really did not like this brush it felt incredibly cheap and poorly made in comparison to the quality feel of the bottle itself. 

Colour

I think this is a really lovely pink as it is quite bright but not so bright that I can not match it up with outfits during the day.

Texture

The point of this nail polish is that it is similar in texture to the finished result of Gel nails that you would have done at a salon.  I think they have successfully achieved this as it was very shiny and require absolutely no topcoat.  It was a bit thicker than normal nail polishes though and this meant that it took a good half hour for it to be properly touch dry.  It does suggest that it only requires one coat although I still felt that it looked streaky and actually did two because I was watching The Good Wife on 4OD so I had a little time.  The Good Wife is a great as the plot is interesting and each episode revolves around solving a different court case while there is a different running theme throughout involving the characters at the law firm itself.

After it had eventually dried this polish stayed on surprisingly well.  It was still almost fully in tact five days later apart from a small chip on my thumb which is very impressive.

Smell

Open a window/do it outside as nail polish fumes can be powerful!

Overall Reaction 

The formula is great, just not a polish to use if you are in any rush for it to dry and I am not a huge fan of the brush.

8/10

A great way to repair smudged or dented nail varnish!

So you made a dent or you smudged your newly painted nails?

Take a little bit of any greasy product, I have used a little conditioner but it could be hairspray/moisturiser/makeup remover etcetc.  Lightly use a finger to rub (in a circular motion) the product over the dent to smooth it back out!

And there you go - dent/smudge free nails!  Although this will obviously only work if the nail varnish is still slightly wet so make sure you do this as soon as you spot the dent!

Nails Inc Warwick Way Review

The Bottle, colour called Warwick Way

The first coat - photo taken using the camera flash

The second day with the second coat - photo taken in daylight

Price I Paid

Retails at £11 but there are always decent deals on Nails inc products, e.g currently Debenhams are selling it for £9.90.

Colour

This varnish is turquoise, in bright sunlight it has slightly more of a green hue than you pick up on inside.  The photo of the first coat taken with a flash is slightly more accurate of the colour in my opinion.   

Texture

After the first coat i was really unimpressed with the coverage of the colour as i could still clearly see my nails underneath as it was very thin.  I prefer to do a few thin layers of nail varnish rather than one very thick layer because it dries significantly faster.

After two coats i was left with the coverage you can see in the second photo, this took about ten minutes to be touch dry and probably about twenty to be safe from any little knock which i think that this is about average in terms of nail varnishes i own.  I really liked the pretty turquoise colour and was very disappointed when it chipped after the first day.  It is now day two and whilst writing this post another nail bites the dust!! Admittedly i did not use a base or a top coat but this is because i wanted to know how strong the varnish by itself could be.  If i was to re-paint my nails with this colour i would definitely take the time to paint them with base/top coats as I was not doing anything significant to damage my nails and they were in pretty good condition to begin with. 

Smell

Does not smell as strong as other nail varnishes i have used in the past but does have the distinct smell so might be best to paint your nails in a room with an open window or outside.

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 think the colour is lovely although the staying power is minimal so as a nail varnish alone i would only score this product 5/10.

However, if i were to use a base and top coat i would probably raise this score to 7/10.