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

Morgan Taylor - Party at the Palace

Pale turquoise blue with golden shimmer  

Party at the Palace is a gorgeous turquoise blue with lots of iridescent, mainly gold, fine flaky shimmer.  Fabulous!

Swatches shown are 3 coats, no top coat.

Party at the Palace is from the Cinderella Collection from Spring 2015 but I picked this up in the Sally New Year sale for £3.50 and it's my first Morgan Taylor

Leighton Denny - Upgrade Me

Creamy yellow sheer with pale gold flakes  

After yesterday's Leighton Denny win I think I can safely say this one is not a win, on me at least.

Upgrade Me is a sheer pale yellow with loads of pale gold flaky shimmer.  The bottle close up looks so delicate and pretty, it's just didn't translate well on the nail for me

Upgrade Me is part of the Jet Setter collection, which I have as minis, which was 4 flight themed shades.

The collection blurb describes it as a 'cool cream shimmer' - I suppose you could call it cream but to me it's pale yellow.  Which is of course partly why it looks pretty awful with my skintone.

It's also very sheer.... I've lost my notes for this swatch but I think this was at least 3 coats.

I've also seen this layered, which over the right colour, might be a better use of it's prettiness.

Leighton Denny - Coconutty

Taupe with gold flaky shimmer  

Close up of the flaky shimmer...

Boy, I love this...

Leighton Denny Coconutty is a cool taupe with fine gold flaky shimmer, you'd think it might not work, taupe is primarily a cool toned colour so to mix gold in could jar, but it doesn't - it's fabulous.

I've seen other swatches where the base colour looks much warmer and chocolately, but on me it definitely leans cool taupe...

And such a cool name too, makes you think of a delicious dessert...

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat, application & formula were great too.

Nails Inc November - Pimlico Road

Red flaky shimmer jelly   

Just 3 more days of Nails Inc November left...

Next up is Pimlico Road

Pimlico Road is a orangey red jelly with red, pink and gold flaky shimmer

Swatch shown is 3 coats with no top coat.  I'd probably advise you apply this over a coat of underwear polish if the slight vnl is going to bother you.

It doesn't bother me as it's so sparkly and glossy and really the vnl only shows up in full sunshine...

Salzburg Haul

Apologies for the lack of posting - As well as the ongoing building work (see Builder's Tea), I've been away on a business trip to Salzburg

I was hoping to pickup some unusual polish but limited trawling of the pharmacies and nail bars near my hotel only yielded a small selection of OPI DS and some Essies - all of which were madly expensive. The euro exchange rate isn't good news for Brits shopping in Europe.

But then in the airport on the way home I was idly walking round the duty free shop, past the teddy bear's wearing leiderhosen and the chocolate Mozart balls when I stumbled upon a small nail polish stand where I spotted these beauties.

 

They're only minis but check out the awesome flakiness (click for huge pics) - if these apply anything like the bottle I'll be very pleased.

And they were only 3 euros each which didn't seem a bad price.

I think Alessandro are a German brand - anyone got any experience of these?