Nails Inc November - Alice & Olivia - Sheer Beauty

Peach nude creme  

Sheer Beauty is an extremely misnamed peach nude creme

It's not sheer and it was certainly not a beauty.  The formula was horrible, it pulled back on every coat and even with three coats there are some baldish patches - bleurrgghh.

Swatches shown are 3 coats, no top coat.

I picked this polish up as part of a cute set of two mini polishes, a full size shimmer and this lovely printed bag.  Thankfully I didn't pay full price and the other two polishes are good.

The Alice & Olivia collection is a collaboration with alice + olivia by Stacey Bendet, a fairly high end fashion line.

Essie - Leggy Legend

Old Gold shimmer  

Happy Halloween folks!  I'm not a big fan of Halloween, although it's become a much bigger deal here in the UK recently, but we also celebrate Bonfire Night, which is this weekend when I'll head down to Kent for the annual family firework party.

Despite that  I thought I'd post something vaguely seasonal for today!

Leggy Legend is a pretty,  almost metallic shimmer in an old gold shade.

Application was good and this is 2 coats, no top coat.

Leggy Legend is from the Fall 2015 collection.

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.

Alessandro - Midnight Violet

Mid purple creme  

Here's Midnight Violet from Alessandro's Summer of Love collection.

Midnight Violet is a mid-toned purple creme.  It's a mini sized bottle at only 5ml but actually this seems to be the most common Alessandro size so I don't know if they'd call it mini.

Application was good and these swatches are 2 coats, no top coat as usual.

Alessandro is a German brand, I have bought some on trips to Germany but pretty sure this one came from an internet order from a French private sale site!   I really like Alessandro products, their hand creams in particular are excellent, but they can be a little expensive at full retail. Thankfully thanks to the sale site this only cost me £1.20!

OPI - Can't Find My Czechbook

Muted blue creme  

Can't Find My Czechbook (I do groan at some of these OPI polish names, perhaps that's the point?!) is a muted turquoise leaning blue creme.  IRL this was slightly more green than the pictures show.

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat and you can see it's not super shiny.

Application was slightly streaky but it ended up ok.  And it's a mini bottle from the Euro Minis collection of four shades.

Alessandro - Dancing Queen

Greyed purple shimmer  

Dancing Queen from Alessandro is a dusky greyed purple shimmer.

This one is a mini bottle, 5ml.

The swatch pictures are 2 coats but looking at them here I should've done 3!

Alessandro - Belle Mademoiselle

Brown creme with gold micro-flakes

Belle Mademoiselle is a luscious chocolate brown creme with fine gold microflakes which can look greenish in some lights.  Click the pics to expand them and see the flakies

Swatch show is 2 coats with no top coat.

Formula and application were great despite this being  a mini (5ml) bottle and brush.

This one is pretty similar to Revlon French Roast - although that is a smidge lighter brown and the shimmer is multicoloured.

Surprised how much I like this, it's very rich with lots of depth....

Alessandro is a German brand.  I've bought two hauls over the last 6 months from the private sale site Vente-Privee and this polish cost me the grand sum of £1.20, well worth it!

But I do believe that Alessandro have recently launched in the UK although I'm not sure if the products are available retail.

Leighton Denny - Embellish Me

Deep purple creme  

Embellish Me is a deep purple creme

The formula is wonderful and it's a one-coat-wonder if you're careful.

For this swatch I needed 2 coats on my ring and pinky but only one on the others

And it has that slight enamel-like formula and finish that means it's a dream to apply and dries super shiny.

Gorgeous!

Revlon - Moss

Sludgy green creme

Another of the Revlon minis.... this time Moss

Moss is a mid to pale olive green, slightly grey leaning but not as strong as something like Essie Sew Psyched.

This, and yesterdays pink mini are from the Revlon Bloom With Captivating Color for Spring collection from 2011 and this is the Tea Party trio.  There's also an orange creme that I have temporarily mislaid!

I've not seen these minis in regular stores - I picked up mine in TK Maxx

For me this swatch needed 3 coats but I've seen other bloggers succeed with 2 so maybe it was my base coat....

Revlon - Tulip

Bright pink creme

Tulip is a bright pink creme, nothing unique about the colour but hopefully as you'll be able to see, even with my dinky hands, this is a Revlon mini bottle.

Which I didn't know existed till I bought these!

Although given that regular Revlon bottles are pretty big, their mini bottles are kinda hefty too.  7.5ml which is 3/4 the size of a Nails Inc bottle.

Application was good and the swatch is 2 coats with no top coat.

OPI - You're Such A Budapest

Lilac creme with secret sparkles  

Continuing the Spring-like colours (we even have sunshine in the my part of the UK today, even if the temperatures are still Arctic!)

You're Such a Budapest is from the Euro Centrale collection.  My lovely friend Kristy bought me the mini set for my Birthday last month.

You're Such a Budapest is at first glance a pretty lilac creme, but look a little closer and there are fine silvery microsparkles in there too.

Swatch shown is 3 coats, I couldn't get this to level on my nails.  I don't usually have problems with mini bottles/brushes as I have tiny hands/nails but perhaps that was the issue?

W7 - The Fab Four Elegant Collection Minis - Fuchsia

Fuchsia pink shimmer with micro sparkles  

Fuchsia is a mid/dark fuchsia with micro sparkles that are really only visible in sunlight

Swatch is 3 coats with no top coat.  It's pretty but nothing too exciting.

This is another TK Maxx bargain, I think this was £4 for a collection of 4 mini polishes.  And as you can see the W7 mini bottles are the same as OPI's minis.

Rest of the collection to follow...

Nails Inc November - Union Street

Pinky purple neon   

Neon/satin finish with no topcoat

With topcoat

Union Street, which I think may only exist as a mini, is a pinky purple neonish jellyish nightmare of a polish

Now, given that I'm doing a whole month of nails inc polishes, you'd be right in thinking I'm a bit of a fan.... unfortunately this polish is, hands down, the worst Nails Inc I've ever used!

The formula was thin and streaky and I had to keep several yards away from my cuticles when applying as this polish seemed magnetically attracted to flooding them!

Swatches are shown with 3 coats, I still have vnl and it's pretty patchy on some nails.  But I had no confidence that more coats would improve things.

And to add insult to injury it doesn't look much like the bottle colour which a fab bright purple.

I know I should probably try it layered over some underwear, but I lost the will - life's too short for bad polish!

I wasn't the only one to have trouble with this one, Primps & Preens blogged it and had similar problems

To be fair to nails inc, one super duff polish out of 400+ colours isn't bad odds...

But still, steer clear of this one people...

Leighton Denny - Make Him Wait

Fuchsia pink shimmer

Another Leighton mini.

Make Him Wait is a fuchsia pink shimmer.  And fuchsia is a word I can *never* spell right first time, I always want to put the 's' in too early!

Swatch is 2 coats, but the pictures do show slight visible nail line (vnl) although this wasn't as obvious in real life.

I know there's nothing too unique about this one but it is pretty and definitely has a glow about it.