Nails Inc - Mercer Street

Bright blue creme gel effect  

It's a lovely sunny day here in Ascot so I thought I'd go for something bright.

Mercer Street is a bright, mid blue creme in a gel effect finish.

Application was good, swatches are 2 coats with no top coat,  but as you can see from my slightly dodgy cleanup this is a bit of a 'stainer' like a lot of blues and it's difficult to get a clean line.
But super shiny!

Rococo - Spellbound

Blue-green with foil shimmer

After my generally good results with Rococo polishes from the SpaceNK bargains last year, I picked up a couple more in the treasure trove that is TK Maxx!

Spellbound is a gorgeous slightly green blue packed with fine blue shimmery foil.  Although it does look a bit glitter like it's not gritty at all, the foil gives a much smoother finish.

The shimmeryness isn't quite as visible on the nail as in the bottle, but she's still very pretty!

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

RRP for Rococo is around the £12, I paid £3 in TK.

Sinful - Trend Matters Velvet - Kurtsey (DemiMatte)

Periwinkle blue/lilac with fine gold shimmer

Kurtsey is a soft cornflower blue with fine gold shimmer/pearl.  It definitely looks more lilac in my pics than in real life where it's more blue.

As name suggests it dries with a satin finish and a soft glow.

Application was fine but this took 3 coats to full opacity.  But I forgive as it's so pretty!

This is from the rather extensive Sinful collaboration with Kylie Jenner in 2016.  I happened to spot a small collection in Superdrug - I always forget that Sinful is now available in the UK.

Nails Inc November - Fleet Street

Baby blue creme  

Fleet Street is a fabulous mid to baby blue creme.

Application was a little streaky but not as bad as I was expecting!  Swatches are 2 coats with no top coat.

This is a vintage Nails Inc that I stalked on eBay for quite a while.  In the end had to pick it up in a bundle of other polishes I already had....  Which is probably why I have three boxes of nails inc dupes!

Given the annoying Nails Inc habit of reusing polish names, there is a much later edition of Fleet Street that is a taupe Leather Effect polish.

Nails Inc November - Duke Street

Grey/mauve creme  

 

Duke Street is a greyed out blue/mauve creme.

Application was good, swatches are two coats, no top coat.

This is an old shade from 2010 and a swatch from then too!

It's a rather downbeat, melancholy colour which matches my mood today with the news of Leonard Cohen's death and Armistice Day.

PostQuam - Intense Sky

Blue with secret shimmer  

Intense Sky is a mid to dark blue creme with a brighter blue secret shimmer.  The shimmer is just strong enough to be visible on the nail which is always a good thing.

Application was ok - I did find the brush pretty tricky.  Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat but this could probably be a one coat wonder if you were careful.

Despite the slight application issues I really like this, the shade and shimmer combination are unusual and unique in my collection.  And I was convinced it would stain and I'd end up with smurf fingers but it removed like a dream!

Another new brand to the blog, PostQuam, who as far as I can work out are a professional brand from Spain.  Most of the range is skincare, treatments and supplements but they also have a cosmetics line.  I picked up four polishes from a private sale site - unfortunately I don't think this brand is available in the UK.

Anyone spotted PostQuam around Europe?

P2 - Crazy Beauty

Soft blue creme  

Wowser, this is a stunner - I do love a periwinkle blue....

Crazy Beauty from P2 is a gel-look periwinkle blue creme.  Super glossy looking as you'd expect from a gel-effect polish.

Application was fine, these have wide, flat-ish brushes but they aren't too hard to handle for me.

Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat.

Unfortunately P2 isn't available in the UK, this is an older one I got on a work trip to Germany.

Nails Inc - Instyle - The Tide is High

Pale blue creme  

The sun has been making an appearance here today so I thought I'd go with this lovely spring pastel from Nails Inc.

The Tide is High is a minty pale blue creme.

Application was ok, as it common with these pastel shades it was a little streaky and swatches are 2 coats which isn't bad.

The Tide is High is a freebie from a recent-ish Instyle covermount, well July 2015 if truth be told so not that recent!

The theme of the four choices was 80's Anthems, other shades were Love Will Tear Us Apart, Boys Of Summer and When Doves Cry.

Although these shades were only available with a magazine nearly a year ago you can usually pick up most magazine covermounts from ebay - I presume from all the leftover mags?  At the moment you can get all four shades for £4 plus p&p at the moment - steal!

Ünt Sun Envy - The Plunge NV075

Soft mid blue creme  

The sun was briefly shining on this Easter Sunday so I'd thought I'd go with something soft and spring like

Ünt is a skincare and cosmetics company based out of Taiwan but who sell and market across the globe with free shipping to the UK. According to their website the name stands for Untitled, no mention of how that umlaut crept in!

I first discovered them through the recommendation of Simply Nailogical on youtube who raves about Ünt's peelable base coat (which isn't glue based like a lot of others) - and her bag of 'peelies' is surely a thing of wonder!

When placing my order for said basecoat I also added a handful of other items including this gel-effect polish.

The Plunge is a soft blue creme with maybe a hint of periwinkle?

Application was good and the swatches show 3 coats with no top coat.

I've had mixed results so far with the peelable based coat, more testing required!

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

Butter London - Poole

Robin's Egg Blue creme

Butter London call this a Robin's Egg Blue creme and it's definitely in that arena but I'd say it's on the green side of that colour range.

Application was great, swatches shown with 2 coats with no top coat

Poole is a seaside town in southern England, to me known for its harbour and Navy connections and for being the home of Lush, the cosmetics company.  Lush's previous incarnation was a company called Cosmetics to Go and I visited their shop in Poole nearly 20 years ago!

Nails Inc November - Pool

Bright blue creme  

Another old swatch of an even older polish...

Obviously from a short lived time when I was adding the polish name to the photo - safe to say I don't have the time to do that anymore!

Pool is a long discontinued shade, from at least 2009 and I think may have been exclusive to ASOS. It certainly doesn't fit the Nails Inc London naming convention.

It's a wonderful bright, mid-blue creme.  Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat and I think you can see from my fingers that this might be a stainer!

Nails Inc hasn't done a lot of this kind of shade, from a quick rootle in the blue/grey/glitter drawer it looks to be somewhat similar to All Saints Road although I think that's more muted and maybe more of a dupe for another vintage Nails Inc,  Royal Court.

Flormar - Blue Industry 450

Dark turquoise crelly  

Another polish from my long weekend in Istanbul (wonderful place despite the snow!) back in February when  I managed to grab a quick hours shopping on our last day including the Flormar and Golden Rose stores.

Blue Industry is a slightly teal leaning turquoise blue crelly, is that petrol blue?

Application was good and swatches are 2 coats, no top coat.  As it's a crelly there's a hint of nail line amongst the squishiness.

There's something quite old-school about the Flormar bottles, a combination of the tall handle and white plastic I think....

Fashion Make Up - 139

Greyed blue creme  

 

139 is a gorgeous Airforce blue creme.  I totally love this shade of blue.

The bottle is 11ml and unfortunately comes with a super wide brush which I just managed to work with my narrow nails although my little finger was a close run thing.  Oh and the bottle says "7 days wear" - hmm, unlikely!

Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat and this is very shiny and 'enamel' looking.

Fashion Make-Up is a French brand I've never heard of and this cost me the grand total of £1.40 from a French sale site.

Superdry - Blue Mercury

Intense mid blue crelly

I didn't know Superdry did cosmetics until I spotted this in TK Maxx but to be fair I've never been in a Superdry store (if such a thing exists).  God I sound old!

Anyhow, on to the polish...

Mercury Blue is a fabulous bright blue crelly.  The bottles are 10ml and there's a variety of different bottle overprinting styles available.

Application was good, the brush is regular style, ie not wide/flat.

Swatches shown are 3 coats, with no top coat.  Three coats is not great but it's such a great colour and shine I'm prepared to forgive it!

Anyone else tried Superdry polishes?  I picked mine up for a bargainous £2 in TK, I think the original retail was around £6.