Finally! An almost perfect cream coloured polish.

I'm interrupting my brief hiatus (if you can interrupt an interruption) from blogging to show you this cream polish I've bought recently and love.  Regular readers may remember that I have been on a quest to find the perfect cream coloured polish for some time now and never quite managed it, but now I think I might finally have got close.

 

The polish is a Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, one of the new releases, Coconut.

 

The formula wasn't brilliant, I found it a bit streaky and it needed 3 coats to get it looking perfect but all was forgiven one I saw the colour of the dried polish, could it finally be the holy grail cream polish I have been hunting for?!!

 

 

It's maybe more of an off white or ivory than a true cream but it's close to what I have been picturing in my head so whatever colour it is, I like it!

 

It's lovely on it's own; a really fresh, crisp neutral of a colour and it's also great as a base for nail art or stamping, you can see my very speedy stamping attempt over it below.

 

 

I don't think I'll ever give up my mission to hunt down the perfect cream shade of polish, which currently seems to exist only in my head, but in the meantime Coconut is a worthy contender for the top spot.  Well done Barry M, you've made a cream obsessed nail blogger very happy.

 

 

Kiko 341

I felt like something different today so I chose a bright blue Kiko shade, one which is probably more suited to summer, 341.

 

It's a lovely bright blue cream colour which is totally opaque in just two coats.

 

Although it's definitely more of a summer colour it was nice to have something bright and bold on my nails after all the festive shades I've had on.

 

 

Kiko 380

Something a bit more subdued today, Kiko 380, a dark grey polish.

 

 

As with all the Kiko creams it applied beautifully and was totally opaque in just two coats.

 

I think this colour would be ideal for stamping over with foil polishes, the grey colour is relatively neutral and would lovely with something bright and blingy on top.



Kiko 339

 

I was feeling the urge for something pastel today so I chose Kiko 339, a gorgeous pale blue shade.

 

 

I really love this polish, it's such a pretty soft blue and as you can see it goes perfectly with casual denim for an every day manicure!

 

These pictures are two coats and a top coat and as with almost all Kiko creams it applies beautifully!

Kiko 332

Another gorgeous Kiko cream to show you today, this time 332.  This polish is a bright violet colour.

 

As with almost every Kiko cream this polish applies beautifully and covers perfectly in two coats.

 

 

The colour is bright and bold and lasts really well, there are a few tiny dinks out of this manicure because I spent the day on the beach and climbing over giant boulders and the remains of a castle before I bothered to take pictures so give the wear it got I don't think it did too badly!

 

And for once I actually managed to match my nails to my outfit. :)

 

 

Spa Ritual Nail Lacquer

Today I have two Spa Rituals colours to show you; a lovely green called Emerald City, emerald is the pantone colour of the year, and Out Loud one of the gorgeous new glitters from their Summer 2013 Collection - Laugh. 

Despite having seen Spa Ritual around before they are a brand I have never tried so I was keen to see what their polishes were like, first up a quick bottle shot of today's colours.

Spa Rituals describe themselves as a vegan luxury spa lifestyle brand:

Dedicated to the spa tradition, SpaRitual is committed to creating eco-friendly products and packaging perfectly crafted for the enlightened consumer. We use Vegan ingredients from around the world, including many specially sourced and selected plant essences that are wild crafted OR organic. The formulations are naturally coloured and free of synthetic dyes. SpaRitual is constantly monitoring sustainability issues and strives to be on the cutting edge of environmental awareness. Enlighten yourself. Be a SpaRitualist. Because we all deserve to live the good life.

Sounds good so far, and the bottles do have a lovely luxury feel to them. The larger bottle (15ml) is a very generous size and I love the rubberised caps, they make the bottle tops lovely and comfortable to hold and give really good grip. It's not something I've seen many polish brands do but I'm all in favour of it, it does add a little luxurious edge to the bottle while you're painting your nails. Even the smaller (5ml) mini bottle feel quite generous and substantial compared to other brands mini sizes, they feature the same rubberised cap.

Now, on to the actual polish, first up Emerald City.

I really like the colour of this polish, although I would say it seems more like a teal to me than emerald as the name suggests, nonetheless it's beautiful colour and super shiny, these pictures are without top coat and they still have a brilliant shine that you don't always get from polish alone.

Application wise the polish is lovely, very smooth and easy to apply. Although the polish is listed as a cream I would say it almost veers towards gelly texture as you do need three good coats to get full opacity with no visible nail line, the polish build up to an opaque finish beautifully.

 

The bonus of this slightly more sheer finish is that it looks like it might work well for a jelly sandwich manicure which is unusual from a darker shade so I am looking forward to trying that out in the future.

 

Next up Out Loud, this one is a real stunner, it's a dark blue base crammed full of green and blue and colour shifting hex glitter, even in the bottle it looks fantastic, I couldn't wait to try this one!

The base of the polish is quite sheer so you do need 3 good coats of polish to get it totally opaque on it's own however this really adds to the multi-dimensional look of the polish as you can see the glitter at different depths when all the coats have been applied. 

As with Emerald City this polish applies really well and it has the added bonus of you not having to fish around to pick up glitter from inside the bottle which can be a real issue with some glitter polishes.

Under bright light you can really see the glitter pieces sparkling and they seem to take on an almost holographic look changing from deep green and blue through brighter blue shades and even a bronze, so pretty and sparkly!

I decided to try Out Loud as a glitter topper over another polish (I used a dark green colour) to see how it fared that way too and I was not disappointed, although you don't get the same multi-dimensional effect as you do from using several layers the polish still looks fantastic and really adds some shimmer and glitter to the plain polish underneath.

Both polishes, and a whole lot more, are available from www.sparitual.co.uk prices start at £9.75 for 15ml and £5.50 for 5ml minis. They also have a selection of colours in their Sale where you could definitely pick up a bargain, some of the large 15ml sizes are only£5.00! 

 

 

 

*These polishes were sent for review.