Nails Inc Sprinkles Dupes by W7 - Comparison & Review

There have been quite a few posts on beauty blogs recently about these W7 polishes as they are similar in finish to the new Nails Inc Sprinkles collection.

Although they do have a similar finish they don't copy the colourways of the Nails Inc collection exactly.  There are 3 W7 polishes Lava Flow, Mosaic & Salt n Pepper.

Lava Flow is a milky white polish with red and black glitter through it.  Mosaic is the only polish of the collection to exactly recreate a Nails Inc colour, it is a very good and much less expensive alternative to Pudding Lane. Finally there is Salt n Pepper which is similar to Sugar House Lane in that it is a neutral base with black glitter but not quite the same as the Nails Inc version is a more minky brown shade of polish and also includes silver glitter whereas W7's version is more of a straight black and white.

Mosaic on the nail:

I have been into Nails Inc and compared Mosaic with Pudding Lane and they are exactly the same colour wise, both the base shade and the glitter are exact dupes.  So much so that the sales assistant refused to believe it wasn't Pudding Lane I was wearing.

Here are the Nails Inc Collection (minus Pudding Lane which I don't own due to it being exactly the same as Mosaic). 

  

Sugar House Lane is a minky beige with black and white glitter, Sweets Way is a milky white with silver, pink and light blue glitter and Topping Lane is a bright pink with silver, pink and blue glitter.

Sweets Way on the nail:

Topping Lane on the nail:

Application wise there is not much it it between these two brands.  Both cover in 2 coats but look better, in my opinion, with a third for full coverage.  They both wear well and neither chipped in the time I had them on (although that was a maximum of 3 days as I was so keen to try them all out when they arrived).  Both feel slightly gritty when they are dry and definitely benefit from a couple of coats of top coat if you like a smooth feel to your nails.

I prefer the colours of the Nails Inc collection personally, with the exception of Mosaic, but for the price the W7 ones are excellent similar style glitter polishes and prove that there is no need to spend £11 on a bottle of polish to get this particular look.

I bought my W7 polishes at Nail Polish Direct who I wouldn't hesitate to recommend, they have free P&P which I LOVE in a website, great prices and my package arrived within a couple of days really well wrapped.  I'll definitely be using them again.

Here are nail claw swatches of all the Sprinkle style polishes I have:

One word of warning, removal of both brands is messy:

I was planning on posting this comparison review when I had swatched all of the colours from both collections but time has got away from me and I only have so many nails, so I've decided to post now and update as and when I have swatched and worn all the colours.

W7 Mosaic - Nails Inc Pudding Lane Dupe

As promised, here is the first of my full manicures using the W7 polish from my recent nail mail.  I decided to use Mosaic first which seems to be a pretty close dupe of Nails Inc Pudding Lane.

After reading several blogs which mentioned these W7 polishes and how they seemed to be similar to Nails Inc Sprinkles I decided to test them out, they're available here on Nail Polish Direct (who I can't recommend enough for fast delivery, great packaging and excellent prices) for £1.99 each, quite a bit less than their Nails Inc counterparts! 

Mosaic applied beautifully, these pictures show 3 coats but you could get away with two if you were careful.  On the second and third coats I moved the polish around my nails a little to make sure the glitter was evenly spread but on the whole this probably isn't necessary and you can just paint as you normally would.

The polish is definitely well named as the effect on the nail is like looking into a swimming pool with a coloured mosaic at the bottom, absolutely gorgeous.  I'm so pleased with this polish and can't wait to try out the other two in the range.

As you can see, it's definitely a similar finish to the Nails Inc Sprinkle collection, but at a fraction of the cost!  Hats off to W7 for creating such an excellent polish. 

One word of warning though, removal is messy, the glitter gets EVERYWHERE!!

Homemade backing for stamping plates

Some image plates for nail stamping come without any backing on them, this leaves sharp edges which can either cut your fingers or scratch other plates, there is a simple way to rectify this issue if you do happen to buy plates with no backing.

What you will need:

Double sided sticky tape

Scissors

Scalpel

Card

(possibly a nail file)

Firstly, cover the back of your image plate with double sided sticky tape, trim away the excess using scissors, I find scissors work better than the scalpel at this stage, you should be left with this:

Next, peel off the backing from your tape and place the image plate onto a piece of firm card, press it down well to make sure it grips then cut around the plate using a scalpel:

Once you done that pop it out of the sheet of cardboard and tidy up the edges.  I find a nail file will take away any wispy bits you have left if you can't get them all with scissors or your scalpel.

You'll be left with neatly backed plates which won't harm you or your other plates.

Kiko 349 & George Molten Metal No4 Enchanted

When I saw George at ASDA were launching a new collection of 'Molten Metal' metallic nail polish I thought I would try one out to see if it was suitable to use with my stamping plates.  The collection features five polishes; gold, silver, bronze, pink and lilac.  I opted for pink as it was something I didn't have and a pretty shade.

The good news is that the polish stamped brilliantly, so if you're in the market for some stamping polish at a bargain price then it's definitely worth checking out this range.  Unfortunately my first attempt at using it were a bit of a fail, I'll post the picture anyway to give you an idea of colour and coverage. Here it is over Kiko 349.

And here is Kiko 349 on it's own, it's such a pretty shade I couldn't not show it on it's own:

Cien Nail Polish Remover

While I was in Lidl recently I grabbed a bottle of Cien Nail Polish Remover, mainly because of it's special cap.  I've previously seen caps like this available on more high end remover so when I saw it on this little bottle for a bargain £1.49 I couldn't resist.

There are apparently two versions, the one I have - acetone free - and a regular one with acetone which comes in a blue liquid / bottle.  Given the choice I would have gone with the regular one containing acetone as I find non-acetone removers aren't quite as effective but they only had one option in my store.

The main draw was definitely the cap which allows you to press down on the plastic disk under the cap and soak your cotton wool pad, this means you don't have to invert the bottle and risk pouring remover everywhere.  It also means I shouldn't have any more incidents when I leave the bottle sitting somewhere with the lid off!

I'm really looking forward to trying this out and if the bottle is effective re-filling it with my own favourite brand of remover.

Sleek Blush by 3 - Lace

I have been keen to try one of these Blush by 3 palettes since they were released a few weeks ago and when Superdrug's 3 for 2 offer came back on I decided it was time.  I'd recently seen a mention of the Lace version on a YouTube video saying that the middle colour was a dupe of Orgasm by Nars and since I had been considering trying a few darker and bolder blush colours and have always wondered about Orgasm I thought that Lace would be a good option.

My initial impression was that the colours were very dark and bold, and seemed to have great colour pay off.  Just from swatching them on my hands they were very vibrant.

The palette comprises of a bright orange, crochet, the shimmery peach Orgasm dupe, Guipure, and a cherry red, Chantilly.

Swatches on my arm.  The colours are quite a way away from the sort of blush I tend to use and I think they will take some getting used to.

The colour pay off is incredible, they are so highly pigmented that only the tiniest amout is required.  So far I am still a little scared of the colours as they are vwey bright and I'm a bit of a blusher newbie but hopefully in time with a bit of practice these will make a great addition to my collection.

I'm definitely tempted to try out another at some point in the future as the quality of the product is excellent for the price (£9.99).

Ciate Caviar Manicure Alternative

There has been a lot of talk online about Ciate's new Caviar manicure kits. While I think the idea and look is interesting I was not anywhere near interested enough to pay £18 for the privilege of trying it out.

So, I headed to eBay to buy myself some supplies to try and create the look myself, and here is what I came up with:





There are 12 post full of tiny little pearls, form what I can tell pretty much identical to the ones in Ciate's set:





I'm looking forward to giving it a go, with 12 different colours to choose from there should be plenty of different looks possible and all for under £2 from eBay!