Nails Inc - Caramel

Another lovely nude today, this one is Caramel by Nails Inc, I got it (and three others) free with Diet Coke in Boots quite a while ago.  It's a lovely rich nude sort of colour, although to me it's more of a camel shade than a caramel.  It reminds me of the sort of colour glamorous older ladies would wear on their nails, understated and sophisticated.

 

 

It's a cream shade although in these pictures it looks as though it has a touch of shimmer through it, that is in fact down to my poor application of top coat which had tiny shimmer particles in it from a previous manicure, must remember and keep that one aside fir using on shimmery finishes from now on as it does change the cream finish somewhat.

 

These pictures are two coats.  I'm not a massive fan of Nails Inc polishes, particularly the creams as I don't feel they last too well on me, however this one is actually doing pretty well wear wise.

 

 

Nails Inc Sprinkles - Sweets Way

Using the fine sprinkles recently made me keen to dig out the original collection and try them again and I chose my favourite of the lot, Sweets Way, to put on.

 

 

Sweets Way is a pale blue base with pink, blue ad silver glitter packed in to it.

 

These pictures are three coats for full opacity, although two would probably have done.

 

The only downside of this polish is that it's a bit of a bugger to remove, check out tomorrow's post to see how I got around that issue...

Nails Inc - Fine Sprinkles - Little Portland Street

Another polish from this set today, Little Portland Street this time, the pink sprinkles.  This one is like the baby sister of Topping Lane from the previous Sprinkles collection by Nails Inc.

 

 

It features an opaque base in bright pink jam packed with tiny pink, purple and gold glitter pieces.  The effect is more subtle than the previous sprinkles collection as the glitter is much finer but equally pretty, especially if you like your glitters to be more subtle.

 

Application was great, two coats are totally opaque and the glitter disperses well over the whole nail without any bother, it also dries really fast which is a great plus point.

 

Nails Inc Langham Street Fine Sprinkles

Today I am wearing Langham Street from the Nails Inc Fine Sprinkles set I bought the other week.  This shade is touted as being vanilla sprinkles, it reminds me a bit of Essence's Irreplaceable but a bit lighter.

 

It's a golden beige base filled with gold and silver fine glitter sprinkles which merge together to give a sort of champagne shade.

 

This one applies beautifully, two coats makes it totally opaque and it dries fast too, the only downside is that I am finding this polish quite chippy - it's an issue I have with most Nails Inc polishes and why I never tend to buy them full price.  I already have a couple of nicks at the tips and it's only been on for a few hours (other than overnight in bed) so far.

Nails Inc Fine Sprinkles - Warwick Street

Earlier in the week I showed you the Fine Sprinkles collection from Nails Inc that I picked up in TK Maxx.  Today I have a full nail of the day post featuring one of those polishes, Warwick Street, a jelly cream base crammed full of multi-coloured micro glitter, or as Nails Inc likes to call them fine sprinkles.

These pictures are just two coats and the polish is wonderfully opaque, you could almost get away with just one it covers so well.

The polish applies smoothly and dries pretty fast too which is an added bonus and although the glitter is a tiny bit rough it's easily smoothed out with a generous coat of top coat.

On first inspection I would say the fine sprinkles are in a white base but in some lights it seems to lean a mauve or lilac sort of colour, I'm not sure if that's the colour of the base or just the sprinkles making it look that way, either way it's very pretty.

The fine sprinkles collection is a softer more subtle little sister to Nails Inc's Sprinkles collection which I posted about HERE.  The fine sprinkles give a more subtle, gentler look than their rather more in your face big sister collection.

I really like this polish, it's a more subtle glitter look with a nod to recent indie collections which feature glitter suspended in creamier bases, I can't wait to try out the other 3 in the set, if they're half as pretty as Warwick Street the set will have been the bargain of the century!

Nails Inc Fine Sprinkles & Special Effects Set in TK Maxx

I popped into TK Maxx at lunchtime to pick up a present for some family we're visiting later for dinner, promising myself I would avoid looking at the nail varnish, and the scented candles, and the cookware too.  Truth be told there aren't many sections of TK Maxx I can be trusted in.  However, sometimes something is such a bargain you just have to buy it which is, funnily enough, what happened today.

 

I'd previously been eyeing up the Nails Inc 4 Piece Fine Sprinkles Collection on QVC which includes:

 

* Market Place - Lilac Sprinkles

* Langham Street - Vanilla Sprinkles

* Little Portland Street - Pink Sprinkles

* Devonshire Place - Mocha Sprinkles

 

So when I spotted a Nails Inc Colour Collection set in TK Maxx that looked very, very similar for just £12.99 I couldn't really resist.  It turns out it's not exactly the same set but very similar, the TK Maxx version includes:

 

* Special Effects in Warwick Street
(which oddly is often described online as a QVC exclusive shade with Blue, Red & Silver sprinkles but mine doesn't match that description.  Mine is the one shown here with multi-coloured sprinkles which I think is even prettier!)

* Langham Street - Vanilla Sprinkles

* Little Portland Street - Pink Sprinkles

* Devonshire Place - Mocha Sprinkles

 

 

I'm slightly sad to have missed out on Market Place as it does look very, very pretty but getting the other three and Warwick Street for such a bargain price will no doubt ease my pain in time. ;)

Poor macro shot of the multi-coloured glitter in Warwich Street:

 

After the excitement of my Nails Inc find I couldn't decide on anything suitable to take as a gift to dinner so it looks like it'll be a stop off to grab a bunch of flowers on the way over there, excellent shopping skills there, I'm sure you'll agree!

Look out for swatches coming very soon.

 

 

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Nails Inc Feather Effects Edinburgh

You may remember from this recent post my delight in finding a much cheaper dupe of the Nails Inc Feather Effect Collection in Superdrug.  However I mentioned in that post that there was no version of Edinburgh Feathers, so, when I saw it in Boots the other day while I was in there deciding what to spend my Advantage Card points on I knew what I had to do...

Nails Inc retails at £11 a bottle, so not the cheapest of polishes but with my points, and my OCD about having complete collections in my stash, I decided it was worth splashing out.

Edinburgh is a clear based polish chock full of peach and baby blue glitter.

Obviously I wanted to try it out as soon as possible so here it is over Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Lychee, in hindsight I'm not sure that's the best base for this polish as it doesn't really show up the 'feathers' too well.

My initial reaction is that the formula in the Nails Inc Feathers is not as thickly packed with glitter as the much cheaper In Vogue polishes are, these pictures are two coats and as you can see there is still a fair bit of base colour showing through.

I need to try this polish over a different coloured base and see if it appeals more to me then, so far I am very glad that I only bought one of the Nails Inc version and stuck with the In Vogue dupes for the rest as they seem like the superior polish.  I do like the baby blue and peach colour combination though so hopefully with a different base I'll grow to like this polish as much as I like it's much cheaper copy cat cousins.

In Vogue Feather Effect Swatches

I have been so excited to get my hands on these, first posted about here, so when they arrived I had to immediately try them all out at once, after quickly taking a bottle shot. 

The colours are (from left to right) Parakeet, Sunset, On the money and Jaye Bird; you can see some comparison bottle shots  beside their Nails Inc cousins here.

Up close shot of some sample swatches I did before I got home and tried them out on my nails, I think this picture shows the colours of the bar glitter really well.

Now some pictures of them on the nail, I love how these polishes look!

From top to bottom; Parakeet, Jaye Bird, On the money and Sunset. 

All the feather effects are two coats over a base colour of Barry M Blue Moon.

I was so pleased with the way the feather effect polishes applied, the glitter is thick and dense in the clear base which means that the polish is almost totally opaque in just two coats and really covers the base shade I used.  The polish applies beautifully, it's really easy to move it about on the nail to get an even coverage, much less faff than a lot of glitter top coats I own!

Now for some close ups to properly show the beautiful colours of the bar glitter in these polishes.  First up Parakeet.

Jaye Bird.

On the Money.

And finally, Sunset.

As you can see (in the last close up shot) there are odd pieces of glitter which do very slightly overhang the nail edge leaving a bit of a rough effect, I didn't find it a huge issue and it's definitely something you could avoid with careful application.  For the odd pieces of glitter which did end up overhanging my nail edge I found it easy enough to remove with a quick file.

The polish dries to a slightly rough texture which might not suit everyone but it's easily enough covered with an extra coat of top coat of you prefer a smooth finish.

The polish also dried surprisingly fast which was a pleasant surprise, often layering glitters can take forever to dry but these ones were touch dry within a few minutes.

Overall I am delighted with these polishes; I love how they look, I love how they apply and most of all I love that they are a fraction of the cost of the Nails Inc collection that they emulate.  A total win for In Vogue, I'll definitely be making sure to keep an eye on the polishes they release in the future, if this initial collection is anything to go by then they could very well be the next high street brand to look out for.

In Vogue Feather Effect Polishes, Nails Inc Feather dupes?

Recently I have been toying with the idea of ordering some of the Nails Inc Feather Effect polishes, they're clear polishes laden with different shades of bar glitter and they look really pretty, however, I am not a huge fan of the quality of  Nails Inc polish and at £11 each they were quite a big expense.

 

While I was wondering if W7 might produce a similar line, as they did with the Sprinkles from last year, my attention was drawn to the new line of In Vogue polishes which are now in stock at Superdrug online.  This new budget brand has a whole range of different finishes and to my delight one of those finishes was Feather Effects!

 

 

The best news?  They're only £3.49 each, which means that all 4 of them cost under £14, not much more than one of the Nails Inc versions! 

 

Here are a few comparison shots of the In Vogue polishes alongside the Nails Inc.  First up Nails Inc York vs In Vogue Sunset, these two look like exact dupes to me; a clear base filled with peach and white bar glitter.

 

 

Next up Nails Inc Cornwall and In Vogue Jaye Bird, again an exact dupe as far as I can tell; a clear base with royal blue and white bar glitter.

 

Then we have Nails Inc Brighton and In Vogue On the money (these both remind me of the rather cult-ish indie polish Floam, which is good because I've fancied it for a while), again a very close match dupe wise; this polish is another clear base this time with pale yellow and turquoise bar glitter.

 

 

Finally we have Nails In Chester and In Vogue Parakeet, again these two polishes are a good match so I would call 4 for 4 dupes, which is pretty good going; the final polish is also a clear base this time with turquoise, yellow and peach bar glitter through it.

There is a fifth polish in the Nails Inc Feather collection, Edinburgh, and so far there is no sign of a dupe for it, you can see it below; it's a combination of peach and pale blur bar glitter in a clear base.

 

 

Of the 4 polishes that In Vogue have included in their collection all 4 look VERY close to the Nails Inc polishes, great news for anyone like me who wanted to try out the Feathers look but couldn't quite stretch their budget to buying a full set at Nails Inc prices.

 

In Vogue polishes are available online from Superdrug now and due to hit the stores in 'mid March', so hopefully soon.  Obviously I couldn't wait until they appeared in store so I have ordered all 4 and should have them within the next few days, expect swatches as soon as I get my grubby mits on them.

 

Have you tried any of the In Vogue polishes yet?  Are there others I should try from their collection, let me know in the comments.

 

EDIT: You can now see swatches of all the polishes in the Feather Effects range by clicking HERE.

Nails Inc Sugar House Lane

As predicted last week when I wore W7 Lava Flow, I couldn't resist repeating the sprinkle look and trying out a polish from the Nails Inc Sprinkles collection, Sugar House Lane.

 

Shamefully, although I've had this polish for months I've never used it for a full manicure, so this is it's first outing.

 

 

The next three pictures have a little clue as to why I rarely buy Nails Inc polishes unless they are very unique or unusual, the chip on my index finger developed overnight, while I was sleeping.  For some reason Nails Inc polishes just do not last on me at all, by the end of the day in work I was wearing a plaster over that finger because the whole nail had peeled off in sheets and looked terrible.

 

I don't know if it's a formula issue or just that my nails aren't suited to Nails Inc polish but the wear time for me is shockingly bad, especially for a polish that costs £11 a bottle!

 

Anyway, more pictures, because despite the shoddy wear time I do love the look of this polish.

 

 

Sugar House Lane is a minky taupe base colour jam-packed full of black and silver glitter pieces, I think it looks like some sort of very glamorous granite or concrete.

 

 

It does have a slightly rough finish so I tend to use a couple of coats of top coat over the top to smooth it out.  Application of the Sprinkle polishes is pretty good, this is 3 coats but they are opaque in two, I just like to try and get the glitter distribution perfect.

 

 

Unfortunately removal is a pain in the bum, even using the tinfoil trick you end up with glitter all over your hands.  A peel off base coat is definitely the way to go for quick, mess free removal.

 

 

NEW Accessorize Sprinkles

There have been murmurs online about a new collection of Accessorize polishes which may be dupes of the recent Nails Inc & W7 Sprinkles collection, so I had to head to Superdrug and see if I could check them out.  They were there but not in great numbers, here's the shelf:

 

 

There seem to be 6 of them, 5 very similar to the Nails Inc Sprinkles and one black with gold glitter which is something I have seen several companies do (including Barry M very recently).

 

The collection includes:
 

Damselfly - Blue (definite dupe of Nails Inc / W7)

Butterfly - White, black & red (definite dupe of W7)

Dragonfly - Green with dark blue glitter

Leopard Moth - White & black (definite dupe of W7)

Firefly - Black & gold (easily duped but not a true sprinkle to me, more of a glitter)

Bumble Bee - Orange with black glitter.

 

Here are the obvious dupes:

Damselfly, Butterfly & Leopard Moth.

They are £3.45 each which is pretty steep for a 10ml bottle, but worth it if you can't get similar elsewhere.  If you want any of the W7 dupes (Damselfly, Butterfly or Leopard Moth shown above) then I strongly suggest you go with the W7 versions, simply because they are much cheaper and larger bottles.  The polishes are exact dupes, you can see swatches and details on where I got mine here.  Or search under the sprinkles tag on the blog for additional photos and manicure pictures.

 

I picked up Dragonfly and Bumble Bee as I haven't seen anything similar to these colours, Dragonfly has dark blue glitter through it and Bumble Bee has black.
 

 

 

 

I'll get proper swatches up as soon as I've tried them out.  I'm really hoping the quality is as good as the Nails Inc and W7 polishes as I really love the sprinkle look and my two new additions will be ideal for some Halloween themed manicures.

 

Have you spotted Accessorize's Sprinkle polish yet?  Which will you be picking up?