Review: Nails Inc Bakers Row (Sprinkles Collection)

I am an avid polish swapper, and managed to pick up this beautiful emerald black, sprinkled glitter polish from a friend last week. It's Nails Inc Bakers Row and was in the recent TSV on QVC, and isn't available from Nail Inc's website yet. So, here's what I make of it!

This polish is an emerald black base colour (not clear, like most glitter polishes), with large, round bright green glitter particles (hence the name 'Sprinkles'). I found it took two coats to get opaque coverage, but the polish went on easily. The only real issue I had was a loose particle sticking out over the top of the odd nails, but they were easily removed with my finger when wet. Otherwise, the polish was easy to put on, has good coverage and dried quickly between coats.

I was concerned at first at how rough the polish felt, but one coat of Nails Inc Kensington Caviar topcoat, and they're are smooth as can be expected for a textured polish (in no way feeling grainy or gravelly, but obviously not feeling completely flat). It certainly beats the feeling of most glitter-containg polishes I have!

So, while you'll have to excuse the handiwork (I wanted my nails sparkly before Strictly began, so was in a rush as I wanted them finish to stare at the telly with a glass of vino), the colour of this polish is beautiful - the large, bright green particles really catch the light, and contrast the midnight green base beautifully.

My only gripe? Longevity. After 4 days it was badly enough chipped on 4 fingers to look messy, with the first chip needing a repair less than 24hrs after application. I love Nails Inc and find most of their polishes last a long time, but just occasionally this seems to be sacrificed for colour in order to get the right mix - this seemed to be one of those.

I removed polish the old fashioned way to see what it was liked: it is as tough to take off as any other glitter, so would benefit from the foil method (you know, cutting your cotton pads into quarters, soaking in polish, and strapping to your nails with kitchen foil caps for 5mins to loosen it up).

Overall, this is a gorgeous glitter and has all the pros and cons that a glitter of any brand brings. I'm a bit disappointed with the wear, but have totally forgiven Nails Inc that as I adore the colour, and this is an 'occasion' polish to me.

Nail Art: Vintage Roses

So my nail wheel and nail art brushes finally arrived, so I finally got to do a design I'd been planning for ages - a vintage rose look, inspired by a love of Cath Kidston and a good floral print!

This look was achieved using my old faithful, Models Own Jade Stone (two coats), dotted roughly with Models Own Peach Puff, highlighted with No 7 Pillar Box and using Nails Inc Regents Park Road for the leaves (probably my single favourite nail varnish - the one I'd take to a desert island, but that'll be another blog entry later).

The tools for the job:

I didn't take photos during the process, but can recommend this video as a 'how to'. You don't need a dotting tool to apply the pink/peach dots though: they only need to be rough, so the brush that comes with the bottle is fine.

These have attracted lots of comment already, including from the security guard in my local supermarket - that's how eye-catching they are! I love this design, and once again Models Own Jade Stone proves itself to be a versatile base colour for doing nail art with. I really can't recommend it highly enough! (I do not recommend Boots topcoat however - it pulls polishes even when designs are dry, and can leave brush strokes despite being clear. I'll be switching to Nails Inc Kensington Caviar ASAP).

ETA: I didn't realise it at the time, but I've ended up matching my PJs. I don't think I've ever been so well accessorised in my life. Shame no one gets to see it! lol. (Excuse the photo quality, but it was taken on my phone).

Nail Art: Cherry Blossoms

With too much time on my hands, and a nail varnish collection that's rather built up over the years, I've recently taking to doing more adventurous things with my nails. I thought my first go at nail art should be a simple but effective one, so I went with cherry blossom nails.

To achieve the effect, all I needed were these:

Models Own in Jade Stone, Rimme's French Manicure white, Rimmel's Shocker, black eye liner and a cocktail stick.

After my base coat, I applied two coats of Jade Stone, which gave great coverage. I then used the eye liner to draw two branches on each nail. With the cocktail stick, I dotted 4-5 white spots as the petal for each flower, adding the bright pink dot as the flower's centre once dry. I then locked it in with a topcoat once completely dry and voila! I need to get a better hang of tidying up my edges and cuticle floods though: I haven't corrected here as I often find I accidentally over-correct when using touch-up brushes etc as the remover runs so much.

I also tried it with a pale pink background, which worked beautifully but didn't suit my skin tone as well. The side by side comparison looks thus (and the pink is No 7's Pinky Pure 160, and I used a dotting tool rather than cocktail stick with little noticable difference. My white is so old it's gloopy though, so I think I'll appreciate it more when I replace that polish)!

Review: Models Own Aqua Violet (Beetlejuice)

Having heard so many wonderful things about Models Own's Beetlejuice Collection, I treated myself to Aqua Violet - a blue polish with hints of iridescent pinkish-purple.

I have to say, I'm disappointed with the Aqua Violet. The colour is very sheer at first, and takes at least 3 coats to become opaque (though I prefer 4, to stop the light shining through my nail tip as much). While it dries quickly, I've found the colour really disappointing. I was expecting more of the violet shade to come through when caught by the light, but the polish spends 90% of the time blue, and very occasionally looks vaguely pink/purple when the light catches it in a highly specific way.  The brush strokes also show up, so I wish I'd taken my time with this:

As you also may be able to see, the paint has chipped slightly on my thumb in under 12hrs, despite having a long-wearing top coat and not doing any dishes, cooking or other 'manicure risk' activities in the interim.

I'm not convinced that this polish is worth the £5 price tag. I'm just glad I got it in the half-price sale if I'm honest!  Next time, I'll try this shade over an opaque, light blue base to see if it improves any. I'm not holding out much hope, but I'll let you know if it improves! Overall, I'm a bit let down - I'm usually a fan of Models Own polishes.

**I actually sold this on Ebay without trying it over a light, opaque polish as I was so disheartened. I did however get a beautiful trio of Models Own colours in return, so all's well that ends well!**

If you want a navy/vilet duochrome polish that is opaque in two layers, doesn't leave brush strokes, and is truly duochrome, then Nails Inc Garrick Street is a winner by a country mile! The Models Own polish is a nice idea, fairly poorly executed - Garrick Street on the other hand, is a great idea, well carried out! :D