Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Nails Inc. Swatches and Review

Back in July, when I posted a picture of Chesham Street, I had only one Nails Inc. polish. That was truly a shame that has now been remedied. After a very generous gift from a friend (Hi Kaz! Thank you!) and a couple sent to me to review, I've gotten a taste of some current Nails Inc. shades and now I know what I've been missing out on all this time! Here are the ones I've tried:

Bubble Trouble. A warm neon pink creme. This is not a current shade, but it's too pretty not to post! From pictures I've seen, this one seems like it might be similar to Shoreditch.


Duke Street. This is a light blue-grey creme, very rainy looking. Melancholy. Love it.



Special Effects glitter in Fitzroy Square. This is a combination of large blue, small blue and small green glitter. It's thin enough for layering, but great by itself as well. It does dry a bit dull and tends to eat topcoat, so I needed and extra coat of topcoat when I wore this. Here it is layered with a few shades:



One coat of Nails Inc. Fitzroy Square over Bubble Trouble.


One coat of Fitzroy Square over Floral Street.


One coat of Fitzroy Square over St. John's Wood.


One coat of Fitzroy Square over Warwick Way.


Floral Street. A pure bright white creme. This one is very soft looking (not chalky) but still very bright. It is minimally streaky- I could have gotten away with two coats of I was more careful. One of the nicest, easiest to apply white polishes I've tried.


Foubert's Place. A dirty olive. It's a mixture of grey, brown and olive green. Creme finish. This color is very 'me'.



Haymarket. This looks like more of a turquoise here, but it's actually more of a mint in real life. A touch less blue, more yellow to it. This one looked so retro, it was begging for me to turn it into a polka dot mani:


Except my dots didn't turn out too great. I tried to use one of those squeezy nail pens again and it made my dots too 3D! And then I didn't wait long enough when I applied my topcoat and it smeared. I'm going to try this mani again using Floral Street and a dotting tool, I know it will turn out much better.


Porchester Square. In the bottle this one looked like more of a pale pink with a hint of grey, but on my nails it was a much prettier grey with only a bare hint of pink. Weird how it changes once it dries! But I really like this one a lot more than I thought I would based on bottle color. It's soft and feminine but still edgy, the best of both worlds.



St. John's Wood. A great lilac-purple creme. It's not as dark or as blue as it looks here, more along the lines of Illamasqua Jo'Mina, just not as bright/neon-ish.


Summer Glow. Another one that's not currently available but too beautiful not to post. This is the color of cantaloupe! I love it! I hear it's similar to Porchester Place, which is still available.


Victoria. Incredible blood red jelly. Another one that looks way better on the nails than it does in the bottle. This is vampy perfection. It's a true jelly and has a lot of depth. So dark and dramatic looking, and here I thought it was going to be another boring red!


Warwick Way. Nearly-neon teal. More green than blue, despite how it looks here. You know how hard these bright teals are to capture. It's amazing in real life, you just have to check this one out in person if you can. It's fantastic.

The formula on these was amazing. Smooth, creamy, opaque and didn't give me a hint of trouble. I did two coats of everything except Floral Street and Fitzroy Square which needed three. They applied so easily and smoothly and the brushes gave good coverage and an even curve at the cuticle. Drying time was good.

So, now that I've tried more than one of these, I'm hooked. I can see why people collect these! They're so nice. Good quality brushes, perfect creamy formula, interesting color selection. I have only tried one older shimmer, so I don't know how the shimmer formula is, but the cremes are excellent. And now that they're available at Sephora, they're so much easier to get my hands on! No more ordering from overseas!

The only downside I'm finding with these are the names. I like the names- I like them a lot! They're named after London and UK places and landmarks. But some of them are so similar that it gets confusing and I sometimes mix up the colors. For example, Warwick Way and Warwick Avenue, Porchester Square and Porchester Place, Chesham Street and Chesham Place.

I can't believe I've been missing out this whole time. I really like all the new ones I've tried. Much nicer than my first experience with Chesham Street. Can't wait to see what colors they do next.

These are now available at Sephora for $9.50 a bottle. Aside from what I've swatched here, they also have crackle topcoats, nail treatments, Special Effects glitters, Holographic topcoat, jewel-encrusted bottles and special color sets. Definitely worth a look!

(Some of these were samples provided for review.)


26 comments:

  1. All the colours are gorgeous! Particularly love Bubble Trouble, Haymarket, St John's Wood and Victoria. Especially Victoria.

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  2. Your Nails are so so pretty ^_^
    i love your looks :))

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  3. I love Fitzroy Square !! Wish I'd get these where i live

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  4. Yay, I'm a big nails inc fan (and collector) so it's great to find my favourite nail blogger loves them too.

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  5. They definatly make the best cremes ever! I recommend Jermyn street, The Serpentine, Victoria & Albert, The Thames- all lovely cremes

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  6. So awesome that you finally got to test some of their newer colors.

    Nails Inc's cremes are fantastic. The newer shimmers are very good, contrary to what the older ones (around 2005 and so) were...

    I would suggest you to try franklins row, duke of york place, wyndham place...they're sparkly duochromes. I hate everything that's not a creme, but since you like duochromes so much, I think you might like these. :)

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  7. Such great colors!!
    The pink and the glitter are awesome!

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  8. These have been around for ages here in the UK and we love nails inc. over here. I Wear Victoria constantly and love it. Isn't it weird how shiny it is even without topcoat. There is also a navy with exactly the same kind of formula as Victoria... can't for the life of me remember the name.

    Didn't Victoria make a huge mess of your hands though when you removed it? it always makes me look lady Macbeth no matter how careful I am the colour seems to just split apart and stain my skin like crazy.
    Any tips for that?

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  9. The blue on the pink looks nice!

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  10. I love Nails Inc! I'm so glad you guys can get them in the USA now! You were certainly missing out before! :)

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  11. If you think the similar names make the polishes confusing, imagine what it's like trying to navigate your way around London!

    Haymarket and Foubert's Place are now on my wishlist having seen these swatches. Gorgeous.

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  12. Lovely swatches as always, I have been using Nails Inc for a few years and the similiar names can be a bit confusing at times but it is worth it for some of their lovely colours <3 xx

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  13. I just bought a few colors when I was in London this summer..before I knew Sephora was carrying some of them,. Like the formula a LOT

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  14. they are all so pretty. Love the glitter topcoat. that was really pretty. thanks for sharing! :)

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  15. Wow love them all! Want them all! lol

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  16. I absolutely love those colours! Porchester Square is awesome...

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  17. Such an awesome post! I love the swatches! I love how you showed so many different things!

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  18. So many beauties. I hope they're all available at Sephora.

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  19. I just sent my Brit stepdad a list of nails inc polishes that he needs to buy for me. I can't wait to try them, too bad I sent the list last night! I could've added three or four based on your swatches! pretty!

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  20. I have to say that I'm not a Nails Inc fan. I wish I was! Every single one I've tried chips wtihin an hour. Sometimes wtihin minutes. I've tried matching it with Nails Inc base and top coats, with different brands....they just refuse to last on me (actually I know a lot of people with this problem) so I just avoid them entirely. Which is a shame because they've got some great colours.

    xo
    Sara

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  21. I love Nails Inc polishes and have been collecting them for a while (I'm in the UK) so was glad to see them here! They wear well on me and are easy to apply. Do have to say I think their cream finishes are better than their other formulas althought the duochromes are great colours.

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  22. I am with you. I am loving the formula on Nails Inc. Glitters - not so much because of well they are glitters and all that comes with them - the grit - tire of them fast - getting 'em off - etc. But the Nails Inc cream formula is up there in my book with most of the DL creams. A really good product. Not enough distribution to Sephora stores - esp smaller ones. Looking forward to Nails Inc getting wider, more accessible distribution state side.

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  23. These are gorgeous! I especially like Duke Street, Foubert's Place, Warwick Way, and Summer Glow. Hopefully I'll be able to order a couple online. Great swatches!

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  24. Victoria!! I have to have it! That jelly texture looks absolutely beautiful on your nails. Might have to splurge a bit on Sephora now. St. John's Wood, and Duke Street also caught my eye.

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  25. The one you have labeled as St. Johns Wood is actually Baker Street. They're definitely VERY different colors.

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    1. My bottle is labeled St. John's Wood and is distinctly purple, while pictures I've seen of Baker Street portray it as a vibrant blue (but not purple). I don't own Baker Street, but judging from every picture I've seen of it, mine is definitely St. John's Wood and not Baker Street.

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