Loreal - Color Riche - Perle de Jade 602 and Luxembourg Garden 608

The Loreal bottles are so cute and the colours so appealing. How could I go wrong, right? Well the results speak for themselves. The jade.. oh dear.. how could it go so wrong. (the bubbles are from my dodgy basecoat though). But anyway, back to the jade... why is it so clunky? I even cleaned off a few nails and started again but nooooo, still the same.

Anyway, I do like the colour, such a creamy robin egg blue. Not exactly green enough to be jade though. I wanted to pair this up straight away with Luxembourg Garden which is a slate metallic with emerald green shimmer. Results below.

Kit - Reach Out

This was after 2 coats. Very patchy. Nice brush but layers of the last coat would keep coming off.

You can just make out the sparkly shimmer in the sunlight. Not apparent otherwise.

Daylight

Shadow

Yeah, well Kit is made in Australia and sold in Myer. They have a good range of colours. The formula is ok but not the best I have used but the brush is nice. Pastels, there must be something about pastels that make them hard to paint on without patches.

In the bottle the shimmer is really apparent, with its green and pink sparkle but once it was on the nail it just vanished. I had to look at it under direct sunlight to catch a glimpse.

I did about 5 coats before I managed to get rid of all the patches! It was a labour of love and not one I am going to hurry back to.

It has worn extremely well though. No chips or scratches yet.

Australis - Sweetpea

This is a creme pastel mint. Or Tiffany blue. Sigh... It was so hard to work with. It was such a thin pigment that I did 5 coats to get rid of the bald spots which has turned my nail looking like a wedding cake with chunky icing.

Annnnnnyway. I adore this colour, but why you so hard to work with?!

And the chunky round cap.. Also hard to use. I give up. There are other colours just like this one out there that has better coverage and easier to grasp. Goodbye Sweetpea!!!

Miss D by Diva - Catch Up For Coffee

Really loved the cute name of this one. Diva is a cheap costume jewellery store in Australia. They occasionally have collections of nail polish. This was on sale for $3.

Well, I was surprised as it was quite nice to paint on, although the formula was really unforgiving (see the third finger - I didn't file it back and you can see how my nailbed was uneven). It was unstreaky but is on the thin side. The thumb photo shows 1 coat so it is pretty even although something this thin you'd normally need a few coats to get a good finish.

I really love this colour. It has a purple tone and so while it is a neutral, it really set off my purple winter clothes I wore this week. Definitely a cool toned coffee.

It is wearing ok, after 5 days. Not chipping but wears off at the tip. It's clinging on for dear life! Winter has made me loathe to change nail colour - it's cold to get the colour off, and shivering makes it hard to paint properly. Lol.

Revlon - Popular

This is the colour of strawberry milkshake. It's milky. It's pink. And its semi sheer. It would have looked really nice on only 2 coats but I had mishaps with the brushing and so I had to cover it up with one more. What I don't like about this is that I can't get the glitter to sit on top, so instead of being silver and shimmery, most of them are covered in polish.

The polish is nice, the formula is nice. But... but I think it wasn't sheer enough. It should build up to look like a resin sculpture with bits trapped in there but instead most of the glitter looks white at first glance.

Mavala - Velvet

Mavala seem to have quite a nice formulation. It painted on thin, but evened up with the next coat. Dried well. This colour is so gorgeous, a dusty rose. But again the tiny bottle is a pain, trying to hold the cap steady to apply.

Mavala is from Switzerland and I've seen them in a handful of chemists.

Pure creme colour, with a soft gloss.

Rimmel - Hypnotise

Beautiful formula. Beautiful deep purple red creme (berry). Anti chip. I wore it for 5 days before tiny bits came off. Has one of the wide flat brushes that take getting used to and I'm finding with this that it is easier to do the two edges first then the middle stroke.

I loved this colour so much, it really has a gorgeous sheen and depth. Only needed 2 coats.

B Collection - Tahiti

Now this is actually a bit pinker than the pictures show. My camera just hates purples. :-) B Collection... well sad to say as it ages, it just loses quality. This is a new bottle, but it has been in the shops for a while (Target exclusive line) and its getting hard to apply. I started with a thin streaky coat then a medium coat. The colour is adorable however. Also admire the lovely coral backdrop. :-)

Cutex - 410 Quick Set Coral

I tried the Ice Coffee last time. This is the other colour I liked. I've found them at Priceline and sometimes Coles will have it. Anyway, wow! I love the colour. It's a muted burnt orangey red. Dusky coral. High shine as the packet says? Not really. Hard wearing? Chipped after 2 days. And thick... This was a bit of a pain to put on, plus I got streaks as in 3 D streaks. I've got ridges on my nails! What a shame because this colour really ignited my imagination - love it to bits. I wonder if I can get a dupe in a better product. As for the speed dry... deny deny deny. Huge fail on that part. But probably because of the clunky coat that went on. Also, first coat had patches. So much for their claim to bold colour in one stroke. The brush is wide and rounded and honestly, the round tip is a pain in the butt when it comes to tucking it right in to the edges. I think a good brush really needs at least one sharp edge so I can get some neat, straight lines around the cuticle. Random factoid? This one is made in Spain. I'm so torn over this one... the colour... the COLOUR!!!

Chi Chi (mini) - She Bangs

The thing with these Chi Chi minis is that some of the colours are similar to the regular bottles, but have different names. Peculiar. Two bites of the apple, perhaps?

Now, I actually wore this one prior to the last jade colour (Mavala) that I posted, but it took me a while to dig out these photos. I've tried to tone the photos to be as true to life as possible. This colour is what I would call vermillion, or perhaps a fluro red also. It makes me think of the red traffic cones. Very stark, very striking. I loved wearing this colour. Rich orangey tones. It had a demi matte finish, but I glossed it up with Sally Hansen Mega Shine on top. It was easy to apply, and after waging war with several colours in a row (exhausting) it was SO NICE to finally reach a colour that would just do its thing.

It is pure creme, there is absolutely no shimmer, glitter, flecking or anything. I've tried to assemble a little montage of red things in the last pic for a comparison, but under my desk lamp I think it was hard for my camera to deal with all the reds. :-)

I cannot stress how much fun I had with this colour. I got a few comments for it, but not as much as I did for the Mavala 'Aquamarine'. Ciao bella! Til next time!

Mavala - Aquamarine

Mavala are some small polishes hailing from Switzerland. Their webpage says that this is the ideal size for a fast moving trend base. What I really like is that these are quite sturdy little pots. The cap initially looks a bit tacky, but it is quite a good grip. The brush is quite good as well. I've found Mavala at two independent chemists so there is no real clue where they are stocked. One was in Indooroopilly Westfield, in Brisbane. The other was in the Town Hall station underpass somewhere, Sydney. I think I was heading to QVB.

I have been very fond of this colour. It's a very creamy celadon or jade green and has a very subtle green shimmer. In sunlight this is more apparent. It has also worn quite well. I'm up to day 4 and it only chipped today. But this was due to me scrubbing pots and pans. Formula was good, not "very good".... with some bald patches. I did two coats, but it really needs 3. The paint is a bit thicker in consistency, so maybe this is really a 2 day job. This colour looks much better on squared off nails than round or pointy tips. My poor nails, at the moment, are 1000 different shapes. (ok, ten, I mean).

I have a couple of other Mavalas, so would like to trot those out soon. Price point varied from $7 to 9.

B collection - Oslo

So what is this colour? Well, against a white plate there's a hint of pink. Nude? Buff? Porcelain dolly?

Amsterdam was the other neutral, but is yellow toned buff. Dairy cream. Makes sense, Holland has plenty of cows and a cheese industry.

It was a bit streaky to apply, so the second coat I applied more heavily. It's a creme so even more difficult to deflect uneven application. Boo.. Still, I'm enchanted by the delicate colour after all the darks I'e been wearing in the last few posts.

Estee Lauder - Pure Red

It took me a while to warm to this. There is something about bright red nails that makes me think "unadventurous person trying to be bold". Wanna be bold? Wear a neon purple with glitter. Anyhow, I put it on last night, the brush seems a little hard to control - I've had better. One coat was enough, but I fixed up a couple of nails. The consistency was good, but not excellent. It looks excellent when wet, and excellent minus one when dry.

It wore really quickly. Not chipping, but just rubbing off the ends. I was just handling books, mouse, keyboard and yeah, wear patches evident. Had to top coat it. Tonight I decided it needed redecorating. French polished a rose gold band on top and as I was top coating that, it would drag micro glitter all over the surface. Now it looks great! I wish I could get the gold dust over the top without the french!