Michelle by Beadstreet - T50

My friend sent this over from Singapore along with some other colours from the same brand. In the bottle it presents as a scarlet metallic, laced with silver.It totally whiffs - this has the hallmarks of old fashioned nail polish, when you really understood it to be paint - nothing less, nothing more! Painted on very well, it was densely pigmented, but I did note that it was so heavy with mineral that the brush was moving the pigment around like there was not actually enough polish to hold it in place.

Looked pretty good with one coat but to even up the edges I gave it another. When removing, the red actually came off first and left a light layer of silver.

As is it came out a dullish red with silver flecking. But when I top coated it, maaaan, it was as one friend described it, the kind of deep, shimmery metallic you get on a sports car. A totally different colour. You can see on the photos I left the thumb unvarnished for comparison. Who would have guessed? Hi shine chilli.

Removing it was pretty easy as well, but it left red in all my skin crevices. I had a lot of fun with this colour.

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - 460 Save the Date

We've had a lot of overcast days lately, so I wasn't able to get a photo of this in direct sunlight to show you the sparkling depth of the colour. It's a real shame because this is now one of my favourite colours! And what is a bonus is that it's a replacement for my very sad bottle of Constance Carroll "Blackcurrant" from back in the 90s which I've tried to revive several times.

I love this colour so much but I did find the formula was a bit gluey to apply. It's purply red, it shimmers like satin, has heaps of depth. It is even better with a super shiny top coat.

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.

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!

Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine - Luminous

As I said about the other Lacquer Shine I had on, this goes on like a dream. What an incredible formula. I've got 3 of these, so when the time comes I will review the other one. In the bottle I had imagined it was more of an orangey tone, but on the nail it seemed like a straight out hot red, not a hint of orange at all. These are quite old polishes, being in the discontinued basket, and for all my life only have seen them in one store, a Terry White chemist with not much clientele. Still, I cannot tell you that after the last few polishes being put on, I had rather dreaded that perhaps I was declining into old age and unable to hold a brush anymore or create even strokes.

This polish has told me: It's not you! It's them!

Anyway... I'd had trouble with those new fangled wide brush things and this is rather the average long bristled straight brush and it surely, surely is wonderful to apply with. *gush gush*

I've had tons of compliments. Last night, my friend was ordering in an Indian restaurant when the woman stopped him mid sentence and said: Those nails are AMAZING. Truly. She endured taking our drink and entree order and finally had to blurt it out. (dramatic writing licence used).

But seriously, yes, at work today had comments about them. Last week at work also. That's right... LAST WEEK. These babies have rode my dead skin cells for approximately 5 days. They had done the washing, scrabbled around in my handbag and it was only yesterday they took chipping. In fact, the last photo was taken 2 days ago. You can see some wear on the tip but the polish clung on for dear life.

So, it's a bold tomato red and is a pearl. It has delicious, beautiful depth. I think this series Lacquer Shine was really taking those deep, shiny asian lacquerware as inspiration, if you can visualise the layers and layers of varnish that give it that glittering warm depth.

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!

Loreal Resist & Shine Titanium - 734

Up to 7 days it reckons. Well, by the day after application, I already had chips on 2 nails and the shine had worn down. The colours are incredible in the bottle and less so in real life. In the bottle, this is the most amazing satin look red, and on the nail when applying, a dark ruby, still acceptable. But on drying, it was just one of the usual dark bloody reds with a hint of glitter. The glittering was further lost on application of a top coat.

There are nail colours where I can't stop looking at them, every time they glint in the light. These were so forgettable I've barely glanced at them all day. The only good thing about this is that it is eye candy in the bottle. Maybe it would look better if there was a silver undercoat - I'll experiment with that at some point.

 See? In the bottle looks like there is a beautiful lava, orange/red thing going on! Fail in real life.

** Edit 19 June 2011 **

So in other countries, they actually have the names, not just the numbers. These are: Black Red (734), Black Purple (732), Black Mauve (733), Black Turquoise (736) and Black Gold (737). There is also 731 which is Black Blue.