Tag Archives: swatches

A England Swatches

Hello!

I have some rather lovely polishes from A England to share with you today 🙂  there are quite a few, so this is a slightly more picture heavy post than usual.

As I couldn’t decide on which one to start with here they are in alphabetical order 🙂

Beauty never fails

Beauty never fails

Beauty never fails is a glorious black jelly with tiny gold flakie glitter, I’m not usually a big fan of gold in general but this polish is stunning!

This is two coats with no base coat, it’s so shiny!

Bridal Veil

Bridal Veil

Bridal Veil is a deep black cream with tiny scattered holographic glitter. This has a wonderful creamy formula and is perfectly opaque in two coats.

For some reason I was expecting this to be more of a jelly polish.

I really like how the glitter in this nail polish is actually quite subtle, This is definitely the most sophisticated black holographic one I own 🙂

This is two coats with no topcoat, Bridal veil doesn’t have quite a glossy finish as the other A England cream polishes I have, but I’m sure a layer of topcoat would fix that! 🙂

Camelot

Camelot

Camelot is a glossy black cream. This is one of the best black nail polishes I have ever tried! Ever! And I’ve used a lot of black nail polish!

The formula and colour are phenomenal, Camelot is like having a glossy abyss on your nails 😀

This is one coat (yes one!) with no topcoat!

Elaine

Elaine

Elaine is a very pretty grey toned purple cream, this A England cream polish also has a really lovely formula it’s so creamy and pigmented!

It just occurred to me that I haven’t mentioned anything about the drying times for these polishes, I found that all of these polishes dry slightly faster than average, only a couple of minutes to be touch dry.

This picture is two coats of Elaine with no topcoat.

Incense Burner

Incense Burner

Incense Burner is a really interesting multi chrome nail polish. The black base contains brownish gold shimmery particles that change to purple, green and blue depending on the light angle.

Annoyingly because I’m still having to use my phone to take pictures I couldn’t capture all the other colours 😦

I have to admit that my first impression of the polish was “Hmmm Brown”.  I’m not a big fan of brown polish and I was expecting to be disappointed with this one, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. This polish is so pretty!

This is two coats with no topcoat.

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is a vampy red flakie glitter in a black jelly base, it really is incredibly pretty!

I’m really liking these subtle glitters, on the nail the polish looks black until the light hits it then it flashes and shimmers this stunning deep red.

This is two coats without topcoat.

Ophelia

Ophelia

Like Jane Eyre Ophelia has a black jelly base, but with this lovely dark purple flakie glitter.

I found the glitters in Ophelia didn’t show up as much as the other jelly polishes, but even so it is still a stunning polish.

Again this is two coats to be fully opaque and shown here with out topcoat.

Princess Tears

Princess Tears

Princess Tears is a very pretty pale pink holographic polish with a beautiful duo chrome sheen that flashes green and purple. My photograph really does this polish no justice at all!

I think this is a sophisticated light pink! I found that Princess Tears has a slightly mate finish when dry

I did find that there was a little dragging on the second coat, but the third covered everything perfectly.

This is three coats with no topcoat.

Queen Of Scots

Queen Of Scots

Queen Of Scots is an amazing dark blue metallic polish, I have already written a little post on how amazing this is for stamping, you can find that right here.

This polish is without doubt a one coat wonder! It’s so intensely pigmented.

with any heavily pigmented polish it’s always a really good to have a good basecoat to help prevent staining. I can’t comment on if this polish stains as I was only wearing it for around five minutes.

Queen of Scots has a lovely creamy formula and dried really quickly, probably because only one thin coat was needed for it to be fully opaque!

Saint George

Saint George

The last polish is Saint George which is a dark teal/forest green holographic with a with a very subtle golden shimmer.

Saint George is another heavily pigmented polish, with careful application I believe this could be opaque in one coat.

This polish is so pretty, the deep teal colour is very flattering, and the holographic glitter in this polish makes it almost glow!

Shown here is two coats without top coat.

. . .

I have to say that all of these polishes are glorious! Not a single one was even slightly disappointing. I think I’m going to be collecting an almost obscene amount more!

😀


Morgan Taylor Pretty Wild, Little Misfit and Rebel With a Cause.

Hello! 🙂

Today I have three very pretty polishes from Morgan Taylor to share with you. Pretty Wild, Little Misfit and Rebel With a Cause.

Pretty Wild

morgan taylor pretty wild swatch

Pretty Wild Is a really lovely greyed out lilac. The formula is really nice, it has a very rich and creamy  consistency and dried really quickly.

I have to say the colour is extremely similar to Sally Hansen Greige Gardens although Pretty wild is a touch warmer. I should probably do a comparison post of all my purpley grey polishes, I’m starting to get quite a collection!

This is two coats Pretty Wild with no topcoat!

Little Misfit

morgan taylor little misfit

Little Misfit is a very sheer multi chrome polish, it is very pretty! looks like a silvery rainbow in a bottle!

On my ring finger is one coat of Little Misfit over black, on the rest of my nails four coats!

The flash did make the sheerness a little more apparent, there definitely is very noticeable VNL!

But as a topper this polish is really lovely. it dries quickly and the application is really smooth., and it’s shiny enough to not need a top coat.

Rebel With a Cause

morgan taylor rebel with a cause

Out of these three polishes this one is my favorite. Rebel With a Cause is a stunning deep wine/berry red, with a slight gold shimmer and iridescent micro glitter.

All of the glitters and shimmers in this polish make it look like a metallic finish but without all the pesky brushstrokes!

The coverage with this polish is amazing, with careful application this could be opaque in one coat, this is two coats, because I wasn’t very careful lol

😀


Hug My Face!

Hey!

Today I have four polishes from the Darling Diva Hug My Face collection to show you! 😀

Bad Ass, In Space No One Can Hear You Scream, Long Live The Queen, and Xenomorph.

darling diva bad ass

Bad Ass

Bad Ass is black with a very slight purple tone, scattered holographic polish.

darling diva bad ass nail polish swatch

Look at that holo flare! In the bottle this polish really didn’t look too exciting… This really is a case of not judging a book by it’s cover! But when it’s on the nails this polish is lovely! but then I may be a little bias, seeing as my favorite polishes are black/purple and holographic lol

I found Bad Ass has an average drying time, it dried slightly matte, and it two coats to be opaque. The formula is creamy and self leveling and the application was a breeze!

darling diva bad ass nail polish swatch

In Space No One Can Hear You Scream

Darling Diva In Space No One Can Hear You Scream Nail Polish Swatch

In Space No One Can Hear You Scream is packed with Micro holographic shards iridescent hex glitter and holographic glitter all wrapped in a black jelly polish!

Darling Diva In Space No One Can Hear You Scream Nail Polish Swatch

This is a really complex glitter polish, it has so many different types of glitter in every drop!

On the nail it doesn’t look that OTT! The Iridescent hex glitters add a lot of depth!

This is three coats and it has a slightly longer drying time, it was dry in less than five minutes.

This is a thicker polish so the application was a little bit more tricky, but by no means difficult.

I have found that some shard glitter polishes can be scratchy with the little bits of glitter poking out all over the place, but that’s not the case with this one, it dried completely smooth!

Darling Diva In Space No One Can Hear You Scream Nail Polish Swatch

Long Live The Queen

Darling Diva Long Live The Queen Nail Polish Swatch

Long live the queen is a dark teal holographic polish packed with multi chrome flakies and glitter.

Darling Diva Long Live The Queen Nail Polish Swatch

The base colour of this polish is a really pretty blackened teal, and it really is packed with holographic glitter, unfortunately when it’s applied I couldn’t really see much of the multi coloured flakie glitter.

This is three coats and it has a similar drying time to In Space.

This is a thicker polish so the application was a little bit more tricky. it was slightly patchy on the first couple of coat but the subsequent coats evened everything out.

This polish is so pretty I didn’t want to take it off!

Darling Diva Long Live The Queen Nail Polish Swatch

Xenomorph

Darling Diva Xenomorph Nail Polish Swatch

Xenomorph is a dark teal/green polish filled with both multi chrome flakie and regular glitters, holographic micro glitter, and iridescent glitter.

Darling Diva Xenomorph Nail Polish Swatch

This really is a stunning polish, it’s so squishy and sparkly! some the multi-chrome glitters shift through red to blue while others are blue to red, unfortunately my pictures only show the green and blue, there is so much colour changing goodness going on in this polish!

the first coat was a little patchy but Xenomorph builds really nicely.

Darling Diva Xenomorph Nail Polish Swatch

These polishes are available here at Darling Diva 🙂

I really have to get the rest of this collection, no, I need the rest of this collection in my life right now!

In all these pictures I have used my usual base coat and top coat.

😀


Illamasqua Swatches Part Two

Hallo!

For your viewing pleasure here are the second half of the Illamasqua polishes I recently purchased!

These polishes are

  • DWS
  • Velocity
  • Scarab
  • Swarm
  • Harem
  • Regal
  • Vice
  • Scorn

Starting with a grey polish that’s been on my wish list for ages

DWS

Illamasqua DWS Swatch

DWS

DWS is a lovely light flat grey cream. The formula is fantastic, it flows easily from the brush and was opaque in two coats.

I’m so glad I got this one, I really like grey nail polish and this one is definitely going in my top 10 🙂

Velocity

Illamasqua Velocity Swatch

Velocity

Velocity is a lovely grey purple creme, like DWS the formula is fantastic, only taking two coats to be opaque.

Scarab

Illamasqua Scarab Swatch

Scarab

Scarab is a brown toned red metallic polish, this is a really foxy polish! The polish itself is a dark grey, almost black jelly which gives the finished colour a lot of depth.

This took three coats to be opaque.

I have to admit that brown/orange tinted reds are not my favorite, but this is a really flattering shade for my skin tone.

Swarm

Illamasqua Swarm Swatch

Swarm

Swarm is a black glitter topper, it’s made up of matte black micro glitter and matte black medium sized hex glitter, the glitter payoff is pretty good, I did find that the glitter tends to clump a bit  This is one coat over Illamasqua’s Collide.

Harem

Illamasqua Harem Swatch

Harem

Harem is a really pretty violet toned pink, the formula is really lovely, very creamy with loads of pigment, this is three coats.

Regal

Illamasqua Regal Swatch

Regal

Regal is a really lovely shade of dark blue, I found the formula to be a bit odd, it’s nice and easy to apply, if a little watery. I think the only way I can describe it is somewhere between a crelly and a cream, this is four coats and there is still some VNL!

Vice

Illamasqua Vice Swatch

Vice

Vice is a pretty pinkish wine. It has the lovely Latex finish, I found that it dries to a slightly more red than the shade in the bottle. This is two coats, I found that it also dries slightly faster than the glossy Illamasqua polishes.

Scorn

Illamasqua Scorn Swatch

Scorn

Scorn is an lovely satin finish black, it’s definitely one of my favorite black polishes! This is two coats.

😀


Illamasqua Swatches!

Hello! 😀

I decided to split my Illamasqua swatch post into two (I might possibly, have brought more than I should have *cough)

The lovely polishes I’m going to show you today are

  • Raindrops
  • Collide
  • Glitterati
  • Pink Raindrops
  • Nomad
  • Ouija
  • Viridian
  • Speckle

I’m going to start with a polish I have wanted for ages!

Raindrops

Illamasqua Raindrops Swatch

Raindrops

Raindrops is a lovely pale grey crelly with loads of tiny silvery white flakey glitters along with silver micro glitter.

I really like the formula for this polish, even with all the glitter the application was really easy, it’s not thick at all and flows easily across the nail bed! This took three thin coats to be opaque.

Collide

Illamasqua Collide Swatch

Collide

Collide is an incredibly pink neon shade, honestly it’s even more pink in real life! The formula is wonderful, creamy and smooth, remarkably self leveling, Because of the lovely formula the application was a breeze! This is two coats with no undies!

As with most neon polishes this doesn’t have a really glossy finish, but it’s still quite shiny!

Glitterati

Illamasqua Glitterati Swatch

Glitterati

Glitterati is a wine coloured jelly with small and medium sized holographic hex glitter and a slight gold shimmer.

I think this is a really pretty polish, The glitter is a lot more subtle (but still very sparkly) than I was expecting from looking at the bottle! I found that the formula is a little harder to work with, it’s a little thicker than the other Illamasqua polishes I have tried so far but saying that, the application really wasn’t tricky at all. This is three thin coats, but with careful application it could only need two to be opaque.

Glitterati is one polish from the Bright Duo the other polish is Viridian

Viridian

Illamasqua Viridian Swatch

Viridian

Viridian is a very dark metallic green toned teal. The formula is really lovely it’s very strongly pigmented and has quite a light consistency.

The application was a breeze! although there where a couple of visible brush strokes. It was opaque in two coats.

Pink Raindrops

Illamasqua Pink Raindrops Swatch

Pink Raindrops

Pink Raindrops is a pale dusty pink with the same small silvery white flakey glitter and a pink iridescent shimmer.

This is a really pretty polish, but the formula is a definite let down, it’s very thick and has an almost chalky quality, the first coat felt gritty and uneven when it had dried, with the second there was bunching up, streaking and bald patches, on the third I decided on a thicker coat and that helped hide it all.

I’m not sure if it’s because I was expecting a polish with a similar formula to the original grey Raindrops but this was a bit of a disappointment.

Nomad

Illamasqua Nomad Swatch

Nomad

Nomad from the Human Fundamentalism Collection is a light mint/jade cream, it’s a pale shade but it’s definitely not pastel.

The formula is creamy and flows easily from the brush, I found the application to be really easy, it dried to a very glossy finish. This is three coats.

Ouija

Illamasqua Ouija Swatch

Ouija

Ouija is a bright fuchsia pink with a foil like micro glitter silver shine that glows under UV light, from the Paranormal collection.

The formula is really lovely very heavily pigmented, with careful application this could be opaque in one coat. I found that it didn’t dry very quickly as some of the other Illamasqua polishes but when it had dried it has a very pretty satin finish.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find my UV light so no Photos of that 😦 but I think I’m going to have to get the other two polishes from this collection!

Speckle

Illamasqua Speckle Swatch

Speckle

Speckle is from the I’mperfection collection it’s a pale lilac crelly with black hex and micro glitter. I found the formula for this to be surprisingly easy to work with, but I did find the glitters do like to stick together in the bottle so giving these polishes a really good shake is a must before using them. The application was very easy, (after the surprise brush full of glitter) this is three thin coats.

😀

 


Barry M Silk. Poppy, Orchid and Forest.

Hello 🙂

Today I have three new (I think) Barry M nail polishes from the Silk range to show you. I found these while polish hunting in Boots, and they are on a 3 for 2 offer. Bargain! 😀

Poppy   

Barry M Silk Poppy

Barry M Silk Poppy

Poppy is a really pretty pinky red with a gold and silver shimmer

It is a dream to apply, opaque in two coats, no visible brush strokes and dried within a couple of minutes. I applied this over my usual base coat.

Barry M Silk Poppy

Barry M Silk Poppy

Forest

Barry M Silk Forest

Barry M Silk Forest

I really love this dark teal colour! Along with the shimmer it also has a subtle green to purple duo-chrome colour shift.

Again the polish formula was really nice, fast drying with no visible brush strokes.

Barry M Silk Forest

Barry M Silk Forest

Orchid

Barry M Silk Orchid

Barry M Silk Orchid

Orchid is a very pretty intense magenta toned purple with silvery shimmer.

I found there was less sparkle in this polish, but the silver shimmer gives this an almost but not quite metallic quality which I think is very pretty.

Like the other two polishes the formula for this polish is lovely, opaque in two coats and dried really quickly!

Barry M Silk Orchid

Barry M Silk Orchid

I really like the finish of these silk polishes, but I love matte polish so there’s not much of a surprise there lol 😀 I have to say I much prefer these bright colours to the pastel shades from the rest of the collection.

I really hope more bright and dark colours are going to be released in this range!

😀