Weekend Nails - Nails Inc Britten Street

Nails Inc Britten Street over Seche Simple But Significant

Long time no post, sorry! A few reasons for that - first of all I have a new job and I've been keeping my nails quite conservative in shape and colour most of the time so I don't have much to post about. And second, I have a big open water swim coming up and I've been doing quite a bit of swimming outside, in my wetsuit. Long nails, pointy nails and nails with square corners aren't wetsuit compatible, so another reason to keep my nails this shortish, rounded shape. Once the open water season is over I'll grow them and reshape them.....

But I like this mani I did last night so I did take some pictures! The base is Seche Simple But Significant, a pretty light beige. Nails Inc Britten Street itself is a pretty, easy to use blue glitter comprising light blue and white microglitter and squares in three shades of blue. All the glitters are matte, which is definitely my preference! I just used one coat, since I wanted to keep the effect quite sparse.

Nails Inc Britten Street over Seche Simple But Significant

 All products in this post are from my collection and purchased by me.

Butter London Pimms and Lynnderella Connect The Dots

Butter London Pimms

Here's a self indulgent post about some of my favourite things - yellow polish and black and white glitter! My newest yellow polish and my oldest black and white glitter, to be exact. This is Butter London Pimms. It's not a new shade, I think it was from BL's autumn 2013 collection, but when I saw it in my local Boots last week it just seemed so bright and perfect for summer I had to buy it! I don't have a yellow quite like it - I usually go for paler, lemony yellows, greenish yellows, mucky yellows or mustard yellows - avoiding primary yellows because they look kind of 'eggy' and I don't like them on my hands. But this is perfect! The application was fantastic too - this is two coats with Seche Vite topcoat. Much as I love yellow, many yello polishes can be a real pain to apply.

Butter London Pimms

So I wore it on its own for a couple of days then I added black and white glitter. I love black and white glitter, and I have quite a collection of them now - hexagonal ones, mixed shapes, tiny glitters, some with bar glitter, dots, squares, some with highlights of other colours, or background shimmer, or bits of holo - you name it, there's a variant of black and white glitter out there somewhere and chances are I own it, lol! But this is the one that started them all - Lynnderella Connect The Dots. I was amazed when I first saw pictures of this - I'd never seen anything like it before. This was back in the day when Lynnderella sold direct from her blog and people got together for group orders... lot of water under the bridge since then. But this was my first black and white glitter, and my first indie polish in fact! There are other black and white glitters I probably like more now, but this is the original, and I still have a soft spot for it.

Butter London Pimms with Lynnderella Connect The Dots

One coat of Connect The Dots over my existing mani with BL Pimms, with a coat of Gelous to smooth and Seche Vite to finish.

Butter London Pimms with Lynnderella Connect The Dots

All products in this post are from my personal collection and were purchased by me.

Dark Metal Lacquers Heurt

Dark Metal Lacquer Heurt

This is the first polish I tried from the relatively new UK Indie Brand Dark Metal Lacquer. Heurt is a vampy jelly with tiny copper holo glitter. I just happened to be wearing Butter London La Moss (a dark burgundy shade) when this arrived in the mail, so I made good use of the undies I was already wearing! This mani is two thin coats of Heurt over the vampy base with Seche Vite topcoat.

Application of Heurt was smooth and easy; the jelly finish has lots of depth and my nails make me think of glittery blackberry jam! I believe heurt is french for collision!

Dark Metal Lacquer Heurt

I purchased Heurt from Dark Metal Lacquer's etsy shop (blogger discount given).

R&R Lacquers Shiso and Forget Me Not

R&R Lacquers Shiso

R&R Lacquers Forget Me Not

Here are a couple of lovely summery shades from R&R Lacquers 'Primavera' collection. First, this pretty aqua with white pink and gold glitter is 'Shiso'. 

I used two coats of Shiso with Seche Vite to smooth the glitter out.

R&R Lacquers Shiso

R&R Lacquers Shiso

The other shade is 'Forget Me Not', a delicate light cornflower blue with pink and white glitter.

R&R Lacquers Forget Me Not

R&R Lacquers Forget Me Not

Forget Me Not is quite sheer, so I layered it over Model's Own Cornflower Gleam... which is a lovely shade of light cornflower blue from their Hypergel collection. Here are is Cornflower Gleam on its own..

All these products were provided for review. You can buy R&R Lacquers polishes from their Etsy shop and Models Own are readily available in Boots, Superdrug or from Models Own website.

Lancome Nuit D'Azur with Quirk Peace is Free

I bought this stunning blue a couple of weeks ago - it's one of those sort of irresistable colours! I'd describe the formula as crelly; a bit denser than a true jelly but not a cream. As a high-end polish, I had high expectations for the formula and it did not disappoint. The brush is quite wide, flat and with a nicely rounded end that makes painting a neat cuticle line very easy indeed.

This is two coats with Seche Vite quick drying top coat.

Then I decided to add a sprinkle of blue glitter - this is Quirk Peace is Free.

Lancome Nuit D'Azur with Pretty Quirky Peace is Free

I purchased Lancome Nuit D'Azur from John Lewis and Quirk Peace is Free from the Quirk online shop. Sadly Quirk isn't making polish just now, but I'm hoping Kerrie will resume production sometime in the future.

R&R Lacquers Assemble II Collection

I have two fabulous shades from R&R Lacquers new collection to show you! These are shimmery neutrals; much as I love my creamy pastels and brights I appreciate a change sometimes!

First, let's check out Odinson, which is fine charcoal glitter in a clear base with some larger silver and red glitters... this one is named for the gorgeous god of Thunder - Rachel and Rebecca's tribute to Thor.

R&R Lacquers Odinson

Cazzy swatched this over a grey base, and it looks super (check out her post here) so I thought I'd try something different, and just use it on its own without undies. This is three coats, with two coats of topcoat (Seche Vite) to smooth it out. Formula on this is great - no fishing for the bigger glitters and the microglitter base spreads smoothly over the nail without any clumping. In real life, this was pretty much full coverage and I love how the bigger glitters peep out through the microglitter!

R&R Lacquers Odinson

Then we have Big Phil, which is a soft greenish grey with a strong gold shimmer... this one is a tribute to SHIELD agent Phil Coulson; the Avenger who never was an Avenger. 

R&R Lacquers Big Phil

At some angles, this has an almost duochrome touch, with a hit of soft slately blue grey around the edges. Not so visible in this front-on view, but it's still a lovely colour, very delicate and quite work appropriate.

R&R Lacquers Big Phil

The formula on this one was a little trickier than some polishes, it is quite thick, but so long as you get a good brushful it flows easily over the nail. I used three cots here - I could probably have got away with two though but three coats is a sort of habit! Big Phil dries without shine - not a problem for me since I always use Seche Vite topcoat.

R&R Lacquers Big Phil

Just look at that gold shimmer!

R&R Lacquers Big Phil

These polishes were provided for review, they are available now from R&R Lacquers Etsy shop. You can get more information on the brand and links to other reviews by following R&R Lacquers facebook page.