Choi's nails: April 2014

A boxing day haul in April?

I’ve always been behind when it comes to getting the latest nail stuff and let me tell you what else I’m late with, this post on a bunch of sale goodies that was snagged back in boxing day 2013. In fact most of the products are still sitting neatly in their packages up to this day.

Not long after the sales went live on the 26^th I happened to end up on the John Lewis website with no intention of buying anything. Really. BUT then I saw items which had such good value that I didn’t want to let them slip by.

There was this Nails Inc polish diary at half price of £21 and a Ciate advent calendar for sale at the same price with an original retail value of £119. Tell me how could I let these go?!

To qualify for free shipping I also flung in two OPI polishes worth £5.75 in my basket, those being Every month is oktoberfest and Underneath the mistletoe. Only after they arrived did I realise that they were both part of the red family. It would’ve been good to get two totally different ones. Oops.

This being the first time ordering from John Lewis and considering it was during peak season; have to say I was extremely happy with the postage and packaging. You have to be when you order a few hours after midnight on the 26^th and receive your order around noon on the 27^th. My order was separated into two boxes with the two OPI’s in a bubble wrapped envelope in one of them.

The nails Inc diary consists of 12 nail colours which makes them a little less than £2 at the price I purchased these. The material feel like good quality, at least it’s not one of those cheap glittery boxes so no glittery residue is left behind. It also has a magnetic closure and strap, even if it won’t be used to hold the polishes it still could be kept for something else.

The Ciate Advent calendar has 24 days for you to pop open. When I was counting I’m pretty sure that’s how much there was. 19 mini polishes with 4 sequin bottles and a free funnel but 24 days? What about Christmas? Nothing there? Regardless, it’s still a good value so I’ll forget that.

Sorry about the quality of the photos. The pieces were too big to fit in my light box that I had to look for alternative ways to photograph them at night but thanks for reading ;)

Saturday, April 12, 2014
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Nails Inc's Swiss cottage with some pastel chevron tips

China Glaze

Wednesday, April 09, 2014
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Nails Inc's Chancery lane and Mortimer street swatch

Duo Chrome

This is the last two polishes that were part of the lucky dip deal I received for my order last year but I'll be showing these as nail swatches rather than a full manicure. It feels unfair that these were the only ones I didn't wear but I couldn't find the right mood for these.

Here's Nails Inc's Chancery lane which is a mix of blue with medium silver hex glitters, holographic ones and part of what seems like you'd get in a concrete polish; it has that sort of gritty texture. I've actually given this a try way before these nail swatches were done but it was the reason why they didn't end up being shown as a full manicure.

Here, the picture shows three coats with no top coat and it was pretty patchy. Recently when my job didn't allow me enough time for my manicures I'd try to find 30 minutes before work for some quick nail dos but Chancery lane just didn't work out well. Application was hard and it required more time to work on the uneven and patchy parts so in the end it all had to come off.

The concept of this polish is 'one bottle no mess' so they mixed in a few things together. It's no mess all right but application was a much trickier than I had imagined. Did actually look forward to this one as well. Below is a closer picture of what it looks like.

Next up is Mortimer street an off yellowy caramel shade, a shimmery pearl duochrome? See some of that pinky purple colour showing through? At one point I thought I saw a little bit of green too but that might my lighting playing tricks on me.

The swatch only took 2-3 coats with easy and smooth application. There's some obvious brush strokes but usually polishes of these finishes end up with some of those. This one didn't seem to match my skin tone I weren't feeling this one. Hopefully I'll find a use for it in future. Nail art maybe?