26 Apr 2014

Primark PS Polishes - swatches and review

Hello everyone! I ventured out shopping recently and popped into Primark. We don't have one near us and despite the fact that I rarely find anything I would actually want to wear in there, I had a fair bit of success with both PJs and nail polish. I'm guessing you're not that fussed about the PJs (although I am pleased to report that the "soft feel" is indeed very soft!), but I bought three colours that will remain nameless thanks to uninformative labelling (polish, not PJs) and have them swatched to show you today :)

The first is a lavender creme. It has a lot of blue grey tones and I was pleasantly surprised by the formula - no streaking and two coats for an opaque finish (topped with Seche Vite for the pics). But the smell  - ouch! There is something about cheap polish (apart from LA Colors - yes I'm singing their praises again!) that has my little ol' hypochondriac self worrying about chemical poisoning. Luckily we're coming into spring, so I could have all doors and windows open :)





The next up is a real blue's blue. Its a solid blue creme. Bright but mid, again opaque in two coats (and again smelt horrible). It had quite a dull finish almost like a neon, which it isn't, but it soon got all shiny after a coat of Seche Vite.





Finally we have the deep purple. This is a gorgeous rich purple, unadulterated with shimmers, glitters or anything like that and is a very "Cadbury" purple. Minor issue in that when I opened the sealed bottle that there was no brush and the bottle was half empty, but in the grand scheme of things I have spare brushes and the bottle was also half full (!), so I swatched away! It shows a little more blue in the photos than it looks on real life, but this is two coats with a coat of Seche Vite on top.






If I set aside the issue with the smell and the missing brush, this really did not feel like a budget polish (I should also add here that after emailing Primark they are sending me a gift card to make up for the missing brush, so all's well that ends well :D) . For £1 a bottle the formula is impressively easy to work with and the colours are gorgeous! I would be happy to wear them on their own and they will work really well for nail art too. I was really expecting to be disappointed (which is why I only bought three!), but am definitely planning a return trip for more polishes, PJs and a cut price floral (faux Kath Kidston) print gas mask ;)

Sam xx


9 comments:

  1. I'm quite a fan of the Primark P.S. polishes and the formula of them really does seem better than many budget polishes, but I agree that the smell is almost unbearable! I do wish they'd give the shades names too.

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    1. They were great! And with my giftcard I'll be going back for more! You're so right about the names though, its killing my OCD having to name them myself! :)

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  2. I have a primark Matte topcoat and that smells horrendous too!! I didn't have too much success with it (It washes off!!) so didn't bother buying anymore but after reading this I might just have to try another!

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    1. These cremes are definitely worth trying! Just make sure you're sat by a window while the bottle is open! :)

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  3. All of Primark's polishes smell awful. On par with Kleancolor's Chunky Holo Scarlet. The only one I've smelled that is actually worse was a really old one I got from Born Pretty. That one was FOUL!

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    1. Kleancolor neons are still the worst for me. Apart from a ChitChat that I bought from one of the pound shops - I couldn't even leave it open long enough to swatch and it went straight in the bin! :)

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  4. I have perused the Primark beauty section a couple of times but never purchased, although if I'd seen that rich purple I might have! It's a shame that it seems like so many of the lower-priced polishes have such an awful smell, but I suppose if you can paint near a window it might not be so bad.

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    1. At least we're heading into the right season to be trying out all this smelly horrible stuff with the doors and windows open. Although the neighbours will probably think I've set up a meth lab and call the police... :/

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  5. These are gorgeous, but I don't think i could handle the smell for a creme, that's an exception I make only for my Kleancolor Metallics ;) This is one of the reasons I love LaFemme from ebay/amazon though, they're less than £2 (posted), and just smell like a regular polish, nothing nasty or strong. They even have a couple of pastel one-coaters :D xx

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