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

Tri Polish Tuesdays April #1 - Yellow, pink and blue!

Hello everyone! Here comes today's catch up post! As expected, the school holidays have sent my blogging and painting schedule completely out of the window! Having OH home for a week as well also makes for constant interruptions so I really didn't stand a chance! Never mind, onwards and upwards!

Today (or yesterday) sees the start of another colour combination for April and this time its yellow, pink and blue. I chose a simple sponged rainbow using Models Own Lemon Meringue, and LA Colors Aquatic and Pink Bubbles and finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

I'm really loving this retro tie dye effect that is created by sponging just a few colours together! 

I'm off for another round of Minecraft tutorials/cake pop making/7 year old nail painting (delete as appropriate!) and I will be desperately trying to have tomorrow's GOT Pastel mani ready on time!

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Polish Challenge - DIstressed Blue

Hello everyone! We're already on to the third week of the GOT polish challenge and the theme for this week is blue! I'm lucky that blue is one of my favourite polish colours so I have some going way back into my polish stash! I also needed to find a design that wasn't going to take too long but wanted to try something new, so I had a quick look through my inspiration boards and decided to have a go at Chalkboard Nails' Distressed look (click here for the tutorial). I didn't work from the tutorial but followed the basic instructions of using nearly dry polish brushes to create the distressed effect.

I started with three coats of Ciate Power Dressing and waited for that to dry. Then I used wiped brushes of Models Own Feeling Blue and Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau to create the distressed effect. I topped with Seche Vite to finish.

I am definitely going to do this look again! The technique is so simple and the options with regard to colour and coverage mean that it is so versatile! I'll be back with a "dotty" GOT Mani for you next Thursday, and in the meantime, check out all the other fabulous blue manis using the links below :)

Sam xx