Swatch & Review

   Here I have the Nails Inc. Sprinkles polishes from Sephora.  It seems that many big name brands are taking note of indie polish brands making amazing glitter-in-creme/jelly concoctions that everyone wants.  So, did Nails Inc. get it right?

   Wwwell, yes and no.  First more details about this collection, though.  These polishes are marketed as part of the "Special Effects" range of Nails Inc. polishes, nested in with finishes like crackle, matte topcoat, magnetic polish, and textured manicure kits.  My eyebrow does go up at the fact that the brand calls glitter a special effect, but at least they keep these ones the same price as their "regular" nail polish.  That price is $9.50 for 10ml.

   I didn't realize that these were only 10ml nail polishes, and while I may never used that much, it stinks that they are so pricey when in all honesty the formula just isn't that good.  The consistency seems too slippery for the amount of glitter they are trying to put on your nail.  The glitter, although small and should-be-managable, had a habit of gathering in one spot if I wasn't careful.  While the color combinations are very cute and yes, it does look like you have sprinkles on your nails, I just didn't love them as much as I wanted to.

   Here are the individual colors, with their names and descriptions from Sephora

   Sweets Way - white with pastel blue, pink and silver sprinkles

   Sephora incorrectly labels this polish as being "Sweets Away" on the website, which is silly since all these polishes have street-themed names.

   This is the one that I loved when I first heard about the collection and the one I wanted the most.  It's so me, right?  While I do love the colors it was the biggest let down on the nail.  Three coats and the base was still a streaky, patchy white.  I'm going to give it another try over a white base some time, I think it would help.

   Sugar House Lane - pastel grey with monochrome sprinkles

   Um, pastel grey base color?  Sephora, Nails Inc London, are we looking at the same polish?  This is a taupey-neutral color that leans more towards being khaki than grey.  But let me say that I would totally live on Sugar House Lane; it sounds delightful.

   I wanted this polish second most of all.  Black and silver (not matte white, people!  They couldn't be too indie!) glitters make for an ice cream-esque nail color.  Out of the entire collection this one looks the most dull, but it has it's own charm.  It seemed to have a better formula, as well.

Pudding Lane - teal with navy and gold sprinkles

   Have you ever seen teal pudding?  No?  Me neither.  By the way, we've been lied to again.  The glitter called "navy" may at a glance look navy, especially if you've been told beforehand that it is.  But it's not.  It's actually purple.  I'm starting to that some poor colorblind soul had to name these.  =(

   I liked this one more than I expected.  The bright blue base is cheery and I'm far more fond of purple than navy, so yay!  And while I don't wear gold it looks more yellow-to-green in the blue base.

   Hmm, that's funny, this purple glitter is exactly the same as the "navy" in Pudding Lane...

   Whoa!  They added three colors of glitter to this one!  Truly ground-breaking...could almost be considered special to have this effect on your nails!!  (Yes, I am joking.)

   I was pleasantly surprised by this color.  I didn't know if the pink base would clash with my skin tone terribly, but I think this bright pink could be worn by anyone.  The glitter colors are very pretty.  I had trouble with the glitter bunching up on my pinky nail, but it did all right on my thumb.

   I used top coat on all my nails, a must for them to look decent because the polish formula isn't thick enough for the glitter to sink in nicely.  These had decent wear but removal was a nightmare.  The glitter stuck stubbornly.  Blah.

   Would I recommend these?  No, not really.  I'm much firmer in my opinion of Nails Inc. being overpriced since trying these.  Yes, these are cute polishes and pretty unique but I feel that our indie brands and etsy sellers in general are doing better by us, both in quality and price!

   Have you tried these?  Did you want these?  Do you think I'm crazy for posting such things?  I don't know, it seems that all the swatches I saw before buying made these sound pretty great, but I'm startled to find they are just average!

   Here's a fun post!  It could also be titled "When ShopRunner Shipping Goes Crazy", or "How I Ended Up With Enough Hair Stuff For Five Women", but those are too long and I'm trying something new.  Instead of posting little hauls here and there (which can end up being often and make it look like I manage a "lookie what I bought todaayyy!!" blog - ugh), I'm going to group them together at the end of each month.  I'm hoping that this will also make me realize just how much stuff I'm buying per month, and notice where my money is going.  Instead of it being a nail polish here, a new hair clip there... I want to fully realize how much stuff I'm acquiring so I know when to reign it in.

   This month it's a lot of stuff!  =D

   Oh, but there are other good reasons, too.  I plan on linking from my haul posts to any reviews or swatch posts I may have done for the items.  (Sadly that didn't happen this month... I was very sick with a cold.)  Or, if the item hasn't been featured on the blog already, readers can tell me what they want to see most and I can try to accommodate by posting about those things first.  =)

   So let's get started!  Follow the cut for more pictures and tales of wild Online shopping adventure!

   Today I have some quick magnetic polish swatches.  I'm comparing green-blue colors.  These swatches were done super-quick and I apologize for the slight mess.  Layla brushes hold more polish than Nails Inc and I wasn't expecting it!

   On my nails here you see Layla Turquoise Wave, Nails Inc Whitehall, Turquoise Wave, Whitehall.  In my opinion Turquoise Wave looks like the teal color, and Whitehall, often mentioned as Whitehall Teal, is an evergreen.  It is a deep green that definitely leans blue, but not quite enough to be called teal.  And Turquiose Wave?  Well, to me turquoise is a much brighter, lighter aqua color.  Either way they are pretty polishes, especially if you're a fan of darker jewel tones.

   On the nail wheel I swatched LCN Green Temptation and Ferromagnetic Blue.  Green Temptation is a true green color, Ferromagnetic Blue has a hint of purple but mainly appears blue.  The fingernail swatches are Whitehall and Turquoise Wave.

   Here is one last shot of Layla Turquoise Wave using the Nails Inc. wave-pattern magnet.  Perfectly pretty!

   I hope this comparison post was helpful to you, these colors are pretty similar and you most likely don't need each one in your collection.  Now that I have them all I don't know which one to let go of, though!  And in other news WOW I have hit triple-digit followers!  Be sure to check out the giveaway poll~

   First the polish, then the explanation of why my blog has been neglected for almost a week.

   You may remember my recent post of trying my new Nails Inc. Magnetic Effect Polishes that ended in great disappointment.  I was hoping it was just a fluke and so I've tried them again.  Looks like I found what these polishes need!  I didn't do anything differently in my application or technique, but I did use a different base coat.  The first time I snagged my old Poshe bottle, which is a fast-drying base coat.  Last night I used Orly Bonder.  This time my polish applied evenly, did not destroy itself with bald spots, and actually stayed wet long enough to make perfect little magnetic waves.  So huzzah!  ...Now I'm really bummed that I missed the Nails Inc. 3-polish set (twice)!

   When it is working properly Houses of Parliament is a nice dark purple with lavender-looking magnetic particles.  This was just one coat, the way it should be.  Shown here with top coat because magnetic polishes don't dry very shiny.  Also, can you take a guess at what is layered on my ring finger?  It is a very thin coat of Cult Nails Clairvoyant.  =)

~~~

   So, my nails are done differently.  This is the shortest and squarest I've ever shaped them.  I like the squared look, but I'm really missing my length.  All of these nails were in good condition but I shortened them to match my very tragic thumb.  Over the weekend I had a major nail break while trying to pick something up and the nail broke down into the nail bed.  Ouch!  It is still hurting me now.  So needless to say I was pretty discouraged and didn't feel like blogging anything.

   When I started this blog my nails were very short, and I was having trouble with them peeling.  For years I had healthy, long nails.  Since the start of this year they wanted to do nothing but break off.  I had fallen very ill and I don't know what happened but that seems to be the start of my nail problems.  Break and peel, break and peel.  When I started blogging some polishes I found I really enjoyed it, and it inspired me to get my nails back into shape.  They are gradually growing out to be healthy and I'm not making the rookie mistakes that I was.  I'm even taking supplements for nails!  The break to my thumb is probably the last remaining growth "before vitamins".  Still it is a downer and I'm worried about it growing back properly.

   To go along with the nail problems I have been extremely busy and hardly home at all.  I have all sorts of pics that I meant to share last week, and even some half-written posts.  My blog is really just a hobby so when life gets crazy it has to take a back seat.  I apologize to everyone for not being here and want to say Hello to all new followers.  Wow, I did not expect to be over 90 today.  I'll try to treat you all to some pretty polishes and haul posts for the rest of the week.  =)

   My last Sephora order included the new Nails Inc. color Whitehall, which is probably the least logical color name to give to a polish that is not white in any way.  I also picked up Houses of Parliament.  (Two days later the set of all 3 colors was available and I wanted to scream.  >_<)  Anyway I was really looking forward to what I've heard are great polishes and the easiest-to-use wave-creating magnets.  I fought with them and this is all I got:

   Somehow this photo actually makes them look better (yes, better) than they did in real life.  They barely responded to the magnet.  It's not like I don't know how to use them - I have LCN and Layla magnetics and do just fine with them.  The formula on these was really weird.  Not opaque in one coat because they went on so patchily, self-destroying and prone to unpaintable bald patches if you tried to even things out.  After a couple fingers I changed tactics and went for one thin coat to be followed by a thicker coat, and then create my design...

   That didn't work either!  As soon as a second coat hit these it was like it became instantly tacky and non-magnetic.  My thumb was a very sorry case, I should have took a photo - only one small stripe down the middle had any magnetic design at all.  I did throw a top coat on these which had no effect on the polish design, but realized after two minutes that I was not going to wear this out in public looking like such a sorry mess.  I took it off.

   As for the magnet caps themselves, they just seem okay to me.  They are easy to place over your nails but nothing ground-breaking in my opinion.  With my LCN magnets I often rest the end of the magnet on my cuticle in the same way; likewise the Layla cap magnets are very friendly to being used the same way.  If anything I'm wondering if I got dud magnets and plan to test them with my other polishes.  Or it could be dud polish, as it barely reacts to a magnet being held directly against the bottle, regardless of what brand it's from.

   So I'm thinking this polish isn't the greatest.  Sad, considering how great magnetics should be.  Hopefully it was just a bad first run of it.  The other swatches I've seen Online of this Nails Inc. line are really beautiful and that's why I jumped on these colors.  I plan to try using these again and if they work any better for me I will post an update.