Friday, 24 February 2012

L’Oréal Color Riche – Mini polishes: My entire Collection

The folks at L'Oreal have been working very hard lately. To name but a few products, they have released a bb cream, a concealer set to rival the iconic Touche Eclat, a primer, a mascara with no hint of lashes insert in sight, a lumi magique foundation and and and about 40 mini polishes. I am quite happy with my current primer from Loreal (I have the resurfacing smoothing primer in a pot) but I can see myself weakening at the knees and try the foundation at some point. Today, I want to share with you my impressions on 4 shades of mini polishes, part of this huge line from Loreal called 'Color Riche'.


001-loreal-paris-color-riche-mini-nail-polishes-review-swatches-


Each polish contains 5ml of product and you will not be able to help yourself but wondering, from the onset is £4.99 is not a little bit steep for this amount of product, being a high street product and all. However, as soon as you open the bottle, you begin to notice that this is no ordinary mini polish. The brush is delightfully flat and wide which allows for a super speedy coverage. In fact, if you enjoy the actual process of applying nail polish like me, you'll be a little bit disappointed as it goes so quick! I need to warn you: the nail on my index broke, so the pictures are a bit gloomy.



Luxembourg Garden
first caught my eye. It's a gorgeous teal polish which I was looking forward to try as I don't own similar shades in my collection. The coverage was really impressive and needed 2 coats for an opacity I was happy with it. However I was a not fan of the finish: you can definitely read the tell tale signs of my sloppy application and see where the brush strokes have been.


003-loreal-paris-color-riche-luxembourg-garden-mini-nail-polishes-review-swatches-


005-loreal-paris-color-riche-luxembourg-garden-mini-nail-polishes-review-swatches-


Next, this is Parisian Rooftops. In my head, this was going to be a dupe of Mavala Elle, a gorgeous purple grey. In reality, the polish rendered more grey than I would have liked, and the hint of purple is too faint. The name suits the shade I guess and I can definetely picture some roofs, in Paris or elsewhere sporting that colour. Application was super easy and I achieved the opacity that you see in one coat. Two coats would have given me a more even finish but the bottle is so tiny that I wanted to see if I could get away with one coat. I am disappointed, despite the lovely finish and the decent colour, I am sulking as I wanted a grurple.


003-loreal-paris-color-riche-parisian-rooftop-mini-nail-polishes-review-swatches-



002-loreal-paris-color-riche-parisian-rooftop-mini-nail-polishes-review-swatches-


Next, comes my favourite shade of them all. Mysterious Icon is an absolutely gorgeous blend of purple, grey and gold shimmer and is to die for. The polish reminds me a little bit from a polish from OPI (it's my year maybe?) but a little dirtier. The best is that only one coat was needed and I really felt it made the £4.99 I had to part to own this polish go a little further. I predict this shade to be a sell out, and I feel I need to restock at the week end before the whole world knows about this fabulous shade.


006-loreal-paris-color-riche-mysterious-icon-mini-nail-polishes-review-swatches-


007-loreal-paris-color-riche-mysterious-icon-mini-nail-polishes-review-swatches-


008-loreal-paris-color-riche-mysterious-icon-mini-nail-polishes-review-swatches-



Last but not least is Beige Countess which disappointed me the most. Nothing wrong with the formula, nor the finish as beige countess applied very easily on my nail. Nothing wrong with the coverage either, it certainly needed two coats but the brush is so handy, it made the application seem like the breeze.


009-loreal-paris-color-riche-beige-countess-mini-nail-polishes-review-swatches-


It's the colour I am not a fan of. I love my nude polishes but I am very particular about them also. I feel Beige Countess doesn't go with my skin tone, there's not enough contrast with my skin tone and I can't wear it. This will explain why I only applied the polish on 2 nails only. No point wasting a nail polish when I know straight away it's not going to work. I was hoping Beige Countess was going to be a mini Nails Inc London. What a shame. Never mind.


b-loreal-color-riche-nail-polish-luxembourg-garden


a-loreal-color-riche-nail-polish-parisian-rooftop


c-loreal-color-riche-nail-polish-mysterious-icon


d-loreal-color-riche-nail-polish-beige-countess


Overall, this is a lovely collection. Even though the polishes cost more than I would have liked to pay for them (£4.99 each), I feel they are very good quality and they really excel themselves with the brush. Now would be a perfect time to get your hands on them as there is a 3 for 2 offer on all the polishes (and other make up items from the L'Oreal Color Riche) at Boots and Superdrug. If you're only going to purchase one shade, make the mysterious icon be yours.      






Please, please please, if you have yourself tried any of the polishes from the Loreal Riche collection, let me know in the comments below: I would love to hear about it and see your pics.  xx

Read more ...

Wednesday, 16 February 2011

Beige Babe, Rimmel NOTD

This the second time I am wearing 'Beige Babe' from Rimmel and let't cut to the chase, I don't think it's a very good polish. When I saw beige babe in the shop, I just had to have it as the colour really called me by my pet name. The colour is totally babe-ilcious but I don't get on with the formula. My photos show 3 coats of nail polish and I still have some sheerness and gaps in place. My mind doesn't understand a nail polish which covers the 'white bits' of your nails, or the nail line as some of you call it, and yet still shows some sheerness in parts.


Image4


Beige Babe also boasts a maxi brush: This I cannot fault and I couldn't believe how much of the nail bed it covered with just one stroke. And this bonus is what it makes frustrating. So much potential to be a great polish! I am imagining how great it would be for let's say a Barry M polish to sport this kind of brush: wow. Not that I have any problems with a Barry M brush by the way.


Image5


I also wanted to comment on the durability of this polish. This is something I very rarely (read: never) comment on my 'nail polish reviews'. For one, my application leaves a lot to be desired. I firmly believe that a nail polish doesn't last long mainly because you didn't apply it very well. Therefore I wouldn't want to say that a nail polish doesn't last very long and damage its reputation, while I could have been the main culprit of the result with a poor application. But on this occasion, I just had to comment on durability as the 'up to 10 days' tickled me the wrong way. Rimmel: up to 10 days? P-ppplease. It only lasted one day on me without chipping. Then again, this could also be down to my seche vite top coat.



SAM_3622


This polish, I am sorry, is a big disappointment for me. I have given two chances and I am afraid it let me down. What a crying shame: such a fab brush and such a fab colour too but the ‘patchiness’ is a problem for me. Rimmel: hadn't you boast about 10 days durability, me and you could have got along, as a nail polish never stay longer than 2 days on me, and that I am a colour chameleon anyway.
Read more ...