Cruelty-free beauty
UR FAB is a nice berry polish from MakeUp Academy.
It’s part of the Love Hearts range of polishes which have six different pastel shades.
The polish goes on nicely and needs two layers to be opaque. It dries in the normal time for polishes and has a good shine when dry. It’s not particularly chip resistant but it’s not expensive. It’s also on the cheap side of polish costing only £2.00 from Superdrug.
Do I recommend this? Yes, for the price it’s a perfectly good polish.
Models Own Hyper Gel Polish in Cornflower Gleam. It costs £5 from the Models Own website or from your local stockist. It claims to be gel effect without the use of a UV lamp.
Now I didn’t actually mean to buy this one, I was going for the other blue called Blue Glint. However, this one is such a nice colour. It’s a delicate china blue or that’s what it makes me think of. Cornflower is a bit more vibrant.
It shines. It has this most amazing gel-like shine to it. This one does not need a top coat to be perfect. Also given the fact my nails split and I have a ridge that didn’t show up.
It does need two coats, the first coat was slightly sheer. Not a big thing but it does increase the dry time. Although the dry time is pretty average.
I have to say I love this polish and will eventually pick up more of the colours from this range.
MakeUp Academy Luxe range includes a set of Metallic Nail Foils. They cost £5 each and include a nail polish, six different foil colours and tree of each and glue.
I bought the set called ’Star Shine’. The foil colours in this set are red, blue, silver, gold, light green and peach. The nail varnish shade included is Pistachio Ice Cream.
Application
I have to be honest I don’t really like this set. The base colour just doesn’t seem to work with the foils provided. A darker colour would have been much better as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t like the applicator for the glue. It’s simply a short stubby stick and gives you very little control. Also, the glue itself is clear so it’s hard to tell when it’s ready. It makes the results hit and miss.
The other issue I have is even with a top coat this is an extremely fragile manicure. Even with a top coat (I used the MUA one) if you knock it, it will start to come off. Once it’s damaged the sticky residue of the glue starts to pick up dust.
It’s a good look for a night out with the right base but it wouldn’t last all day. It’s a lot of effort but could be worth it. A different applicator or even glue might fix some of the application issues. I honestly can’t recommend it though. There’s better foil system out there.
This is MakeUp Academy’s nail polish in I want U from the Love Hearts collection. It’s currently on sale for £1.
To be honest for £1 you can’t fault it. It’s not particular chip resistant. However, it is a nice colour and very cheap. it goes on well and you can get away with just one coat, two makes it a nice solid colour.
Do I recommend this? For the price. Yes, I do.
Get it from here or from your local Superdrug.
Far Far Away
Illamasqua’s Perseid nail polish. It’s costs £14.50 from the Illamasqua website. You get 15ml of product.
Perseid is described as a galactic black glitter, glossy finish.
It’s a black glitter polish. In the bottle there is a myriad of colours including green and dark blue. The glitter is all aurora and it looks amazing.
Once I got it on my nails however I HATED it.
The shimmer you see in the bottle was gone. The application was chunky and a mess. One coat and I was left with a sheer mess on my nails and barely any glitter. A second coat didn’t help much so I resorted to dabbing it on to get good coverage. It looked just like dark blue nails with a bad uneven finish in anything other than fluorescent lights. Then you could see the glitter but there was no depth to the polish at all.
Being it is a glitter polish, it’s a nightmare to remove and so not worth it. I’ve tried it a couple of times and and can say I hate it. So I’m giving it away. The one I used here is up for grabs to someone in the UK.
Is it worth it? No. I didn’t like the application or then end result on my nails. Stay away from this
Here is a swatch of Illamasqua’s Limited Edition Mottle nail polish. Unfortunately it is no longer available from the Illamasqua website. However there is a dupe!
Mottle is a mint green nail polish with small black glitter in it. They are the to simulate the effects of egg shells.
It has a good opaque finish in two coats is a nice mint green colour. Due to the black glitter it is slightly uneven when placed on the nail. If you want high shine and to smooth the surface you’re going to need a top coat.
The advantage with it being textured is it’s slightly more chip resistant than your basic polishes.
The disadvantage is it’s a nightmare to take off. It’s the same with any polish with glitter in.
I do love this polish though and now there is a dupe in the form of Models Own Speckled Eggs polish in Magpie Green. It’s not only a little brighter but it’s also cheaper. Score! Go check it out.
Illamasqua’s Optimist nail polish. It’s costs £14.50 from the Illamasqua website. You get 15ml of product.
Optimist is described as a warm yellow, rubber finish.
It’s definitely a warm yellow, in fact it’s almost orange. It’s the colour of a corn fed free range egg yolk. The finish is not quite matt could certainly be described as a rubber look.
It’s opaque in one good coat or two less well done ones. It is chip resistant so will last a couple of days. Due to the finish you can’t use a top coat otherwise it spoils the finish.
Unfortunately it did stain my nails when removing this. I was not very impressed.
The bottle brush is thin but it doesn’t leave marks when applying the polish to the nails. I’d like the brush to be a little thicker but it’s certainly not a bad brush.
Is it worth it? No because it stained my nails. It took a day or two for the colour to go.
Makeup Academy’s nail polish in Mud Pie costs £1 from MUA online or from your local Superdrug. You get 6.2ml of product for that price.
It’s simply described as brown. It is brown but I’d describe it as clay mud brown.
Please excuse the label on this bottle, the sticker has started to wear off. With the new design of the bottle this will not happen with your polish.
The new design also includes an improved brush. That’s great because the brush in this is simply awful. Given it’s a £1 polish I wasn’t expecting it to be prefect. While the old brush makes the application slightly sloppy. the new brush has no such issues.
It’s not very chip resistant, a top coat will help greatly. However this costs a pound. I’m not expecting high chip resistance. It’s lasted two days on me on occasions which is a great performance.
It has a lovely shine on it and doesn’t pick up on the flaws in my nail surface.
I really like this polish, if not the colour so much. I’m much more of a bright nail person. It’s a nice neutral nail polish if that’s what you’re looking for.
I’d certainly recommend this. It’s cheap and very good for the price.
Makeup Academy’s Fashionsta glitter nail polish in Mystical Dragon costs £5 (currently on sale at £1.50). You get 11 ml of product. This is an online only product.
As you can see this is a beautiful teal glitter. It can be used as a top coat or as an all over glitter polish. If you want to use it as a glitter polish you need to do five or six coats. However this dries quite quickly and you don’t need to wait too long between layers if you’re going for full on coverage.
It’s a glitter polish so it’s really really chip resistant but it’s also a nightmare to get off. That’s a feature of every glitter polish out there.
It doesn’t really need a top coat but you can add one for extra shine.
It’s cheap, simply gorgeous and chip resistant. Yes I love this polish.
MakeUp Academy’s Nail Constellation in Leo costs £3.00 online or in Superdrug.
This lovely nail caviar is part of the constellation set. Leo is full of lovely lilac and teal pearls.
It’s not hard to apply but doesn’t stay attached to the nail for very long. The colour on the pearls is only coated on the outside and will rub off throughout the day. The funnel helps with the application,
Application
You can place a top coat on the top of the caviar. It will extend the longevity and prevent the colour rubbing off but it does ruin the look some what.
Despite the wear issues of nail caviar this is worth it for creating an evening or party look. The cost helps with that a lot as it’s very cheap. I do recommend this product.