I have something VERY speial for you today: I bring you a WORLD EXCLUSIVE in the polish world: dried nail varnish from Nelly Polish!!!*
'How can this be?' I hear you ask. Here's Hilary to explain:
"I provide the custom ingredients (which are all completely safe and completely legal to transport worldwide) and the bottle to make the polish (if you like). You provide the clear nail polish - any old brand - I've tested lots and they all work fine, and a bit of good old-fashioned elbow-grease (aka shaking ability). The Nelly Mixture contains the 'magic' ingredients to create a lovely jelly/glitter polish which will stay lovely and glittery (no sinking glitter) you just need to mutter 'abracadabra' and shake."
Genius, no? In one fell swoop, Hilary has changed the face of the UK polish industry forever - she, at least, will never have to worry about packages for international customers being swiped. But are the polishes any good at all? Let's take a look :D
I have two dehydrated polishes to share with you today, both of which are from Hilary's first collection, 'The Fungooms', named for the characters on her husband Ned's games website for toddlers. Each character is named after a real place in Cornwall, South-West England, a beautiful part of our country famed for its sun, sea and surf, as well as brilliant ice cream... and now the birthplace of an incredible nail polish innovation!
Let's look at the first polish I was sent for review - Looe:
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| Trialling my bottle shot - isn't the bottle label cute?! Sorry about the Lemony Flutter! |
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| It matches my garden :) Runner beans and miniature sunflowers are the perfect complement to Looe :D |
The second polish I was sent to review was Polperro, which was actually my first choice of Hilary's six debut polishes - gotta love autumnal oranges and coppers! Let's take a look:
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| In direct sunlight - WOW those tiny specks of glitter really make this polish! |
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| Indirect light - what a unique shade :-) |
When I saw this polish for the first time, I was really struck by what an beautiful and unusual shade the base colour was. Hilary describes it as a 'corally-orange jelly with gold and copper glitter', and I have to agree with her description. It's not burnt orange (that's darker), but it's heading that way, with a lovely dusky hue. In the sun, it glows a really 'true' orange, and the light picks out all of the gorgeous yet tiny golden specks of glitter in the base. This is just stunning. Just like Looe, this polish applied beautifully. This polish was also packed with glitter, much more so than Looe, and I didn't have to dab at all. I did, however, need an extra coat to avoid a VNL. I could probably have got away with three. Again, I can see this suiting pretty much all skin tones, and I'll definitely be breaking it out again in the autumn for some nail art.
Some general points about both polishes:
- Excellent formulas - jellies with glitter
- Sheer but buildable
- Self-levelling and no curling glitter (glitter lies beyond flat)
- Satin finish
(Hilary claims that all of her polishes dry satin/matte, and therefore need a top coat to bring out their true beauty. I actually found that come the third coat, the polish looked very glassy, and I only applied a layer of top coat to protect the mani. Case in point: the second pic of Looe is without a top coat ;-) ) - Only one thin coat of top coat required for a completely smooth and glossy finish
- No unsavoury smells
You can find Nelly Polish on Etsy, where you can buy a Nelly mixture for £4; a mixture plus an empty bottle for £5; or a made-up bottle for £6.50 :-) Hilary is also planning to launch a FB page for her nail polishes very soon, so keep your eyes peeled!
So: the nail polish world has been changed FOREVER! I, personally, can't wait to see Hilary's next collection!
Hilary sent me these two polishes ready-made, but was kind enough to suggest that she could send me a sachet of Nelly Mixture to mix myself, if I were curious about the process. If you'd like me to review the mixing process for you, gimme a shout in the comments and I'll let Hilary know! :D
'Til next time, curlettes! :-)
- Skye x
*Both nail polishes provided for honest review.
This is really cool but I wonder how it holds up over time?
ReplyDeleteI only applied it over a glue base but it hung on for dear life! It felt like it would stay on forever and ever and ever. I think that because the glitters lie so flat, once you've got your top coat on you're good to go. Since it's buildable, you don't have to do super thick layers, but thicker ones will mean you can gain opacity quicker. If you layered it over a colour base that wouldn't be an issue at all, of course; I just wanted to show off the polishes all by themselves :) I can do a wear test for you sometime if you like? :) xx
DeleteI think Bee Justice may have been referring to how the polish itself in the bottle holds up over time after being mixed with regards to sinking pigments, glitters etc :)
DeleteHi Nail Girl :) Welcome to my blog! :D
DeleteI do catch your drift. As regards sinking pigments and glitters, the Nelly mixture actually contains suspension powder to prevent excessive settling (naturally all glitter polishes settle after a long enough period). I've only had the bottles of polish at my place for a week, but I've not seen anything unusual as yet.
I think that Looe's consistency was runnier (more jelly?) than Polperro, so I had to fish around for some of the larger glitters, but a quick shake and that problem was solved. Polperro is stuffed full of glitters and they were evenly distributed throughout. I was very impressed with Polperro, actually!
If I notice any weird settling/sinking, I will definitely update the post so everyone knows, but so far things are looking peachy :)
Hope that helps and answers your (and Bee's) question :) Thanks for stopping by! :) xx
Unless I'm misunderstanding, but it just sounds as if she sends the dry ingredients (pigments/mica and glitter) premixed along with a bottle, and the customer just adds the dry mix to clear polish. When I heard "dehydrated", I sorta assumed something different, like the polish itself was dehydrated and you just add water sorta thing (though water and polish wouldn't be such a good thing, haha).
ReplyDeleteWas there glitter and pigment sinking after a couple of days? If not, then that would truly be remarkable!
I think the colors are great and I love that this biz found a way to be able to sell her product overseas :)
Hiya, the dry ingredients include a suspension powder so that the glitter and pigments stay suspended. Like all polish (including commercial ones) there will always be a little settling and separating over time - it can always be reversed with a quick shake.
DeleteHi Dazey!
DeleteThank you for visiting my blog - you're a new face :) My apologies if my 'dehydrated' confused you; I'm not a scientist and I forget some people read that word as in 'mix with water to reconstitute'. I will add a note on the blog *goes add note* :)
As to sinking: I haven't noticed any at all with Polperro - it IS remarkable. There is a very small amount of sinking with Looe (the larger glitters) but I think that's because of the 'jelly' consistency. There are still glitters all the way through both polishes at the moment and I've had them at home with me since Saturday. A quick shake sorted out any Looe sinkage :)
Hope that helps :) xx
OH!! The addition of suspension powder IS superb! Awesome! <3
ReplyDelete:) xx
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