Cheap Nail Polish!

Please excuse my (extremely) poor attempt at a manicure. I have a rather slap-dash approach to nail polish, and these pictures have really made me think maybe I should spend longer than 5 minutes doing it! #theshame.

Anyway. The real reason I'm even posting this is to demonstrate the colour and quality (or lack thereof) of some cheap nail polishes I've treated myself to recently. Firstly, Primark's attempt at a crackle polish. I know that the crackle coat trend has come and gone, but I never really appreciated the look enough to spend even a few pound on Barry M's bottle. It just never appealed. Yet, drawn in by a bargain, I purchased Primark's very reasonable version.

 

Primark nails! Pictures taken in direct daylight.

Verdict? Rather impressed! The crackle coat itself was better than I expected- it dried quickly, and achieved a pretty good quality 'crackle' pattern (that said, my pinky was left looking very splotchy- I guess it all depends on how heavy handed you are with the brush!). I actually quite liked the look- although it's possible thats just because I never do anything particularly interesting with my nails, and the crackle is a bit of a novelty! Regardless, the set was £3 for three bottles, and rather good value for the quality of the product. The top coat in particular makes this set a pretty good purchase. (obviously I didn't use the gold in these pictures! Its over a very pretty nude pink by 17 cosmetics).

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 ELF Cranberry: The picture on the left was taken at night without flash, and on the right, with flash.

Secondly, with my first ever ELF order last week, I bought for the princely sum of £1 a polish called 'Cranberry'- basically, a staple shiny, cherry red colour. Now, my ELF order was rather hit and miss (word of warning- the brushes are made with animal hair, so they really are too good to be true at such a low price. And the face mist smells absolutely disgusting- like sick!) I have to say, I was very impressed with this...

One coat!!! That's only one coat of Cranberry! Its almost perfectly opaque, and its such a pretty colour! For £1 this was definitely the best of the ELF products I ordered, and as red is pretty much my go-too nail shade, I can see myself using a lot of this.

xxx