Hi all!
Most of you will probably have read somewhere, or seen that Instyle have teamed up again with Nails Inc this year to include a range of free polishes with their magazine. The colours this year are:
- Totes Pink
- It's Red, Babez
- You're a Peach
I'm sure you can guess what colours these are from their names, but the colours are below for you to have a look at. Personally, I think the photo is a bit misleading - both the pink and the peach are brighter in person and the red is more coral.
(Image Source: Instyle.co.uk)
I love Nails Inc, and its not every day you get to pick them up cheap, as they usually retail for £11 each from the website. These three shades have been designed specifically for Instyle and therefore I believe this is why they do not follow their normal naming ritual of naming after roads. I am slightly disappointed with the names, but I picked up all three colours anyway. Instyle magazine retails for £3.90, so less than £4 for a good magazine and a polish as well - can't go wrong at all.
The first colour I tried is Totes Pink - mainly because I know it doesn't suit my skin tone and to get it out of the way. My first thoughts (or rather, my friends thoughts) were that its a dupe of Elizabeth Street, but it is marginally lighter in the bottle, much more opaque and more pink, whereas Elizabeth Street is a tiny bit more nude-ish I think. Swatches are 3 coats, with 1 coat of Seche Clear as base, and 1 of Seche Vite as top coat. Like I thought, it doesn't suit my skin tone, but is a nice spring / summery shade of pink for anyone with a lighter tone than I have. I will probably keep it for nail art anyway as it applies nicely for a creme polish. I didn't realise at the time, but lighting was not as great as I thought.. so nails do look just like the Instyle bottle shot - well done me :/
The second is You're a Peach. I definitely think this is close to Wellington Square or to Peach Sorbet, which was the peach polish free with Instyle last year. I don't have Peach Sorbet, but I do have Wellington Square so I will do a comparison of the two. I think Wellington Square may be a tad darker.
The formula for this was just like Totes Pink - it applied well but needed 3 coats to level out. I like this more than the pink, but again I don't think its great for pinker skin tones. It really reminds me of summer though and despite it not doing much for me, I'll defo still be wearing it!
The third was my favourite - Its Red, Babez. Despite the more than tacky name, this is a beautiful coral red polish. I wore three coats, which still showed a VNL, but if you are happy with a more visible nail line, you could go for two - it was smooth in the first coat and was dreamy to apply. Dried, it has a lovely glossy finish, but obviously if you want to prolong your mani then top coat is the way to go - I really am just anal about top coat - even if my mani is only on for 5 minutes I'll add one! These photos were taken in artificial light, as the sun was gone by the time I got to the last bottle.
Which is your favourite? Did you pick any up? I like all three shades but Its Red, Babez was by far the winner for me.
Rachael x
