Monday 8 April 2013

Viva La Nails Polish

Hello again my lovely readers :)

My fiance (eeeee!) went back to sea again today, so I'm all on my lonesome!  I do have a wedding to plan though, so that should keep me entertained :)

It also means I have more time to paint my nails!  Today I have a new brand to share with you.  Viva La Nails is a European nail art website (don't worry - they ship worldwide!).  They've recently started some new nail polish ranges, and so I was contacted to ask if I'd like to review a few of them.  Prepare yourselves for lots of pictures.

First up are two polishes from the Garden of Colour range.


The bottles are 15ml (same size as OPI) and they cost £3.95.

Viva-La-Nails-Garden-of-Colour-Truth-or-Dare-swatch

This is Truth Or Dare.  I chose this polish because it looked like a lovely deep colour, but I didn't realise until it arrived that it's a flakie.  Swooooooon.

Viva-La-Nails-Garden-of-Colour-Truth-or-Dare-swatch

The polish is a gorgeous wine/burgundy colour, leaning a little brown in certain light, and packed full of shimmer.  The flakie glitters add this amazing glow in the polish that makes it look fire-y :)

Viva-La-Nails-Garden-of-Colour-Truth-or-Dare-swatch

The flakies shift from orange through to yellow and green.  So pretty....

Viva-La-Nails-Garden-of-Colour-Truth-or-Dare-swatch

Application was a dream.  Honestly, the formula on these was amazing.  I didn't need to do any clean up at all, the polish was very well-behaved and flowed lovely over the nail.  All these swatches are three coats with top coat.

Next up is the aptly named Creme Brulee.  Yeeeaars ago I had this manicure in my head that I wanted to do, but I needed a particular shade of yellow for it.  In the end, I made do with Rimmel Sunshine, because I just could not find the shade I wanted anywhere (although 'anywhere' back then was Superdrug and Boots - so young, so much still to learn lol).  This, my friends, is the colour.

Viva-La-Nails-Garden-of-Colour-Creme-Brulee-swatch

It reminds me of those slices of fake cheese that we have a barbecues :)

Viva-La-Nails-Garden-of-Colour-Creme-Brulee-swatch

The formula on this was as good as Truth Or Dare.  Yellows can be a bit of a pain to get opaque, I normally layer them over white because I can't be bothered applying five coats and still having VNL.  This, however, was perfectly opaque in three coats.  I think you'd get away with two to be honest, but I went for three because macro mode is very unforgiving :p


A quick mention of the brushes.  They're a medium size (similar to a Barry M) and hold a good amount of polish - I didn't have to re-dip and I didn't have blobs running down the brush.  Really easy to get a clean cuticle line with this.

So, massive bottles, gorgeous colours and fantastic formulas all for £3.95?  These get a massive thumbs up from me.

You can see the whole Garden Of Colour range here.

Lastly is a polish from the Colour It range.


These are gel polishes (i.e. ones that are set with UV light) and sell for £6.95.  This is shade 40.

I don't have much experience applying gel polish, so I did struggle a little with the thicker formula of this, so apologies for the messy cuticle line!  Definitely need more practice :)  The brush on this is wider than the one above, and the polish needs a little stir before you start painting.

Viva-La-Nails-Colour-Color-It-UV-gel-polish-40-swatch

The colour is lovely though, a pink-toned nude.  I want to call it blush?  This is two thin coats without any topcoat - super shiny.  If you're a fan of gel polish, it's worth taking a look at the Colour It range here - a much cheaper alternative to some other brands out there and a great selection of colours.

So far, I'm loving the quality of Viva La Nails' products.  I'm having a good old nose at what nail art products they have available now - I may have to treat myself.  Do you think I can use trial runs for my wedding manicure as an excuse to buy lots of stuff...?  (I should probably have a venue before I start planning my nails, but there we go!).

I was also sent a few nail art goodies to review, which I'll show you later in the week.  For now I shall just say this - prettyyyyyy.

What do you think of all these polishes?  Will you be giving Viva La Nails' products a go?



2 comments:

  1. Truth or Dare look amazing, really like it :-) May have to check it out sometime :-)

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    Replies
    1. It's even more beautiful in real life, my camera does it no justice!

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