Nails Inc. Victoria & Albert: Swatch Picture and Review

If I recall correctly, Nails Inc. Victoria & Albert is one of the favorites of the red creme queen herself - tobywoo - so you know it has to be good.


And it is! Unfortunately, my picture doesn't do it justice, but Victoria & Albert is a super-smooth, even-flowing, beautiful red creme. When I first wore it, I remember being so impressed with the ease of application and rich pigment of the polish, especially considering that it's quite thin. While V&A was perfect in two coats, it's not quite warm-toned enough to make its way into my very favorites… but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate how lovely and high-quality it is!

swatch: nails inc. brook street

i've been trying to photograph my notd, opi ogre-the-top blue, for the past two days now with no luck - it's been so overcast here that i don't have enough light to get a color-accurate pic. so here's an notd from last week instead, nails inc. brook street:


this is a very pretty pink-toned coral... i love it! it reminds me a bit of rbl coral, but the two polishes certainly aren't identical. i paired brook street with a fluorescent yellow dress, brown chunky platform sandals, and a bright red pedi. :) three coats.

swatch: nails inc. hollywood

fabulous candy pink!


unfortunately, the application of this shade wasn't quite so fabulous - it was somewhat streaky and patchy, requiring me to apply it thickly to get it even in three coats. these application issues surprised me, as nails inc. polishes tend to have a consistently good formula. i love the color, though, so i can definitely see myself reaching for hollywood again... just not when i'm in a rush or need an easy mani!

swatch: nails inc. upper street

a very pretty jelly-ish aqua shade:


when i first started to apply upper street, i was concerned that it would need several coats for opacity (and i was feeling lazy that day); luckily, it became even with the addition of a second coat. a comp with chg flyin' high and chg shower together is in the works!

swatch: nails inc. belgrave place

nails inc. belgrave place (not to be confused with nails inc. belgrave square, a shimmery pink) is amazing! it's a beautiful, vivid, super-glossy blurple jelly:


this polish totally, totally rules. depending on the lighting conditions, it ranges from a purple with strong blue undertones to a deep, rich blue to a shiny, gorgeous vampy. (my pic might be a bit too blue in some browsers; sorry about that!) a particularly great thing about belgrave place is that while it's a jelly, it doesn't come along with the annoying side effect of most jellies: vnl (visible nail line). instead, it was opaque in three coats.

swatch: nails inc. draycott pl.

we had such summery weather here in new york this past weekend that i decided it was time to break out this fabulously juicy orange!


draycott pl. is my new favorite orange - it's so vivid and so pigmented. i wore it with this dress to wander around the city on a hot saturday afternoon, eating raspberry sorbet and idling in union square park... totally freaking awesome. two coats.

swatch: nails inc. portland place

i got this gorgeous jelly polish from a uk friend as part of an asos christmas duo set that also included nails inc. duke st. i love that this is a teal that leans green rather than blue; this quality makes it quite unique in my collection. three coats:


bf says: "this is a good photograph considering that you took it on a moving train! note that my sister is a photographer so i would know! it is in my blood."

swatch: nails inc. victoria gate

happy new year's eve to all! this is my absolute favorite holiday... it's so full of promise.

here's a recent notd, nails inc. victoria gate (three coats):


i am lame and sleepy, so i have enlisted my bff poonam to give you her commentary on this shade:
"victoria gate has an excellent application, like so many of the nails inc. shades. the color is a strong berry with purple elements and, while i would hesitate to recommend it as a "fun frolicky" shade, this jewel tone is subtle and extremely apropos for the holiday season! it reminds me of christmas ornaments of days of yore! i would recommend pairing it with a fun colored cocktail or festive footwear for maximum holiday enjoyment! countdown to the new year on my end is 35 minutes, so off i go!"

...mama hearts her exclamation points. see you all in 2010!

swatch: nails inc. rodeo drive

i fell i love with the rather un-festive notd i wore earlier this week, nails inc. rodeo drive... so much so that i kept it on for four days!

here's how this polish looks in the sun:


and here's how it looks in the shade (this more blue-toned color is what shows up in indoor lighting as well):


please excuse the lotion and poshe residue in these pics, yikes!

rodeo drive is a gorgeous color, just a bit more blue than rescue beauty lounge teal. the formulas of the two polishes are also quite comparable (creamy, pigmented, and fully even in two coats), although i personally find the rbl easier to apply because of its smaller cap. imo, while the two colors aren't exact dupes, they are close enough that most people won't need both... i'll do a comparison when i get back to new york!

bf says: "this is a nice polish named after a gross road in a bad city."

swatch: nails inc. curzon street

this is from the qvc uk autumn/winter set available here.

this polish goes slightly muted/dusty in strong light:


but looks like this in typical indoor lighting:


very smooth application, two coats

swatch: nails inc. berkeley square

sorry to have slacked off on the notd posting... all the swatching i was doing for the nb top 20 totally killed my desire to take even more nail photos. but i'm back!


asoifhdsohfihwhas obsessed!!! i love how dark this cool-toned gray is, and it has that famous nails inc. application - wonderfully creamy, richly pigmented, and absolutely perfect in two coats.

the nails inc. formula is right up there with rbl's and illamasqua's; in my experience, nails inc. and rbl polishes are a bit more "flowy" than illamasqua lacquers (which, in contrast, generally go exactly where you put them), but their pigmentation is richer and more consistent. that said, all three brands are excellent, and the differences between them that i'm mentioning are quite subtle.

bf says: "WHOA i like that color a LOT. it kind of has blue tones."

swatch: nails inc. the southbank

a lovely light gray creme... not so hot with my skin tone, but i do like it in the abstract. still on the hunt for an even lighter gray creme (shimmer-free, please), which i'm hoping will provide the contrast i'm looking for.


the above photo is of two coats - normally i think the southbank would be perfectly even and streak-free at that point, but unfortunately i was applying it in a mad rush. don't blame the polish!

edit: for really great pics of this polish, check out tobywoo's post here... very helpful comp swatches, too!

swatch: nails inc. st. john's wood

in the middle of organizing my stash (i have a second helmer now, yay!), but here's today's notd, another lovely nails inc. creme:

the application on this was really smooth (as i've come to expect from nails inc. polishes!), and i love the color. most light purples don't stand out well on my skin tone, but this one is unusually vivid. btw, st. john's wood is darker and dustier in indoor light, and the above picture is two coats.

swatch: nails inc. the serpentine

now *this* had the amazing nails inc. formula that i love. two coats to total creamy, opaque perfection.

a rich, deep blue with a hint of dustiness...

under the fluorescent lights at work today, it was a simpler/more straightforward dark blue creme, but still gorgeous:

and now, i'm off to nails night out nyc! will report back in my next post.

swatch: nails inc little venice

so i decided to suck it up and take a quick picture. any application issues are 100% my fault - the polish itself was fine (albeit sheer). this photo is of three coats:

this is a great example of a polish that really changes with skin tone. on me, little venice doesn't have even a hint of the peach/pale coral tones it has on others - it's straight up milky baby pink. it looks like a jelly on the first coat, simply because it's so sheer, but once the coats are built up it loses that translucence.

i have to say, this color isn't "me" at all - i only got it because i couldn't find a source to buy the cruise collection polishes separately. i caught a glimpse of my nails while blasting my old stp favorites on my ipod at the post office and felt super awkward... it's definitely coming off the first chance i get!

swatch: nails inc. festival pier

i was expecting this to be a creamy coral-pink based on pics, but it turned out to be pretty much a neon. tbh, i'm pretty bummed about this one; it was quite chalky and thick, and i expect better from a nails inc. creme. and of course, given its neon hue it was a major pain to photograph - i made a half-hearted attempt to photoshop this picture into color accuracy but gave up pretty quickly. in this picture we have 3 coats, plus touchups:

now off to do a quick mani - must think of something that will entertain me through a full day of teaching plus be party-appropriate for evening!