NOTD: MUA Nail Varnish in Shade 2 Black

Another one of my little treats, this was an impulse buy in Superdrug at just £1 as I was looking to replace my old bottle of black nail polish.

MUA can be really hit and miss, with some products performing as well as designer brands such as Bobbi Brown and others missing the mark. Which category does this nail varnish fit in?

MUA Nail Varnish from here

I applied one coat of this varnish and was surprised at how easily it went on. The lid is quite easy to hold and the brush is a good size that doesn's shed. One coat seemed thick enough so I didn't go in for a second. However, although the polish was thick enough to cover the nail with a good opaque coat, it still left gaps in the polish where it didn't cover the nail. Also, within a day I'd already started to see chips and wear on the nail tip, as pictured.

Although it is a great price and easy to use, the bottle itself is a little small at 6.2ml and it chips far too quickly.

However, I have noticed that MUA has stopped selling this particular polish and the new polishes come in much nicer bottles and have I assume been reformulated. I'd still be tempted to try out the new nail polishes especially the Essie dupes and hopefully this was just a one off.

Manicure Monday: ELF Nail Polish Fire Coral

ELF Nail Polish available from here 

This is just one item I got from a huge ELF haul a while back. It’s the first ELF nail polish I’ve tried and I was drawn to this reddish coral colour. The colour has got to be my favourite part of this polish. It’s about as far away on the coral colour scale you can get before hitting red.

Application is ok, the brush could be better and doesn’t cover the whole nail and the formula is a little on the thin side.  I’d definitely recommend that you use a topcoat with this one to stop it from chipping and it didn’t last as long as an OPI or Nails Inc polish for example. I’ve heard that the quality of these polishes can really vary from shade to shade so if you’re willing to risk it for £1.50 then have fun experimenting! If not, you can’t beat Barry M :)

What I do love about the ELF polishes is the size, (10ml), value (£1.50) and added benefits to the formula. They are “infused with active Vitamin E for stronger, healthier nails” and are toluene, formaldehyde and DBP Dibutyl Phthalate Free. I definitely think that more companies should be working to remove these chemicals from their products so hats off to ELF.

Accessorize Nail Polish Review – Indian Ocean & Tuscan Clay

So here’s the first ever Bella & Robot nail polish review! I’m sure that there will be plenty as I’ve recently become a nail polish fiend. As much as I’ve always loved them, I’m starting to feel a bit more experimental with colours and there’s so many great effects out there now I can’t wait to try them all.

First off, the colour. It’s fantastic, a really lush deep ocean blue which is exactly what it promises to be. It went on really easily, with a good smooth consistency. I used a Rimmel clear polish as a base coat and needed two coats to get an even colour. So far I’ve had it on for nearly a week and hasn’t chipped at all.

This is the first time that I’ve tried to do my nails professionally, by which I mean without touching the edges. I watched this tutorial on YouTube and decided to try it out. I do think it looks more professional this way (although it is more time consuming and I won’t be doing it every time) so thank you to Miss Jen Fabulous for the tip.

For the price (£4 usually, £2 in the sale) and quality of this I’m really impressed. It’s also a really good size at 10ml. I couldn’t find this shade online but you might get lucky and find it in store. I’ll definitely be trying out a few more shades and letting you know. I tried to find a dupe for you and the closest I could find is OPI Blue My Mind.

On the downside, after I did this review I tried to take it off and it left my hands and nails a blue green colour all over! It took 3 more attempts with nail polish remover and one more with lemon juice to get back to something resembling healthy!!

I did however have more luck with Tuscan Clay. It had a slightly thicker consistency, went on well, lasted a week before it started to wear away at the cuticle and came off without any drama. It's a really wearable shade, perfect for light tan skin colours as a beige nude rather than a pink nude. Excuse the ragged nails! The colour is similar to Nails Inc Caramel.

Have any of you tried Accessorize Nail Polishes? What did you think?