Christmas is a coming!! 10 great high street party polishes...

So it's probably fairly obvious from my business that I do have a bit of an obsession with nail polish. However, I have avoided blogging about polishes in the fearof it being construed as a shameless plug. Until, yet again, I found myself standing in the local pharmacy, waiting for a prescription and "browsing" the loverly nail polish collections to occupy my time! Guess what happened?? LOL a nice festive sparkly blue polish found it's way to the till - ahem in the name of research of course!  So with christmas parties coming up I figured it makes sense to cover off some great high street brands from cheap to not so cheap to help you achieve the perfect party nails!! (its important to note here that I have since lost the loverly sparkly blue polish that inspired this post so I have subbed in another close colour that I just happened to have!!)

The Detail:

Ok so quite a lot of brands going on here so I have them listed in order of price starting witht he cheapest. Note prices below are per bottle not based on quantities but I have included the sizes if you fancy doing a bit of maths!

Essence Colour & Go €1.29
Shade: "Blue Addicted" no 78
Description: Navy Blue lacquer with large hexagonal green and blue glitter
Size: 5ml
Stockists: Most pharmacies including McCabes excluding Boots & Superdrug, Some Dunnes Stores & Some Penneys

Collection 2000 Hot Looks €2.39
Shade: "Shimmy Shake" no 52
Description: Fine gold glitter in clear lacquer
Size: 8ml
Stockists: Boots & Superdrug

Catrice €2.79
Shade: "I'm a Star..." no 660
Description: Pearl shimmer lacquer with a pewter/goldy green colour
Size: 10ml
Stockits: Some Dunnes Stores (Liffey Valley def.), Penney's O'Connell Street and most good pharmacies

2 True Glossywear €3
Shade: no 14
Description: Pearl shimmer lacquer midnight blue colour
Size: 9ml
Stockists: Superdrug
Offers: all products €3 each or any 3 products for €7

Barry M €4.50
Shade: Green Glitter no 298
Description: Green glitter in clear lacquer
Size: 10ml
Stockists: Boots, Dunnes Stores, Superdrug
Current Offers - 3 for 2 on any Barry M products in most stockists nationwide

Bourjois €7.99
Shade: Prune Stellaire no 9
Description: Prune nail laquer with lighter prune fine glitter giving high sheen wet look
Size: 8ml
Stockists: Boots, Superdrug, Most Chemists

GOSH €7.50 - €8.50
Shade: Gasoline no 541
Description: Light purple lacquer with fine silver and blue glitter
Size: 8ml
Stockists: Superdrug, McCabes Pharmacies
Current Offers - 3 for 2 in Superdrug on all GOSH cosmetics, €2 off all GOSH cosmetics in McCabes

INGLOT €10
Shade: 318
Description: Pearl shimmer light green lacquer
Size: 10ml
Stockists: INGLOT

OPI €12 - €15
Shade: Yodel Me On My Cell
Description: Teal green shimmer lacquer
Size: 15ml
Stockists: McCabes Pharmacies, Salons nationwide providing OPI treatments

Leighton Denny €16
Shade: Best Seller
Description: Rich red lacquer with a slightly lighter glitter giving a high sheen wet look finish
Size: 12 ml
Stockists: Leighton Denny Nail Bar in House of Fraiser Dundrum, Salons & Spas nationwide poviding Leighton Denny treatments

The Images:

The line-up: 8 of the 10 reviewed (INGLOT & Essence nails painted using testers in the shops!!)

Close ups:

INGLOT # 318

Catrice, OPI & 2 True

Bourjois

Leighton Denny

Collection 2000, Barry M & GOSH

Essence

 

The glitter hand  from pinkie to thumb: GOSH, Essence, Barry M, Collection 2000 & Leighton Denny

The shimmer/pearl hand - from thumb to pinkie: Bourjois, 2 True, OPI, Catrice & INGLOT

The Sciencey Bit:
Ok so in more recent times nail polish manufacturers have been put under pressure to find healthier alternatives to the standard ingredients used to make lacquer. Normally speaking nail polish is a combination of nitrocellulose which is dissolved in a solvent usually either butyl acetate or ethyl acetate. After this pigments and glitters are added for the colour and a melting pot of chemical are added to plasticize them, help them to adhere tot he nail plate, prevent fading etc etc etc. Perhaps happier to be blissfully ignorant one asks??  Well possibly but the big buzz term with nail polishes worth knowing is "3 Free" which effectively means polishes that is free from the 3 biggies in terms of potential harm and sometimes you may hear
1. Formaldehyde which is a known carcinogen and can be harmful for asthmatics
2. Toluene which has been previously linked to cancer and in its purest form can cause drowsiness & nausea
3. Dibutyl Phthalate or DBP for short which has been linked to testicular problems in lab rats and later in humans
4. "4 Free" covers polishes that exclude the above 3 ingredients but also Camphor which is an extreme toxin and has levels allowed in consumers products reduced to a maximum limit of 11% by the FDA in America.

Conclusion:
Right there are 10 polishes to cover off here so bear with me!

Essence Colour & Go
One of my favourites for trying out new colours on the cheap - they are pretty good with keeping on trend and you will actually get a couple of days wear if you are reasonably careful and use decent base and top coats. They are also cruelty free (don't test on animals) and 4 Free which is quite surprising for such a cheap product. They do however run out quite quickly being such tiney tiny bottles - my only quibble! This is definitly my favourite shade of the 10 for a super festive sparkle without being too blingey.

Collection 2000 Hot Looks
Right well just my luck I got a bottle with a gammy brush (it had like half a second brush up the side so was virtually impossible to paint on my nails and not fingers!!). It dries super quick and while it looked very disappointing after one coat the second coat built the colour up well. A wee bit too yellowey gold for my liking (which I think cheapens the look slightly) but perhaps with a darker skintone it looks better?! They are a cruelty free product line but info on ingredients is seriously lacking formt heir website and given they have an animal testing policy I would imagine if they were indeed 3 or 4 Free we'd know about it.

Catrice
OMG I simply LOVE Catrice polishes. Rarely can I visit a stand and resist the urge to pick up a new polish shade. They have a fabulous range of colours, cute names and I really like the packaging. It's also a good consistency to apply (not too thin, not too thick). Unfortunately it's not terribly chip resistant and really is a one day/one night polish in my experience. However the low cost and fab range of colours makes this a happy compromise for me - it may drive others mad tho. Again like Essence they are a 4 Free lacquer and also are cruelty free.

2 True Glossywear 
A decent enough polish promising up to 5 days wear...I've never got past 3 days but hey thats me. I can't put my finger on it but for some reaosn it's just not a brand I love. Perhaps the colour range is just not for me - this shade is lovely on mind you! Unlike many polishes they do put their ingredients on the bottle but mine is all faded so I may be wrong but they do appear to be 3 Free. Very importantly agian they are cruelty free.

Barry M
Amazing coverage for just 2 coats (I reminise about glitter polishes from my formative years where you had to paint on about  6 layers to get the full on gliter look). I reckon their glitter polishes give as good a finish as rockstar nails so well worth the investment if you like this look. However it is an absolute nightmare to remove - takes forever!! I'm a massive Barry M fan for longevity and amazing catwalk  colour dupes released quick smart. They list ingredients by the colour range online and this one seems to be 3 free wich is all good, they have been known to include touline and DBP in the past but it appears this is being phased out. They are also cruelty free. Barry M polishes have won countless beauty awards and is worth the couple of extra quid for its coverage and longevity.

Bourjois
I've always enjoyed treating myself with a Bourjois polish. A big fan of their So Laque range (particularly their french manicure peaches) I was actually slightly disappointed with this polish. It looks far more glittery in the bottle than on my nail...you can really only see the glitter under the light so not one to go for if you arelooking for sparkle. It holds true on it's one second dry time but I'm not a lover of the fan shaped brush allowing you to cover the nail in one stroke -it doesn't!! One coat is pretty good coverage though and it does last a fair few days before chips set in. They have a quality statement on their website btu it's vague enough so difficult to establish if they are in fact 3 Free and cruelty free. As ever if they don't say it they probably don't do it!

GOSH
Well GOSH this one was a BIG disappointment. The colour is jsut SO much paler than it looks in the bottle and while it is nice it far more pinkey than purple and the name Gasoline made me think of almost black purple colours...but nope not in this. It wears well and applies well as with most GOSH polishes so really my gripe here is just the colour. The glitter is so fine that it really just gives more of a shimmer than sparkle. Its Formaldehyde and Toulene free and also cruelty free.

INGLOT
Some may say I'm biased but I do love INGLOT polishes. They are 4 Free and Cruelty free too. A very watery consistency they remind me a lot of OPI and need quite a bit of practise to get on jsut right with n brush strokes visable. They are just a durable as OPI and all in all a happy alternative as a professional polish. The best bit probably has to be the colour range - it is virtually impossible not to find a perfect match to your outfit. I went for this shade as its nice and light but still very Christmassy. Its probably the one that got the most comments - yes yes as I walked around liek a crazy woman with 10 different coloured nails all in the name of research for you guys!!

OPI
Another firm favourite of mine I do like OPI. They are 3 Free and Cruelty free and I just love the mad names the polishes all have. (especially all the Suzi ones..!) The bottles are huge at 15mls so while pricier you are getting more product. They are very watery polishes so do take a bit of practise to get used to but worth it. This colour is nice and festive but very wearable in the office. Only negative is the bottle size and shape makes it hard to store - but thats only an issue because I have so many feckin' bottles of polish!!

Leighton Denny
Finally the lovely Leighton Denny - I always complan about the longevity of these polishes but all the same I keep buying them! They are very very pricey for not great longevity but do have a few colours that just are amazing on. While I like this colour and it is incredibly popular with clients its far from my favourite - All About Me. This is an amazing candy pink colour which I wanted to put on with white stripes and pass off as a Christmas colour but figured that was cheating! So back to this... as it's name would suggest it was a fiercely popular colour when in test stage so got its name Best Seller and has lived up to it ever since. The glitter is so fine that it really just gives a shimmer. A very nice finish overall. Very difficult to get detailed info on the ingredients. I have ascertained that it is formaldahyde free but so far thats it!


Ok - I hope this hasn't sent you  all to snoozeville because holy god its long! I guess it was an ambitious post trying to cover 10 different products but I wanted to give ye all a nice bunch of polishes to choose from! Let me know your thoughts and any of your festive favourites below..