My eyes lit up when I spotted the new Nails Inc Beaded Polish yesterday - the prettiness of a beaded effect in one bottle, minus the faff of fiddling about with ickle beads? Yes please! I have swatches of my two favourites from the range: Hampstead and Covent Garden - two quite different formulas - here’s how I got on…
Hampstead is frankly the most perfect shade of coral polish I’ve ever seen (I may have a mild obsession with corals - shhh). It’s bright and bold with lovely pink undertones: f anyone has spotted a plain polish in this colour, pleeeasse let me know! The base of Hampstead is like a standard polish scattered with fine grains and glitters of various sizes, which blend together to create a textured effect. It’s really pretty - not beads, but I’m guessing that anything bigger than these particles would be impossible to suspend in a liquid base? This is one coat, no top coat - you could obviously build it up to add more texture if you wished, but I liked it like this and didn’t want to conceal too much of that gorgeous base shade.
Covent Garden has a much more dense base - thick and paste-like (it reminds me of a clay exfoliator by Dove - review & pics here). The particles are like sugar crystals - similar to a mix of caster and granulated sugar (maybe it that’s what it is - who knows!). This is one coat. When I try to add two (I did try, 3 times) it looked too textured and messy for my liking. I like this colour but did find it tricky to work with - I much prefer the texture and finish of Hampstead. I’ve also seen swatches of a creamy nude shade (Buff) and black, which I think work much better, so perhaps it’s a pastel issue?
I’ve tried to show the difference in density in these paper swatches; each lower swatch is one layer painted with the brush and the top ones are a ‘dollop’.
The sun hadn’t quite broken through when I took these pics this morning, but the colours looked even prettier later and super sparkly in direct sunlight. I also tried them with a top coat, which made them feel a little smoother but didn’t change the overall look dramatically. It would have taken several layers of Seche Vite for a truly smooth finish for Covent Garden, but of course mine had glooped up and anyway, I don’t see the point in a textured polish if you’re going to conceal the texture!
I would definitely wear Hampstead as a full mani - it would also look pretty as an accent nail or dotted on a smooth base.
Do these float your boat? Next on my wish list: the Nails Inc gel look polishes - call me traditional but I think I’m more of a glossy gal at heart!
The full Nails Inc Beaded Polish collection* (rrp £12 each) is due for release in August, but you can already get hold of Hampstead (coral) and Chancery (royal blue) - I’ve spotted them at Debenhams and (on offer) at Beauty Bay.
