Polished London Review and Swatches

To all of my lovely blog followers,

Just wanted to start this by saying thanks for sticking by despite my lack of updates recently! I can assure you that I have many things to blog about still but haven't found the time to, so please bear with me as I try my best to get them written asap :)

I have a nail polish review for you guys today, but not just one nail polish - 3 of them from the brand called 'Polished London' which were sent to me for consideration! They were so generous with the postal packaging... they put it in a huge cardboard box! I couldn't believe it... I had no idea what was going to be inside because it was so light. This was what was in the box:

 A floral gift bag with green tissue paper and of course, the Polished London nail polishes

Double-sided press release was also in the package

I hadn't heard about Polished London nail polishes before until I received an email about them. They've actually only recently been released in Australia (Australian-owned brand) in selected pharmacies and retail for $7.99 RRP. I haven't seen this nail polishes in store yet so to me this is a great privilege to be able to try out these nail enamels before many others, hehe.

And to prevent biased views, I did not choose which enamel types or colours to review - they were given to me by random:

POLISHED LONDON'S SPRING/SUMMER COLLECTION

From L-R: Duchess, Miss Navy and Piccadilly

I noticed that the lids were a bit inconsistent! Nothing major but it seems more appropriate if product packaging is identical

By the way, I didn't do any watermarking on my photos because my swatches are so messy, thus I don't think anyone would want to take them anyway! Nah but seriously... I forgot to do them and now I don't want to go through the trouble watermarking and re-uploading :/

The above press release listed out 'key benefits' of these nail enamels. I will be referring to these key benefits when I review each nail polish. Here is the list just in case you missed it:

Key benefits:

• Hard wearing
• Superior gloss
• Extended wear
• Chip resistant
• Even and smooth application
• Quick drying

~Duchess~

 

3 coats of nail enamel

I had really high expectations for all of these nail polishes, especially after reading the press release. Did it meet my expectations? Hmm, yes and no. I'll start off by being really specific about each one, and as for this one... one coat was really sheer and I noticed that there was a bit of streaky-ness. For the first coat, the application was smooth and it dried pretty fast... about 20-30 seconds (I didn't time it). As for the second coat, there were more streaks and not surprisingly, it noticeably took longer to dry (a minute or two). The good news is is that a third coat made the enamel opaque (as pictured above) and the streaks were less noticeable. The drying time was about the same as the second coat and the surface was much smoother.

I noticed that this wasn't entirely consistent with my other nails - there were some that seemed more thick/gluggy on the surface. However despite the application consistencies,  the colour of each nail was exactly the same as each other and on the bottle. 

~Miss Navy~

 

2 coats

This one is just like the one above with the streaky, sheer, fast-drying initial coat. It only looks streaky but doesn't feel streaky... if you get what I mean. I think it might be the ingredients separating in the formula when smoothed out, making it like that. I guess shaking the bottle plenty of times wouldn't make much different because that's exactly what I did =|

The difference is that this only needed 2 coats to get it to be like the colour seen through the bottle. And the second coat is really pretty - smooth and streak-free! BUT unfortunately again this is not consistent throughout the painted nails, which sucks. The ring finger (next to the pinky) looks the best and i wish I could have made all of my nails look like that.

~Piccadilly~

2 coats

3 coats

Wow I just want to start by saying that I can see a distinct colour difference between 2 and 3 coats o_o I think this rarely happens, yes? It's not very easy to see but the bottle is more like the enamel colour that I 'created' with 3 coats. But I do like that pastel yellow that is seen in the first swatch picture of Piccadilly. I don't have any yellow nail polishes so to finally own one is exciting ^^ I've always wanted a pastel one, perfect for spring/summer.

The first coat was close to being unbearable. Smooth application but more streaky than the first two - disappointment! A second coat made all the difference though, like it completely covered up the streaks and made it look a whole lot better on my nail. Is this part of the 'key benefits' that this nail polish apparently has?? I don't know but it seems quite amazing. I also noticed that second and third coats were more consistent and not seen as thick/gluggy. Yay, much happier with this formula =]

Overall pros (+) and cons (-):

+ Smooth application each time

+ Chip resistant to a certain extent

+ Lasts quite long, at least a week

+ Nice glossy finishes

+ Quick drying, especially with the first coat

+ Affordable, middle-ranged nail enamels

- Streaky, especially with the first coat

- Not widely available, both nationally and internationally

- Product packagings (the lid) were not completely identical

- Inconsistencies with nail polish thickness

- Some may think that $7.95 is not worth it for the quality

- Requires more than one coat to become opaque and match the bottle's colour

Overall thoughts:

This is the first time in any of my reviews, whether it be circle lenses or makeup products, that there has been equal positives and negatives. Which means that I can't come to a conclusion about liking or disliking these nail polishes. Yes they do have all the 'key benefits' listed - that's not a lie but in a way I feel that they can come across as contradictory. They are indeed smooth but smooth = streaky. A positive and a negative. Same with them being affordable however I don't think that the quantity matches up with the quality. There is definite room for improvement and I have tried other nail polish brands which have the same/similar RRP but were better quality. To be honest I think some cheaper-priced brands of nail polishes can give these a run for their money.

Repurchase?

Since I already have plenty of nail polishes, I don't feel the need to purchase any more ;P Haha but seriously... I probably would only consider purchasing from this brand for curiosity i.e. a new limited edition collection with pretty colours. I am curious about their Crackle Effects range (see press release) and if I saw it in the shops, I would buy it because it's considerably inexpensive for crackle nail polish. But other than that, unfortunately I wouldn't! Only because I much prefer 'high-end' nail polish that are $10+ and have superb quality. I would pay the extra few dollars because it is worth it, trust me.

That's all for my review, I hope you liked it and found it informative. Please stay tuned for some exciting announcements in my upcoming posts ^_^ Thank you for reading!

Questjen of the week:

Which is your favourite nail polish brand? Pick only one!

My answer: Essie

I love Essie nail polishes, they are really impressive and one coat goes a long way! The opacity is just right and the enamel lasts really long too - minimum of one week without a single chip =) If you haven't tried this brand before, I suggest that you do because I absolutely love it :D