Kester Black Review & Swatches (part 1)

My all time favourite nail polish brand Kester Black is FINALLY offering international shipping! Kester Black is an Australia indie brand and I fell in love with them when I was living in Melbourne. But when I moved back to the UK, I was unable to purchase any of the new collections and it was sad. Plus I didn't want to use any of my Kester Blacks because I was worried of wasting them or finishing them and never being able to buy new ones. It was sad.

Last week they posted online that they are offering international shipping so I instantly placed an order. I received my polishes within a week! Incredible. Anyway that haul is coming up soon, but first I wanted to do a little (long) brand review.

I swatched 12 colours. I wanted to start off with 5... then 7... then 10... and then I decided I wanted a bit of every collection so it ended up coming to 12.... I am actually planning on swatching all of my Kester Black nail polishes in the same way, so I'm sure they'll be a part 2 (or part 10) coming up soon!

Kester Black is a Non Toxic, 5 free, Vegan, Cruelty Free brand that's proudly Australian made and committed to supporting local businesses. They use sustainable production methods including using recycled materials. The colours are high shine and chip resistant. Does that not sound like the best brand ever?!

Since I started collecting Kester Black nail polishes the brand has slightly changed. The front of the bottles has changed: The red colour is the old bottle design and Blush is the new bottle design. The brushes have also changed. They started off with very skinny round brushes like the US Essie's, and now they have very wide brushes like the European Essie's. The flat wide brushes cover my nail in 1-2 brush strokes so it really is an easy application.

More info and swatches after the jump!

Kester Black Architecture in Helsinki 2

This is part two of the Kester Black limited addition nail polish where I'll be showing you 4EVA. The collection is a collaboration with the band Architecture in Helsinki. Their new CD is called NOW & 4EVA, and that's what the two limited addition nail polishes are called. If you want to see swatches of NOW, click here.

4EVA is a beautiful bright pink colour, not quite neon, but almost there. Like I mentioned in the previous post, the new Kester Black nail polishes have a new wide brush, which makes application very easy. However, the formula of this nail polish wasn't as fantastic as NOW. With NOW I could easily get away with just applying one coat. It had great opacity and wasn't streaky at all. For 4EVA I ended up applying three coats, and even though the nail polish was very smooth and even, it wasn't as opaque. After three coats I could still see my nail line, which was slightly disappointing. It wasn't very obvious, and the super easy application kind of makes up for it.

The colour isn't as unique as NOW either, the photo above compares it to Kester Blacks Dragonfruit. They look identical. Sometimes I feel like Dragonfruit looks slightly darker, but that could just be me trying so hard to see a difference I just make something up. The brush is different though. Dragonfruit has the original brush, and 4EVA has the new thick brush.

Kester Black Architecture in Helsinki 1

Kester Black is my favourite brand (tied with OPI). The unique thing about Kester Black nail polishes is that they're 100% Australian made! Not only that but they are also 5 free, cruelty free and vegan. All in all an amazing brand. They retail for $17 each and are definitely worth the price. All the polishes I have tried - I own 16 - are extremely opaque and have great colour pay off.

In this post I will be discussing the first new limited addition polishes for Architecture In Helsinki. This collection contains two nail polishes: NOW and 4EVA, the title of Architecture In Helsinki's new cd. They're an Australian indie pop band, and the only band my boyfriend and I BOTH like. That doesn't happen too often!

NOW is a vibrant medium sky blue. It's such a beautiful colour and very unique in my collection. The only similar looking colour I own is OPI No Room For The Blues but that's a little darker and much more muted true blue, whereas NOW leans more towards cyan. The photo doesn't show the difference is colour as well as I'd like.

The new Kester Black nail polishes have a new type of brush. It's a thick flat brush so it makes application very easy. For the swatch to the right I used two coats. As I applied the first coat I noticed quite a bit of streakiness, but as it dried that evened out nicely. With careful application you can easily get away with applying one coat, I decided to add a second coat anyway. The result is beautiful, I took the photo when the nail polish was completely dry and didn't use a top coat. You can see how shiny it is!!

I would say this is more of a spring/summer colour and seeing as it's autumn in Australia right now I won't wear it as often. That being said, I am super excited about this colour and because of the easily application it'll be a great colour for my travels!