Free Nails Inc Polish with InStyle Magazine

This month Nails Inc is giving away four free nail polishes with InStyle magazine. It's a great combination of brights and pastels so there's something to suit everyone!

There is a gorgeous minty green, a red, pink and a purpley grey. The pink and red aren't very unique, and as you'll see from my comparisons coming up, it's easy to pass those up. The other two shades are great and I'd definitely recommend them.

First up is The Tide Is High.

This is a gorgeous mint which leans slightly more blue than green. It's beautiful and my favourite of the 4.

I used 2 coats for the swatch.

It was streaky on the first coat but the second coat covered everything up.

I did do 2 very careful coats, I think this could easily be a 3 coater, especially on my other hand!!

I compared it to Optic Wave from a little over a year ago.

Optic Wave is 1 of 3 polishes that I actually have a back-up of.

The Tide Is High is a much lighter version of Optic Wave. I think both are equally beautiful.

More info and swatches after the jump! 

Free Nails Inc Nail Polish with Colgate Optic White Toothpaste

I feel like Nails Inc is ALWAYS giving away free nail polishes with EVERYTHING. This time they're with Colgate Optic White toothpastes.

This isn't anything new, last year at this time they had the same offer. It also included a red, blue and pink with the same names, but I have compared (bottle shots) and they aren't anything alike.

I fell in love with all three colours last year, and I'm not sure if this years collection quite matches up, but that blue kind of makes up for it! That being said, all three colours have an incredible formula.

More info and swatches after the jump! 

New CID Cosmetics Nail Polish Free with Cosmopolitan Magazine

I have another freebie alert! But this time I'm actually on time as these are currently available!!

This month Cosmopolitan Magazine is giving away 4 free New CID Cosmetics nail polishes... and let me just tell you now.. they're AMAZING.

CID isn't a brand I've every tried before, or that I've ever been interested in. In fact, I didn't even know they did nail polish! Last year I got some free New CID Cosmetics lip crayons free in a magazine and loved them, but never looked into the brand itself.

My friend Steph told me about these freebies, she's totally on top of all the freebies! Go check out her instagram!

More info and swatches after the jump!

Free Nails Inc with Marie Claire

This month Marie Claire magazine is giving away 4 Nails Inc nail polishes! Yes... I bought the same magazine 4 times....

I think Nails Inc is a great brand. The majority of  my polishes actually came from magazines or toothpaste. Not only can you always get freebies, the quality of the nail polishes are fantastic too! One of the nails polishes that came with the Optic White toothpaste I ended up wearing to my brothers wedding!

Anyway, back to the point. These are the four freebies! Very springy.

First up is Fizz. Fizz is a stunning very light pastel pink. It's one of the lightest pinks I own with a creme formula.

I only needed 2 coats for the swatch! It's a very opaque formula, but not thick at all. The first coat was only slightly streaky and if you do a thicker coat you can probably get away with just one.

I didn't use top coat.

The second colour is Fiesta. This is a bright raspberry pink! This isn't the most unique polish, but it's another great formula.

I find that Nails Inc polishes practically apply themselves. I never have issues with flooding my cuticles or getting an uneven line around my cuticles.

I used 1 coat for the swatch and no top coat.

Next up is Festival. This is the least spring-like nail polish of the bunch, but I guess if you're in a neutral mood this'll be great.

It's a a pretty brown. I kind of know how to describe colours, but a brown is a brown. It's not too dark or too light. It's more warm toned than a taupe, but not orangey.

Another amazing formula and I only needed 1 coat.

The last colour is Fashion. This is Fizz's little brother. It's another very light pastel but this is a blue/purple/grey shade. I think it's a very unique colour and best of all... it's a ONE coater!

I only applied 1 coat for the swatch and no top coat.

It's another very opaque formula, just like Fizz, but I had no streakiness with this one.




Again I'm in love with all the freebies. Nails Inc retails for £11 and Marie Claire is £3.99. I'm happy Nails Inc has decided to include some unique shades rather than all the reds.

Free Orly - Cosmopolitan Magazine

 This month Cosmopolitan Magazine are giving away free mini Orly nail polishes. There are 4 to choose from: Neon pink, red, gold and nude. I picked up the pink and red.

The neon pink is called Passionfruit, and the red is called Monroe's Red.

Before I start, I have to say these bottles are the cutest in the whole world!

First up is Passionfruit. This is a super bright neon pink that dries with a satin finish. The formula is a little on the sheer side, and even after 3 coats you could still see my nail line, so I decided to compare it to using a white base.

I used a white base on my index finger and ring finger. Although it's hard to see in the photo, there was quite a big difference in real life... neons are so difficult to capture! Two coats over a white base made the colour pop so much more and made it slightly lighter.

The second colour is Monroe's Red, a beautiful red with slight shimmer - which doesn't translate onto the nail. It's a really easy opaque formula and I used 2 coats for the swatch and no top coat.

Will you be picking up any of the 4 shades? 

xx Elaine 

Free Ciate with Marie Claire

This month has been THE month for free nail polishes, and it has been amazing. You can get 4 different Mavala colours with Red magazine, 6 different Leighton Denny polishes with Harpers Bazaar magazine, 3 Nails Inc colours with Colgate toothpaste and 6 free Ciate caviar sets with Marie Claire magazine. Now I'm not a huge fan of caviar nails, in fact I've never tried it before - it seems a bit messy and I feel like the beads will fall off instantly - but who can say no to free nail polish!?

Ciate is a brand I wasn't interested in for a long time, until I saw their mini polishes in a store in Melbourne. They are adorable! I wanted to order their Christmas advent calendar but when these came out I thought I'd try these first. 

There are 6 colours to choose from, I picked up a pale purple, light blue and a taupe. There is also a pink, peach and red. 

If you look closely at the collage photo, you can see I actually made a mistake with the caviar beads... I accidentally switched up the purple and the grey caviar pots. Oops! Anyway you get the point. 

The first set is called Starry Night and includes the nail polish Ferris Wheel and the caviar pearls in Frost Yourself. I definitely have a weakness for baby blues and lilac purples. The nail polish is a really lovely light blue, it's quite similar to Barry M's Huckleberry as they are both very pale but still contain a lot of colour, whereas Models Own Blueberry Muffin is much more of a grey baby blue. The formula is much smoother than Huckleberry, but still requires three coats for full opacity. It has a beautiful glossy finish. 

For the caviar beads I applied one coat of Ferris Wheel and while that was still wet poured over the beads. It was quite a mess.... but I applied it over the lid of my Glossybox. I brushed off any beads that were sticking out and gently pushed down the remaining beads so it would really stick to my nail. I think it's a really nice colour combo. The beads come in a royal blue and silver. 

The second set is called Fairy Dust, this is the one I mixed up... Oops! These caviar beads are supposed to be with Pillow Fight, dark taupe polish. Anyway, I think they look really nice together. The purple polish is called Sugar Plum and the caviar beads are Sweet Dreams. Sugar Plum isn't the most unique colour, it's very similar to Ulta3 Lilac Bloom and Kester Black Lilac, but this formula is a little more sheer than those two cremes. It builds up nicely and I used three coats for the swatch. I applied the beads the same way, so I applied one coat of polish and while that was still wet poured the caviar beads onto it. I lightly pressed down the beads on my nail so they would stick. The beads are light purple, medium purple and very berry toned purples. 

The final set is called Purple Rain and it includes the polish Pillow Talk and is supposed to include the caviar pot from the above photo, but I used Ice Queen. I think these colours look beautiful together! This polish had the same consistency as the previous two where it's a little bit more sheer and jelly-like but this only needed 2 coats for full opacity. I love colours like these where sometimes it'll look grey and other times purple! I don't have similar colours like this in my collection as this is much more purple toned than other taupes. 

I applied the caviar beads the same way as the previous two. The beads include silver and purple and I think there might be some very pale blues too. 

I really like how Marie Claire has included sets instead of just a polish because it makes it a bit more unique, but I'm not sure how many people would be interested in the caviar beads. I spoke to a few people and they all said they like the nail polishes but they'd never use the beads. I think the caviar beads are really pretty, especially Ice Queen, but the chances of me ever using them again are very slim. The other three colours were amazing colours too, but definitely not unique in my collection.

Free Leighton Denny Harpers Bazaar Part 2

This month, the July issue, Harpers Bazaar has 6 free Leighton Denny nail polishes to choose from. The magazine retails for £4.20. It includes two reds, one dark red with silver shimmer, one brown, one dark pink and one sheer light pink. At first I only picked up the brown, dark pink and sheer pink... but I went back for more and now have the entire set! To check out the first three swatches of Supermodel, Plush Pink and 3 Times a Lady click here!

The three other shades are (from top to bottom) Viva La Diva, a vibrant bright red, Lolly Pop, a beautiful pinkish red, and Best Seller a dark red base with tons of silver shimmer. 

First up is Viva La Diva. My camera isn't very good and picking up different reds, but it's slightly darker in real life, more like the photo above with the magazine, it's the third bottle. The formula on this was amazing, I only needed two coats. It's very smooth and not streaky at all. The first coat was slightly sheer and you could see my nail line, but the second coat covered that up completely. 

This is my favourite from these three, Lolly Pop. Originally I thought this was just another red, but it's actually a beautiful pink that leans red. I love it! Again for formula was great, two even smooth coats and it's fully opaque. 

The third polish is something I've never really thought of getting. Best Seller is a dark red shimmery nail polish. The red base is almost jelly-like but very opaque, and it's packed with tons of silver shimmer. Because it's a shimmer polish and not a glitter it's still very smooth to apply and easy to remove. I used two coats for the photo. This is a very Christmassy polish and I personally don't think I'll wear it any other time of the year, but it's a beautiful nail polish! 

Free Nails Inc Colgate Toothpaste

For the past couple of week Nails Inc nail polishes have been free with a Colgate Toothpaste. There are three colours, a red, pink and a blue. The red and pink came out from the start but the blue has only recently come out. For me that was the most anticipated colour! I already blogged about the red polish called Optic Flame here, and I didn't end up picking up the pink one since it looked a bit sheer and I have a few sheer pinks now.

The blue polish is called Optic Wave. It's a creamy light blue colour with just a hint of green. It almost looks like a super bright blue mint. I'm in love with this colour, it's so unique in my collection!

The application was very easy, it's a very opaque polish but it is slightly thick, which I haven't experienced with many Nails Inc nail polishes. The thickness isn't a problem though, just make sure you don't go over the same place too many times. I used two coats for the swatch and no topcoat.

Nails Inc nail polishes normally retail for £11 and the Colgate toothpaste is £4.20. I normally wouldn't rave about a toothpaste, but this one is amazing! It turns bright blue and instantly temporarily whitens your teeth. With continued use of the toothpaste you will have long lasting whiter teeth. I have been using this for over a week and absolutely love it. I have noticed a huge difference in the colour of my teeth and no toothpaste has ever worked this quick.

Free Nails Inc Colgate Toothpaste

A couple days ago I posted about free Nails Inc polishes with InStyle magazine, but they have another offer! There are three nail polishes with Colgate Optic White Toothpaste at Boots. There is a bright red, a pink and a blue. Unfortunately I have only been able to get my hands on the red one so far, the blue one is set to come out on the 11th of June. I guess I'll be needing another toothpaste then!!

This polish is called Optic Flame and it's a bright orange toned red. The name Optic Flame fits with it really well, because the first thing I thought of when I wore it is that it looked like a fire red. Like all Nails Inc nail polishes, this formula was fantastic. It was super smooth and even to apply. With one coat there was a slight visible nail line, but the second coat completely covered that. I always love applying Nails Inc polishes and I've never had a problem with any of them.

The shine on this polish is incredible. I thought it was beautiful with just one coat, but as soon as the second coat dried it was beautiful and smooth. It's as though I've applied the shiniest top coat, but that's all Optic Flame!

This polish is gorgeous, both the application and the colour. It would definitely make it into my top 5 favourite reds!!

Free Leighton Denny Harpers Bazaar Part 1

Leighton Denny is another brand I'm a big fan of, they're a bit pricey at £11. I bought my first Leighton Denny at TK Maxx, it was a set of three nail polishes for only £15. The bottles look really nice and they've got a great range of colours. The formula on them is amazing. Their cremes are super opaque and easy to apply.

This month, the July issue, Harpers Bazaar has 6 free Leighton Denny nail polishes to choose from. The magazine retails for £4.20. It includes two reds, one dark red with silver shimmer, one brown, one dark pink and one sheer light pink. I only picked up three: Plush Pink, Supermodel and 3 Times A Lady. The two reds were pretty similar and I've got a ton of reds, and I wasn't a big fan of the dark red with silver shimmer either.

The first colour I decided to try was Supermodel. I'd heard a lot of good reviews about this one. It used to be part of a limited edition range and it was so popular they made in permanent! It's a really lovely dark brown colour that looks really elegant. The formula was amazing. The first coat was super smooth and streak free. There was a very slight visible nail line so I added two coats. You can easily get away with one though. The second coat enhances the colour and makes it a bit of a deeper brown. It has a super glossy finish. I'm not surprised it's such a popular colour!

Supermodel, 2 coats

The second colour is Plush Pink. This is a deep warm pink that's still really bright, but not too in your face. This was an aaaamazing formula. I applied two coats for the swatch, but you could definitely get away with just one. It's a really beautiful pink and dries quickly with an amazing shine.

Plush Pink, 2 coats

The final colour is 3 Times A Lady. This is a sheer but buildable pink. The first coat was super sheer, and made my nails look really healthy. The second coat was a lot more opaque, but still had an obvious nail line. I'm not a big fan of sheer polishes, but 2 coats was actually really pretty. Adding the third coat made it almost completely opaque. It's a gorgeous light baby pink and because it's such a sheer polish it dried with the most incredible shine. I love it! It's probably not a colour I would have bought for £11, but for £4.20 I'm really happy I got it!

3 Times a Lady, 3 coats

The three shades are beautiful, and it kind of makes me want to go back and get one of the two reds... They dried really quick and all three of them had a beautiful shine on their own, definitely no need for a topcoat. The formula was great. The two cremes were really opaque and easy to work with. The sheer polish wasn't streaky at all, so whether you want 1, 2 or three coats it all looks great. I've been using a lot of OPI and Kester Black lately and these nail polishes have made me realise why I loved Leighton Denny so much!