Baker Street, Connaught Square, and Sneakers

Sometimes I buy nail polish because I think, "Hey, I lack this color and I would like to own it!"  Sometimes I buy nail polish because I'm at the store for something else and I can't help myself so I go and I stare at the various bottles until I'm entranced by a color so much that I can't stand not owning it.  Sometimes I buy nail polish simply because it's from a new collection and, like Ash Ketchum, I want them all.  And sometimes, I buy nail polish because it has a really cool name.

The polishes I'll be reviewing today are kind of a combination of the latter three reasons I buy nail polish.

I recently signed up for Sephora Beauty Club, because hey, more ways to save!  They send me an e-mail once or twice a week, and for the most part, I've stopped opening them because I don't care about makeup or anti-wrinkle serums or expensive moisturizers.  Most of the offers in their e-mails are like "free sample*!

 *free sample with qualifying purchase of $50 or more."

And I'm like, yeah, there's no way I'm spending $50 on makeup I don't want or need to get a free sample that I don't really care about.

But, one of their recent free sample offers gave you the sample with ANY purchase.   So I thought, what the hey, it's been a while since I bought a new nail polish!  I'll pop over to the mall, pick out ONE BOTTLE of nail polish, and get a week's worth of expensive moisturizers and face washes for free!

So, I spent at least a good 30 minutes hovering around their nail polish collection.  I really, REALLY wanted Deborah Lippman's "Video Killed the Radio Star," but at $18 a bottle, I decided against it.  (This is one polish that I mostly want because of the name and collection.  I already have a quite lovely electric blue creme polish.)  So I browsed and browsed and browsed until I found Nails Inc, London's "Connaught Square."  A pretty sweet-looking glitter, and it was the cheapest they had!  Woohoo!  And then.  I looked right next to it.  And what did I see?  A nice shade of blue that I don't already own.  And I checked the name.

Baker Street.

Ahhhhh I had to have it!  I've never read the original Sherlock Holmes, but I absolutely adore BBC's "Sherlock" and I also really like the movies starring Robert Downey, Jr.  So yeah.  To make a short story quite long, I got Baker Street because the name was awesome, and I also got Connaught Square because it was pretty.  And they didn't even have the free samples that I wanted - all I got was a single-use moisturizer and a lip gloss (at least it looks really cute on me!).

So, without further ado, I shall review these two polishes, and also there's some bonus nail art at the end!  As always, these have two coats of INM's Out the Door as topcoat.

Nails Inc, London: "Baker Street"

Baker Street is a gorgeous purpley sort of blue.  It's not quite cobalt.  It's almost like if you mixed cobalt with periwinkle.  Or something.

It's a creme finish, very nice application.  Not too thick or gloopy, not too thin or runny.  And if you go over the same spot twice before it dries, you don't end up with that awful brush stroke or - god forbid - bare spots.  Lovely!

Definitely two coats on this one.

Cleanup is quite easy, the pigment isn't so heavy that it'll stain your cuticles if you make a mistake while painting.  Removal is spectacularly easy, as are most creme polishes.

Nails Inc, London: "Connaught Square"

Connaught Square is a GORGEOUS 3D microglitter.  It pairs very, very fine electric blue glitters with larger but equally fine purple circular glitters.  Best part is it's in a clear base - so it won't change the background color of any polish you paint it on top of!  It looks really, really great over Baker Street.

Application is wonderful.  The glitters don't clump together, don't cling to the brush, and don't cling to the nail.  They go on very evenly and smoothly.  One coat is absolutely gorgeous, but I used two for a seriously deep sparkle.  Unfortunately, due to the angle and color of my light I suppose, it didn't photograph on my nail nearly as well as it did in the bottle, so I'm glad I took a few holding it!

Cleanup is easy - the glitters don't cling to your cuticles if you get any on them.  Removal is pretty standard for glitter polishes.  I'm getting better at removing glitters without getting loose sparkles all over my hands and stuck under my nails.

Converse Nail Art!

I've had more than one relative share this manicure with me on Facebook, so I took the hint and decided to try it out!  Here's the original tutorial image:

naileditnz.com

And here's my attempt:

Well, nobody's perfect on the first try, but I was pretty happy with this!  I'm seriously baffled at how some nail artists manage to get their lines so perfectly straight, with no brush strokes and no wibbles!

For my white tips, I used Julep "Bunny."  Have I discussed how much I dislike Julep's formula?  No?  Well, let's save that for another time, then, because I know this post is getting long.  For now, let me just say that the formula is, ah, less than helpful for trying to paint a nice, clean line around the tips of my nails.

For the laces, I used Sally Hansen I <3 Nail Art White Striper, and for the black dots and lines, I used FingerPaints "Ch-Art-Coal Black."  (For the dots, I used my medium-sized dotting tool dipped in the black.)

Naturally, while I painted this, I watched BBC's Sherlock ;)