2 True Crystal Nail Polish : Shade 1 Midnight Blue

Happy hump day!

Sorry it's been a while since my last post; I've been on my first holiday in 8 years! It wasn't anything exotic, just a fun family camping trip to the seaside, but wow it was the most fun I've had in a long, long time. I can't wait until next year when we can go camping again!

Anyway, let me tear my brain away from kite flying and fossil hunting for long enough to show you the fourth and final polish from 2True's Crystal Nail Polish collection: Shade 1, Midnight Blue.

Released around Christmas time last year, the Crystal Nail Polish collection consisted of four jewel toned shimmer polishes, so shimmery they looked almost like sparkly metallic chocolate wrappers! They were perfect for parties and, at less than £2 each, perfect for your wallet too! I reviewed the other three HERE, HERE and HERE and I loved them all. They apply like a dream, and look amazing, and Midnight Blue is no exception to that rule. 

It's opaque in two coats although I found that adding a third coat added more richness and sparkle. It lasts absolutely ages without chipping or showing any signs of tipwear - when I took these pictures I'd already been wearing it for three days. Do you see any chips? I didn't think so. These pictures show it a little more royal blue than it is in real life; it's closer to denim blue really (the bottle colour in the first picture here is closest to how it looks on the nail). The only negative about this polish was that it took a while to dry; not painfully so, but if you're in a hurry you'll need a quick drying topcoat. I did find that leaving each coat to dry completely before adding the next helped a lot.

Pros:

Gorgeous colour, packed with shimmer. 

Opaque in two coats

Applies easily

Lasts ages

Cheap as chips!

Cons:

A little bit slow to dry

Limited edition (though almost a year later I still see it in Superdrug occasionally)

Stash or Trash?

Definitely stash. I love every polish in this collection. I'm wearing this one right now as a mani AND a pedicure. I'm far too fickle to wear the same polish in both places unless I really love it!

2 True Crystal Nail Polish : Shade 2 Vampish Red

Let me introduce you to a rare gem in my collection: 2True Crystal Nail Polish in Shade 2, 'Vampish Red'.

Do you remember when I reviewed 2True's gorgeous limited edition turquoise and purple Crystal polishes, HERE and HERE? Both times, I was blown away; they had awesome formulas, applied beautifully, dried smooth and sparkly, and looked and wore like they cost one heck of a lot more than the £1.99 (3 for £5) I paid for them. Vampish Red, an almost metallic looking, vivid cherry red (it looks a little more pink toned in real life than in these pictures) is every bit as great as they were; it went on a treat, dried nicely, and with only two layers plus one of top coat, it's survived two days of housework, showers, bleaching my hair without gloves on and washing the dog, and there isn't even any tipwear yet.

I absolutely love this polish and I currently have it on both my fingers AND my toes. It looks great with my sandals (not that I can wear them outside the house since it's peeing down with rain and so cold I've had to turn the heating back on, but still). It has this lovely inner glow, too - I love when a polish does that, don't you? Although this range was supposed to be limited edition, the last time I was in Superdrug they still had all four shades. I'd definitely recommend you snap this one up pronto while it's still around!

2 True Crystal Nail Polish : Shade 4 Regal Purple

Today I have an absolute beauty of a polish to show you all: 2 True Crystal polish in shade 4. Like the mysterious turquoise I reviewed recently; it's known only by its number unless you check out the 2 true website, whereupon you discover that it's also called regal purple. Just like the turquoise, it has the same super cheap price of £1.99 (and their 3 for £4.99 offer never seems to end, either), the same great formula that outshines many of the more expensive polishes I own, and the same insane levels of glitteriness that make me rather surprised my camera didn't refuse to focus completely.

It wears like iron, it's opaque in two coats (three shown here for extra depth of colour), and it's absolutely beautiful - really metallic looking, in fact I wish they'd also made this in a fuchsia colour so I could finally stop searching for my holy grail of the perfect metallic fuchsia!

I took about a million pictures of this, trying to capture how awesome it looks - in some lights it takes on a two-tone, almost duochrome effect, moving from magenta purple to a more regal, blueish tone. It reminds me of the foil wrapping you get on certain types of chocolate at Christmas time!

Please excuse the odd lighting and weird finger positions. This is the closest I could get to capturing the insane almost-two-tone metallic glow! 

I can't stress how much I love this polish. It's going to be hard to find something I like more than this one (and at such a cheap price too). I just wish it wasn't limited edition!

2 True Crystal Nail Polish: Shade 3 Mysterious Turquoise

An update: Nail Envy seems pretty good. At least, after a week of using it, my nubs have 1) failed to completely break all the way back to the quick like they usually do without acrylic overlays, and 2) they seem to have grown. Just a little bit. Also, the new cuticle butter I've been using seems to be helping my poor long suffering cuticles. They're still not perfect but they're getting there!

I've been putting the Nail Envy on religiously but I have to say... I'm bored of looking at my naked nubbins :/
The Nail Envy instructions do hint at the possibility of using nail polish at the same time (it says 'remove along with any nail polish after a week') so I figured it couldn't hurt too much to restore some colour to my nails!

So without further ado I present to you: 2True Crystal Nail Polish, in shade 3.

Now before we start, I'd just like to say I wish companies would stop only using a number to describe their shades instead of a name. It's boring, uninspiring, and uninventive. A little poking around on the 2True website has revealed that this shade is actually called Mysterious Turquoise: still not that inventive, but at least they tried. I'm just not sure why they don't actually put the name on the bottle? It'd make it a lot easier to picture the colour when you don't have the bottle in front of you, for a start.

Anyway, mini rant aside, this polish is from a limited edition collection 2True have released in the run up to Christmas this year. There's 4 shades: a red, a purple, a blue and this turquoise, all are very pretty, vivid jewel toned metallic/shimmer shades, with more than a hint of sparkle and an attractive price tag of £1.99 for 7ml (I got 3 for £4.99 on a special offer deal).

Application is surprisingly good for such a cheapie polish: the first coat is disturbingly sheer and you catch yourself thinking 'oh no... it's going to be an 8-coater'. But appearances are deceptive and it's actually opaque after two coats; I did three for the extra depth of colour. The brush is long and thin and quite narrow, nicely flexible without being floppy, and holds just the right amount of polish for a neat and tidy cuticle line - handy for me at the moment, since whilst my cuticles are recovering from their recent trauma, clean up, and any more acetone than absolutely necessary to remove the mani once I'm done wearing it, are banned!

Drying time is average, though it's touch dry pretty quickly, it's a while longer before you can risk poking it any harder without expecting it to leave a mark. Wear is good; considering my nails are so short now and chip much faster than they did when long, I only got a little wear and no chips after 24 hours even though I didn't use a topcoat. The finish is really good: heaps of really fine grade glitter that catches the light well and gives an eyecatching shimmery metallic effect. There's no hint of brush strokes or patchiness either (once you get past that uber-sheer first coat: brace yourself, it's all going to turn out fine!).

Overall, I really like this polish. It's cheap and cheerful yet with a decent formula: a colour that hasn't been too done to death by the other brands yet, and is pleasantly sparkly, yet with fine enough glitter that removal isn't a big deal. I suspect that the sheerness seen when you only use one coat might make it a good polish for layering, too... some experimentation needed, methinks! It looks pretty festive, without screaming 'Christmas Manicure', and with the trend this season for jewel toned clothes and accessories, you'll get use out of it for more than just the office Xmas do.

2 True Glossywear : Shade 14

First off, apologies for not having posted a mani for a while; I've been dealing with some RL issues that have kept me from blogging. I'm back though, and this time it's a dip into the GlitterVault again with 2 True Glossywear.

This uninventively named colour (don't you hate when things are just given a number? It's so uninspiring) has lurked at the bottom of my stash for a while now, though it's still available all new and shiny in the shops. 

(Apologies for the lack of cleanup - I originally didn't intend to blog this mani so pics are taken at my desk at work, later that day when I changed my mind about blogging it but had no cleanup kit at hand)

It's not that exciting looking in the bottle and it's depressingly sheer to apply (shown are three coats plus base and top, there are still some 'bald' patches though they're hard to see if you're not looking for them). It also dries slowly; hence the dent in my middle finger when, after half an hour, I gingerly tried to take my glasses out of my bag. And that's with a layer of quick drying topcoat, too.

Sounds terrible, doesn't it? But despite this rather negative write up, I actually really like this polish. It dries to a pretty decent, shiny, brushstroke-free metallic finish and is a good, bright, eyecatching blue that got me a surprising amount of compliments throughout the day. It also wears well, no chips and only a tiny bit of tip wear after almost a week, although it does tend to scratch a little bit owing to the metallic finish. It's not perfect, and if I come across another brand with a similar finish and colour that applies easier, I'll probably take the new one over this. But for now, I like this and will wear it again).

I also noticed something a little strange. My nails tasted kind of metallic whilst wearing this polish... not that I was sucking on them (!) but whenever I ate with my fingers or touched my mouth I noticed a faint metallic tang. It kind of reminded me of the smell of cheap, old fashioned tinsel. Now I'm wondering if this is common to all metallics and I just never noticed before, or if this is a unique phenomenon!

(Can you just picture me now, licking my nails every time I use a metallic from now on? If I disappear, I probably poisoned myself).