Swatch: Jacava London - Chillax

Press Sample

Hi ladies! Next up from the vault we have a relatively new British Brand on the block - Jacava London. Before we get into the swatches, here's a little information about Jacava!

"Opulent nail polish, by JACAVA London, is the world's first '8-free' nail varnish. That's free from DBP, Camphor, Formaldehyde, Toluene, Cellophane, Parabens, Phthalates and Animal Ingredients.  No Animal Testing. A little treat, where nothing is denied, even the real 22 carat gold printing on the glass bottle adds subtle luxury.

All JACAVA nail polish use premium, high gloss and long-lasting formulations to helps to keep your nails stay stronger and grow longer . Designed in London and made in the UK, JACAVA is a quintessentially British nail polish brand."

The bottle isn't like those you'd see in other nail polish brands, with its long gold cap and real 22 carat gold lettering it screams luxury. You may not be able to see from the photos, but the bottle itself is a kind of rounded oval shape and the brush is quite long & thin, think a slightly more extended China Glaze brush. Sounds pretty glam, wouldn't you agree, ladies? So let's take a look at this luxury British brand in action!

Chillax is a gorgeous deep metallic Turquoise with a subtle, yet effective, Green/Blue shift micro-shimmer. It kind of reminds me of the way a pool glistens in the summer sun. There's less of a duo-chromatic shift than I originally thought after seeing the press release, but nonetheless it's still a beautiful shade! I found the formula easy to work with and extremely fast drying. The pigmentation is very high and if carefully applied, you can get away with just one coat. In order to cover up some slight streaking I applied 2 coats. I would also advise wearing a base coat with this particular shade, as it does slightly stain the nail - which I learnt the hard way!

A little on the pricier side, Jacava London retails for £14.50 and I personally wouldn't spend that much on just one bottle of Nail Polish - unless it was a HTF. Jacava, however, do run some 3 for 2 offers, so if you'd want to get a little more bang for your buck, I'd wait until then. Another tiny downside, is that due to the bottles long capped nature, it won't fit in your Helmer upright, which if you're like me, laying a polish down just doesn't flow right. Price and size aside, Jacava polishes are good quality, have good staying power AND they're completely toxin free. 

A full look at the shades Jacava have to offer can be found here! Also, to stay up to date with the latest offers and shades, follow Jacava via their Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest accounts!

May'd In Britain: Models Own

Hi ladies! We're back today with another instalment of May'd In Britain, this time featuring some Models Own polishes. Now you will notice that my nails are significantly longer in this post, that's because I'd already made a start on some swatches for this month before my catastrophic nail break. That teaches me to be organised right? I used to have SO many Models Own nail polishes, but over the past year or so I've gradually gotten rid of them and haven't really purchased any more. I find most of Models Own polishes apply really well on the first few uses when they're brand new but once they've been used more than a handful of times or even just used once and left for a while they tend to go really thick gloopy, I've also found they take a while to dry when compared to other drugstore brands. So overall I'm not a big fan of Models Own, to top it all off their regular line is NOT 3-free, they contain Formaldehyde resin, Camphor and Toluene which is why they have a strong smell, however their Pro Range IS 3-free, so if you're all about 3-free I suggest purchasing from their Pro line, although they are more expensive and not as wide a colour choice.

Below are a selection of Models Own nail polishes I own, all purchase information will be listed at the bottom of the post!

Beth's Blue* is a light Cornflower Blue creme. Since this was the first time opening and using the bottle, the application wasn't so bad. It applied well with only a couple minor streaking issues and needed 2 coats for full opacity.

Lilac Dream* is a pastel Lilac creme. Like Beth's Blue, this was a newly opened bottle so the application was manageable. I applied 2 coats of Lilac Dream for full opacity.

Pink Blush* is what only can be described as a bright Barbie Pink creme. Again, this was a newly opened bottle so there were no major issues with application. I applied 2 coats of Pink Blush for the photos.

Fuzzy Peach is a bright Peach creme. I've had this bottle for quite a while and did have some trouble applying the polish for a smooth finish. The polish had turned a bit thick and did need more control than the others but after 2 thin coats and a thicker third coat, I was able to smooth the polish out.

Hot Stuff is a predominantly Pink glitter with Pink shards and holographic Diamonds in a clear base. Now THIS is a thick polish, one of the main reasons I got rid of the other colours in this collection was due to them being SO unmanageable. But I thought I would bite the bullet and attempt to swatch my last remaining Mirrorball polish. I found the easiest and least messy way of applying this was to do a thin coat of polish then fish for the larger glitter shards. This is 1 coat of Hot Stuff over Pink Blush.

Purchase Information

Models Own nail polishes can be purchased from various retailers around the UK, here's a little selection of stores/websites you can find them on;

• Models Own website - Priced at £5.00 each or 5 for £20. UK Standard delivery is charged at £2.95 for 1-4 Nail Polishes or free for 5+ Nail Polishes. 
• Littlewoods - Priced at £6.00 each. Free UK Standard delivery with no minimum spend.
• ASOS - Priced at £5 each. Free UK Standard delivery with no minimum spend
• Nail Polish Direct - Priced at £4.75 each. Free UK Standard delivery with no minimum spend.
• Boots - Available both in store and on line priced at £5 each. UK Standard delivery is charged at £2.95 with free shipping over £45 when ordered on line.

Products in this post marked with an (*) have been sent to me by Littlewoods for my honest review. 

May'd In Britain; An Intro

Hi ladies! Someone mentioned that I should show more UK brands on my blog and I have to agree. Being a British Blogger and a Nail Polish junkie, I know how frustrating it is when you see a gorgeous swatch on another blog but then find out the polish/brand is only available in the US/Europe etc. I've been lucky enough to have made international friends that I'm able to trade with for my wanted and otherwise unattainable polishes.

So, I've decided to dedicate a whole month to British Brands. I originally planned to do solely British brands but have since decided to not be brand specific and instead include any brand that's easily accessible to us Brits. By that I mean brands that you can find in your local Superdrug/Boots/Supermarkets or various UK based websites. Basically anything you don't have to sell a kidney to pay for shipping expenses or have to wait a million years for it to arrive at your doorstep. I'm also going to keep them all under the value of £10, just because I very rarely spend over £10 on a nail polish. If I do ever want to get a hold of a 'higher end' brand like Illamasqua/OPI etc, I tend to have a look around eBay since they're usually a lot cheaper on there, even when they're being shipped from overseas.

The layout of these posts will differ throughout the month, some will have multiple swatches where as others may only have 1 or 2. I'm going to try and feature as many brands as I can get my hands on without bankrupting myself and be sure to include as much information in each post about that particular brand such as where to buy, prices, whether or not they're 3-free etc.

I'm aiming at showing 3 brands a week, possibly more if I have the materials/time to get them swatched. If you have any requests for a certain brand/polish, let me know in the comments and I will try my best to get those for you!

Apologies for the SUPER long, wordy post and no pictures! The real postings will start on Friday!!!

Until then....