Swatch: Harlow & Co. polishes!

Hi ladies! I finally got around to doing some swatches *cheers* which means I am all set for a few upcoming posts! Today, I have 5 polishes to show you created by the lovely Katie from Harlow & Co.! Ever since I came across Harlow & Co. I have been lusting after these beauties but I never had the money to spend, stupid bills. However, after a successful blog sale, I had a little bit of money left over to do whatever I wanted with it. So I thought now is a good a time as any to get myself some of the polishes I have been wanting for so long. The polishes I ordered were the three glitters in Glamberry Jam, Misfits & Sparkling Waters, Katie was even kind enough to throw in a mini bottle of Blushing Bridezilla & Luke's Lightsaber, bless her heart! 

The pictures are a little hit and miss, mainly because I spent the majority of the time chasing the sun before it hid behind the clouds again. I tried my best to get them all in sunlight, but as you will see, a couple of them didn't want to co-operate. Also, please excuse the glitter fingers, I also tried to clean up as much as I could, but glitters are a complete nightmare when it comes to cleaning, hence why you never really see many glitter polishes on my blog! ANYWAY, enough of my rambling, let's get onto the swatches!

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Swatch: eye CANDY - Tickle Your Fancy

Hi ladies, I have another eye CANDY polish to show you today in the form of Tickle Your Fancy. Tickle Your Fancy is a red-toned Fuchsia base infused with tiny Magenta shimmer. The application on this was perfect, it had full opacity in one coat! I did use two for the photos, just because one coat polishes don't sit right with me (as I've mentioned before) without a top coat. As you can see, even without a top coat, it's got a super glossy finish, which I love, except when trying to take photos and all you see is reflection!

Label Shot

Indoors, Natural Light

Direct Sunlight

What are your thoughts on Tickle Your Fancy? I currently have this on my toes, since it's so Summer appropriate, although you wouldn't think it's Summer right now in the UK! Have any UK ladies have tried eye CANDY polishes yet? If so, which shade(s) do you own? For my international ladies, make sure you enter my eye CANDY giveaway for your chance to own three polishes for yourself!

Swatch: China Glaze - Sea Spray

Hi ladies! I have another China Glaze polish to show you today, which is also going to be an amazing underwear colour for tomorrows post! Sea Spray was originally released as part of China Glaze 'Anchors Away' collection last Spring and is a gorgeous, greyed out light Blue with the tiniest hints of Pearl shimmer. The shimmer doesn't really translate onto the nail, but that being said, it is still one of my favourite China Glaze shades. It's a perfect pastel shade without being 'too' pastel (totally makes sense, right?!) and will definitely be a perfect shade to spruce up a plain outfit. The application was perfect, as with most China Glaze polishes I have come across, it applied like butter and I only needed 2/3 coats for opacity.

Label Shot

Indoors, Natural Light

Indoors, Natural Light

As I mentioned, this is a perfect underwear shade for tomorrows post, any guesses at what it might be? You can still find Sea Spray on eBay for around £5 if you're in the UK, if you're from the US, I believe they are still available in certain stores.

Swatch: China Glaze - Stella

Hi ladies! Recently I realised that I hardly ever post China Glaze swatches on here, which is complete insanity as China Glaze is the reason I fell in love with Nail Polish to begin with and is the brand which I own the most of! So to kick start bringing China Glaze back as a regular is Stella. Released in Autumn/Fall of 2009 as part of the Retro Diva collection, Stella is a deep Magenta with Purple and Pink micro shimmer. I LOVE this polish, the application is amazing and applies perfectly with 2 coats, I can't believe I waited so long to pick it up!

Label Shot

Indoors, Natural Lighting

Direct Sunlight

Indoors, With Flash

How beautiful is Stella?! Now I don't know if it's just me, but whenever I see the name of this polish this song comes into my head instantly, I even showed my boyfriend the name and asked what it reminded him of, he said exactly the same thing as I did. What are your thoughts on Stella? Do you have this in your collection or are you lusting after it?

Swatch: eye CANDY - What A Steal

Hi ladies! As promised, here is the second eye CANDY polish I have to show you 'What A Steal'. As mentioned in my first post eye CANDY polishes are all 3 free as well as being sourced, created, designed and manufactured in the UK and use the same world class formula as OPI for a fraction of the price!
What A Steal is a limited edition, Graphite Grey packed with densely packed Gold, Silver and Green micro glitter to give it that metallic Graphite feel. Like Liquid Gold the application was easy, I needed two coats for the photos below, there were some bald spots when applying my first coat, but that was easily rectified with the second application. The polish also dries completely smooth, which was a complete shock to me as when looking at the bottle I got the impression it would dry a little gritty. Overall I'm very impressed with the two polishes I have tried so far, but enough with the ramble, lets get on to the swatches!

Bottle Shot (please excuse the Red tinge from my camera)

Brush Shot

Label Shot

Indoors, Natural Light

Indoors, Natural Light

Indoors, Natural Light

Direct Sunlight

Direct Sunlight

To me, this looks very similar to Chanel - Graphite, but as I don't own any Chanel polishes, I can't do a comparison for you. eye CANDY What A Steal is available for purchase at most larger Sainsburys stores for  £8 (12ml) each. What are your thoughts on 'What A Steal', do you see yourself going to purchase it in attempt to kill the Chanel craving? Let me know in the comments!
To keep up with the latest news from eye CANDY be sure to check out their website and also add them to Facebook & Twitter

Also, stay tuned for the last eye CANDY post where I show you my first attempt at using a Magnetic polish!

Swatch: Dollish Polish - Dark Passenger

Good evening ladies! I have a Dollish Polish debut on my blog today in the form of Dark Passenger. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I bought this polish just for the name, being a HUGE fan of not only the Dexter books, but also the TV show, I couldn't pass up the opportunity of owning the polish too! Dark Passenger is a gorgeous dark 'Blurple' polish with Pink shimmer. The reason it's 'blurple' is that it's not blue but it's not purple, it's the perfect balance in between. For the photos below I used 3 coats of Dark Passenger (you could easily get away with using 2) without a top coat. Also, excuse the random black glitter on my ring finger, I have no idea how it managed to get there!

Bottle/Label Shot

Indoors, Natural Light

Indoors, Indirect Sunlight

Dollish Polish is available to buy at her bigcartel page for between $8.75-$9.50 for full sized (15ml) bottles or  $4.50 for mini sized (3.6ml) bottles. To keep up with the latest news and restocks, be sure to check out Dollish Polish on Facebook & Twitter.
Do you currently own any Dollish Polish? If not, what are you currently lusting over?

Swatch: Essie - Midnight Tango

Hi ladies, I have another Essie polish from the Morticia's Nails set I received from Emily! Midnight Tango is a deep, Navy Blue with Blue shimmer. The Blue shimmer only becomes apparent when you're in Natural Light or Sunlight otherwise it just looks like another run of the mill Navy Blue. Excuse the mess around the nails! Would you believe me if I told you it actually looked better BEFORE I attempted to clean up?!

Label Shot

Dull, Overcast

Indoors, No Flash

Indoors, No Flash

What do you think to Midnight Tango? I think it looks extremely similar to BarryM - Navy, I'll probably post a comparison picture on my Facebook page soon! I have an absolutely amazing polish to show you tomorrow which I layered over the top of this. If you regularly read my Facebook posts, you will already know what's to come!

Swatch: Essie - Sew Psyched

Okay, so I have been seriously slacking in the swatching department lately, mainly because the weather in the UK has been awful and we've had nothing but rain! I do however, have a few swatches in my computer folder that I have post. I'm not too happy with them, but at the end of the day, I need to post them as I can't really reswatch in this weather.

Today I have for you Essie - Sew Psyched which I received in my swap box from Marisa. As always, excuse my sorry excuse of a clean up and the horrendous gash on my pointer! I had an accident with cuticle cutters >.<

Sew Psyched is a muted green-grey creme with subtle golden shimmer. It's so subtle that you can barely see it on the nail! The application was pretty easy and I only needed 2 coats for opacity. I'm a bit of an Essie noob as far as my collection goes, but I have to say I am in love with their colour range and the formula.

Natural Lighting (sorry for the orange tint)

Direct Sunlight

Sorry this post is so short, but there really weren't enough good photos for me to pack the post out with! I do however have a pretty layering combo with this polish coming up for you tomorrow, so stay tuned for that! What are your thoughts on Essie polishes? Do you have an all time favourite colour? Let me know in the comments!

Swatch: GOSH - Golden Dragon

Hi ladies, I have another GOSH polish for you today. If you're in the UK you may have noticed GOSH clearance bins popping up in your local Superdrug filled with old seasoned make-up and nail polish. If you have yet to browse through one, I suggest you do so as I have heard people have found the elusive Holographic and Rainbow polishes in them! I am yet to be so lucky, but I have managed to find Golden Dragon, which I believe is discontinued and some other awesome finds for just £2 each! Please excuse the state of the bottle, there was a HUGE sticker over the label which has left a lot of residue *sadface*

Golden Dragon is a blue-toned green base packed with golden shimmer. I must admit, I was a little disappointed with how this looks on the nail, the polish when in the bottle looks amazing; almost like it's laced with gold. The application was okay, the polish was a little bit gloopy, but I imagine that is due to the way it was stored and it's age, as all the bottles are generally just thrown in the clearance bin. The swatch is 2 coats, please excuse my sorry excuse of a clean up! I'm currently waiting for my cuticle nippers to get rid of all the little skin stumps that my polish loves to cling to.

Swatch: Finger Paints - Vermillion $ Painting

Hi ladies! I'm back again with another swatch for you, this time it isn't from BarryM! *gasp* Today is a very special day, as it is this particular brands debut on Polished Criminails! Can we all give it a warm welcome? Anyway, craziness aside, lets actually get into the good stuff shall we?

Finger Paints is an American brand which is exclusively sold at Sally's stores in the US. Being British, I never thought I would be able to get my hands on any of their polishes but thanks to some amazing people aka Nicel & Sarah, I now have a tiny collection of Finger Paints I can call my own.

Vermillion $ Painting is a bright red toned orange with golden orange shimmer. It's definitely one of those polishes that are impossible to capture on camera, well at least for my hunk-of-junk camera anyway. The pictures do make it look a little lot more red than it actually is. The swatch is 2 coats of Vermillion $ Painting, I think 3 would have been better as the nail line is slightly visible still. Overall, I'm pretty happy with Finger Paints and cannot wait to get my hands on some more! 

Thanks again to both Nicel & Sarah for their kindness! If you haven't checked out their blogs, I suggest you go and do so now, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Swatch: OPI - Meet Me On The Star Ferry

Hi guyss! I'm back again *gasp* two swatch posts in one day?! What is going on!!

Anyway, I have another polish to show you from my little 'swatch challenge' I did today. This has been on my wish list for a long time now, I'm not 100% sure why I wanted it so bad but thanks to Sarah it is now mine! Meet Me On The Star Ferry comes from the Hong Kong collection released in Spring 2010. At first look Meet Me On The Star Ferry looks like a dusty, rosy mauve with a golden shimmer, but when held in the light tons of multi-coloured shimmer appears!

How gorgeous does it look? When I saw this happen in the sunlight, all my doubts of why I wanted this colour just melted away. I can honestly say that I don't have anything quite like this polish in my ever-growing collection!

What are your thoughts and feelings on this polish? If you own it, were you as surprised as I was to see all the gorgeous shimmery goodness in the sunlight?

I plan to set myself another swatch challenge tomorrow, so if you've seen a polish on my Stash List that you want to see swatched, let me know in the comments and I will get right on that for you!

Swatch: OPI - Espresso Your Style

I need to kick myself in the butt and get back into swatching some of my polishes! As you may or may not know, I have put myself on a spending ban for Nail Polish until I have swatched and published at least a 3rd of my collection. So in order to treat myself, I need to work hard to get these done.

Today I have for you OPI - Espresso Your Style from the Deliciously Dark collection of 2006. Espresso Your Style is a deep, dark brown base with gold shimmer, giving the polish a bronzed look.

I don't really know what to make of this polish, I like it but I also have a bit of ill feeling towards it too. I do think it compliments my pale skin tone though, which is always a bonus!

The application was good, the swatch is 2 coats without a top coat, I think 3 may have been better, but never mind, eh!? 

Just a short post for you today, I'm a busy bee! What are your thoughts on Espresso Your Style? Do you own it? Do you love it or are you, like me, undecided? Let me know!

Swatch: Cult Nails - Power Thief

Today I have a polish for you that is no longer with me! I've had this photo in my 'vault' for absolutely ages, but I never got around to posting it - Hello short, blue stained nails!

This is Power Thief from Cult Nails which was released in their Super Powers collection last year. I actually pre-ordered the whole collection just because 'Unicorn Puke' now known as 'Clairvoyant' was being re-released and with the hype around Unicorn Puke, I knew Clairvoyant wouldn't be around for long!

Power Thief  is a rich, chocolate brown packed full of silver and pink shimmer. The application was really good, as I've found with all my Cult Nails polishes and I only needed 2 coats for full opacity. Unfortunately, this colour just wasn't for me, I didn't like the way it looked on so I sold it in my blogsale. As a whole, Cult Nails polishes cannot be faulted in any way, shape or form. I love them! You can purchase Cult Nails polishes HERE for $10 each! The best thing is that shipping costs to the UK are really inexpensive too, it's even free after $75! Have you got any Cult Nails polishes in your stash? If not, what are your Cult Nails lemmings?

OPI - Not Like The Movies

Today I have an absolutely amazing duo chrome polish for you in the form of OPI - Not Like The Movies from their Katy Perry collection.
I bought this polish from a blogsale on a whim, I hadn't actually seen any swatches of this polish when I bought it, I was just going off the look of the polish in the photos and I'm so glad I did!
This is probably one of the best duo chrome polishes I own, the shift is so apparent no matter what light you hold it in, there's always the presence of both the green and purple on the nail. As well as being a duo chrome, it also is packed with fine silver glitter, it reminds me of mermaids that you used to read about in fairy tales!


I then wanted to see what it looked like layered over black, so I took out Essie - Licorice and added two coats of Not Like The Movies on top. How beautiful is that?! Not Like The Movies is definitely my favourite duo chrome polish by far, as of this moment! What are your favourite duo chrome polishes? What would you recommend me giving a try, leave me a comment below!

Models Own - Dream Stream

I have a brand new Models Own polish for you today from their Spring/Summer collection. I haven't actually seen any swatches of this in the blogesphere yet, so I hope I can give you a good review!
I actually received this for free as it was sent wrong with my Models Own Group Order. I ordered Blue Lagoon but was sent this instead and when I contacted Models Own about this, they told me to keep this polish and they will send out the correct one. How awesome is that?
Dream Stream is a gorgeous Cyan Blue polish with Light Blue micro shimmer, it reminds me of the ocean (not the kind you see in Britain, that's for sure) or pool water. I actually don't have anything like this in my collection, so I'm over the moon that it was wrongly sent to me!
This isn't actually on the Models Own Website yet, but I know it's available from ASOS.com. The swatch was 3 coats, the nail line was still slightly visible so 4 is possibly preferred.

Models Own - Peacock Green & Announcement!

It's currently 3:15am and I'm not in the slightest bit tired, so I thought I would do a little swatch post.
This is Models Own - Peacock Green, I've actually had this polish for absolutely ages and it's just been sitting in my stash ever since I first wore it almost a year ago. I forgot how gorgeous it actually is! Peacock Green is a pearlescent Emerald Green with Teal shimmer, but in certain lights it looks more Teal with Emerald Green shimmer. I would have had more swatches for you of this colour, but almost every picture I took, once uploaded was blurry....annoyed wasn't the word. The picture is 3 coats, but you can get away with applying two.
I've definitely fallen back in love with this colour, and will probably be wearing it again soon. What's your favourite Models Own polish?
Also, for you International Ladies who find it hard to get your hands on Models Own; I'm currently putting together a big order for some of my International friends who want some polishes. The more people who want polishes, the cheaper your order will be! There's also a 10% off discount at the moment for the website. I'm able to ship them to you a lot cheaper than it would be if you ordered directly from the site, if you're interested send me an email at polishedcriminails@gmail.com with the polishes you'd like and where you're from and I will email you with a total cost for your order.

ELF - Royal Purple

 Call me butter, cause I'm on a roll! Jokes aside, I have actually been busting these posts out today, but I promise you, this is the last one for today *pinky promises*.

I have a little swatch for you today in the form of ELF - Royal Purple. I'm sure all of you know who ELF are by now! If not, they're an online based company (in the UK anyway, I know you can find ELF in stores in the states) which sell everything cosmetics. Their prices are a-mazing, with their essential line priced at £1.50 and £3.50 for their studio and mineral lines. The quality is worth a lot more than it's price tag which is another reason why ELF are so popular, if you're in the UK/EU check them out HERE.

The polish itself is a gorgeous purple with magenta undertones and blue micro shimmer, it does look a lot more pinker in the photo, but I promise you it's purple. I'm definitely going to invest in a SLR camera in the future, maybe put it on my birthday wish list, but that isn't until November, so I better get saving myself! Then I will be able to get better macro shots for you, as my camera at the moment isn't very good for those kind of things! Do you have any recommendations for good cameras? It doesn't even have to be an SLR camera, just one good enough to get macro and close-up shots!

Nicole By OPI - Listen To Your Momager!

I feel like a blogging machine today, I seem to be posting so much! I'm yet to do a swatch review today, so I thought I would do one now for you.
I have one of my recent purchases for you in the form of Listen To Your Momager! from Nicole by OPI. As many of you already know, this is from the Kardashian Kolors range which came out this Winter. I actually got this from ASOS for £8, which isn't too bad especially for a brand which you very rarely find in the UK. When I saw that ASOS had a few of this collection on their website, I didn't even hesitate when I made an order.
Listen To Your Momager is a Royal Navy shimmer polish, which almost dries to a foil effect. I'm yet to do a nail comparison, but it looks very similar to Blue Years Eve by China Glaze. It's also slightly darker than Swimsuit...Nailed It (*angry*) by OPI. The colour itself is gorgeous, but as you can see, it isn't the most unique polish out there. I used 2 coats in the photo, but I think I should have maybe done another coat to bring out the colour more, but there's nothing I can do about that now!

GOSH - Ocean & BarryM - Croc Effects

First of all, excuse the lighting, I took these less than an hour ago whilst my boyfriend banned me from using the net whilst he played his game...So I thought it would be a good time to get some swatching done.
I have another GOSH polish for you today in the form of Ocean. When I saw this in the shop I couldn't help myself but buy it, it's absolutely stunning.
Ocean is a mermaid green/blue/turquoise metallic shimmer polish, it can look 100% metallic indoors, but outdoors you can really see the shimmer sparkling away.
I thought this would be a great base colour to try with my new BarryM Croc Effects polish, and boy was I right.

Beautiful, isn't it. I was feeling a bit impatient when I did the Croc Effects, you're supposed to wait 3 minutes before the design starts to appear, but I couldn't wait that long. So a quick blast with the hairdryer soon sorted that little problem out, which is probably why it's so broken around the edges of my nails but I think it looks good anyway. I used 2 coats of Ocean and when the polish was touch-dry, I added a thin layer of Croc Effects over the top.

Has anyone else tried the new BarryM Croc Effects polish yet? What are your thoughts on it? Like or Loathe, let me know!

GOSH - Gasoline

Today's swatch I have for you is GOSH - Gasoline. I've seen this floating around the blogging community for quite a while and I always thought it looked amazing in the pictures. I instantly started to lust over it, but always held back on buying it. For some reason, I always seemed to be put off by the price, £5. They looked tiny on pictures and I couldn't justify spending that amount on a little bottle of polish, however, since splurging on Models Own polishes at £5 a piece I thought I'd take the plunge. Not to mention these were 3 for 2 in Superdrug - definitely worth the spend.
For some reason, in the bottle it looks like it's almost matte, which isn't the case when applied to the nails. This seems to be one of the hardest polishes to capture it's true colour, neither of the swatches below are able to capture it's life like colour. The photo below is 3 coats & you can still see my nail line.

As it's the end of November and I live in the UK, sunshine doesn't exist. The only 'natural' light we get outside is Grey overcast, urgh. But anyway, on to the colour....Gasoline is a jelly based shimmer, I say shimmer as the flecks inside aren't grit enough to be a glitter, in my opinion anyway. The base colour is a dark magenta with a blueish/purple shimmer, which I think gives it that lighter looking effect. On closer inspection I've also found it to have tiny flecks of holographic glitter. The application is a bit hit and miss, as it can be gloopy at times and the first coat does apply sheer too but overall I do like this colour, maybe not as much as I'd have liked to though.

Application: 7/10

Pigmentation: 6/10

Coats: 4/5