Nails Inc TK Maxx Bargain Haul

Hi there again,

A happy Sunday to you.  I hope you're having a good day.  Mine has mainly involved driving round car sales garages looking at cars for other half.  He's finally decided which one he wants now and my taxi-ing days will soon be over.  It's not been too bad actually because he doesn't work too far from home and it's just meant getting up 15 or 20 minutes earlier so no big deal.

Unfortunately for me, now I've seen a car I want too!  Typically it's just slightly outside my budget and they won't budge on the price.  I could stretch to it, but am not sure if I should.  I know that my current car is getting pretty decrepit, and it's at the stage now where it's going to need some pretty serious money spending on it if I want to keep it, so I'm wondering if I'm just better off putting that money towards this new(er) car instead....  decisions decisions!

The sun has finally put in an appearance today so I can come up with some decent nail swatches.  Luckily for me this has coincided with my most bargainous nail find ever!  I was in TK Maxx (unsurprisingly) yesterday, and was lamenting again about how they've hardly had any polishes in since Christmas.  My TX Maxx was always awesome for polishes, with Nails Inc, Orly, OPI, and Color Club collections all knocking about, and the occasional Leighton Denny in there as well.  So, as recently usual there was hardly anything, so I went to the tweezers and brushes section, and was just having a root about, when I realised my nose was nearly touching a plastic wallet with three Nails Inc polishes in.  So I had a look and it was priced at £4.99!!  Well, of course I had it off that hook quicker than you can say 'bargain'.  It must have been marked up wrong as the RRP was £18, and as we all know Nails Incs sell for £11 each.

To be honest, I knew I already owned one of these.  That was the light pink Elizabeth Street, because I got that when it was free on the front of Glamour Magazine, and I knew I didn't like it.  But hey ho, it's still £4.99 for 2 polishes and the other two were nice.  It wasn't until I got them home I thought, hey, they look similar to the two Barry M polishes I bought a couple of weeks ago, and when I came to check, lo and behold, pretty much dupes!  So I thought I'd make this a comparison/Barry M swatch fest too.  Hence this is a pretty picture heavy post.

So without further ado, let's get on with it.  I'll show them in the order I swatched them, so here's Elizabeth Street in sunlight:

This is a pale pink sheer with a pearly shimmer.  The first coat was streaky.  It strikes me as a very 'there but not there' office appropriate colour which would be good for french manicures.  The dry time was medium, and it was self levelling.  Still slightly patchy at coat two.  Maybe at three I could get away with it VNL-wise, but I didn't try as I know that if it needs three coats I'll never bother with it.
Here's how it looked in the shade:

So, I knew I wouldn't like this, and I don't haha.

Onto the next one, All Saints Road.  A vibrant cobalt blue.  Here it is in sunshine:

It's the usual nice glossy nails inc formula.  With careful application this could be a one coat wonder.  I did two coats though for all of these swatches.  Dry time was medium/fast.  It dries slightly darker than the bottle colour and did require a little bit of clean up. 
Here it is in the shade:

A lovely colour, but I realised when I got it home, I already had Barry M Cobalt Blue.  So how does it compare?  Well let's see:

Almost the same!  So let's get it onto my nails and see how it fares, is it still a dupe?

Yep!  The Barry M is sliiiiiightly darker, but there's hardly anything in it.  As you can see, my index and middle still have the Nails Inc on, and I took it off my ring and little finger to put the Barry M on.  Formula wise, Barry M Cobalt Blue has a thinner formula, but similar opacity.  A bit more difficult to get neat with one swipe.  It has a slower medium-ish drying time. This is 2 coats.  Here's a comparison of the brushes:

So which did I prefer?  Well I found the Nails Inc slightly easier to apply and a little bit faster drying, so if they were the same price I'd go for the Nails Inc.  But seeing as the usual price for a Nails Inc is £11 and the usual price for a Barry M is £2.99 I would definitely recommend the Barry M.  Unless of course you got the deal of the week like I did and got your Nails Inc for £1.67 haha.

So, onto the third and final Nails Inc polish I got in my set, Belgrave Place.  A royal bluey purple (blurple?).  Here's the sunshine swatch (try saying that after a few G&T's!):

It was a thinner than usual formula, but still opaque and could be a one coater.  My thumb got bubbles as I'd shaken bottle vigorously, this is not usually an issue with Nails Inc because of the thicker formula.  In some lights it looks inky blue, and in other lights it looks like a rich purple. The dry time was medium/medium-fast.  a lovely glossy finish, but it did stain my cuticles on removal.  Here's a shade pic:

So, when I was getting my Barry M Cobalt Blue out of my stash, I came across a dupe for this one as well!  Barry M Indigo.  Here's the bottles side by side:

Pretty similar right?  Here they are on my nail.  Again I took the Nails Inc off my ring and little finger and put the Barry M on.  In sunshine:

And shade:

The Barry M was a slightly less opaque formula, and I got some bubbling on my little finger.  Indigo is faster drying than Cobalt, med/fast dry time with a whisper of VNL at two coats.  Colour wise it's virtually a spot on dupe.  So which do I prefer?  There's so little to choose between them, that again I would recommend the Barry M purely on price.
Here's the brushes:

And there we have it!  One swatchathon done and dusted.  I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Whats been your best nail polish bargain?  Have you done a post on it?  Post a link to it in the comments if you have, would love to see!

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~