M&S Autograph Nail Varnishes

I first saw these nail varnishes on A Vain Woman and instantly fell in love with the colours.  Then my mum came to visit and raved about her bright red M&S nail varnish and how fab it was and I decided that I really needed to investigate.

Having had a good look at the stand in M&S I decided that I really did need the yellow, soft orange and duck egg blue that Cecilia had posted.

As soon as I got home I had a play and was instantly really impressed; even the lemon yellow wasn't too streaky and was nice and opaque.

Aren't they lovely?  I really love the soft orange, Em has worn the yellow to great effect with her black maxi and whilst I think the blue is very pretty its a bit "frosty" to be an absolute fave. The brush, formula and wear on all 3 are brilliant although having done a pedi on Em with the soft orange that was deemed as looking like "nicotine toes" would suggest keeping that one for your finger nails!

I am having some real issues with Revlon nail varnish at the moment.  I bought Blue Lagoon which was streaky and wouldn't dry and then I bought Mad About Mango, the colour is lovely but again the formula and brush leave a lot to be desired.  To me it feels a bit like Revlon are jumping on the "trendy" bandwagon at the cost of the quality for which they were renowned, style over substance sums it up for me, a real shame.  And they ought to look to their laurels, when M&S are bringing out £3 polishes with better application and wear something is not right.  Strongly recommend a quick browse round the M&S nail polish stand next time you have 5 mins spare.

NOTD - Max Factor Bright Orange

The clue's in the title folks!

I had got my heart set on Mad about Mango and Bubblegum from the new scented Revlon range, but when I got to Boots, where they were 2 for £8, they didn't have Bubblegum and tbh Mad about Mango wasn't quite as orange as I had hoped, it was a softer less in your face shade than the rather appropriately named Max Factor Bright Orange!

Taken indoors (much clearer if you click to enlarge)

 You may notice that comapred to recent NOTD posts my nails aren't looking quite as nice as usual.  This is because something really bloody annoying happens to me after a few glasses of wine - I seem to become hell bent on self destruction and invariably my nails get it.  I cannot tell you how deeply peed off I was at 3am this morning cleaning lilac nail varnish off the tattered remains of my nails, especially as I had planned to buy nail varnish today.  I am so bloody cross with myself for doing this yet again, think I am going to have to get a bottle of stop and grow to slap on my nails whenever I drink to stop this from happening.

Outside in full sunlight (again not sure about quality, click to enlarge)

 I absolutely love this nail varnish, its the really juicy splash of colour I was hoping for, these photos are no base or top coat and 3 coats of polish, there is still some vnl which would usually bother me but today not so much, largely I think because I am so disgusted by my nails a bit of vnl is the least of my worries.  Will have to do another NOTD post with this colour when my poor nails have had chance to recover.

Bright Orange is £3.99 from the Max Factor Colour Effects range, in Boots although this shade isn't available online.

I also picked up a lush lipgloss, a moisturiser that has been hitting the press and replaced my concealer, posts on all 3 to follow during the week.