Catrice – Genius In The Bottle

Catrice is a German drugstore/high street brand which can only be found in a few European countries excluding Great Britain. However, some products are available online. I picked up this polish and a few others on a recent trip to Hamburg.

 

Genius In The Bottle is ANOTHER Chanel Peridot dupe! I believe that it is not an exact dupe but pretty close. It is somewhere between an olive green and gold with beautiful duochrome which can be seen in the bottle. Sadly this doesn’t translate to the nail :(

I used 3 coats of the polish but some people might be able to get away with 2. The formula was easy to work with. The brush is absolutely HUGE and also quite a strange angle! This may be good for some people as you can paint a nail in almost one stroke but I find it quite hard to control.

Even without the duochome seen in the bottle, this polish is gorgeous! It looks particularly brilliant in the sun.

If you can't get your hands on this polish, brands such as Topshop, OPI and Look Beauty make similar polishes.

 

Thank you for reading!

Orly in TK Maxx?!

The other day I was browsing the beauty section in TK Maxx and spotted something out of the corner of my eye… Were my eyes deceiving me? No!  Orly is not a brand commonly found in the UK. Mini 5ml bottles are available in Boots but only the core collection and for £5 each so you can imagine my surprise when I found 3 full size (HUGE 18ml bottles I might add) bottles for just £7.99!

These polishes are from the 2011 Winter collection called Soireé. The shades that I have are called Le Chateau (left), Oui (middle) and Ma Cherie (right).

 

Please excuse my nails and cuticles... I recently cut them very short because they weren't in very good condition and my cuticles hate acetone! My nails aren't usually long but longer than seen here. Additionally, I am still playing around with hand positions and angles so bear with me!

 

Le Chateau is a very very dark green somewhere between a jelly and a cream. I have seen it described as a dark blue but my bottle looks very much green. On the nail it is almost black and only a slight green tinge can be seen around the edge of the nail and on the first coat. I used 3 coats but you could probably get away with 2 thick ones. The formula was good but slightly streaky on the first couple of coats.

 

 

Oui is a gorgeous purple full of gold shimmer. I used 4 coats but if I was wearing it normally I would probably layer it over another purple, both to save this gorgeous polish and to reduce the number of coats. Formula was easy to work with but a little bit sheer.

Ma Cherie is a bright red jelly. Even after 3 coats there is still a bit of VNL but only close up. It is a lovely colour however I would probably reach for another red over this due to the number of coats needed. 

There was also another pack available with other polishes from the same collection. If you want to grab yourself a set for the brilliant price of £7.99 I suggest you run down to your local TK Maxx! They won't be around for long! These polishes can also been found online from upwards of £6.75 each (eBay).