5 Cheaper Alternatives

Why hello my little lovlies- yes, you in the pyjama's (to be honest, I'm in pyjamas too and it is 4pm!) and the one munching on their dinner whilst reading this or the one that just has this web page open and isn't bothering to look at this (rude! Not really...I even love you too, although not as much as my dog)- anyway, this post is all about cheaper alternatives for nail polishes. So for your Christmas list next year you can decide whether you want the branded item or the cheaper one to save your family/ friends some dosh! (Little disclaimer: I am not in any way saying that the cheaper polish I am writing about is any better or worse than the more expensive branded polish)

1) Well, these are some summery coloured coral polishes. One is Ted Baker (I got this as part of a £7 gift set which came with a nice coral lipgloss, so the exact price is hard to say) but it comes in a
gorgeous square bottle (I have a 'thing' about square bottles!) and has the rose-gold lettering of Ted Baker on the front. The cheaper alternative for this product is Mayeblline's Colour Show 'urban coral' polish. Almost identical shades, the only things noticeably different is obviously the packaging and the amount of coats needed. For 'urban coral' I'd say that at least 3 coats are needed for the optimum look.

2) The black leather effect polish by Alexa Chung for Nails Inc is a special effect polish which costs (online) £15. Quite a pricy polish but I have to admit that I do have a soft spot for Nails Inc as the first polish I owned was by them. It was such an old polish, it still had the hands around the rim! Anyway I have found and used a cheaper alternative by Next, called the leather effect. It is so good, only needing one thick coat, and it dries pretty quickly!

3) Barry M confetti is a special effect polish by Barry M which includes multicoloured glitter strands to give the look of confetti- or as Nails. Inc liked to call it feathers. With Barry M retailing at £3.99 and Nails. Inc feather effect not being sold on their website any more as they have redesigned their bottles and polishes, this is not only cheaper but a way of getting your hands on almost the same polish without having to scour sights like ebay!

4) A special effect polish which first made me excited about painting my nails is the crackle effect polish! A polish which when applied to your nail, over a base colour starts to crack and break up. The first crackle effect polish I used was by Barry M but when that dried up and ran out I found some in Asda. Barry M is £3.99 whereas Asda is £2.98. Slightly watery however when dried I couldn't personally tell the difference.

5) Loreal confetti (obviously quite a popular word in nails at the moment!) is a black and white glitter topcoat which is selling in superdrug (and other stores) for £4.99. When in Claire's, looking at the new polishes and admiring the new, bigger bottles, I noticed they had the exact same polish (I think it actually had more polish in, too) for £3.00. Realising it was a bargain and trying it out, I then compared it with swatches of the confetti topcoat and it looks just as good! The only difference being the Claire's version has glitter strands as well as dots in it.

So there you have it, a list of cheaper alternatives so you save your pennies! Hope you found it useful, see you soon. And A Topcoat. xx