SWATCHES: H&M // Dawn Song, Haute Heat, Will-O'-The-Wisp, Colour Therapy & Wild Lilac

So I thought I'd bought all nine shades in this 'limited edition' collection. A day after ordering this lot, they put up three more shades....clearly they know that I am a ho for nail polish cause I bought those three new shades as well lol. I also had a 20% discount code so I may have ordered a few other shades....I have a problem.

Dawn Song // Chunky Duochrome Gold to Pink Glitter

This looks beautiful on the website and even more mesmorising in person but it's kind of a lie. If this was a gold to pink foil then they would've cracked it. But it's a chunky glitter suspended in a slightly orange tinted base. It's not flip-the-table-in-anger bad, in fact the more I use it the more I like it but damn if it was a foil...Anyway, this is like Barely Peach from the last post but so much better. The shift really saves it as it's this beautiful soft dusky pink. One coat is ok, but two coats is where the magic happens. I love how this is glitzy enough for special occasions but soft enough for spring and summer day outfits. This is one of those shades where you will constantly be moving you hand about in the light to see the shift; it's amazing.

If you layer it over black, the pink really comes to life as well but it looks naff on top of white. Either dark shades or bare nails are the way to go.

Will it stamp? Lol no. I mean, I tried to and the shape was there thanks to all the glitter but it really only shows up on dark shades and even then it's not great. I wouldn't stamp with this.

Haute Heat // Dark Yellow Shimmer

This is not what I was expecting from the photos on H&M. There it looks like a rustic gold shimmer but on the nails it's more rustic yellow mustard...It is a darker yellow shade but I'm not sure what to make of it. It reminds me of shimmery daffodils. It is nice and glossy and you could get away with one coat but I'm wearing two just to cover up some slight patches. I don't hate this shade mainly because it actually suits my skin tone but it is a weird shade.

Will it Stamp? It does and some of the colour and shimmer is still there but it's translucent. It would probably look the best on top of black or pastels. Not the greatest.

Will-O'-The-Wisp // Green to Pink Glitter in clear base

This was definitely my least favourite of the collection and if it weren't because I'm a weirdo who needs things in sets I probably wouldn't have bought it. It looks beautiful in the bottle; like sparkly unicorn dream with a pink/green/silver shift. On the nails it's a clear base with green and pink shifting glitter. It looks nice under light but other than that it doesn't look like you're wearing anything. I guess this is more of a top coat to make anything a mermaid mani. On top of black the green really comes out and it almost looks like a green glitter polish. It does look quite cool in the dark when the light hits it. I imagine this would look great at a proper 90's rave.

Will it stamp? Absolutely not.

Colour Therapy // Dark Pink Shimmer with Lavender shift

Holy moly. This looks amazing in the bottle  and amazing on the nails. This is the shade that Berry Fairy Fun from OPI wants to be. I feel like H&M were heavily inspired by OPI's latest Tokyo collection for this shade as it's strikingly similar to Samurai Breaks a Nail but this is way more pink. I do love the formula though, it glides across the nail. I'm wearing two coats.

Will it stamp? Yes and it's quite delicate but in a nice way. Or maybe it's just the new botanical plate I used. Either way it looks good on light shades and you get the added benefit of all the shimmery bits. It isn't fully opaque though.

Wild Lilac // Pastel Lilac Creme

This is perfect lilac creme for spring. It needs at least two coats as the first is super patchy. So much for H&M and their claim on the website that all the polishes are perfect in one coat. I think this would like nice in a smooshing design with white.

Will it Stamp? Yes, but as you can see it's very faint and smudges easily when stamping.

// Verdict
The shimmers are no where near as nice as their creme formula but I'm not angry this time. I really love how Colour Therapy looks when stamped and I'll have to do something else with that one. And Dawn Song is winning me over; it really is pretty even if it isn't what I expected. That one I wholeheartedly recommend.

The Marble Antidote // Red & Gold Marble Design

New nails! I finally got the 'new' watercolour polishes from Born Pretty that are constantly sold out and let me tell you; perfect marble nails. I only managed to get hold of 3 colours; blue, red and black but I'm going to try my best to get my hands on the other colours because holy moly. I'm going to do a full post on them because what a great invention.

Anyway, I saw a design like this on Born Pretty's instagram but they blinged it up with huge rhinestones stuck on top. I love these burgundy/blood red shades and decided to do my own version.

I love how these turned out. I'm gonna be doing marble watercolour nails all the time now. This polish makes it way easier than using acetone with normal polish or acrylic paint with water. You just pop a blob of the colour on, then use the clear solution to 'watercolour' it.

How I did it:-

I started off with 1 coat of The Antidote on my thumb, index and pinkie and then stamped on the gold designs from Tropical 36. I used one coat of White Heat on my middle and ring finger then applied a couple drops on the middle and only 1 drop of red colour on the ring finger. The more drops you add the more pigmented the colours will be. It will also be harder to get that watercolour effect so add drops sparingly. I added drops of the clear solution to create the effect. Once dry I stamped on some gold marble design from ND-076 then added a matte top coat to everything :)

I feel I may have to invest in some rhinestones to create a truly basic mani now...

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- ORLY // The Antidote (burgundy)
- Ciaté // White Heat (white)
- Nicole Diary // Watercolor Nail Liquid L12 (clear)
- Nicole Diary // Watercolor Nail Liquid ND08 (red)

- Born Pretty Polish // #1 (gold)

- Barry M // Matte Top coat
- MoYou London Plates // Tropical 36
- Nicole Diary Plates // ND-076

Geometric Heat // Tropical Geometric Print and Palm Leaves

What's this?? Nail art on THE OTHER HAND???!? Yes my other hand has come out from the shadows for one week only, or well I might start doing my other hand more often because it was nice to have a matching manicure for once...they're not completely the same but they match and that's all that matters.

This manicure has actually been one of the longest I've worn in a long time as I usually always wear a peel off base coat on my main hand. However, my dissertation was due today (praise be to Jesus it's over) and I made sure to do my nails last week with a regular base coat so it wouldn't come off. That way I wouldn't be tempted to do my nails all week. It's been really hard as well because the new H&M polishes arrived and they've been sat in my swatch pile staring at me...begging me to use them.

This manicure has been nice and bright and summery to keep me motivated all week. It's chipped quite a bit on my other hand but my main hand held up nicely against all the constant typing.

I don't love the geometric print as much as the palm leaves, it looks a little too messy which is surprising given that I'm better at painting with my other hand. But I love how the colours go together. I'd wear that palm leaf print all year round.

How I did it:-

I started off with two coats of White Heat then applied all the green shades onto the stamping plate and mixed them together a little when scraping off the excess. It gives that nice blended look once you stamp and is a quick and easy way to add more detail. I then did the same with the other main hand but used the geometric print from Tropical 35. The palm trees were from SummerVibes 03 and the palm leaves from Tropical 10.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Ciaté // White Heat (white)

- Born Pretty Polish // #12 (green), #284 (light blue), #333 (pastel teal)

- Barry M // Plumpy Hi Shine Top Coat
- MoYou London Plates // Tropical 10, Tropical 35, #SummerVibes 03

SWATCHES: Soulcal & Co // Heat Shimmer & Bikini

Alright everyone, let's hop on the nostalgia train back to 2008 when we all shopped at Republic and wore SoulCal & Co. Does anyone even remember Republic? We had a shop in Blackpool town centre but it shut down years ago. It had a Schuh store on the bottom floor and I would get my converse and DCs from there because I was an edgy emo/skater (who did no skating) who refused to grow up after leaving highschool (I can gladly say I have now grown up....somewhat...I may be into the whole 'basic' aesthetic right now but once an emo, always an emo. Pretty sure this entire section is the name of a Fall Out Boy song.....).

Funnily enough, whilst writing this post I went back and did a little research and it turns out SoulCal is an own brand of Republic! Republic was bought out by Sports Direct and merged with their USC brand. My apologies to anyone not from the UK reading this but I always thought SoulCal was an American brand. It's still going as well and looking very much like the Hollister line up back in 2010.

I was even more surprised to find out that you can still order this set from Boots online! I found this set in TK Maxx and thought it was some old stock that they had acquired (which it still might be) and for £5 I thought I'd give it a go as it's pink, rose gold and has palm trees on it. Like I said, I'm totally basic now.

Heat Shimmer // Rose Gold Foil

I bought the set for this shade because it doesn't get more Pinterest than this. It surprised me a little as it took a good 4 coats on the swatch wheel but only 2 on the nails. It also has a light duo-chrome finish as it appears to shine a little peach when the light hits it. I love how it looks in the bottle with the brown palm trees so I attempted to recreate that quickly and I really love the result. It does dry with a few streaks in it but unless your super up close you can't really see that. Pleasantly surprised.

Bikini // Bright Pink Foil

Well it doesn't get more sparkly princess than this. It's not a cheap pink though which is again; surprising. I feel like there was a shade from the OPI Christmas calendar just like this. Looking at the swatch wheel it looks very similar to Reykajavik Has All the Hotspots (which is a little darker). Colour-wise though it matches Princesses Rule (how fitting) but that has a shimmer finish. I'd say this is better than both of those though. It needs at least two coats as it's a bit sheer but I'm surprisingly happy with it.

// Verdict

Relatively shocked. I won't lie; I bought them just because I liked how they looked, I wasn't expecting them to perform but Heat Shimmer is really beautiful in the sun. I perhaps paid a little too much for them, I think they should've been £1 each really but I got a cute emery board in the shape of surfboard as well so all it's not all bad. If you like the look of them, they've got loads of them in TK Maxx right now.

....pssst. I used the MoYou London Tropical 31 plate for the design And Zoya 'Codie'.

SWATCHES: H&M // Sun on Clay, The Heat is On, Monoi & Huldra

Ok so, I caved and ordered some more H&M polishes even though I got catfished by them a couple of months ago. The creme formula was actually nice and they brought out these new bright summer shades and I just love the bottle shape so much; I couldn't help myself. In fact I was so impressed with these polishes that I bought the rest of the collection.....who needs to eat???

This new collection consists of 9 shades; mainly cremes with a few shimmers. However, I have learnt my lesson with H&M shimmer shades now and their photos are not to be trusted in the slightest. Therefore, this time I have bought the shimmers with the lowest of expectations.

Let's talk about the first four shades though because they're my favourite (and I'm still waiting for the others to arrive in the post...)

Sun On Clay // Burnt Orange Creme

Yes to this shade. Yes to this formula. This is a stunning one-coater and I love it. These burnt clay shades seem to be all the rage this season and I'm totally living for it. 

Will it stamp? Yes and it looks great. It's not fully opaque but it does well on light and bright colours.

The Heat Is On // Orange Creme

Now this is a shade missing from my collection. I'm going to be doing so many sunset mani's this summer thanks to all the beautiful orange shades. This is almost neon it's that bright but it's not a cheeto-esque shade. It's a little thinner than the last shade and needs at least 2 coats but it isn't streaky or washed out. This is a perfect poolside shade

Will it stamp? I'd say this one stamps the worst but the detail is still there. This would look much better on top of bright, light colours as it loses detail on darker shades.

Monoi // Citrus Green Creme

It's very tempting to call this a yellow and I've noticed a recurring joke with polish shades now; is it yellow or is it green? It's almost as divisive as the white and gold dress....I firmly believe this is on the green side but it does have some yellow/citrus tones. It's more like a very ripe lime. Whatever it is, I love it and it's my favourite of the bunch. I just adore these types of green shades and this one matches my skin tone wonderfully as well. It needs at least two coats to achieve full opacity but it's well worth £3.99.

Will it stamp? Yes but it's quite muted. I had high hopes for this shade and it looks nice but it creates more subtle looks.

Huldra // Muted Denim Blue Creme

Another shade that is nothing like any other blue in my collection; I think this has become one of my favourite blues as it's also ready in just one coat if applied carefully. Plus it's super glossy. In the online photo this almost looks like a shimmer; it just goes to show how off their images are. This is definitely one you need in your collection though.

Will it stamp? Yes and handles detail well but don't expect any amazing colour pay-off as it's quite see-through. This is great for designs where you need the stamp to be intentionally weak (as I often do these days...).

// Verdict

I'm shocked, especially after the disappointment of the last H&M polish haul. This batch has well and truly restored my opinion of h&m's beauty range. These polishes are well made, look beautiful and perform excellently. I can't wait for the other 5 shades to arrive (although I'm still skeptical about the shimmers). I really wish they'd given this collection a name though, like 'sunsets and no regrets'. The shades are just super bright but not neon and perfect for the summer months. Well done h&m!

...psst. All the stamping images used the MoYou London Explorer 30 plate (in case you were wondering).