Reclaim - Nubar (and a Comparison)

I have yet another of the polishes that I have to give back to mum to show you today. This is the second to last one and is the wonderful Nubar 'Reclaim'. If you follow me on Instagram you may have already seen a sneaky peek of this because I could not wait to show you guys!

Right, by now we have probably worked out that I need ALL the polish, but especially all the holos... IN THE WORLD! 'Reclaim' does not disappoint. Although it may not be the most holographic polish out there, it is so very wearable for a green. No little pink piggy hands with this green. It's beautifully soft.

As soon as I saw the bottle, I thought it looked quite a lot like Cirque 'Lonesome George' that I ordered lately. Turns out, on the nail, they were much more different than I expected they would be. 'Reclaim' is much lighter and the holo particles are much finer than in 'Lonesome George'. Both are gorgeous!


I was so pleasantly surprised with the formula of 'Reclaim'. It was much more opaque than I ever would have imagined. I used 2 thin coats and it was perfectly opaque and smooth. I have a feeling that the top coat (Essie 'Good To Go') may have dulled the holo effect a teeny tiny bit, but I wouldn't ever go without top coat as wear time is more important to me than the possible very slight dulling.

Coral Comparison

It's that time again, comparison time. This time I will show you a little coral comparison. I love corals. I think a good coral can look good on anyone, but I have to say I have a few that seemed to look a little similar... and I was kind of right about that. I'll let you see for yourself...

These photos are with base coat but without any top coat.

From left to right: Pinky - OPI 'Big Hair... Big Nails', ring - OPI 'Red Lights Ahead... Where?', middle - OPI 'My Chihuahua Bites' and index - Essie 'Peach Daiquiri'.
As you can see there aren't any dupes here but they are all fairly similar. The main difference of course being that 'Big Hair... Big Nails' is a jelly so will naturally look a bit different.

'Red Lights Ahead... Where?', on my ring finger, seems to lean a little more red than the others and 'Peach Daiquiri' on my index finger, a little more pink/salmon. I think 'Red Lights Ahead... Where?' is such a perfect colour. Really should wear that as a full mani sooner rather than later, I'm thinking.

I just had to show you this one last photo as this is one coat of each of the crème polishes. The two OPI's here are completely opaque in one coat and Essie 'Peach Daiquiri' is not far behind. I love these kinds of polishes because it means my second coat can just be there to shine everything up and fix any funny cuticle goings on :)



To the formula... The top two photos are showing two coats each of 'Peach Daiquiri', 'Red Lights Ahead... Where?', and 'My Chihuahua Bites', with three coats of 'Big Hair... Big Nails' (not bad for a jelly)! These polishes were all so easy to work with (see the one coat photo!). The only one that nearly caused me a tiny bit of grief, was 'My Chihuahua Bites'. It's one of my older polishes and has thickened up and tends to separate. Nothing that's not fixable with a few drops of thinner though, I'm sure. Anyway, I hope this helped someone and if not I hope you liked looking at these pretty polishes all lined up :)

These polishes are all currently available. For the kiwis, the three OPI's are available on Candy Girl for $18.95 (or of course at Farmers etc for around $26.90) and I got the Essie polish from Smith and Caughey (I got it in their sale for super cheap ($12 or something) so I'm not sure how much they are normally.

Hot Pink Comparison

I thought it might be about time for another comparison post... This time I have two hot pink shades with shimmer that flashes blue. These photos are of China Glaze '108 Degrees' (middle finger and pinkie) and OPI 'It's All Greek To Me' (index and ring fingers).

These polishes have a pretty similar base colour and in the bottle they do look remarkably close (see below). The difference is all in the shimmer...

'It's All Greek To Me' has a much finer shimmer, whereas '108 Degrees' verges more towards tiny glitter. Both polishes show that brilliant blue flash that I just love.

In this indirect light, you can see that the shimmer in '108' degrees' stays fairly obvious whereas the shimmer in 'It's All Greek To Me' gives off a sort of pearly look (minus the streaky nightmare in frost/pearl application).


Both of these polish are shown with 3 coats (I think... I left my notes in Wellington!) and no top coat. They are both gorgeously shiny without a top coat, although, if I was actually wearing them I wouldn't skip this step. I don't often wear colours like these so I don't own both ('108 Degrees' belongs to my Mum) but for my obsessive self they are just different enough to warrant owning both. For those slightly less convinced that even the smallest difference means you should purchase, then you probably don't need both. I guess it comes down to which shimmer you prefer. I'm on the fence with this one, I quite like them both (especially in the sun)!

Dark Reds - Comparison

Today I have for you all another comparison. This time dark reds. I am an absolute sucker for red polish and in the winter time, dark reds are perfect. Let's get straight on with it...

Left to right; OPI 'Royal Rajah Ruby', China Glaze 'Thunderbird', OPI 'I'm Not Really A Waitress' and Essie 'Swing Velvet'. You can see pretty easily that we have none that look the same, although I have have to say in some lights 'I'm Not Really A Waitress' and 'Thunderbird' did look similar (see the last photo). They all have a gorgeous shimmer that is quite obvious in pretty much all light.

'Royal Rajah Ruby' is a much browner toned burgundy than the others and 'Swing Velvet' is more plummy coloured. Something that really surprised me, I always thought of 'I'm Not Really A Waitress' as a burnt, rusty red, but when I put it on next to all of these, it was verging on looking cherry red!

This is a close-up of the middle two (left - 'Thunderbird', right - 'I'm Not Really A Waitress'). They were by far the closest colour match of the four, although by no means the same. The shimmer in 'Thunderbird' is a bit coarser and a little more obvious. It also has a slightly rustier appearance than 'I'm Not Really A Waitress'. As far as needing both in your stash... Well if you're like me then you definitely need both as they're not dupes (although 'Thunderbird' is actually my Mum's), but if you are unlike me and have any self-control, you probably don't :) Both applied like a dream but personally I prefer OPI's brushes so I would probably reach for that more.


Speaking of formulas... 'Royal Rajah Ruby' had pretty usual OPI good application. As I said, the middle two were great. Both 'Thunderbird' and 'I'm Not Really A Waitress' were perfectly self-levelling and applied like butter. 'Swing Velvet' took a little more patience (I find this with a lot of Essie polishes), not bad though. All were two coats except 'Swing Velvet' as I messed it up a little and had to smooth it out with a third coat. With a slightly steadier hand, two coats would have been fine. The three polishes to the left are all readily available - that's 'Royal Rajah Ruby', 'Thunderbird' and 'I'm Not Really A Waitress'. For the kiwis out there, you can get all three of these on Candy Girl. As for the Essie polish, 'Swing Velvet', I don't know how accessible that is. I've not been able to find out a lot about it to be honest. I think it was part of Essie's Classic Collection? If anyone out there happens to know, I'd love to find out as it's a really beautiful polish that I might have to get my mittens on (it's my Mum's too).

Comparisons - Pale Pinks

My Mum is here to visit! Yay! And a good part of her visit (among many other things)... she brought her little nail polish collection with her. So I've taken the opportunity to swatch a bunch of her polishes and do some comparisons. Today I've got pale pinks...

Left to right, a-england 'Iseult', OPI ' Mod About You', OPI 'Steady As She Rose', OPI 'Pedal Faster Suzi'. As you can see these colours aren't dupes at all.

Same order as above. All polishes are shown with three coats and no top coat...
'Iseult' - Very sheer. As you can see with three coats it's still not completely opaque. It's such a beautifully clean nude pink colour with a gorgeously subtle shimmer.
'Mod About You' - crème and a much whiter pink than the other polishes. I've said it before, the application on this one is not so good. I have full photos of this polish here.
'Steady As She Rose' - The most similar to 'Iseult'. The same nudey pink colour, but this one's a crème and has that slightly dirty finish that the Pirates Of The Caribbean collection seem to have. It can even appear slightly lilac in some light.
'Pedal Faster Suzi' - clearly very different to the others. The pink of this polish is much warmer and the shimmer is much more pronounced than in 'Iseult'. This polish is absolutely lovely!


As I said earlier, no dupes here, but I think it's always nice to see how polishes actually compare on the nail. I will be doing a few more of these while I can get my hands on all of Mum's polishes.