Now I'm not one for letting seasonal trends dictate what nail polish I wear, but this just sort of happened. A nice coincidence.
I saw the Revlon Parfumerie range pop up on a few American blogs nearly a year ago (the main one I remember is Young Wild and Polished) and at the time I was intrigued by the cute little perfume-style bottles and the grown-up scents. However, as usual with lots of brands, they weren't available in the UK until a few months later and by the time they turned up in Boots I'd sort of lost interest. It didn't help that of the 20 or so shades available, only one of them appealed to me. I should say at this point that I've developed some rather specific nail polish tastes! On top of that the £6.50 price tag turned me off from experimenting with them, and so I mentally pushed them to one side.
Then a few weeks ago I heard a little rumour on the Instagram grape vine that the Parfumerie polishes had been popping up in Poundworld shops, and suddenly they seemed a lot more interesting! The shop I visited in Salford had about six different shades (well that's what I could find after 30 minutes digging) and I narrowed that down to these three, which I hoped I would actually enjoy...
First off is Balsam Fir, a rich, dark green, creme polish. I'd call this British Racing Green because it reminds me of a green Mini Cooper and I'm sure that's the name of the paint colour. For this swatch I used two coats, and no top coat. The formula was smooth and easy to work with, but it's quite thin, hence you can see my very ridged nails showing through. Once the polish is dry, the scent develops and I think this smells lovely. It's fresh and minty, more herbal than the other two polish (presumably this is what the 'balsam' bit refers to). The scent isn't overpowering at all, just a nice minty breeze whenever your hands are close to your face.
Judging from what I've seen on the Boots website and in-store displays, Balsam Fir is not officially available in the UK, so if you are interested in this polish my only suggestion is going for a look in your nearest Poundworld ASAP.
Next is Spun Sugar, a silver metallic polish. I say silver, but as you can see it's not a harsh white silver, more of a golden silver - if that makes any sense? I used two coats and no top coat. I'll be honest and say I really do not like this sort of frosty, metallic finish, so I'm not a fan of this polish, but that's just my personal preference. It applies easily, but it's streaky, and the brush strokes are going to be visible. In the sunlight, the finish appears nice and smooth, almost glowing, but indoors the brush strokes are more obvious. As for the scent, it's sweet, but more of a flowery sweet than sugary as I'd expected. I can't really pinpoint it as anything in particular, but it's pleasant.
Last up is Italian Leather, an unusual colour that's perfectly Autumnal. It's a green-toned greyish sort of colour, with fine gold shimmer. The formula is lovely and pigmented, I used two coats, no top coat, which gave a smooth, even finish. The golden shimmer is very subtle, but it peeks through in the right light, making this quite a sophisticated polish. Again, the scent of this polish is hard to describe; it definitely doesn't smell like leather. It's similar to the scent of Spun Sugar - sweet, floral and a bit like your grandma's perfume.
So far, so good. But if you're anything like me you're probably wondering how well these last, with top coat. As I've said, none of the polishes smell particularly strong, and when I added top coat the smell was milder but still definitely there - I did find myself with my fingers up my nose in this experiment! I also wore Italian Leather for two days and it lasted well with just a little tip wear, and still a faint whiff of perfume.
If the idea of scented nail polish appeals to you, then I'd say give these ago, but don't expect the smell to relate directly to the name! Also be aware that the round lid is not very easy to hold on to when painting. The quality is good, and assuming you find a colour you like, then these probably are worth £6.50 - and at the moment they're on 3for2 at Boots. But if you're unsure like me, take a look in Poundworld and see what you can find!
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Amy
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