Tag Archives: Cruelty-Free

Hello lovelies! Today I have another pretty nail varnish from Jacava London. As I said in my review of Regent Street, my favourite thing about this brand is their great ethical values. They are 8-Free, which means they are free from  DBP, Camphor, Formaldehyde, Toluene, Formaldehyde Resin/Tosylamide, Parabens, Phthalates and Animal Ingredients. They are also cruelty-free and vegan… there’s no blotting that copybook! I do love when a brand takes the initiative to forge forwards with good ethics, it makes a nice change from all the ones that just do it for compliance.

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Hey everyone! 🙂 Jacava London is a brand that I really love, I think they tend to fall slightly below the radar at the moment as they’re still a fairly new brand, but they are brilliant. Their colours are all really luxurious and beautiful, as are their bottles, which are printed in 22 carat gold! My favourite thing about them though is that they are cruelty-free, vegan, and 8-free (free from DBP, Camphor, Formaldehyde, Toluene, Formaldehyde Resin/Tosylamide, Parabens, Phthalates and Animal Ingredients). They are passionate about providing a safe nail polish that doesn’t harm furries and that is something that’s very close to my heart.

At the beginning of the New Year, Jacava released a massive 2014 collection, and I was asked to review a couple. Of course I leapt at the opportunity!

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Today I have another of the new polishes from M&S’s new line, the ‘Limited Collection’  (does anyone know whether this means they are limited edition?). Cappuccino is a wonderful neutral shade, fab formula and very flattering.

 This one is perfect for the office, a wonderfully conservative colour with just a hint of gold glassfleck shimmer – enough to give it a unique warmth but not enough to make it inappropriate for work. The colour is also buildable – in the last photo (above) my ring finger has just 1 coat, which gives a lighter, warmer finish but totally streak-free. I think this would look lovely at 1 coat over a neutral polish like Ciaté My Fair Lady, to hide the free edge but give that warm tone to it. 2 coats and it gets a bit cooler.

Application:

No complaints. The photos all show 2 coats (other than my ring finger in the final large pic which is 1 coat). The polish gave a very even finish in terms of pigmentation and dried quickly. I really can’t fault this 🙂 also it had no signs of wear throughout the time I wore it and was very easy to apply (those are about the neatest I’ve ever managed to paint my nails in my LIFE).

Personally I prefer the warm tone of the polish at 1 coat but I know a lot of ladies just lurve a lovely greige, and this adds a nice gold-glassfleck twist to the traditional greige polish. Very flattering and also subtle enough for the more conservative polish-wearer. I love this one.

Cappuccino retails at £3.50 and is available in Marks & Spencer and on the Marks & Spencer website. Fabulous price for fabulous quality and colour, oh and it’s also cruelty-free (BUAV Approved)! What do you think? Is it something you’d wear? I for one am not really a greige-girl, but something about this has me hooked!

x

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Marks and Spencer have brought out a brand new line called the ‘Limited Collection’. In wake of this release they are selling all their old stock of make-up from their previous line (I don’t think it had a name, but in terms of nail polish, it’s the oblongy-squarey bottles!) cheap as chips, so get there while you can! 😉

The new line is fantastic in terms of polish (and the eye makeup is pretty funky too!) I just had to pick up a few – okay four – of the new bottles. They’re quite unique in terms of UK high-street polish, which is awesome!

Today I have for you the lovely ‘Lilac’. I want to apologise for the yucky sore cuticle on my middle finger!

 This reminds me of some kind of flower, I really can’t put my finger on it though! Lilac is basically a lavender purple base packed with gold glassfleck shimmer. I found it was much less purple than the bottle would suggest – the gold is SO reflective that in certain lights the polish looks like a taupey-purple colour, and does take on a bit of a dull tone. But in natural daylight it’s just amazing! So soft and pretty! I think this is the perfect work-appropriate polish as it’s really quite subtle in anything other than direct light or out-doors daylight. It almost has a duochrome effect with the purple. So pretty.  My Andy told me it’s his very favourite nail polish I’ve ever worn!

Application:

It’s pretty much opaque at 2 coats, though I added a third just because I have some staining on some nails which makes the free-edge harder to hide! The polish dries very quickly, so to avoid dragging, load your brush up with more polish than you’d usually put on. This polish is going nowhere – I only used basecoat, no topcoat but it hasn’t budged in pretty much 48hours, after some fairly heavy duty paper-lugging and plenty of grappling with tights – always a sign of a good polish!

Overall, YES YES YES!! It’s just £3.50 and should be in-store by now. Alternatively you can buy it from Marks and Spencer online. Oh and the best part? It’s cruelty-free. All Marks and Spencer makeup is BUAV Approved.

What do you think? I love this to pieces. I reckon you could use this one for a super layering polish too! Worth £3.50?

x

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

I love mint green as a colour. And I LOVE mint green on other peoples’ nails. But on my nails? It gives the illusion of my skin being lobster pink and generally clashes completely and looks dreadful. Which is a sad day for me. But, Marks and Spencer Jade has come along and alleviated all my mint green-related woes. This lovely sagey green creme looks bright and almost pastel enough to be perfect for Spring, yet causes no problems with skin tone and clashing. I reckon this is a great green for all skin tones.

Pretty cute. I like this way more than I thought I would! It was one of those curiosity-purchases, but I am so glad I have it! I wore this for 2 days straight and still wasn’t sick of it, which is saying a lot, for me. Perfect creme finish, no streaking, bliss!

Application:

Jade is definitely opaque at 2 coats, although the photos show 3 as my brittle nails have reared their ugly head and have been peeling which resulted in a chip off my middle finger :(. The polish dries quickly, and did not streak, not once! It dried to a high shine, so you won’t need a topcoat unless you want it to last for a while.

Would you guys like a comparison of this one and Barry M Mint Green? Just to prove the difference. I’m reluctant to put this one in my ‘already-blogged’ pile of polishes, I think I may wear it a few more times before that! I’m surprised how much I love it – I’m not usually this taken with cremes.

The Marks and Spencer ‘nail colour’ range retails at a measly £3, which I think, for the quality of it, is a super duper bargain, like Barry M. Not only this but all Marks and Spencer polishes are cruelty-free, and BUAV Approved.

What do you think? Have you suffered at the hands of mint green nail polish? Does this look like something you’d try?

x

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.