Nails Inc spam and comparisons

I ordered my first Nails Inc polishes from Sephora's F&F sale (still ongoing! Here's the link to get your own 20% off code if you haven't gotten it already!) last week and received my package on Monday. Nails Inc is a new brand to Sephora. I've previously seen them when visiting the UK, but they have a pretty high price point over there; about 11 GBP I think! They retail for $9.50 USD, which is a lot more affordable, and with the 20% off sale, it was enough to push me to try out this new brand.

I only purchased cremes, but they do have some magnetic polishes and flakie topcoats available at Sephora. I am only willing to jump on the magnetic bandwagon if it comes with a star magnet (and is blue :p) and I'm already flakied out from my Nfu Ohs. But, in case you were excited about those type of polishes, please check 'em out and let me know how you like them!

I'll show you the swatches and comparisons of the shades I purchased before giving you my thoughts. Shown are 2 coats.

Nails Inc Porchester Square - 2 coats, dried quickly. Not a fan of the colour on my skintone, though.

Comparison: Nails Inc Porchester Square and Petites Vintage Gray Both two coats... not exact dupes, but really, really close, and both not great on me ;) Vintage Gray is dupey to Milani Bare to Wear (which takes 3 coats to be opaque).

Nails Inc Haymarket - 2 coats, dried fast but not glossy (not matte either). The polish definitely needed a good shake though, as I had some white streaks when applying my first coat.

Comparison: Nails Inc Haymarket and Orly Gumdrop - Gumdrop has a great 2 coat formula as well, but is a little thinner. They are close in terms of opaqueness.

Comparison: Nails Inc Haymarket and OPI Mermaid's Tears - Similar, but definitely not dupes. I think I prefer the OPI.

Comparison: Nails Inc Haymarket and Essie Turquoise & Caicos - The Essie has an almost jelly-like appearance on the nail (very juicy looking), while the Nails Inc is definitely a solid, opaque creme.

Comparison: Nails Inc Haymarket and Essie Greenport - same as above, the Essie is "juicier".

Nails Inc St John's Wood - looove this one!! I am a sucker for these purpley-periwinkle shades, though.

Comparison: Nails Inc St John's Wood and Revlon Modern Grace - They look closer than they are; the Nails Inc is a shade darker, I think

Comparison: Nails Inc St John's Wood and Zoya Malia - The Nails Inc and Revlon were showing a bit bluer than in real life, so I wanted a pic of the NI compared to a much warmer purple like Zoya Malia.

Nails Inc Warwick Way - guh this photographed sooo wrong. It's way more vibrant. It reminds me of AA Malibu Green, but I don't have that.

Comparison: Nails Inc Warwick Way and Illamasqua Muse - this photo makes them look really close, but it's a total LIE. Muse is more dusty and blue, while Warwick Way is almost neon and very green-toned.

Nails Inc Belgrave Place - Yummm love this. Almost indigo-like purple. The brush was cut funny though :/

Comparison: Nails Inc Belgrave Place and Zoya Pinta - I love Pinta too (dupey to OPI Sapphire in the Snow and Orly Wild Wisteria)

Nails Inc Foubert's Place - supposedly a green-ish taupe or dark khaki, it pulled rather plain ol' brown on me.

Comparison: Nails Inc Foubert's Place and Revlon Stormy - I purged a lot of my taupes a few months ago, so these comparisons are probably kind of useless :p This Revlon is in the same family as $OPI Metro Chic, Rimmel Steel Grey, Confetti Moonstruck, ChG Below Deck / ChG Channelesque, etc.

Comparison: Nails Inc Foubert's Place and ChG Ingrid - This reminds me how much I need to re-wear Ingrid. can't believe it was this time last year I was spazzing over China Glaze's Vintage Vixen collection! :)

Comparison: Nails Inc Foubert's Place and NARS Bad Influence - I picked up this NARS from the F&F sale as well. It was on sale for $8 (!!!) and it's very milk-chocolatey looking. Nice formula too.

So, my thoughts?

The Good:
• Nice formula. Easy 2 coaters and these polishes seemed to dry faster than anything I was comparing them too; although, some did not dry especially shiny (Haymarket dried almost matte).
• Some vibrant, original shades. Of course, some are a little dupey, but most of them I was very surprised by how different they were in real life to swatches I had seen online.

The Bad:
• The sticker sealing the cap to the bottle leaves a gross residue. The barcode sticker also leaves a residue. This can be cleaned, but still very annoying.
• Smaller than average size; 10mL or 0.33oz for $9.50+tax is a bit pricey.
• The quality control on the brushes is ridiculous. See my picture below. I ordered 8 bottles, including top and base coat, and 5 of them had abnormal brushes. Not impressed at all.

Like I mentioned, I also purchased the "Caviar" base and top coats to test out. They retail for $10 USD. I haven't given either a full test-run yet, but here are my first impressions on the topcoat:

The topcoat dries very fast and very shiny, but the texture is very different from what I'm used to (SV or Poshe). The Nails Inc topcoat is quite thin, and while shiny, it doesn't give the "glass-like" quality I've come to love from my other topcoats. Also, since it's a thin formula, I have been applying either too thick a coat (resulting in tiny, irritating bubbles) or too thin a coat (resulting in brushmarks from the rather rough brush bristles!!).

I will continue to test out these two products though, since I know a lot of other bloggers have fallen in love with them.

Overall, I like the Nails Incs I purchased but probably will not purchase anymore unless there's a colour that really catches my eye. I am definitely going to keep St John's Wood, Belgrave Place, and Warwick Way. I may return the other three as they are just too similar to polishes I already own. Do you think I'm picking the right "winners"?

Did any of you guys haul from Sephora's F&F sale? What did you buy?! :D