I rarely ever go out without having my nails polished as I believe it can make an outift look complete or just gives your overall look an extra something. Over the years I have grown a vast array of nail varnishes from the basics of the basics to the more well known, named brands and in all honesty can never really detect too much difference. There are five main things that I test any nail varnish on; (1) colour, is it as vibrant as it looks, is it shiny, how many coats does it take to get to this colour, etc, (2)length of time it stays on your nails without chipping, (3) how long it stays looking 'freshly applied for', so how long does the colour last without fading / looking worn, (4) how easy it is to apply, does it glide on, is is silky, is it gloopy, how many coats and finally, (5) how easy it is to remove, does is come off easily, does it require scrubbing, will own brand nail varnish removers remove it...

I have accumlated quite a few No 7 Nail Varnishes now, mainly being given as gifts or in the free No 7 gift sets. Like many other nail varnish brands they come in an array of colours, finishes and style. There is plenty of variety and I am pretty sure that there is a colour or style to suit almost everyone, there are bright, vibrant colours, to soft metallics as well as glittery ones. The nail varnishes comes in very nice looking bottles, which are quite simple, but also manage to look trendy and stylish. There is a clear bottle with a black coloured lied (sometimes the lid is a slightly sparkly black finish).
As it is No 7 as far as I am aware this brand is limited to Boots. The nail varnishes generally cost between £6-£9, however they are also often included in the free gift sets when you spend a certain amount or can be purchased much cheaper with the £5 voucher.

The colour that I will be doing this on is a steel grey one, which unfortunatley I cannot find a shade or colour on.

~Testing it on number (1) the colour, I was really happy. The colour was very strong and very much like the one you can see through the clear bottle, as sometimes when you apply them they seem very watered down and the colour isn't very strong, however, this certainly wasn't the case with this nail polish. The colour that I used looked metallic in the bottle and this also transferred well onto the nail, it gave the varnish a shiny finish aswell as an ever so sparkly finish from the metallic style. It took me 2 coats to get to the colour I wanted, which was almost the same colour as what I could see in the bottle, however, if you wanted a slightly darker colour, adding more depth then I would suggest using 3 coats. The nails varnish itself is very shiny, this was not just the case with this colour, but having used other glittery and more matte shades all look very shiny, however I always add a top coat to my nail varnish which makes the varnish look even shinier and locks in the colour for longer.

~Number (2), the length of time it lasts on the nails without chipping. I was also pleasantly surprised with this. I am often cooking, typing, tidying or doing general day to day things so it is fair to see my nails get used and I often expect them to chip, however if you have sealed your nail varnish correctly with a top coat then the nail varnish lasts a good a good 5-6 days without chipping. To me, this is a fairly long time as most other brands only last between 2-3 days, so I was very happy with these results.

~Number (3), how long the nail varnish looks freshly applied for, but this I don't mean chipping, but I mean the nail varnish using its shine and becoming more a matte colour or just generally looking worn. Even when using a top coat I find this generally happens within a few days and there is not really much you can do stop it from happening, apart from repeatedly applying a top coat to keep the shine. I was a little dissapointed with the nail varnish in these stakes, as although it lasted a good 2-3 days withouth the shine dulling and the colour looking worn, I had higher hopes for it since it lastes so well withouth chipping, however when I reapplied a thin layer of top coat they did look as good as new again. So on number 3, I think the No 7 brand faired pretty much average along with those other brand that I have used.

~Number (4), how easy it is to apply. This is the part that I was extremley pleased with, it just glided acoss the nail and was so smooth. It aplied evenly across the whole nail and typically needed 3 strokes per nail. I was also pleased to see that if I was a bit heavy handed in some areas the nail varnish seemed to 'sort itself out' in that it evenly distubuted the varnish out so that none of it looked thicker applied or more gloopy than any other part. The nail varnish has quite a wide brush, to although on most nails it took 3 strokes on the smaller nails I did find it a little harder as the brush spread out even further when applying it, so on my little fingers in particular I did find taht it seemed to go on my skin.

~Number (5), how easy it is to remove. Personally, I never find any nail varnish comes off particuarly easily and most of them require a little added pressure and scrubbing, no matter which brand of remover or nail varnish I use. I found that this nail varnish wasn't hard and neither was it easy to remove and again seemed pretty average with other brands. I tried both Boots own brand nail varnish remover and Quickies to try and remove it and I must say that the Quickies did seem to do a better and quicker job of removing the varnish. I also found that th brighter colours did stain your nails if you did not use a base coat.

~Overall Opinion~
Overally, I was thoroughly impressed with this nail varnish as it exceeded my expectations in many circumstances. Although I would still not say it was a perfect nail varnish, I would say that it was very close to it and is one of the best nail varnished I have used in a long time. I would have liked it to have a thinner brush and to remove slightly easier, however, I still love this nail polish as they have a colour to suit almost every mood your in and don't chip!

I would reccomend this item and although I don't begrudge paying the full price for them, they do work out much better value for money when bought with the £5 No7 voucher!