QLOUR nail polish from Cologne, Germany – Graffiti Pink swatch and review

Happy New Year!

Time flies, doesn’t it? Now it is already 2015, and a few days ago I still looked forward to the Christmas holidays. I hope all of you had a great Christmas time and a great NYE, celebrating the old and especially the new year. My New Year’s resolutions are simple this year because I figured this would make it easier to achieve them: 1. Set up a blog for my dad (he is an artist), 2. Track our expenses to find out how much we really spend each month and to be able to estimate what kind of flat we can afford 3. blog blog blog 😀

So my first posting in 2015 will be about a new nail polish brand from Cologne, the city I live in and love. The brand is called Qlour and I first came across it via a link in a Facebook nail polish group. Believe it or not, two men from Cologne are the brains behind these nail polishes, and I am fascinated by the ideas and inspirations behind their collections. There is, for example, a Klimt collection that is inspired by the famous painter Gustav Klimt or more precisely by one of his paintings, “Adele Bloch-Bauer I”, which is packed with golden and brown nuances as well as a beautiful blue and red. Then there is a tattoo collection called “Tattoo Tones”, a nude collection called “Romantic”, a nail polish that is inspired by the colour of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the so-called “Graffiti Brights” collection. The nail polish I would like to show you today is from this Graffiti Brights collection and is called “Graffiti Pink”.

When I first browsed their website I noticed that there were no real bottle shots or swatches shown, just pictures like the one above, the kind that we usually know from press releases – those colours can be totally different from the actual product on the nail. When I googled for swatches I obviously also couldn’t find anything as their shop had just been launched. I wanted to order a couple of nail polishes from their website with a coupon code, but I had some technical problems so I decided to write them an email. After getting in touch with them I was very lucky to receive a few of their nail polishes for review.

So now to “Grafitti Pink” – a beautiful strong neon pink with a hint of cool-toned shimmer (see bottle shot).

Application was easy and smooth and I used two coats plus Seche Vite for the pictures below. I like the brush and the consistency of the polish – no dragging, no dripping, it was really easy to paint my nails with a satisfying outcome. This colour dried surprisingly quick and also very shiny on its own. I’m in love! The first picture shows the polish in the shade (this one is the most colour-accurate one).

The shimmer is hardly visible on the nail but it gives the colour even more vibrancy. When the sun hits the nail the shimmer is indeed visible in certain angles. The next two pictures show the nail polish in the evening sun and are therefore not very colour-accurate but at least show a hint of the shimmer that is hidden in there.

I really like this colour! I wore it for 3 days without chipping which is a lot for me, so I am also satisfied with the wear. All in all, for 6,95 EUR a bottle, you get a vibrant and unique nail polish colour that has a good quality when it comes to application, dry time, and wear. Also, these polishes are 100% formaldehyde- and toluol-free and “most of them” (quote from their website) are vegan and produced without animal testing.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming collections that Qlour have planned. I heard that they might be designing more colours that are inspired by sights like the Golden Gate Bridge. So – maybe we will get a Eiffel-Tower steel grey or a Statue of Liberty light green/blue?

Stay tuned for more swatches of Qlour nail polishes or visit Mary Sto or Greedy Nails for swatches of other colours by this new brand!

Pssst: The coupon code #Colorstory2014 gives you a 10% discount in their online shop until the end of January 2015!