Tiger and Body Collection swatches

In my first post, I promised this blog would feature some swatches of the budget brands in UK - ones that are notoriously hard to find swatched online. It's time to deliver. I present to you four nail polishes from two cheap brands.


Tiger is a Ikea-wannabe store in St James shopping centre in Edinburgh. They have a lot of small items with Scandinavian sounding names, and they stock some cosmetics as well. I've already given you a tiny sample of a blue nail polish from them in this post, and now it's time for two more. They each cost £1, and all have the most amazing flat brush, not too wide, and very flexible. They also smell really weird - not like the W7 cheap varnish, but like plastic.



Tiger 04 is a gorgeous saturated berry jelly. It's glossy, it's smooth and opaque in two coats. It goes on very easily, helped by a good thickness and the excellent brush. On the flip side, it doesn't want to dry. Ever. When I wore it for a proper mani, it budged after 2 hours  - despite a helping of Seche Vite.

Tiger 04, two coats, no topcoat, in natural daylight.

I love how it looks on my hands - it's a very flattering shade, and it looks deliciously squishy. Too bad it's also literally squishy for way too long.

Tiger 04

Tiger 07 is a dusty salmon nude jelly. It's very glossy, and looks so squishy but it takes three coats to become opaque - or nearly so. It's more goopy than 04, and thus harder to apply. Sadly, it also suffers from the same issues as 04 - it just won't dry. The three coats only exacerbate the problem.

Tiger 07, three coats, no topcoat.

It looks very feminine and flattering on my hands, but I think there is still some VNL there, even if it's not really obvious in person.

Tiger 07

Overall, both colours are gorgeous, and the brush is awesome, but the drying issues mean that you need to have a lot of time to waste to actually be able to use these polishes.

The second set of polishes comes from a brand called Body Collection. I've bought these two for £1 from my local B&M store, and I've never seen them anywhere else. The brush is a typical round one, nothing to write home about, but not problematic either.

Iced Violet is a pink foil with a silver and pink shimmer. It applied well and had a very quick drying time. It's somewhat cooler toned in real life than the pictures show, and very shiny on it's own. It also dries very thin, so a ridge-filling base might come in handy.

Body Collection Iced Violet, two coats, no topcoat.

It's super sparkly in the sun, and while it retains some brush strokes, these are not really visible in real life.

Body Collection Iced Violet, two coats, no topcoat.

Coral is a salmon-pink base with a gorgeous fine golden shimmer throughout. It was also opaque in two coats, and was a bit harder to manoeuvre than Iced Violet. There are some brushstrokes visible, but they are subtle, and invisible in shade.

Body Cosmetics Coral, two coats, no topcoat.

The colour is pleasantly cool and vivid when not facing any light, but the real fireworks start in the sun! The orange-gold shimmer is really beautiful, an changes to cool-ish toned base into a warm peach or coral shade. Make no mistake, this is no 'hidden shimmer' polish - the gold flash is also visible under low light conditions.

Body Cosmetics Coral, two coats, no topcoat.

Overall, the two Body Cosmetics polishes were a good buy - good drying time and an excellent shine. If you have a B&M nearby, go and have a look - I recall seeing some Calvin Klein and W7 bottles there as well!