Brand: Eve Snow

I first heard of British nail polish brand Eve Snow a year or two ago, and promptly added one of my favorite of their nail colors off the website to my Pinterest wishlist, just so I wouldn’t forget about them.

Fast forward to this last October, when found two Eve Snow bottles at Winners! It was my first time seeing the brand in person, so like a proper nail polish nut, I suppressed a squeal and moseyed over to pick them up. Turned out one was a dud (some kind of nail strengthener or something, whatever, amirite?) but the other was the exact shade I had pinned earlier. What are the odds of that?

So, fate conspired to add Alter Ego (008) to my collection. It’s a periwinkle blue iridescent shimmer. Pretty, right? It even has pink and green flashes in the bottle.

Unfortunately, on the nail, it’s a little less inspiring. Alter ego, indeed. On the nail, it’s just a shimmery periwinkle blue, no flashes except perhaps a bit of baby blue. The most disappointing thing about it is the sheerness: I needed three coats to get it to look like this:

Even then, I feel like application is a little patchy. I’m glad I only paid $5 for it. This shade is also no longer available from Eve Snow.

Eve Snow has since revamped their nail polish lineup (I think the new bottles are kind of odd-looking—at first I thought the bottom segment was a mirror reflection of the upper part!), so that’s probably how Alter Ego ended up at Winners. I don’t know if it’s just this particular shade that’s so sheer and uneven, but it makes me less keen on trying more from this boutique brand that claims to have a highly pigmented formula.

Eve Snow polishes are advertised as being “3 Added”—the formula contains argan oil, ginkgo biloba, and vitamin E (the new formula contains an entirely different three: marula oil, equisetum [horsetail] extract, and vitamin B12). The polishes are also “free from several toxins including” formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate (DBP).

The new Eve Snow Nail Lacquer retails for GBP£14 / US$16 (I don’t know what my older bottle retailed at) and contains 0.33 US fl oz / 10 mL. It is made in the UK. The company is cruelty-free and vegan-friendly.

The polishes can be ordered online at Eve Snow’s official site (though everything seems sold out at the moment), Net-a-Porter US, and on Sephora US.

Eve Snow was founded by entrepreneur Yvette Snowden. The company is based in London, England.