NOTD: Nails Inc, Burlington Arcade

This time last year I was working at an advertising agency in Central London. Every morning I got off the tube at Green Park and walked up Burlington Arcade. It is a covered walkway, panelled in wood and lined with very traditional, upmarket, specialist shops. They sell cashmere and walking sticks and antique pens, riding crops, polo mallets, delicious chocolates, perfumes in large glass vials. Halfway down the Arcade sits a man in uniform, top hat and tails, with a wooden seat and brushes and boot polish all set out, ready to shine your shoes.

I think that the old-England, upper-class burnish of Burlington Arcade itself is what Nails Inc were trying to capture with this opulent burgundy-magenta polish. It is a blue-toned metallic red, very nearly pink or plum. There are red and blue reflections in it, not quite sparkle, more of a high shimmer. It's the kind of colour that might adorn the curtains in the study of an Oxford don, or deck the walls in a back-in-time Victorian style gentlemens' club.

On nails, it's a warm and evocative colour, bright enough to cheer up a grey day. The wear is good (this is day 3, pictured above) and application satisfyingly smooth. It took two coats to achieve an opaque finish.

Burlington Arcade is sadly not currently available on Nails Inc's website, but you can find it as part of the Nails Inc Party Collection (£20) at makeupbits.co.uk