Cirque Colors Rose Quartz Nail Polish - Swatch and Review

I Purchased This

Hey everyone! 

I hope you had a wonderful time during the holidays with your family! I wanted to share my thoughts on Cirque Colors Rose Quartz Nail Polish that I bought during Black Friday. I was growing out my nails for my wedding and during the process I started getting back into nail polish. I'd been following Cirque for a while but never bought anything so Black Friday seemed like perfect timing.

Cirque Rose Quartz. This is described as a "sheer milky pink nail polish with sparkling holographic flakes". Cirque says this is opaque in 2-3 coats. I have a longer free edge so I find it's mostly opaque at three coats due to the sheer formula, it'd probably be look more opaque if you have a shorter nail. The holographic flakes add a wonderful depth but some of the larger flakes don't always lay flat so you might need to use the brush to encourage it to lay down. The nail polish does dry semi matte so it benefits from a top coat to add back the shine. It's a thin formula that levels fairly well, I also get excellent wear time from it but I tend to with my longer nails.

I will admit that I didn't realize how much smaller the bottle is compared to other brands. Cirque doesn't list the size on their website (unless I'm not looking in the right place) so I assumed it was 15 mL/0.5 oz like most brands. It's actually about 3/4ths the size of your usual nail polish bottle (11 mL/0.37 oz). Regardless, it's a beautiful formula and I've already worn it for several weeks straight.

The polish is $12.00 from Cirque Colors. They do have other vendors if you don't want to buy directly from their website.

What nail polish have you been enjoying lately?

Classic Color: China Glaze For Audrey Swatch and Review

I Purchased This

Today's post is a swatch and review of a quintessential nail polish color that I think everyone should own. This is China Glaze's For Audrey, their version of a Tiffany Blue (as close as they can get to it since the actual Tiffany Blue is trademarked). It's a truly classic color (thus the title) and I want to share my swatch so if you don't have it yet, you should add it to your collection. 

Two coats is all that's needed for opaqueness. It is a gorgeous color if you don't already have it!

Do you like China Glaze polishes? How about For Audrey in particular?

Color Club Harp On It: Swatch and Review

I Purchased This Affiliate Link

Hi everyone! I want to get back into the game of swatching nail polishes now that my nails are nice and long so I thought I'd go through my stash of well-loved polishes. Today's pick is Color Club Harp on It from their Halo Hues collection. Harp On It is a silver linear holographic polish. 

The formula is fantastic for me. I don't have any issues with balding and can get opaque coverage in two coats. It's utterly fabulous in the sunlight. Polish tends to wear forever on my stiletto nails so I can't comment reliably on wear time.

The swatches were taken in direct sunlight with no flash.

In natural light, the holographicness is more muted and it's more like a silver polish. Be sure to wear this out in the sun!

Harp on It/the Halo Hues collection can be difficult to find in stores. You can get it on Amazon (affiliate) or on Color Club.

Are you a fan of holographic nail polishes?

Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low Nail Polish - Swatch & Review

Now that Halloween is over, I can start to get into the Christmas spirit. Today's nail polish is from Essie's Winter Collection and wins the prize for having a ridiculous name despite the actual prettiness of the color. It's described as a molten gold but to me it's a silver-gold foil with subtle bronze/gold flecks to break up the monotony. It's a color that will look more silver or more gold depending on the lighting. This was opaque in two coats and easy to apply. I thought it might be streaky due to the metallic finish but thankfully it's not.

The rest of Essie's Winter Collection is forgettable so I'd just recommend picking up just this color.

What's your current manicure color? 

Sinful Colors Prosecco Nail Polish - Swatch & Review

This Sinful Colors Nail Polish has been the talk of one of the nail polish groups I've in. I'm such a sucker for anything hyped up so I went searching for it. I finally found it for Rite Aid and it was only $1.99.

Prosecco is a medium grey with a hint of brown/taupe (which reminds me of putty) with a beautiful gold glass fleck shimmer through out. It is a little thin so it took three coats to get opaque though I could have gone for four coats.

Does it live up to the hype? For me it totally does. It might seem like a blah grey/brown with gold shimmer but there's something about the color that makes me think it's more expensive than it actually was. Sinful Colors often goes on sale so you may be able to catch it for only $.99. 

If you find this color in stores, definitely pick it up!

NCLA Nail Wraps Review + Two Week Wear Results

Press Sample

Nail wraps and nail stickers have been really popular lately due to the general ease of application and minimal fuss to get a beautiful nail design. I received a sample of the NCLA Nail Wraps from the House of Hollywood collection and the sample had 12 wraps with a nail file.

These nail wraps aren't made of polish so you don't have to worry about them drying out in the packaging over time.

Where to Purchase: NCLA
Price: $16.00-$18.00 for 26 nail stickers, enough for 2 applications according to the company.
Do they test on animals?: The company does not.
Packaging: The Nail Wraps come on a sheet incased in plastic. You peel off the nail stickers via the tabbed end. It was a bit fiddly to get the sticker off at first so I had to bend the paper to lift the tabbed edge so I could peel it off without ripping.

Application: 

Prior to applying the nail wraps, you're supposed to apply a coat of clear nail polish, let it dry, then apply to the nail. I think your wear time will depend on the clear nail polish you use; I chose to apply a layer of Nailtek II Intensive Therapy which dries a little sticky. I think the stickiness really helped the nail wrap adhere.

Overall, the hardest part was trying to figure out the right size. I went through three wraps before figuring out the correct size for my finger. The problem is that it's difficult to see the edge of the nail wrap so you're guessing as you peel it off. I did figure out that they do have wraps for even my most slender pinkie finger but I didn't want to go through the three wraps to figure it out.

Removing the excess was easy; I made sure to pull the extra over my free edge and used the included nail file to file off the rest. It only took a few files for the excess to come off. However I did notice that some of my free edge was not fully covered by the wrap.

Wear Time

Here how my nails looked on Day 1, prior to putting a topcoat on the nail wrap. After I put the top coat on, I noticed some wrinkling at the top part of the nail (which you'll see in the after picture). 

Here's how my nails looked after two weeks. There's some obvious nail growth and wear at the free edge. Despite the wrinkling towards the cuticle, the sticker didn't keep peeling or lifting even through copious applications of cuticle oil.

Removal:

One of the big cons to the product is that since it's not made out of nail polish, you have to peel it off your nail to remove it which can damage the nail underneath. However, you can ease product removal by "melting down" the wrap with acetone. Once I rubbed a little acetone on the wrap, it softened and made it easy for me to remove with little to no damage to my nail.

Conclusion:

Although more expensive than most nail stickers/wraps on the market, $16 for two applications means each manicure costs about $8 and I was personally able to wear it for two weeks. However your mileage may vary of course and I've read of other people experiencing only a few days wear. 

NCLA is unique because of the collaborations they do with different fashion houses and brands so you can get designs themed around them. I also got two compliments over the two weeks that I wore the nail wraps and I hardly ever get anyone to notice my nails. I think if there's a design you like that you can't replicate through typical nail art methods, the NCLA nail wraps are worth considering!

Disclaimer: I received a sample of the NCLA Nail Wraps through attending an event. All opinions are my own. I was not paid or compensated to write this post.

Swatch and Review: Butter London The Full Monty

Today I have a swatch and review post of Butter London's The Full Monty. The Full Monty is a beautiful light gold foil. I bought this and Champers during Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty promotion, where you could get two Butter London polishes for $15 (they're normally $15 each).

I used three coats for the swatch. I could have gotten away with two coats if I was careful but I preferred how opaque it was at three coats. Normally I don't bother with polishes that are three coaters but I love the formula for this color because it dries very quickly (without a top coat), is never goopy, and levels well. I applied three coats and took a nap about an hour afterwards and didn't encounter any sheet marks.

I prefer purchasing my Butter London's on sale or with a gift card (and that happened to be both for me) so despite the $15, I adore my polishes. You can get them at Butter London.

Do you own any Butter London polishes or is the price point a little much for you?

Claire's Mood Polish Swatches and Review

I got the whole set of Mood Polishes from Laura of Sawan's prize pack so I shall review and swatch them all today.

No luck with finding Zorro yet, but I am still looking for him. It's been over a month and I feel bad having gotten used to him not being with me.


Here is the warm picture, which is how it is normally in room temp. As you can see, the tips are slightly changing colors already from the temperature difference. The pink is a bit brighter, like pink highlighter bright.

Here is the cold picture, it is fairly accurate.

If I had to pick a favorite, it'd definitely be Wild/Calm, which is the pink/purple combo. It had the best formula and wear (This was 2 coats I believe, and I went 4 days without chipping, and oddly enough, worked really well with my Nubar Foundation base coat when my normal polishes didn't work all that well with it). I loved the sparkle and glitteryness.

The really annoying one has to be Happy/Earthy which is the green/green combo. It had such a thin formula and took maybe 4 coats? I wasn't fond of Daring/Innocent which is the yellow/grey because the yellow just made my skin looks weird and sickly. I loved the grey side of it though and wish it stayed that color.

I'm okay about the other colors, I though I'd like the Peaceful/Confident combo which was the teal/blue color more but the change wasn't dramatic enough for me, ditto for the Fabulous/Funky combo which was bright pink/pink.

If you could only have one, I say pick Wild/Calm, and since they're usually BOGO50%, I'd suggest Peaceful/Confident next.