Monday, July 28, 2014

Finger Paints Enchanted Mermaid Collection

Lately it seems Sally Beauty puts out a new Finger Paints display every month; the one for July was Enchanted Mermaid, which promised "mermaid tail texture". I didn't know what that meant, but the colors looked nice, so I grabbed all four: Sea Temptress (pearl), Underwater Enchantress (dusty olive green), Tails of Love (teal), and Sailor's Lure (blue).



By the time I got around to trying these, I'd seen some other people's swatches, and the colors didn't seem to look nearly as good on the nail as in the bottle. Thus instead of committing to full hand swatches of each, I Skittled them, and boy was I glad I did, as they looked yucky and lumpy to me. I used three coats of Sea Temptress (index finger, top in photo below) and two of the others (same order as bottles above).



After some initial skepticism—I wasn't ready when Jason Wu and CND did the Anna Effect back in 2011, for sure, and was in the "looks interesting but not sure it's for me" camp when the first OPI Liquid Sand colors showed up a couple years later in the Mariah Carey collection—I got on the textured nail polish train. I like texture now; I've got a Zoya PixieDust on my digits as I type, actually. That said, this texture looks wrong to me, because it's quite clearly glitter in there, and in my view, glitter should show, not be submerged in shimmer. At least when Sally Hansen did it with in the Xtreme Wear Fall 2010 release, the glitter was somewhat visible; here, it's just buried.



I added topcoat, which smoothed these out to the touch but not so much to the eye. I was still "nope" on these.



Since topcoat didn't work to make me like these, I decided to try layering. That didn't help. Top to bottom: Sea Temptress (3 coats alone, for comparison purposes), Sailor's Lure plus Sea Temptress, black creme plus Sea Temptress, black creme plus Sailor's Lure plus Underwater Enchantress. Just no.



I was feeling stubborn the day I swatched these, so pondered how I could use them in a way they wouldn't bother me. I decided the Pretty Woman Seashells nail art kit languishing in my stash was just the thing; mermaids and shells go together, after all.



I alternated Underwater Enchantress and Tails of Love on my nails, then patted on the crushed shell pieces from one of the pots in the kit while the polish was still wet. I didn't do a great job covering all my nails, but I could overlook that because I really liked how the colors coordinated.





Pretty as the shells were, they took texture to a whole 'nother level, the catching on my hair and clothes level, which does not work for me. To see if I could smooth things over and make this look even more mermaid-y, I topped the shells with a coat of Pure Ice Sparkling Seas (which you may remember from last week's Pure Ice and SinfulShine post) and then clear topcoat. Now this I liked; this I'd wear. The blue of Sparkling Seas did overpower most of the shell colors, and one layer of topcoat wasn't quite enough to level out all the spaces between the shells, but I've got ways to deal with that (i.e. Gelous). At this point, the Finger Paints were not really showing through at all, which was okay by me.





So yeah, I like the Enchante Mermaid colors best when they are covered up by a lot of other stuff so I don't have to see their texture. I'm not saying no one should wear these; I'm saying I don't think I will be, at least not on their own.



13 comments:

  1. Karen you cracked me up with this one! I actually really like the mani you ended up with but you probably could have skipped the Finger Paints to get there which doesn't say much for the FPs. I bought two of them but haven't tried them yet. Now I am glad I didn't buy all four.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hehe, I must admit that I also think those polishes look a bit oddly textured! I do love the design you ended up with, it's so pretty and sparkly! Anyway, this was a really funny post to read, thanks! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I saw those in Sally's and had 3 of then in my hand but for some reason (probably sanity) put them all back, Now after seeing swatches I'm glad I did. I don't like them at all as they are too chunky and look like a mani disaster. I really love the seashell look though that you paired them with. Now THAT is a beautiful mani. Probably not too wearable, but very pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hmmm I'm not sure about the finish to these polishes :-| It's a bit odd! They certainly look good in the bottle.

    I like the seashells - now that's cool :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Compared to China Glaze's Crinkled Chrome, I think I prefer these. I was all crinkled brows when I saw China Glaze's. But these, I think they could do awesome reptile-monster mani ;D Or some sort of rare deep sea creature nail arts. Haha!! I actually like Underwater Enchantress. But I suppose as a basic manicure they would seem only lumpy.

    Hehe, love the end mani you did for this too! Those crushed shells are stunning! You made them look like gorgeous underwater treasures! ♥

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh my... weird, these nail polishes are and I do like textured ones! Their finish doesn't look good... I like them with the shells :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm so glad I cannot stand textured polishes on my nails - otherwise I would be lemming these like mad - sooo pretty!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I totally agree with you, I'm in love with textured polish but this is effect is way too far from what I like.
    BTW Tails of Love and Sailor's Lure have a very nice base shade, excluding their texture.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Seashells look a bit weird, but I love the look! :D

    ReplyDelete
  10. The only one I really don't like is the white one. The other three are kinda pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This collection is so frustrating because I LOVE them in the bottles! I would have been fine with either a smooth finish or a Liquid Sand finish... but not this bizarre in-between. The look you ended up with is fabulous though! : )

    ReplyDelete
  12. I got so excited when I saw these at Sallys. Then I swatched em on a piece of paper and was like 'hell no!'

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for spending the money on these so I can save mine! (j/k) Actually, I had seen these reviewed on another blog a couple weeks ago and knew then I would be passing on the collection.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading and commenting! I greatly appreciate knowing I'm not just talking to myself here. :) I'm moderating most comments now due to the spate of spammers who claim to be looking for sexy times.