SinfulColors CitrusTwist Swatches and Shenanigans

SinfulColors has certainly been keeping me busy swatching. First there were the Valentine and St. Patrick's glitters, then the opalescent toppers, and today I've got the three jelly shimmers from the CitrusTwist display: Ring the Belini (yellow orange), Zest of Times (hot pink), and Horizon Shine (red orange).



I tried these first on their own. Top to bottom: Ring the Belini, Horizon Shine, Zest of Times (3 coats of each of these); pinky has a layer cake of Ring the Belini, Horizon Shine, Zest of Times, and Ring the Belini. You can see that these can be worn on their own (though with my skintone, I likely won't with Ring the Belini, but it sure is fun to use it to layer with). They don't all have quite the same finish; Ring the Belini has shimmer and a big helping of microflakies, while Zest of Times has a more balanced mix of shimmer and even smaller microflakies, and Horizon Shine is mostly shimmer with only a scattering of microflakies.





Given how well these CitrusTwist colors layered with each other, I was excited to see how they'd look over different base colors. I reached first for Sally Hansen Insta Dri Enchantment (which was still hanging around from the SinfulColors Opalescent swatching session). I did two coats of that on all my fingers to start. Top to bottom below: Enchantment alone, plus 1 coat of Ring the Belini, plus 1 coat of Horizon Shine, plus 1 coat of Zest of Times. The combination with Ring the Belini yielded an orange shade that looks very weird with my skintone but I can see looking really good on other complexions. The other two pairings were quite pretty, I thought.





I figured the Sally Hansen shades had had enough fun with SinfulColors for a while, so pulled out the Bonita All Summer Long set to serve as bases for the rest of my swatching session. None of the Bonitas are labelled with shade names.



I gave Ring the Belini a chance to shine with a more compatible base color, the Bonita pastel yellow creme. I left my index finger with just the two coats of the Bonita, then built up coats of Ring the Belini over that, doing one on my middle finger up to three on my pinky. With a more orange yellow base, this could be the most subtle ombre mani ever.





For my next experiment, I put on two coats of the Bonita green shimmer, then topped with two coats of Ring the Belini on all but my accent ring finger. The SinfulColors really warmed up the green and the golden yellow microflakies and shimmer added so much visual interest. This combination would be perfect for St. Patrick's Day, for sure.





Back to the subtle ombre idea, I made one with a base of the Bonita pastel orange creme, adding coats of SinfulColors Horizon Shine in the 1 on ring to 3 on pinky pattern used above for the Ring the Belini yellow/orange look. It was hard for me to tell much difference between one and three coats over the soft orange base.



The ombre approach was much more effective with the pale orchid creme Bonita and Zest of Times. I could definitely see wearing this as a full mani, though I'm not sure what I'd do on my thumbs. Maybe I'd reverse the order of the fingers and do three coats of Zest of Times alone on my thumbs.



We all learned as kids that red and blue make purple, and I love purple so thought I'd try it with Zest of Times, layering two coats of it over the Bonita pastel blue creme, leaving an accent finger blue to show the transformative effect of the shimmer. This says "Easter candy" to me.





There was one more color left from the Bonita set, so I couldn't let it go untried. I did two coats of this hot pink shimmer, then layered one coat of Ring the Belini, Horizon Shine, and Zest of Times over it on successive nails. This is the same pattern as in the look I did with Sally Hansen Enchantment; Ring the Belini makes a much better for me orange shade over this pinker base.



I had to have a bit more fun before I finished up, so I did quick chunky gradients over the top of the above look, brushing on the CitrusTwist colors that weren't already on each nail. Some of the combinations were more pleasing than others, but all of them made me happy to look at.





I think SinfulColors has done a great job putting out interesting polishes this season. I do wish they'd be clearer on the displays which colors are new/core/repromote/limited edition, but I suppose that's what the internet is for, with an ad hoc army of intelligence specialists who figure this stuff out.