Cult Nails A Day at the Races Collection

I am such a fan of Cult Nails that I didn't hesitate to pre-order the entire second collection. I am such a slacker that I didn't get around to trying them until weeks after they arrived. Now that I have, I've got lots of pictures to share.

The first one I swatched was Cruisin' Nude. This has a pretty pink shimmer that turns shy in normal room light. It applied wonderfully, covering in two coats. I wish I could have gotten some photos of it shimmering outside, but the sun does not obey me.





I had the idea that Always Winning, the olive green glitter, would be good for layering, so I added a coat of it over Cruisin' Nude. (Adding a top coat to smooth the glitter out might have been a good idea, but I was in a swatching frenzy and wanted to keep moving.)





I couldn't think of anything quite like Always Winning in my stash, but I went through my drawers and found GOSH Green Hawaii, which seemed like it was in the same branch of the family tree. I put three coats of each (plus top coat this time) on alternating fingers and found the GOSH is a much brighter green, lime rather than olive.




Top to bottom: Always Winning, Green Hawaii, Always Winning, Green Hawaii.

Devious Nature is a pink creme. Yes, I've been on a no buy for pinks and reds, but I had to get the whole set lest I regret it later, right? (Don't answer that.) I had trouble capturing the true color of this one; it's a bright hot pink that leans slightly toward purple/berry. My camera decided to show me a less bright, not particulary purple tone (and also decided in some shots to make it look like I had dirt under my fingernails—no idea what's going on there, as I did not go out and weed flowerbeds in the middle of my swatching session). I've color corrected the photos the best I could but I'm not image editing wizard. I used three coats of this one. If I were going to skip a color from the collection, it'd be this one. I completely understand why Maria included it—she's developing a line, and a well-rounded line needs plenty of "normal" colors in it. It's just that I have an overabundance of those sorts of colors already and crave more unusual things now.





The next polish satisfies those cravings of mine; Captivated is a coral jelly packed with glitter. I put a coat of it on over Devious Nature and very much liked the result. (I didn't try it on its own because I was anxious to get to the last polish in the collection—one of those cool toned colors that I love—but Alli McBally did feature Captivated just recently so go see.)









Finally we come to the most "Karen" color in the collection, Let Me Fly, a
deliciously murky turquoise shimmer. Two coats of this and I was in love.







This reminded me of Butter London Victoriana, another two coat turquoise shimmer, but they're not dupes. Victoriana's shimmer is much more prominent, giving it an almost silvery look compared to Let My Fly's mysterious murkiness.




Top to bottom: Let Me Fly, Victoriana, Let Me Fly, Victoriana.


Top to bottom: Victoriana, Let Me Fly.

To sum it up, this is another set of winners from Cult Nails. I very much look forward to seeing what Maria comes up with next as she grows the line, and can't wait to see what she does with purple, my favorite color; I hope that's one of the shades in the next collection.