Today I have some polishes to share courtesy of Barielle and my friend Lucy, who did all the work to get these for review and will post her own entry on them once they make it across the ocean and into her stash. First up is Pink Quartz, a candy pink creme. I used two coats and found it a little streaky, which isn't surprising for a color like this. I'm guessing it would have evened out with three coats but since I planned to layer on top of it I didn't test that theory.
What I layered on top of the pink was one coat of Buddha-ful. This is a warm pink jelly with greenish flakies. (There was an earlier version of this polish which had more of an ivory/peachy base, but now it seems to have settled on being pink.) I really should have added some topcoat to smooth this out a bit, but I was in a swatching frenzy and didn't want to take the time.
The last polish in the trio, Amber Sparkler, was my least favorite. I liked the color—bronze with a touch of silver—but it was very difficult for me to deal with the brushstrokes. I had to be very careful when applying and a second coat didn't seem to help things settle out as I'd hoped. I think what's missing for me is some sparkle; if there were little flecks of something in there I bet I wouldn't notice the lines so much.
It did look better from a distance; the frostiness was not so obvious in real life, when my hands are very rarely as close to anyone's eyes as they are to the camera lens when I am taking pictures.
Since I had Buddha-ful within reach, I tried adding that on top of Amber Sparkler. I had hoped only to obscure the brushstrokes, so was quite pleasantly suprised to see that the darker base brought out a periwinkle shift in the flakies. I saw hints of that over the pink, but over the bronze it was really obvious and really pretty.
Pink Quartz and Amber Sparkler are both part of Gem Stone Earth collection for Spring 2012. Buddha-ful was originally released as part of last year's Karma collection, but it's still readily available and would be my pick of these three. Barielle polishes retail at $8 for a .45 fl. oz. bottle and are often on BOGO50% sale at the Barielle website.
The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider.
They look so great!!
ReplyDeleteI love your manis!
I like the last combo. I would totally flip out with all the brushstrokes though.
ReplyDeleteBuddha-ful works great on both, the Amber Sparkler looks like it might be very close to Misa Teddy Bear...
ReplyDeleteI really like the pink!
ReplyDeletePretty colors! I really like Buddha-ful and I love the shade you put it over. It came out really nice.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful colors! I love that Pink Quartz.
ReplyDeleteI like that flakey polish!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous pink! Love the shape of your nails too!
ReplyDeleteThat pink is perfect for you! It really goes well with your skin tone. Lovely swatches... Do you know if these sets will be at winners soon?
ReplyDeleteKaren, I've got no clue about Winners, sorry.
Deletei love the pink and the last one doesnt look so bad with the flakies on top.
ReplyDeleteThat pink color is really pretty.
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting how Buddha-ful changes depending on the base. Lovely!
ReplyDeletebuddha-ful looks so amazing, i like pink quartz to :-D
ReplyDeleteBuddha-ful is great! I love how the milky base makes some colors look really different.
ReplyDeleteBoth base colors look great! I love them paired with Buddha-ful! It's such a pretty flakie!
ReplyDeleteI think I am lemming Buddha-ful at the moment. It is totally gorgeous. I don't have any Barielle in my stash but I may have to remedy that this year!
ReplyDeletecheers
BV
The colours look great on you! Love the review and can't wait to see buddha-ful in person!
ReplyDeleteBuddha-ful is really pretty! I agree with you on brushstrokes on Amber Sparkler (even if no one will check your polish at that close distance, unless you meet someone who still kisses women's hands :-P).
ReplyDelete