My latest short absence from blogging was caused by yet another cross country road trip from Idaho to Michigan. For my return, I have polishes I picked up on a similar trip earlier this year, some of the LIT NYC colors stocked in select CVS stores. These are the ones that have LED bulbs built into the caps, with a push button switch at the very top. I have other brands that use this same gimmick, and I don't find the illumination helpful, so that's not why I bought them; I thought the polishes inside the bottles could be from higher end brands, which makes sense since these were priced around $8. I focused on the glitters and shimmers, selecting these colors (left to right): Lovergirl, Power, Pop, Laser Beam, Sassy, Risqué, High Voltage, L.A. Nights.
Laser Beam is a white with white and pale gold microflakie shimmer. I used three coats for my swatch, though two might have worked if I'd made them a tad thicker. I think it's pretty, and you all know I'm not much for gold usually.
Pop is also a microflakie shimmer; it's a pale orchid with silver flecks (which you can probably spot on my skin as well as on my nails; clean up was a bit harder with this one). I used two coats for full coverage.
I can only go so long without reaching for glitter, so Lovergirl was up next. This has a clear base with a various sizes of hex glitter in predominantly purple, pink, and blue, some of those holo, plus some gold with a few silver squares mixed in, too. It sounds busy but the combination works.
I popped a single coat of Lovergirl on the Pop base and quite liked how it looked. Very festive for the spring season.
Power is a duochrome shimmer with a blue/purple shift that also has hints of red violet and turquoise. On my index finger, I used one coat of Power over a black base and on the others, three coats of Power alone.
I then added a coat of Lovergirl on three of my digits and wow, I really liked that combination, even more than over the lighter Pop.
I swatched Sassy, a mocha with gold and pink microflakie shimmer, and High Voltage, a deep greyed teal traditional shimmer, as a pair. Top to bottom: three coats of Sassy alone, one coat of Sassy layered on top of two coats of High Voltage, two coats of High Voltage alone, and one coat of Lovergirl over High Voltage. I didn't care for Sassy alone with my skintone, though did like it layered over High Voltage, which also served to disguise the very slight brushstrokes in the darker base (I've definitely seen way worse, but feel like now that flecked/microflakie is an option, all shimmers should be that way). Of course I loved Lovergirl layered on top of the green.
Risqué is another duochrome like Power; this one is warm tones of gold, berry, and rust. I did my index finger with a black base topped with one coat of the shimmer and three coats of Risqué on its own on the other fingers. It seemed a little sheer still at three coats, so I would definitely use an opaque base for this one if I wear it again. I did like the shift in it, though.
Gold end of the shift:
Rust/rose gold end of the shift:
I wrapped up my swatching session with L.A. Nights, a black with silver holo microglitter. Under indirect light, the glitter mostly showed its silver face, but with the least bit of direct light, the rainbows popped, so I kept it in direct light. I did add topcoat to this one, as it was slightly bumpy without it due to how much glitter there is (has to be, I think, as the black base is fairly opaque). I did try a black base on my index finger, but it didn't make much difference, just the glitter was ever so slightly more dense on the nails where I had two coats of L.A. Nights alone.
I stopped by the CVS where I bought these after I got back to Michigan and it looked like they hadn't been restocked, so I'm guessing these aren't going to roll out to more stores. Which is a shame because they are nice polishes. They remind me a lot of Orly, actually.
