Wheel K11: Maybelline Colorama Top Coats

For today's Nail Wheel Wednesday, I have toppers from back in the day. I collected the Maybelline Colorama Top Coats at Dollar Tree stores years ago; I don't even remember when or where I got the lone Wet 'n' Wild that fills out this group, though it's definitely an older bottle style.



(all 3 coats on their own, 2 over black)

1. Maybelline Colorama Silver Tulle
2. Maybelline Colorama Rock Me
3. Maybelline Colorama Cold as Ice
4. Maybelline Colorama Gold Wash
5. Maybelline Colorama Lemon Twist
6. Maybelline Colorama Gives Me the Chills
7. Maybelline Colorama Frosty Pink
8. Maybelline Colorama Shoes to Match
9. Maybelline Colorama Plum Pretty
10. Wet 'n' Wild Ice Blue Pearl
11 to 20. Same as above, over black creme


Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 10:

Wheel B10: Jellies from Wet Paint and Wet 'n' Wild

It took me a few false starts before I settled on painting jellies for this Nail Wheel Wednesday. I pulled some textures, but then realized I was missing two of the Nicole by OPI ones (maybe I already put them on a wheel; maybe they're still in a box), then I grabbed some glitters but noticed I had some that might better be on a texture wheel. I hesistated before I pulled the jellies, wondering if maybe I should do them by color rather than brand (I may go back and do that for wheels round two, maybe, if I ever finish wheels round one), but time was growing short if I wanted to make it home for dinner, which I did, so jellies it was. These are from Wet Paint and Wet 'n' Wild. I'm trying something new this week and linking to posts in which you can see these on the nail, when possible.

I'm sad to say that Wet Paint Nails closed after the death of their founder in 2016. I wish I had filled out my collection of jellies when they did their inventory sell off but I was distracted by other things.



(all two coats)

1. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Villa Blanca [Pale Jellies from Wet Paint Nails]
2. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Part-Time Blonde [Pale Jellies from Wet Paint Nails]
3. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Raincoat Slicker [Wet Paint Jellies]
4. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Orange Julia's [Jelly Polish Comparisons Galore]
5. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Jelly Rancher Red [Wet Paint Jellies]
6. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Cameo Blush [Pale Jellies from Wet Paint Nails]
7. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Voice of Raisin [Wet Paint Jellies]
8. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Jazzberry Jam [Wet Paint Jellies]
9. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Grape Minds Think Alike [Dark and Mysterious Wet Paint Jellies]
10. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Bluesy Woozy [Pale Jellies from Wet Paint Nails]
11. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Prepare for Takeoff [Dark and Mysterious Wet Paint Jellies]
12. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Sheer Stockings [Dark and Mysterious Wet Paint Jellies]
13. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Go Fly a Malachite [Wet Paint Jellies]
14. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze I Am Aquagirl [Wet Paint Jellies]
15. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Waterfalling for You [Wet Paint Jellies]
16. Wet Paint Top Coat Glaze Inky Nights [Wet Paint Jellies]
17. Wet 'n' Wild Candy Gloss Nail Tint A Case of Blue [Wet 'n' Wild Candy Gloss Nail Tints]
18. Wet 'n' Wild Candy Gloss Nail Tint One Grape or Another [Wet 'n' Wild Candy Gloss Nail Tints]
19. Wet 'n' Wild Candy Gloss Nail Tint Edie in Pink [Wet 'n' Wild Candy Gloss Nail Tints]
20. Wet 'n' Wild Candy Gloss Nail Tint Floral Support [Wet 'n' Wild Candy Gloss Nail Tints]


Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 9:



10 through 12:



13 through 16:



16 through 20:

Wet 'n' Wild Candy Gloss Nail Tints

Thanks to all of you who left kind comments on my last post. I'm back home in Idaho now for at least few weeks. My brother and I have more work to do to get Mom's house ready for sale, and of course there's stuff to do related to financial matters, so we'll be spending some time in Illinois doing that. Emotionally, I'm doing okay, as well as could be expected, I suppose. I'm trying to get back into some sort of normal routine, and blogging is part of that, so today I have swatches and comparisons of the Candy Gloss Nail Tints (their term for jellies) from Wet 'n' Wild that are in the Pop! Back to School display that showed up in June (it's still in stores now; apparently I'm not the only one that wasn't ready for back to school back then). The four shades here are Floral Support, Edie in Pink, One Grape or Another, and A Case of Blue. Unlike the regular black handles for the Meglast line, these have white ones with a Boom! design on them (which, if you've been listening to the Hamilton soundtrack as much as I have, will give you an earworm. Boom! Goes the cannon...)



Unlike the regular black handles for the Meglast line, these have white ones with a Boom! design on them (which, if you've been listening to the Hamilton soundtrack as much as I have, will give you an earworm. Boom! Goes the cannon...)



Floral Support is a red orange buildable jelly. Below, starting at top, is one thin coat, two coats, three coats, then four. There is some phantom dirt line (as always, thanks to Lizzy for that term), which didn't please me, but I did like the formula; one coat was only very slightly streaky, and it self-leveled perfectly at two coats.



Of course I tried it over different bases. Top to bottom below: two coats of Floral Support alone, over skintone (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Cafe au Lait), over white creme, over silver metallic. I was surprised how Halloween orange it looked over white.



Could I resist doing comparisons? I could not. Left to right: OPI Chromatic Orange, Wet 'n' Wild Floral Support, Essie Art New-Beau, Wet Paint Orange Julia's.



On the nail over white below, in same order as bottles above. Floral Support is a pretty good match for OPI Chromatic Orange, for a price that's 80% less. It's less yellow than either the Essie or the Wet Paint.



Edie in Pink is, unsurprisingly, a pink jelly. Below, top to bottom, two coats of it alone, over skintone, over white, and over silver. The surprise here was how it looked over silver, taking on a much more purple-toned hue.



For comparison's sake: OPI Pen & Pink, Wet 'n' Wild Edie in Pink, Essie Love Sheen, L'Oreal Jolly Lolly.



Layered these over white; below they're in the same order as the bottles above. As with the oranges, the Wet 'n' Wild is a close match for the OPI. It's not too far off the L'Oreal, just a touch darker. It's more than a touch darker than the Essie.



One Grape or Another is a purple jelly. You know the drill by now: top to bottom, two coats of it alone, over skintone, over white, and over silver. I liked it best over silver, though over white it's certainly nice and bright and cheerful.



The purple comparison lineup: OPI Purple Perspective, Wet 'n' Wild One Grape or Another, Essie Highest Bidder, and Wet Paint Jazzberry Jam.



You know what's next: on the nail over white, same order as the bottles. Here, nothing is a close match for anything else. Yay, more purples!



A Case of Blue is the last in the quartet; it's a blue jelly, of course. Say it with me now: top to bottom, two coats of it alone, over skintone, over white, and over silver. I liked this one over both white and silver; alone or over skintone it looked a little muddy to me.



Blues for comparison purposes: L'Oreal Miss Pixie, Wet 'n' Wild A Case of Blue, Essie Point of Blue, and Wet Paint Waterfalling for You. (I didn't pull the OPI Color Paints blue, Indigo Motif, as I remembered from my jelly comparison post that it was more opaque than most jellies.)



The blues above on the nail over white below. Like the purples, no matches here. The Wet 'n' Wild come closest to the Wet Paint, but it's lighter. It's more warm-toned than either of the other two.



Before I put these away, I tried layering them with each other. Top to bottom, over white: Floral Support topped with Edie in Pink makes a pretty coral hue, Edie in Pink topped with One Grape or Another is not that different than One Grape alone over white, One Grape or Another topped with A Case of Blue yields a deep blurple, and A Case of Blue topped with Edie in Pink makes a slightly different blurple.



Overall, I'd say these jellies are a good buy. Inexpensive, decently behaved, and fun to play with. Sure, they're about a year behind the pricier brands, but they're not going to look dated like a crackle might (not that I let that stop me from wearing crack if I want).

Jelly Polish Comparisons Galore

Includes some samples provided for review

Today I have the thing that consumed this week's blogging time that could otherwise have been devoted to Nail Wheel Wednesday: a big comparison post of jelly polishes. OPI, Essie, and Sephora have all released jellies this summer, and of course I wanted to try them and see how they matched up with my go to Wet Paint jellies as well as a few older releases. I actually swatched for this post twice, once before I'd seen the Essie shades, and once after I'd kindly been sent a set by a rep for a different brand just so I could make my post more complete. Thus you'll see some swatches from back when was trying to coax my nails to be more squoval and some more recent ones when I've once again I let them follow their natural oval tendencies. I really really intended to get this post out long before now, but as I've expressed probably too many times already, retiring has really messed with my routines.



Let us start with bases, because I was not going to swatch these over bare nails, and the three newest sets of jellies all have a base sold with them. Left to right below: Essie White Page (from the Silk Watercolor collection), OPI Silver Canvas Undercoat (from Color Paints), Wet Paint Always Buy Platinum (core), Formula X Platinum Prime (from the Infinite Ombre set). The white was two coats; the silvers one coat each. The Wet Paint is the winner of the silver bases, as it doesn't look streaky but rather is subtly sparkly (what may look like a streak is in fact a prominent ridge on my nail; I didn't use base coat under these).



To show the effect of these bases, I topped them with the same jelly polish, Essie Blush Stroke. Note how over the white, the jelly is a warm pink, but the silvers make it look cool-toned.



I decided to do a white base (Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White) with silver tips (Nicole by OPI Give Me the 1st Dance) for many of the comparisons to show the jellies over both. I started with the yellows, as those seemed to have the least variation when I did quick test swatches on paper. Top to bottom: Essie Muse Myself, Formula X Limitless Lemon, Wet Paint Raincoat Slicker, OPI Primarily Yellow. I did two coats of each of the jellies over the funky French base. I can't really see any significant differences among these.



I did see a significant difference between this year's OPI yellow jelly (top in photo below) and the one from the Color Tints release, I'm Never Amberassed (bottom). These are both over one coat of Nicole by OPI Give Me the 1st Dance.



The oranges are up next. Top to bottom: Essie Art New-Beau, L'Oreal Mango Mamma, Wet Paint Orange Julia's, and OPI Chromatic Orange. All jellies were two coats except for the OPI, which was one. The L'Oreal is the most yellow-leaning of the quartet, followed by the Wet Paint, then Essie and OPI, which are both more of a true orange. I wouldn't say the Essie and OPI are dupes, though, since the OPI is more pigmented and one coat of it matches two of the Essie.



I can't do bottle pics for all of the comparisons or we'd be here all day, but I did want to include this one for the oranges because it shows why we gotta swatch. Looking at the bottles, I'd guess the Essie and L'Oreal were dupes, but no, they are not.



Moving on to pinks and reds, we have, top to bottom, Essie Blush Stroke, L'Oreal Jolly Lolly, Wet Paint Jelly Rancher Red, and Formula X Boundless Berry. The Essie was two coats, the others one. All of these look more red in the bottle than on the nail. The Wet Paint comes closest to red on the nail, more on the white base than silver.



Pink is so popular, there were enough to do a second hand of comparisons. Top to bottom: Essie Love Sheen, OPI Pen & Pink, OPI Magenta Muse, Essie Highest Bidder. Love Sheen was two coats, the others one. Highest Bidder looked berry in the bottle but is red violet on the nail.



In the above shot, OPI Magenta Muse looks almost red compared to the others, but here's another look. Top to bottom: Formula X Boundless Berry, OPI Magenta Muse, and Wet Paint Jelly Rancher Red, all one coat over silver. The Formula X and OPI are pretty much dupes, both pinker than the Wet Paint.



I split the two Essie pinks into different comparisons as one looked much redder in the bottle, but on the nail, they're not that different. In the photo below, Blush Stroke is on top, Love Sheen on the bottom; at one coat as they are here, they're pretty similar.



While I'm on this hue, here's one more comparison, all OPIs. Top to bottom: Pen & Pink, Be Magentale With Me (Color Tints), and Magenta Muse. I used two coats of Be Magentale With Me to one of the other, but you can see it didn't really build up.



And now my favorite color, purple. Top to bottom: Essie No Shrinking Violet, OPI Purple Perspective, Wet Paint Jazzberry Jam, and Wet Paint Grape Minds Think Alike. I used two coats for all but Grape Minds.



Another look at two of the purples: OPI Purple Perspective on top, Wet Paint Jazzberry Jam on the bottom, each one thin coat over silver. The difference between them is more subtle here, but you can still see that the OPI is cooler toned.



And here's a transitional purple to blue shot. Wet Paint Grape Minds Think Alike is a blue-toned purple and Formula X Infinite Indigo is a purple-toned blue; here they are side by side, Formula X on top.



Moving on to the blues now. Top to bottom: Essie Point of Blue, Formula X Infinite Indigo, Wet Paint Inky Nights, OPI Indigo Motif. I used two coats of the Essie and Formula X, one coat of the others. The OPI seems oddly dark compared to the other colors in the collection.



There is another blue jelly from Wet Paint I couldn't fit in the above comparison; it's in the shot below. Top to bottom: Wet Paint Inky Nights, OPI Indigo Motif, Wet Paint Waterfalling for You. All are one coat. The OPI still seems oddly opaque for a jelly.



After blue comes blue green, which had more entrants than I expected. Top to bottom, OPI Turquoise Aesthetic, Essie Pen & Inky, Formula X Timeless Teal, and Wet Paint I Am Aquagirl. All one coat except Aquagirl, where I used two. The OPI and Essie are more blue than green, the Formula X and Wet Paint more green than blue.



In all these jellies, there are only two greens, and one of them is really more of a yellow green. Top to bottom: OPI Landscape Artist, Wet Paint Go Fly a Malachite, OPI Landscape Artist, Wet Paint Go Fly a Malachite. Each one coat over silver.



One of the fun things about jellies is layering, but not all jellies are alike in this regard. On the far left below, Wet Paint Waterfalling for You (blue) plus Wet Paint Raincoat Slicker (yellow) make green. Next to that, OPI Indigo Motif plus OPI Yellow Primarily yellow don't make green because the blue is too pigmented to layer well. Next to that, OPI Purple Perspective plus Magenta Muse do blend, as neither is so dark as the Indigo was. On the far right, Wet Paint Jazzberry Jam plus Jelly Rancher Red make a nice plummy color.



For a last bit of fun with these, I did clouds a la Nailside. Far left below: Wet Paint Orange Julia's, Jolly Rancher Red, and Jazzberry Jam. Next: OPI Chromatic Orange, Pen & Pink, Magenta Muse. Next: Essie Art New-Beau, Blush Stroke, and Highest Bidder. Far right (which I did not let dry long enough between layers): Essie Love Sheen, No Shrinking Violet, and Point of Blue.



Whew, that's a lot of comparisons. Overall, the Essie mostly are more sheer, while the OPI are somewhat inconsistent in pigmentation. I'm not sure what to say about the Formula X other than the set would be a good gift for someone who had no jellies. None of this summer's crop bumped Wet Paint out of their position as my favorites, and unlike the limited edition Essie and OPI, the Wet Paint are core. Sure, some colors do go out of stock from time to time, but as far as I know none are disappearing permanently the way the LEs from the other brands will.

The Wet Paint and Essie polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.