Wheel N14: Red Shimmers

Red shimmers were what caught my eye the last time I was in my studio, so that's what I have for this Nail Wheel Wednesday. Some are very subtle shimmers; one probably would be better on a glitter wheel. Some lean orange; some lean pink. I continually need to remind myself that perfection is not the purpose of this project. Getting all my polishes out of the bottle for at least one tip's worth is the goal, and every wheel gets me closer to it. (Not buy new polish would also help, but that's almost certainly not going to happen any time soon.)

 

1. Cover Girl Outlast Stay Brilliant Glosstinis Sangria (2 coats) [such a long name for such little bottles]
2. Christian Dior Tout Paris (1)
3. Ciate Kitten Heels (3)
4. SinfulColors Sinful Shine Shine Annie (2)
5. SpaRitual Intention (3)
6. Nicole by OPI Always a Classic Coca-Cola (2)
7. OPI The Color of Minnie (2)
8. Revlon Top Speed Orient Express (2)
9. Finger Paints Hollydazzle (2)
10. Zoya Amal (2)
11. Finger Paints Turn Out the Night (2)
12. Salon Perfect The American Sheen (2)
13. L'Oreal He Read My Mind (2)
14. L'Oreal Jennifer's Red (2)
15. Essie #essielove (2)
16. Essie Love Beverly Hills (2)
17. Essie Surpise & Delight (2)
18. Elf Red-y or Not (2)
19. Red Carpet Glitz & Glamorous (2)
20. China Glaze Ho Ho No (2)

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 10:

 

11 through 15:

 

16 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trying to get the shimmer to show in the shy and subtle ones:

 

Pop Beauty Nail Glam Duo

My most recent jaunt to the county to the south of me (to get my 2nd dose of COVID-19 vaccine—yay!) didn't yield any new displays to share but did lead to me discovering a mystery in a cosmetics bin on the clearance shelves at Walgreens: Pop Beauty Nail Glam polish, which I'd never seen at Walgreens before. I thought this brand was long gone, having not seen it anywhere in years. I bought a bunch when Ulta carried them back in 2011. Those were full size 15ml rectangular bottles; these are 8ml half size in square bottles. Despite being in the clearance bin, they rang up at full price: $6. There were only two colors in the bin: ZZZ Pink and Black Cherry.

 

ZZZ Pink is a medium pink with pearly shimmer.

 

This was plenty opaque in two coats. Unfortunately the shimmer pretty much disappeared on the nail, leaving just pink. Which maybe is why they named it ZZZ Pink ... it's so uninteresting it puts me to sleep. Yes, pink polish is classic, and looks pretty. No problem if that's your thing. It's not my thing anymore. Yet I still buy it to satisfy the collector in me, so I guess I'm encouraging brands to keep pumping out the pinks and reds and skintones. They're going to do that anyway, though ... always have.

 

In direct light, the shimmer was ever so slightly visible.

 

To add a pop of interest to ZZZ Pink, I added funky French tips with Black Cherry, which we'll take a closer look at shortly. Yes, my lines could be smoother, and I might as well have used a cheap black creme for this, but it is more interesting to look at.

 

I had high hopes for Black Cherry, which has lots of small deep pink glitter in a black base.

 

Two coats of Black Cherry plus topcoat (to smooth out the glitter) later, I was let down. The glitter disappears into the base on the nail, which makes having to add topcoat to deal with the texture frustrating. (I don't think it's supposed to be a textured polish.)

 

Okay at this angle I can see the tiniest hints of glitter showing on some of my nails. I can also see the uneven texture despite already having added one layer of topcoat.

 

Getting up close in direct light does let the the glitter shine through more. In daily life, I am not this close to my own nails very often, much less letting anyone else get that close (especially in COVID times).

 

I did try putting a black creme base on and trying to do a thin coat of Black Cherry to see if that would help. It was hard to tell. Maybe a tiny bit, but I still needed bright direct light to see the glitter.

 

 

So yeah, I'm underwhelmed by these two. I do like square bottles for how space efficient they are to store, and the formula of these has good opacity (too good in the case of Black Cherry). I see that more shades are available direct from Pop Beauty, but as there are no swatches, it's hard to know if things like the blue glitter or the purple shimmer are worth getting.

Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure

Idaho has moved into Phase 1 of reopening but I'm still going to be staying at home just about as much as I have been which means more time for swatching than when I was gallivanting around shopping for non-essentials and hanging out with friends. Today I have the two colors I plucked out of one of my "to be swatched" boxes, where polishes can languish for months. These are the shades I chose to try from the new-ish Sally Hansen line Good Kind Pure: Crystal Blue and Lava Rocks.



Crystal Blue is a light cornflower blue with silver/white shimmer. At least in the bottle it has shimmer; on my nail it mostly went missing. It was opaque in two coats, which was good, but I didn't especially care for the formula as it felt sort of tricky to work with as far as getting even coats and keeping it away from my cuticles, which wasn't good.






I added a conventional topcoat (not the Good Pure Kind one) which did not bring out the shimmer any (it maybe made it less visible) but did add shine and leveling. I did try hitting it with direct light but that didn't coax out the shimmer either so I'm not bothering to include any of those shots.



I was curious how Crystal Blue stacked up against my old favorite Essie Bikini So Teeny.



Left to right below: Crystal Blue, Bikini So Teeny, Crystal Blue, Bikini So Teeny. They are very close in color, but I definitely liked the Essie formula better.



The other shade of Good Kind Pure I got to try was Lava Rocks, a charcoal grey shimmer. With this one, the shimmer does show on the nail. I used two coats, though one might have been sufficient. The formula of this one seemed better; maybe the type and amount of shimmer made it more well behaved.





I liked the look of Lava Rocks in direct light; the shimmer showed a sort of pearly metallic glow.



I wasn't wowed by these. If I were looking for a vegan option, they'd be fine, but there's nothing else special about them to make me want to collect more shades.

Kokie Quartet

I am back home as of last night, having driven slightly over 6000 miles in 22 days. I've been slowly unpacking and getting settled back in to regular life, including blogging. Today I've got four polishes from Kokie; I bought these a while back on a different road trip but did see them in stores on this most recent one.

Wishful is a pale pink glass fleck shimmer. This is on the sheer side; I did three coats and there's still a hint of visible nail line, though it doesn't bother me with this sort of shade.





I paired Wishful with Sparkler Send Off, which has pink and gold glitter in a sheer gold shimmer base.



One coat of Sparkler Send Off on top of Wishful added plenty of sparkle and shine. I didn't add topcoat, though that probably would have added even more.





Wondrous looks like a creme on the nail, though this pretty periwinkle actually has some subtle shimmer in it. It reminds me of Essie Bikini So Teeny which I was so obsessed with back in 2012. The formula on this one seemed a touch thin, so I used three coats.





Even in direct light, the shimmer was hard to see; it's there, I promise.





The glitter topper that seemed to pair best with Wondrous was Crown Jewel, which has blue and blue holo glitter in a sheer gold shimmer base.



I did one coat of Crown Jewel plus clear topcoat over Wondrous. I really liked this combination.





I like these as much as the first two Kokie I tried (Rock Star and Twinkle); I still have several more to swatch but my attention wandered to other things.

Essie Leathers Collection

One of my Christmas gifts to myself was this mini set from Essie, the Leathers Collection by Rebecca Minkoff, with four leather effect polishes: Cross-Body Heat, Tote-ally in Love, In Hot Purse-uit, and Back in the Saddle.



Cross-Body Heat is a greyed light warm-toned purple shimmer.



Cross-Body Heat was opaque in two coats and dried to a very slightly textured satin finish. The shimmer was pretty much invisible on the nail in most lighting conditions.



I wasn't that taken with the "leather finish", so added topcoat to shine it up. I liked that better, and the shine did seem to bring the shimmer out a bit more.



Tote-ally in Love is a wine red shimmer.



This had the same sort of slightly textured satin finish, which I didn't like any more than I had the first time around, so I added topcoat to the two coats of color. The shimmer in this is a bit less subtle than Cross-Body Heat, but still pretty hidden.



In Hot Purse-uit is a deep blue shimmer.



I did two coats of color plus topcoat for my swatch. The shimmer in this was more visible than the first two shades, which I liked.



Back in the Saddle is a deep green shimmer.



I did two coats plus topcoat for this one as well. It was the most shimmery of the group, and my favorite.



I also did a nail art bonus: Cross-Body Heat dotted with Tote-ally in Love and In Hot Purse-uit.



This is a nice collection, all Karen colors. I'm not sold on the leather finish; it's too subtle for my taste and doesn't look intentionally textured. I do also wish all four had the shimmer level of Back in the Saddle. Still, I'm glad I bought these.