Spring Colors from Kokie

Products provided for review

 

Well hello again. I'm recently back from my not officially summer yet vacation, a road trip from Idaho to Illinois and back again. In a bold move, I left my laptop at home, which meant, among other things, that I was able to wear longer fake nails than usual, but that's a story for another day. The story for today is that Kokie kindly sent me some polishes in colors perfect for spring. Left to right: Iris, Rock Star, Crown Jewel, Classic, Georgia Peach, All the Envy.

 

I started with Classic, a pale milky peach crelly. This was buildable; I did four coats but could have stopped at three for a faux French mani look. This is indeed classic. I wore similar polishes for years early in my career as an accountant when I was trying to fit the mold of a serious businesswoman.

 

Nothing like dots to quickly add color, so I decorated with Georgia Peach, Iris, and All the Envy before adding clear topcoat.

 

Iris is a light lilac creme. This one covered in two coats.

 

I topped Iris with Crown Jewel, which has blue and holographic blue glitter in a sheer gold shimmer base. (I knew this would work because I swatched a different bottle of it over another light cool creme back in 2019. Because I was craving sparkle, I used two coats of Crown Jewel and added clear topcoat to bring out the bling even more.

 

All the Envy is a medium green creme. I used two coats for my swatch.

 

I put one coat of Crown Jewel on top of All the Envy and added topcoat to that. The somewhat deeper base brought out the gold in Crown Jewel more than Iris had.

 

I combined Rock Star, a warm lavender flecked shimmer, and Georgia Peach, a light red-leaning orange creme, into a funky French look alternating with Georgia Peach alone. Rock Star took three coats and Georgia Peach two. I did add topcoat to the funky French nails to smooth the line between the polishes. This look does say spring to me. If you want to see Rock Star on its own, I swatched a bottle I bought myself back in 2019 (and also topped it with another Kokie shimmer/glitter topper).

 

Given that Rock Star was three coats, I wondered if it would work as a topper, so I laid down a base of two coats of Iris and added one coat of Rock Star to all but my index finger. I really liked the combination. Rock Star warmed up Iris just a tiny bit, and Iris brought out the pale golden shimmer in Rock Star.

 

These are all nice polishes; good basic cremes and some bling to liven them up. It's nice that Kokie doesn't seem to discontinue things too quickly, given that I got two of these colors four years ago and you can get them today. The 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.

Wet 'n' Wild Potassium-Rich and Miami Mami

Today I have some photos from ages ago that I never got around to posting, of two of the Wet 'n' Wild Fast Dry AF colors. Potassium-Rich (yes, the name has a hyphen; no, I do not know why), a mustard yellow creme, and Miami Mami, glitter topper with pastel matte hex glitter in various sizes and colors: yellow, orange, blue, and pink. I did three coats of the creme and topped with one of the glitter on all but my index finger.

 

 

 

Mustard is not one of the most flattering colors on me but I keep buying it because I am drawn to the odd and unusual.

Orly Holo Jellies and Friends

Despite having a goal to continue buying less polish than I did in my stash expansion heyday, I'm still signed up for all sorts of brand newsletters and text alerts, including Orly's. I saw they were having a sale and went to look and noticed it included the shades from the Holo Jellies collection released this past summer. No better time then for me to share swatches of the bottles I bought a while back, along with two glitter toppers I ordered at the same time. Left to right: Party Animal, As If, Peace Out, Chill Pill, Like Totally, and Dancing Queen.

 

I first Skittled the Holo Jellies, doing three coats plus topcoat. They're not quite opaque at three coats, but close enough. All have a generous helping of silver holo glitter in a jelly base. As If is a soft orange. Peace Out is lime green. Chill Pill is a blue between turquoise and sky. Like Totally is purple, such a pretty purple, not too red and not too blue. I like these; the formula is good, with the jelly base being buildable, not too opaque so it hides the glitter.

 

 

 

I then reached for the glitter toppers, grouping them each with the Holo Jellies shade(s) they were most compatible with. Party Animal has pink, orange, and yellow matte hex glitter in various sizes plus silver holo microglitter in a clear base. I layered one coat of it over As If, finishing with clear topcoat.

 

 

 

Dancing Queen has lime, purple, and sky blue matte hex glitter plus silver holo microglitter in a clear base. It seems made for the remaining shades of Holo Jellies. I did a gradient over a creme base that matched my skintone, then Peace Out on my middle finger, Chill Pill on my ring, and Like Totally on my pinky, topping the three non-gradient nails with one coat of Dancing Queen plus clear topcoat. This whole look made me happy. I really should take the time to do manis like this again because they do make me smile.

 

 

 

I don't regret getting these at all despite having more polish than probably all the nail salons in town put together. They're mood lifters for me. And I'm proud of myself for resisting the plain jellies that Orly came out with sometime after Holo Jellies. Maybe I don't have exactly those shades of blue, pink, and yellow in exactly that consistency, but I do have blue, pink, and yellow jellies in my stash. If you don't, those are also in the sale going on now on the Orly website. Five dollars a bottle is a deal. Dancing Queen and Party Animal are available still at full price. I'd pay it because I'm a fool for glitter still, even though the nail world has mostly moved on to other things for now.

Kokie Green Skinny Dip and Friend

Sample provided for review

 

Wrapping up my month of Kokie Green, today I have Skinny Dip, a blue shimmer with a subtle purple shift that's hard to capture on camera. This isn't one of the newest eight shades in the Green line, but one I hadn't tried before. I used three coats for my swatch.

 

 

You can maybe see a hint of the violet in this side shot:

 

I added Starry Night on top of Skinny Dip (you may remember Starry Night, a gold holo glitter, from this recent post). I was going for a glitter gradient look but I'm out of practice.

 

 

Skinny Dip is a nice shimmer, more flecked than frosted. I wish its purple side showed up more for the camera but it shows up for my eyes so that's fine.

These shades are available at select Meijer stores and online for $8 each on the Kokie website.

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The 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.

Kokie Green Greens and Gold

Sample provided for review

 

Today I've got three more of the new shades in the Kokie Green line, which the brand generously sent me for review. Two of these are green in color, too. Left to right: Feral, Starry-Eyed, and Maybe Baby.

 

Maybe Baby is a teal-leaning medium toned green shimmer flecked with golden highlights. I did two coats for my swatch and added clear topcoat to bring out the pretty sparkles in the shimmer even more.

 

 

 

Starry Eyed has small gold and holo glitter in a clear base.

 

Starry Eyed didn't look like it'd be full coverage, so to try it, I bared just my index finger and put on three coats of it, then did one coat over Maybe Baby on my other digits. I'm not usually a gold person, but this gold and green combination looked really good to me. The clear base of Starry Eyed let the shimmer in Maybe Baby show through while the glitter added lots of sparkle and pop.

 

 

Feral is a warm-leaning medium-toned green shimmer. It looks almost metallic in some lights, porbably due to the wealth of silvery shimmer in it. I used two coats, no topcoat for my swatch. Despite it being lighter in tone than Mabye Baby, it seemed more opaque.

 

 

I liked Feral on its own, but of course that didn't stop me from experimenting on it. I sponged Maybe Baby on the tips to make a slightly messy, sort of subtle gradient. I used clear topcoat to smooth it out. I thought these worked well together.

 

 

And finally, I put one coat of Starry Eyed over the gradient, skipping topcoat because it was smooth enough for photos without.

 

 

In direct light, Starry Eyed popped nicely:

 

In the bottle, I was pretty sure I'd like the blue and purple I shared last week. I was less certain about this trio, fearing a couple would be too warm to flatter my skintone, but I ended up liking them all, especially together. These shades are available at select Meijer stores and online for $8 each on the Kokie website.

Kokie   Website    Facebook    Instagram

 

 

The 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.

Two New and One Not from Kokie Green

Polish provided for review

 

There are eight new shades in the Kokie Green line, which the brand was nice enough to send me to try out. Kokie Green is bio-sourced, plant based, free of animal by-products, 16 free, cruelty free, and not tested on animals per the card that came in the box with the polishes. I've got two of the new colors today, along with a previous favorite that I thought looked nice with them. Left to right: Glass Slipper (previously swatched back in August), Oasis (new), and Dewy (new).

 

Oasis is a light cool-toned blue. It has a very subtle shimmer that's visible in the bottle but which tends to disappear on the nail. Perhaps the shimmer helps with self-leveling, as this was opaque in two coats and not at all streaky (any wobbles you see are due to my nails, which are in winter breakdown mode now).

 

I tried direct light to see if I could get the shimmer to show for the camera. No luck with that, which is fine, since this sort of blue is right up my alley regardless.

 

I remembered that Glass Slipper showed a hint of nail line at two coats, so thought it might work as a topper for Oasis, so I added one coat of it to my index, middle, and pinky fingers. That combination really worked for me, with Glass Slipper adding a bit of shimmer and sparkle without changing the pretty blue color of Oasis significantly.

 

As long as I had both of these blues out, I did a quick comparison. Two coats of Oasis on my index and ring fingers versus three coats of Glass Slipper on my middle and pinky.

 

Dewy is a blue-leaning lavender pearly finish shimmer. At two coats, it shows a hint of visible nail line at some angles, which I didn't find objectionable.

 

 

Dewy had a nice glow under direct light.

 

These shades are available at select Meijer stores and online for $8 each on the Kokie website.
Kokie   Website    Facebook    Instagram

The 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.

Shifty Duo from Great Lakes Lacquer

Today I have two beauties from Great Lakes Lacquer that have been languishing in my stash waiting for their day to shine: Making Peace With Past Indiscretions and Resolve.

 

Making Peace With Past Indiscretions is a multichrome shimmer that's deep green shifting to purple, with shades of blue and even gold in between depending on the light. It has scattered holo microglitter, too, to add even more interest.

 

I used two coats for my swatch and that was plenty. Straight on in indirect light, it mostly showed its rich green base, with hints of purple at the edges.

 

Start changing the angles and the shifts appear:

 

 

 

Out of the lightbox under direct light, it looked like a gorgeous night sky:

 

Resolve has small shifty glitter pieces that go green to blue to purple along with a holo microglitter scatter in a clear base, so it pairs very well with Making Peace.

 

I put one coat of Resolve over Making Peace and added clear topcoat. Loved this combination!

 

Resolve is so sparkly and it seemed to really enchance the shift in Making Peace.

 

 

 

One more of the combo in direct light:

 

On the one hand, I have so many pretties I haven't worn, so at least swatching them so I get to enjoy them for a little while is a good thing. On the other hand, seeing them on my nails just makes me want to go look for more pretties. We shall see if my commitment to a low buy survives the post-Thanksgiving rush.