Kokie Green Trio

Sample provided for review

 

Kokie has sent me several more polishes from their Green line, which is plant-based, bio-sourced, vegan, and cruelty free. (To see the ones they sent previously, see here and here.) Today I have Tan Line, Moonbeam, and Coffee Break.

 

Coffee Break is a light warm milky brown creme. It's not quite rosy enough to be "mannequin hands" on me, but it's a good neutral look for my skintone nonetheless.

 

 

Tan Line is a dark orange shimmer.

 

 

 

Moonbeam is a white cream. I feel a good white cream is essential for any nail polish collection.

 

 

For fun, I added dots of Tan Line and Coffee Break to Moonbeam, then added clear topcoat to smooth everything over.

 

 

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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 Trio

PR Sample provided for review

 

Kokie has launched their first plant-based nail polish line, Kokie Green. The sixteen colors are all bio-sourced, vegan, and cruelty free in addition to being plant based. They were kind enough to send me a sampling of shades to try, and I'm sharing three of those today: Just My Type, Cherry Blossom, and Venom.

 

Just My Type is a cornflower blue creme. It applied nicely, needing just two coats for full coverage.

 

 

Cherry Blossom is a light pink creme. I used three coats of this one, though I probably could have stopped at two (with pale colors, I err on the side of one more coat).

 

 

Venom is a spring green creme which covered in two coats.

 

 

For fun, I added dotted flowers to Venom using the other two shades, then smoothed the look with clear topcoat.

 

 

There are some shimmers in the line; I'll have two of those to share next week along with another of the cremes. Kokie Green was scheduled to appear at Meijer stores this fall, though I haven't been able to check on that myself due to lack of access to Meijer stores either at home or during my recent travels. They are available directly from 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 Spring Trio

PR sample provided for review

 

Today I've got three polishes from Kokie to celebrate the arrival of spring. Up here on the mountain where I live, the weather is still wavering between winter and spring, with plenty of snow still piled up (about three feet of it outside my back windows, for instance) but also some warmer days when it's comfortable to go out without multiple layers under my outerwear. Before too long, it'll be mud season, when the rains come and things get dreary for a few weeks. Then I'll really need pretty polishes like these. Left to right: Mystic Mauve, Celestial, and Blossom. (Yes, when the caps are tightened down, the elephant doesn't always like to be front and center; that I can look at this photo and not strongly want to reshoot is a sign I've made a lot of progress with letting go of my perfectionism over the years. Which has nothing to do with this post but my mind, it wanders where it will.)

 

I started with Blossom, a pale peachy pink crelly. Two coats gave my nails a slightly better than natural look, a nice palate cleanser. This is on the sheer side of crelly, but is buildable and self-levels nicely.

 

 

Of course I had to experiment with layering Blossom. I painted my tips with Kokie Iced Out, one of the polishes the brand sent me this past winter, and topped with two coats of Blossom for a bit of a twist on a classic French mani. This approach nicely took care of hiding the slight yellow cast my natural nails seem to have regardless of how careful I am to use base coat under polish.

 

 

Celestial has a clear base densely packed with small metallic glitter accented with a sprinkling of small holo glitter. I used three coats for full coverage, though two coats probably would have worked if I'd made them a touch thinner. I did add clear topcoat, too, though this wasn't especially bumpy. This color is a bit of a chameleon, sometimes looking more silver, sometimes more platinum or even light bronze, but it always looked nice and sparkly yet somehow also subtle (though my idea of subtle may be skewed by having used so much bright color and big glitters over the years).

 

 

Here's Celestial showing off its colors in regular room light:

 

Mystic Mauve is a warm purple creme, opaque in two coats.

 

 

You know I had to try layering Celestial over Mystic Mauve. I added one coat of Celestial plus clear topcoat. One could argue that Celestial is too glitter-filled to be a good topper, but I liked the combination.

 

 

Before I put these polishes away, I tried combining all three into one dotted pond mani, starting with two coats of Blossom, dots of Mystic Mauve themselves dotted with Celestial, then two more coats of Blossom. I think instead of "pond" I got "petri dish" but decided to share it anyway because experiments are good even when they don't quite turn out as hoped.

 

These shades (along with dozens of others) are available at Sally Beauty stores for $4.99 per 16ml bottle. They're also online on the Sally Beauty and Kokie websites.

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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.

Cremes from Kokie

Samples provided for review

 

I recently got a package from Kokie with some polishes to try. Rather than try to cram all six polishes I received into one post and not get to play with them as much as I'd like, I decided to split them up, starting with a trio of classic cremes I thought looked good together: Café Ole, Chill Seeker, and Playing Games.

 

Café Ole is a rosy tan that's almost "mannequin hands" on me. Though on the pale side of brown, it's pigmented enough that two coats was enough for full coverage.

 

 

Chill Seeker is a dusty rose. I used only one coat for my swatch.

 

 

Playing Games is a deep berry and another one-coater.

 

 

I plussed Playing Games with dots of Café Ole and Chill Seeker, then dotted those dots with more Playing Games. I used clear topcoat to smooth over the dots (which made it a bit more shiny than my lighting and camera setup was quite ready for, though I think you can see enough beside the glare to get the idea).

 

 

Because I thought these three looked good together, I also did an ombre with them. For my pinky, I mixed some black into a small pool of Playing Games I poured out onto a plastic tray I use for such things. (If I'd done my thumb, I probably would have done the same with white and Café Ole.) I think this is a great way to wear classic shades in an interesting way.

 

 

You can see (and buy) the full range of shades on the Kokie website. There's also a store locator if you'd prefer to shop in person. I've bought them before at Rite Aid and Bed Bath & Beyond; they're also now at Sally Beauty (in stores and online) and some Albertson's locations.

 

 

The polishes shown in this entry were provided to me 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.

Sally Hansen Sour Patch Kids Collection

Sally Hansen Sour Patch Kids CollectionI was on such a high after my nail polish display hunting outing the other day that I swatched some of my purchases almost immediately, including the ones I have today, the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Sour Patch Kids Halloween collection. Left to right: First Sour Then Sweet, Pump-kid, The Un-red, RIP-urple, Boo-lue, Hallogreen, and Ghouls Night Out.



Because all except the white one are cremes, I decided Skittles swatches would be fine to show the colors, so I started with Pump-kid (orange), The Un-red (red), and Ghouls Night Out (black). I did freehand stripes on my index with all three, then each shade got its own digit. Pump-kid and The Un-red were two coats; Ghouls Night Out was one.





I gave the same treatment to RIP-urple (purple, though a lighter shade than has become popular for Halloween in recent decades), Boo-lue (blue), and Hallogreen (green). RIP-urple and Boo-lue were two coats; Hallogreen was one.





I put down a base of the black, Ghouls Night Out, then did a ghost on my ring finger with one of the Insta Dri whites (I think it was the Crayola one), dotting her eyes in with Ghouls Night Out, then put a coat of First Sour Then Sweet, which has tiny white matte glitters in a clear base, over everything. Given that it's not unusual for it to snow on Halloween where I live, I think this is a perfect mani for the holiday.





Of course I had to do some comparisons. I started by putting Hallogreen up against Jelly Belly Green Apple from 2020, Jelly Belly Green Apple from 2019, and Crayola Granny Smith Apple.



Below on the nails, one coat each, in the same order as the bottles above. Hallogreen is pretty much indistinguishable from either of the Green Apples (I had to use them both to make sure it was just a shade number change from year to year); it might be a touch darker but not so you'd notice unless you were studying it super duper closely. Granny Smith Apple is definitely more yellow than the other three.



Pump-kid was up next; I pitted it against Pumpkin Queen (from 2014's Halloween collection), Crayola Sunset Orange, and Crayola Atomic Orange.



On the nail at two coats each, Pump-kid is ever so slightly darker and red-leaning than Pumpkin Queen and Sunset Orange (which are pretty much dupes). Pump-kid and Atomic Orange are basically the same. (My apologies for the poor cleanup here; as will become even more clear later, I was evidently having some kind of a day and didn't realize at the time.)



The Un-red matched up with Crayola Wild Strawberry, Jelly Belly Very Cherry, and Crayola Scarlet.



I call this comparison the most subtle red ombre ever. From The Un-red to Scarlet, these shades get the tiniest bit more orange as we move from index to pinky. All are two coats.



I pulled two polishes to compare to Boo-lue, namely Crayola Cerulean and Crusin' Blue (from 2019's Tropical Brights collection). I snapped the bottle shot, painted my nails and took notes, and then apparently briefly blacked out or was abducted by aliens or something because I did not take any photos of them on my nails and failed to notice until I was writing this post. You and I will have to take my notes' word for it that there were no dupes here. Cerulean is less turquoise-leaning than Boo-lue, and Crusin' Blue is lighter.



I did no comparisons with RIP-urple because there were no shades that were even close in either the Jelly Belly or Crayola releases (nor in any of the other Insta Dri purples I had close to hand). I'm sure I have something in another line that's close if not a dupe but I didn't go digging in my stash.

I rallied to do a bit more play with these colors, doing a dotticure with the five non-black cremes, then topping with First Sour Then Sweet, which did a good job of distracting from where I'd smeared some of the dots with topcoat.



Obviously the most interesting of these it First Sour Then Sweet. Ghouls Night Out is a great black creme if you're needing one. The other cremes are also solid choices with good formulas (though I know the Insta Dri wide flat brush is not to everyone's liking), but none of them are must haves if you've already got a stash built.