Hocus Pocus Box Set

In my most recent display post, I shared a photo of a Hocus Pocus nail polish box set that I found at the Spirit of Halloween store. Despite having seen the movie only once, I went ahead and bought it, because the colors looked decent and the bottles had witch hats on them. Witch hats. My collection needed them.



Binx is a black creme base with small multi-colored glitter. I used two coats for my swatch and added clear topcoat; it was pretty shiny and smooth without topcoat but I thought adding it might bring the glitter out more. This is pretty pigmented; one thick coat would probably have been sufficient.





Binx is the only bottle that has a name on it, but the iconography makes it clear which characters the other polishes are for. Sarah Sanderson is a purple shimmer that want to call a foil finish. Whatever it is, two coats were enough to achieve opacity.







Winifred Sanderson is a green shimmer. This one was more of a glass fleck and took three coats; even then, I felt like there was some phantom nail line showing.







I addressed the nail line issue (if there was one; it's sometimes hard to tell if it's there or just a trick of the light) by adding Binx at the tips and making a funky French with Winifred.



Mary Sanderson is a copper foil finish. This was almost a one-coater but I did two to try and get the brushstrokes all lined up. I wish I'd noticed before I bought this particular set that the label on the front of this one was put on too low, so her lips are almost off the bottom of the bottle, but oh well.







For fun, I added dots of Sarah and Winifred to Mary, then slicked on clear topcoat.



For a novelty polish set, I felt the formulas of these were decent. Even if they weren't, the bottles are cute enough to make it a worthwhile purchase in my opinion.

Patriotic Polishes from Pure Ice and Salon Perfect

Happy 4th of July to those of you celebrating today! Flawed as they were, I honor our Founding Fathers for starting this experiment; if only they could rise up from the mists of history and get our current leaders back on track. What I am excited about today is the polishes I picked up on my trip from the holiday displays at Walmart, which I got swatched just in time (though this post is going up late in the day due to not getting the photos selected and cropped quite as efficiently as I'd hoped).

I'll kick things off with the red, white, and blue trio from Pure Ice: Party Time, Light It Up, and Fly High.



Fly High is a white shimmer that reminded me of the pearly frost polishes from back in the day. It's not as brushstrokey as some of those were, fortunately. I used two coats and that was plenty, so it's nice and opaque for a white.



Lacking patience to see the other two Pure Ice shades, I went ahead and slicked some freehand stripes of them on top of the white. Was immediately reminded of why I don't usually freehand stripes. But sharing them in all their wiggly glory so you can see how similar the finishes are. (This has clear topcoat on it to smooth the stripes somewhat.)



Party Time is a red shimmer. I used two coats, though one might have sufficed if I'd gotten the brushstrokes straight from the get go.



Fly High is a sapphire blue shimmer in the same finish as the other two in the trio. I did do just one coat of this one; it's very nice that Pure Ice isn't stinting on pigments even at their $1.98 price point.



I got in a little more wiggly freehand lines practice before I put these three Pure Ice aside. I added some dots this time to make myself feel slightly better about my nail art skills. (Again, added clear topcoat to smooth things over.)



Now let's look at the limited edition Salon Perfect polishes from their Make Sparks Fly display: Firewerk, National Holi-yay, Star Spangled Selfie, Block Party Blue, Bling Bursting in Air, Sea to Shimmery Sea, and The American Sheen.



Block Party Blue is a vibrant medium blue with a subtle shimmer. I did two coats and let it dry, which it did to a satin finish.



Adding topcoat brought out the shimmer more:



Bringing it into direct light really showed the shimmer:



With a nice base color laid down, of course the next step was a glitter topper; in this case, Bling Bursting in Air, a mix of blue, red, silver, and silver holo hexes in various sizes in a clear base.





The American Sheen is a red with a sublte golden shimmer that gives it a very nice glow. It's alos a one-coater and pretty shiny on its own with no topcoat.



It got more glow-y in direct light:



I paired American Sheen with Firewerk, which is a red jelly packed with red (and possibly gold—it's hard to tell so tinted is the base) hex glitter in assorted sizes. I freehanded a diagonal block across my nails with Firewerk and added clear topcoat. Firwerk is very flashy for having such a restrained color palette.





Sea to Shimmery Sea is a blue metallic shimmer. I used two coats, though it's probably quite possible to make this a one-coater if you want to do a thicker coat. This has a nice depth to it.



Sea to Shimmery Sea's counterpart is called National Holi-Yay; it's the blue (and maybe silver—again the base is tinted enough to make it hard tell) version of Firewerk. I did the same diagonal swipe as I did with the red. Since Sea to Shimmery Sea is more glitzy than The American Sheen, it doesn't contrast as much with the bling of the glitter.





Seven polishes in the LE collection means one glitter didn't have a partner, so I alternated Sea to Shimmery Sea and The American Sheen on my digits so Star Spangled Selfie would have its moment to shine. This glitter topper has red and blue metallic hex glitter and silver star glitter in a clear base. I did one coat of it on top of the red and blue, plus clear topcoat. The best part was I did not have to fish for the stars, not at all. Sometimes I'd even get more stars than I wanted on the brush at one time. Impressive.





I was on a roll at this point, so kept playing. I put down a base of Pure Ice Light It Up then alternated Salon Perfect Firewerk and National Holi-YAY, adding clear topcoat for greater depth. The jelly bases of the two Salon Perfects are tinted enough that they likely would have been buildable to opacity on their own, but I think the white base adds a nice vibrancy.





Then, just for good measure, I added a coat of Star Spangled Selfie, making an effort to only get one star in each brushload, and topped with clear. So festive!





I'm glad I braved the chaos of many Walmart stores to find these. I still wish they paid their workers better; I'd gladly spend another few pennies on each bottle of polish.

Essie Seaglass Shimmers Swatches

I had some Plenti points I'd been saving up, and when I saw the Essie Seaglass Shimmers display at Rite Aid, I knew that's what I wanted to spend them on. Of course I had to come up with some cash, too, but that's okay, these are pretty enough to be worth it. Left to right: Don't Be Salty, Coral Coast, High Tides & Dives, You Me & The Sea, World Is Your Oyster, At Sea Level.



I began with Don't Be Salty, a pinkish beige shimmer. It surprised me that I got decent coverage in only two coats, unusual for such a light shade. The tradeoff for that is a formula that's thicker than I expected from an Essie.



I didn't use topcoat for my swatches, and once I took a close look at the photos, I wished I would have, as there's a bit of texture showing. It wasn't as noticeable to the eye, though.



Coral Coast was up next. This warm peach shimmer was also a two-coater. It seemed a touch more metallic than Don't Be Salty, and showed a few more brushstrokes than that one did.





I compared these first two to each other; Coral Coast on the left and Don't Be Salty on the right. For my skintone, Don't Be Salty is more flattering.



Staying in the neutral realm, I put on High Tides & Dives, a bronzey brown shimmer. I fancied I could see a hint of coppery flash in the bottle but didn't see that on the nail. This was two coats as well.





I added some dots of Don't Be Salty and At Sea Level to High Tides & Dives. I also added topcoat, which didn't help with the visual texture as much as I'd hoped. It was smooth to the touch but not the eye.



At Sea Level is an icy blue shimmer. I used two coats of this one as well; a hint of visible nail line showed up in the photos but wasn't evident to the eye.





At Sea Level got dots of Coral Coast, High Tides & Dives, and World Is Your Oyster. Coral Coast got lost against the background, leaving the overall design looking sort of wonkier than I'd planned.



You Me & The Sea is a bright pink shimmer and another two-coater.





I added dots of Coral Coast and clear topcoat to You Me & The Sea; it contrasted much better with the pink than it had with At Sea Level.



Finally we have World Is Your Oyster, a light purple shimmer. I did two coats of this as well; that gave opaque coverage but I think a third coat would have added to the richness of this color.





To decorate World Is Your Oyster, I did dotted flowers with You Me & The Sea and Don't Be Salty, then added topcoat.



I didn't try layering with any of these as I usually would with light shimmers. I thought I would before I tried them, but as you can see, they're opaque enough that using them as toppers isn't something I felt made sense.

Overall, I liked this collection. Don't Be Salty is my favorite; I've been in the mood for quiet colors recently, and the finish on this one makes it interesting. Of course, World Is Your Oyster, being purple, also makes my must have list.