Mint Polish Comparison Post

This is rather late, but better late than never, right?

I have NO IDEA what is going on with my formatting, but please bear with me.

1. Gosh "Drizzle" - 2 coats

Not even close to mint, this polish is a very greyed out and
dusty, faded green creme.

2. Revlon "Minted" - 3 coats

This is like a more muted cousin of Sally Hansen's "Mint
Sorbet" (#10). Smooth and very pretty.

3. Essie "Turquoise & Caicos" - 4 coats
Jelly based polish, needing 4 coats for opacity. Leans slightly
more green and is darker than the others.

4. Essence "You Belong To Me" - 2 coats
More blue toned rather than a "true" mint. Great coverage
and application.

 

Round Two

5. Gosh "Silky Mint" - 3 coats
Medium warm toned green creme. Although the name says
it's a mint, it leans just a little too green for it to be
considered a traditional mint. Gosh has great formula's,
very easy application.

6. OPI "Mermaids Tears" - 3 coats
A dustier version of "Silky Mint" (#5). Love this colour,
perfect for a more muted mint polish. 

7. Cosmetic Arts, un-named - 3 coats
Very cool, blue-leaning mint creme. Wish it had a name. No
complaints with application.

8. Color Club "New Bohemian" - 3 coats
This is the quintessential mint - my favourite out of them all.
It leans the slightest bit more blue than green and I think
that's why I like it. It works well on my skin tone (it causes
the least amount of lobster-clawness out of all the swatches)
and looks very refreshing.

 

 

Round Three
 

9. Sally Hansen "Green Tea" - 3 coats
Pale, muted mint green. Pretty and whimsical. I love this
type of greyed out polish.

10. Sally Hansen "Mint Sorbet" - 3 coats
Vivid but pale green mint. Perfect for summer; looks
awesome on tanned skin. Application was slightly thick.

11. Avon "Aqua Fantasy" - 2 coats
Very blue but has a very slight edge of green so I included it,
just to compare. White shimmer gives it a frosted feel and
the application was AMAZING. I need more Avon polish in
my life. Like yesterday.

12. Wet'n'Wild "I Need A Refresh-ment" - 2 coats
I kind of hate the name of this polish ... but the polish is
beautiful. More blue than green, the creme formula glides
on smoothly. Pretty but not quite mint. Mint-esque.

 

I wasn't exactly strict with my polish picking; I wanted to
include some polishes that lean a bit more blue (or green) just
to show the contrast to the what is traditionally thought of as
a mint polish. Personally, I feel like this helps the comparison
process.

My favourite "true/traditional" mint out of these 12 that I've
shown is Color Club's New Bohemian. As I mentioned
above, it is a great polish against my skin tone. Unfortunately
for me, most polishes in this colour family give me lobster
claws and a bit bonus, and part of the reason why New
Bohemian won out, is that it didn't cause my hands to look
so red. The fact that it is the perfect blend of blue and green
also helped, haha. ;)

My friend J wanted a review on Minted by Revlon which I
swatched in this post, so for J and all else who want to know
a bit about this polish ...

Application was good although a little thin on the first two
coats. I added a third to smooth everything out and make it
perfectly opaque. It dries shiny in case you're wondering. (I
would still add topcoat for longevity.) I can't comment as to
the wear of the polish because I only swatched it but I find
Revlon to be fairly decent. I don't wear polish for much
longer than a 2-3 days and it lasts well during that time. All
in all, I would give you a big thumbs up and green light:
go buy it! :)

What is your favourite mint polish? Let me know!

- A Polished Touch

Comparison: Essie & Claire's

Comparison posts are one of my favourite types of posts to read. 

I love knowing what dupes/near dupes are out there.

While swatching Claire's "Tigerlily" I thought that it looked nearly 

identical to a polish I had worn a couple months prior: Essie's 

"Nice Is Nice" (which I did a blog post on here).

Let's take a look and see what the pictures say.

Claire's "Tigerlily" - 3 coats

Tigerlily is a very pretty soft lilac creme.
I did 3 thin coats for a nice opaque finish and topped it
with Beauty Secrets Hardener High Gloss Top Coat.


Index and Ring: Tigerlily (Claire's)
Middle and Pinky: Nice Is Nice (Essie)

Nice Is Nice also had 3 thin coats but was a little pesky,
application wise. I found the formula to be a bit thinner
 and slightly harder to build than the Claire's.

The two polishes are almost exactly the same. Tigerlily may have
a touch more grey in the formula but overall, they are dupes in my book.

Enjoy your Tuesday! I have another comparison post coming up on Thursday!

- A Polished Touch

China Glaze Dotticure

 I took an unplanned 3 day break this past weekend.
An injury + purchase of a new car + work = no time.
I'm back now. Obviously, haha.

I am kind of cheating with today's Blue Monday post.
The blue is only done as an accent.
Oh well.

My polish shopping has finally slowed a considerable amount.
Now I'm playing with all my goodies.
Let's take a peek!

Brown: China Glaze - Mahogany Magic (2 coats, no topcoat)

Blue: China Glaze - Electric Beat (dotted)

One thing I love about my China Glaze polishes is that they usually dry SUPER shiny. The above pictures have NO TOPCOAT. Unreal.

Mahogany Magic was released with the Hunger Games collection. (As if you didn't already know that.) It applied like warm butter, mmmmm. Perfect and effortless - 2 coats to perfection. Warm mid-tone browns aren't necessarily my favourite colour to wear on their own but I love adding a contrasting colour as an accent. As you know, dotticures are my favourite so that was the natural choice. The colour combination looks pretty neat to me.

Electric Beat was released with the Electropop collection and is one of my favourite blues. It is similar to what I consider to be a cornflower blue but more faded. A touch of grey probably gives it that muted feeling, I love it. Electric Beat is qute pigmented so I had no issues with layering it over a darker colour.

Have a wonderful Monday!

- A Polished Touch

Layla Hologram Effect "Mercury Twilight"

Photographing a holographic polish isn't as easy as it sounds. That being said, this post is quite picture heavy. I couldn't decide which to leave out, so you get to see practically all of them. ;)

I tried that new accent manicure where you polish your index/middle fingers one colour and the pinky, ring and thumb another, then reverse the pattern on the other hand. I'm at a loss as to what that style is called but I found it really interesting. Order amongst the disorder. Cool.

The black I used is my trusty Wet'n'Wild Black Creme of which I used 2 coats.

Also, please ignore my hideous fingers. I do apologize.



Indoors

Indoors

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Indoors, shaded

Indoors, shaded

Indoors, shaded

*awestruck*

This is my first ever true linear holographic polish. I'm still amazed by it. I might be wearing my Layla's all summer now. Well, on the sunny days at least. ;)

Mercury Twilight is a silver STRONG linear holographic polish that shows the entire rainbow spectrum even in the dimmest of light. I used the file that is sold with the polishes before applying and it made all the difference in the world. I tried swatching them before doing the buffing/polishing and WOW. You WILL notice a huge difference in the strength of the linear effect. I definitely recommend that you do this step before applying the polish.

The downside was that I used 3 coats of polish and still had some bald spots. In the sun you don't notice them at all, but indoors you can. I would recommend the dab method to cover any such bald spots. 

Mercury Twilight definitely has the strongest linear effect that I can see so far...  I'll have to wear them all and let you help me decide. ;) I added Poshe topcoat and it didn't seem to dull the linear effect although I had some major chipping by the end of the day, and not just on my Layla adorned nails. My W'n'W nails had some pretty significant chipping too ... I really want to love my Poshe topcoat, I'm trying to give it a good try, but this surprised me. A lot. I know holo's are known for their chipping but I never have that issue with my Black Creme. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Has your Poshe top coat caused any chipping issues?

Until tomorrow, stay polished!

- A Polished Touch

Pink Wednesday: Claire's "Medium Pink"

Happy Pink Wednesday!

I have to start this post by saying that I bought all 8 of the Layla Hologram Effect polishes
and you seriously, SERIOUSLY need to go buy Mercury Twilight (the silver one) if you
can. It is the winner out of the collection, BY FAR. I have spent the past 30 minutes
running from room to room to get to the sunlight that is streaming through the
windows just so I can stare at my pinky nail. (I quickly swatched 7/8 as a
skittle mani and the silver just happens to be residing on my pinky nail
(left hand) at this very moment. The linear effect is the strongest

out of all the holographics I have in my collection. I am
head over heels.

Please excuse the ramblings but I am filled with adrenaline.

How crazy is it that a perfect, linear holographic polish

can have this effect on me?!

Okay, I'll stop.

Let's go see the mani.

*

Claire's "Medium Pink"

 

Medium Pink is a cool-toned creme pink that had some slight application problems. This was due to user error and not the polish. (I was not using my usual lighting, yadda yadda, (Seinfeld reference, anyone?) and there you have it.

I don't use my nail art supplies often enough so I decided to bling-a-fy my mani and add some pink square stones. I angled them on their side so they look to be a diamond shape. I really liked the result. Sparkly, but not overdone.

I hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday. The sun is shining today so I know what I'll be doing all day: repolishing my nails with Mercury Twilight and staring at them until the sun sets. (Ha, I wish ...)

MariJo also does Pink Wednesday's. Go check out her blog!

- A Polished Touch

Turtle Inspired Mani

One of my favourite polish colours that I've gotten into lately is hunter green; green that 

is on the dark side but still very much green. Unfortunately, this colour of 

polish usually gives me lobster claws. Does that deter me? 

Not a chance.

We all have our favourite "animal" growing up. My younger sister had a thing for turtles, she still does in fact. I wanted to do something that reminded me of her - this dotticure came 

to life. I'm terrible at nail art so painting an actual turtle is out of the 

question for me at this point, but  I thought that this mani 

kinda portrays a turtle-esque feeling.

Let's go see.

 

 

 

 

 

Darker green: Gosh - Forest Green, 1 coat                   Basecoat: Nail Life Gripper Base Coat

Lighter green: Gosh -  Silky Mint, dotted

Forest Green is perfect. It looks lighter in the bottle than what it dries to and when it dries it is shiny. My swatch pictures of it have no topcoat. (There is topcoat on the pictures that have the dots.) It is the perfect "dark green". It is obvious that it is a green polish in all lighting. Beautiful.

Silky Mint is a dusty green which looks like it might have a drop or two of blue. I wouldn't call it a teal but it isn't just green either. It fits in the dusty mint category. I have a big comparison post coming up this week (probably Thursday or Friday) which includes this polish so stay tuned!

What do you think of green polish - yay or nay?

- A Polished Touch