Pretty Woman Designer Nails

Hello all,

Today I have a review of Pretty Woman Designer nails, 24 pack press on nails. These retails for $7.99 USD on Pretty Womans site as well as in Walmarts in the US. I did receive these to test out for you and I have been putting them to the test for over a month to give you all the gory details.

Firstly, these nails come in 15 different designs, 5 different nail shapes and 3 different lengths as well. Each pack contains 24 nails which come in 12 different sizes, each nail has a number inscribed on the bottom so you can pair them easily. Also in the pack are 30 adhesive nail tabs, nail glue, an applicator, a nail file and a cuticle stick. One of the things I really appreciated about this kit is that you have the option to chose how you want to stick the nails on; glue or adhesive tabs. Furthermore, fair warning that this was my absolute first time trying on any artificial nails so I really did take my time to test these out to make sure my results were not biased due to my lack of experience.

I received two designs to try out for my blog; the red matte design (square shape, ultra short length) and the blue, black and white geometric design (square shape, medium length).

Application of the nails was fairly easy even though it was my first time. The packaging does not come with detailed instructions because the directions are really simple and there is a small diagram. I did try out both methods of application with the different designs and my favorite way to wear these nails is using the glue. In my experience the glue held the nails in place for a week with no lifting. I did not have any issue showering while wearing these nails and my hair never got caught in them. I did have a couple of nails pop off but in my experience this was due to user error. The first nail that popped off was when I hit my hand against the wall right at the tip of my nail, it did not hurt but the force was enough to make it pop off.

My next nail popped off on my finger that had the shortest nail bed. I do not attribute this specifically to the quality of the glue since for the medium length press on nail, my nail was only long enough to fit at the halfway point. My advice is the pick the nail length similar to yours or file down the artificial nail to fit your nail more so as to prolong the wear of your manicure. Also, the instructions say not to press down on the nail when you are applying glue, this is key. I personally found that when I pressed down on the nail, the glue spilled over the sides and tip of my nail, leaving less on the nail bed to adhere.

Application of the nails with the adhesive tab was really easy, the tabs come in varying sizes so they can fit the nail. The are sticky on both sides so you can use them to get the nail on. This method of application was not my favorite because I felt like I had to apply a lot of pressure onto the nail to make the nail stick. I also felt that the adhesive was not long enough to grip the whole nail bed. The longevity of the adhesive tabs are nothing special, my nails started to pop off after a day. Interestingly enough, even though the nail had popped off, the tab remained sticky so you could just press your nail back on.

Between the two methods, I would recommend using the nail glue since it gives a longer wear. However, if you are interested in these nails for a one night event and want to easily remove or reuse them, the adhesive tabs would be perfect. The adhesive tabs last a day and are easier to keep in your purse for touch ups than the glue would be. In addition the tabs are easily removed off of the nail with the cuticle stick so they can be reused even with the glue. If you use the glue, the nails are somewhat reusable, you will want to make sure the surface is flat and those results will differ depending on how much glue you use. Another important thing to note is that these nails are not indestructible, the design can still scratch off through wear. I wore these nails for 7 days at a time and did not notice any major wear, they held up really nicely.

Removal was very simple for both methods of application. The easiest being the adhesive tabs, you can easily use the cuticle stick provided to pop them off your nail with no pain. The recommended removal method is to soak your nails in nail polish remover for 3-5 minutes. I did not try this method because it seemed a little harsh. What I did instead to remove the nails I had attached with glue was first apply cuticle oil and then slowly push them off with the cuticle stick. This will leave some glue on your nails which you can remove. Do keep in mind that I removed the nails after 7 days so if you are removing them sooner, this method might be painful.

Overall, for the price I really do enjoy these designer nails. They provide a quick and easy manicure with a really decent wear time. My absolute favorite thing about these nails is how they fit the cuticle; the curve of the nail is so lovely that it is not obvious you are wearing fake nails. Also because of the curve I feel like they fit my nail very nicely which helps the wear.

Leave me a comment below if you've tried any of Pretty Womans designer nails or which brand you love for press on nails!

Born Pretty Store Holographic Nail Polish

Hello all, recently I was contacted by Cynthia from Born Pretty Store seeing if I was willing to review some products from them. I already shop at this store and have plenty of products that I bought myself so I was really excited to do this review as I already enjoy a majority of their products. I was able to pick out the items for review and all the opinions expressed are my own. I received three items to review; two stamping plates and a holographic polish. For a review and details on the stamping plates please see my Instagram page and for the polish just keep reading!

The polish I am reviewing is item #6410, it is a 6 ml bottle and the shade is a lovely holographic teal. As per usual I conducted a wear test with no base or top coat to truly test the quality of the nail polish in question.

 Three coats 

The formula of this shade was alright overall, I was not completely happy that it required three coats for full opacity. However while I was applying it, each coat went on really smoothly and left no streaks so I enjoyed the formula overall.

Day three of wear.

My first chip was three days after my initial application on my middle finger. This is pretty much usual for me as the middle finger is the longest it seems to always chip first. This does not surprise me and I felt as though the polish was holding up nicely with minimal tip wear.

Day five of wear

After day five my manicure started to look very worn down, the chips on my middle finger had expanded and I got a chip on the side of my index finger. I kept the manicure for one more day after this update and found there was no change but I did remove it after six days.

Overall, I thought the quality of the nail polish was fairly average as I would hope for my manicure to last me five days and look decent. I did however really enjoy the color of this holographic polish, compared to my collection it was unique in tone and I did get complimented on the shade various times. All in all, I would definitely pick up some more of these holographic nail polishes for their color variety and decent formula. Born Pretty Store is fairly good with their pricing and does run plenty of sale but if you find a regular priced item that you would like, you can use my discount code ANNSW10 for 10% off. Hope you enjoyed the review!

Essie Gel Couture

Hello everyone, no doubt you have all seen or heard about the new Essie gel couture line and today I have review of it for you. Personally, I have seen so many reviews and I really just wanted to try it out myself and see how it holds up. Some basics behind this two step system is that it comes with one color coat and a top coat. The main claims behind this line is that you are supposed to be able to get 14 days of wear and an instant gel-like shine. Which means it is another nail polish system that is supposed to give you a gel-like manicure without the need of a UV or LED light. An interesting feature behind the polish is that the barrel and brush are completely different from what you normally see from Essie. The brush is very wide so that you can do your whole manicure with a few easy swipes. In addition, the barrel is supposed to be curved in a spiral so that any polish on the barrel is deposited onto the brush in a way as to not flood your cuticles. 

Before talking about the formula and wear test I want to mention my experiences with the features of this line. The spiral barrel was only on the color coat which was really disappointing to me because it ruined the continuity of the bottles for me. The top coat can still flood your cuticles and cause your manicure to chip or peel from the cuticle line. So I did not understand why they did not keep the same barrel. In addition, while doing research on the line, I found that one of the reasons Essie chose the brush was that so it could form to different nails. You are supposed to be able to compress or flatten the brush by wiping it on the bottleneck to get the shape that you need. I felt that was really hyped up, the brush did not show any particular flexibility nor did it hug my nail spectacularly enough for me to attribute to this Essie brush only.

Two coats of hang up the heels

The formula of the nail polish was really lovely. It absolutely glided onto the nail and applied pretty evenly. This shade in particular is a gorgeous black with a green shimmer. The green is visible in direct light but this shade looks black otherwise. The top coat was a great success for me, it did not disturb the layer of color I had underneath and dried fairly quickly. I really loved the shine that the top coat gave me, so much so that I would use this top coat separate of this system. 

Day nine 

I did not make it to 14 days, but I really feel like this color would have lasted nicely up to that point. My nails first chipped in the morning of the ninth day of wear. Usually when I get a chip, the polish will just continue to chip away at that point, however I wore this polish until day ten and found that the chip did not spread. The tip wear you are seeing on my other fingers started being prominent around day four or five. But the tip wear was not enough to make my manicure look bad.

The reason I did not take a picture of day ten wear was because it looked the exact same as day nine. I only decided to end my wear test because I was tired of the color and the space between my cuticle and the polish was getting too big for me. Also, once it chipped I just wanted a fresh manicure. Overall, this polish lasted beautifully for me and I would 100% recommend it to others. I don't want to compare this to the Wet n Wild one step wonder gel because that is an unfair comparison considering this is a two step system. But in comparison to the Sally Hansen miracle gel, I enjoy this line ten times better. While both the systems last fairly similarly over ten days in terms of chips and tip wear, the miracle gel cracked on me. The Essie gel couture did not crack and in addition, the top coat for this line performed very well. Whereas the miracle gel top coat actually ruined my manicure. So if you are wondering which between the two works better as a system and overall, I would recommend the Essie gel couture. 

Now to discuss prices; I have seen the individual color coats and top coat retail for around $12-14 CDN. There is also a set which includes a top coat and a color coat for around $24-26 CDN. It is an investment to make but I do think you will be pleasantly surprised by the wear of this line. If you have tried out this line, leave me a comment about how you found it!

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel

Hello, hello everyone,

I have a review for you today on the Sally Hansen miracle gel system which includes a wear test. Now I know that this system has lots of reviews, some sponsored and some very negative ones. As for myself, one of my very close friends uses the miracle gel polish and the Sally Hansen insta-dry top coat. She works as a lifeguard and regular nail polish does not last on her as long as the miracle gel does. So I thought it was high time for me to test it out. I picked up the shade Pretty Piggy and I got the regular miracle gel top coat, not the 2x volume top coat.

This set typically retails for $15 to $17 CDN in various stores. The main claims behind this system is that you can get 14 days of color and shine without a light to cure it. Also it is supposed to be more chip resistant that regular nail polish while being easy to remove. I have prepped my nails using Pretty Womans nail detox and will be testing two top coats as well as no top coat.

Two coats of Pretty Piggy

The application for this shade was really lovely, it has the same brush as their complete salon manicure line so it covers the nail very easily. This particular shade was really opaque on the first coat and fully opaque on the second. The polish itself dried very quickly and with ease. Now, because I wanted to give an in depth review, I put the miracle gel top coat on my thumb and middle finger. On my pointer and ring finger I have used seche vite. And lastly, on my pinky I have no top coat.

So starting with the pinky, you will notice a crack near the tip and that was due to user error and does not reflect on the polish itself. The shine was a very good amount, the same as the miracle gel top coat in my opinion. As for the pointer and ring finger, seche vite dried very quickly and has a high shine finish. The miracle gel top coat on the other hand, did not work out so well. In the bottle I had noticed it was very thin and heard that it can smudge your nail so I applied a thicker coat so as to avoid smudging. It did not work at all. No matter how dry my polish was underneath, the miracle gel top coat smudged it so badly that it created patches if you look up close. Also even though my base color was dry, my brush still got stained pink. Dry time was fairly long, when I had thought it was dry I could still leave fingerprint marks and then smooth them out. The shine was also fairly nice.

Day three, my right hand (my dominant hand).

Day three, my left hand.

By day three my manicure was still looking very fresh with minimal tip wear on my right hand. On day four however, I did notice that the polish had started to crack on my left thumb and both of my middle fingers, which all had the miracle gel top coat. On day five, the cracking had also shown up on my right thumb and both my pinkies which had no top coat.

Day eight, my right hand (my dominant hand).

 Day eight, my left hand.

 By day eight, I had noticeable tip wear on my right hand and minimal wear on my left. While my manicure looked nice because there was no chipping, the cracking was really noticeable and ruined the manicure for me. It looked worn out even though the shine was still prevalent. And it was on all my fingers except for my pointer and ring which were topped with seche vite.

Day ten, my right hand (my dominant hand). 

Day ten, my left hand.

I did not make it to day 14 because the chipping on my middle finger kept spreading and the cracking of the nail polish just looked horrible in person. Overall, even after ten days, I thought it had held up nicely especially when topped with seche vite. The color was still vibrant and there was still a good amount of shine on all of my fingers. It also did remove easily.

The miracle gel polish itself, is definitely something I would recommend. Looking at the polish itself, I did not have any issues with it until day five which is pretty amazing considering I had no base and top coat. The color popped and the shine was still there to make it look like a gel manicure. To extend the life of the manicure, I would recommend you use either seche vite as I did or try your own top coat. I think if I had used seche vite on all ten fingers, I would have made it through 14 days without my manicure looking horrible.

As for the miracle gel top coat, save your money and effort. The top coat smudged my nail color to the point where it reduced the opacity of the coat I already had on; so it would be horrible for nail art. It also took longer than the nail color to dry. The worst part is that on me, it caused my manicure to crack two whole days before my finger that had no top coat! So save your money on the top coat and just buy another color you like.

I will for sure buy more miracle gel colors because I was impressed with the formula and wear time. When I want my manicure to last I will reach for this and my own preferred top coat. If you've used the 2x volume top coat or have used this system, I'm curious to see how you found it so leave me a comment below!

Marc Jacobs Nail Lacquer

So for my birthday, one of my friends gifted me a Marc Jacobs nail polish is the shade Jezebel. I decided to do a wear test of this polish to see if the high price tag is mainly attributed to the brand name or if the quality can justify it. The main claims behind this polish is that it is supposed to have a "wet look" to it and that the brush is supposed to optimize nail polish application because it is meant to hug the curves of the nail.

The application was actually hard for me, the polish did not glide on easily and the brush was not curved at the end so I did not find that it hugged my nail at all. The color was opaque for me in two coats but in mainly yellow light, you could see the patches where it was uneven so you may want to do three coats if you are picky. 

Two coats of Jezebel 

Overall, I was really happy with the polish, it had a very nice amount of shine to it but it was not high shine. I prepped my nail with Pretty Woman nail detox to ensure that there was no oil on my nails. I used two coats for my test and did not add a top coat. 

Day Six of wear

This polish lasted a very long time on my nails, I noticed tip wear around day three however I did not get any chips until day five. And the chip did not worsen the longer I wore the polish. I did get some dents and scratches in the nail polish but I find that happens to all nail polish the longer you wear it. The shine stayed pretty much consistent, it did not feel dull at all. One thing I did notice about the polish is that it was easily removed by rubbing alcohol which does happen to some of my other polishes. The main reason I ended this wear test on day six was because I wanted to change up my manicure.

In conclusion, I do think that $22 is fairly pricey for a nail polish however, this is a good quality formula and not just a branded item. Six days with just one chip and good shine is amazing considering that I did not use a base or top coat. Formula wise, this polish really stands out in my collection. If you have a nail polish lover in your life or are searching for high quality nail polish then this would be a lovely gift for you to splurge on. 

Leave me a comment below letting me know what is the most expensive nail polish you've ever bought or received as a gift!

Pretty Woman NYC Gelogic

Hello all,

Today I have a review and wear test of Pretty Woman NYC gelogic line. Their gelogic system is a two piece system which consists of a color and a top coat. The claims made by this system are that their formula resists chipping, cracking, fading and peeling. They do not make any claim for how long this polish will last, it is simply long lasting. Other claims from this line is that one coat should be enough for it to be opaque, it is self leveling and plumping, it dries quickly without a LED or UV light and that it removes with acetone nail polish remover.

For my review, I actually tested the gelogic line using only the color coat because I did not have the titanium top coat that comes with it. I did prep my nails with the Pretty Woman NYC nail detox since the instructions said to clean your nail with nail polish remover. So before I get into the details and results of my wear test, there are a few things I want you all to keep in mind while you read my review. At my job, I am constantly opening drawers that have no handle so I have to reach my fingers in; this eats away at my nail polish quite quickly. I have found that even with using my favorite base and top coat, my nails will have significant wear after one shift and definite chipping after a second shift. So I change my nail polish very quickly because of that and when I am working, I am putting way more "stress" on my polish than with usual wear.

Two coats of Something Blue

The application of the gelogic polish was easy enough, while I do think it was very opaque at one coat, I did two coats. Also even though this shade has a lovely shimmer running throughout it, I found the application was still smooth. I would agree 100% that it self leveled and it dried very quickly. As to the polish being plumping, I really noticed no difference from a regular nail polish. Even though I did not add a top coat to this polish, it had a fairly nice shine to it where I felt I did not need to add a top coat.

Five days of wear

I have to say I was blown away by the quality of this polish. On me, with base and top coat, regular nail polish lasts two work shifts before showing major chips forcing me to change it. I wore this polish for five days, through four shifts at work! I was able to get double the wear of my nail polish by using this gelogic color as opposed to regular nail polish. You can see that the major chips are on my index and pointer fingers while my ring and pinkie finger still only have tip wear. Adding the titanium top coat would also help prolong the wear of your manicure. Overall, I have to say that this gelogic system met all of their claims. The color did not fade or peel and I found it very resistant to chipping and cracking. It also removed easily with my acetone based nail polish remover.

The gelogic polishes have 9.5 mLs in them as opposed to Pretty Woman NYCs regular polish which have 10 mLs. However, they are the exact same price ($7.99)! So it really is up to you which formula you want to try without the worry of it being much more expensive. Also remember that Pretty Woman NYC has free shipping regardless of your order size! If you've tried any from their gelogic line or if you want me to pick up the titanium top coat and put it to the test, leave me a comment down below.

Pretty Woman nail polish

Hello all,I hope you are having a great day. So in my April Ipsy glam bag, I received a beautiful fuchsia nail polish called "Pouty" from a brand named Pretty Woman. And I have to tell you, I was blown away when I saw the polish. On Ipsy's website, the color looked similar to another color I owned and simply wasn't exciting me. However, when I got the polish in my mail, I fell in love. Pouty turned out to be a bright fuchsia that practically looks neon on your nails and screamed summer.

Two coats of Pouty

Lets talk about the application of the polish and the formula. I have tried plenty of nail polishes before but I feel like the brush on this one was fairly unique. In terms of size, I would say it was a medium brush but to me, it felt more dense than a typical nail polish brush. This density helped the brush fan out a bit more so that you could coat most of your nail with one swipe. Something interesting I noticed about the formula was how much it reminded me of a neon. But if you visit Pretty Woman's website, this polish is not specifically labeled as a neon.

However, after the first coat I noticed that the polish dried down matte similar to a neon. And so I tried layering this over a white base to see if the color would change, however it stayed the same. Therefore I would have to say Pouty is a bright fuchsia that borders neon. This polish was opaque in two coats for me and surprisingly it dried shiny. In some lights or angles I could still see my nail line but I was alright with it.

As for the wear of this polish, I did conduct a wear test on my Cinderella hand. Some things to keep in mind as you view the pictures is that to truly test the quality of the polish itself, I wear no base or top coat. In addition, this is my dominant hand and I don't wear gloves when I do the dishes.

Day three

After wearing the polish for three days, I only had tip wear on all of my nails. This is fairly natural and doesn't speak against the quality of the polish.

Day four 

My troubles with this polish began on day four. I found my first major chip on my middle finger. Now since my middle finger is my longest finger, the fact that it chipped first was not surprising to me. However, it is important to note that the polish chipped four days into my manicure. As you can see in the photo, I also broke my middle nail but that is not related to the nail polish.

Day five

I ended my wear test on day five because I was unhappy with my thumb, pointer and middle finger. Now I did file down the nail on my middle finger which left some tip wear but it just seemed to keep chipping off, even after I took my picture. I had a chip near the middle on my pointer finger that also kept increasing and too much wear on my thumb. 

Overall, I would say that the Pretty Woman nail lacquer in Pouty is good. The color is fairly unique and application was very easy. This polish did last five days on my nails by itself, if you used your favorite base and top coat you would probably be able to get a longer wear. Now these polishes retail for $7.99 USD but they offer free shipping on all orders which is amazing and is something I don't see often. However, if you are a part of Ipsy, you can get these beauties for $5.99 USD! If you aren't signed up for Ipsy, feel free to use my referral link here. Hope you enjoyed this review, and if you have a favorite Pretty Woman nail polish, tell me in the comments below.

Wet n Wild 1 Step Wonder Gel swatch and review

(L-R Left Marooned, Condensed Milk, Stay Classy, Pretty Peas, Lavender out Loud)

Hello everyone, hope you are having a wonderful day. Two weeks ago, I wandered to my local Loblaws Superstore and found that they had the new Wet n Wild 1 Step Wonder Gel for $6 CDN and of course, I grabbed as much as I could.These polishes are supposed to mimic a true UV cured gel polish without the use of a UV light. So if you are interested in seeing my swatches, pros and cons, as well as the results of my 2 week wear test, just keep reading!

So lets start with some swatches, the range of this product consists of 18 different shades however, I only picked up 5.

Starting with the lightest shade I picked up, this is condensed milk. I did use three coats for this swatch and if you look carefully, you will see that there are still some spots where the polish is not completely opaque. Furthermore, the color that you see on my nails is lighter than the color you see on the bottle.

Next we have pretty peas, which is a beautiful seafoam green. I did use three coats for my swatch and I was able to get it fully opaque but I tried not to overwork the polish. On the first and second coat, I found that the more I brushed the polish, the streakier it got. Therefore I would recommend using the three strokes method with this particular color.

Stay classy is a wonderful mauve shade, and had the best formula of the bunch. It was almost opaque in one coat, however I did use two. This is the shade I chose for my wear test so you will be seeing it again soon.

Lavender out loud is probably the second best of the bunch but did need two coats to be fully opaque. It is a light and sightly dusty purple.

Last we have the worst of the bunch, left marooned. This was opaque in two coats but the formula was really tricky to work with so you might need three. This was incredibly hard to photograph using my regular lights, so I also took a picture in the sun.

 Nope, I did not change my polish. Left marooned is a cherry red. This color did not deepen on a third coat, and as you can see the color is nowhere near the same as the label. Also as I mentioned, the formula was tricky; it was goopy and hard to work with.

Next, lets talk about the wear test I did; I wore stay classy for 2 whole weeks with no base or top coat.

Say hello to my Cinderella hand, this picture was taken 9 days later. I do have a disclaimer, I hit my hand while closing a cabinet and I bent the nail on my middle finger which resulted in the chips you can see on the side. So please keep in mind that those chips have nothing to do with the formulation of the polish itself. Overall, I have to say I was definitely impressed by this polish. I do have a good amount of tip-wear, but this my dominant hand  and for nine days, it really held up well. As for the shine, I felt like I had the same amount of shine as the day I applied it.

Day 14, as you can see the chips on the side of my middle finger have gotten worse. I have more tip-wear and some chips on the sides of my other nails. However, the shine is still pretty prevalent and after fourteen days, I'm still impressed.

Overall, this polish by Wet n Wild has three main claims; color and shine for up to 2 weeks, no base or top coat needed, and easy removal. It has been my experience that all of those claims were true. After two weeks, it's still on your nails and it was a easy one step process. A lot of the time, if you don't use a base or top coat to extend the life of your manicure, your polish won't last for even a week. Also it did remove as easily as regular nail polish.

To wrap up, lets talk about some pros and cons, starting with the cons. $6 is expensive for Wet n Wild, their regular megalast polishes retail for about $3 CDN. This polish is really prone to bubbling, you really have to let it sit before you go in to paint your nails. The bubbles show up easy and since there is no top coat, you can't smooth out the polish is you do get the bubbles. No top coat also means that the shineyness of the polish itself is all you have, so if it's too dull for you, this line doesn't have a top coat for you to add on top. My major con with this line, is that since the bottles are opaque (the lacquer is light sensitive) you really depend on the sticker to depict the color. And while I can overlook the variation on condensed milk; it was a little lighter than the label, left marooned was really off. The label showed a classic maroon shade and the polish itself turned out to be a cherry red. So, what you see on the sticker, is not necessarily what you get.

To end on a positive note, I have a lot of pros for you. As you could see from my wear test, the polish did last a really long time. I got tired of the color long before I thought the manicure looked bad. For four out the five polishes I used, they applied really smoothly, self leveled nicely, no issues. The brush is the same as their megalast brushes so you can cover your nail easily. The polish also dries really fast! It is supposed to cure from regular ambient light or sunlight and I found that I only had to wait a handful of minutes in between coats and in the end.

While $6 is expensive for Wet n Wild , if you consider the other brands in the drug store, none of them have this kind of gel formula. To name a few, Sally Hansen Miracle Gel is a two step process; the polish and the top coat. Loreal Gel-Extraordinaire is a three step process;  base coat, polish, and top coat. Even Essence, gel nail polish has a base coat and top coat in addition to the colors. Therefore, since you only have to purchase the color you like, it is still an affordable polish.

Overall, I think this product is a 4/5 and my favorite color is pretty peas. Thank you so much for reading my review, if you've tried any of these comment below and let me know your thoughts!

Olivia Palermo x Ciate London Nail Polish

Hello all, today I will be reviewing a Ciate polish which is from their Olivia Palermo collection. I received my polish from my February Ipsy bag but the polish is also sold at Sephora and directly from Ciate London.

This is two coats of "Hutch- my go to red" and I have to say, this polish is beautiful. First, even though this is a mini bottle, the brush is large and perfectly rounded at the tip. Application was amazing, there were no streaks, no patches, it applied evenly. It was almost opaque on one coat, but I did have to do two. The polish also dries down darker than when you apply it.

I did a wear test to test out the quality of the polish and so I wore it without a base or top coat. I kept this on for 6 days with regular tip wear and the only reason I took it off was because I had to clean up a nail polish spill. The quality of this polish really impressed me and the only downside is that I found it took longer than normal for the polish to dry down. This can be easily solved with a fast drying top coat or some dry drops. Overall, I would definitely recommend this shade and hope to try out more Ciate nail polish.

Leave me a comment down below about what your favorite Ciate nail polish is, or which one you really want to try! If you are interested in signing up for your own Ipsy bag, feel free to use my referral link:  https://www.ipsy.com/new?refer=vfxwa 

OPI Suede

Hello everyone, today I am going to be reviewing three OPI suede polishes that I bought on sparklecanada.com. I purchased Ink, Russian Navy, and Lincoln Park after Dark and conducted a wear test along with swatching them. Now when you buy an OPI suede, there is a tag on it telling you it is a suede finish and some general "rules" about the polish. First, it says that the suede polishes will not last as long as their original nail lacquer. Second, it advises you not to use a top coat or any drying products which I can understand. However, the information tag tells you not to use hand lotion while wearing suede, which I think is pretty unreasonable.

So while I was conducting my wear test, I applied the suede polish on five of my nails without any base coat and I added top coat to three nails. While wearing suede, I did keep two nails devoid of top coat as well as drying products but I did still use hand lotion. At the end of day one, both of the fingers that only had suede showed significant tip wear. However, the fingers that had top coat did not show tip wear until day three. Day two was not any better for the suede polish as it had serious wear and was very faded.

Overall, I feel like while the suede finish looks beautiful, it is not meant to be a long wearing polish. A base coat might help prolong the wear of the polish but on it's own, it feels like more of a one night polish. Top coat will definitely extend the life of your manicure but take away from the suede finish so you could use a matte top coat after. Again keep in mind that a matte top coat will not mimic the suede finish. In the end, I do like these polishes and think they are worth the buy, so without any further ado, here are the swatches.

Shown above is one coat of Russian Navy suede. The application for these polishes are beautiful, opaque in one coat and really fast dry time!

Russian Navy suede with a glossy top coat.

One coat of OPI Ink suede.

OPI Ink suede with a glossy top coat.

One coat of Lincoln Park after Dark suede.

Lincoln Park after Dark suede with a glossy top coat.

I hope you enjoyed the swatches and my review on these polishes. Also don't forget that my 5% coupon code (Anusha) for sparklecanada.com expires on March 3rd. This is not an affiliate code and Sparkle Canada does ship worldwide. Please leave me a comment letting me know which is your favorite and if you prefer the suede finish or glossy.