Saturday, February 14, 2015

"Troubled Love" Valentine's Day Collection from Superficially Colorful - Requested Review and Swatches

Today I have the honour of doing a review of the latest collection from Superficially Colorful, the "Troubled Love" Valentine's Day Collection. Adi (Jin) Tamir, the owner of Superficially Colorful, lives in Israel, and all the polishes on her site are hand-made by her. They are 5-FREE, as they do not contain Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde or Toluene, nor do they contain formaldehyde resin or camphor. They are cruelty free and their creation did not harm any living being.  Jin, is short for Jijit - the Hebrew word for a redhead girl.


 Jin explains the theme for this collection this way:
"Love has many faces and one of its saddest faces is a one-sided love. So Valentine’s Day is not always about chocolate and kisses. My Valentine’s Day collection is inspired by several songs from my personal playlist that are an ode to the troubled, one-sided love. It’s a rather varied collection: it has glitter, it has holo, there are jelly and crelly polishes, and there’s even a thermal." 

The first polish I'd like to tell you about is "Tainted Love", which was inspired by the song by that name, originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1964, and later covered by the group Soft Cell in 1981.

Photo in sunlight (click on photo for larger view)

This polish is a beautiful grey duo-chrome that shifts between green and violet, depending on the light.  This polish is beautiful to work with - it went on smoothly, with only two thin coats required for full coverage.  It dried very quickly, too, which is an added bonus.There is a glimmer of pinkish violet under artificial light inside, but I was not able to catch the true beauty with my camera.  Overall, this is a gorgeous polish which I will be wearing time and time again.  I think it would also work really well for stencils and stamping.  I love it! Here are some photos taken outside in shade and sunlight, and the colour is pretty true to life.


First photo indoors, second photo under artificial light
(click on photo for larger view)


Both photos taken in sunlight
(click on photo for larger view)

Photo taken in shade
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"Never There", the second polish I'd like to show you, was inspired by the song of the same name by the group Cake recorded in 1998.  It is a silver holographic polish with a touch of pink - Jin describes it this way - "It's not a pink polish.  It just has this pink... "smell" to it." 

Taken in sunlight (click on photo for larger view)

This wonderful polish went on like a dream, and even one coat gave good coverage, however I used two coats for my swatches.  As I was applying it I kept saying "Wow!" to myself, and my hubby agreed with me.  This polish is amazing, and I will definitely be buying some more before it disappears from the Superficially Colorful site. It is the first holographic polish I have used, so it was a real surprise to me to see the effect on my nails.  In the sun it is absolutely awesome.  Here are some more photos taken in sunlight and shade. You can see from these photos why I fell in love with this polish.

Both taken in shade (click on photo for larger view)

Both taken in sunlight (click on photo for larger view)
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The next polish I'd like to show you is called "Foolish Heart", which Jin describes as "a thermal polish that changes color from dark crimson, blu-ish mulberry red when cold to a fire Sienna red when warm.  It is reckless and foolish, but it knows what it wants." The polish was inspired by the song "I Was A Fool", recorded by Tegan and Sara in 2013.
Taken in sunlight (click on photo for larger view)

I wasn't too sure about the colour of this polish on me at first, but by the time I had finished the swatches I was sold.  The first coat was a little streaky, but two good coats gave a lovely matte finish.  The thermal effect was visible from the first stroke of the brush, which actually made it a little hard to know whether the polish was covering the nail, because the base looked so pale compared to the tip.  After I added the Seche Vite top coat the effect was beautiful.  The actual polish itself is a matte finish, though, and many people may prefer this.  In either case, it is a very pretty polish.

 
First photo taken indoors, next one in shade (click on photo for larger view)

     
First photo in my sunroom, second in sunlight (click on photo for larger view)
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The fourth polish in the Troubled Heart collection, "I Will Survive", is by far my favourite.  Jin describes this as "a dark berry jelly with holographic glitter in different sizes" . It was inspired by the song "I Will Survive", recorded by Gloria Gaynor in 1978.


I did not want to take this polish off to do the last swatch, and I wish I had done this one last so I didn't have to.  It is a beautiful jelly polish, rather thin, but two good coats gave a gorgeous jelly finish, and as this is my first jelly polish, all I can say is it was like putting sparkly, crushed raspberries on my nails.  There was plenty of glitter, and although it does settle in the bottle, it didn't take long to distribute it throughout the polish, and I had no trouble getting lots of glitter with each stroke of the brush.  The holographic glitter sandwiched in this beautiful jelly gives an amazingly beautiful look, and the different colours reflected through the polish are wonderful to look at.  It is a polish I would wear for any special occasion without question, and I'm definitely going to have to buy some more of this polish before it disappears.  I'M IN LOVE! is the only phrase I can use to describe this polish.  

 
First photo taken indoors, second one in shade (click on photo for larger view)

 
Both photos taken in sunlight (click on photo for larger view)
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The final polish in this collection is "Don't Leave Me This Way".  Jin describes this polish as "a red/orange crelly (creme/jelly) with matte red glitter of different sizes and just a little bit of matte red hearts glitter. Hesitant and unfinished, stuck with a broken heart between the orange and red."  It was inspired by the song "Don't Leave Me This Way", recorded by the group The Communards in 1986.

Taken in shade (click on photo for larger view)

Of the five polishes in this collection, this is the one I like the least.  It is a thin crelly, and was very hard to work with. I had to really fish around in the bottle to get any of the larger glitter, especially the hearts, which were hard to find (but Jin said there were only a few, so that's understandable, I suppose).  I needed three coats to get full opaque coverage, and the finish is matte and very uneven.  To get a smooth finish I needed two generous coats of Seche Vite top coat.  The overall effect is orange/red, but the red glitter is not clearly visible at all.  There is smattering of holographic micro-glitter, which shows up quite well in the last photo, which was taken in the sun.  The colours in the photos are very close to what they look like on my nails. 

  
First photo taken indoors, second taken in my sunroom (click on photo for larger view)

 
First photo in shade, second in full sun (click on photo for larger view)

For all swatches I used two base coats, OPI Ridge Filler Base Coat and OPI Natural Nail Base Coat, with one coat of Seche Vite Top Coat over all, with the exception of  "Don't Leave Me This Way".

Overall, this collection is beautiful, and such a novel take on Valentine's Day.  All but the "Don't Leave Me This Way" polish went on really easily, and were beautiful to work with.  They all came off with minimal effort, and there was no staining at all, despite the fact that they all contained colours that are notorious for staining nails. The range of colours is stunning, and the range of finishes is terrific, with something for everyone. I have no hesitation in recommending the "Troubled Love" Valentine's Day Collection at all.  The collection was sent to me by the owner of "Superficially Colorful" for my honest review, and that is what I have tried to do.  I received no payment for my comments.  All five polishes are available individually for $9.00 US, or you can purchase the whole "Troubled Love Collection" for $42.00 US.  Links to the YouTube videos of the songs which inspired this collection are available on the individual polish pages on the Superficially Colorful site.

I bought another collection from Jin at the same time as she sent me these, which is the "Remnants of Winter" collection, and they all look amazing too.  I'll try to do some swatches of them when I can get time.

So, thank you, Jin, for trusting me to do these reviews for you, and I hope I have not let you down.  This was my first proper review for anyone, and I found it to be a real challenge.  I wanted to do full justice to the polishes, especially with the photographs, and I took hundreds of them to just get the few I've included here.  Although it was hard work, I really enjoyed it and would love to do more for Jin, or for anyone else who would trust me to do some for them in the future.

Thanks for checking out my blog.  God bless you, and have a great day!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope

he song Never There by Cake (1998)
Never There is inspired by the song Never There by Cake (1998) - See more at: https://sclacquer.com/shop/troubled-love/never-there#sthash.vFeY2576.dpuf

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful swatches. The thermo or the duochrome was my favorite!:D

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your kind comment. I loved both of those, too, but if you could see "I Will Survive" in real life you would be amazed. It is just so beautiful. I appreciate your encouraging words. I love your blog as well, and follow it all the time.

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