These two collections work extremely well together because the flakies in both polishes match, so it was a no-brainer to decide to use them together when I received them in the mail. The "Precious Gems Collection", which are crelly glitter polishes with lots of flakies and a textured finish, are unlike any I've seen since I started collecting nail polish and nail art products, and Shakeela has done a wonderful job with them all. The "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection" flaky glitter polishes are somewhat unique, too, because so far I've only seen flakies used with other shapes and sizes of glitter in any glitter polishes I've come across and/or bought online, or in the stores And these polishes are a complete glitter bomb, with more than enough glitter to satisfy anyone's needs, I believe.
The "Precious Gems Collection" is a set of six crelly glitter polishes with a textured finish, and the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection" is a set of six flaky glitter polishes with tinted clear bases that may give full cover in three coats, but it is recommended that you use them over a base colour - either a matching colour polish such as I used, or over a black or white base. There are swatches of all the flaky glitter polishes on the SMPolish site here showing them used over both black polish and white polish, so please check them out and see how versatile they are. However, I personally preferred them used the way I have done, and of course I'm not biased at all.
I used two coats of each of the "Precious Gems Collection" polishes on each nail, with one coat of Grace-full Nail Polish "Base Coat" and "Quick Dry Top Coat". One coat of the top coat was all I needed to smooth the textured finish of the polishes, and also the flaky glitter polishes.
So, on to the swatches and reviews. Please forgive my bad clean-ups and application errors. I was having an extremely busy week, and sunlight was in short supply, so I had to dash out and take photos of some of the swatches before I was really ready to. Such is life in Tasmania in spring!
The first two polishes I want to show you are "Angelic Amethyst" from the "Precious Gems Collection", and
"Luscious Lilac" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".
"Angelic Amethyst" is the most gorgeous soft purple shade, with lots of dark purple flakies and heaps of holographic micro-glitter. As I mentioned before, it is a crelly glitter polish with a textured finish, and like all of the SMPolish polishes I have used and reviewed previously, it went on like a dream. One thick coat would probably have been enough, but for the photographs I used two, just to be sure. "Luscious Lilac", the flaky glitter polish on my ring finger, is the most amazing dark purple, and I loved it on top of "Angelic Amethyst". It also went on really easily, I used two coats, and I hardly had to do any dabbing to get the result shown. I just know you'll adore these two polishes. I think they were my favourites of the two collections. Here are some more photos taken in both shade and sunlight. As you can see, they are beautiful in any light.
The next two polishes I would like to show you are "Glistening Sapphires" from the "Precious Gems Collection", and "Get Lost Jack Frost" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".
"Glistening Sapphires" is a gorgeous mid-blue, crelly glitter polish with lots of bright blue and dark blue flakies, and heaps of holographic micro-glitter. It was sooooo easy to use, and went on beautifully, and has a textured finish, but one coat of top coat smoothed it out beautifully. "Get Lost Jack Frost" is a beautiful combination of mid and dark blue flaky glitter and holographic micro-glitter, and hardly any dabbing was needed to achieve the coverage shown. Once again the two polishes go together perfectly, as I knew they would, because they both contain the same coloured flakies. You really must try these two gorgeous polishes. Here are some more photos taken in both sun and shade.
The third polishes I would like to show you are "Radiant Rubies" from the "Precious Gems Collection" and "Last Fires of Winter" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".
"Radiant Rubies" is a silvery red crelly glitter base with loads of red and holographic micro-glitter, and lots of lovely red flakies. It didn't go on as easily as all the others, and I'm sorry to have to admit that this is my least favourite of all the polishes. The colour wasn't nearly as pretty as the others in the collection, nor as obvious once on my nails. However, two thin coats gave good coverage, with a textured finish. "Last Fires of Winter" is a flaky glitter polish with a red-tinted clear base, and went on reasonably well. Hardly any dabbing was needed to give the coverage shown after two coats. The polish is loaded with flakies, and the finish can be a bit rough, but one coat of top coat was enough to give a smooth finish over both polishes. Here are some more photos of these two polishes taken in both sun and shade.
The next two polishes I would like to show you are "Sparkling Aquamarine" from the "Precious Gems Collection" and "Last Winter Sky" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".
"Sparkling Aquamarine" is a very pretty pale aqua crelly glitter polish, loaded with holographic micro-glitter and lots of lovely aqua flakies. This polish also went on very easily, and two coats gave really good coverage with a textured finish. "Last Winter Sky" is a lovely aqua flaky glitter polish in an aqua-tinted clear base. There are loads of flakies, so virtually no dabbing was needed to get the cover shown. Once again, just one coat of top coat smoothed out both of these polishes beautifully. I really liked this combination, even though aqua is not normally one of my go-to colours. For some reason this particular shade goes really well with my skin colour and I was very happy with it. Once again, here are some more photos taken in both sun and shade.
The fifth pair of polishes I'd like to show you are "Tourmaline Crystal" from the "Precious Gems Collection", and "Spring Comes Alive" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".
"Tourmaline Crystal" is a pretty, subtle, silvery-green textured crelly glitter polish, with loads of holographic micro-glitter and lots of emerald green flakies. This polish went on very easily, two coats were more than enough to give full coverage, and it has a textured finish which just one coat of top coat smoothed out very well. The colour is quite pretty, but not really one I am enamoured with. However, "Spring Comes Alive" is very, very pretty, and I just love the colour of the masses of emerald green flakies in the green-tinted sheer base. I think this polish might get some use for St Patrick's Day next year. The glitter went on very easily, with virtually no dabbing, and two coats gave the result shown in the photos. Here are some more photos, taken in sunlight and in shade.
Now we come to the last two polishes I'd like to show you today - "Yellow Diamond" from the "Precious Gems Collection", and "Sunshine At Last" from the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection".
These two polishes were a real surprise because of the colour of the flakies used. "Yellow Diamond is a shimmery, light yellow crelly glitter polish, loaded with holographic micro-glitter, with lots of gorgeous bright yellow (not gold, but YELLOW) flakies. This polish is my second favourite of the collection. It went on very easily, and two coats gave a wonderful textured coverage. I wasn't sure how this colour would go on my skin colour, but was really surprised when I saw how great it looked. "Sunshine At Last" is absolutely loaded with yellow (once again, not gold but yellow) flakies in a light yellow-tinted clear base. The polish went on really easily, and I didn't have to do any dabbing with this one at all. Just one coat of top coat was enough to smooth out both polishes. Here are three more photos taken in both sun and shade.
So, that's the latest two collections from SMPolish. I have to say I was impressed with how easy all but one were to apply to my nails, particularly as the "Precious Gems Collection" is a textured-finish polish. I don't normally like textured finishes because I find they annoy me, and I usually have to apply at least two thick coats of top coat to smooth them out, and the same thing applies to the "Farewell Winter - Welcome Spring Collection". With this many flakies of different sizes and shapes I expected them to be very hard to get to sit flat on my nails, and thought I would need two coats of top coat to cover them. However, one good coat of my Grace-full "Quick Dry Top Coat" did the job perfectly.
I just love these two collections, and am really looking forward to the release of the "Precious Gems Collection" on Friday, 7th October. I hope you like them as much as I do. Please let me know what you think of them if you decide to buy any of either collection.
I've had a pretty rough couple of weeks for many reasons, and that is why it has been a while since my last posting. I'm still not feeling really great (clinical depression rearing its ugly head), but hopefully things will improve soon. I feel like I'm in a big dark hole, and I just can't seem to get out of it. I'm trying art therapy to see if that will help, because it is supposed to be very beneficial to people with my mental health problems. It certainly is very relaxing, and hopefully I will be able to get back to normal (or what I consider normal) very soon.
I'd love to hear from you with any comments you might have regarding either my blog or the polishes featured here, whether positive or negative, and I hope you'll come back again soon to find out what I have been up to and my latest manicure and/or swatches and reviews.
Have a wonderful day, and may God bless you with an abundance of His mercy and grace.
Hugs
Christine
(Please check out my other blog below, too.)
Words of Life and Hope
http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/
(I received 5ml sample-size bottles of all the polishes featured here from Shakeela at SMPolish for testing and my honest review.)
