Pretty & Polished Haul

Today I bring you my recent haul from Pretty & Polished, three polishes from the upcoming Save the Dauphine collection and the True Blue Duo.

Let's begin with the True Blue Duo.

closer up bottle shot

This duo consists of two blue polishes which are both equally stunning on their own but together they create a fabulous manicure!  The base polish (left in photos above) is "Sea Spray" which is a deep blue jelly with a scattered holo.  The glitter topper (right in the photos above) "Bubbles" is jam-packed with various blue and iridescent glitters in a clear base.  You can purchase a mini duo for $8.50 USD or a full-sized duo for $18.00 USD.  You can also purchase "Sea Spray" individually for $4.25 for a mini bottle or $9.00 for a full-sized bottle, and "Bubbles"individually for the same price.  I had so much fun with this duo and actually after all my swatching was done I wished I had saved this duo for last so I could have worn it longer instead of taking it off right away in order to continue swatching the rest of the polishes.

Sea Spray is absolutely beautiful on its own without adding the glitter topper.  The formula was perfect and I could have gotten away with just one generous coat for full opacity, however, I went with two decent coats to make sure I had good coverage and add a little more depth as the base is more of a jelly finish.  You can never go wrong with more holo layers LOL ;)

I then added Bubbles and as if Sea Spray wasn't gorgeous enough on its own, Bubbles just amped it right up!!  This glitter topper would be fabulous over any shade really.  I'm thinking I need to try it over black perhaps and maybe even over a pastel purple or something like that.  Something to really add some contrast.  But Sea Spray and Bubbles are definitely the perfect combo if you're looking for a sparkly and cheery intense blue mani.  I only needed one coat of Bubbles over top of Sea Spray.  I did not use a top coat as I was swatching many polishes and would be removing this right away (much to my dismay!) As always, the formula was a dream to work with.  No need to fish for glitters or place glitters.  Just nice even, normal brush strokes and everything disbursed easily and evenly.  This duo is very similar to the Happy Holodays duo that Pretty & Polished came out with for Christmas 2012.  You can still purchase the Happy Holodays duo, although it will be discontinued once it is out of stock, and you can find my review of the Happy Holodays duo here.

Next up is three polishes from the upcoming "Save the Dauphine" (Marie Antoinette) collection which will consist of 4 polishes.  I only purchased three as "Louis Louis" was just not my personal taste.  The other three polishes which will be in this collection are (left to right in photos below) "Hameau", "Let Them Eat Cake" and "The Diamond Necklace Affair".  The Save the Dauphine collection will be released on January 16, 2013.

Let's begin with The Diamond Necklace Affair.  This was the one I was most anticipating out of the collection.  It is so spectacularly sparkly and radiant it is unbelievable!  The Diamond Necklace Affair was an incident that placed blame on Marie Antoinette in a crime against the Crown Jewellers.  This is a glitter topper which is so full of "bling" it is unreal.  It's a sea of pale blue iridescent glitters of various shapes and sizes.  It is in a clear base despite the look of the pale blue base of the bottle.  This polish literally sparkles like a diamond.  I did three coats just on its own as I wanted to see all the bling without it competing with anything else and again, no top coat.

Before I removed this completely, I started fresh on my pinky and ring finger and used a base of Essie Lilacism and then did one coat of The Diamond Necklace Affair.  This was really stunning but unfortunately I didn't capture it so well on camera.  My natural day light was fading as I was doing all these manicures and I just couldn't get the light quite right.  But it really was pretty and this would be fantastic over any pastel base polish.  I think it would also be spectacular over black and I'm dying to try that!  As always, the formula was perfect and there was no need to fish for or place glitters and everything applied nice and easy and even with normal brush strokes.

Next up is Let Them Eat Cake.  "Let them eat cake" is the traditional translation of the French phrase "Qu'ils mangent de labrioche", which is rumoured to have been spoken by Marie Antoinette upon learning that the peasants had no bread.  The name for this polish is absolutely perfectly fitting.  It's like a birthday cake or cupcake on your fingertips.  WHO DOESN'T LOVE THAT?!  Chels Marie (owner of Pretty & Polished) was going for a look of rich cake filled with creams and berries, something that may have been made for Marie Antoinette during one of her parties.  Although this polish appears pink it is a white base.  There is a ton of fun glitters in this polish in white, yellow and pink in different sizes and shapes.  This polish just makes me think of sprinkled cupcakes with loads of icing.  It's girly and sweet and actually ended up being my favourite of the collection.

You may get sick of hearing me say this but YET AGAIN the formula was perfect.  I used two generous coats and again no top coat for these photos.

Lastly we have "Hameau".  Hameau is the cottage built by Marie Antoinette.  Chels Marie made this polish to resemble the colour of the cottage and the surrounding flowers.

The base is a beautiful pale nude colour and has what I want to call a subtle champagne shimmer to it.  The description on the Pretty & Polished website actually says it's a light brown but also notes that it reads more of a neutral skin tone than brown.  It's loaded with green and purple hex glitters which spread nice and even over the nail with normal brush strokes and no fishing for glitters.  Again, perfect formula.  As this was the last polish I was going to swatch I did a proper manicure out of this and cleaned up my cuticles more and used a top coat.  I used two coats of Essie To Dry For after using two coats of Hameau.  The only reason I used two coats of top coat is because To Dry for is a thinner quick dry top coat and I just wanted a little extra gloss and smoothness.  Not that the polish had a super rough finish on its own but it was slightly bumpy simply because of the hex glitters.  I liked this polish because of its uniqueness as I've never seen anything like it and I like the shade of it with my skin tone. If you take a look at the picture of Hameau above and then the swatches of the polish below I think you'll agree that Chels Marie hit the perfect note with the colours.

Here you can see a bit of that champagne kind of shimmer I was talking about.

 

There is a fourth shade to the Save the Dauphine collection which I did not get.  It is called "Louis Louis" and was made to represent King Louis XVI of France.  It is described on the Pretty & Polished website as "a sheer golden polish packed with golden flakes, round red glitter, and blue glitter.  To achieve full coverage with this polish you are going to need around 4 layers."  To see photos of this polish and a couple of swatches you can click on the link at the beginning of this description and it will take you to this polish on the Pretty & Polished website.

Again the Save the Dauphine collection will be available on January 16, 2013.

You can purchase Pretty & Polished polishes from the following websites:

http://pretty-polished.myshopify.com
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PrettyandPolished#

Well that is all for now.  Hope you enjoyed my swatches and my review.  Please feel free to comment or ask questions.  Which of all of these lovely polishes is your favourite?