Review & Swatches - Revlon Summer 2013 Haute Tropics Collection

Hello hello!

I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday. It feels like a Friday to me for some reason. Since summer is so bright, most of the summer collections usually have bright, bold nail polishes, and Revlon is no different! This is part of the Revlon Limited Edition Summer 2013 Haute Tropics Collection! Wow, that's a mouthful! The collection has eight bright, fun polishes, but I was only able to snag three, so those are the ones that I will be showing you.

The above three bottles are the only ones I was able to grab.

From left to right: Mai Tai Ask?; Lagoon Afternoon; Belize, Please
The names of the other polishes in the collection are: Cabana Queen; Plunge Pool; Coast is Clear;
Hello, Bali;  and Secluded Beach. They all look lovely so I hope I can get a hold of the rest soon and swatch those as well!

Mai Tai Ask? is a bright orange creme/jelly. It took about 2 coats to reach opacity, although 2 finger needed 3 coats, and the formula was a little runny, but not too bad. I absolutely love this color and I think it's just so fun looking that I wouldn't mind wearing it alone!

Just to see how the color would look with a topper, I added Sally Hansen Ice Queen.

Lagoon Afternoon is a deep, bright blue creme/jelly which totally reminds me of the ocean! I absolutely love the color and I needed 3 coats to reach opacity. The formula was also a tad bit too runny but after I got used to it, it wasn't a problem. My only concern with this one was that when I removed the polish, it stained my nails slightly blue (even though I used a base coat) so I'm not sure if I would use this one just alone on my nails, but then again, that always seems to happen with blue polishes so it isn't a big concern for me. I will probably definitely end up using it for some nail art.

Also, sorry about the pictures! I didn't even notice the blue on my palm until after I started editing the pictures.

Since this polish reminded me so much of water, I added Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Glass Slipper (flakies!!) to make it look like sparkling, crystal water! It really does look gorgeous!

Belize, Please is a hot pink/fuchsia creme/jelly. It required 2 coats to reach opacity and the formula was just like the rest, just a little bit on the runny side. This color is fantastic but I loved it even more after adding a topper! There were no stains with this one after removal.

My topper for this one was Sinful Colors Let Me Go and I think I liked this combo the best out of the three.

Regarding the formula, even though I said that they were a little runny, it's to be expected with jellies. They weren't hard to work with after you wiped off the excess polish from the brush.

Another quick note: I have been hearing around the nail community that this collection is full of dupes. I'm not sure if they are, but I love these polishes and the collection and in my opinion, there is always something that is different in every polish that is somewhat the same color, even if it's the slightest difference. 

Overall, these shades are very fun and perfect for the summer. This collection also really is Limited Edition because not only does it say "Limited Edition" on the displays at Walgreens, but the bottles also don't have numbers on the caps, which means they are limited edition. So get these while they're still here! Out of these three swatches, I would say that my favorite stand alone polish is probably Mai Tai Ask? because I've been liking orange a lot lately and then Belize, Please is my favorite with the topper that I picked out.

I have a great nail art idea with Lagoon Afternoon so hopefully I can show you all that soon!

The product(s) were purchased by me and I am providing an honest review.

Hues of Blues Color Block

Hi everyone!

The Crumpet is having an amateur nail art contest this month!! And the theme is BLUE. I haven't really liked any previous blue nail art designs that I have done so I decided to create a whole new mani. There isn't any prize but it's just nice to enter into a contest! Especially because this is my first! There are some great entries already so it's going to be tough!

For this contest, I decided to use as many blue polishes as I could. I settled on four different shades of blues that seemed to go well with one another. I've always wanted to try a color block mani because I've seen some great ones on other blogs and loved the look! So I used the four different blue polishes and made color blocks with them.

For this mani, I started off with my favorite base coat, Essie 3 Way Glaze. Then for the base color coat, I used Sally Hansen HD Laser. I knew that I wouldn't be able to make full color blocks with the separate colors so I decided to have a base color coat and then make the blocks with the other three remaining polishes. The teal block was made using China Glaze For Audrey and the dark blue coat was made using Spoiled The Parking Meteor Expired. The Spoiled polish was a bit disappointing because in the bottle, the polish appears to be a blackened blue polish with lighter blue and purple flecks. While applying it, the polish looked promising but as it dried, the polish lost its blue and purple fleck colors. You can only really see the true color in bright light and only at certain angles. The light blue block was made using Revlon Downtown. This is a glitter polish but since the blocks are so small, the glitter wasn't showing up as much as I had hoped. So I went back and added a layer of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Glass Slipper to add some sparkly flakies and give it a nice sparkle. I finished off the look by adding light blue striping tape to show the distinct blocks and then put on my favorite top coat, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.

I had a hard time with the striping tape but I think it all worked out in the end. You can kind of see the blue flecks in the Spoiled polish on my ring finger in the above picture.

** My cuticles look oily because I had used hand lotion a little while before taking these pictures and apparently, the lotion wasn't absorbing

I am sooo happy with how this turned out! I had seen this type of mani on Pinterest and other blogs and really wanted to try it out. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to do it!

I hope you all liked the look as much as I do! Wish me luck for the contest!!

Matte + Flakies

I mentioned before that I love the new matte top coat. I am also in love with flakies!! They are so hard to find in normal stores so when I went to Walgreens and saw that Sally Hansen now has flakies, I had to get a few bottles.
So why not combine my two loves?

 

I used black as my base color and then used Sally Hansen's Diamond Strength Glass Slipper (has bigger flakies). And then topped it off with Essie's Matte About You. Sooo easy to do!

Yay!!