Spa Ritual Howl~ Review

SpaRitual's Howl polish from the fall Wilde collection was the only shade I felt I needed in my life. All the blogger photos were gorgeous, it looks stunning in the bottle. A dark brown with copper shimmer throughout. However, on the nail is just seems to fall flat. Even in bright sunshine you can barely see the shimmer at times, and the dark brown base looks black in most lighting. Plus, if you want any hope of seeing the shimmer you need a super shiny top coat. I tried it first with an older topcoat I had hanging around and it pretty much killed the uniqueness of the polish. 

I tried very hard to show the shimmer in these pics, they were all in direct sunlight but as you can see there isn't very much. This makes me sad because the polish in the bottle looks so gorgeous! Or when I'm in the process of removing it and the base removes a little before the shimmer so you can see it more.
The formula itself was pretty good. It went on easily in two coats and wear was about average for me (which is 2-3 days before major tip wear and chips).

Overall, I'm kind of disappointed. I was really hoping for a more unique and glowy sort of polish but mostly it just looks black or black-brown. Sparitual is vegan though so that's a plus, and I love the bottle, not only is it shaped nicely the rubber cap rocks.

Sprite Rating: 5/10, lost points for the potential it had but didn't live up to and the need for a super shiny top coat.

Would I Buy it Again? No, I wouldn't. I liked the idea of it and other bloggers seem to be able to coax out it's hidden wonders but on me it just looks black most of the time. *sigh* And I had such high hopes.

Lorac TANtalEYES Palette~ Swatches & Impressions

Out for Summer, Lorac has released a eyeshadow quad called TANtalEYES. I think the name is really cute, if a bit corny. The palette itself however is lovely!

All four shades are generous in size and highly pigmented. The four colours- white gold, copper, olive green and burgundy are all shimmery almost metallic finish.

All four shades were beautiful! I really wanted the palette myself but I already own shades that are near identical for the two darker shades. Plus the palette comes with a bronzer illuminator that I wouldn't use so it would have been a waste.

The real kicker about this palette and bronzer though is the price for us Canadians. The set costs $47 CND or (for you lucky americans) $36 USD.

So what do you think a great summer palette or just more of the same?

NARS Vintage Polish

From the Nars site

Nars has brought back for a limited time there most popular shades from the past. For $16 USD each, and available now these would make good stocking stuffers. (Info from Temptalia)



Midnight Express is a dark blue almost black jelly. It's very sheer so you're going to need patience to apply it. However, I do really like the feel of it.



Zulu is a deep dark forest green. Personally my favourite from the release, this polish has been hyped up a lot since it's original release about 15 years ago. This too is a jelly finish, and is also quite sheer. Personally I think this colour would look great around the holiday season as it reminds me of pine forests.



Mash is a metallic khaki olive army green. I've heard this one too requires patience to perfect, as it has issues with brushstrokes and needs three coats.



Full Metal Jacket is another metallic only this time a silver with a slight blue undertone. Also three coats, and also prone to brushstrokes.



King Kong is the last of the bunch (though not the least!). It's an orange intense copper metallic, and from what I've heard applies the best of the five. With only two coats needed and little evidence of brushstrokes this one is a unique winner.

What do you think? Buying some NARS for this holiday season?

Illamasqua Unique Polish Trio Released

(Note: Link on photo above does NOT work. Click Here Instead.)

 The three nail polishes that Illamasqua has been raving about from their unique nail polish colour competition is finally for sale. Three very different colours were chosen as the finalists, Eclipse, Raindrops, and Shrapnel. Below is a little bit about all three colours and the Illamasqua colour swatches.

Shrapnel: Shrapnel is described as a Rose Copper Chrome, with a metallic finish. To me this is the least interesting of the three (I'm not fond of browns on my nails) but I may change my mind when swatches start coming out on nail blogs. I also really dislike the name, of the polish. It's too gruesome for my tastes, and makes me feel kind of sick when I think about it. Here's the winning entry description: "I have NEVER found my dream nail colour, a pink based metallic copper, like a shiny new penny- pure sex!"- Loren, Toronto, Canada
If they had named the polish polished penny, I'd probably be more open to the colour.

Raindrops: My personal favourite of the bunch, raindrops reminds me of rainy Scotland days and cloudy skies. In the bottle pictures it almost looks like it has a blue or even mint green undertone but Illamasqua describes it as a sheer light grey with a jelly finish. I'll be interested to see how this compares with the other light greys and blue-greys out there like Eyeko's Rain Polish. The winning entry it great really picturesque in my humble opinion. "Inspired by a photograph I took from the monorail in Seattle, through the rain on the window you glimpse the Seattle Space Needle. I want a polish that looks like raindrops on my fingernails. A light, creamy grey with the sheerest silver glimmer, lightly reflective... like a raindrop."- Ann, California, USA

Eclipse: Lastly we've got the evocative and mysterious Eclipse. Described as an Inky purple blue, with a shimmer finish, I think this one seems to be widely available already, it reminds me of Nars Midnight Express, or possibly a purpler Chanel Paradoxial. I'm hoping once I see swatches it will come into its own, making it's uniqueness apparent. 

"My dream colour is a deep blue-purple with greyish undertones inspired by a lunar eclipse, it has a feeling of concealment like hidden sin."- Dami, Essex, UK.

All polishes are on the Illamasqua site for 13 British Pounds. What do you think, any of these you're interested in?

EDIT: Scrangie's blog has swatches up for all 3 here!

NOTD: Estee Lauder Surreal Violet

 Estee Lauder Surreal Violet was released this fall with the Blue Dahlia collection, and honestly the colour is to die for gorgeous! A greyed lavender with copper reflect this colour changes in every lighting.   Even looking at it in the bottle is lovely as the ice cube-like glass seems to capture the subtle copper shimmer well.

 The good about this polish unfortunately ends here. It was costly, a whopping $25 CND dollars for only  9 ml (0.3 oz) of polish. That's a little over half in comparison to China Glaze which has 14ml (0.5 oz) of polish which costs about $8.00 CND here. The formula on this is thin too. You really need three coats as two does cover but can look patchy afterwards (as is evidenced on my thumb in later pictures). Though the polish went on nicely it also didn't last very long. With my normal system (Gelous base coat and China Glaze quick dry top coat) it lasted three days before I got major chipping and tip wear.

Trying to capture the glow!

See near the base of the thumb? It looks patchy despite two coats. *sigh*

Rating: 5/10

Overall, though the colour is unique (I've never seen anything like it!) I've vowed to myself to never fall in love with another Estee Lauder nail polish. The lack of wear, the thin formula and the exorbitant price aren't worth it. Though I love this colour and am happy I got it in the future I'd rather spend my pennies on a polish I know is going to last longer than three days. Like Wet n' Wild coloricon or Nubar.