I've been a bit absent lately and taking care of my nails before the swatching frenzy begins!
Just as things reached peak-condition...THESE BEAUTIES ARRIVED!
No secret that I have been on the Echoes Polish Bandwagon of late. I promise the next feature will be my hoard of Femme Fatale & Emily de Molly polishes that have been stacking up since my birthday last month.
Anywho, Echoes Polish have a new collection of iridescent and colour-shifting toppers that will be available in their Etsy store on the 29th of August (or the 30th if you live in my neck of the woods).
There are six shades in the Vivid Dreams Collection:
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| Photo Credit: http://instagram.com/echoespolish |
From Top Left - Right: Dream World, Stars Collide & Serendipity.
Bottom Left-Right: Kismet, Written in the Stars & Enamored.
There was a competition held recently to name a new thermal polish that Shannon & Kristyn mixed up and I was lucky enough to win. It was a dark purple-light purple thermal and in a moment of pure inspiration (with a fair amount of luck having heard the song moments beforehand) the name I entered for the polish was 'The Grape Pretender' a la Freddy Mercury!
The girls were lovely enough to also include three mini polishes for me to swatch and review for them. I recieved Stars Collide, Dream World and Enamored.
I have to say...I have used a fair amount and still have a fair amount of colour-shifting toppers - these are among the BEST that I have in my collection. Very very unique and incredibly beautiful! And also very versatile! You can create so many stunning effects with these depending on the colour you wear them over - despite the fact they are designed to work best over Black or darker polishes.
The first polish I swatched was Stars Collide:
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| Indoors with Artificial Light |
Stars Collide, according to the small description I was given along with the polishes, is supposed to be a violet-blue shifter - it also has a healthy smattering of different sized and coloured iridescent glitters. In all pictures you can see two coats of the topper upon black and a black-light grey skittle mani.
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| Indoors with Artificial Light |
I found this polish the hardest to photograph accurately. It is definitely a violet/blue colourshifting polish and at extreme angles you can even see fuchsia, but the shift is more subtle and was nearly impossible to capture.You can see on my index finger, towards the top sidewall, a hint of the more warm purple shift.
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| Indoors with Artificial Light |
Formula was very good and thick. I found the thickness easy to work with and the polish levelled out well on the nail. The effects of the colourshifting were quite apparent after just one coat, but I found that they were more intense after two coats. If you wish for a more obvious colourshift to occur, then definitely use two.
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| Indoors with Artificial Light |
Along with swatching over Orly Liquid Vinyl, I decided I wanted to experiment with how obvious the colourshift would be over lighter colours so I used the L.A. Girl Ombre Collection of mini polishes in Midnite - it had the perfect collection of polishes to create a grey-scale mani.
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| Indoors with Artificial Light |
I really loved this look and will definitely do it again! The shift worked perfectly over all the shades and had a really nice glow on the two lighter shades on my ring and pinky fingers. Obviously, the shift wasn't as noticeable on the lighter colours, but it was still present and the shimmer and iridescence definitely made the effects look lovely. I particularly loved how it appeared on the grey on my ring finger. It's just a bit of a shame that the polish doesn't shift as easily as the two others.
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| Indoors with Artificial Light |
One thing worth mentioning - this is actually the second bunch of pics I took of Stars Collide. When I recieved the package I was about to leave the house and quickly slapped it on before I left hoping it would dry enough and I wouldn't smudge it. When I got home later that evening, it was still dentable and even around midnight when I finally went to bed I could dent it with the edge of a fingernail.
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| Indoors with Artificial Light |
This annoyed me a fair bit, but that said, I suspect it was not the fault of the topper as with the following two shades I had no issue. I know I didn't give the bottom layers of black (about 3 all told) enough time to dry at all and will chalk it up to that - do let myself or the ladies at Echoes Polish know if you experience the same issue.
Next up I swatched Enamored which ended up being my favourite of the three I recieved - for obvious reasons!
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| Indoors with Artificial Light |
I am in awe of this polish. Enamored is a green/blue/purple colourshifting polish with the same mix of iridescent glitters as Stars Collide and Dream World (which I will review further below). The pigment used for the shift is more of a 'glass fleck' than a smooth mica pigment. It is simply stunning! It has the same general tones as piCture pOlish Aurora & CrowsToes Nidavellir, so if you have either of those two or any other teal/blue-toned colourshifters then you will get the idea of colour.
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
I found the formula with Enamored to be the same semi-thick consistency as Stars Collide and applied very evenly. Dry time was GREAT and I had no issues with it being hard as nails within about 20 minutes or so - I never leave bottom layers long enough. It is also worth noting that the colourshifting pigment in Enamoured appears to be more dense. I had much more coverage with this shade compared to Stars Collide, but still opted for two coats to maximise the visibility of the shift.
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
Look at that shifty goodness! Enamoured transitions SO easily. You don't have to get those intense angles to get all the glory of this polish to show through at all. The combination of iridescent glitters perfectly compliments the shade as well - especially with those red/green toned ones that flash only in certain lights.
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
As with the previous polish, and the one that will follow Enamored, I layered two coats of the topper over the same greyscale skittle mani. I was not disappointed!
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
I was SO impressed with this shade. I love it on so many levels and suspect it will perform just as amazingly on many other shades - can't wait to try it on a blue or purple or even a green! If you were to get only one of these toppers out of the whole Vivid Dreams Collection....PICK THIS ONE!
The final shade I was given to review is Dream World:
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
Dream World is a Green/Teal/Blue colourshifting topper polish. I found this particular shade to almost be the ever-so-slightly less amazing cousin of Enamored. But that's just because I love me multichromes more than duo's! It has the same 'glass fleck' type of pigment, the same density, the same coverage ability and applies with the same consistency and dry time. They really are like twins! But you definitely will need both. Yes. Get both.
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
The colourshift capabilities of Dream World are just as amazing as with Enamored. They really are quite similar in the ease of shift without having to tilt the hand to extreme angles. It's also incredibly pretty and if you are a blue or green lover? This one is for you!
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
I really did love the whole effect of these toppers over the medium grey. It still shows the complexity and depth of the polish without having the stark contrast of black against my fair complexion.
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| Indoors in Artificial Light |
Overall, I was very grateful to recieve these beauties for review. They truly are amazing and very stunning colourshifting toppers. I will admit that I am less struck with amazement with Stars Collide. It had a different sized shifting pigment and the change between the shades was not as easily visible compared with Enamored and Dream World. It is still beautiful and I will definitely wear it, but I did feel a teensy bit disappointed that it didn't have the same WOW factor after swatching the other two.
I know I have gushed, but I just cannot even deal with Enamored. There is just something about these green/blue/purple multichromes that gets me going. I probably have at least six different ones in my collection now - this one features all the way up there with PP Aurora and CT Nidavellir. It applies well, dries well and shifts well. Definitely a keeper and a quality Indie polish. This is not to say that Stars Collide isn't as good, it is just different and less my cup-of-tea in terms of finish.
These three will be available with three other shades on 29th August over at Echoes Polish on Etsy. Please keep in mind that Echoes Polish have now closed their Storenvy store and will be operating exclusively through Etsy.
Echoes polish also have a Giveaway running over on their Intagram account @EchoesPolish so be sure to check that out!
(Disclaimer: The polishes used in this review, excluding the base colours used, were provided to me for honest review. I have done my best to review them honestly and my opinion of them is not swayed by whether or not I have paid for them.)
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