Sephora Formula X - System XCEL Kit

I received this nail polish box from Influenster to try out and share my opinion about the product. Inside was the Sephora Formula X - System XCEL and the Delete All nail polish remover. The System XCEL kit contains a nail prep, base coat, top coat, and a polish color. If you were to order or buy this at Sephora you would be able to choose the polish color. I received TGIF, a pretty coral in my box. The Delete All is sold separately from the System XCEL Kit.

I did actually take the first video ever of applying my nail polish. I used all four steps of the system. If you would like to watch. You can see that it was generally easy applying the polish.

I've purchased Formula X polish before and have used it. I've generally liked it. It's in the same price point as OPI and Orly. The brush is wide which you can notice in the video. I followed each of the steps. I first cleansed my nails with Cleanse XCEL. It helps remove oils from the nail bed. I followed up with a coat of Prime XCEL the base coat. After that I applied two coats of Formula X - TGIF. Following that I applied the top coat Shine XCEL.

The System XCEL claim is that it will provide you a gel like mani. I would have to agree. The Shine XCEL top coat really set the manicure. After it dried which was very quickly! It had a very hard shell to it. My nails were extremely shiny too. I'm unlucky in that I've never really been able to have great wear time with polish. Usually about two days before I have giant chips. No matter what type of steps or products I use. I have a similar issue with gel polish with a light. Where I usually need to take it off in 7-8 days. So I wasn't expecting too much with this product. Surprisingly, I got nearly a week of wear which is pretty nice. I believe they claim you can have 10 days with no wear. So I was getting closer to that mark.

Day 1: Sephora Formula X - TGIF

Day 3:

Day 7: This is after two different painting projects. So I was actually generally happy that I didn't have even bigger chips. The one nail with no polish wasn't nearly as bad but I was picking at it.

Catrice - I Scream Peach with MNY 142A

Hello everyone. I'm back this week with a polish post. I was very busy taking in my last few weeks of living in Europe. So today I wanted to show you Catrice I Scream Peach. I picked it up recently off the clearance rack. If you want this, make sure to get your hand on it soon! It's been discontinued this month.

I Scream Peach is a really pretty bright coral. It applied so nicely in two coats. I just love love this color! I'm so glad I picked it up before I lost the chance.

The next day I put a coat of MNY 142A. 142A is from the I am a Glitterati LE that was released mid-August. It's got small silver glitter bits that are holo in the sun and it also has a few bits of silver hex glitter. Unfortunately the hex glitter was impossible to get on the nail. :(

Thanks for looking. I put some photos up on my Facebook page of the new Catrice bottles and some of the recently discontinued Essence.

Cult Nails - Captivated

I wore this last week for two days. Cult Nails - Captivated is a polish packed full of glitter in a tinted orange coral base.

I used three coats for this and it's pretty opaque at that point. It's a bit gooey but I think that's to be expected of a glitter polish. Check out all the shades of glitter. I love the little specks of blue glitter and the gold really  contrasts nicely against the orange coral base.

The picture below is my favorite. So pretty and it just sparkles!

Cult Nails can be purchased online here for $10 a piece. But if you follow Cult Nails on Twitter you can watch out for discount codes they occasionally put out. They do have international shipping to most countries, but recently they have needed to change up what counties they can send to and how they can send it. They wrote about some of the issues they are dealing with here and here. If you check out and your country is not listed then contact Cult Nails as they are still adding to the list.

OPI - Big Hair… Big Nails & Too Hot Pink to Hold ‘Em

Saturday my friend took me to a beauty supply house on Saturday. Which enabled me to get the last two OPI Texas jellies to complete the 6 jelly finish collection they released. I also purchased a few other items that I'm sure will show up on here eventually.


To see the other Texas Collection polishes you can check out my swatches of them here.

First up is Big Hair... Big Nails. I used three coats for this and it applied like a dream at each coat. The polish is not liquidity at all which is amazing when you consider how sheer it is to create the jelly finish. I would best describe this shade as a coral that leans orange. On my nail wheels I have it in orange.

Too Hot Pink to Hold 'Em is a lovely hot pink jelly. I used three coats for this and like the rest of the OPI jelly colors this applied beautifully.

A Few OPI Texas Jelly Finish Swatches

Well, today I couldn't help myself and swatched four colors from the OPI Texas collection. All four are the jelly finish or sorbet as OPI is calling it. I used three coats for all of these. I'm in love with all of them! They are so squishy! You can still see VNL at three coats, but it's barely noticeable and I think it works with the style of the polish.

Y'all Come Back Ya Hear? is a vibrant orange. Besides being a sheer jelly it applied very nicely and the build up to three coats was very easy to do.

 

Houston We Have a Purple is a vibrant, almost neon purple. I love the name on this one because Houston is my birth city. Same nice application as before aka perfect!

Do You Think I'm Tex-y? is a very pretty vibrant pink, almost like strawberry jam on your nails. 

Guy Meets Gal-veston is the coral of the bunch and my favorite of the colors I've shown today.

So what do you think of the OPI jelly/sorbet finishes?

I really love them and will eventually purchase the other two to add to my ever growing nail polish collection.

Some OPI Texas Skittles & Bottle Pictures

I received my TransDesign order today. Along with some other goodies I purchased 6 polishes from the OPI Texas collection. Since I received these from UPS after 7pm I didn't have any natural light. So I took a few bottle pictures and did some quick skittles. There are four jelly's, one shimmer, and one creme. I used three coats for the skittle pictures.

Y'all Come Back Ya Hear? (jelly)

Houston We Have a Purple (jelly)

Guy Meets Gal-veston (jelly)

Do You Think I'm Tex-y?

I Vant To Be A-Lone Star (shimmer)

Don't Mess With OPI (creme)

Do You Think I'm Tex-y?, Guy Meets Gal-veston, Houston We Have a Purple, Don't Mess With OPI

Do You Think I'm Tex-y?, Guy Meets Gal-veston, Houston We Have a Purple, Don't Mess With OPI

essence - colour & go (Absolutely Stylish, Underwater, What Do U Think?)

Essence makes really nice little bottles of polish. They are called colour & go and come in many stylish colors.They are also fairly inexpensive depending on where you live. In the US they are 99 cents. I believe they 1.50 euros in Europe and here is Switzerland they are 3 francs.

Absolutely Stylish is a lovely brown with little bits of green flakes. It's a nice two coat polish.

With Flash

Underwater is a medium blue shimmer. It's very icy and reminds me of winter. This is version 1 of underwater. There is a newer version 2 out nowadays. It's a dark blue with really small blue glitter flakes. I personally like the older version of Underwater better.

What Do U Think? Is an orange coral creme. It reminds me of orange sherbet ice cream. I love this color but  know that it's a color you have to grow to like. It looks really cute on toes too.

Have you ever tried a essence colour & go polish? I really like the brushes they are pretty nice for a budget nail polish. essence also releases pretty trendy colors so hardly any of the colors are boring.