Thursday, August 16, 2012

NYC Haunted and Enchanted polishes for Halloween 2012 swatches and review

If you saw my post from yesterday, you know I came across a plethora of brand new Halloween makeup displays at Rite Aid. The New York Color display had some intriguing polishes that I of course snatched up right away & I couldn't wait to try them. 


On the left is Haunted and on the right is Enchanted. Haunted is a black jelly polish with gold hex glitters. Enchanted has the same glitters but in a shimmery white base. 


Click to enlarge. All swatches taken in outdoor sun.





Ok, lets start with Enchanted.

I had such high hopes for this polish. You don't see too many white polishes with glitter in them in the drugstores. When I was in Rite Aid under those whacko flourescent lights, I couldn't tell what kind of base polish I was dealing with. My hopes were that it was some kind of white jelly polish because a white jelly polish with awesome gold hexes suspended in it would be EPIC. 

Alas, when I got home and swatched Enchanted, though, there was no jellyness in sight. Nope. Just a frosted white mess...nasty and dated and brush-strokey (my photos above are actually being very kind to this polish. In real life, every stroke of every brush hair is apparent). And the glitter? Well it gets smothered by the frosted white base and the under layers of glitter end up looking less like glitter and more like bubbles and bumps. Yuck. As far as opacity goes, at 3 coats, there is still some visible nail line. Double yuck.

Haunted had its own set of issues. I actually really love the final look of the polish. The sparse gold glitters against the black background remind me of the starry night sky my boys and I have been spending so much time exploring lately.  Formula-wise, though, Haunted is very problematic. It's thick and it has major dragging and balding issues. You have to wait until each coat is fully dry before you can proceed with the next. Otherwise, you're gonna end up with a streaky, draggy nasty mess. Also, you have to be careful with how you lay down your strokes so the glitters don't get completely eaten up by the black base. Despite the polish's thickness, it still took 3 coats to reach full opacity and it needed a generous coat of Seche Vite to get it completely even. 

So my final verdict on these polishes? They're a nail fail unfortunately. If they weren't so cheap ($1.99 each and I got them on a BOGO 50% off), I'd take them back to the store. I guess I'll keep Haunted because I MIGHT wear it again one day;  it looks like it might be an interesting base for galaxy nails. But Enchanted is definitely destined for another home. Oh NYC, WHY couldn't you make that frosted white base a jelly base instead??

1 comment:

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