A little while ago, Cindy (the creative genius behind Shimmer nail polishes) reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in reviewing some of her lacquers.

I had never tried any of her glitters before, so I was curious. Plus I had seen a lot of great nail bloggers singing praises.

Curiosity killed the cat. (But all cats go to heaven, right?) 😉

Thanks to Cindy’s overwhelming generosity, I have quite a few Shimmer polishes to share with you.

In today’s post, I’d like to put the spotlight on Shimmer Julie, which is the very first one I wore.

Instead of wearing it as a full-on glitter manicure, I decided to play with it and create a slight gradient-glitter manicure layered over a pink, China Glaze Bottoms Up, which I will review soon.

Shimmer Julie Pictures

Shimmer Julie Swatches

All swatches have:

• OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener (Used as a base coat)
• 2 coats of China Glaze Bottoms Up
• 1 coat of Shimmer Julie (& then a little extra added to the tips)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Natural Light Photos

Flash Photos

Claim: TRUSTED

• Mixed glitter (Yes)

Key Notes

• Name: Shimmer Julie
• Amount: 15 mL (0.5 fl. oz.)
• What I Paid: Nothing! (This was provided by Shimmer. Retails for around $12.57 CAD.)
• Where to Buy: Shimmer Etsy store & Shimmer website

Shimmer Julie Review

Colour

Julie by Shimmer is what I would call a carnival of colours. If you love having the rainbow on your nails, or you simply can’t settle on one shade to wear, this might be your ticket to manicure heaven!

It has so many colours, it’s probably easier to list the ones it doesn’t have! Haha!

But, I’ll do my best to inspect it and list everything I see with my myopic eyes. It looks like there’s yellow, silver, purple, red, blue, green, and orange.

Finish

Hello, glitterbomb! This one has a lot of glitter, so I recommend that you use a good top coat over it all for the smoothest results.

Also, because there’s a lot of dense glitter, you’ll need to spend a little extra time during the removal process.

Application & Formula

The formula of Julie by Shimmer was on the thicker side. The glitter tended to want to follow my brush, so more glitter ended up near the tips. It was because of this that I decided to not fight with the polish and instead to do a glitter gradient.

I very much liked this gradient, and probably more so than I would if I had just used the glitter traditionally all over the nail.

If you’re looking for a nail polish that helps you achieve the gradient naturally, this is a wonderful choice.

But, if you want to wear it the conventional way, you may need to add a few drops of thinner over time because I have the feeling that this will thicken up. There’s a lot going on inside, so you can’t blame it!

Although I didn’t wear it solo, I think you could achieve full opacity with multiple coats. The glitter is pretty dense, so you wouldn’t have to build it up too much to get that look.

Pros Rainbow glitter Very dense glitter can be worn solo or layered Great for creating glitter gradients Great for layering

Cons Takes a little more effort to remove because of the dense glitter

Final Verdict: 8/10

This is my very first Shimmer nail polish, and I’m happy to report that I really liked this one. It’s so versatile. Because there are so many hues and the base polish is clear, you can layer it over a lot of different colours.

What would you wear under Shimmer Julie? Have you tried any Shimmer nail polishes? Do you have a favourite indie nail-polish brand?