Category Archives: Product Reviews

Smith & Cult Nail Polish Swatches Part 2

Smith & Cult Nail Polish Swatches

Following suit of the post I previously published in May containing a whopping 17 swatches of Smith & Cult nail polishes, here’s the sequel: Smith & Cult Nail Polish Swatches Part 2!

This post features nine shades that I’ve shown on social media, along with the captions I wrote, which were inspired by the colours.

Since not all my swatches wind up on the blog, if you don’t want to miss a single swatch, be sure to follow me on InstagramPinterestFacebookTwitter, and/or Google+!

I’m a big (and relatively new) fan of Smith & Cult nail polishes. They’re billed as a luxury nail polish with a bottle that certainly lives up to its claim. It’s heavy and large, with a unique cap with an asymmetrical design. Even from bottle to bottle, the cap is a little different.

I am so in love with the bottle design that I chose to display some of my Smith & Cult nail polishes on the shelf, so that I could admire them more often! (Since posting the below photo on my social media, I have a second row of polishes. The collection is growing quickly!) 😉

Smith & Cult Nail Polishes Shelf

Although the cap is large, it can easily be removed, as it’s only a cover for the smaller, normal-sized handle that makes painting your nails easy. The brush wand is very short, but I found that it gave me greater control when painting.

In general, Smith & Cult nail polishes have a great formula, and there are a wide variety of colours to choose from. Most tend to be opaque, but I’ve run into a few with sheer formulas. All were easy to paint with and glided onto the nails smoothly.

Smith & Cult nail polishes can be purchased from the official Smith & Cult website, Bergdorfs, Neiman Marcus, Bluemercury, C.O. Bigelow, Space NK, NET-A-PORTER, and Selfridges.

If you’re in Canada like me, there are a number of spas and salons that carry the brand. To see the long list, check out the “Where to Buy” section located in the “Key Notes”, which can be found in my in-depth Smith & Cult She Said Yeah review. (In that review, you can also see photos of the brush and what it looks like when you remove the cap, in case you’re curious.)

Continue reading

Share

Zoya Bay Swatches & Review

Zoya Bay Swatches Review

Navigate the waters of sparkly blue nail polishes with Zoya Bay at your fingertips!

As one of the newest additions to the PixieDust family, it hails from the Zoya Seashells Collection that breathes life back into the textured trend. (I never stopped being a fan of it!)

If you want to read the official colour story with details of the entire summer 2016 collection, be sure to check out the Zoya Seashells & Sunsets Collection press release that I published not long ago.

In the rest of this post, learn why this aquatic wonder makes a splash, and see how it incorporates your love for beach sand.

By the way, Zoya Bay sparkles much more in person. No photos can do this beautiful nail polish complete justice!

Continue reading

Share

Zoya Zooey Swatches & Review

Zoya Zooey Swatches Review

Magical nails need no wands! 😉

Although it’s hard to narrow it down, if there’s just one new PixieDust nail polish from the Seashells Collection that you grab, make it Zoya Zooey!

It’s like a Disney princess in nail-polish form!

Normally I’m a green nail enthusiast, but Zoya Zooey takes the victorious first place this time because it spells summer to me as strong as picnics, swimming, and homemade lemonade.

Pink with gold is a classic combination, and as I’ve come to expect from Zoya, their PixieDust formula has a lot of visual interest with its textured finish and saturated pigmentation. Plus this one has sparse holographic hexagonal glitter, which adds to its multi-dimensional nature.

Continue reading

Share

OPI Retro Summer 2016 Collection Swatches

OPI Retro Summer 2016 Collection Swatches

Like cotton candy at carnivals and fruit-flavoured sorbet, the OPI Retro Summer 2016 Collection officially launching on June 1st has a roundup of six shades that beckon back to those lazy, hazy days!

(To view the full colour story, check out the OPI Retro Summer 2016 Collection press release, which goes into the details and background information.)

All the colours in the OPI Retro Summer 2016 Collection glide onto the nails easily, but the formula is on the thin side, which is streaky on the initial coat. Since the consistency is watery, I suggest that you use thin coats for greater control and also wait a few minutes in between coats to reduce any dragging.

To achieve full coverage, I needed to use three coats for all the colours. Even though I prefer polishes that need just two coats, this extra coat wasn’t a big deal, since the polishes went on easily.

The darker colours in the mix, SPF XXX and Flip Flops & Crop Tops were a smidgeon more pigmented than the rest, but they still required that third coat to completely cover the nail line.

My favourites in the collection are SPF XXX (orange), Towel Me About It (yellow), and Sailing & Nailing (blue).

See the rest of this post for swatches of all the colours, bottle shots, and photos of the collectible box I received.

Additionally, I show bottle comparisons of OPI Sailing & Nailing from this collection and OPI The I’s Have It from the OPI Alice Through the Looking Glass Collection, in case some of you were curious.

Continue reading

Share

OPI The I’s Have It Swatches & Review

OPI The I's Have It Swatches Review

One of my favourite childhood movies is Disney’s 1951 classic, Alice in Wonderland. And even if you’re a new visitor to Swatch And Learn, you probably gathered that much, considering that I’ve got a little Cheshire Cat lurking in the blog header. 😉

Needless to say, the OPI Alice Through the Looking Glass Collection appealed to me right away, and although I shared swatches of the entire collection on here already, I was compelled to wear OPI The I’s Have It as the first full manicure!

The eyes are the windows to the soul, and according to this nail polish, The “I’s” Have It!

It screams Alice like books with nothing but pictures. (Remember that scene from the movie? Hehe, being a hardcore writer down to the bone, that was the only part in the film that gave me an internal “Nooooooo!” A book with only pictures lacks the mental imagery that only words are powerful enough to conjure. I firmly believe that the pen is mightier than the sword.)

Continue reading

Share

Essie Coconut Cove Swatches & Review

Essie Coconut Cove Swatches Review

Essie Coconut Cove from the Summer 2016 Collection is one of those rare, impressive light nail polishes that took me by surprise.

Going nuts for coconuts!

At first glance, the colour appears white, but it’s softer and not a stark hospital white.

My photos in the sunlight later in this post really show how it’s more of a creamy French vanilla, which is probably why I found it to be more flattering against my warm skin tone.

When it comes to most white nail polishes, I have infrequently wore them as full manicures because they reminded me way back of those early school days when I used to play around with White Out as a makeshift nail polish.

Learning that I really enjoyed Essie Coconut Cove was novel to me and shows that the nail polish is in a league of its own. However, there’s another major reason why I’m giving this polish two painted thumbs up. Why? Find out in my review!

Continue reading

Share

Zoya Sunsets Collection Swatches

Zoya Sunsets Collection Swatches

Just add some butter because I’m on a roll with the collection swatches! 😉 (In case you missed it, check out my swatches of the OPI Alice Through the Looking Glass Collection and the Zoya Seashells Collection.)

Today, I’m sharing swatches of the Zoya Sunsets Collection, which includes vibrant creams that  spell summer like picnics and swimming pools.

They claim to be one-coaters, and while they are certainly very pigmented, I found that to get full coverage, I needed to use my usual two coats.

If you’re thinking about using them for nail stamping, you’ll be excited to know that they stamp well! 🙂

The blue (Dory) is my favourite out of the bunch. Yeah, check my forehead. I must be sick because I didn’t choose green as my top pick!

I also am digging the orange (Cam). It’s such a lively colour that I don’t see many people wearing. For some reason, orange nail polish isn’t too popular. Let’s change that!

Continue reading

Share