Friday, October 10, 2014

Smitten Polish Fall 2014 Collection

Sample provided for review

I was delighted to get the Smitten Fall 2014 collection for review, especially since I've liked every Smitten Polish I've tried. This collection has six shades: Seasonal Lattes, Antiquing, Penny Dreadful, Sparkling Orchid, Udora's Harvest, and 131 Angstrom.



I paired up Penny Dreadful, a super sparkly coppery brown microglitter, with Udora's Harvest, a dusty pink holo. Most pale holos don't show their colors in the diffuse illumination of my lightbox, but Udora's Harvest did. I used two coats of each for my swatch, no topcoat because I had some nail art plans for these, which we'll get to soon enough.



At some angles, Udora's Harvest looked to almost have a foil finish, which was intriguing, and Penny Dreadful showed pops of sparkle and color at pretty much any angle.





These two were even more lovely in direct low light as well.



And now for that nail art I mentioned above: I did freehand diagonal color blocking so I'd have both pretties on all my nails, then slicked clear topcoat on. I love how these two look together.





Just couldn't resist including this blurry shot with all the colors popping:



The next match I made was between two holos: Seasonal Lattes, a brown, and Antiquing, a taupey silver. Neither of these are typical holo shades, which makes me like them more. Again I used two coats of each. These were a litte more shy in the lightbox about showing their rainbows; Antiquing has the same sorta-foil thing going on as Udora's Harvest, so that was interesting to see.





In low direct light, the rainbows showed themselves.





Adding dots of the opposite color make these shades work better together (and the topcoat I put over the dots added shine).



Adding another line of dots crossing the first didn't look as good as I'd hoped; I think it would have been better if I'd used smaller dots so the lines crossing would have been more clear.



The last two shades are both sparkly microglitters, sisters of Penny Dreadful. Sparkling Orchid is a warm bright purple and 131 Angstrom is a deep yet vivid turquoise blue. I used two coats of each and added topcoat to bring out their sparkle even more.



Direct low light shot of these two:



I jazzed these up further by adding a wide stripe down the center of my nail in the opposite color, using a brush in a cheap set I picked up at Five Below, then added more topcoat.



Sparkles on sparkles in low light:



I regret I was not able to see these beauties in the sun when I swatched, but I didn't want to wait to share them because there's going to be a restock tomorrow, October 11th, at 2 p.m. Central US time on the Smitten Polish website. That restock will include these polishes along with a Halloween duo and a limited edition polish called Out of the Darkness which is gorgeous (and which I failed to pick up when it was first stocked, so I'll be setting a calendar reminder this time). You can follow the Smitten Polish Facebook page for restock and other brand news.

The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

12 comments:

  1. These are all gorgeous! Really lovely polishes, and you matched them together great :) I especially love Sparkling Orchi and 131 Angstrom, they are so sparkly!!

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  2. Sparkling Orchid and Angstrom - *drools*!

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  3. I must convince df that I NEED these for my birthday lol

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  4. Hi dear Karen!!! Love the two last nail polishes, especially Angstrom! The manicure is super precise as always and not banal! Have a wonderful day,
    kisses
    Marghe

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  5. These look so good! I like the holo effect and the sparkles. I'd have to say the last two are my favourites and they look so good together :-)

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  6. Such pretty colors!! Loving the delicate holo. ^_^

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  7. I love the way you combined them -I have Seasonal Lattes as the only one!

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  8. These are all gorgeous! Love your designs, too.

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  9. Great swatches of pretty polishes! The two last ones are my favourites!

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  10. Very pretty, I think Udora's Harvest is my favorite but that is probably because I don't have enough linear holo going on in my life! :)

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  11. I love Sparkling Orchid and Angstrom :-)

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Thank you for reading and commenting! I greatly appreciate knowing I'm not just talking to myself here. :) I'm moderating most comments now due to the spate of spammers who claim to be looking for sexy times.