Jessica Tourmaline and Quirius Sand Castle: two polishes I didn't know I'd like

This isn't really a themed post. The only thing these two polishes have in common is that I thought I'd hate them but I actually was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed them.

Jessica Tourmaline

This cool lavender pink falls between foil and frost for me. It doesn't have the sort of full-foil effect that a lot of foils I'm used to have... but it's not as ugly as most frosts. It looks like it's just a lavender pink creme with a lot of fine silver glitter thrown in. It's not particularly elegant or pretty but somehow, it really appealed to me when I put it on. Three coats, if I recall correctly.

Quirius Sand Castle

Quirius sent me this one a long time ago, right before their half-year closing of their website. Since they weren't going to be available for purchase for half a year, it didn't make sense to review it then. So I forgot about those polishes until my recent collection reorganization... and found this. I kinda groaned when I saw it: frosty non-color. But then when I swatched it, I realized that 1. it doesn't quite give me mannequin hands but it's sort of a complementary color and didn't look so bad and 2. I actually like the frostiness. Why? I'm not sure. I certainly am not a huge fan of the brushstrokes but otherwise, it applied very nicely in two coats. I forget how easy I find Quirius polishes to apply, especially given that they are a fairly inexpensive brand.

Quirius (Part III, the end... for now!) swatches + matte comparisons + glitter!!

Thanks to the fabulous folks at Quirius who threw in a handful of extra polishes for free to show off on Polish or Perish, it has taken me three posts to get through my mini Quirius stash. (Maybe not so mini.) But now... we have gotten to the end of the line (for the moment, anyhow) and I accidentally saved the best for last. I didn't think that most of these would be my favorites of the bunch, but that's how it happened! These were all easy to apply, two coats are sufficient, three coats ideal. The shimmers were especially easy: as some like to say, "like buttah". Gorgeous colors all. Proof that you don't need to spend a fortune to have a lovely polish stash that spans the entire visible spectrum. :D

First up...

Quirius Wicked

Dark dark dark cherry, almost brown. Two coats for opacity and so smooth to boot. Very glossy on its own. Darker and more brown-leaning than the Essie polish of the same name. I wish Lippmann Maneater was this rich and opaque!

Quirius Wicked with two layers of Sation Holiday Spirit on top

From left to right: four layers of Sation and no Wicked (thumb), four layers of Sation (index), three layers of Sation (middle), two layers (ring) and one layer (pinky)

I do not like my thumbs so I rarely show them, but on it is four layers of Sation Holiday Spirit on its own: holo glitter in a charcoal jelly base. Super glittery! And cheap: they range from $1.25 to $2.50 depending on the etailer. As you can see from the gradated application above, it also builds quite well though it'll never be totally opaque. There does seem to be more than one version of Holiday Spirit, one more holo than the other. This one's pretty holo. Check out the video!

Quirius Cresskill Eve

This one has probably gotten the most attention of all the Quirius polishes -- and with good reason. Gold and green shimmer in a darkened teal base. Very lovely and eyecatching without being garish. (Not that I mind garish but some people don't like it...)

Quirius Caribbean Turquoise with Poshe topcoat on middle and pinky fingers

Get me a drink with an umbrella in it and meet me at the volleyball net! Hard to tell in this photo but the glossy topcoat is an improvement as this neon-ish creme polish does tend to dry semi-matte. Three coats, though not too streaky at all.

Quirius Eggplant

Btw, Chinese eggplant is delicious grilled. Very nummy. Two coats, "like buttah". :)

Quirius Starry Night

This one is the real pity: the photo on Quirius' website TOTALLY HIDES THE GORGEOUS BLURPLENESS of this polish. Glossy on its own, two coats is sufficient, three is ideal. Trying to figure out why it's called Starry Night but like I care: it could be called Poop and I'd still love it. I loved this so much, I had to glitter it up...

Quirius Starry Night with OPI Sugar Plum Yum (Japanese version)

Dusty purple glitter (weird, "dusty" and "glitter" together). And does it GLITTER. I got this in a swap and when I opened it in my apartment building elevator (not even in sunlight) it nearly blinded me with sparkle. Why are all glitters not THIS sparkly? Why does Japan get all the awesome glitters? This also needs a video to show it off:

Quirius Apple Lime

Hello, neon! I love green polishes but green neons always look weird on me. But this one worked! Harder application than the other cremes in this particular set of swatches: three coats and there were still some uneven spots. To try to hide this fact, I decided to make this into a matte topcoat comparison! Also, to show what a glossy topcoat does for these beauties.

Quirius Apple Lime

Left to right: Poshe topcoat (index), Essie Matte About You (middle), Nubar V for Men (ring), no topcoat (pinky).

Comparing pinky and index fingers, you can really see how matte this polish dries, but it's not nearly as matte as a matte topcoat can make it: kind of reminds me of a darker OPI Gargantuan Green Grape Matte maybe? There's not an appreciable difference between the Essie and Nubar topcoats here.

Quirius Sunshine Energy

The name is perfect. Wonderful, bright, happyhappyhappy color. A bit tough to apply: streaky at two coats, a bit bumpy at three. Glossy topcoat would've improved this a lot but I'm pretty happy with it semi-matte and at a distance (very bright, I feel like it'd burn my retina to look too hard at it in search of application flaws).

Quirius Deep Denim

Two coats, smooth application, a nice basic dark blue shimmer. But what's really fun about this polish is how it changes drastically with topcoat!

Quirius Deep Denim with topcoats

Left to right: Orly Matte Top (index), Poshe (middle), Essie MAY (ring) and Nubar V (pinky)

This is one of the few polishes that I've tried where Essie MAY and Nubar V have reacted very differently. Orly MT smoothes out the polish, Poshe glossy topcoat brings out the beautiful reddish and bluish shimmer, Essie MAY darkens slightly and flattens the polish into a matte where all the shimmer becomes a speckled finish, and Nubar V retains the brightness of the color and reflectiveness of the shimmer but tones the latter down considerably. Click on the following close-up comparison to see the difference in greater detail:

All in all, I'm VERY happy with this brand and look forward to its upcoming fall collection!

Cheap thrills: Quirius (Part III) and Diamond Cosmetics swatches

For $2 and $3 each and non-inflated shipping (around $4-5 for about 10), you can't really beat Diamond Cosmetics and Quirius for getting a decent polish fix at a reasonable rate.

Quirius Autumn Bronze

Here's my issue with Quirius. I love the colors of the cremes and the applicability of their shimmers. It's not that the applicability of the cremes are terrible nor are the colors of the shimmers bad. They just leave a bit to be desired sometimes...

Quirius Love is Blue (on ring and pinky; CM Maiden Kiss are on index and middle)

Bright cobalt blue. Easier to apply than the other cremes.

Quirius Paris Nights

It looks amazing in the bottle, like it will be a dark dusky blue with purple shimmer but it becomes flatter on the nail.

Quirius Jamaican Dream with Diamond Cosmetics Moonglo (glow in the dark) on top

Diamond Cosmetics Moonglo is actually sheer so the color you see here is entirely the Quirius. And yes, Moonglo does glow in the dark.

Diamond Cosmetics Midnight Passion

Dark blue with blue and purple shimmer.

Diamond Cosmetics Yukon Gold

I really don't like most bronzes or golds on my skin... so I compulsively buy them to try to find one that works. While I wouldn't go so far as to say that this works, I really like it: it's so very rich, like molten gold.

Diamond Cosmetics Tropical Dream

Bright, shimmery, summery, yummy.

Diamond Cosmetics Plum Pie in the Sky

Dark rich eggplant creme. Gotta love 'em.

LeChat Dare to Wear Disco Tech Collection swatches

What fabulous glitters! So instead of doing the same type of swatching for all of these -- since they're all essentially the same thing in different colors -- I decided to layer some of them on other polishes and show different numbers of layers (click on pics to see bigger versions).

Techno Beat

Three layers over Barielle Grape Escape... can't see the Barielle? Neither can I.

Get Funky

One layer over Diamond Cosmetics Tropical Dream, which is a light creamsicle orange with gold shimmer.

Because it looks so sad and forlorn (compared to the other polishes, imo), I also did a video of this to show how glittery just a little bit of glitter can be. (Sorry for the street noise. I live in a small town but it gets pretty loud at times.)

Disco Ball

Two supersparkly layers. Somehow, this applied thinner than the other ones.

Strobe Lights

Three layers over nothing -- see how dense it gets??

Disc Jockey

Two layers over Quirius Ivy Wreath

Strobe Lights with Dancing Shoes

I already did a finger swatch of Dancing Shoes the other night so I didn't feel the need to reswatch everything again so I mucked around with a sloppy funky french that looks like I just dipped my (one layer) Strobe Lights manicured nails into a big bowl of Dancing Shoes.

What I love about these glitters is that one layer will get you a nice glitter topcoat but by the time you get to three, it's packed tight on the nail. Also, you'd expect them to be chunkier because of the type and amount of glitter but they're actually smoother than I thought they'd be.

Quirius (Part II) - slowly but surely

Continuing on the Quirius swatches... apologies because I did these swatches at dusk and didn't have the benefit of sunshine to really bring out the prettiness. :)

Erin Island (excuse the glitter that's all over my fingers)

Like the other vibrant cremes I've used so far, this one was somewhat hard to apply: streaky for the first two coats, fine by the third, dries non-glossy (but nothing that a glossy topcoat won't fix). For $3, you can't complain too much. I LOVE how "minty" this color is but I think I may want to jelly it up by adding clear polish -- it's a little too flat on the nail for me as is.

I was on the phone with my friend Erin and when I told her I was applying Erin Island, she was like, "Oh, that's a green, right?" Apparently, the name Erin is Gaelic -- cute because my friend is Turkish -- and it's a poetic sort of name for Ireland (or is otherwise associated with the color green or something like that). Learn something new every day...

Royal Glitter

This one was a really nice glitter: it's very fine and smooth. It takes about five layers to get to the opacity here but the polish is thin enough that the extra layers don't get clumpy.

Glittering Rainbow

The website lists it as "Glitting Rainbow" but I'm going to assume they meant "Glittering". It's a chunky holo glitter which takes about five coats to get to the opacity shown above (i.e. not too opaque). It would make a great holo topcoat though I actually kind of like that it's not completely opaque.

Ruby Pumps

...because every nail polish company needs a polish of this name or of this sentiment? I didn't use topcoat here but with topcoat, it'd be a stunner. As it is, it's a deep red jelly (looks like a rich strawberry jam to me, yum) with fine red glitter suspended inside. The glitter is not so packed in that it looks like a glitter polish. It's much more subtle and I think it's absolutely gorgeous: it glows from inside when light hits it. (This one is a must-see close-up: click on the pic for a bigger one.)

Chapel of Love

This is Barbie chewing pink bubble gum. It was much easier to apply than the other cremes and is a great basic girlygirl pink.

Quirius (Part I)

Thanks to Body and Soul, I discovered Quirius nail polish: $3 per pop and decent shipping as well. I had ordered a dozen polishes and was so taken by how gorgeous they looked in the bottle (and impressed by how cute they included an extra polish with a personalized message) , I immediately ordered half a dozen more. Buying in half dozens is the way to go with these guys: they have a deal where you can pick 6 for the cost of $5, i.e. $15. I mentioned Polish or Perish in my order and they very kindly sent over an extra five polishes for free for my swatching -- and your viewing -- pleasure.

First, a fun pic of all the bottles from my first order.
From left to right: Love is Blue, Starry Night, Deep Denim, Autumn Bronze, 24K, Cresskill Eve, Ivy Wreath, Caribbean Turquoise, Jamaican Dream, Erin Island, Yellow Tulip, Sunshine Orange, Sweet Mimosa.

Seriously, how pretty are those??

Anyway, down to business: overall, I've tried about four or five of these polishes now.
They are gorgeous, vibrant and (for the most part) interesting colors.
The application is a little bit tricky however.

The opaque cremes I've tried so far (mostly oranges and yellow -- yellow, the problem child as usual),
they're streaky and a bit thick for the first two coats; by the third, they usually become uniform.
They are also less glossy than some polishes but this isn't anything that a layer of topcoat won't immediately fix. But when you've got three coats plus topcoat, they are beautiful true colors: they are what they look like the bottle. The shimmer polishes I've tried so far (mostly gold), however, apply smoothly and beautifully and are opaque in two coats.

Here are a couple. More will be posted as I work my way through my... rather sizable
collection of these.

Sunshine Orange

I don't find many oranges that I like but this one is such a nice summery color. :)




Sweet Mimosa



I believe it's listed as "Sweat Mimosa" on the website but English has some really strange vowel bigrams
which can be pronounced in a variety of ways.
The one that annoys me the most is "oo": say "good food". It's NOT the same vowel sound
for most of us.




24K Gold



AAHHHH! A gold that's named "24K" that ACTUALLY resembles the color of REAL soft 24K gold.
This makes me happy.




Ivy Wreath



Though the photo is slightly brighter than what it is IRL, it's actually somewhat dupey
to Nubar Green Tea and OPI Green-Wich Village: it's like closer to the color of the OPI
but opaque and not-as-glossy like the Nubar (the OPI is actually kind of jelly).