Cult Nails Angel Whispers

Today I have a polish from the most recent Cult Nails collection. (I am so behind on everything!) a recent Cult Nails collection, Passionate Dreams. This isn't the first polish I've worn from this collection-- I wore Kiss for Valentine's Day but didn't get a chance to photograph it for the blog. I decided I needed to paint my nails and reached for Angel Whispers. This polish is a very soft, light pink (almost white) with a shimmery silver glitter/texture. It dries to a slightly gritty feel, but because the glitter is so fine, it feels like sandpaper (to me, anyway). If you didn't like the texture, a layer or two of top coat would make this smooth-- you don't have to wear it as a textured polish and though slightly gritty, is not extremely textured. 

I was only able to get flash photos of this polish, sadly. The day that I planned on photographing this in natural light (and sun!), the polish on one nail completely flaked off, so these are the only photos I have.

Here's the thing: I'm torn about this polish. Part of me loves it and part of me really dislikes it.The color is great. I like that this can be worn as a texture or not, very easily. The formula isn't as great-- it's very thick and gets a little goopy. I used three coats here, but in the future would do two coats and live with the slight visible nail line. But overall I still really like this, despite the formula issues.

Julep Lola

Today I have Julep Lola to show you. This polish isn't new new, but it did come out in the November It Girl box. I grabbed this to use with my Seahawks Super Bowl manicure, and after using it there I really wanted to wear it as a full manicure (technically, this has yet to happen... unless wearing it on four fingers counts! Twin mom life, yo!). Lola is a "moonlit night blue satin" which is another reason I wanted to wear this-- I knew I wouldn't need a top coat. Anything to save time!

Despite not needing a top coat, I would strongly recommend using a base coat. Blues are notorious for staining because of the pigment so I went ahead and used two coats of my base coat to avoid any potential staining. I did not have any staining, so take what you will from that. I like being on the safe side, just in case. Stained nails are awful! The formula on Lola was good-- almost a one coater, though I used two to get complete coverage. Lola goes on shiny and then dries to the satin finish. It didn't take too long to dry, either, which is nice.

Artificial light:

The natural light pictures were taken after a few days of wear (or at least overnight; I can't remember). You can see (if you blow up the pictures) that without a topcoat there was some denting/scratching of the polish.

Natural light:

One of the best things about Lola was that it did wear like iron. I wore this for several days (on only four fingers-- yeah, I know. Don't judge me!) and barely had any wear on my nails. So that is awesome! These days I tend to wear my manicures a lot longer than I normally would so if they are still looking decent by the time I take them off, I'm happy. 

So in summary: love the color, love the satin finish, love the wear time. Wish it hadn't gotten nicked up, but I still really like it. This is definitely a new favorite!