Sparkle Saturday: Gilded Braziliant

Hello Lab Partners!

It's officially Octber; we're now ten days into fall. Would someone please fill the Florida weather pattern in on that fact? I want to break out my smoky greys, my olive greens, and my blackened teals. But I just feel wrong wearing those colors when I'm buzzing around the city sporting short shorts, a tank top, and flip flops. Oh, and lots and lots of sunscreen. So what's a girl to do? Hello, orange polish! The perfect summer to fall transitional color, where all the blazing brightness of a great summer polish meets the warm earthiness of a great fall polish. Of course, I really don't need any excuse to wear orange polish, as it happens to be one of my personal favorites. And, as you may recall from Thursday's post on Butter London's Yummy Mummy, I was ready for something bright and blingy. So here it is, Essie's Braziliant layered with NYX Gilded Glitter:

Essie Brazilliant with NYX Gilded Glitter. Inside. Artificial light, no flash

Essie Brazilliant with NYX Gilded Glitter. Outside, natural light.

I started with two coats of Essie's Braziliant. Over the summer, I bought several colors from the Braziliant collection, and I've been pleased with each of them. This one was no exception. The brush provided good control, and I achieved opacity with two streak-free coats. This polish is a lovely orange leaning ever so slightly toward apricot. It has a subtle shimmer, which lends this color a luminosity and makes it slightly more complex than I would have expected.

But this is Sparkle Saturday, so I couldn't stop with all the brilliance that is Braziliant! I added two layers of NYX Gilded Glitter, a chunky glitter top coat:

NYX Gilded Glitter

 What's the best thing about Gilded Glitter? It's actually easy to remove! That's right; you heard me correctly--it's easy to remove. Now that this little piece of info has settled in, allow me to add that I also found it very slow to dry, even with a quick-dry top coat like Out the Door or Poshe (and yes, I tried both). Now, perhaps I just happened to get some funky, slow-drying batch. But assuming that my bottle is typical, this glitter polish comes with a trade-off: ease of removal at the expense of quickness of drying. Further research is needed to determine whether a different quick-dry top coat, such as Seche Vite, would alter the results.

That's all for today, lab partners. Until next time, sending you lab love!

Allison