Monday, August 20, 2012

Tip Top Nails Review and Swatches

Finally I get a chance to write my review on Tip Top polish!  I had been wanting to try Tip Top so when I was contacted by Joan at Tip Top Nails South Africa  asking if I would like to review some of their polish I was super excited!  The only down side to this offer is that I'm now in love with Tip Top polish and I can't get it in the US. They are only available for purchase in South Africa but I believe they are trying to find a way to sell them internationally or at least in the US as well!

Here is the wonderful selection of polish I received with my awesome polish Caboodle in the background!

L-R Peach Crisp, Melting Marshmallows, Space Cadet, Fairy Dust & Solar Flare

Onto the swatches!  I did 3 very thin coats on all but 1 of these polishes.  I could have gotten away with 2 thicker coats but it has been pretty humid and I kept getting bubbles!

Peach Crisp is a dark peach creme.  This one looks more peachy in the bottle but dries a darker more orange shade.  I think apricot rather than peach when it's dry.  This polishe gave me a new appreciation for wearing orange! 




Melting Marshmallows is a light pink creme.  For me, this is the perfect baby pink.  I have a ton of pink polish but hardly ever wear them.  I've worn this one 3 times since I got it.  It's so pretty and feminine.



Space Cadet is a dark blue jelly with silver glass flecks. The name fits, it reminds me of space and I really want to use it as the base when I do my next galaxy mani.  I only did 2 coats with this one but it was perfect.  The picture does not do it justice.  In natural light it kinda glows and you can really see the blue and shimmer from the glass flecks. The down side to this one is that it does stain.  Even with a base coat I had a bit of staining but it's a dark blue, staining was not unexpected.  Just be careful with application because cleaning up your cuticles will be a pain.  Still, totally worth it!

 



Fairy Dust is a light, kinda dusty lavender.  It's the second most used polish I have from the selection. I wasn't sure if I liked it at first (I'm more into bright, bold colors) but after wearing it I decided I really do love it!  It's another very feminine color and I do so love purple.



And last, but not least there is Solar Flare.  Perfectly named in my opinion because it's a very bold and bright red-orange creme.  This one kinda made my camera freak out.  The bright orange didn't want to photograph so I had to play with the picture a bit to try to get a good representation.  It's not perfect but it's pretty close!



I can honestly say that I love this brand!  The colors are beautiful and very pigmented.  The formula is great, went on like butta.  It was easy to do thin, even coats and dried quickly.  They also have great brushes and don't smell much at all.  I can't attest to wear time because I rarely wear polish for more than a couple days.  I wash my hands a lot at work and am not able to be very easy on them so that usually ruins my mani within 1-2 days.

The only thing I could even think to gripe about was the barcode stickers on the handle of the bottle. The ink on a couple rubbed off onto my fingers and I wish the stickers were easier to peel off. Obviously that has nothing to do with the polish itself, just a observation! Oh, and as I said before, Space Cadet does stain.  Personally I don't mind much because my nails are almost always stained!

Thank you for reading! My next post will be a review about the treatments I was sent, along with some progress pictures I've already taken. So, stay tuned!  While you wait,  go check out the Tip Top Nails South Africa page on Facebook and their website Tip Top Nails where you can check out all of their colors and products.