Catrice Candy Shock Nail Lacquer/Play It Blue & Nail Sugar Pearls/Sugar Shock

Nail Lacquer/Play It Blue & Nail Sugar Pearls/Sugar Shock

I have been meaning to review these for a little while now - as previously posted, Catrice had a pastels summer collection called Candy Shock back in June.  I purchased one of the nail polishes (C02/Play It Blue) and one of the micro beads (C02/Sugar Shock) for review.

Nail Lacquer/Play It Blue & Nail Sugar Pearls/Sugar Shock

These are cute - the nail lacquer is a gorgeous ultra-pale-almost-white blue, which really has come into its own in the recent spate of Amazingly Fantastic Weather we've been experiencing - and it really plays well with a tan, in fact, in the evenings, with tanned skin, it almost seems to glow!  I got the blue one because I wanted a matte finish, and this certainly is - it's a very chalky, very very matte finish.

Niiiiiiice with a tan :-)

The downside of this finish is the formulation; it's extremely thick and gloopy, and it is a pain in the proverbial to apply well, or specifically, to apply a thin coat.  And three (thick and gloopy) coats are needed to get a decent opacity and eliminate the streak effect (you can see the right edge of the image above where it didn't get a full three coats and is slightly streaky).  The upshot of this is that it really just doesn't last long on your nails (thinner coats really are the way to go with nail polish) - two days on, having sat around doing nothing more tiring than reading a book, applying SPF and drinking vino, they were chipped to hell and back.  Which is a shame, because I absolutely love the shade.  On the other hand, on my toes, it hasn't budged, so I'll give it another go on my hands and see (or perhaps I'll add a matte topcoat and see how it lasts then).

Nail pearls/microbeads are something I don't use very often, because they take time to apply, they're messy and they don't last long, but I really do think they're cute.  You either love or hate the textured 3d-nail effects that have been around for a while - I personally sit on the side of the "like" fence.  These are billed as being a "raspberry coral" shade but they're more on the "pearlescent pinky coral" side of things.

Look here for the collection details - this collection has been on display since June, so you'd want to be fast if you want any of the products.