Sephora Formula X Demeter

Sephora Formula X Demeter

2 coats

from the Divine Stardust collection ($12.50 each)

From Sephora.com: Bring a celestial sheen to your manicure with Divine Stardust. Named after Greek goddesses, these shades feature a selection of soft pastel hues that are infused with fine, holographic glitter to create an iridescent effect under direct light. Each glittering shade coats nails with a sleek, smooth finish. 

Demeter is described as "gold holographic glitter" and I just knew I'd love it. I was right- it's absolutely gorgeous!

Sephora Formula X Sheer Strength in Wondrous

Sephora Formula X Sheer Strength in Wondrous

3 coats

 

I saw these a few months ago when Karen Falcone swatched them and I was intrigued... they reminded me of the Sally Hansen Smooth and Perfect Color + Care line that came out a few years ago. I really liked those, but I don't have the pink shade called Satin, and I had a credit eating a hole in my pocket at Sephora... so into my cart Wondrous went.

 

Application was pretty much fool-proof and even a muggle could get a great looking mani with this color. I pretty much just slapped it on and didn't even bother to do any clean-up around my cuticles and I still think it looks great.

 

At $12.50, these are more than twice as much as Sally's original version is at $5.50. It looks like the Color + Care line is still available, so if this looks like your cup of tea, I'd go for the more reasonably priced Sally Hansen line myself. 

 

Sephora Formula X in A+

Sephora Formula X in A+

(2 coats)

 

At some point, I received this mini-sized bottle of A+, I believe as a 100 point perk. I'm not positive, but I decided to give it a try along with the mini set of The Formula X System I received as a 500 point perk. 

 

 

Side note on this little set: I had this set on my list of thing to try, and I love when I can spend my points on something off my wishlist! I was really surprised when I received my package and realized that all four of the little bottles were just tossed in together with some shredded paper. Luckily, none of them arrived damaged, but this packaging was just asking for trouble.

 

But back to the polish..... I really really like The System! The topcoat was pretty fabulous- self-leveling and fast-drying and just all-around awesome.

 

A+ is a nice shade, but it appears to be discontinued.  The way the Formula X shades are organized makes it pretty hard to navigate and search for an individual shade. If you know the name of the shade, you can use the search box on their website, but if you are just browsing and looking for something pretty to buy, it's cumbersome because you have to go to an individual page for each type of polish- Transformers, Sparklers, Sea Glass etc.

 

 

 

Sparkles Save a Bad Mani

Cover Girl Boundless Color in City Lights (1 coat) (sorry, discontinued!)

over

Sephora Formula X in Prophecy (2 coats)

 

Do you ever do a mani, and something just goes so so wrong? This mani seemed to be a lost cause (more on that in a minute), but just one coat of a holo glitter saved the day! I am sad that City Lights is discontinued, but there are two others that are easy to find and work in quite the same way: China Glaze Fairy Dust and Out The Door Northern Lights Silver Hologram Top Coat. Swatch and Learn has a great comparison post here.

 

Anyway, back to my failed mani. A few weeks ago I read beautygeek's review of the Sephora Formula X Brushed Metallics line and I knew I had to have Prophecy. You've got to check out her pic! It's amazing.

 

But on me..... it crackled! It was so very strange. I used my normal base of NailTek II, which I guess the Sephora X did not play well with. The first coat of Prophecy was very streaky but I figured the second coat would even it out. No! The second coat made it crackle! Just like the crackles of a few years ago. I was so frustrated, and I was late and I was tired and wanted to get to bed. I grabbed my trust bottle of Cover Girl City Lights, which has saved me before, and let it work the magic. I ended up loving how this mani turned out.

 

I'll have to try Prophecy again, I guess with a different base. Anyone had better luck with something else?

 

 

Sephora Formula X in X ♥'s Rouge

Sephora Formula X in X ♥'s Rouge

2 coats

 

A striking nail lacquer in a classic candy apple red, exclusively for VIB Rouge requalifying members.

 

Wow, this is a pigmented red! So pigmented, in fact, that I wasn't able to clean up my mistakes...... You can see on my pinkie and ring finger that a little polish ran off the nail, and try as I did to clean up with my clean-up brush and acetone, I couldn't get it off.

 

I purchased X ♥'s Rouge for $10.50, but I have also read that it is being given to requalifying VIB Rouge members for free as a gift.

 

 

 

 

Sephora Formula X in Perfection

Sephora Formula X in Perfection

from the New Neutrals collection ($10.50 for 0.4 fl oz)

 

I have to admit to being disappointed when Sephora discontinued their partnership with OPI last year. Or it might have been the other way around, I don't know. In any case, after the Sephora by OPI line (or OPI for Sephora as it was sometimes referred to) was discontinued, Sephora released the Formula X line. I received this mini (.16 fl oz) as a 100 point perk.

 

I first tried a mani with two thin coats- I find, of course, that thin coats try better and faster than thicker coats. However, two thin coats didn't cover very well, and I dislike having to do three coats as a general rule, so I re-tried the mani with two thicker coats and got much better results.

 

The color is so similar to Metro Chic, of course I love it. It's such a great neutral.

 

Anyone have any other thoughts on this line? I noticed they have an VIB Rouge-exclusive shade called X ♥'s Rouge and embarrassingly enough, I've attained Rouge status, so I am pretty sure I need it. :-)

 



Sephora's Ariel Whatcha-Nail-Callit Collection Wrap-Up

Now that I finally finished swatching Sephora's Ariel Whatcha-Nail-Callit 6 Piece Nail Set ($24.50), I thought I'd do a post with all the swatches together.

Sephora X Devotin' To Floatin'

2 coats

Sephora X Ariel (1 coat)

over Devotin' To Floatin' (2 coats)

photo taken in the shade

Sephora X Ariel (1 coat)

over Devotin' To Floatin' (2 coats)

photo taken in the sun

Sephora X Hotter Under the Water

2 coats

Sephora X Life Is the Bubbles (1 coat)
over Sephora X Hotter Under the Water (2 coats)
photo taken in sun

Sephora X Life Is the Bubbles (1 coat)
over Sephora X Hotter Under the Water (2 coats)
photo taken in shade

Sephora X Off the Hook

2 coats

 Sephora X We Are In Luck Here

2 coats

NOTD: Sephora X Ariel

Sephora X Ariel (1 coat)

over Devotin' To Floatin' (2 coats)

photo taken in the shade

both from Sephora's Ariel Whatcha-Nail-Callit 6 Piece Nail Set ($24.50)

Ariel is a gorgeous iridescent glitter top coat in a sheer turquoise base. In the shade you can really see the different colors of glitter. I got nice glitter coverage in just one coat, and I didn't find Ariel to be too thick. It actually dried pretty smooth, much to my surprise. 

photo taken in the sun

In direct sunlight, the colors of glitter weren't as apparent. They gave more of a dimensional look, though, which was still pretty.

NOTD: Sephora X Devotin' To Floatin'

Sephora X Devotin' To Floatin'

2 coats

from Sephora's Ariel Whatcha-Nail-Callit 6 Piece Nail Set ($24.50)

Devotin' to Floatin' is is a shimmery pearlescent teal that was much more opaque than I thought it would be. I planned on doing 3 coats, but was able to stop at 2 because it had covered so nicely. I was also worried that there might be some apparent brush strokes, but that wasn't a problem at all. I thought this one was really pretty.

NOTD: Sephora X Life is the Bubbles

Sephora X Life Is the Bubbles (1 coat)
over
Sephora X Hotter Under the Water (2 coats)

both from Sephora's Ariel Whatcha-Nail-Callit 6 Piece Nail Set ($24.50)

lighting: Shade

I thought that Life Is the Bubbles, a pretty mix of iridescent shimmers and flakies, would look awesome over Hotter Under the Water, a pretty dark, smoky purple. It looks completely different in the shade versus the sun, so I took pics of both. It's really pretty. Another blogger mentioned she found it thick, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. One coat went on smoothly and easily.

NOTD: Sephora X Hotter Under the Water

Sephora X Hotter Under the Water

2 coats

from Sephora's Ariel Whatcha-Nail-Callit 6 Piece Nail Set ($24.50)

Hotter Under the Water is a pretty dark, smoky purple. Indoors, it almost looks black. In the sun, you can see the purple so much better. Another blogger said she got away with just one coat, but I needed two to get complete coverage.

NOTD: Sephora X Off the Hook

Sephora X Off the Hook

2 coats

from Sephora's Ariel Whatcha-Nail-Callit 6 Piece Nail Set ($24.50)

Off the Hook is a purple-grey frost, and it covered nicely in two coats. You can see some brush strokes, but it's not terrible. As with the other shade I swatched from this set, I still did *not* like the brush- the stem was very very short and hard for me to work with. This time I did remove the square cap before I used it, so that did help a bit.

NOTD: Sephora X We Are In Luck Here

 Sephora X We Are In Luck Here

2 coats

from Sephora's Ariel Whatcha-Nail-Callit 6 Piece Nail Set ($24.50)

Sigh. When Sephora started releasing their Disney collections, I decided that I'd need to collect the nail polish mini sets. I have Cinderella and Jasmine, both released when Sephora had a partnership with OPI. But since that partnership was dissolved and Sephora is now releasing polish under the X line, I have to say I'm not sure I'll keep collecting them.

We Are In Luck Here is a coral-leaning red, and it covered nicely in two coats. I did *not* like the brush- the stem was very very short and hard for me to work with. I also did not like the square cap, although I've since read that it can be removed, similar to Chanel caps. Although that might help, I still think the short brush will continue to cause me problems.

At any rate, I do plan on swatching the rest of the shades in this collection over the next few days, so stop back by to see if my opinion changes on whether or not I need to continue collecting the Disney polishes.