Swatches & Review - E.L.F. Holiday 2011 Nail Polish Set at Target

This is the second 5 pack of ELF polishes I own... bringing my total to 10 ELF polishes lol. This is the 'tis the season to be beautiful set that is currently at Target for $5, I found mine on an end cap with a bunch of other holiday sets. I couldn't say no. I mean, there are some interesting looking polishes and 5 polishes for $5? Yes, please!!

I don't usually review polishes. I guess I always write a review on my polishes when I post them, but I'm treating this as more of a formal review, hence the title. I'm just swatching the polishes and talking about the formula. Instead of waiting for me to wear these, I figured I'd do it all at once. I hate when I can't find swatches of cheaper polishes, so I hope this helps you decide if picking up this set is worth it!!

The 5 polishes in this set are:
Mod Mauve
Royal Purple
Red Velvet
Metal Madness
Golden Goddess

The cap is NOT a vanity cap. You will be painting with the square cap, but I did not have any problem doing so. The brushes are oval and very slightly flattened. It is obvious that there are two sides to the brush for you to paint with because it is not round. Overall, the brushes were better than the spring set I reviewed, but two of them could still improve.

Scroll all the way down for photos of each polish with Golden Goddess top coat

Mod Mauve





2 coats Mod Mauve

This was the worst brush, but it wasn't that bad. It had one stray bristle that stuck out the side of the brush. But it was just one. This was also the widest brush of the 5, not necessarily a bad thing. It wasn't too wide. The end of the brush wasn't even, it was on a slight slant, which made it a little difficulty to paint evenly around my cuticles. But it still wasn't that bad.

Mod Mauve is a kind of chocolately mauve creme, kind of an auburn almost. Definitely looks different in different lighting. I don't think it's too "old" of a color. Something about it (the chocolately part?) makes it seem more current. Nice, simple.

The formula was smooth, not streaky but seemed uneven, then it self leveled and was not uneven. The consistency was great. Medium consistency, nicely pigmented. Not too bad at all!!

Royal Purple






2 coats Royal Purple

This brush was fine. Royal Purple is a blue based fuchsia-violet with a shimmery sheen. The shimmer seems almost silvery in the bottle, but comes across fuchsia/purple on the nail. Very pretty.

The formula was FANTASTIC. Reminded me of the old, non 3 Free polishes (but it is 3 Free). Thin, easily workable but very pigmented despite it being thin and flowy. Smooth and not streaky at all. I like this formula better than mod mauve, but it's that formula difference between a creme and a shimmer. I find that it's not uncommon for them to be different and have their own qualities.

Red Velvet






2 coats Red Velvet

This brush was a little thinner than Royal Purples. Not in a bad way, just an objective thing.

The color looks much richer with a second coat. I was skeptical when I saw the first. But with the second coat, it's a lovely, foil-y berry undertones red that I'm going to say is perfect for a darker winter/Christmas red. I liked Golden Goddess best over this color.

The formula was just like Royal Purple. Like exactly the same.

Metal Madness






2 coats Metal Madness

This brush was going back to being like Mod Mauves, it had kind of a slant.

This is a charcoal base with holographic micro glitter. Very interesting. The glitter is more prominent in real life than in the photos.

The polish went on without problems. It does need two coats, it was kind of sheer with just one, but totally opaque with 2. Wasn't streaky, stayed even, thicker than Royal Purple and Red Velvet but seemed less pigmented, which is probably why the two coats is necessary.

Golden Goddess




This is a glitter top coat in the bunch. It will not become opaque, which is fine seeing as how I'm assuming that was not the intention of the polish.

It is well packed with gold micro glitter and it was round iridescent glitter. The round glitter isn't too plentiful when on the nail. Just painting it on gives you several pieces, but not a ton. They don't have a problem sticking to the brush, I just think there's SO much micro glitter and not as much of the round glitter. Not a bad thing, still pretty.

Here is Golden Goddess over all of the other colors:


Over Mod Mauve


Over Royal Purple


Over Red Velvet (my fav)


Over Metal Madness


So overall, is this set worth $5? ABSOLUTELY!!

Swatches and Review - E.L.F. Spring Finds/Summer Essentials 5 pack

This is a 5 pack of ELF Nail Polish that is available on the ELF website as well as Target.com and in Target stores (If you go to the Target.com link, you will be able to see if it's in stock in a store near you). It retails for $5.00, making each polish only $1 each!!

The 5 polishes it includes are:
Blue Mist
Lilac
Mango Madness
Fuchsia
Purple Pleaser

Collectively, they all have a similar formula with the exception of Fuchsia, and similar brushes.

Formula
These were all fairly sheer shades, but certainly buildable. All are 3 coats except Fuchsia, which is only 2 and was definitely the stand out formula. Despite the sheer factor, they are so forgiving it's amazing. It is impossible to make these polishes uneven. As soon as you apply the next coat, it's weirdly self-leveling. It spreads out perfect, it truly is so cool.

Brushes
Definitely the down fall of the polish. The brushes were pretty horrible all around, but Fuchsia and Purple Pleaser really had problems. The brushes as a whole I find similar to the defectiveness of MAC brushes. It's a wider, but entirely round brush with not very dense bristles, but the bristles are a bit thicker. You cannot fully push the brush to your nail or it will be a complete mess. You have to use a light, delicate touch.
Fuchsia and Purple Pleaser both had really wonky bristles. I had to trim Fuchsia, but Purple Pleaser was going to be way too much trouble to attempt to trim. Here are some photos:

This is Fuchsia. That's actually two longer bristles, they're just now sticking together. When I initially pulled it out, they were two separate ones. I thought maybe they were loose, so I tried to pull them. Didn't work. They were just longer than the others.


This is Purple Pleaser. The top of the side of the brush is not a clump of polish. That's a squiggly bristle. You can also see a long bristle peeking out amongst the others. And you can see the awkward shape of the brush at some angles.

Onto the swatches and reviews on each polish.

Blue Mist









I also threw some comparisons up because I was even sort of curious. Blue Mist is a very fresh and clean creme with a little bit of murkiness that you can notice in the comparisons, but not so much on it's own.
MCA is much brighter, and ironically, bluer than BM. BM is murkier in comparison, and is slightly more green/sage, though I would still call it blue as it's main color.
FA isn't even close, but it looks like BM has some of the green undertones that FA has.
I added Ancient Jade because I also wanted to see it next to FA. It's definitely a dark cousin of Blue Mist and I think BM and AJ look very complimentary.

Lilac





Unfortunately, I don't have any other lilacs that someone might want to see compared to this (I'm thinking OPI lavenders/lilacs like DYLI or Lucky Lavender or Panda-monium Pink or RW).

On it's own, this is a gorgeous spring lilac creme that has a sort of dusty quality. This seems like a pretty true lilac, but with less pink and more purple. It is certainly muted and not bright, but still beautiful. I definitely like this color.

Mango Madness





WOW!! This is a pretty bright color. It is not true to bottle, it is definitely brighter and more orange on the nail. It has almost a jelly quality to it. If you want it to look more jelly and you're okay with VNL, 2 coats would definitely give that effect.
I'm calling this a bright (almost neon, but not there) orange coral with pink undertones. This is an awesome summer color. I was fearful for a moment that it might look too orangey or Halloween-ish, but it definitely does not.

Fuchsia





Definitely my favorite of the group!! You have no idea how badly I wish I could compare this to OPI Houston We Have A Purple from the new Texas collection. But from swatches I've seen, this has got to be an incredibly similar polish and dupe-ish. This is a creme, but like Mango Madness, it has a jelly quality to it that I think helps it look so similar to HWHAP. Fortunately for me, I really wanted HWHAP and I even planned on picking it up today at Ulta, but now I'm not going to. Would be great to be able to compare, but I'm so frugal that knowing I have a color so similar that only cost $1 is good enough for me!!

This is a a blue/purple based (rasp)berry crossed with a little fuchsia that is so gorgeous. I know I keep talking about how amazing each color is, but they really are. I'm sure they're all dupe-able, but the fact that this is probably the cheapest of these colors you'll find, I think the importance is on the fact that they themselves MAKE great dupes.

Purple Pleaser





First, let me apologize for the messiness. I don't ever clean up (unless I'm water marbling), and the brush on this was just that bad.

I don't really know how to describe this color. I guess just a red based purple. The photos are pretty darn true to color. Again, this is a creme but does have a jelly-ish feel to it.

Oddly enough, I had initially thought this was dupe-ish for HWHAP. (Is it too obvious that I really want that polish?) Some photos look like Fuchsia, others look like Purple Pleaser. Because of this, I decided to compare Fuchsia and PP:



(Purple Pleaser on index and ring, Fuchsia on middle and pinky)

They clearly look entirely different. It's so interesting to see how different polishes look on their own and compared to another polish. The pink of Fuchsia becomes very apparent, and that makes PP look more like HWHAP.

Overall

Unless you know you have perfect dupes of these colors already, I highly suggest picking this up. The bad brush quality can be overlooked by how even the formula is and how gorgeous the colors are. Collectively, this is a great pack of classic yet currently popular spring and summer colors. If you can get your hands on it, buy it!