Manicure Monday

These reviews are all super wordy, so I'll skip the introduction.

Revlon Wintermint
This is one of the new scented polishes released by Revlon (they're permanent, no worries). I picked it up because I was just dying of curiosity as to whether it would be a dupe for my beloved Mermaid's Dream. It's not. In fact, I kind of hate Wintermint, even though they are really similar.

2 coats Wintermint on all except
pinky, which has 2 coats Mermaid's
Dream. All with 2 (or 3? damnit)
layers of top coat

Here's the deal: Wintermint's base is much thicker and more opaque than Mermaid's Dream, so it covers up the blue big glitters and gold little glitters in the base much more than in MD, and since there are less glitters to begin with in Wintermint, the end result is much more muted and less sparkletastic. And where MD dries uniformly bumpy, allowing all sorts of different layers of glitter to sparkle (and giving it a cool fish-scale effect, without the 3 coats of topcoat necessary to smooth it), Wintermint is lumpy and uneven from where the larger blue glitter pokes up.

Here's Mermaid's Dream on its own, in
case you need a refresher.

My biggest issue with it is just that it lacks MD's ridiculously beautiful sparkle and glitz––it's much more muted, and frosty, and bleh. It also doesn't have the duochrome present in MD, which shifts to a vibrant blue at an angle (you'll just have to take my word for it, as I didn't even try to capture it). I wore MD on my left pinky only, and you could really easily see the difference in formulas by comparing my two pinkies, but I've misplaced my tripod and don't have three hands so I wasn't able to photograph it. Hopefully you can tell from these pictures, at least a bit. For anyone who's not crazy like me, Wintermint may very well be a great substitute for MD's ridiculous $19 beauty, but I will be sticking with the original and gifting Wintermint to someone else. (A note about the scent: it is very minty, and quite strong; I could smell it through 2 layers of top coat for more than 24 hours after application, but I had to get my fingers pretty close to my nose. Without top coat, it would probably be stronger, but since I'm not crazy about the smell of mint, I was fine with it as it was.)

Revlon Autumn Spice
I don't really like brown polish, but I decided to give this one a shot anyways, since it's got the gorgeous orangey-copper shimmer, and with Thanksgiving, it seemed very appropriate.

2 coats Autumn Spice on all nails.
Noticeable tipwear less than 24 hours
after application, no bueno.

I didn't love the formula; I found it a bit thick and very slow-drying, but it was opaque in 2 coats, though it did need 2 layers of top coat to smooth it out. It smells like almond flavoring, which is not my favorite, so I was glad the top coat muted it. It also chipped pretty quickly. I liked it more than Wintermint, just because I don't have anything like it in my stash, but I'm not sure I like it enough to hold on to it. I'll give it another try and gift it on if it still fails to impress. (I think I'm the only person who isn't enamored with the idea of scented polishes in general, and these polishes in particular, so don't let my Negative Nancy-ing dissuade you from trying them if there's a color you like!) (Also, I'm writing this in the throes of PMS [went off birth control for the first time since I was 15, and HOLY SHIT GUYS PMS IS THE WORST. I just want to kill everyone and eat nothing but chocolate and salt and tea, but that of course upsets my stomach, so then I get to take muscle relaxants and I get sleepy and everything is the worst], so I'm not feeling particularly generous. But, at least for Wintermint, I really was super annoyed and actually looked forward to writing the rant to share how much superior Mermaid's Dream is. Because I am crazy.)

OPI Tickle My France-y and Maybelline Gilded Rose
Another beautiful polish from the tragically LE Maybelline Brocades collection!

2 coats Tickle my France-y on all, with 1 coat Maybelline
Gilded Rose on ring

I picked it up because I wanted to see how it compares to Golden Rose Jolly Jewels 103. They're really similar, but the Maybelline is less glitter-ful and somewhat sheerer with smaller glitters. That being said, I still just did a single coat on a nude base, and it was sufficient. (I don't have comparison swatches of them, because I was too lazy to photograph my nail wheel, but I can update this post if y'all really want to see them.) Tickle My France-y is a really pretty nude for my skintone; it's a crelly, but I like it best at 2 coats, when there's still some translucency. It had great wear, too, showing no tipwear after 2 days, at which point I removed it. Really pretty manicure.

What thinkest you?