Update: Cirque Dark Horse

Very little to say about this. No issues whatsoever during the wear.

Just some tip wear exacerbated by the SV use. Other than that, smooth sailing. The only note of concern, and it's a minor one, is because it's glitter removing it will be awful without using foils. Otherwise, perfect.

Jess

Cirque Dark Horse

This is the polish that made me discover Cirque. Of course it was Scrangie, and of course because it's a black I had to have it. I love Cirque, the whole sort of dark mystique about it, and have hopes of someday perhaps trying to own them all. Gee I wish she had sales more often lol.

Every time I plan to wear Dark Horse, I have nails break enough that I gotta cut 'em all back. Why does that happen? Truly, it's disgusting. It happened this time, too. I decided it wasn't stopping me, so perhaps that will break the curse.

Update: Cirque Epoch

When I was painting this on I thought it was going to be one of those ones in which I was very disappointed. It's supposed to have all of that duochrome loveliness to it but that whole first day all I really saw was green.

Thankfully, I was wrong. The colors showed pretty often and I was very pleased. It did start to chip, very tiny at the tips, in less than 24 hours after I painted and then continued that pattern the rest of the week. None of them were too awful until this last day.

Cirque Epoch

I had a bit of a tough time with this one. First off, I bought it AGES ago so it's been sitting in the bin since. A lot of Cirque polishes separate, all the ingredients sink to the bottom, so it took a heap load of shaking to get it mixed back up again. Once you do, it does stay for a good bit of time but like the website says, you're gonna need to do some shaking.

Epoch is a dominantly near emerald green glitter that actually has a duochrome to it. It shifts from green through teal to blue and purple. It's mostly a subtle shift, you don't see it all the time, but when it happens, ka-pow.

OPI Goldeneye over DLC Vision of Cosmic Importance

Which is not what this started out as. I had this fancy schmancy idea to do some sort of a gold and purple thing which just got too complicated for me to figure out. Because I'm not that talented. I originally pictured some sort of jester pattern, which I just texted Dana to ask her what it's really called. Harlequin, you guys. The logistics of it just weren't coming together, especially since I don't have a stamp and am terrible at freehand still, so it didn't happen.

See where I just said I'm terrible at freehand? Didn't stop me.

Some Swatching Comparisons

First up, some brown glitters. I've noticed in our stats that one of the search terms we get hits with is "Cirque French Roast Dupe." That was the first polish I posted here but I have no idea why the dupe. Well today I'm going to solve that.

My last polish was mostly bought because I liked the pictures of it that were posted when other bloggers put a top coat on it. It really reminded me of Cirque's French Roast, which is a color I absolutely heart. Not a coffee person, per se, but I'm very drawn to that polish. OPI's What Wizardry Is This? seemed similar to me so I thought a comparison was in order. I also threw in TonyMoly's Mars (GT03) from the Galaxy collection, just for fun.

Update: Fawn and Belle

Doing this one a bit early 'cause it looks bad and needs to come off. And that is not an indication of how the polish held up at all. That's not saying the Sally Hansen didn't chip (and predictably in the first 24 hours), just that it's not as bad as it looks. Bear with me, I'll explain.

First of all, yes, about 15 hours after I finished. Right after the shower the next day, the polish on my right thumbnail was starting to peel back. I caught it before it was a full on chip to glue it back down. This was the prevailing theme the whole week. There were no tiny little bits here and there, it would start to peel, I'd see it in enough time to do some repairs.

Sally Hansen So Much Fawn and Cirque Fleur Est Belle

I was going to go with some kind of a dark vampy red this week then I remembered I got my new Cirque a few days ago. Nuts to that vampy red.

I'm not much for the girlie girl shades but every once in a while one takes my fancy and Fleur est Belle really captured me. About two months before it was even released. It's a limited edition shade available only from Mei Mei's Signatures so if you're interested you'd better get on it. It's already sold out once already.

DLC Polish 2G1I Comparisons

So the whole week I wore the 2G1I, I was thinking of all of the other polishes I bought to try and fill the SSN void. I thought I'd dig them out and swatch them beside the 2G1I just as a base of comparison. The only down side was that LOL I did it at night so the light isn't great.

But before I get started with that, I want to talk about another aspect of this polish that I briefly touched upon in the original post. When it dries, it's not that shiny. It's almost trying to be a matte finish. And that's not really a bad thing at all.

Chinese Finger Soakers, Part 1

Glitter nail polish is beautiful, fun, dynamic, creative and a complete pain to remove. I have so many of them and am so hesitant to use them because I absolutely loathe the cleanup. It gets everywhere, I find it days later. On my toes. Even though it was on my fingers.

This is why god invented Google.

A search for "easy way to remove glitter nail polish" (you don't even have to type the whole thing, it suggests it before you get to the L in glitter--common problem, see) turned up this little gem. I was ecstatic. I also haven't tried it yet because linked in that video is this:

 
Even better! Less mess and waste! I ordered them before the video was even finished. It did take a month to get to me but as soon as they did I loaded up the test manicure, Cirque French Roast. I dumped some color in my hair, set out my supplies and got to work.

Update: Cirque French Roast

So we're going to have a series of posts that are just updates on a polish or manicure we talked about in previous posts that will give details on how long it lasted, how much chipping and fixing, etc. I had this at the end of the original but Dana suggested we make them completely new posts and I agree. Anyhow.

Considering its rocky beginning the Cirque French Roast held up phenomenally. The issues really were my fault. This photo is four days after the second attempt and as you can see it still looks outstanding. I did have one small chip on that thumb there, there's some tip wear, and the edges are starting to pull up a little. These are not complaints, they're all things I expect after a few days of wear. Compared to other polishes' wear, I'd give this one about a 9 on a 10 max scale of awesome.

Jess

The Case of the Disappearing Mani: Cirque French Roast

Immediate tangent. Every time I see the word “mani” I start talking like I'm from The Borderlands. Anyhow, read on, do ya I beg.

I'd been stalking the Cirque polishes website for a few weeks before I finally caved and ran giddily to PayPal. They shipped quickly (yay black tissue paper!) and my first choice was French Roast, a gorgeous multicolors-of-brown glitter that really does look like coffee. It goes on smoothly and the glitter layers up quickly. I could have gotten away with two coats but I went with three.

One coat

Two coats