Provided for Honest Review

Fall is almost upon us my dear readers!  Hot drinks, cool days, sweaters, and gorgeous muted colors will be taking over before you know it!  Ok, so where I live hot drinks, cool days, and sweaters don’t generally come out until Christmas (if we’re lucky).  However, I still love good seasonal polish.  I fully admit that there’s something in my brain that makes me crave muted earthy polishes for Autumn, glitzy jewel tones for winter, delicate and shimmery pastels for Spring, and OMG could they be any more Neon neons for Summer (For the record, I’m not over neons yet, I could really do those all year).

Another thing that I’ve been craving is CREME polishes.  Now I know you’re saying to yourself, “But, Relly, I thought you were all about glitter and flakies?”  You would definitely be right, I am.  However, lately I’ve also been wanting that smooth gorgeous color that you can only get from good creme polishes.  Plus, glitters need bases, and cremes are fantastic for nail art!  Luckily for me Pretty & Polished came out with a stunning collection of Fall-colored Dusty Cremes.  I had the pleasure of trying out five of them, which I am going to share with you!

Up first is Reflect and Ponder:

Pretty & Polished – Reflect and Ponder

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a weakness for dark blue polish.  Dark blues and all shades of gray are probably among my very most favorite polish colors.  I can’t tell you how many various shades of dark or navy blue I have and I’m always delighted to add another shade to my collection (because they’re similar not the same…)  This one is ever so slightly teal-leaning so it’s not a straight navy, which is just fine with me.  Also, this polish is the one that conceals the “dusty” effect that each of these polishes have.  Still love everything about this color and I will definitely be using it again!

Pretty & Polished – Reflect and Ponder

I’m going to hold off discussing individual formulas because in all honesty they were all so very very close in application.

Pretty & Polished – Reflect and Ponder (Macro)

Perfectly smooth and fantastic!

Next up is Saucy Marsala:

Pretty & Polished – Saucy Marsala

Such a pretty color for Fall.  I love pink almost as much as I love blue.  This is a rich dusty mauve pink and despite being a major Doctor Who fan I’m not alarmed at the color (It’s Mauve…the intergalactic color for danger).  You can see the dusty effect in this polish and it’s like a light layer of dust throughout the polish.

Pretty & Polished – Saucy Marsala

I don’t have a macro shot of this one because apparently the photography spirits were not with me and everything I shot came out blurry.  This happened with another of the colors as well – I’m tempted to say it’s the camera but honestly I’m no pro *grins*.

Now for what must be the most perfect green:

Pretty & Polished – Thyme and Time Again

I love this color so much.  This is such a perfect green for nail art, to go with a lot of my glitter, and just on its own.  This color is almost neutral as well.  I say there’s a case to be made for muted earth toned greens to be neutral and I can imagine this in so many different manis.

Pretty & Polished – Thyme and Time Again

You can really see the “dust” effect here.  It’s not quite speckles but kind of like speckles.

Pretty & Polished – Thyme and Time Again (Macro)

I’m saving my very favorite for last (and it’s not this one!), and it’s going to be a surprise I promise because you already know my preferred colors are blues, greens, teals/turquoises…

Here is Docked at Biscay Bay:

Pretty & Polished Docked in Biscay Bay

I’ll admit this one fought hard to be my favorite.  It’s right there in the color family that I am always immediately drawn to.  Gorgeous muted turquoise and it’s just smooth and creamy and everything I ever want in a creme polish.

Pretty & Polished Docked in Biscay Bay

Now onto my favorite of the ones I received:

Pretty & Polished – Amethyst or Am I That?

Now I know there are a lot of purple fans out there.  I’ll be honest, I’ve not always been a purple fan.  However how can you resist a color like this???  This gorgeous true purple is just stunning.  I love everything about it!

Pretty & Polished – Amethyst or Am I That?

Quick Macro to see the perfection:

Pretty & Polished – Amethyst or Am I That? (Macro)

Let’s talk about creme polishes for a minute.  I really debated with myself as to whether I should show you these with topcoat (maximum shine!!!) or without.  I finally decided that I would show you these without topcoat so if there were any formulaic issues they couldn’t be hidden by a glossy layer of topcoat.  One of the wonders of topcoat is that it does cover a multitude of flaws.  Without topcoat you would be able to see any drags, balding, streaks, or other formula issues for yourself.  I felt that this would be the most honest representation of the polishes.  And as you can see I had NONE of those troubles.  They all applied beautifully and leveled out so nicely.

All of these pictures are two coats of the respective color without topcoat.  Almost all of them could have probably been one coat.  Only the green HAD to have two coats because it’s such a light color.  These all dried to a demi-matte rubbery finish.  I think this is great because it gives you two options, high shine with topcoat or the natural finish which could be very cool in nail art.

Speaking of nail art….BOOM:

Reverse Stamping with Pretty & Polished Dusty Cremes (stamp is MoYou London – Explorer 07)

The buzz over these cremes is tremendous.  It seems that the Indie Nail Polish community is just craving cremes like I was.  This is five of the TEN piece collection.  They work fabulously together and are perfect colors for fall.  This collection will be available for purchase on September 9, 2015.  You can pick up yours at the Pretty & Polished Shop (but don’t wait to visit the shop until then…Chels is running a Labor Day Sale from right now until September 7 at midnight.  Time to pick up some of those other pretty polishes you’ve been eyeing.  Use LaborDay25 to get 25% off of all polish!!  That’s a killer deal right there!).  For all the news and to see other pictures of this and other upcoming collections go check out Pretty & Polished on Facebook and Instagram!