Purchased By Me
Happy Sunday!!! Hope everyone is doing well and had a great weekend!! I mostly cleaned and did laundry.. yuck!
Last weekend, I stopped at a Walgreen's on my way home from work, hoping to find the Jordana liquid eyeliner, but instead found the L'Oreal Dark Sides of Grey Collection! I absolutely loooove the books.. my copies are quite worn out, but I'm not in love with the mainstream collections that are coming out. I think they're too much grey and dark colors and not at all what the books are really about. It's like the geniuses behind these collections didn't even read the books! That's how much I love the books ;)
Having said that, after all the hype and hullabaloo I've read online about Masked Affair, I decided to pick it up since I had a coupon to use anyway. After reading so many reviews on Masked Affair, I already knew I was looking at dragging on the second coat and having to use a third coat to hide said dragging. What I was NOT expecting was dragging on the third coat, especially after letting the first and second coats dry completely before applying the third. I posted about my frustrations on my
Facebook page last night and some people said they had the same issue, others have suggested letting each coat dry before applying the next, another person said to use a light hand and float the polish on, another said to use a matte topcoat in between coats, while another said to use an aqua basecoat, etc., etc.
Anyway!! Masked Affair is a silvery lavender scattered/linear holo. A really huge deal for a drugstore polish! I used 4 coats total for the photos below and Ellagee Grip (which could have been a factor in application) and on the pinky and middle finger I used Ellagee Glass. At first, top coat does dull the holo completely while wet, but after top coat is dry, the flame comes back. I personally don't think top coat dulls the holo that much. If it does, it's not noticeable.
Hey there, pinky nail!! Why you so short?? (Corner break so I had to cut my nail down really short.. it's gross!!)
If you look at the index finger on the right side, you can see the drag mark *le sigh*
Application issues aside, it really is a gorgeous polish and a big step for a mainstream drugstore company, especially since the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms came out years ago! Now to work on the formula! ;)
Having said that, any nail polish, whether it be a mainstream brand or an indie, should not have to be so much work to apply. The average person should be able to purchase online or go to the store and buy a polish without worrying about, "Will I need an aqua base coat for this?" or "Are there any tricks to applying this polish? Can I just apply it like any other polish?" How many average people know about the matte top coat trick? I've been blogging for almost 3 years and it's the first I've heard about this. Beautiful polish or not, if it requires a special base coat or if you have to stand on your head while applying the polish to your fingers with your toes and your eyes crossed, I won't buy it or use it.
I bought mine at Walgreen's for about $7. I've also seen people say they picked this up at RiteAid. If you don't have a RiteAid but a ton of Walgreen's like I do, what I've learned about new displays is only the high volume stores with a busy cosmetics department get the new stuff. Smaller stores that don't have a lot of volume or don't have a lot of sales in cosmetics won't get the seasonal or promotional displays.
What do you think? Have you bought this and think it lives up to all the hype?
