SpaRitual Illuminate Collection

Okay taking an emergency break from my CrowsToes swatching.

I only picked up 4 of the 6 polishes from this collection, mostly because I am poor.

Please everyone give me a round of applause for not hurling my cellphone through a storefront today. It shut off on me 7 times in a row. This shit will not maintain stasis. It is time to die. That reminds me I need to call and cancel my service. I don't need a frigging cellphone I hate talking on the phone.

I found these difficult to photograph. They all have duochrome shift, but are particulate foils in finish which makes them finicky to photograph. So blingy.

Intuition was a pain in the ass to photograph. I took like 50 pictures and fiddled with every frigging camera option. Nothing actually allowed me to take colour accurate photos. It is a medium violet purple with teal-pink duochrome shimmer.

This is 3 coats no topcoat.

Improvisation is listed as a berry shimmer by SpaRitual. It's a pinky red. It has the same teal-pink duochrome shimmer. This is 3 coats no topcoat.

Imagination is listed as a magenta blue shimmer. It's a teal-pink duochrome shimmer and what seems to be a sort of reddish brown shimmer until you swatch it over black in a clear base It's super sheer. This is 4 coats on a white fake nail.

This is 3 coats over black with no topcoat. You can no longer see the sort of reddish shimmer. It's strictly pink/teal.

Last up is Invention which is not surprisingly probably my favourite. I LOVE GOOOOOLD. This is 3 coats alone and then 2 coats over black. It's a gold foil with a teal-green flash. Swatched alone it seems to have a bit of a pinky/red thing going on making it really interesting and beautiful.

SpaRitual - Bismuth

Here are 13 pictures of Bismuth.  I couldn't quite capture it.  4 coats on all but ring which is 2 coats over black.  I took pictures under several different light sources.  No topcoat.  I need to experiment with layering this puppy, perhaps over a brown.. *squint*  Sorry for the bubbles.  This is the only thing I swatched this long weekend, and I did it fast and sloppy.  It's super sheer like a lot of duochromes.

Indirect sun

Sun

Stove light

Bedroom light which is quite cool and blue

Bathroom light which is pretty neutral but a bit warm

At first look I thought this polish might be very similar to a lot of other duochromes out there, but it isn't.  It's more of a pink tone than the really common purple, and it shifts to a very warm sort of bronzy gold instead of the traditional green.  The base is sort of a murky browny grey.  I find this polish very hard to describe and found it very hard to photograph.  Hopefully these swatches aren't entirely useless to you!

SpaRitual - Alchemy vs. China Glaze - Whitecap vs. Zoya - Gaia

I have a comp of 3 beauties.  I am in love with each of these polishes.

Zoya Gaia is obviously in the dupe running but I needed to bust it out since I was going milky gold.

Gaia is pinky, middle finger is Whitecap and ring and pointer are Alchemy.  All are 2 coats aside from Gaia which was 1 coat, and all are over 2 coats of OPI Don't Touch my Tutu!

Cuticles = still Sammy Haggard.

The particles in Alchemy are bigger.  Alchemy is also a lot blingier in person.  Whitecap has a more opaque base and builds up more with each coat; whereas, Alchemy simply builds in bling.  I love all of these.  If I was going to go get hitched, one or all may be my wedding mani!  So delicate and beautiful.