Sinful Colors Summer 2014 swatches (and exciting news)

Purchased by Me

Before I get into my little swatch-fest, a few Sinful Colors tidbits for you:

• Starting THIS SUNDAY, June 1st, and running through June 7th, all Sinful Colors nail colors will be on sale again at Walgreens for $0.99 each (regularly $1.99). No coupon required. This will be an excellent time to pick up some of the Summer 2014 Collections polishes (more on that in a moment)!

• Do Sinful Colors nail polishes perform better than Chanel nail polishes? According to Consumer Reports'  recent findings, the answer is YES. (I think many of us already believe this to be true, but it's nice to see that others agree!) Thanks so much to reader March for sharing that link with me today!

Now for the swatch-fest! Today I'm going to show you the remaining six polishes that I purchased from the Sinful Colors Summer 2014 Collections (click here to see the Summer 2014 mega-display that's now at Walgreens stores across the nation). I already showed you my swatches of a few other shades from the Summer Collections (click here to see my swatches of Curry Up, Ruby Glisten and Lively in Lilac) but I went back for more after that initial purchase--I just couldn't help myself! So let's take a look...

1444 Peppered Amazon

Two coats, no top coat

Peppered Amazon is a gorgeous Shamrock green with tons of silver micro-shimmer (the shimmer looks a bit like glass flecks in person). This shade is similar to the permanent shade Mint Apple but definitely not a dupe. Mint Apple is a lighter, more mint-colored green and the shimmer in Mint Apple is gold, not silver. Peppered Amazon was almost a one-coater with excellent opacity after just one coat (but of course I always apply two). The formula was a tiny bit thick, but not difficult to work with. Dry time was average for both coats. 

1443 Mint Tropics
Three coats, no top coat

I feel like we've seen this color (or similar colors) a few times from Sinful over the years, but it's still a color I tend to gravitate toward. Unfortunately, I've encountered way better formulas when it comes to mint greens--this one was super finicky. Even after three coats there were still some obvious streaks, and this polish did not want to level (which you can clearly see above). Super streaky + no self-leveling is bad enough, but this one also took a long time to dry. I'm afraid I would give this shade a pass. 

1433 Blue La La
Two coats, no top coat

Alright, alright...I caved. I said I wasn't going to buy any more blues from Sinful for a while (I have an ungodly amount already) but so many of you have been loving this one that I decided to pick it up to see if it wowed me when I got it on my nails. And yes, it wowed me. It's beautiful, just as you said it would be. It's lighter and more purple-leaning than Essie Butler Please and Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, but it is nowhere near as purple as OPI You're Such a Budapest. It's kind of right on the line between blue and periwinkle. And in case you missed my previous post, this is NOT a dupe for Sinful Colors Sail La Vie/Hip to be Square/Alfresco.  I required two coats for great opacity and the only issue I had was with leveling (which you can see above). But of course you can fix that with a good top coat. If you don't already have Blue La La, you kind of "need" it. 

1432 Embers Only
Two coats + top coat

When I saw this in the store, I was hoping it wouldn't be too similar to Ruby Glisten (also part of the Summer 2014 Collections--you can see my swatches of Ruby Glisten here). And I'm happy to say that it's completely different. While Ruby Glisten is a red jelly with tiny red hex glitters, Embers Only has a lot more going with it. The base color is a pinkish-red jelly and there are small metallic gold hex glitters in this one, as well as tiny iridescent flakes. My swatch above doesn't do this one justice--here are some macros:

Even though this is a jelly, it only required two coats for the opacity you see in these pics. It's a beautiful formula to work with and no issues with drying. This one really surprised me--it's stunning in person. I just have to show you one more macro because, well, look:

I love this!

Next up, I have two of the three Opalescent Toppers that are Walgreens-exclusives (again, these can be found in the Summer 2014 mega-display). Since Sinful Colors is calling these Opalescent Toppers, I decided to try them over another Sinful shade (NOT new):

Sinful Colors Mesmerize
(NOT new--I'm just showing the base color I chose for these toppers)

So here we go:

These are NOT toppers. The first nail on the left is Bring It Sheer (green Opalescent Topper) and the other two nails are From Sheer to Eternity (blue Opalescent Topper). I applied one coat to each nail and it was a hot mess from beginning to end. These are way too opaque to be toppers, yet they're not opaque enough to be regular polishes. Here are swatches of them on their own:

1438 From Sheer to Eternity
four coats, no top coat

Yep, four coats and this one's still streaky/patchy. And it's one of those "stringy" polishes that's thick and doesn't want to come off the brush. Also, it never dried after four coats. On the plus side, I love the green and pink flecks in this polish (you can see them a tiny bit better in the pick below). For those of you who may be thinking this is a dupe for Sinful Colors Cinderella, NOPE. Cinderella, while sheer as well, is more opaque than this one. Also, Cinderella is a warmer blue, and the flecks in that polish are gold and pink. 

1436 Bring It Sheer
Three coats, no top coat

Bring It Sheer was a tiny bit better, application-wise, than From Sheer to Eternity, but you can see that it's still pretty streaky after three coats. Also, it took a very long time to dry. It's quite pretty, but I feel like it's just not worth the hassle. Although I do love the pink and green shimmer running through this one:

Again, ALL Sinful Colors polishes will be on sale at Walgreens for $0.99 each starting SUNDAY, June 1st through June 7th. That includes the polishes featured above, which are part of this mega-display that's now at Walgreens stores across the nation. If you'd like to see my swatches of three other shades from the Summer 2014 mega-display, CLICK HERE.

Do you own any polishes from the Summer 2014 Collections? Are you plotting a haul for next week?

The products featured in this post were purchased with personal funds. For more information, click here.