Sunday, January 20, 2013

REVIEW of Revlon Whimsical With SWATCHES

Hi chickadees!
I feel like I start most of my reviews this way but this is another I was crazy about tracking down but apparently not about trying because it's been sitting unused with the rest of my collection for months since I bought it. Yes, I ran about rather insanely looking for Revlon Whimsical, the supposed Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air dupe (only to annoyingly find a lot of them at Duane Reade months later after my initial fervor had passed...but that's beside the point). You would think of Whimsical as a typical spring color but there's something a little dryer and dustier about the blue base that made me want to pull it out in the middle of winter. So, after all this time, how do I finally feel about this polish now that I've worn it? Well, I'm still not sure.

Color: Revlon Whimsical is a grayish blue polish with large pink and blue hex glitter, medium pink and blue glitter, and small pink and blue glitter particles. I'd call it more of a semi-sheer polish than a jelly because I don't really think it has a typical jelly look. It just takes a few coats to build up the color. Four coats to be exact. With three coats, I thought I had a nice amount of glitter and a relatively semi-opaque base but the polish still looked so streaky that I did a fourth coat. At four coats there was still some balding but it wasn't too terrible once I added top coat. This is definitely a polish that seems meant for layering. I liked the color. It feels light and refined, and yes, whimsical, like something you would pair with a fairy costume. Obviously as it contains so much glitter, it's not the most work appropriate polish. However, I did think the slightly dusty quality of the blue base kept the polish from being too childish.
Formula: As this is a sheer polish, the base is very thin.
Application: For all the trouble of painting 4 coats, application was very smooth. However, glitter placement was a pain in the arse. I almost always find glitter placement annoying but since this polish has a particularly sheer, thin base, it's even harder to pick up glitter with the brush unless you pick up a ton of polish. You will see indentations in the swatches below. That is my fault. I didn't wait long enough for the polish to dry in between coats and since I did 4 coats, the polish ended up a little squishy and my nails made marks in it before it fully dried. I didn't notice these until I was taking photos. I will say that it was pretty easy to fix this. There was also a lot of bubbling which I didn't notice until I saw the swatches. It's not as apparent in person.

CONCLUSION: I had mixed feelings about how this polish looked on my hands. I didn't think it looked terrible but it wasn't quite flattering either. I think it would probably look best with very pale skintones with a pink undertone or very dark skintones. If you want to wear this polish on its own, four coats is a lot of trouble and it did look somewhat streaky even at four coats. But application was smooth. I guess I'll say that if you love the look of this polish or you're really desperate for a Deborah Lippmann dupe, then this polish is worth you're time. But if all the problems I've listed have you wary, you will probably not be too happy with Revlon Whimsical.
SWATCHES

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