Review: Ciate Shell Manicure

A while ago, a saw these Ciate Shell Manicure sets at Sephora.
They didn't have testers, but I was so intrigued and I had to buy one to try.

I had actually gone with the white pearly color called Wish Upon a Starfish, but I'll talk about that later.

So here's the mauve color called Mermaid You Look:

Here's what the paint pot polish in the kit looks like on the nails.

The color is so nice by itself that I'm sure you can wear it alone. It's nice and shiny and coats evenly.

I decided to only put the Crushed Shells on just my thumb and ring finger as accents, and I loved how the manicure looked!

The application was very easy. And I think it was so considerate of them to include a little funnel so it makes putting the left-over crushed shells back in the bottle no hassle at all.

It makes a really big difference after I put on the top coat. Without a top coat, the crushed shells looked really chalky, but after a thin layer of top coat, they were so pretty! I wouldn't put too much polish on top of the crushed shells, though, because you may take away that lovely texture. But since I haven't tried putting a very thick coat of clear polish on the shells myself, maybe you can leave a comment and tell me if it actually turns out really great =)

So my verdict:

• The application was so easy
• Very easy clean-up
• The polish stays on really well (hardly chipped at all and I had worn it for over 2 weeks before taking the polish off)
• Love the color and textures
• Definitely recommended for nail-art lovers ;)

So what about that other white pearly color?

Here was the kit. I had initially picked this kit because I thought I could use the white crushed shells on other polish colors so it would be more versatile.

Unfortunately... This was what it looked like:

It looks almost like a bed of dried up skin cells/flakes LOL. I was pretty disgusted and I had to take it off right away.

Hope this review helps.
Maybe I just sucked at applying the crushed shells the first time so the pearly color turned out so bad. I'm sure some other people will have better skills and may love the white pearly color much more than the purple one.