Cirque Epoch Review and Swatch: Deep, dark duochrome nail polish!

As I might have mentioned in a previous NOTD (nail of the day) post, yes I am absolutely into indie nail polish right now! One of the brands I've been trying out is Cirque (and if you've seen some of my Instagram posts you'll see some of those bottle shots and NOTDS already), and the polish I wanted to show you today is Cirque Epoch! I bought these online from Luxola when they were having a sale (although I rarely buy from them now - they're kind of overpriced compared to alternatives such as Mei Mei Signatures).

Cirque Epoch: Here it looks forest green, but the duochrome becomes more apparent in different lights and angles.

Cirque Epoch is a forest green glass-fleck-ish polish, mostly, but it does have very lovely duochrome in the right lights. I get blue and purple from it. It's this flash of other colours that made me swoon for this polish. I had to work pretty darn hard to capture the duochrome, because the lighting and my camera just weren't cooperating with me. I have no idea how those other nail bloggers do it, but darn they are good.

Anyway, here's a shot of a bit of the duochrome - you can see the purple and blue on some of the nails at the sides. It also has a blackened look to it - in some dim indoor lights, it actually looks grey to me. One thing I also liked about it was the glowy, lit-from-within look it has.


Cirque Epoch: A forest green glass fleck that flashes blue and purple at some angles.
Application-wise, I didn't have much trouble with Epoch. Because the glitter flecks tend to settle at the bottom of the polish, you want to really give the bottle a good shake or roll before you apply. I also found it helpful to give it a shake every few nails or so, just to make sure that with the first coat I got some pigment out, not just the blackened grey base. When I did this shaking, I found that I could use 2 coats. Otherwise, you'd probably need three thin coats, which is what you see on my nails. Other than that, I didn't have any application issues at all. Generally, the Cirques I've had do have pretty good application and a nice thin texture.


Cirque Epoch: Predominantly forest green, with slight purple and blue duochrome.
Weartime was decent, I got maybe 4 days out of this polish, which is normal for me. Below was the best photo I could get of my nails that really showcases the duochrome in Epoch - you can see the polish going from green to blue on my nails. This is the view that I love best from Epoch - when it really lets you see its duochrome goodness! This is daytime light, near a window.


Cirque Epoch: Would you look at that lovely duochrome!
I guess my only quibble with Epoch is that I wish the duochrome wasn't so hard to capture on camera and also that under my office lighting, I didn't get that much of the duochrome, so I mostly saw the forest green fleck base (don't get me wrong, it's still a pretty colour, it's just that I LOVE duochromes). I think this showcases its lovely colour best under strong lighting, so maybe I should wear it another time when I'm going to actually be out in the sun more!