MUA Nail Quake Shatter Polish Swatches: Quiver, Shiver, Shockwaves

Shatter polish now comes in colour - and without the exorbitant price tag, or the crap-it's-only-available-in-the-USA headache! Superdrug MUA has now launched six (yes, six!) awesome shades of Nail Quakes, and I'm absolutely shattered (I know, so lame)! The first three, which I showcased yesterday, were great polishes, but the colours were largely already available on the market (black and silver shatter? Been there, done that). So this batch is definitely much more interesting to me - all colours, and not a single boring shade in sight!

The shades here are all cream finish - no foils (like the silver shatter polish) or interesting finishes. But they definitely bring in some colour to your nails - on the cheap, too! These come in Shiver, a peach-coral shade, Shockwaves, a red shade, and Quiver, a cobalt blue. All the names are earthquake theme - I guess that's why they're called Nail Quakes!



L - R: Shiver, Shockwaves, Quiver

I'm sure you don't want me blathering on about how awesome these shades are, so without further ado, here are swatches of the Nail Quakes!

First up we have Shiver. This is a coral-looking peach in the bottle, but on my finger it looks a bit more pinky-peach. It was the hardest of the lot to apply - for some reason it didn't seem to want to cooperate with the polish underneath. Perhaps it was because I was using one of the China Glaze Khromes, which can be tricky to layer with (if you've tried konading on top of them, you'll know what I mean). Still, it went on nice and thin, instead of thick and goopy like most shatter polishes, so I'm not complaining.



Next up, we have Shockwaves, a red. Mmm, red shatter polish. Just imagine the possibilities. Red over black, red over white, red over silver, red over anything! This one was also easy to apply, coming out in thin instead of thick coats, and more fluid than some other brands. Because it tends to apply thin instead of thick, it tends to crack into longer, thinner, pieces, instead of shorter, square-shaped pieces, which I rather like.



Lastly, but definitely not least, we have Quiver, a colbalt blue. This one also applies fluidly and thinly, and thus doesn't look as dark as it appears to be in the bottle. It's actuallyi more of a medium blue on. I really like this one - blue is definitely another colour where the possibilities are endless.



All in all, I can't actually find anything I don't like about the MUA Nail Quakes. They apply well, aren't as prone to being dried up or goopy unlike other (sometimes more expensive) brands, and come in a wide variety of colours to shatter yourself into shatter nirvana! The only downside I can think of is that because these apply in thin coats, rather than thick coats, they aren't as opaque as some other brands, although they are by no means sheer, as the photos attest. If you're looking for cheap and good quality shatter polishes, I definitely recommend the MUA Nail Quakes.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

TheBalm Stainaic Swatches: Beauty Queen and Homecoming Queen

Today I am providing swatches with Thebalm's Stainaic in two colours, out of three. Unfortunately I'm only able to swatch two out of the three colours, as this is all that was available. :(

The Stainaics are gel stains, and they are much like Benefit's Benetint and Posietint, only better, because they are less runny, and the gel-like texture makes it easier to control, as well as easier to blend. I think their gel texture also gives them a bit more time before they dry and set, which makes them much better than Benefit's competitor products, as these tend to dry really quickly, in my opinion.

The Stainaics are packaged in a wand with an applicator, much like lipgloss. I think this packaging is a little unsanitary - I'd much prefer that they be in a squeeze tube - but at least in this form of packaging, there's no chance of spilling any product, unless the entire tube breaks.




L - R: Beauty Queen, Homecoming Queen

Beauty Queen is a colour very similar to Benefit's Benetint, and all its imitators. It's a rosy red colour with a berry tint, and very pretty. It's a deep red that can be sheered out or built up for colour. It would probably look better on cool-toned than on warm-toned girls, but I imagine this would look good on most people.

Homecoming queen is a very orangey peach. In fact, I think it's probably 90% orange and 10% peach - it reminds me of the colour of marmalade or orange jam. I think this would probably look good only on warm-toned girls, given how orange it is.