Today I have swatches of the brand new Stroke of Brilliance polish from Essie's Luxeffects line. In observance of the holiday, my job let us out an hour early yesterday which was just enough time for me to get to the beauty supply store I frequent. I'm on a strict no-buy, but I needed more Seche Vite (which I don't count as polish, but a necessity). At the check out counter this bottle caught my eye from way down at the other end.
Essie's website describes Stroke of Brilliance as 'platinum sparks' and states that it serves as a multi-dimensional top coat. The glitter in Stroke of Brilliance is blue, and I would describe it as a steel blue/dark periwinkle. It's made up of round micro glitter and medium hex glitter in a clear base. The formula was easy to work with and I found it to be dense enough where I only needed one coat to achieve the look I wanted.
For the swatches below I used two coats of Essie Smooth Sailing, one coat of Stroke of Brilliance and topped it with a coat of Seche Vite. Smooth Sailing did not photograph color accurate once I added the glitter top coat (aka my camera hates me lol). In person Smooth Sailing looks more blue and less purple.
I'm beyond impressed with Stroke of Brilliance. I also used my swatch sticks to come up with some layering combinations to see how this would work. I wasn't sure about a few of the combos I picked, but I loved each and every one of them in the end. For the swatch sticks I used white (Jordana White), black (Sinful black), a blue with gray undertones (China Glaze Sea Spray), yellow (China Glaze Lemon Fizz) and a pink (China Glaze Shocking Pink).
All swatch sticks show 2 coats of the base color and 1 coat of Stroke of Brilliance (no top coat)
If you are a glitter fan I would say this is a must have. The color is gorgeous and the formula is easy to work with. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the Essie bottle shape and I find their brush to be the perfect size.
Is anyone planning on picking this up??
I didn't think I'd like this but your swatches make me want to pick som up!
ReplyDeleteI love their bottle shape, too. I am a big fan of square bottles.
ReplyDeleteI am really tired of chunky, rough glitters so I did not pick this one or the pink one from Lux Effects up. I love a sheer, super fine 'effect' that is more flakie than glitter because they come off easier than a true glitter. Despite it's not my thing (right now)...your swatches look great. I am into wearing and enjoying one shade polish jobs right now for some real clear, clean mani/pedis this spring summer.
ReplyDeleteI already have Sephora Indi-go with the flow, I'm afraid they might be dupey. I love your swatches!!
ReplyDeleteLove the swatches. Really shows what you can do with the glitter.
ReplyDeleteI have been on the hunt for this ever since the first media shot was put out and I have found it no where! I'm pretty sure I've checked every single Walgreens in Las Vegas. *Frustration!* >.< lol Hopefully I'll find it soon.
ReplyDeleteLooks beautiful! I need to find this one!
ReplyDeleteI have not found it in person yet but I may need to start looking harder - this is beautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat choice to layer it over Smooth Sailing!
ReplyDeleteI do plan on picking it up. It looks great layered over everything!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous! I think I might find this one hard to resist.
ReplyDeleteLovely!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I neeeeed!
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