Saturday, June 7, 2014

CrowsToes 9 Realms Collection

Hi everyone! This is a post that has been a few weeks in the making! I finally have swatches of the CrowsToes 9 Realms Collection for you today (minus two, Midgard and Asgard). This collection is EPIC! Without further ado, here is an extremely pic heavy post for you!

Alfheim (2 coats) is a pale sage green linear holographic polish with blue shimmer. The blue shimmer is a little camera shy, but really apparent in real life. Formula on this was nice and perfectly opaque in 2 coats.







Huginn & Muninn (3 thin coats) has a blue jelly base filled with color shifting shimmer that shifts from green to purple. This polish gets perfectly opaque on its own with no need for a base color. I LOVE the color shift that is going on in this polish and it was very apparent in real life.





Bifrost (1 coat over L.A. Girl Black Illusion) has a clear base packed with multicolored fine holographic glitter. This is my dream polish! I actually tried to make something similar to this before, but some of my glitters bled and ruined it. I really like mulitcolored glitters against a dark base because it really makes the colors stand out, so I layered 1 coat over black. Formula was very nice and spread smoothly and evenly. You can see how opaque it is at one coat, so you can build it up easily on its own if you want to.





The next 3 polishes all have color shifting bases + color shifting glittters. I'm going to say the same thing about all 3 of the polishes: they all get opaque on their own really easily in 2-3 coats, but I prefer to layer them. I like the way that 1 coat over a similar base looks vs 2-3 coats on their own. The color shifting base is very opaque so it completely covers your base color in one coat and the glitters all shine through nicely. The reason I layer them over similar base colors instead of black (and I do this with all of my color shifters) is so that you don't have to be as careful around the edges as you do with black (as in, if you aren't careful with a black base there can be a rim of black around your nail where you didn't cover it completely with the multichrome polish). This is my lazy take on layering multichromes, and I've just preferred to do it that way for ages. 

Vanaheim (1 coat over CK Emerald Green) has a color shifting base with color shifting glitters that shift from green/gold/taupe/purple. Formula was the same for all three of these polishes (as I mentioned above) and spreads smoothly and easily.




Nidaveillir (1 coat over Zoya Ibiza) has a color shifting base with color shifting glitters that shift from teal/magenta/purple with even a flash of gold. The teal shift is extremely hard to capture on my camera and always seems to appear more blue.







Muspelheim (1 coat over Barry M Vivid Purple) has a color shifting base with color shifting glitters that shift from bluish purple to red to orange. with even a flash of gold. I think this shift is my favorite!




Jotunheim (3 coats thin) is a grape purple jelly filled with medium and small gold glitter. Formula was great and spread smoothly and evenly on the nail. This polish is one of my favorites (which I knew it would be as soon as I saw the first pictures of it.) 







Svartalfhiem (2 coats over Misa Pour Me Something Tall and Strong.) This polish looks like some distant, cold galaxy put into a bottle. It has an inky blue jelly base packed with gunmetal glitter of different sizes and shapes, sapphire hexes, and tiny holographic glitters that sparkle like stars in the night sky. This polish would build up to opacity on its own, but since it is so packed with glitter I preferred to layer it over a dark blue jelly so that the glitter wouldn't be so thick. This one does require a thicker topcoat to smooth it out (I used Essence Gel-Look Topcoat + NYC Grand Central Station), but the final space-y effect is worth it.






Niflheim (3 thin coats) has a black jelly base loaded with purple shimmer and scattered gunmetal microglitters. The shimmer in this polish is awesome and the formula was fantastic. This is one of the more subtle polishes in the collection, but not one that you want to overlook.




Helheim (2 coats over black) has a black jelly base with purple, bronze, and gunmetal metallic flakies. This is such a unique polish and I adore the gorgeous combination of flakies in it. The polish spread smoothly and easily and the flakes distributed well. You can wear it on its own, but I preferred to layer it over black. I think it is so appropriate that this dark and mysterious polish represents the "underworld" of Norse Mythology.





Was I kidding when I said this collection was epic? All of these polishes are amazing in their own unique way.

CrowsToes polishes are available at Llarowe (US), Overall Beauty (US), Atouts Charme (France),Maria Gastadeira (Brazil), Norway Nails (Norway), Femme Fatale Cosmetics (Australia), and Rainbow Connnection (UK). Be sure to follow CrowsToes on Facebook and Instagram as well as on creator Lauri's Blog for all updates and details about new collections.

*Most of the products in this post were purchased by me, a few were from the maker*

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful swatches!! I picked up Jotunheim and Vanaheim when the collection launched, but after seeing your swatches, I think I'm going to have to pick up more! I especially need Svartalfhiem and the holos - gorgeous!!!

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  2. The collection is epic and so is your swatching! Thank you so much for the amazing photos of your lovely nails!

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