Naturistics — Crystal Blue Pearl

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My bottle of Naturistics Crystal Blue Pearl has a most chilling copyright date on it. 1998. The current year is 2012.

After lusting after Essie Starry Starry Night for ages, I finally had its #1 dupe in my clutches.

I noticed immediately that the texture was a little gummy — which is to be expected, considering its age. I used a few cautious drops of thinner and hoped for the best. Next, I applied three coats to achieve the layered glitter effect that jelly formulas are known for.

This pictures out of focus but does a blurry job of showing you the various color of pale to deep blue sparkles that the layering yields.

I did get a lot of compliments, but I did not feel the sense of nirvana I’d been hoping for. Crystal Blue Pearl is a gorgeous color, it sparkles like magic & diamonds and yet... it hasn't replaced my number one favorite, or even unseat any of my top five, to be frank.

And thus, I learned a few valuable lessons.

  1. Just because a color is VHTF and a lemming for many polish lovers… doesn’t mean it’ll be your favorite.
  2. Don’t shell out a ton of cash for a lemming you’ve never seen in real life. I'd been drooling over beautiful shots of SSN that I'd seen online. But in reality, I found SSN to be kind of meh. Sure, in bright sunlight, it truly was a sparkler. But I have many other personal favorites that I value much more highly than SSN, so I'm glad it only cost me $4 plus tip! I shudder to imagine my disappointment if I'd done something insane like splurged on a three-figure eBay auction for Starry Starry Night.
  3. Know your limits. To that point, there is a limit to what I am willing to spend on a bottle of polish, based on principle alone. That figure, for me, is $26... aka the cost of Chanel. And even then, that's a once-a-year splurge. Knowing that $26 is my ceiling enables me to watch the eBay polish madness as a voyeur.

So what do you guys think? Have you ever paid a wild amount for a polish that you had to have — and was it worth it to you?

xxo, GLOSS