SpaRitual Circle of Life

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I finally removed my manicure from last Thursday (more about that at the end), and today I got to try out SpaRitual Circle of Life from their Truth Collection for Spring 2011.  This is a really fantastic collection, but unfortunately, I don't have any press info on it.  A while back, there was a change in PR for SpaRitual, and I seem to have fallen off of their radar for now, so I'm winging this one.

The Truth Collection consists of six cremes, some washed out pastel, some medium pastel, and some vibrant, so even though they all have the same finish there's a good bit of variety.  I chose to try Circle of Life, an amazingly vivid, clear, blue, because I'm only wearing this manicure for a day.  My reasoning was that in my experience, shades as vivid as Circle of Life are often a huge hassle to get as opaque as I like, so I figured I'd two-coat this one and I could live with whatever the result was for one day.  The happy surprise was that it's perfect in two coats, so I'm really thrilled with it.

SpaRitual Circle of Life Nail Polish, Two Coats

I see a piece of felt lint on my index finger, sorry about that.  We can just ignore the lint and the imperfect application for a moment to revel in the glory that is SpaRitual Circle of Life, can't we?

As for application, it was good, nothing really noteworthy.  My hands were on the shaky side when I applied it, so user error is the cause of imperfections.  The dry time was markedly better than average, which is good news for me.  I think Circle of Life is crying out for Konad as loudly as it can, and the faster a base color for that dries, the better.

So that's the new manicure .  I mentioned that I planned to see how much life I could get out of Essie Ruby Slippers topped with Konad top coat and Poshe, and it was seriously tough.  I've been very hard on my nails, especially this morning, and it held up.  When I say I'm hard on my nails, it's because sometimes all of my suggestions regarding protecting them goes straight out the window.  I know from experience, not just from reading tips, that simple things like wearing gloves to can clean make the difference between a break and no break, but somehow there are still days when that falls squarely into the Take My Advice, I'm Not Using It category.  Today was one of those days, and I scrubbed the bathtub, shower, sinks, etc., without gloves.  I felt what I thought was a tiny chip on my ring finger, so it was time to remove it.  As it turned out, I took a tiny chip out of my nail, and the polish didn't chip at all.  Here it is right before removal, at the beginning of Day 5.

Busted Up Ol' Manicure

See the chip?  The polish around it stayed perfect even through a shower and hair washing after the cleaning.  Not bad!  Truthfully, I was a little scared to remove this one, but it came off just like a non-glitter polish.  Getting through all the top coat was harder than getting the glitter off.  I think Konad top coat under quick dry is going to be my new way to protect a mani I want to stay good for a long time.

That's the scoop for now, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!