Revlon Royal + Essie Shine of the Times

Revlon Royal topped with 1 coat of Essie Shine of the Times

This manicure was SO BEAUTIFUL! I kept it on for this whole week! The dark, vibrant blue crelly of Royal perfectly complimented and shown off what flakie polishes like Shine of the Times are known for: green, red, orange, and yellow (and intermediate colors too!) flashes at various angles. Because Royal is a dark color, the flakies are not hard to discern and the color flashes are very prominent. I loved looking at my hands and seeing the colors reflect.

This manicure lasted the whole week with very minor wear; I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Strengthener as my base and top coat. It really depends on your body chemistry because certain top coats that work for others tend to chip off in flakes on me.

And here are some gorgeous close-ups...

The green shift is much more prominent in real-life, but red, orange, and yellow are the dominant colors. The camera I used just did not want to cooperate with this manicure (too beautiful, maybe?) and I could not get any decent pictures of how the manicure really looks. You have to see it in real life to see its beauty!


And here is a swatch of Revlon Royal...

Revlon Royal

Just look at it! Royal is soooo beautiful. It is a vibrant blue creme jelly and took 2 coats to become opaque. Because it is jelly-like, there is a little visible nail line. It is not very noticeable because the polish is dark enough to hide a lot of it. The formula was alright; the polish was a bit hard to control and was runny. When it dried, there was a little bubbling. The polish dried slower than Revlon Mistletoe though. However, I did not experience any thickening of the polish like I did with my first purchase of Revlon Jaded (also part of the Top Speed line). I got it a couple years ago, when the line was still pretty new so I assume Revlon improved its formula (thank goodness!). Let's hope Royal does not separate as quickly as Jaded!

Royal is available wherever Revlon polishes are sold. Shine of the Times, however, is much harder to find. It was released as part of Essie's Luxeffects Collection that had people going WILD! As far as I know you can still get Shine of the Times from e-tailers such as transdesign.com. There are also many polishes similar/the same as Shine of the Times, like Nubar 2010 (online on bynubar.com as far as I know) and Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure 2010 version (released in a 2010 collection and impossible  to find except on maybe ebay). Be careful! Sally Hansen reused Hidden Treasure to name a recent polish that is similar to Sally Hansen Ring My Shell.

I hope you guys enjoy the weekend! (I will be sleeping and studying for my next bio exam... x__x) I got some VERY good and exciting e-mail today from TOMS: I won a bottle of Essie Barefoot in Blue! I am SO excited to receive it and I want to swatch it as soon as it gets here! Hopefully, it ships to the right place because I remember the address line was so small...

See you guys on the other side of the day!

- M