Cult Nails Captivated

By now, most of you have probably heard of Cult Nails, the nail polish company started by Maria, the blogger at R3 Daily. The brand's second collection came out this spring, and as soon as I saw the first swatches of Captivated, I knew I had to have it. Captivated has a sheer coral base with lots of fiery glitter. It's best suited for layering, but first I wanted to try it on its own. This is four coats with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

 outdoors, cloudy

outdoors, cloudy

I wish I could've taken pictures of Captivated in the sunlight, but the sun has been very fickle for the past couple of days. As far as the formula, Captivated was a bit thick, but easy to apply, and I didn't have trouble controlling the brush. I thought the cylindrical bottle might be a little difficult to handle, but I didn't have any problems. The only thing that bothered me is that after my full manicure, I could already see that the line of polish had gone down. I guess I might have to get a backup bottle! 

After wearing Captivated on its own for most of the day, I started wondering what it would look like with crackle on top. I tried it Sally Hansen Cherry Smash on my thumbnail, but it's so sheer and close to Captivated's color that it didn't look very distinctive. Instead, I decided to use Sally Hansen Antiqued Gold, and I really like the result.

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

 outdoors, cloudy

outdoors, artificial light

As you saw if you read Tuesday's haul post, I also purchased Let Me Fly, Iconic, and Living Water, and I'm trying Let Me Fly next. Actually, I'm applying it as I write this post, and it's really lovely so far.

You can purchase Cult Nails polishes here for $10 each. It's more than I normally pay for nail polish, but I definitely think they're worth it. As a huge bookworm, I feel it's the equivalent of paying a little more for a book at a local indie bookshop rather than buying it cheap at one of the big block stores - but in this case, you can't get the product anywhere else!

P.S. Sorry for the greater-than-usual amount of pictures in this post. I was too captivated (ha, ha) to leave any out!