Ciaté - Iced Frappe

Taupe creme 

I have a bunch of these Ciaté mini bottles, mostly from the Ciaté advent calendars that seem to have become a standard offering from the brand and which usually appear in TK Maxx at some point.  This is the first of the mini's I've shown.

The bottles are 5ml, pretty standard for a mini and rather than the fabric bow attached to the full size bottles, these have a bow printed on the label.

Iced Frappe is a lovely soft milky taupe/mushroom shade, quite pale for a taupe and with a hint of purple.

Taupe's are definitely one of my favourite colour groups so I like this very much.

Application was fine, I didn't have any issues with the mini brush or bottle.

Swatches shown are 2 coats, no top coat but you can see it's pretty glossy even without top coat.

Ciaté - Skinny Jeans

Mid blue creme  

Wowser!


Skinny Jeans is a mid blue creme with an awesome formula and application - this was almost a one-coat-wonder and great shine too.

Swatch shown is 2 coats, no top coat as usual.

And for a super pigmented blue - no smurf nails on removal - result!

Ciaté - Speed Dial

Bright tangerine orange creme  

Speed Dial is a fabulous bright orange creme, the colour is fab and it has a great shiny finish.


Swatch show is 3 coats but sadly  I still have some vnl.

Application and formula are ok, nothing special.  Ultimately I think this is a polish that looks better in the swatch than it is in reality....

And I think this is the first Ciaté I've shown that has the new branding - 'paint pots' got a lot smaller and Ciaté is a lot bigger and now echoes the fabric bow with a bow as the dot of the 'i'

Compare with the old bottle

Ciaté - Vintage

Mid grey creme   

Blimey, over 3 years ago I showed you a comparison swatch that featured Ciaté's Vintage and here I am, finally showing the swatches for that polish!

That probably tells you all you need to know about how many unpublished swatch pictures I have !

Vintage is a lovely mid grey creme.

Application and pigmentation were great on this one and look at that shine!

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

I know Ciaté aren't the best loved brand after their mishandling of the whole caviar/fish-egg mani debacle but they do make some fine nail polish

Ciaté - Sharp Tailoring

Warm grey with secret shimmer 

A blast from the past this one, I've shown a fair few of my Ciaté Paint Pots collection before but this one got missed for some reason

So here is Sharp Tailoring

Sharp Tailoring is a warm grey with a white gold secret shimmer.


It's an unusual colour/shimmer combination,  at first I thought it might be similar to Zoya Harley but as you can see from the comparison...

...Sharp Tailoring is much warmer and the shimmer is less pronounced.

Swatch shown is 2 coats, with no topcoat.

Application, brush and formula were all good.

I'm a fan of grey polish anyhow but this is a clever twist on regular grey, being warmer, with perhaps even a nod to the 'greige' trend of old (that was probably current when this was released) and an unusual secret shimmer.

Overall, a complete win for me, what you you gals think?

Ciaté - Super Poke

Bright yellow creme

Another old swatch,  Super Poke from Ciaté. 

Super Poke is a slightly milky, softened mid yellow creme.

Unfortunately like all yellows it wasn't the easiest to work with and this is 4 coats and I can still see a hint of VNL.  But on the plus side it doesn't look *too bad* with my skintone.

Ciaté - Camilla

Purple duochrome with gold shimmer







Gorgeous purple/mauve duochrome with gold shimmer

Swatch is 2 coats with no top coat. Application and formula were good.

I spotted what I presume are older Ciaté Paint Pot polishes on a cheap beauty/fragrance site, FrangranceDirect for a bargaintastic 99p.

When I opened the bottle I was worried it was going to be thin & sheer but not!

Now they may not have the cute and elegent be-ribboned bottles of current Ciatés but check out that duochrome! The current Ciaté range has some stunning cremes but they should definitely pull this one out of the vault!

All in all a complete win

Ciate - Superficial

Dark Teal creme

One of the first Ciaté Paint Pots I got and it's a stunner. I don't think this is from a particular collection - I got it as part of a hat box deal.





Superficial is a gorgeous, deep teal creme. Application, brush and opacity were all great and of course the bottle is a cutie.

This is 2 coats, no top coat.

This colour, while stunning, is not particularly unique - check out my previous Teal comparison post for details. I should probably do another comparison with RBL Teal included too.

Ciaté - Main Stage

This is my second polish from Ciaté's S/S 2010 collection, Festival Fever. Although checking the blog I haven't posted Talent Scout yet - doh, although it does feature as a comparison here

This is Main Stage, a cool-toned slightly dusky pink creme



This is 2 coats with no top coat. It's a pretty colour but, like most pink cremes, makes me feel all Betty Draper elegant rather than Festival grunge!

Festival Fever is a collection of 6 polishes themed around music festivals. The others are Access All Areas (Coral), Ditch the Heels (Mint Green), Fun Fair (Lilac) and Headliner (Turquoise blue).

Ciaté polishes retail for £9 from Ciaté or ASOS and the Festival Fever collection is still widely available.

This was sent to me for review by the lovely Rachel

Catrice- Purposely Purple

Next up is Purposely Purple, again from the Expect the Unexpected LE Collection

 
It's a mid purple creme, not massively unique but nice all the same.
This is 2 coats, no top coat. Again the formula was great and super opaque.


I thought this could be pretty dupey so I did a quick & dirty comparison with Ciate Talent Scout and Nails Inc Duchess Street.


l-r Talent Scout, Duchess Street, Purposely Purple, Purposely Purple

IRL Talent Scout is close but slightly lighter & pinker, Duchess Street is darker.

Ciaté - Sugared Almonds

Gawd, sorry gals - I've been away too long. After the fab holiday in France, the much less fab tummy bug from hell (tip - don't swallow the river water!) followed by kitchen painting, crappy internet speeds and back to work I haven't had time to swatch or post.

So here's an old swatch, another from my small but perfectly formed Ciaté Paint Pots collection. This is Sugared Almonds.



Sugared Almonds is a pinky/peachish nude. This colour reminds me of vintage silk lingerie, it has a very elegant 40's feel to it and I really like it. Which of course is only emphaised by the cute vintage-style bottles.

It's not quite manequin hands on me but a pretty, fresh nude. Love it.

Application was good and this was 3 coats.

Ciaté retail for £9

Ciaté - Cookies & Cream

Here's another from the Candy Couture collection from last summer.

This is Cookies & Cream, an unusual take on the nude/grey look. I think Ciaté described it as pastel grey but it's definitely got a hint of taupe/nude in there too although it's mostly grey.



Apologies for the terrible swatch - by the looks of this I must've been swatching something blue and glittery that didn't come off very well!

Ciaté - Fruity Pops

Next up is Fruity Pops - love that name!



Fruity pops is an orange toned coral creme - a very summery colour in my book.

Again this is 3 coats and despite it not being as pale as Lemon Sherbert it was still a bit tricky to work with - mostly caused by polish drag on the second and third coats.

So again this was 3 coats to get an even coverage, not terrible but 2 is better, right?!

This, like Lemon Sherbert, was from the Summer 2009 collection, Candy Couture.

Lemon Sherbert - Ciaté

As my nails still haven't recovered from packing and moving and I'm sooooo behind with blogging I thought I'd post some old pics, but don't worry they're not ones I've posted before just ones I took a long time ago when I had nails!

I thought I'd start with some Ciaté

First up is Lemon Sherbert



It's a pale yellow creme, with the problems you'd expect from that. This was 3 coats and it was, like most yellow cremes, a bit of a challenge to work with.

As expected it doesn't look great with my skintone, a bit like yellow tippex really.... ah well.

Ciate Refresher

 It's been mostly sunny and bright but crisp here in the UK today, well at least the part where I am, and this polish is bright and crisp too.

Mind you I've been stuck in an office all day, but I can't complain too much as our offices overlook the river Thames, all the trees are in bud or bloom so it's actually quite lovely, if somewhat distracting.  Not as bad as in the summer when all the party boats come past....



Anyhow, on to the polish - this is Refresher by Ciaté, a pale powder blue hint of periwinkle.

It was a bit tricky to work with, streaky (not uncommon with pastel cremes) and I had to be careful with polish drag.  This is 3 coats which isn't too bad and I love the finished effect.

The name made me think of Refresher sweets from my childhood but I was curious as I didn't remember them having blue sweets, they were certainly pastel but green, pink and orange or yellow.  But a quick search on google turned up another sweet called Refreshers, a chewy sweet, whose background colour looks very similar to this!

Green, Green Grass of Home

Continuing with green week, I thought I'd take a walk on the bright side

This is Mojito from Ciate Paint Pots



It's a bright, but not acid, mid green creme. It was pretty sheer, this is four coats, not something I'd usually do but it's such a fun colour.

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and I'm off out to a gig in the evening; of course my mani will be green, but which one?

At the moment I'm torn between Illamasqua Rampage and RBL Orbis non Sufficit, I love Rampage but haven't worn ONS before - decisions, decisions

Anne of Green Gables

Next up in Green week is Ciaté Apples & Custard, part of Ciaté's Spring/Summer 2009 Candy Couture collection.

Apples & Custard is a gorgeous dusky mid green creme and to my mind looks nothing like apples & custard and more like the first edition cover of Anne of Green Gables, hence this blog post title.



This is 2 coats in the shade.

This is another that is rumoured to be dupey to Chanel's Jade but as I don't have that I can't really comment.

Ciaté's Candy Couture collection was actually a great collection and I think I have all of them so watch out for future non-green swatches from this collection

Models Own - Part II

Second up is the reason I went looking for Models Own in the first place, a grey creme, and a very fine one it is too.


Shade


Weak sun

It's called Moody Grey and is a dark grey creme with a slight airforce blue leaning.

Formula is good, it's fairly thin, but easy to work with and very opaque, this was nearly a one-coat-wonder, 2 coats shown here.

I really like this colour, it completely works with my skintone and I love that it's dark and edgy but not harsh like black can be.

It's not the most unique colour though, it was my first grey creme but I've got a feeling it's not dissimilar to Barry M Grey and I did a comparison swatch with Ciaté Vintage and they're pretty dupey


This is vintage on index and ring and Moody Grey on middle and little finger.

There is a slight difference, vintage is ever so slightly lighter but you've really got to look hard. And oddly the formula & application were near identical too.

But as Ciaté is more spenny I'd go for the Models Own!

Teal Creme Comparisons

After being inspired by the lovely Nikki's review of Totally Teal from Boots No7 I got hold of a bottle for myself.

It's a gorgeous teal creme but while swatching it I had a sense of deja vu, didn't I have another colour that was very similar?

So I dug out some bottles and did a quick comparison. First up, the bottle shot
 
l-r No7 Totally Teal, Illamasqua Muse, Nails Inc Portland Place and Ciaté Paint Pots in Superficial

They're all the same colour family, but Muse looks a bit lighter

 
 
On the nail it's the same story, Muse is significantly different and lighter. As for the other three, Totally Teal (index) and Superficial (pinkie) look very dupey. Portland Place is greener and more jellyish although this was more visible IRL. This was 2 coats of each, but Portland Place was the least opaque.

I left the skittles on overnight and the next day remembered the Nails Inc Hills collection had a similar colour, Rodeo Drive.

So I replaced Muse with Rodeo Drive (and freshened up the others)

 

So now l-r is Totally Teal, Rodeo Drive, Portland Place and Superficial

Rodeo Drive is more dupey than Muse but is slightly more navy toned. The closest dupes are still Totally Teal and Superficial although in these pics Superficial looks a tad darker - not much in it though!

So I probably don't need both. Price wise they're not worlds apart, the RRP for Ciaté Paint Pots is probably more at £9 compared with No7 at £6.25 but I got mine in a deal and didn't pay that much.

Update: Just found another comparison for Superficial on Parokeets site: Essence – Meet You In Budapest vs. Ciate Paint Pots – Superficial

ASOS Paint Pots by Ciaté

I spotted these new polishes while browsing on ASOS (always a dangerous activity!) I've got quite a selection of the original Ciaté paint pots so of course I couldn't resist trying one of these

 
 
I picked Mary-Kate, a black creme with gold shimmer (and a touch of blue/pink shimmer too)

Application was good but this is one of those polishes that eats topcoat! This is 2 coats of polish and 3 coats of Seche Vite and it's still not madly glossy!

I like the fact that they'e carried the sweet bottle bow across to this line too.

 
Click the pic for a bigger version to see the shimmer.

Overall I really liked this polish.

Anyone else tried any of these?