I freaked. Must. Have.
But I couldn't really find much ~out there~ on the brand. A small handful of blog posts. No where were there extensive swatches or extensive reviews.
I went to the Cetuem website and went nuts. At one point there were over 20 polishes I wanted. They had such gorgeous colors! But they were so hard to see in those tiny bottle pics (I ended up finding larger ones on Amazon.co.uk). I posted on MUA looking for input, a few of us went back and forth excitedly. I know at least 3 people ended up doing fairly substantial hauls.
I was one of them. They were $15 bucks a pop and I bought 7, but at least shipping was free (shipped from the UK)... it's not anymore.
I got them in my hot little hands soon after and was slightly disappointed by the reality of the colors (as opposed to what I imagined them to be). But still optimistic. 191 looked insane in the membrane.
Since then, over the past month, I have tried them all as NOTDs. Today I share swatches (and quick reviews).
Overall? For the money, they fucking suck. Sorry. Sawree. Forgive Me.
Do you like polishes to be well pigmented? Yes? Don't buy Cetuems.
Do you like nice brushes (or at least ones that spread out well when pressed against your nail)? Yes? Don't buy Cetuems.
Do you care if something is B3F? Yes? Don't buy Cetuems.
Do you like your polishes to have longevity? Yes? Don't buy Cetuems.
Does it drive you crazy when the square brush cap doesn't line up with the bottle? Yes? Don't buy Cetuems.
Do you prefer polishes that have ballz in them? Yes? Don't buy Cetuems.
Ok to be fair, a plus - The dry time for all but one of these was pretty good. So there you go. Further, their duochrome really is very impressive.
216
(4 coats)
Look at the bottle. See how it looks pinker half way down? That's the pigment sinking to the bottom (after several rounds of vigorous shakes). Not a big deal if these pricey polishes came with ballz. But they don't. And a couple of them separated pretty badly in a matter of weeks.
The duochrome here is a magenta-rust-olive. Pretty strong and impressive effect. If you like duochromes a lot (and own the very necessary ballz), then you would do well to pick up a couple. They have many duochrome-y options.
119
(2 coats)
This is a vampy red with gold shimmer. Probably one of the classiest colors I own lol. Despite requiring the least number of coats, this one was the most irritating. It had 0 longevity. It wouldn't dry and had already worn off my tips before I got to work.
That photo was taken the morning after I painted my nails! WTF, did I type a novel in my sleep? It was dentable all day too. Beh.
76
(3 coats)
The best formula of the bunch was this creme. It wasn't the color I was expecting, unfortunately. It applied very smoothly and had that jelly/creme finish thing going on where it needs multiple coats but looks wonderfully glossy. It dried lightening fast too. I don't hate this one.
28
(3 coats)
Having learned my lesson w/ 119, I wrapped my tips. Still no dice. It actually looks like it might be tip pull on the top finger (which wouldn't necessarily be the polishes fault). But the ring (center) finger is distinctly suffering from tip wear and we're not even 10 hours away from application, and I slept for most of that time.
169
(4 coats)
I so wanted this one to be awesome. The description on the website said it was metallic. A metallic teal?? Heavens!
Sadly it wasn't metallic, it was just really shimmer-y (and needed an absurd number of coats given the type of polish).
108
(2 coats)
To get this one to apply well you have to use super thick coats (the hexes are suspended in a gel). If they're too thin, the glitter gets caught on itself and you get a bare nail with an ugly clump of glitter. Sadly, this means you can't get this one to build to opacity. Even two thick-ass coats was really pushing it.
Color is awesome on this one though.
191
(4 coats)
Look at all that gold shimmer hanging out at the bottom of the bottle! That is after vigorous shaking.
This one was the only one that ended up not disappointing me in some way. In fact, I complain about the separation, but with less gold shimmer interspersed throughout, I think it looks even better than when I first wore it as a mani.
It's an awesome blue jelly, with gold and green shimmer. Pretty neat effect but very see-through. Would definitely layer with this one.
Sighhh that's it. No more. Probably never again.
