Island Girl Hawaiian Magic

I love taupe.  There are so many different shades of taupe.  There's purple taupe, grey taupe, dark taupe, light taupe, medium taupe, and more.  Have you ever looked at the spelling of a word so much that it starts to look strange?  That's how taupe is looking to me right now.

Anyway, I think my favorite type of taupe is purple taupe and that's exactly how I'd describe Island Girl Hawaiian Magic.  This polish is in the same family as Sephora by OPI Metro Chic except it's much darker.  When I originally bought this I thought "Hmmm.  That doesn't look so impressive," but I bought it anyway since I could see there was something special to it.

I am so glad I got this since it's such a great color for fall and winter.

I used three coats for this manicure and honestly, I wasn't too impressed with the formula.  It was streaky and I had to be really careful to avoid cuticle drag.  The brush was a bit wonky as well so I had a little trouble controlling the polish.  It also isn't very shiny, but I added a coat of Seche Vite to bring out the shine.  You'd think that all that trouble would make this one not worth it, but I think it is.  I am definitely digging this polish big time.

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Island Girl Hawaiian Color

I love autumn, Halloween is my favorite holiday, and I eagerly await apple season for the honeycrisp apples.  I love foods that remind me of fall like pumpkin pie, fun size candy bars, and hearty soups.  Oh, and Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks.  I recently had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season (it's still really hot out here so I had it blended into a Frappuccino) and I wanted a manicure to go along with the feeling of autumn.

I decided to go with Island Girl Hawaiian Color, which is a coppery orange glitter suspended in a deep, reddish brown jelly base.  There are two sizes of glitter in this polish.  Some of the glitter is square and the rest is hex.  In the bottle, the hex glitter looks lighter in color than the square glitter, but I think all the glitter looks the same color on the nail.

I only needed two coats for this manicure.  If I'd used slightly thicker coats, I could have gotten away with a single coat.  The formula was pretty good.  It didn't stick out as stellar in my book, but it certainly isn't bad.  The brush was a little wonky, though.

I used two thick coats of Seche Vite since glitter polishes tend to be a bit bumpy.  I got a sunny, close-up picture for you to see the glitter better.

This polish reminds me of autumn.  Although, when I went outside to take pictures of it, I instantly noticed that one of my neighbors was outside grilling, which was a huge reminder that it's still summer here so I'll have to wait a bit before needing to switch on the heat and setting the clocks back for Daylight Savings.

Anyway, this polish really reminds me of China Glaze Fortune Teller.  I haven't got any comparison pictures yet, but I dug out my Fortune Teller and from just observing the polishes in their bottles I can tell you that Fortune Teller's base is darker since it's black and not brown like this Island Girl polish.  The glitter is a little less dense in Fortune Teller and the hex glitter isn't quite as big in the Island Girl polish.  I'll do a proper comparison of these two sometime in the future if anyone is interested.

I also decided to make this manicure matte since I think that glitters look pretty awesome when they are matte.  I used one thin coat of Essie Matte About You for this look.

This look really reminds me of lava!  Here's a close up for you.

Island Girl polishes are sold in ABC Stores which are located mainly in Hawaii.  There are a few locations in Las Vegas, Guam, and Saipan so these are a little difficult to get ahold of.  I did notice that they have a website and they do have some of their polishes up for sale in sets so you may want to check that out.

I hope you enjoyed my post!

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