Sinful Colors Fig

I believe that Fig is part of Sinful Colors permanent line, although it apparently has been promoted and re-promoted over the years in various collections. It is a medium dark red-leaning purple, or plum color with fuchsia shimmer. The shimmer viewed through the fairly well-pigmented base comes through mostly as a tone-on-tone royal purple, giving the polish a nice dimensionality with a certain dreamy quality. It's a pretty polish if you can get it to apply well.

The problem comes in part with the consistency of the polish, which is very liquid with an awkward sort of viscosity that makes the polish want to cling to the brush and itself rather than your nail. Successful application depends a lot on how you load the brush. And therein lies the other part of the problem. 

I don't particularly care for Sinful Colors' brush. It's of good size but the bristles seem to lack flexibility and tend to splay outward at the tip. The bushy tip makes accuracy a little dicey, and the stiff bristles don't seem to want to fan out generously over the nail. Even edges are generally a matter of finessing brush flair as you draw it up from the cuticle. But this brush is not easily finessed, and either the outward side of the brush seems to run out of polish right about the time you get to where the free edge starts or it is overloaded with polish and pools along your edge.

For me, application of Fig was a tedious hit or miss deal nail by nail. And by miss, I mean pooling around the edges and swipage of skin around the free edge as well. My largest frustration was in creating a balanced even shape with the polish on the nail. I've always had trouble with this, but it seemed especially difficult with Fig. Fig is not the best self-leveler I've ever experienced either. I did a very thin (for me) first coat and got ok coverage with a few light streaks. The pigmentation in Fig is pretty good so everything evened out during the second, thicker coat and I left it at that. Fig dries naturally in good time (if the layer is thin) to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Fig over treatment and base coat with a topcoat of Seche Vite to accelerate the drying process, add gloss and boost the color.

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

Sinful Colors Fig

This medium-dark purple really blossoms in the sun when the shimmer comes into force. In the shade and in diffuse light it has a glow and dimensionality that a creme might lack. As far as my application issues go, I'd certainly like Fig more if it were less troublesome to apply. But it is still a pretty color and is one of the only medium plum polishes in my collection, so it has a place with me for that fact alone. 

For the record, I redid this manicure using two thin coats to see if there was an acclimation curve and indeed there was, the second mani went a lot better than the first although there were still a few issues with the lack of self-leveling. I've had excellent experiences with Sinful Colors cremes, so maybe it's just the shimmer formula that disagrees with me.

love,
Aunt Liz