Application was lovely. The consistency of Cocoa & Cardis is fluid, creamy and smooth, with a buttery glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. This is a user-friendly polish, on the thinner side but not runny, with a well-balanced viscosity for painting that is easy to manipulate with Smitten's flattened flexible brush. Pigmentation is excellent with completely even opaque coverage in two coats. Cleanup is easy and straightforward. Cocoa & Cardis dries naturally in very good time to a silky smooth, slightly flat finish that wants a glossy topcoat to look its best. Topcoat does not diminish the holographic properties of the polish in any way.
Photos show two coats of Cocoa & Cardis over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
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| Smitten Polish Cocoa & Cardis |
The cool sleek chocolate brown of Cocoa & Cardis is very different from the golden reddish brown of Seasonal Lattes from the Fall 2014 collection, which is the other brown holo from Smitten that I own. The former has more of a creme sort of base, while the base of Seasonal Lattes has a bit of crelly-ish translucence to it. Creator Noelie once again included a brown from the holo genre in this year's fall collection, What a Punny Autumn, this time a java-hued jelly-based microglitter loaded with holographic microglitters in orange and copper called Can You BeLeaf These Puns. From what I've seen, this brown falls somewhere between the relatively cool-toned Cocoa & Cardis and the warmth of Seasonal Lattes. Noelie is justly famous for her microglitters, so I may just have to snag this one!
Cocoa & Cardis is long discontinued, but I was able to score my bottle on StorEnvy.com, which isn't as enjoyable a place to search for older indies as it used to be. Shall I rant? Too many folks out to make a buck rather than simply destashing from their personal collections. There's even a seller, who seems to buy every new limited edition release possible, offering polish DECANTS. Maybe this is a good thing for those who just want to try out a polish, who would otherwise buy minis of these polishes. But I've never cottoned to minis. I like a full-size bottle of polish with a full-size brush, thank you. Nail polish decants -- it's just kind of hinky and smacks of profiteering. Not to mention how the profuse decant listings clutter up what used to be a reasonably simple search for indie polish on StorEnvy.
Thankfully (ha, see what I did there?), at least, I don't have to buy them!
love,
Liz
Hahah *Thankfully* - yep! And I just ranted on StorEnvy also. I miss the ease of paying through PayPal. I just saw a polish I wanted but didn't want to join or, even as a guest, give my deets so I declined to buy. That's not the first polish I have seen but not gotten due to the change at StorEnvy. Grrrrr.
ReplyDeleteOkay, LOL, back to the polish here! Very pretty, even though I am not drawn to browns. Last year, I did buy Seasonal Lattes but didn't care for it on me. This polish does look good on you - I like how rich it looks. One of those I admire on other folks and am glad they get it, but I am watching my pennies too much to take a chance on it, especially with past history of this color!
StorEnvy used to be a fun place to go to hunt down nail polish treasures. Now it just makes me grouchy and annoyed.
DeleteSee, I actually really loved Seasonal Lattes, although the photos in my post about it kind of horrify me now. But a lot of my older posts are kind of horrifying. *lol* Anyway, the more golden browns like Seasonal Lattes and Bear Pawlish's The Last Cigar (I think it's called) are more attractive to me than the cooler, chocolate browns, which have a much weightier feel to them in my opinion. Chocolate labs, yes. Chocolate nail polish, not so much. But I have a soft spot in my heart for Smitten, so I rejoiced when I found Cocoa & Cardis, even though it's a little heavy for my taste.
I think the hint of pink in this suits you very well, actually! :) I've been thinking about this post and particularly the Storenvy bit ever since I read it in between Black Friday indie polish shopping/hoarding, and ugh HOW ANNOYING IS IT, THOUGH. I too have been really put off by the proliferate decanting (I know exactly the seller you refer to), probably because I also don't like minis. Granted there are some smaller bottles I don't mind so much, but there is something so much more satisfying and comforting about a full bottle, brush wise but also psychologically. On one hand I understand trying to offset a polish habit by making some money back, but something about that many listings does feel like profit engineering. It's also deceptive; after clicking and even cart-adding so many polishes that seemed like good deals but turned out to be decants, I eventually was fed up, so I gave up on that treasure hunt. Now that I think about it, I haven't been back to Storenvy since, and that was early summer. Shame, really. Thanks for sharing that experience- fuming is more fun with friends ;) Happy Belated Thanksgiving, btw!! Xoxo
DeleteOh, I did exactly that, Marisa, added polishes to my StorEnvy cart or even just opened up a sling of new tabs to have a good look before discovering that they were decants. A couple of sessions like that was all it took to totally sour my entire experience with StorEnvy. It's a disservice to all of the full bottle destashers that list there to have this person selling decants in their midst. If I remember correctly, this particular seller has also listed on ebay. Decanting polish just doesn't seem like a good idea to me in the first place, because it means more exposure and evaporation of the volatile elements even if left in its original bottle, as that seller does with some of their decants.
DeleteYou're right, ranting IS more fun with friends! I feel like I could carry on like this for several more paragraphis at least.
I've been loving the photos of sweet Elsa that you've been posting on Facebook. Bless that little ear that loves to stick up, just the cutest thing EVER! I'm sure you have a million funny stories to tell about her adventures in the world. Perhaps you could treat us to an Elsa exclusive post on tiny twinklings? I miss reading your beautiful prose!