Cult Nails Seduction Nail Lacquer Review, Photos, Swatches

Christine — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:00:23 +0000

Cult Nails Seduction Nail Lacquer

Cult Nails Seduction Nail Lacquer

Cult Nails Seduction Nail Lacquer ($10.00 for 0.50 fl. oz.) is described as a “sheer purple/red jelly top coat polish loaded with red and blue multichromatic flakes.” The base color is a red-violet jelly that’s semi-opaque after two coats. If you did three, you should still have some translucency, which is expected given the shade’s description. It has that squishy, plush look of a jelly finish, so I like it a lot with just two coats. The flakes deposit evenly across the nail for the most part, and they apply smoothly; there are no rough edges or finishes here. I applied two coats of it alone, and then I applied two coats of it over black. The flakes shift from coppery-orange to pink-red to red to violet purple. Over black, the flakes take on a deeper, more intense appearance–more red and purple than gold, pink-red, and violet.

I couldn’t think of any dupes for the base color–none of the purples that came close in hue had the jelly finish. Deborah Lippmann is nothing like this–it’s a deep, dark indigo with less shift in the flakes. Zoya Chloe has the orange/red flakes but lacks the purple ones. If you have a wider stash of holographic top coats, you may find you have something that you could layer to yield similar results (I just couldn’t find anything from what I remember and have tried!).

If you’ve been thinking on this shade, you won’t want to let yourself think too long, because it’s limited edition–and for a reason–Maria said that the ingredients used to create it are no longer available as a U.S.-made commodity, so once it’s gone, it’s gone. I remember Maria wanted to bring back Clairvoyant, but she wasn’t able to, due to unavailability of ingredients.

The formula was a pleasure to work with; it had that thicker consistency expected of a jelly texture, but it’s not the kind of thick that it’s goopy or anything like that. I’d almost rather describe it as plush. It applied easily and evenly across the nail without pooling, bubbling, or streaking. Cult Nails’ formula wears exceptionally well with very minor tip wear after a week of wear and never any chipping–and I’ve tested six shades from their range (across different finishes). Since this just arrived and I wanted to make sure I reviewed before it was sold out (which I wasn’t able to do when Clairvoyant came around–a shade I did test for wear), I did not specifically test the wear on this shade.