Swatches + Comparisons of the newest nail polish collections ✨
Hi, I’m Stefanie + welcome to my channel! ☺️ I mainly do swatch and review videos with comparisons of boutique & indie brands to help you decide if you really need what’s new or if you might have something similar. I do my best describing the differences in each polish while also sharing my honest opinions, including preferences and criticisms.
I film using my iPhone 11 Pro with 2 small ring lights - my equipment isn’t fancy lol but I’d like to think it’s realistic to how you’d actually see the polishes! Sometimes I’ll include clips of swatches in the sun, in indirect lighting and/or with flash, especially for specialty finishes.
stick around for series on my fav colors, finishes, seasonal favorites and occasional nail art tutorials! If you have a request, just leave a comment :) Thanks for being here 🌻🤍
I just finished playing a super scary game (Still Wakes The Deep) so this my wind down video xD Adding compass to my wishlist. It’d be so perfect over deep greens and emeralds for a simple forest witch look, or over a taupe or darker brown for steampunk! As for Liberty, it makes a very cute and super simple jawbreaker look imo
Count me as another fan of reviews of older collections. The ILNP catalog is so large that it’s really helpful to get a look at some of these colors that I might have missed otherwise!
I was so excited to see this posted because I love this collection so much! One of the few full collections I own. I totally agree with you about the color story - so pretty! And it may be the only full collection I own from any brand where I legitimately love and wear all the shades. Great video!!
How cute are you in your matching outfits to the collections! Love these reviews and the effort you went to for making duplicates by combining for this one…helping save some money for when the really unique must have polishes are released 😊
Hehe thank you!! I was trying to embody the vibes of taking a dip in the ocean and then laying on a yacht to dry off 😎 loll but so glad you enjoyed seeing these & my recreation attempts! ☺️
Wonderful series. I appreciate seeing you swatch and review older releases from ILNP. Gives me the opportunity to see whether I should add on to my wishlist😊💗
Thank you!! ILNP has put out some absolutely beautifuuuul collections over the years, I definitely would love to share more of them 🤩 and yess I love building up wishlists! Did you add any from this collection?
So glad you like these too! And this video hehe. I love ILNP’s extensive catalogue too, but Im sooo curious to see what shades they’ve actually discontinued over the years!
Yes I love seeing a look at older collections! I have most of these; it's a great color story. I like the really jangly, asymmetrical look of the Lighthouse with the non-holo bits in there; gives it a real "light shining in your face" vibe to fit the name. And I feel like Liberty is subtle enough not to be too just-USA looking; it gives a nice summer ice cream look!
Isn’t it so nice?? I think it’s the blues & coral that I’m so obsessed with but the other shades are so gorgeous too! And yess I was least excited about The Lighthouse but it took me by surprise with just how sparkly it is. And totally agree about Liberty! I think if the blue was darker it would be a little too ‘Murcia 🦅 for me lol. Honestly Liberty kinda reminds me of toothpaste too 🤣 but I can see summer ice cream!!
Thank you for doing older releases they're so helpful as someone who just started their nail polish hobby!!🥰 Set Sail is so beautiful omg I wish I could pull off darker nail polishes 😭 I had Reily on my wishlist but decided on Whisper instead, there's only so many pink or pink like polishes I can justify buying 🤧 Lighthouse is on my wishlist now tho 👀
So glad you enjoyed this one!! I know it isn’t that old but it feels like it’s from longer ago with how many releases there are 😅 but aw maybe Deep Dive would be a good deep blue for you that’s not too dark?? And ooo I didn’t even think of showing Whisper next to Riley! A little softer~ and soo pretty too. Isn’t The Lighthouse stunning?? If you don’t already have a blingy silver holo this is a great one!!
Love this wheel! for some reason I think I like it better than the last year's one, it is so cohesive and so Summer! My wishlist after this video: Flip Out, River Styx, and Pitcher This. I'll make sure I'll be wearing PfD Blossom this Summer too, I still haven't tried it. Another plan is to do a skittle with the Cirque jellies I finally picked up (whoo hoo, yay me lol). My Zoya Robyn needs to have a moment too, I think it's comparable to your Olive Ave.
yay thank youu!! and that’s so funny because i kind of thought last years wheel looked more cohesive to me, the red and blue cream in this year stick out soo much to me LOL 🙈 but i’m so glad you love my picks! happy to hear you added a few to your wishlist, those are sooo great right?! and definitely hope you get to wear Blossom soon!! 😍 soo exciting you picked up some Cirque jellies, yayy 🥳🥳 ahh yes I’ve seen Robyn and its a beautiful blue!! definitely deserves a moment this summer 😎🩵
I really like your videos and comparisons. But I couldn’t help feeling betrayed because you did not include other brands in your comparisons. Especially some colors did not have anything remotely similar in mooncat collection and what you put next to them looked ridiculous. I am sure you could find something better / much more similar to those from your collection and you would have included them if this was not a sponsored video. Don’t get me wrong, I am not blaiming you for this but the mooncat because probably this is what they wanted and it is your job. But we care about these videos because they are different and more genuine than brand promotion videos. This takes away from the genuineness imho and makes the video less convincing to buy their product at the end. I hope they read this. Thank you for the video regardless.
i totally hear you! for what it’s worth I actually didn’t have any other flakie polishes in my collection that would be comparable to these; I did end up sharing two additional comparisons to my instagram stories/Comparisons highlight, one of which was a Cirque polish, but even that wasn’t similar in my opinion 😅 like you said, I unfortunately can’t do much since this was their request for the sponsored video, but I am at least able to share comparisons to other brands on my stories afterwards. even for potential recreations, i got a few comments suggesting HT’s Everything Taco over black for Chemical X, but I don’t even have Everything Taco 🙈 I’m sorry it was frustrating though, I obviously never want to come across as disingenuous. maybe next time I can leave a pinned comment linking to my stories/highlight if i do happen to have better comparisons from my collection, but this was just one of the rare times I didn’t.
I'd want to see Chemical X beside Starrily's Planet X. I have the latter and wasn't necessarily wowed by it. The black is ever so slightly too opaque and so it's just kinda murky. None of the flakies can sing. It ends up looking better in the bottle than on the nail. I wouldn't want to buy the same thing again when I could just throw Everything Taco on top of Planet X instead 😂🫣
ahh I don’t have that one but I can see what you mean where the base almost swallows up some of those flakies. i think the flakes in Chemical X are much more prominent so they really shine against the sheer black jelly base imo. I also sadly don’t have Everything Taco but would think those flakes are similar in size to Planet X more so than Chemical X if that helps!
I was wondering how close Chemical X is to Holo Tacos Everything Taco! I know if it was just over a black base it wouldn't be the same but maybe over a black jelly? With layers of everything taco? I think it would be a near dupe! Love the video as always 😘😘
i actually don’t have Everything Taco! but I would guess they’re not that similar since the flakes in mooncat are SO much bigger lol but definitely a similar vibe when it comes to the rainbow + black combo!
hey stephanie, i wanted to ask u a question if i could. do you think the blue polish in this collection looks like mc's river styx? or is river styx darker? thank you!
I have to say i have oretty much stopped buying KB Shimmer. The swatches always look so gorgeous, and when I get them... not so much. Plus, their polishes are so thick because of the all the glitters. I have a whole KB Shimmer that I want to love. And the wearablity just isn't there for meon their polishes when I pay that much for polish I want more than a 2 day manicure. I use a good base and top coat so it has to be the polish. I haven't bought that brand since. I love ILNP and Cirque and Holo Taco and Mooncat and several others. I tend to go for indie brands because of the finishes. I've regreted a few purchases. Not many. If it's not my favorite, I'll work it into stamping or nail art in some way. My big one is black. I just don't use a black polish, and every fall, every brand has black in some form or fashion. So I try to pass on those. But I can see why you regretted each polish. This is when I tell my best friend and god daughter... "I'm doing a polish purge on ___. Time for a visit." They come running with smiles. I have a slight nail polish addiction. I had reduced it to 167 bottles. Not counting top and base coats. I had to buy more polish storage. I'm back up to 678 bottles. Not counting base and top coats. I need them all!!!!😅😅 Hello. My name is S. I have a nail polish addiction.
For me with brands: for the same reason i don’t want to support LL because of the owner (though i have a few polishes from before i was aware of the issues with the brand i will not be purchasing further) i want to support other brands because i respect their owners. I think people being ride or die over a brand that they truly respect and admire as a company is not weird. In the same sense that choosing to not buy from a company they don’t respect is not weird.
very interesting! i get brand loyalty to an extent, but sometimes I feel like hardcore fans will turn a blind eye to any valid criticisms.. i guess they would be the other end of the spectrum though when it comes to extremes. like theres a difference between not buying from a brand vs being a full on hater lol which I can also acknowledge is maybe taking it too far 😅
I feel like I regret the majority of my ppu or hhc purchases 🥴 I started only buying them if they fall into the types of polishes I’m wearing constantly. And I just have to be cutthroat about what i kind of like and what i LOVE lol.
yeah i totally get that! 🙈 I feel like in the beginning you’re just more open to trying new brands/colors/finishes, but then its only after some time that you realize what you REALLY love wearing lol I would say its necessary to be cutthroat!! 🔪
I finally caved and bought these and I gotta say, they look even more stunning in person! I was worried they might be too sheer (I have quite long nails at the moment) but they build so beautifully! Thank you so much for showing the skittle, that was definitely the deciding factor for me! <3
I just now bought my first order of Mooncat (ppg collection, hope I like it) and thought of a video idea (feel free to ignore tho lol). I was trying to find what finishes Mooncat does best, since each brand has different strengths and realized I’ve never seen anyone make a master video for some of the best and worst finishes for different indie/boutique brands (ex- something like holo taco has great glitters but their magnetics are weak, or cirque has great jellies but their holo is lackluster, etc). I thought of it for people trying different brands to just get an idea of finishes a brand does best, since Im new to the indie community and had a hard time finding what’s good from Mooncat now, and bought some meh holo glitter from cirque before. Ik it’s also all about personal preference, but I trust yours:)
ahh i hope you like the PPG collection too! its an exciting one to be your first order! and i really love this idea, I’ve actually been brainstorming a “Beginner’s Guide to Indie Polish” video/mini series bc I would love to share that kinda info on all the diff brands!! there’s just so much lol so hopefully I can have it out next month 😅 but i’m so glad that’s something you’d be interested in seeing!!
I'm not gonna lie, I probably regret buying like a quarter of the polishes in my collection 😅 a lot were FOMO buys that I should have been able to convince myself not to get, but yeah it's always a struggle with limited edition style drops and major sales (like black friday and stuff)... I try to give myself a bit of grace since most of the indies are online only and you can only go off pics, but I really can't give myself excuses for ones I tried on and bought and instantly am like why tf did I buy that LOL 🤣 also buying polishes above retail from destashes that were on my wishlist and then getting it and being so disappointed cause it doesn't look good on me 💀 I definitely need to destash some polishes
Omg a quarter is crazy!! But it makes sense when it was driven by fomo 😭 and yes so true that some indies don’t always have the best pics, so it can really vary so much. And oof yeah buying marked up, second hand shades that end up being disappointing is another level of sting! But we can always destash too, I’ve definitely been meaning to do more of that 🙈
Ive regretted a few PPU polishes to the point where i may do a destash soon. Beaux Reves Blooming Azalea was so disappointing to me im honestly surprised theyre bringing it back for PPU rewind this year. But we live and learn i guess
destashed are lifesavers lol 🙈 and ahh that’s a shame, i remember hearing a lot of people being excited for that one! i wonder if you got a bad bottle or something? i can’t imagine why they would bring it back if it didn’t do well the first time!
When they were first announced I was like "eh..." but after seeing swatches I kind of want the blossom, bubbles, him, and maybe chemical x ones. Only issue is I try not to buy unless there is a sale or some sort of discount, but since it's limited edition I'm scared that by the time one comes around the ones I want will be out of stock
I’m glad those shades are more intriguing to you now! they’re so fun. but aw yeah I imagine the box set will sell out before their next sale in the fall, but hopefully most of the polishes themselves would still be in stock! though now that I think about it, I feel like in previous sales mooncat has excluded any collab shades :/
