Icing: Liquid Sugars

Happy September, lovelies!!  I didn't even think about it at the time but I guess it's fitting start to the month that for Labor Day the famdamily, the boyfriend and I went sapphire mining.  It's my birthday month (!!) and therefore my gemstone, so I was delighted with all the little sapphires we found!   I don't know that there are any cuttable stones amongst our tiny treasures but it was still a good time.

I randomly went in to Icing the other day, lured in by a $2 sign on the nail polishes (and you know I can resist neither a sale nor a closer look at a lacquer), and left with more than a few goodies... some of which I'll share with you today!  Icing seems to have revamped their entire polish offering in packaging and formula.  They have two lines that make kind of lame attempts to mimick the stylings of Butter London and Essie; honestly, a more sophisticated typeface would probably do the trick.  But that's neither here nor there.  I am immensely relieved that the noxious chemical fumes of a few years ago are gone, I could feel my braincells face-planting every time I opened a bottle from back then.  I didn't feel like I could expect much from a two dollar bottle of nail polish, but I was pleasantly surprised.

...

Pixie Dust, Gumdrops, Liquid Sand, Sugar Coat, Liquid Sugar, Liquid Pixie, Sandy Gumdrops... whatever works anymore.  The texture real estate was quite flooded for a while there and yet these manage to be unique.  The pearlescent base twinkling with tiny shimmers and iridescent glitters are factors that I haven't seen before from a texture collection, and the look does have a sweet, confectionery effect.  They are also scented, which is an interesting feature; though based on the names you would think the scent would be predictable, yet I was surprised each time.  I used four coats for all the swatches, as these do go one quite sheer, though the brush is nice and wide so application was quick.  Watch out for denting, though!  Best not to be too impatient with these four-coaters. 

Icing Liquid Sugar [Peppermint, Lollipop, Dreamsicle]

Check out that wide, one-stroke brush!!

I must say, the texture on these was a little hokey to me; much like Sugar Coat from Sally Hansen, the texture strikes me as a retrospective addition achieved with odd lumpy particles rather than the primary formulaic and conceptual objective, as with the Zoya PixieDusts or the JulieG Gumdrops.  Cheap textures are bumpy rather than sandy and look more like popcorn walls than anything.  They also don't visually convert quite so well with topcoat; it's hard to diminish the three-dimensional appearance of these random clod nuggets jutting out of an otherwise normal polish.  You can see below that even when I've used topcoat the polish still appears textured, though in fact it was smooth to the touch after one coat.

Ultimately, though, I loved the colors and the sparkles of this series enough to tolerate the texture.  It's just that there are so many unbelievably gorgeous colors and shimmers that have come out as textures in the past year, and I buy them all because they're pretty and resistance is futile, but do I think in many cases their beauty would be better expressed if the texture was dialed back a bit.

 

Lollipop

"Lollipop" is a dreamy cotton-candy blue with aquatic blue-green iridescent glitters and tiny golden iridescent sparkles in pearl sugar texture.  I expected the scent to be sugary and, well, lollipop-y, but instead it was very fresh and brisk, one of those "cool water" type fragrances.  It was nice, actually, light and clean; far better than I had expected from an inexpensive scented polish.

Icing "Lollipop"

Icing "Lollipop"

Icing "Lollipop"

Icing "Lollipop" [topcoat]

Icing "Lollipop" [topcoat]

Icing "Lollipop" [topcoat]

 Peppermint

"Peppermint", despite it's name, is a rather warmer hue than a mint; a light pear green, I'd say, frosted with a crystalline shimmer that faintly winks blues and pinks.  No iridescent glitters for this one.  Instead of a tingly mint scent, "Peppermint" had a soft sweet scent like pears or honeydew.

Icing "Peppermint"

Icing "Peppermint"

Icing "Peppermint"

Icing "Peppermint" [topcoat]

Icing "Peppermint" [topcoat]

Dreamsicle

"Dreamsicle" is a soft, nearly-nude sherbert, and it has square purple-green-tangerine iridescent glitters and tiny golden iridescent sparkles in pearl sugar texture.  Dreamsicles are my favorite so I was very excited about this one, but the scent is really more like sweet powdery florals.  Still nice, and such a versatile shade!  My auntie loved this one <3

Icing "Dreamsicle"

Icing "Dreamsicle"

Icing "Dreamsicle"

Icing "Dreamsicle" [topcoat]

Icing "Dreamsicle" [topcoat]

Icing "Dreamsicle" [topcoat]

Icing may be found in their mall stores and online.  These polishes were normally $7.50 and appear to be on clearance but the sales lady said they had been there for ages do that's a good sign if you're wanting to pick one of these up.