Brush: this brush is quite tiny. It’s not the wide flat brush that Catrice usually uses, which is a shame, because those are awesome. This brush doesn’t fan out nicely like those do, so it takes a bit more effort to paint the nails. But since it picks up a large amount of polish, you don’t have to go back for more, usually. It applies the polish as evenly as it can, given that the formula is slightly uneven by nature. But, it’s a bit messy, I had quite a mess on my cuticles after painting my nails, which isn’t fun.

 

 

Colour: light champagne colour, with some rosy pigments as well. It’s a very festive colour, fitting for Christmas and, especially, New Years! Very ‘celebration’ kind of colour with all the shimmer. I love that it’s not yellowish like champagne colours can be, but a softly rosy champagne. It’s more elegant this way, I think. But it’s also very light; so light, in fact, that it ends up washing me out. It’s gorgeous, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like my pale skin just doesn’t mesh with it that well. The shimmer is extremely fine; it is multicoloured but mostly golden and pink. It adds texture to the champagne colour, and I feel like this shimmer is exactly what makes this nail polish so festive. Very elegant colour, and a good alternative to the red and purple in this calendar, in case you don’t like such colours.

 

 

This is a very thick, almost creamy kind of formula. I actually like it! Though it does feel a bit goopy. But it’s pretty easy to use, and the uneven patches aren’t too visible under all that shimmer anyways. But, no matter how thick the formula is, it doesn’t have to be applied in thin coats for it to work. Feel free to use thick coats – in fact, I had to use two thicker coats just to get it to look good. So it is fairly forgiving in terms of usability.

One coat is useless. Like, it’s completely sheer and the shimmer just looks off. So yeah, no way could it be worn like this. But, with two thick coats, it actually looks decent. It’s fairly opaque now, though still not fully opaque, and the colour and shimmer looks about right now. However, the shimmer looks messy, and I was careful with how I applied the polish. You can see brushstrokes on some nails and it overall looks very chunky and messy. Adding a third coat would probably destroy it, honestly. The formula is already plenty thick, so it will become an awful thick mess with three coats, so just stay with two, which is already pushing it. The texture is metallic shimmery. By that I mean that it has that kind of metallic shine, but it is also very extremely shimmery. It’s not exactly pearlescent, but it’s close to being that. I just hate how grainy and messy the shimmer looks...

 

 

Longevity is actually astounding! 4 days later and you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s been that many days! It survived everything: opening up Christmas presents, using my nails to pry open containers and even... a hair wash! Gasp – that’s right, it is in almost perfect condition after a hair wash! There’s just a few miniscule chips on a few nails that are barely visible anyways, and maybe a tiny bit of edge chipping. I was bracing myself for it to chip all over the place, imagine how surprised I was when it stayed literally perfect until the end; also, it does not get scratched up... I think. Although, even if it did, there’s so much shimmer here that the scratches wouldn’t be visible anyways. Wow... what a turn of events...

 

 

Ah, here comes the problem. Just like I expected, the nail polish is extremely hard to remove due to all that shimmer in it. I had to rub for a long time to just break through it, which already wasn’t too good for my nails. But what was even worse was that I had to keep scrubbing at my nails over and over again and even after all that extreme scrubbing, I still had some stubborn shimmer on a few of my nails that wouldn’t go away. It’s a bloody miracle that my nails did not end up all dry and brittle! I did try to be very gentle, though how gentle can you be when you have to scrub and scrub and scrub? I hate that leftover shimmer that could only be removed by buffing out the nails, but at least there wasn’t any staining.

 

 

 

All in all, well, definitely not my favourite nail polish – not even close – but it is pretty decent. The formula is a stark difference to the one usually used in Catrice nail polishes; this formula is very thick and creamy but so forgivable: you can freely apply thicker coats and it will still look great! Not at all uneven or like it’s too thick. Though it really isn’t necessary to apply more than 2 coats. Seriously, it is already super shimmery with 2 coats, and adding any more coats is just asking for trouble. Why? Well, because of the shimmer. There’s so much shimmer here! And it is not the most finely milled shimmer either, so it looks chunky and uneven, even if you try your best to apply it properly. But one great thing is how sparkly and fun it is! It’s a truly festive colour, quite similar to champagne, so I imagine this colour would be great for NYE! It’s something between a metallic and pearlescent finish, so it combines the high shine of a metallic nail polish with the sparkly pearlescent finish. I did not expect to like this finish quite so much – it is truly incredible to witness it IRL sparkle and twinkle so beautifully! Cameras don’t do it justice! And it has bonkers longevity; like, it survived almost unscathed all throughout 4 days of wearing, even with a hair wash! It’s just a shame that it’s so bloody hard to remove, as you need to free up like 30 minutes just to fully remove this polish. Don’t be surprised if there is leftover shimmer on the nails, that’s an unfortunate side effect of being so shimmery. I also don’t like the brush – shock, I know. I usually praise Catrice for their nail polish brushes, but this one just feels cheap. Why change perfection? I would like this nail polish way more if it wasn’t so uneven and chunky and messy with the glitter, and if it wasn’t almost impossible to remove. But it’s still a good nail polish, nonetheless; if you like super sparkly stuff, that is! Me? I am a magpie, so give me all these sparkles!