Review: Authority Cosmetics (part 1!)

(The polishes in this review were provided for my honest opinion.)

Hello!

A while back, I was contacted by Kristy from Authority Cosmetics, a new Independent maker, about the possibility of reviewing her line. I was very intrigued by this, because Kristy shares my passion for cruelty-free, vegan-friendly products; as you know, one of the missions of this blog is promote products that allow us to have our fun, pretty nails in a way we can feel good about. So, I agreed. 

I did so, as always, with a lot of hope, and a little trepidation...Making quality polish is not easy, particularly once you cut out the nasty toxins (her polish is big 5-free), and cut out non-vegan-friendly ingredients. I've recently discovered, for example, that deep, saturated reds are very challenging for vegan polishes because they typically use carmine...and trust me, if you're squeamish like me, you don't want to know what's in carmine. Anyway, point is, once you cut out these things, coming up with good formula while keeping beautiful colors is not at all easy. And in my 1.5 years of blogging experience, I've tried out a number of vegan-friendly polishes that had, well, failed to provide user-friendly fomulas.  

Spoiler alert: I am happy to report that Authority Cosmetics is a wonderful product in every possible way. So great, in fact, that I want to make sure to give all 10 colors full attention; so, I'll show you bottle shots of the full collection today, take a look at five of the pretties, and the be back tomorrow with the remaining five. :)  

There is an impressive array of colors among her inaugural ten:

Authority Cosmetics Disco, I Heart You, and Gumdrop

Authority Cosmetics Mermaid Tail, Saint Valentine, and Emerald Sky

Authority Cosmetics Surf's Up, Khloe, and Paradise

Authority Cosmetics Cosmic

Ready for some dancing? Let's get started with Disco, one of my favorites in the collection. Disco is a bright avocado-green creme with a fun, funky feel to it that I just adore:

Authority Cosmetics Disco, artificial light

The formula on this polish was wonderful--not too thin, not to thick, spread well and self-leveled well. As with most cremes, it didn't give complete coverage on the first coat, and I needed two coats; I am showing three here because of the big white ding on my middle finger, which needed three coats to cover. But for most people with normal nails, two coats should be fine. I do have topcoat here, but didn't really need it; the finish on all of these polishes was smooth, silky, and shiny. :)

Need a snack? Let's take a look at Gumdrop, a vibrant Rocker-Barbie-type pink creme:

Authority Cosmetics Gumdrop, artificial light

 

You know I'm not a lover of pinks, but this looks so glorious on my nails I might have to change my mind. This is two coats, and that even covers the white bang mark on my middle finger. I don't want to be too repetitive, so I'll just say that again the formula was excellent, and I had zero issues with application. Smooth and self-leveling by the second coat--for 5-free, vegan-friendly cremes, this is just amazing to me, better than most of the non-vegan, non-3-free-let-alone-5-free polishes I've tried. 

Next up is the glitter in the collection, and it's an extremely versatile glitter at that. Meet I Heart You, an iridiscent glitter in a coral-tinted base, with a sprinkle of pink and red heart glitters:

Authority Cosmetics I Heart You, over Gumdrop, artificial light

This is one coat of the glitter brushed on, with the hearts placed directly where I wanted them. To get this many hearts, you will need to fish a bit, but they're easy to get out. These hearts are a little smaller than I've seen in other polishes, which makes them sit a better on curved nails like mine, eliminating annoying gaps. As with the cremes, the glitter is shiny on its own, and you could go without topcoat, and I show it here without.

What if you're not a big heart fan--you know I'm certainly not. While I will almost certainly use the glitter for Valentine's day manicures, I admit that for the rest of the year, I probably wouldn't care for the hearts. The good news is, if you like the iridescent part of the glitter, the hearts are very easily avoided; also, while the base is tinted coral, the polish works very well over a variety of base colors. To demonstrate, here is is over Disco:

Authority Cosmetics I Heart You, over Disco, artificial light

This again is one coat, and it applies easily with a simple brushstroke, no dabbing needed. :)

Next up, we have the lovely Khloe, a purple shimmer with just a tiny flash of blue to it:

Authority Cosmetics Khloe, artificial light

This is two coats of Khloe, and again...it's smooth, silky, shiny even without topcoat, and applies like a complete dream. I had no problem with brushstokes showing, didn't have to be careful at all. No hint of frostiness, just beautiful shimmery goodness. I love purple, so I'm biased, but...isn't this beautiful? It's the sort of purple that normally is made into a blurple, but I promise you it is not. Even though there is a slight blue flash to it (even less than you see here in most lights), it is pure purple goodness, through and through. :)

And finally for today, we have Mermaid's tail, a sweet, turquoise creme with a soft southwestern feel:

 Not even gonna take the time to repeat it all--let me just say this has the same fantastic formula as all the above polishes. This is two coats and I didn't want to take it off.

So, here's my summary so far (although it applies to the ones you'll see tomorrow, too). It makes me happier than I can say to find an indie line with a range of beautiful colors that is big 5-free and vegan-friendly while maintaining an amazing, major-brand-worthy quality and formula. Kristy does recommend using a basecoat to protect against staining; I always use basecoat, and didn't see anything out of the ordinary with respect to staining. In addition to this, I must take a moment to rave about the bottles/brush handles--they are softly rubberized and concave in shape,which makes them very comfy to hold and easy to control. I know this sounds like a simple thing, but when you have kitties and puppies that come and bang up against you ever few seconds, every bit of comfortable control you get while polishing your nails is much appreciated.

I highly recommend these polishes, and encourage you to go check out her store by clicking here. She also has Facebook page where you can keep up with her. In addition to being big-5-free, cruelty-free and vegan-friendly, her polishes are U.S. made; whether or not you care about cruelty-free issues, you will find these to be top-quality, prestige polishes that will make you happy on the inside and pretty on the outside.

Check back tomorrow to see the remaining 5 polishes in her collection; in the meantime, big hugs and much love. :)

M.

(The polishes in this review were provided for my honest opinion.)