Lacquer or Leave Her!: Review: Quaint Paints Atomic Refreshment Collection

(Press Sample)

Hello!!

Today I have a fun collection to show you from Quaint Paints Nail Lacquer; it's called the Atomic Refreshment collection, and it's based on the Fallout video games series. I haven't played these games, but apparently it's set in a post-apocalyptic world where soda bottles from pre-days are scarce and their caps are used for currency. Such a fun premise, and the collection contains four polishes that capture that whimsical vibe; each represents one of the types of soda found in the games.

The first is High Fructose Victory--and that name is so perfect for this polish. It's a pink jelly filled with teeny gold holo glitters, gold, orange, and red hexes, along with gold stars:

Quaint Paints High Fructose Victory

This is cotton-candy clouds and pink sugar-plum fairies. It's princesses and ballerinas and sweetness and dreams and happy. I love the addition of the orange and red hexes, because they keep it from being too sweet--they give a little edge and dimension, and make sure this isn't like other pink polishes. It's girly and playful and feminine, with a little bit of bite. The glitters are perfectly balanced to give it a pleasing visual flow--not too much chunk, not too much little stuff. Oh, and did I mention? It GLOWS in the dark, a rich orange glow, not the standard ghostly white-green.

In these pictures I have three coats, with no undies. The polish was easy to apply, and the formula was good to work with. You will have to fish a bit for the stars, as with most polishes that contain specialty glitter like this. Laura recommends that you turn the polish upside down for an hour before using it to minimize fishing; I didn't find that necessary, a brisk shake did the trick for me. The glow-in-the-dark pigments cause it to dry matte, so you'll want to use topcoat. I have Seche Vite on in these pictures (and in all the rest, too).

You can also wear this with undies; if you do, Laura suggests that you use two coats over your undies to be sure to get the glow-in-the-dark effect.

Next up is my favorite of the collection, with my favorite name: The Nuclear Beverage Of Choice. This polish has a brown jelly base, and a healthy scatter of red and white small shard glitter:

Quaint Paints The Nuclear Beverage Of Choice

I fell in love with this polish the minute I saw it, because it looks just like one of my favorite holiday treats: dark chocolate peppermint bark. The brown has a pretty golden shimmer to it, and there are just enough shards to give it flair without overwhelming the base color. This has a subtle festive look to it that can also be worn year round. ADORE.

This is two coats, and the formula was wonderful. I did no fishing here--I shook the bottle and brushed on as I would a regular polish, letting the glitters fall where they might. It's user-friendly, and applies well.

And one last thing--it's scented. Cola scented. How cool is that?? If scents aren't your thing you can get it without scent, but it's there if you want it, and I've never heard of a cola-scented polish before. Very cool.

Next up is Quantum Fizz-ics (totally cute pun); this is a blue jelly polish filled to the brim with silver and purple hexes that range from teensy to medium, and silver stars:

Quaint Paints Quantum Fizz-ics

This polish has soooo much dimension when built up like this--layers and layers of stars and hexes, like looking into an endless sky. You all know I love me some night-sky polishes, and this qualifies in my mind--it's a lighter blue than any of the others I have, and the purple bits in it give it an icy celestial feel.

I have three coats on in these pictures. I didn't quite get full opacity; I have a little visible nail line in these pictures, and I you can see a bit of the staining I have on this hand in the pictures. In real life, when the light wasn't directly on them and I wasn't shooting them close-up, you couldn't really see those issues, however. The formula was good; I did have to fish a little for a few of the stars, and I did do a little dabbing to get the effect I wanted. Nothing extreme or unusual for a polish with this sort of glitter.

This polish is another glow-in-the-dark wonder; it gives off a blue glow instead of the standard greenish-white glow. As with High Fructose Victory, you can wear it over undies, and if you want to do that, you should apply two coats to be sure you can get the glow-in-the dark effect.

To see what two coats over undies looks like, I tried it out over Zoya Rocky:

Quaint Paints Quantum Fizz-ics over Zoya Rocky

I fished a little to be sure I got the number of stars I wanted, and did a little dabbing. I think this looks like a magical rain storm that has bits of holo hail and star crystals dropping from the sky. I had this on at a comedy show I went to tonight, and the glitters caught the light like crushed diamonds on my nails.

And for our final Atomic Refreshment of the evening, I give you Sun Of A Sassafras; this is a clear-based glitter chock-full of red and yellow bars, orange and brown hexes, teeny gold hexes and red squares, along with bright cerulean blue stars and golden-yellow-matte flower/sun glitters:

Sun Of A Sassafras over China Glaze When In Doubt, Surf It Out

This is a playful glitter that conveys energy and movement. The shock of blue peeking out of the glitter is balanced by the calm of the yellow flowers/suns; the end result is a vibrant and surprisingly versatile polish. In the above pictures I've layered it over China Glaze If In Doubt, Surf It Out, to give it a fall feel; below I've layer it over China Glaze Shore Enuff, and it has a much more spring/summer vibe. Over purple it gives a deep winter look.

In all of the pictures I have one layer liberally dabbed to get the different glitters where I wanted them. I did have to fish for both the stars and the flowers, but not too hard. This one doesn't dry matte, but I recommend topcoat anyway--as with all glitters that have stars or bars, topcoat will help keep you from catching the glitters on things.

But my favorite thing about this polish is that it's scented like root beer!!! Not a little bit like it--I mean exactly like root beer. Mr. LOLH bought a soda today at Costco, and when I lifted it up to take a sip, I got a whiff of the nail polish and actually thought he'd filled the cup with root beer! Both times I've had it on, I get little sniffs of root beer all through the day, and it's just crazy yummy. If you like root beer, you have to try this. Trust me.

Sun Of A Sassafras over China Glaze Shore Enuff

Overall, I found these polishes to be high-quality, well-made, and with excellent formula. The collection has a nice range of looks, from the more sophisticated end (The Nuclear Beverage Of Choice) to the more whimsical end (Sun Of A Sassafras), with two dreamscape-type polishes in between. Three of them have a holiday feel to me, and I'll be showing you two holiday manicures using these polishes in a few days. You know I'm not normally a pink fan, but High Fructose Victory inspired me to do something I think you'll like.

You can find the Quaint Paints Etsy shop by clicking here. While you're there, be sure to check out this amazing topper that has Christmas-tree shaped glitter and circle glitters that look like ornaments! All her lacquers are 5-free, cruelty-free, and vegan-friendly. You can also find the Quaint Paints Facebook page by clicking here.

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend! Big hugs filled with scented glitter and glow-in-the-darkness!

M.