I'm excited to share some Cirque Colors swatches today!  This is a brand that's new to me, but I was impressed by the slick packaging, as well as what few swatches I was able to hunt down. These are all polishes from the debut Dark Horse Collection.

First up, the "title" polish, Dark Horse:





Dark Horse is a clear base with tiny black glitter particles and slightly larger rainbow-colored glitter pieces. 

First, a couple shots with no topcoat to show the true finish, three coats:



You can see it does dry gritty.

With one coat of Poshe:


I thought this would be a hungry glitter, but I was pleasantly surprised.  One coat of topcoat gave a smooth finish, and really brought out the glitter.

Check out the out-of-focus index nail to get an idea of how glittery this is!  Really pretty.



Direct Sunlight:



Artificial Light, close-up:


I failed to really capture how wonderful and sparkly the rainbow glitter is.  Overall,  Dark Horse is a very intriguing and gorgeous black glitter polish. It has a permanent home in my collection.

Formula: a little thin but no difficulty in application; each successive coat seemed to cling really nicely to the one before, if that makes sense. Dark Horse required 3 coats for opacity, with the third coat being perfectly opaque. It's probably best over a black creme or other solid base color.


Next up is Vaudeville (Can I say I really love Cirque's names?!), a lavendar-ish creme base with gold and turquoise shimmer:









I am not sure how wonderful this looks on my skin tone, but it's still a favorite.  The base color reminds me a lot of Essie- Bangle Jangle, and I remember that not looking too hot on me either.

Some close-ups, artificial light:



I took so many pictures to try and capture the turquoise shimmer particles, and this was the best I did:



Outdoor, shade:

This is a really unique color, and I can't think of anything else like it.  Please let me know if you can!

Formula: The formula was also on the thin side (are you sensing a trend?), but goes on easily. I needed 3 coats for opacity, but it was very pretty at 2 coats, and you could almost get away with it since the shimmer particles make it so reflective.


Last up for Part 1 is Epoch, a teal-to-blue/purple duochrome:





The purple in the bottle does not show up as well on the nail:


Two coats, no topcoat:




Window-filtered natural light:

You can start to see the duochrome around the edges of the nail here:




Outdoor, shade:


This is definitely one of those beetle-type colors.  It's gorgeous, and I didn't do it justice. There are probably similar duochromes out there to this, but I don't own one!

Like most duochromes, Epoch looks more duochromey in the bottle than on nail, unfortunately, but it is more shifty than I have been able to capture.  You have to move your fingers back and forth to see it, so it's not really suited for still photography.

Formula: No problems to report. The first coat is slightly streaky, especially at the cuticle; the second coat fixes it, and is opaque. A duochrome opaque in two coats! Sets quickly!
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Overall, I am really impressed with these polishes.  There is a good deal of professionalism between the wonderful packaging, and the consistency of the polishes.  The colors are also so interesting and unique.

Cirque Colors come in .45oz bottles.  The brush is the typical round style, and on the smaller side, but it fans out really easily which is the most important aspect to me.  I should also mention that they have a light scent: it's sort of floral, and the website says the polishes are made with lavender and clary sage essential oils. 

I also must say that I had an awesome customer service experience.  I accidentally ordered (and paid for) two Vaudevilles because I was so excited to try these, and Annie refunded me for one of them no questions asked. 

All Cirque polishes are 3-free. Polishes in the Dark Horse Collection range from $12-$16.

You can find Cirque or their website.