Introducing CIRQUE Nail Polish!! Dark Horse Collection Swatches & Review

Morning Lovelies!

I hope you  all had a great weekend! Mine was a lot of fun. A little too much fun, haha! Moving right along, I’m happy to be sharing a brand new line of polishes with you all today. CIRQUE nail polish is the creation of Annie Pham out of NYC, and her Dark Horse Collection really has a little something for everyone!

Annie was nice enough to send me a few of her babies to try out, so let’s get moving right along to the swatches. Thanks Annie! As always, clicking on any of the images will bring you to the originally sized files on my Flickr account.

Vaudeville

Vaudeville is a lavender polish filled with green/golf shimmer and blueish flecks! I’ve never seen a color combination quite like it! It’s a bit sheer and the first coat was a bit runny, but Vaudeville evened itself out after 3 coats.

I really like this one, it’s like a funky neutral.

Trousseau

Trousseau is a sheer polish with flecks of silver/gold glitter mixed in with larger gold hex pieces in a clear base. I used 3 coats here but I think Trousseau would look phenomenal layered over a black creme, I’ll have to try that next!

The hex pieces were not easy to get out of the bottle, but they weren’t impossible either. Only minor glitter fishing and no swearing was involved in this polish swatch.

Epoch

Epoch pretty much has my heart in its hot little hands. ♥

This duo-chromatic beauty flashes a gorgeous blackened teal or a vivid purple, I love it! I used 2 coats here without much fuss.

Potosi

Potosi is a glitter overcoat that is packed with silver shards and smaller silver and gold glitter. I looooooove it!! I decided to layer 2 coats of Potosi over Epoch and this is a match made in polish heaven! It’s so pretty and damn near blinding in the sun, hah!

The shards are easy enough to get on the brush but be careful that the pieces are laying flat before you add your top coat so that none of the shards poke through. If you look closely on my middle finger, I have one shard poking out that I forgot to flatten down. But the rest of the shards lay out smoothly during application and the final result with top coat was super smooth otherwise.

Dark Horse

Dark Horse feels like it could be a 3rd cousin (twice removed) of Butter London’s The Black Knight. But where TBK is a black jelly filled with glitter, Dark Horse is a clear base that’s filled with black glitter as well as multi-shaded glitter pieces. I wasn’t expecting that at all, and I don’t have any other polishes made up of black glitter!

Dark Horse goes on sheer so what you see above is 4 thin coats, though 3 may suffice if you’re careful. I think this one would look great layered over a black creme so I’ll have to try that out soon! I used a coat of Gelous before adding my topcoat to get a glass smooth finish. ♥

Tibetan Nights

Tibetan Nights is a gorrrrrgous navy blue jelly with silver micro-glitter, small hex glitter and some bar glitter pieces! You all know how much of a sucker I am for these types polishes! I used 4 thin coats here.

The formula on Tibetan Nights is veeeerry thin and may cause frustration for polish beginners, so you must be careful with application. Use thin coats and build it up, waiting a few minutes between layers to avoid cuticle drag. If there’s too much polish on the brush you WILL flood your cuticles with blue polish.

♥

Taken from Cirque’s About page:

Cirque is an artisanal line of hand-blended nail polish made in New York.  The name Cirque, meaning ring or circle, represents the color wheel and the endless color possibilities in the continuum.  Creator, Annie Pham, sought to develop colors that transcend those of conventional brands by experimenting with unique pigments and raw materials.  The debut collection, Dark Horse, is a 12-color arrangement that is diverse in its hues and finishes — similar to the creative energy that abounds New York.

Cirque nail polish is B3 free, which means it does not contain toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate. Each bottle holds .45 oz / 13.2 ml of product and is hand-mixed by batch using high quality ingredients such as cosmetic-grade pigments and glitter.  Organic lavender and clary sage essential oils have been added to lend your hands a subtle scent after the polish dries.

I was given 6 out of the 12 polishes that are part of the Dark Horse Collection. I have my eye on a few more and I can’t wait until I can try them. Here’s another bottle shot picture of the ones I currently own.

And here is a swatching wheel that Annie sent along with the polishes I received, where you can see swatches of all the polishes from the Dark Horse Collection. French Roast, Debris, and Ophelia pretty much NEED to be in my hands soon. And I kinda feel like I need Never Nude just because the name reminds me of Arrested Development.

☻

Final Thoughts:

Overall I’m VERY happy with the collection of Cirque nail polishes I was sent for review! My favorites so far are Epoch, Vaudeville, Tibetan Nights and Potosi… But I’m planning to some layering experiments with Trousseau and Dark Horse so I may add those to my favorite list soon enough.

I did not notice a lavender/sage scent to the polishes but since I was swatching I only have them on for a brief period of time (the Epoch/Potosi combo took a trip to Arby’s with me, haha!). I’ll report back when I wear the polishes long-term to see if there is a noticeable lavender/sage fragrance. ^_^

Though PayPal is currently not available for online shopping, it is on the list of things (along with possibly offering free shipping!!!) that Annie is thinking about including in the future.

Purchase Info:

Cirque’s Dark Horse Collection can be purchased from their website, http://www.cirquecolors.com/. The polishes retail at $12.00 – 16.00 per .45 fl oz bottle of polish. She does offer international shipping!

For NYC locals, Annie also has a booth at the Hester Street Fair several times this summer! Check out Gotham Polish’s post [HERE] for the dates that Cirque will be available. ^_^

You can also check out the Cirque Facebook Fan Page by clicking [HERE].

* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.