Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Madam Glam Swatches & Review

Press  Sample

Hey there!  Yup, I'm back for a second post today.  Originally I was planning to post this Madam Glam review this morning but then got distracted by the powder/flakies sale.  So lucky you guys, you get double the amount of me today, haha!  Traditionally I haven't used much gel polish but since I'm really loving the powders that are available nowadays so I've been using gel more and more.  If you read any of those posts of mine, you'll see that I almost exclusively use Madam Glam Perfect Black.  To add to my Madam Glam collection I have a few polishes to share today.  There's three lovely gel cremes, a magnetic polish and one of the new crackle-style toppers.  If you thought crackles were dead, sorry but you were mistaken.  This topper is so awesome that I put it over all three of the cremes and got different looks every time!  And my readers can get 30% off with the code Claw30 so use that to save a few dollars.

Madam Glam Review

3 coats plus top coat

Madam Glam All Natural

All Natural is a cool-toned light pink.  My photos look a bit dark compared to usual because I found when I used my regular exposure that it was washing out the color and making it look more white than it is in real life.  I did find I had some levelling issues with the one but that's almost expected with a light color like this.  I really like the color so I can deal with 3 coats to wear it!

Madam Glam All Natural

2 coats plus top coat

Madam Glam Aqua Blue

My notes for Aqua Blue literally say "holy good formula!".  I used two coats here but honestly one coat was perfectly opaque.  It's formula is similar to Perfect Black so maybe this one should be called Perfect Blue.  We should petition a name change, haha!  I do find the name to be a bit misleading.  I expect aqua to have a bit more green in it but this is more of a perfect sky blue.  

Madam Glam Aqua Blue

2 coats plus top coat

Madam Glam On My Way

Another superb formula.  This one was very pigmented and had no levelling issues.  I did note that it photographed more blue than I found it to be in real life so I adjusted the color a bit to be more true to life.  It is described as a blue but I thought of it more as a pigmented, brighter mint green with a bit of blue in it.  No matter how you describe it, this one is definitely another keeper.  

Madam Glam On My Way

2 coats plus top coat

Madam Glam Flying Purple

Flying Purple is one of Madam Glam's Cat Eye polishes.  The Cat Eye descriptions say to use it over a coat of black but I think they get more depth using a coat of itself as the base.  So I used a coat of Flying Purple, cured then applied the second coat and held the Madam Glam magnet over it for about 10 seconds and cured again.  I did do the magnet step and curing one nail at the time so  that the magnetic effect didn't diffuse too much.  The outer areas of Flying Purple become a really blacked purple after using the magnet which makes the effect even more dramatic than the other ones I've tried.  

Madam Glam Flying Purple

1 coat over base color plus top coat

Madam Glam Black Matrix

Lastly I have Black Matrix, a super cool new polish line that Madam Glam is calling Cracked Marble.  I can't speak for the entire line but Black Matrix reminded me of a mix of crackle polishes and water spotted polishes from back in the day.  The reason I say it reminded me of the water spotted polishes is that it must be applied in a single thin coat (don't worry, it's pigmented enough that you don't need to cover the same spot more than once) and it doesn't play well with acetone so try hard to apply in such a way that you don't need too much clean up.  

Madam Glam Black Matrix
Black Matrix over On My Way

It creates a crackle effect that seemed to differ every time I used it.  Over On My Way it looked like reptile skin; Over Aqua Blue it reminded me of dry cracked earth; over All Natural it had big cracks surrounded by little cracks around the edges of the nails - so interesting!  Apparently that it due to difference in coat thickness.  I must have applied thinner coats over On My Way than over the others.  

Madam Glam Black Matrix
Black Matrix over Aqua Blue
The website says you can cure it or just let it dry and that it's a hybrid formula.  Personally I did cure it since I had the light out any way but now I'm wondering how it would work over regular polish.  I might just have to give that a try tonight.  I'll keep you posted!  

Madam Glam Black Matrix
Black Matrix over All Natural
Unfortunately Black Matrix is currently out of stock but there's still a few of the Cracked Marble polishes that are in stock.  Or wait for Black Matrix to come back.  She seems to get new stock pretty frequently and you can sign up to be notified when it's back so you don't have to keep checking.  But if you do get it, don't forget to save 30% by using the code Claw30 that they were nice enough to provide for me and my readers.  


$19.95/15 mL bottle
Available at Madam Glam

'Til next time...


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