Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Electric Summer Collection with Live Application

Wow, that was a long title...Now that that's out of the way we can get to the meat!  Today I have 8 new polishes from the Xtreme Wear line, in a collection called Electric Summer.  To start out- these polishes neither feel electric, or Summer to me...they're very subdued in fact.  All 8 shades are chalky pastels, and it really feels like the company saw the reception that the Maybelline Bleached Neons got so they cranked out something similar...but did it work?? Hmmm, that's what we're going to decide today.  If you care to watch a video where I give you live application swatches of each shade so you can witness the formula for yourself, I have that for you here:

As for the pictures and individual reviews- we can get on to that now.  All pictures will be two coats and the formula was the same for every polish, rather on the thick side.  However, I will say that not one of these polishes was unmanageable.

First off we have what I believe is their orange or peach in the collection and it's called Floaties.  As I said this is two coats and you can see that I wasn't able to get it absolutely even with the two coats, but it was close enough.  This is a nice soothing shade, but definitely not electric...

The green in the collection is this grayed-out sea green pastel called Kelp Yourself.  Slightly easier to make opaque with two coats, I did enjoy this polish, but it is definitely dupe-able.  Probably one of the polishes I'll pull out to wear most often of the collection.

  

It is no secret that I'm not crazy for pink polish- and there are 3 in here...none of which is amazing.  This one is called Peach Babe, even though it is not peach.  I can report this one did not give me formula issues so that is a plus.  Just a regular old chalky pink.  Nothing too special here.

They included this milky white that has just a pinch of pink in it and called it Pearl Up.  Probably one of my least favorites of the collection.  This color of polish can look chic and I've pulled it off with other polishes, but the formula is just not exactly conducive to getting a clean look because of the thickness.

I love yellow polishes, but unfortunately this one doesn't quite make the grade.  The nice thing about this polish called Teeny Bikini is that you can reach opacity in two coats- which is great for a yellow polish, but it was the shade that I didn't care for.  I just don't want a grayed-out yellow because it makes it appear dingy- you know what I mean?  I guess there are certain colors that look great when you add gray- in my opinion yellow is not one of them.

A prime example of when gray looks nice in a polish is with purple and the winner of the collection for me, is this lovely gray purple called Water Orchid.  This one is truly lovely and a two-coater like the rest of them. If you are going to pick up any of these, I think this should be one of them.

Another winner of the collection is the blue polish called Wet Suit.  Another color of the rainbow that looks nice with gray in it, and the formula made for easy application on this one.  This color is probably the closest to looking electric... but I still stand firm that it was a misnomer to call the collection Summer or Electric lol.

The last pink of the collection is called You're Crabby and after reading this review- that's what you're going to think I am lol.  Actually, this collection isn't horrible, it was just mis-marketed in my opinion.  This pink has gray in it, and they kind of pull it off.  I actually like it better than the other pinks, just because it's something different for a pink- different than all the bubbly, bright, or baby pinks we've seen a million times.  This one also had a nice and easy formula.

SO...to sum up.  This is a nice collection- as long as you know what to expect from it.  They're not electric, they're grayed pastels.  It's not evocative of Summer, but rather late Winter just barely turning into Spring. Are you feeling me on this one?  If you watched my video on the Maybelline Bleached Neons, or picked up any of them yourself- I'll do a little comparison for you because I can't help myself.  First- whereas not all of the Bleached Neons were easy to reach opacity in two coats without streakiness- these are all pretty much easy two-coaters.  However, whereas those were advertised as Bleached Neons(a totally believable name for the collection) these are in no way electric which their name suggests.  The Bleached Neons were for the most part bright and exciting even though they had a chalky appearance.  These are none of them bright and exciting...just chalky.  Had they been marketed under a name such as Grunge Floral or something...that would be more applicable and I think ppl would have gone for it too.  As long as you know you're not going to get anything electric out of these polishes- you won't suffer from the disappointment that I did lol.  Like I said, most of these are perfectly usable and even nice colors.

With a great big ANYWAY...did you pick up any of these polishes?  How did you feel about them being called electric?  lol  I hope the video and written reviews helped you feel more able to knowledgeably head out in to that great big retail universe and shop wisely ;)  I hope you're having a great day, and leave me a comment below letting me know what collections you'd be interested seeing swatches of.  See you back tomorrow!

Song of the Day: Imagine Dragons- Who We Are

Over and out