Pretty Serious Christmas Without Snow collection - Review and swatches

Hello lovelies,

Today I'll be reviewing another indie brand. Pretty Serious is an Australian brand that you've probably seen before on blogs. Well I haven't had a chance to try it before so I was over the moon when lovely Kaz contacted me. I always love to try new brands and lately I'm loving indies a lot!

This collection is called Christmas Without Snow and it consists of six shades as you can see below.

Let's have a look at the nail polish bottles and the packaging they come in. I feel like every single detail has been thought of. The bottle has brand name printed on it, it is not a sticker. Cap is black matte colour and easy to grip. There's a paper sticker at the bottom of the bottle with the shade name and some additional info. Each polish has 11ml.

The boxes - they are the cutes nail polish boxes I've seen so far! They have a cute picture of a girl painting her nails. I can see that this box has been done specifically for the holiday season as the other collections have different picture on them. Also the red background of the box has foil/holographic effect! I've tried to capture it on the second picture but it is visible only from certain angles.

I just want to point out another detail that just shows how well-though the packaging is - one side is cut out on the top for easy opening of the box. I know it's not going to change the world but I really appreciate it because it makes it so much easier to open the box, I don't chip my nail or nail polish and the box doesn't get damaged. Nice detail!

Santa's Sunburn - brick red foil with fine silver flecks. I wouldn't pick up shade like this myself but look at it! If it wouldn't be part of holiday collection I would fit it right in beside other Fall shades as it reminds me of orange/red leaves. The formula was simply brilliant - it applied very easily and the polish levelled itself out nicely. Another big plus is the pigmentation. You can easily get full opacity in ONE coat! I have applied two just to see if it makes any difference. It only made the colour slightly darker so it's up to you really. It dried quite fast and I didn't have any issue with removal.
 

Hot Summer Nights - deep inky blue with fine silver and magenta particles. This is my favourite shade of the whole collection. It's deep yet not black-looking, almost like a night sky. I feel like trying to do galaxy nails manicure for the first time right now! It's even more beautiful in real life. What's quite interesting is that when I've applied this polish on nails it was almost purple but after I applied topcoat the purple got suppressed and this deep blue beauty appeared.

What's even more amazing is that this is just ONE coat! It dried slightly gritty so I've applied generous coat of topcoat. It dried fast and removal was ok. This one is a winner!

Party By The Pool - teal jelly with green and blue fine glitter. It's an interesting shade but I would like it to be more pigmented. I'm wearing two thick coats and my nail line is still visible. It's jelly, what do I expect, right? :) Application was quite difficult - I've had to have a lot of polish on the brush otherwise it was patchy. It also has quite strong smell and I just can't put my finger on it. I think this one would be better for layering unless you are willing to use three thick coats and wait a while till the layers dry.

Seasonal Sunset - rusty jelly base colour packed with gold and copper particles. This polish is insanely sparkly in real life like it's a glitter bomb. Again I feel this is more of a Fall colour but who cares! Despite the polish having slightly thicker formula it applied quite well. The pigmentation was also very good, I'm wearing two coats and topcoat. I have soaked my nails a bit when removing the polish to avoid the particles sticking to my skin. I would suggest you do the same otherwise it might be a pain.

Twinkling Lights - blue microglitter mixed with bigger copper glitter in a clear base. It's an ideal layering polish and I really like layering glitters. I've applied one coat of Twinkling Lights over pastel blue Born Pretty Store polish BK #28. It would look gorgeous over Hot Summer Nights but the blue glitter wouldn't be visible. The glitter applied very easily and it has a good glitter density. I suspect I would need at least three coats to get a good coverage when worn alone.
 

Blue Gums On Boxing Day - emerald green jelly with blue shimmer.  Am I missing something here? I don't get the reference in the name. I remember chewing blue-coloured gums as a kid that coloured our mouth blue but that's probably not it. Anyway... 

The formula was good application-wise but the pigmentation was a bit lower. I've had to apply three coats to achieve full coverage. It dried glossy but quite slow and I'm not wearing a topcoat in the pictures.
 

My first impression of the brand is excellent (as you can see from the extensive review :D). Love the packaging, the bottles and I really like four out of the six polishes in this collection. I would particularly like to highlight Hot Summer Nights and Santa's Sunburn that were both one coaters with perfect formula.

I would definitely recommend you to try Pretty Serious polishes if you haven't already. you won't be disappointed. It might be worth though to do a little research to find out what polish has what formula as they vary.

You can purchase this collection and all the others directly at www.pretty-serious.com, at Mei Mei's Signatures or at Star Trinkets.

*These were provided for a review