First Impressions: Ciaté Paint Pots

Ciaté Ferris Wheel, 3 coats plus top coat

Even though I haven’t been blogging much, I have been swatching! Having more content than you have time to write is such a great problem to have. So, so much better than having a lack of inspiration. It does not matter that I actually did these swatches last year, right? I still have great notes and the particular polish I am featuring today happens to still be available! Ciaté is a brand that is famous for its polish-a-day advent calendars that come out every holiday, which I have to force myself NOT to buy. But when confronted with a selection of cute, bow-adorned Ciaté polishes while I was at the TK Maxx in Inverness, I had to take advantage of the wonderfully discounted price. They had a beautiful, light green and this lovely cotton candy blue, Ferris Wheel. I kind of wish I had gotten the green, too, because I cannot find anything resembling it on their website anymore (I think it was Apple and Custard). Sad times. Don’t let weighing your luggage down get in the way of a polish purchase, take this from the pro who regrets not buying MORE polish abroad (and I did buy quite a lot). I do not have to add this polish to my list of regrets, thankfully. Read on to see it in action.

For this mani, I used Sally Hansen Nail Rehab as my base coat and another Sally Hansen, Insta-Dri, as my top coat.

Ciaté Ferris Wheel, 1 coat

Ferris Wheel is a pastel color and, I don’t know about you, but at this point in my life I do not expect great things from pastel formulas. I have great pastels that were $2 and tragic pastel formulas that were closer to $20. Bad formulas have no socio-economic status, they come in all walks of life. Based on the photo, you can see why I’m saying all this. The first coat was very sheer and streaky. The formula itself was not terrible to apply; it was on the thinner side but I did not have any issues with running. The paddle brush with a curved edge really helped with the application experience.

Ciaté Ferris Wheel, 2 coats

A second coat of Ferris Wheel brings it close to opacity. There are still a few streaks left and it is still a tad sheer, but I expected it to look worse. The camera definitely picks up the light spots better than my eyeballs do, it looked better in person at this point.

Ciaté Ferris Wheel, 3 coats

Ferris Wheel is definitely perfectly opaque with a third and final coat. Notice how smooth and shiny it dries on its own, you can barely tell a difference between the top coat photo and this one!

Overall, I was very satisfied with my first encounter with Ciaté. A pastel is probably not the best type of polish to judge a brand by, but this one was fairly typical. What really stood out to me was the brush. It is a paddle brush, but not hideously wide and the curve that the end is cut to is just right. I have actually tried both a teal cream and a nude cream from Ciaté since wearing Ferris Wheel and, as they were opaque in one and two coats respectively, I can definitely see myself purchasing more Ciatés in the future. Kind of wish the polishes weren’t so quality, I’m going to have to sit on my hands to stop myself from getting that advent calendar!

Have you tried any Ciaté polishes? Has your TJ Maxx or Marshall’s had any recently in stock (mine haven’t for over a year)? What new-to-you polishes have you been wearing? I would love to know!

xx, Ashley

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