Olive Ave Polish Flora Spring 2020 April Showers Trio: Swatch & Review

It’s still technically spring and thankfully, it still feels like spring here in Southern Oregon. Summer is my LEAST favorite season, it’s too damn hot and, on top of that, it’s forest fire time. Two of the three summers I have spent here so far have had 1+ month of the valley being completely surrounded by fires and filled with smoky air 24/7. Can you tell why I don’t look forward to warmer days? Anyhoo, we should talk about something far more pleasant, like the inaugural Olive Ave Polish collection! I have been watching Walker on YouTube for quite some time now and am super stoked that she decided to put some of her creative energy into her own polish line! The best part is that she tends to love blues and greens like someone else you know, so I’m really benefitting a lot from this new venture. I got this trio as a backer on Kickstarter and couldn’t be more pleased. We have a shimmery green, a bright blue mint, and a cornflower blue. This may be a spring collection, but I can see myself wearing some of these in summer or winter too! I know this review is up suuuuper late and that she already has a summer collection out (I got a few from that one too), but these are still going to be restocked for the foreseeable future so I think it’s entirely appropriate to take a look at these beautiful polishes now.

I wore a-england The Ridgeway base coat under all swatches today and topped with Seche Vite where noted.

Olive Ave Polish Cornflower, 2 coats plus top coat

Up first we have this “soft and dreamy periwinkle” called Cornflower. It’s the Flora collection, so all polishes are named after flowers! I go nuts for these kinds of blues (I mean, yeah I go nuts for blues in general, but cornflower and periwinkle tones really get me). Cornflower has a kind of squishy formula, you will really be able to see that on the first coat. The squishiness gives it a ton of shine even without top coat. But wear top coat please, it’s not the dark ages and there are a lot of good ones out there.

Olive Ave Polish Cornflower, 1 coat

Cornflower has a streaky first coat. The formula feels really easy to work with and I felt I had nice control of the polish. You can work with this one a little bit and not expect to make it even streakier, which I really appreciate from a crelly-like formula.

Olive Ave Polish Cornflower, 2 coats

I though I was going to need three coats for Cornflower. I had some slightly visible streaks after doing my usual three-stroke application, but I decided to do a few extra swipes to even the polish out and I was stunned. It looks totally opaque to me here! After opacity I feel like my camera pulled the color a little more blue and bright than what I see in person. The color on the first coat and in the comparison swatch up next are more color accurate to what I saw in person.

Left to Right: Essie Bikini So Teeny, Olive Ave Polish Cornflower, Essie As If!

Cornflower appears to be unique in my collection! The closest polish I could find was Essie Bikini So Teeny, but it has some silver shimmer and a craptastic formula. Definitely go for Cornflower and put a shimmery topper on it if you want something like Bikini So Teeny, I cannot recommend it to anyone.

Olive Ave Polish Calla Lily, 3 coats plus top coat

Calla Lily is the only shimmer in the entire spring collection. It is described as a “bright spring green with a strong yellow gold shimmer that doesn’t hide on the nails” which is so true! In order for that shimmer to stand out, the base is a little more sheer, but who cares. I would do three coats any day to get a green this good.

Olive Ave Polish Calla Lily, 1 coat

Calla Lily has a super smooth formula, I did not have any issues with running or pooling at the cuticle. The sheer base color is streaky on the first coat, but you can already see how well the shimmer stands out!

Olive Ave Polish Calla Lily, 2 coats

Calla Lily starts to build up with a second coat, but I still have some streaks that I would like to cover up. You can work really slowly with this formula to get decent coverage, it doesn’t dry too fast on you.

Olive Ave Polish Calla Lily, 3 coats

I found Calla Lily got completely opaque after a third thin coat. Since there is so much shimmer, there are some *slight* visible brushstrokes through it so I tried to be careful with this last coat and watch for that.

Left to Right: Olive Ave Polish Calla Lily, Pretty Serious The Dragon’s Curse

Calla Lily is also unique in my collection! I only have one polish even remotely similar, Pretty Serious The Dragon’s Curse, but it has a much darker green base. Both are gorgeous, if you love green and gold together you need both! It could be fun to attempt a gradient with them.

Olive Ave Polish Aster, 2 coats plus top coat

The last polish I have to share with you is the lovely Aster, “the perfect minty blue” as it is described! I totally agree with that description, it is a mint that leans more blue than green. I would put it in the blue-green category and not the blue category because when you look at it next to a true blue, it looks very green. This one has a more opaque formula, none of the squishiness that Cornflower had so it will probably be the easiest for anyone to work with of the three.

Olive Ave Polish Aster, 1 coat

Aster has really good opacity in one coat. There are a few lighter streaks that need to be covered, but there are also some spots on my nail that are totally opaque. The formula feels thick and creamy, just what I love!

Olive Ave Polish Aster, 2 coats

I cannot see anyone needing more than two coats to get Aster totally opaque, definitely a wonderful, dreamy formula. This color is just really appealing to me too, I want it on my nails and toes!

Left to Right: OPI Gelato On My Mind, Olive Ave Polish Aster, Deborah Lippmann Happy Now

I thought Aster would be the most dupable, but everything that I thought was similar to it was totally not. These are actually the closest I have! Gelato On My Mind is lighter and Happy Now is darker. These would all look nice in an ombre skittle mani!

I am super pleased with these polishes! I bought them to support Walker and because I love the colors, even though I assumed I had dupes for Cornflower and Aster, but I don’t! That makes it even more special and worth it. I already have 5 of the 6 polishes from the Summer Reading collection, so stay tuned for those swatches. Let’s be real, I probably won’t have them up until August, but they are coming 😀 Stay healthy and have fun!

xx, Ashley

You can visit Olive Ave Polish on their website here. I bought all these polishes myself.

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