Palate Polish Spring/Summer Haul Part I

For some reason it’s been a million years since Palate Polish has been on my blog, so now I have two posts planned! Because of my utter lack of self-control, I placed two orders during the spring during two different sales. I had spring and summer shades in mind and yes, okay, it ended up being spring and summer greens and blues in the first order! I had meant to order a purple, but it was out of stock. I ended up picking up Margarita (a newer shade), Sweet Mint, Blueberry (another newer shade), Cornflower, Cotton Candy, and Robin Egg during a 6 for $60 sale. Unfortunately Cotton Candy and Robin Egg are now discontinued, but I’m going to show them all to you anyway. Sometimes you can still snag discontinued Palates at some of their online stockists!

For all of the swatches today, I used a-england The Ridgeway base coat and topped with Holo Taco Glossy Taco where noted. I am going in the order that the polishes are listed on the website and will share the discontinued shades last.

Palate Polish Margarita, 2 coats plus top coat

First up is Margarita, which is described as a “glittery lime green,” however, it is actually stuffed with shimmer, not glitter. This makes removal so much easier! I really love this one for summer, it is so sparkly and bright and weirdly not unflattering considering that it is a more yellowy green. I could also see this one being fun around Halloween, it’s got slime vibes.

Palate Polish Margarita, 1 coat

Margarita has a really smooth formula, not thin and runny. It is so easy to work with, I was able to work really slowly and carefully with it to minimize clean up. It is a bit sheer.

Palate Polish Margarita, 2 coats

Margarita gets completely opaque in just two coats! I was not sure if it would, but I cannot see any visible nail line here. The shimmer in this polish does not show any brushstrokes so you do not have to worry about that on your last coat. I really recommend top coat for this one, it dries a little bit flat and a glossy top coat gets the shimmer looking its most dynamic.

Palate Polish Sweet Mint, 3 coats plus top coat

Sweet Mint seems to be having a moment on Instagram, I’ve seen lots of people raving about this one! It is described as a “neon-y pastel green” which is so accurate. It might not look like it, but this is a really unique shade of mint. It’s so much brighter in person, really pops off the nail at your eyeballs. I own nothing else like it.

Palate Polish Sweet Mint, 1 coat

Sweet Mint’s formula has a nice consistency, I did not have any problems with running or pooling. The color payoff is not the greatest though, it is quite streaky.

Palate Polish Sweet Mint, 2 coats

The visible streaks are considerably lighter after a second coat of Sweet Mint, but I still have some that definitely need to be covered up. I know this formula won’t be for everyone, I would only recommend getting this polish if the color really speaks to you.

Palate Polish Sweet Mint, 3 coats

I got Sweet Mint mostly opaque in three coats. I feel like if I squint I can still see some lighter spots. I really don’t want to knock Palate Polish too hard for the formula here, based on some of the terrible pastels I have tried from other brands, white-based colors must be very difficult to formulate. I personally think this one is worth it for the color, but skip it if you’re not that into greens. I did recently watch a video from Amanda Bellantoni where she recommends using a matte top coat between the first and second coats of a white or white-based polish to prevent streaks. That tip was completely new to me, I wonder if it would have helped with a more even application of this polish!

Palate Polish Blueberry, 2 coats plus top coat

Next up we have Blueberry, and all of my swatches of Blueberry make it look like Aphrodisiac, but they are definitely not the same! Blueberry is indigo and I could not for the life of me get the purple tones to show up on my camera. I adjusted the lighting, literally ran around the apartment fiddling with lighting settings everywhere and it just refused to photograph what my eyes were seeing. I deeply apologize, but I thought it was still worth sharing so you can at least see the formula. Palate Polish describes it as a “blue-violet” but, like I was saying, you aren’t going to see the violet tones on me today even though they were definitely there in person.

Palate Polish Blueberry, 1 coat

This one has a neon-like formula, so it’s pretty thin, squishy, and dries matte. I used really thin coats to avoid flooding the cuticle and sidewalls. It looks pretty rough after just one coat, quite patchy and uneven.

Palate Polish Blueberry, 2 coats

Based on the first coat, I thought Blueberry was going to be a solid 3-coater but it built up really well for me with a second thin coat! It applies really nicely over itself and I was a little less cautious about flooding my nail compared to applying the first coat. This one really needs top coat to look its best.

Palate Polish Cornflower, 1 coat plus top coat

Cornflower is the last of the polishes still available that I have to share with you today. It is described as a “periwinkle blue” though I find this is more dusty and a tad less purple than your typical periwinkle. I guess they had to come up with a description other than “cornflower blue,” probably would have sounded redundant!

Palate Polish Cornflower, 1 coat

Cornflower has an absolutely stunning formula! It is, as it says in my notes, the creamiest most wonderful polish. I only needed one coat for opacity. Superb. If I were to have worn this as a full mani I would have added a second coat to cover up my pinky bubble and the unevenness of my nails (swatching kills them), but if you have really nice nail beds you will be one and done! This is my top pick from this haul, such a beautiful blue and how can you say no to a formula like that?!?!?

Palate Polish Cotton Candy, 3 coats plus top coat

On browsing through the site, I was really surprised that our next polish, Cotton Candy, is no longer available. I feel like it has been a core Palate Shade for years that I just hadn’t grabbed yet for some reason. It is a soft pastel blue, and it does make me want some cotton candy, sickening but delicious all the same!

Palate Polish Cotton Candy, 1 coat

Cotton Candy’s formula has a nice consistency to it, but like most pastels it is streak-tastic. You won’t want to over-manipulate this one, I found that I created more streaks instead of covering them by doing extra brush strokes.

Palate Polish Cotton Candy, 2 coats

Cotton Candy is starting to build up on the second coat, but like with Sweet Mint I do still have some very noticeable streaks.

Palate Polish Cotton Candy, 3 coats

I was able to get Cotton Candy completely opaque in three coats. Unlike with Sweet Mint, my eyes were not able to pick out any spots that I missed. I really need to try that matte top coat technique, it could revolutionize my terrible application of pastels! Polishes like this also could benefit from a wider brush to make floating on the polish easier. I’m a huge fan of Palate’s brush, it’s thinner but really dense so it fans out nicely, but for pastels sometimes you need something wider.

Palate Polish Robin Egg, 2 coats plus top coat

I am so gutted for you guys that Robin Egg is no longer available, it is such a perfect, vibrant color! Robin Egg is, you guessed it, a robin’s egg blue. This is THE color of summer for me, I am really here for these bright blue-greens this year (Zoya Harbor and Essie Bustling Bazaar are two others making me drool). I don’t know if this is true for all bottles of Robin Egg, but mine had a slightly wider brush than the usual Palate brush, reminiscent of the OG Cadillacquer one. I’m not sure that was necessary for this particular polish, I think Cotton Candy or Sweet Mint would have benefitted from something like this more.

Palate Polish Robin Egg, 1 coat

Robin Egg, like Cornflower, has a super wonderful creamy formula. I think if I had used a slightly thicker coat on my ring finger I would have gotten this opaque in one.

Palate Polish Robin Egg, 2 coats

As you can see, I really did a bang-up job with my application on the second coat. I did get Robin Egg completely opaque, but also managed to flood my index nail. It’s that wider brush, I’m telling you, really unexpected and threw me for a loop! Despite that, I absolutely adore this polish and it would be my top pick from this haul if it were still available. It is almost a crime that this one was discontinued!

I think I did really well with this haul! Margarita, Cornflower, and Robin Egg all had stand-out formulas to me and Blueberry was surprisingly cooperative as well. The pastels are not the best, they are definitely the kinds of polishes where you have to decide what is more important to you, color or formula. I know that I personally am willing to put up with sub-par formulas for beautiful colors, but everyone does not feel that way and I want to be honest about my experience with these polishes. I will have a second Palate haul coming your way soon! In the meantime, if there are any comparisons you want to see please let me know. I would be completely willing to make some time this weekend to dig through my collection.

What colors are you loving this summer?

xx, Ashley

Palate Polish are based in my home state of Oregon and they are cruelty-free. I purchased everything used here myself.

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