Any collection that has two greens and two purples in it is just screaming my name. Throw a topper in there and I am 100% sold!!! Olive Ave Polish’s spring collection this year did just that and I think it is a brilliant follow-up to their 2020 spring collection, also named Flora. I reviewed a trio from that collection last year, but this year I ended up getting five of the six polishes and not just a trio. I initially started out supporting Olive Ave Polish because I wanted to support Walker, the owner. She’s one of my favorite nail YouTubers and we both like blues and greens, so I figured I would get along with her nail polish. Well, it’s a year later and I can honestly say I’m now buying Olive Ave Polish because it’s good stuff! Yeah, I still like that I’m supporting her, but this polish is so good that I would probably buy it even if I didn’t know there was a person with a love of polish and great values behind the brand. There’s a lot to be excited about in this collection, like two-coat pastels, so let’s dive right in!
For all of my swatches, I used Zoya Naked base coat and topped with Seche Vite where noted.
First up, we have Cactus Flower. I was super excited when the color was revealed for this one, I thought it was going to be pink based on the name but nope, so much more interesting than that! Olive Ave Polish describes it as a “muted purple with a strong pink shimmer.” You can definitely see the shimmer, but compared to another polish in this collection it isn’t in-your-face strong.
The first coat goes on smooth and creamy. The shimmer is a more fine shimmer, but you don’t get any visible brushstrokes through it. I really love this dusty color in a spring collection, it’s fun and maybe a shoutout to our Southern Hemisphere friends who are experiencing fall at the moment?!
The second coat goes on just as smooth and creamy as the first one, and it brings this polish completely opaque. This color is giving me desert sunset vibes with the shimmer; I’ve never experienced a desert sunset nor do I have any particular desire to so I really don’t know what I’m talking about! But basically I love this one, totally here for darker colors in spring collections.
Next up is Lilac, “a true lilac cream balanced between purple and blue” as Olive Ave describes it. I used to like lilacs and I still think they are quite pretty, but I cannot STAND the smell. One time at work someone brought a bunch of lilacs in and set the bouquet on the center table. Now, there also happened to be some snacks and napkins on the table as well (this was pre-pandemic). I grabbed one of the napkins to go with one of said snacks and almost threw up when I went to wipe my face! It had clearly been sitting next to the lilacs for too long and I got a massive punch in the nose with the scent of lilac. It was waaaaay too much, now whenever I smell lilacs I feel nauseated. This color, however, does not make me feel that way at all. It is similar to a Sinful Colors polish I wore earlier this spring, but this one has a far, far superior formula.
Lilac applies very smoothly, even with thinner coats. The formula is pretty creamy so I wouldn’t recommend going in super thin like I did here. It’s just unnecessary and you will create some extra light spots.
Despite my less than stellar first coat, Lilac got completely opaque with just a second coat! I am really impressed with this formula for such a light polish. Not only does it have good coverage, but it has a fairly forgiving formula – you can go over your coat with some extra brushstrokes to get it even and you won’t end up creating any bald spots or extra streaks.
The only similar polish I have swatched on the blog recently is Lavender Macaron from Palate Polish, which is noticeably darker than Lilac. Lavender Macaron is still in the pastel category, this just gives you an idea of how light Lilac is.
Flora is the first true topper we have gotten from Olive Ave Polish! Constellation from their winter collection can be used as a topper, but this one was really meant to be one – it’s described as a “pearl topper that adds a rainbow to any shade.” To be clear, this is an iridescent topper, not a holographic topper. You can also wear it semi-sheer on its own in two to three coats, but I decided to put it over a variety of Olive Ave cremes from both this year and last year’s Flora collection. Over these cooler toned shades you get a strong tealish, blueish shimmer, but in person it is a little more shifty and doesn’t just look blue. I would honestly wear this combo as a full mani, love how all of these look together!
Zinnia is the green creme polish I used in the swatch of Flora and it is one of the new cremes this year! When I was a kid, I played for a soccer team nicknamed the Zinnias. I may be totally misremembering this, but I think our uniforms were navy and gold or something like that? It was definitely not the color of any zinnia I’ve ever seen (not that I am an expert). Apparently there are actually some zinnias that are green, not just the stem but the flowers! Olive Ave Polish calls this “a classic light green cream perfect for spring.” If I had to put it in a green shade category, I would put it somewhere between jade and seafoam. I feel like it leans more blue than yellow, but it’s not quite minty. Maybe a little? Or maybe it is very well balanced. I can’t make up my mind here.
I can say with more certainty that Zinnia has a lovely creme formula. The coverage is very good for a lighter, more pastel type color. It is definitely going to need a second coat, but it applies like a dream so that is nothing to complain about.
Like Lilac, Zinnia only needs two coats for full opacity. I used thinner coats and still found that it applied like butter and self-leveled wonderfully. Look at how shiny it is even without top coat! These formulas are just awesome.
Last, but most certainly not least, we have Sage! Sage is the other polish with shimmer in the collection and this is what I would call strong shimmer. Sage is described as “a soft muted sage green with a strong silver shimmer.” The shimmer in this one is stronger and a little chunkier than the shimmer in Cactus Flower. It does have a more crelly formula too; perhaps Cactus Flower’s shimmer would have stood out just as much if the formula was not so creamy and opaque. Sage is one of my favorite scents, I love every Bridge Nine Candle with sage as a note: their signature scent High Desert and seasonal scents Vanilla Sage and Lavender Sage.
Sage is quite sheer in just one coat, but that shimmer really does stand out. The formula feels like it would be thin and hard to control if it weren’t for all that shimmer packed in there. I had no issues with it!
The opacity builds a lot better than I was expecting with a second thin coat. I feel like the coverage also looks fairly even at this point, no major streaks or bald spots. It is still a tad sheer, you can see my nail line.
A third thin coat brought Sage completely opaque on me. Maybe you can still see a little nail line with my harsh lighting, but I was happy with it in person. I honestly think that my fellow short nailed friends may end up just using two coats and being happy with that; I paint quite thin and am picky about coverage!
Zinnia is much brighter and little more yellow than both Sage and Butter London Good Vibes. Good Vibes is definitely in the same family as Sage, but obviously Sage is a little lighter and has all that wonderful shimmer in it.
As you can tell these are all my favorites! I mean, this is already my picks from the collection, I’m not going to choose just one. I think that Sage might be the most unique, aside from Flora, in my collection but I would 100% recommend all of them. The only polish I did not get was Peony, which is a super light pinky peachy nude-ish shade. Not really my jam, but some of you may want to check that one out too! I hope these swatches were helpful; Olive Ave Polish does have a good variety of swatches on their website these days but they do appear to lean towards the longer-nailed folks.
xx, Ashley
You can visit Olive Ave Polish on their website here. Olive Ave Polish does claim to be cruelty-free and are Leaping Bunny certified but are not yet on the Logical Harmony cruelty-free list.
short nail swatcher 