Well guys, summer has officially started. Mentally, I am not having a party but that doesn’t mean that my nails can’t! I totally fell for the marketing of Olive & June’s summer collection this year. The Lisa Frank color palette, the box you get to decorate with stickers… oh yeah, I am having as much fun as I did in the good ol’ days of being a kid. Olive & June has only featured once on the blog before because honestly, I mostly use them to paint my toes. Their polishes are designed to work without base coat and the paddle brush makes painting your tootsies super easy. But, we have seven new polishes and I cannot wait to wear several of them as manis so why not start playing with them now? I did recently become an Olive & June ambassador, but these polishes were purchases. Buckle up, you know there’s going to be a lot of pictures. I tried to keep blabbing to the minimum, but, you know, it’s me.
Today’s swatches are all done over Zoya Naked Base and topped with Seche Vite where noted. Keep that in mind because Olive & June polishes are meant to be worn without base coat. I used one to keep my nail beds from drying out during swatch sessions, but that could slightly affect the opacity of polishes because I do have ridge-y nails. I also typically use Olive & June’s top coat with their polishes; it doesn’t dry quite as quickly as Seche Vite, but definitely just as glossy (if you use dry drops, same difference, I would just rather use one product for swatching purposes)!
First up we have one of my many favorites of the collection, Cherry Crush. It is described as “the perfect cherry red with a kiss of hot pink,” although I personally see it as a pink that has a lot of red in it. These are the only kinds of pinks I like to wear on my fingernails, especially around the holidays!
Cherry Crush is so close to being opaque in one coat. The formula is absolutely amazing and has fantastic opacity. I can see just a teensy bit of nail line so I am going to do a second, but it is really close.
If you aren’t happy with Cherry Crush in one coat, you will not need any more than two. It has a wonderful creamy formula that just glides on easily. This is going to be a running theme with this collection, so I’ll try to just say it once: these polishes dry a little flat so you will definitely want to use top coat to get that perfect shine.
Next up we have the other pink in the collection, Hot Strawberry. Olive & June calls it “a supercharged strawberry pink.” My notes say “not quite a neon but quite bright.” It is like a strawberry milkshake on steroids, it’s a punchy, bright, in-your-face pink. Not my favorite, but it will look great on my toes.
Hot Strawberry is a little bit sheer on the first coat, but has much better coverage than I was expecting for a lighter pink/neon-type color. The coverage is fairly even, I don’t see any streaks. The formula is easy to work with, no issues with running.
On me, two coats brings Hot Strawberry completely opaque. I cannot see my nail line, but found this polish to be a bit crelly-ish. You might need three coats if you have more free edge than I do.
Orange Wedge is another favorite for me from this collection, mostly for the color and not necessarily for the formula. It is described as “a freshly picked orange.” It is eye-searing in person and does photograph slightly darker than it actually is. This might be a true neon, it really freaked my camera out.
Orange Wedge has a crelly formula like a typical neon. It is streaky and a bit sheer on the first coat. The polish almost feels creamy, it is really nice when you apply it even if that first coat does not look perfect.
I actually found Orange Wedge to be close to opacity in two coats. I cannot see my nail line but there are still some visible streaks. I decided to try and float my third coat on, might have gotten it opaque in two if I had done that here.
I was able to get Orange Wedge completely opaque and streak-free in three coats by very carefully floating the polish on, keeping the brush completely parallel to my nail and not pressing down and spreading the bristles out. I cannot wait to wear this one as a full mani, it’s so much fun and the color is absolutely incredible if you are willing to work with the formula.
Here we have Lemony Lemon, which Olive & June calls “the zestiest lemon candy yellow.” It does remind me A LOT of lemonheads, which are one of the best candies ever! Now, yellow is not my favorite polish color, especially brighter yellows like this. On top of that, this one has a crelly formula that is not easy to work with. Unless you really like yellow, I would probably skip this one. On me, it did not get fully opaque in three coats and that’s even with base coat.
Lemony Lemon most clearly has a squishy and slightly sheer formula. It does dry a little darker on the nail than it looks in the bottle and I never got it to match the bottle color because of the opacity. The one good thing I can say about this formula is that it isn’t thin and runny so you won’t have to struggle with that on top of the crelly-ness!
After a second coat of Lemony Lemon the color does brighten but it has more of a golden hue than what you see in the bottle. I still can see my nail line and some streaks.
I stopped at three coats, but Lemony Lemon did not get fully opaque. There are still a few streaks I can see and I can see my nail line a little. The color payoff does look a little better, but even adding top coat does not end up brightening it to the bottle color. I will probably only be using this one in skittle manis, it is just not a color I tend to wear and I’m not really willing to put up with a formula like this for a color I’m not a fan of in the first place.
The green in the collection, Lime Fizz, has a formula that is not lightyears better but the color certainly is! Olive & June calls this “an electric lime green with extra zing.” This one, just like Orange Wedge, is either definitely a neon or is seriously toeing the line, it is BRIGHT. I adore it!
Lime Fizz is also a crelly, so it is sheer and streaky on that first coat. I was a little afraid it was going to be the green version of Lemony Lemon. It is a smooth formula to apply, just hard to get the coverage to actually look even.
After a second coat, the coverage does improve significantly. I do still see a little nail line and have a few streaks, but Lime Fizz looks more promising than Lemony Lemon did at two coats.
Lime Fizz looks like it reaches full opacity at three coats. In these pictures I feel like you can still spy a little nail line so maybe it’s just 95% opaque but that’s good enough for the naked eye because in person I was happy with it. Again, if you have more free-edge than me this one might not be fully opaque on you after three coats. (If you think my ring nail looks a little wonky, I did use several extra brush strokes to try to remove a little bubble in the polish. I swatch without letting the coats fully dry between so it happens sometimes.)
Blueberry Smash is another favorite of mine (a blue, shocker, right?). Olive & June calls it “the brightest blueberry that will make you feel anything but blue.” This polish must be impossible to photograph well because it has a lot more green/teal in it in person. You actually cannot tell this from their website either. It is definitely a blue, it’s not a teal, it just leans that way. Reminds me of a swimming pool, if that’s any help. Or a blue raspberry slushie blue!
Like many of the other polishes in this collection, Blueberry Smash does have a crelly formula but it is much more opaque than the previous three polishes. It’s a bit streaky but not a lot of prominent nail line after one coat. Broken record here, but the formula is a fantastic consistency that is easy to apply.
I ended up getting Blueberry Smash opaque in two coats. I do wonder if I might need three without base coat, but honestly it looks quite good here; there was no reason for me to do a third even though I thought I would need to! This is such a fun blue for summer, I’m bummed I could not get the color to show up right but apparently no one else can either. Think blue slushies!!!
Finally we have the purple of the collection, Grape Soda. I’m a huge fan of both grape soda the beverage and Grape Soda the polish! Olive & June says it’s “a pop of purple that’s equal parts wild and daring.” I feel like this picture and my first coat picture are fairly color accurate as to what you see on the nail; ignore what the color looks like in the bottle, it is too dark and not red-toned enough.
Grape Soda has absolutely amazing coverage in one coat. It has a formula that is just a dream to apply, a lot like Cherry Crush. The color is a little bit lighter than it should be, but I can’t see any glaring nail line and and there are just a few streaks/light spots.
Grape Soda is completely opaque in two coats. I feel like here you can see some lighter spots but in person those were not visible and trust me, I am super picky and am looking for excuses to do another coat. You definitely need to top coat it, but other than that it looks perfect.
My top picks in terms of both color and formula would be Cherry Crush, Blueberry Smash, and Grape Soda. For color alone I would also toss in Orange Wedge and Lime Fizz, they don’t have the best formulas but you can work with them. Hot Strawberry and Lemony Lemon are skips to me just based on color alone, not my thing. Hot Strawberry does have a great formula so I won’t stop you. These formulas aren’t exactly groundbreaking, but it’s a fun color story and the collection just looks so good together, many skittle mani possibilities. Blueberry Smash is probably the first one I’m going to wear, it’s going to be so good on my toes!
What summer collections are you digging this year?
xx, Ashley
I am an Olive & June ambassador, so if you want to visit their website it really helps if you click here to use my link! If you are interested in any of the systems (I recommend the pedi system, I actually paint my toe nails now every couple weeks because of it) you can use my 20% off discount code: ashleythompson20. These polishes were purchased!
short nail swatcher 
These are really nice and bold colours. I like them all 😀
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I really couldn’t resist getting the whole collection, super fun colors for sure!
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