Anise Pleasure 2012 Spring Collection Swatches and Review

Anise Pleasure 2012 Spring Collection Swatches and Review

Last night, after a long day of work, I came home to a fabulous package of nail polish to review from Anise Nail Fashion!  See for yourself!

Is that amazing or what?  The brightly colored boxes towards the back are Nail-Aid Nail Treatments (a sister brand to Anise).  The 12 ladies in the front are apart of the Anise 2012 Spring/Summer Collection called Pleasure!  The best part about them?  They are 3 Free!  Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene & DBP!   Here is another biggie – Anise does NOT test on animals!  They do not test their products OR their ingredients on animals (some companies claim they don’t test on animals, but they are referring to the finished product NOT the ingredients put into the product!) .  Anise has been certified by both PETA and the Leaping Bunny Organization in recognition of their cruelty free position!  Anise Nail Fashion also has a 100% Vegetarian Ingredient Policy!  I know a few ladies who read this have asked about vegetarian polishes, so I happily recommend Anise to you!

Now onto the swatches of the Anise 2012 Pleasure Collection!  I want to start by saying that as a base coat I used Nail-Aid 3 Minute Artificials.  I have a tear in my thumb nail that I have been babying for weeks while I wait for it to grow out (it ripped WAY below where it should) and I have tried a ton of ways to mend it including Sally Hansen’s Powerful Acrylic Gel but  Nail-Aid now has my heart!  Nail-Aid 3 Minute Artificials goes on thin but holds strong.  It is basically a thin gel overlay that doesn’t require a UV light to “set”.  I even gave it the ultimate test… I opened a soda can with my thumb and the gel didn’t budge.  Usually within an hour of applying any of the other methods I used, the gel would crack where the tear was and was pointless, but not Nail-Aid 3 minute Acrylics!  Love it!

Ok now for the swatches – are you ready for these fabulous colors?  I hope so because I spent my entire day swatching these and taking a TON of photos to get them just right!  As you can tell, the lighting changes in some of them because we were trying to capture the true color of the nail polish.  Seriously, we took more than 100 photos today.

First up is Sugar High.  This color, for me, was the stand out color out of the 12 I received.  The finish on it was amazing!  Anise Sugar High is a bright metallic pink.  The finish on it was gorgeous and really didn’t need a top coat (I did use one though).    I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up the bottle, I could see a gorgeous pink with what looked like a silver swirl running through it and was impressed when I put it on!  I think I found a Valentine’s Day manicure color!  On application you could see some light brush strokes, but nothing incredibly obvious.  I used 2 coats to achieve my desired level of opacity and a top coat.  The dry time on this polish was the longest of the 12 though, more than likely because of the finish – but it was well worth the wait!

Flirtini is next up!  Another amazing pink.  It was hard to photograph it perfectly because the silver micro shimmer in it is hard to snag in photos – but it is there in person.  Flirtini is a lovely bright bubblegum pink with silver shimmer throughout the polish.  Application was easy and dry time was super fast!  Flirtini dried to  matte finish and each coat was dry within a minute of application.  I used 2 coats of Flirtini and a top coat (I like a glossy finish!) to complete this mani.  This is going to get a LOT of use in the Summer from me!

One thing I really loved about this collection is the different finishes these polishes have.  I’m on polish #3 and already I have 3 finishes to report on.  Anise Sweet Deal is a cerise pink color with a stunning jelly like finish.  Of all 12 polishes, this one glided on the easiest and settled over my nails evenly and smoothly in no time.  Each coat took about 3 minutes to dry and then I used a top coat.  This one didn’t really need a top coat, the finish on it was high shine and gorgeous!

Pink Pong is an eyecatching bright reddish pink.  When I say “bright” I don’t mean neon, but it is the closest thing to neon in this entire collection.  Pink Pong has a creamy high gloss finish.  Each layer went on smoothly and took approximately 4 minutes to dry.  I topped Pink Pong off with a fast dry top coat and was good to go.  This is another Summer color I will be using a LOT!

As we transition from the pinks to the purples, here is one that is a little in between – Anise Exotic Choice.  It looked like a brighter pink in the bottle, but when it dried to a semi matte on my nails it leaned more to a bright lilacy pink color (and trust me, I’m not complaining!).  Because it dries to a semi matte finish, it has a dry time of less than a minute!  I used 2 coats and a top coat for these photos.  This is a gorgeous spring color and I will be using this a lot for flower detailing on my nails.

I love my purples.  I really do.  You have no idea how excited I was when I saw that there were 4 purple toned polishes in this set.  Slinky Cardigan is the toned down purple.  This is one of those “safe” polishes that you can’t go wrong with for any occasion.  Slinky Cardigan is a lighter gray toned lilac with a glossy cream finish.  I used 2 coats to achieve desired opacity and then a top coat.

Wrapped in Clouds is the slightly darker version of Slinky Cardigan.  They are extremely close in the bottle but you can see Wrapped in Clouds is about 2 shades darker on my nails.  This is a medium gray toned lilac color and also has a glossy cream finish.   I used 2 coats of polish on this one, but honestly – only 1 coat was really necessary.  Wrapped in Clouds had amazing coverage and was almost completely opaque in one swipe.  Gorgeous.

The deepest of the purples in Anise Pleasure Collection is Grape Escape.  Grape Escape is a lovely medium toned purple.  I can use this color all year long!  Dry time on Grape Escape took about 4 minutes per coat (2 coats used) and dried to a glossy finish!  I really got spoiled with all these lovely purples!  LOVE IT!

Moving onto blues – next up is Blue Collar.  Blue Collar is a stormy blue cream.  I would have pegged this more as a Fall/Winter color, but not everyone wants brights for Spring/Summer and it is nice to have more of a variety. I already have plans to use this color for dotting as well as gradients.  Blue Collar glided on smoothly and dried within about 3-4 minutes.  I used 2 coats and a top coat.

Anise Urban Jungle, oh how I love thee.  I need more colors like this in my collection.  A gorgeous deep teal with a glossy finish.  Again, I would have said this was a Fall/Winter color, but I’m not complaining because I have it NOW!  I can use this for designs in the Summer/Spring and rock it in the Fall/Winter.  I used 2 coats of Urban Jungle and a top coat.  Dry time was closer to 5 minutes on this one and I could have gotten away with just 1 coat if I was in a hurry.

Get Linked was another stand out color for me in this collection.  Get Linked has a ton of shimmer in it, but it isn’t a gritty glittery color.  Get Linked is an olive toned gold shimmer.  I loved this color for its versatility.  In my swatch I am using 2 coats of Get Linked, but 1 coat was thin enough that if I layered Get Linked over another color, it would retain it’s gorgeous gold shimmer, but you could still see the base color through the shimmer..  I tested it over Urban Jungle, Exotic Choice and Grape Escape and got this:

It was thick enough though, that I could use 2 coats and achieve my desired opacity.  Lovely addition to my collection!

Last but not least is Shining Armor, which is very close to Get Linked.  Shining Armor is more of a light rustic bronze shimmer.  Like Get Linked, Shining armor is PACKED with shimmer.  1 coat could be used to layer over other colors, but 2 coats makes it a more opaque sophisticated color.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with this collection.  I didn’t have application problems with ANY of the colors.  None of them were too thick, too thin, gloppy or streaky.  None of them pooled in my cuticles nor were they difficult to spread.  I only needed 2 coats for each color, and at least half of the colors were usable at 1 coat.  Dry time was reasonable and the colors were all wearable!

Now I saved the best for last.  All of these colors are available at your local DSW (Designer Shoe Wearhouse) for $6.00 per bottle (each bottle is .5 fl oz).  That’s it!  Amazing quality nail polishes for a reasonable price!  Not only that but there is usually a Buy One Get One 50% off deal on Anise Nail Fashion colors!  You could walk out with 2 gorgeous polishes for less than $10.00!  Anise doesn’t generally stock warehouses with their polish because they want to guarantee freshness and quality in every bottle.  Not too many polish companies can say that.  So you are getting a really good bang for your buck at $6.00 considering it is a 3 Free, cruelty free polish with top notch ingredients.

You can find Anise Nail Fashion in DSW and select Salons.

Nail-Aid Nail Treatments can be found in Walmart or online at NailAidCares.com.  Generally these can be found for around $6.50 which is a VERY good price for any nail care system!

I really cannot wait to see the next collection they come out with.  I am so incredibly impressed with the quality and colors of this one it may be hard to top!

**The nail lacquers and nail treatments featured in this post were sent to me for review.  All opinions are my own and I was not paid for this review.**