Revlon Jungle and Trade Winds

Revlon and designer Gucci Westman have been collaborating on seasonal collections for a couple of years now and good things always seem to come from the pairing.  I think I have at least one polish from each of her past collections.  I bought Forbidden from the Shanghai collection last fall to review here, but somehow it fell off my to-do list.  I bought two of the four new ColorStay shades from this year's Pacific Coast collection, Jungle and Trade Winds.  When Emma Stone is the model, I know from past experience that the colors they put on her will flatter me too.  I could never have guessed that something *this* perfect would happen...


Trade Winds is a warm bisque with cool undertones.

Know what else is pale and warm, with cool undertones?  ME!!  Trade Winds matches me so well that it was hard to find a word to describe its color.  I thought I had found my ideal nude in Sandy Nude, but this is even closer!  Compared to this perfection, Sandy Nude looks almost harshly peach.  I found myself staring at Trade Winds many times, just stunned by the perfection of the match.  It's even closer than the photo suggests!  The formula is on the sheer side, taking three coats and still showing a hint of the nail line in some lighting.  I might use four coats if my nails were longer.  Two is plenty for a base for other colors, since it's not streaky.

I've noticed the more I've worn ColorStay polishes that they don't seem to ever fully cure.  They're all still slightly dent-able even days later.  I also get tipwear quickly one some Colorstays (including Trade Winds, sadly) and tip shrinkage if I put something else over them after a day or two.  If you're going to top one of these shades, do it quickly!  It's nothing that will stop me from wearing them though.  I don't use the ColorStay base and top coats, so it may be my fault.  I'm not sure.  I've tried their base coat, and it smells like melted plastic.  I couldn't get past that.


Jungle is a very dark warm-toned green cream.

On me Jungle never looks black, but I can see others having trouble with that.  The application wasn't the best.  It has that odd thick-yet-runny problem that some polishes have.  Little bit of flooding and tiny bubbles.  Nothing too bad, obviously, since you can't really tell in the photo.  This is two coats.  I didn't compare, but it's probably close to OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow and its dupes (I have FingerPaints Tough Art To Follow).  Maybe a little bluer...but I didn't compare.


I did compare Trade Winds and a discontinued Sally Hansen shade, Cafe Au Lait.

Trade Winds * Cafe Au Lait * Trade Winds - three coats of each

They're not dupes, but they're pretty damn close in most light.  Cafe Au Lait is pinker, sheerer, and has a slight shimmer.  Weird little note here...I don't actually own Cafe Au Lait.  I picked up a bottle for a friend who's kinda hoarding it and I'm bad and haven't sent it yet.  When she wondered in writing how close they were, I asked if I should/could borrow a nail's worth from her.  Since Trade Winds *might* be added to the core ColorStay line in the next few months, it could be a good replacement for those mourning the loss of Cafe Au Lait.  The reason for my hunch is that it was spotted in the Target ColorStay core by kristel0106 at the MakeupAlley Nail Board and several previous Gucci Westman shades (and other items like eye shadows) have become part of their core lines....so it looks like my nude might be a permanent shade, at least for a while!  It's also a delightful/scary early reminder that we're coming up on drugstore clearance season again!  Last year's early summer clearance binge was the final straw that pushed me into wanting to blog and tipped me into my frenzy of polish shopping.


Sorry for being gone for almost a week.  I was sick enough to wear the same polish for like six days!  That's almost a record for me.  I did swatch something on Monday, but then I put Trade Winds back on those four fingers...and I only took it off yesterday!  I'm feeling a bit better, but the thing I wanted to post tomorrow will have to wait for Monday...because today's post was supposed to be Monday's.  Erg.  Between feeling crappy and the patch, swatching is haaard right now.