Cirque Fascination Street Review - If I Was A Princess

After my loud proclamations of feminism yesterday, I'd like to confess a deep dark secret.

I fucking love Disney Princesses.

I own this. For really reals.

 There, I said it. Judge away, you have every right. The movies are sexist and racist and dumb as a pile of bricks, and the whole court of Disney Princesses are a dreadful example to little girls everywhere, and I would be mortified if I had a daughter who wanted to be them.

But...but I still love them. They're just so damn beautiful. And elegant. And did I mention beautiful? I mean, just look at Belle, my favourite of the Disney princesses. She's smart, and well read, and looks ADORABLE doing anything. And her HAIR! Her hair is ALWAYS perfect - even when she's been running it sits in perfect little ringlets over her forehead.

Even her WTF face is gorgeous.

Moreover, everything always turns out right for a Disney princess, and I think there is a part of me that has always been desperately, painfully jealous of that. But enough of my childhood trauma. You're probably wondering why on earth I'm confessing this to the internet at large.
It's all because of Cirque's stunning polish, Fascination Street.

If I was a princess, I would have all my dresses made from this nail polish. It's that fucking beautiful. And shut up with your logic about dresses not being able to be made from nail polish, because if I'm a princess we're clearly already well out of the realm of common sense and physics as we know it. If I was a princess, I could have whatever I wanted, I want dresses made from this.

I'd heard about Cirque through the nail blog grapevine, and the reviews were always droolingly good. I admit, because I'm that kind of negative person, this made me a bit skeptical. But holy shit you guys, it really, really is THAT good.
You can actually wear this straight up with no colour underneath, which is a real rarity in holographic polishes. I first tried it over my normal base coat and it went crazy streaky, but I have read this is just something that happens with holographic polishes sometimes. The second time I tried it I used no base coat, and it went on like butter. Well, no, not butter. It didn't run down my fingers and make an oily mess or anything. Icing maybe? Something smooth and creamy that stays right where you put it? Let's go with icing. Sparkly, sparkly icing.

Under artificial light

Outdoors in the shade

Outdoors in the sun

When used on it's own, I put three coats on just to get it to the level of opacity I like. You could probably get away with two though, if you're better at putting it on really evenly than I am. The base colour is a soft purple, right down the end of purple where it runs into navy blue. In the shade, it looks like a lovely dark lavender, but in the sunshine the navy comes out much more strongly. As does the holographic rainbow effect, and that for me is the real gem.
The hologram effect in this is just ASTONISHINGLY strong, and such a complete rainbow. Comparing the rainbow effect on this to the Darling Diva I tried for my last review is like the difference between diamonds and diamantes. They're both sparkly as hell, but if you look really closely the shine on this is somehow...richer. More detailed, with more colours, and a really strong line of rainbow where the light hits it.

You could absolutely use this on it's own, but because I still haven't been able to shake that little goth inside me who is always asking, "Can it be any blacker?" I decided to try it with a dark base coat. This next lot of pictures are with the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Uptempo Plum that I used for the Darling Diva skittle nails.
(Just as a little bit of bonus reviewing, can I just say how bloody brilliant that Insta-Dri stuff is? The brush is wide and flat and just PERFECT, and the formula is thick enough that you really only need to use one coat. It's MAGIC) I was concerned the base might be a bit too red to match properly, but it turns out the colour in Fascination Street is actually dense enough to more or less cover up the base. I'm possibly just imagining it, but I do feel like the darker base does make the sparkle stand out more, even though I can't actually see that much difference in the overall colour in strong light.

However, when you have the beauty in the shade and you're not dazzled by the holographic effect, there is actually quite a difference in the overall colour when you put something dark underneath.

Outdoors in the shade

Inside, under flouro lights.

Honestly, the difference is a matter of personal taste. Both ways, it's just breathtaking, and the kind of polish that really will have you staring at your fingers every chance you get. Seriously, I've nearly dropped my coffee twice today getting distracted by my thumb nail. So, you know, maybe switch to a sippy cup if you're as distractable as I am.The other thing about this polish that is making me look a little less sophisticated than the average princess is the fact I can't keep them away from my nose. The site claimed that "Organic lavender and clary sage essential oils have been added to lend your hands a subtle scent after the polish dries." I remember reading this and thinking it was almost certainly nonsense, because, well, it sounds ridiculous. How could nail polish possibly smell NICE? But it actually DOES. It's not even a weird fake smell, just this ever so faint whaft of lavender whenever your nails get close to your nose. This seems to last at least overnight, and probably more like two days if you don't get your fingers all nicotine stained like I do. I have no idea how this works, but it's marvellous.

I had read from other nail bloggers about the idea of getting a "backup bottle" of your favourite polishes, and I gotta admit, the idea sounded ridiculous. It's just nail polish! How nice could it be? There will be another one. But now...now I understand. As soon as I first walked outside with this on, I wanted to run back in and order another bottle just in case. This polish is so gorgeous, and so easy to use, that I am totally willing to do a complete 180 on my previous scorn of backup bottles and happily stash a couple away so I can use it forever.

Anyway, that's enough fangirlish dribbling from me. You should head over to Cirque and check out their dazzling array - just don't buy any Fascination Street until I have my backup bottle. *glares*