CND Nail Effects

I've never been one for decorative top coats.  My philosophy was that I just by nail polishes in the colors that I wanted them, without spending extra money trying to doctor up.  While I respect that idea still, I can't tell you guys how many polishes I have that look fantastic in the bottle, totally full of shimmery fire and awesomeness, and then I put them on the nail, and they just look...flat.  OPI Black Cherry Chutney and Russian Navy, I'm looking at you.  When I'm working with really dark colors, if they don't have noticeable shimmer they tend to just go flat black, which isn't really my thing.


I've been seeing a lot of these CND Nail Effects on the polish blogs, and at first I thought they were silly and overpriced.  Then I looked at the swatches (you NEED to click that link.  Mindblowingly sparkly x a million).


As y'all can see (if you clicked the link like you were supposed to!), the CND Nail Effects come in three different finishes: pearls, which seem to be a LOT of microglitter, shimmers, a good dose of microglitter, and sparkles, which have different sizes of shimmers and glitters.  All the Effect have clear bases with colored shimmer/glitter.  I have mixed feelings about the pearls, just because they have SO much shimmer that they completely change the color of the polish you're wearing.


What I'm most interested in are these: Crimson Sparkle, Gold Sparkle, and Scarlet Shimmer, all $11 at goindulge.com.  Now, I realize that $11 is a lot for sparkly clear polish.  But I think that even with one bottle of these, it looks like you could get a ton of different looks out of the nail polish you already have.  It's like giving your polish collection a face lift, and I think that in the end it might actually end up being a bargain, because it gives you the ability to concoct/customize your own polish shades, which means that you (technically, of course) wouldn't have to buy as many new shades.  Gotta love my logic that justifies buying anything sparkly.

Image Sources:
All from goindulge.com.