I was intending for this to be a Valentine's Day post as this polish is a perfect mix of whimsicality and romance that's date-appropriate, but my plans were thwarted by an essay deadline on V-day itself. That was a pity, as the description of Fleur est Belle - "Petal pink evokes images of the warm tropics and pink flowers that emanate whimsical femininity" - perfectly represents my idea of a nice, summery day of love in the tropics. More after the jump!
Fleur est Belle is a warm shade of pink (looks like the colour of sashimi - my favourite food!) with a magical and dense mix of glitter that's just mesmerising...
As you may have noticed, my swatches aren't glossy. Most other swatches I've seen showed Fleur est Belle with a top coat, in all its glossy goodness, but I decided to top it with my trusty Essie Matte About You for some mattified magic. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it gave a more delicate, subtle look to Fleur est Belle and really made the shape and texture of the glitters more defined.
Speaking of glitters... If you would just look at the macro below, you'd be in for a treat. There are large golden and white hexes, medium-sized silver and pink squares, medium-sized pink and gold hexes, small silver, pink and white hexes and tiny irregular-sized flakes of gold glitter all suspended in a pink jelly base.
The formula was very easy to work with, and I didn't need to fish for glitter at all. I used 3 coats to achieve a nice depth to the polish before topping it with Essie Matte About You. There's a bit of VNL but it's not a big deal at all, because the dense glitter masks it and the translucence of the base is part of the delicate appeal of this polish.
Under white lighting, the mattified glitters tend to look a bit washed out, so if you do decide to mattify Fleur est Belle, you'll find that it looks best under natural light or shade. It's still very gorgeous though!
Even though the mix of glitters in Fleur est Belle is quite dense, you have to make sure to roll the bottle a little to mix up the glitters as they tend to sink to the bottom after a while. I decided to swatch 2 coats of Fleur est Belle over a few different colours (with top coat) to see the effect, but as I didn't mix up the glitters much, I didn't manage to get the large white and gold hexes out:
Base colours from left to right: Canmake 0101A (shimmery pink), OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes (muted medium-warm toned pink), China Glaze Foie Gras (dark pinkish-brown) , a-england Camelot (black). As you can see, it looks fantastic over the darker colours as they bring out all the individual glitters!
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually loving Cirque Fleur est Belle so much that I don't want to take it off my nails! I remember telling Susan (The Subtle Shimmer) that I wasn't quite sure if the shade of pink would suit me, but I'll have to eat my words now. Fleur est Belle is everything a pink glitter polish should be, and I've proudly added it to my list of all-time favourites.
Another thing you'll love: when dry, Cirque nail polishes smell faintly of lavender and clary sage, which in my opinion, is a lovely coincidence with this particular Cirque polish. Fleur est Belle - French for "flower is pretty" - is not just pretty, it smells floral too!
If you've fallen in love with this delightful polish too, do note that it's exclusively available at Mei Mei Signatures for SGD $17. It was previously sold out, but now it's back in stock - though I forsee it being sold out rather quickly again. Don't miss out on this pretty - fastest fingers first, good luck!
Let's Break It Down
Product Name: Cirque Fleur est Belle
Product type: Nail polish
Amount of product: B3 free
Price per product: S$17
Comments: Pink translucent jelly base, dense mix of glitter in different sizes, shapes (hexes, squares, flakes) and colours (pink, silver, gold, white), good formula, easy application
Where to buy: Exclusively available at Mei Mei Signatures
To buy or not to buy: If you 1) like glitter 2) like pink 3) like polish, then it's a must-buy!
Product Approved 5/5
Disclaimer: I received this product for review. My opinions are completely honest and 100% my own. No compensation was received for this review.
