A couple weeks ago, I placed an order with Cherry Culture that turned into a whole ordeal which I will get into after pictures of all the pretties. I got 17 polishes, but 2 of them were backups, during their 20% off sale. They're currently having a 15% off China Glaze sale, so if you want to go check that out, it's still going on, and last I checked, they still had quite a few of the recent collections in stock.
L.A. Girls Metal in Copper Alloy, Antique Gold, and Chromium Green
Copper Alloy, while an absolutely STUNNING color which has a subtle "duochrome" that shifts from coppery red to golden orange, was horribly thin and sheer going on. It took 3-4 coats to build to opacity when I swatched it, so I'm thinking this may be best to layer over a more opaque polish. Antique Gold looks like it could probably be butter London Wallis's kid brother or something. Not quite as brilliantly shiny and color shifting as Wallis looks (at least in the swatches I've seen online), and a little darker, but it is a gorgeous olive green with gold shimmer, and perhaps a more budget-friendly option, as these were $2.50 from CC. Chromium Green would not show up right no matter what I did to it. It's not blue. It's not that weird aqua shade it wouldn't stop showing on camera. It's a jade green with a silver foil effect.
China Glaze Luxe and Lush, and Make a Spectacle
These were the two colors I bought backups of. Both gorgeous topcoats, and although the difference doesn't show well in the bottles, in case you've managed to miss swatches of both entirely up til now, Luxe and Lush is a more "jagged" flake polish, while Make a Spectacle is a mix of microglitter and larger hex glitters. Both have an iridescent shine to them and I can't wait to use them over everything. Absolutely everything.
NYX Girls in Charcoal Pearl and Roots
I realized shortly before I placed my order that while I did have a black and a white polish, I had absolutely no greys besides bright metallic silvers. In swatches I looked up online (because as I'm sure everyone knows, NYX's swatches on websites are notoriously awful), Charcoal Pearl looked a lot lighter, but this color is fine, too. Roots is an absolutely gorgeous polish I can't wait to wear. I've been in love with foil finishes recently, and this one has such a nice warm peachy color to it.
NYX Advance Salon Formula in Magnolia, Delectable, Trout, and Souffle
Confession time. I bought two of these solely for the names. And I placed my entire order mostly for one of these. The last time I ordered polish from Cherry Culture, they were sold out of Trout, which I desperately wanted, given my obsession with fish. It was finally back in stock, so I had to order it. It's actually nearly identical to NYX Girls polish in Indigo Blue, because as far as I can tell, many if not all of the Salon Formula line's colors are higher-quality dupes for the Girls line. The last time I ordered, I got two of the Salons and mostly the Girls, as they were cheaper. I learned my lesson with that, as they were almost entirely sheer and very hard to build up. The other one I purchased for the name was Magnolia. I'm currently planning on naming my first daughter Magnolia, because I think it's a lovely name, and it can always be shortened to Maggie. Magnolia is a bright pink with silver sheen, and it goes on VERY opaque. Delectable is probably my new favorite pink polish. It's a darker rose color with flecks of gold microglitter in it that make it look nice against my incredibly yellow skintone. Souffle is a dark chocolatey brown with gold sheen to it, but it's definitely more brown and less copper toned than Milk Chocolate from this line (which was in my last purchase).
NYX Advanced Salon Formula in Forever Young, Creme Glitter, Beige Glitter, and Purple Glitter
I was intrigued when I saw a review of Forever Young which described it as a silver fleck glitter in a pink jelly base. I liked the swatches of it so I decided to get it. And it's probably the only one of these that I'm not slightly disappointed with. With 3-4 coats, it will get fairly opaque. Creme and Beige Glitter don't, although it looked like they did in swatches I saw. In addition, while they look different in the bottle, they don't look very different swatched, so I'd say you probably don't need both of them. Purple Glitter is just a fine purple and blue microglitter mix in a clear base. Not terribly disappointing for what I was expecting, just nothing special. I didn't have a purple glitter to use over other polishes, though, so I decided to try this one out.
I tried doing some swatches, however, it turns out my camera is absolutely terrible at picking up colors on cloudy days in my room. I did test out 3 of the colors over the mani I had on this morning, though.
Index: CG Make a Spectacle; Middle: CG Luxe and Lush; Ring: NYX Delectable
Trying to show the gold shimmer in Delectable
Now for the bad part. I've ordered makeup from Cherry Culture numerous times before over the past few years, and never had a problem with them. However, I've recently come to think that their practices might be...slightly unacceptable. By my standards, anyway. First off, I received an email from them announcing a 20% off sale. Both that ad and their email had the slogan, "Think Pink! Shop With a Purpose." In the month of October, that seems to indicate some sort of support for breast cancer awareness, research, etc. Nope. Nothing of that sort.
Then, my main complaint with them, is that I placed an order, but entered the security code wrong on my credit card. Normally, I would have waited until Monday to email them and make sure that it would be cancelled. And I think normally, it would have. However, I then placed an almost identical order (one of the items was now out of stock). The incorrect order went through. But it went through AFTER the correct order. What that indicates to me is that they tried, it didn't work, then they got my correct information, and decided to bill me again, because well gosh, she just must have wanted TWO identical orders. I emailed them about this problem 3 times. The only reply I got was that my order had been sent to the warehouse and would be shipped shortly. They did nothing to address my actual complaint. Only after I disputed the charge with my credit card company did they email me saying they were sorry for the confusion, and would refund the charge on my card if I sent the items back upon receipt.
So that's my story. I'm not trying to tell you not to order from them. More than likely, I'll eventually order from them again, however I now see them as more of a money-hungry, borderline unethical company who I wouldn't recommend to anyone. But they do have some great deals on really nice cosmetics and nail polish, so it's your choice. I know I used to say I'd never ever shop at Walmart if I could help it, and then I moved to a tiny college town where the only place to get anything at a decent price is Walmart.
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