Saturday, October 19, 2013

Formula X by Sephora - Infamous


Happy Saturday, everyone!  Today I'm posting about one of the new Formula X by Sephora polishes called Infamous.  I've seen other bloggers posting about this new line lately, and then yesterday I came across a pin on Pinterest that really piqued my interest even further.  I had a free half hour before picking the kiddo up at school, so I zipped over to my nearest Sephora to see the entire display.  Lots of lovely colors, but only two seemed interesting enough for me to break my general "no more than $9/bottle" rule...Infamous and Legend (I'll try that one out soon)...both part of the "Shifters" portion of the collection.  I paid $12.50 each, and I believe the cremes are $10.50 each.


Sephora's website describes this as a "two-toned metallic" and I'm pretty sure the display claimed these Shifters as duochromes, but I'd have to disagree a little, at least with this color....I say it's a multichrome!  The base is a nice steely grey that has an extremely strong shift to either green or purple.  I'd also say there is some blue shift in there, but maybe that's just part of the purple side of things.  Regardless of all that, this polish is GORGEOUS!!  I looooove grey, purple, green and blue, so it's no surprise that I'm totally in love with Infamous.

Though my photos don't do this baby justice, I made an attempt to try to capture the color shifts and you'll find (many) more shots and some additional observations after the jump....





That middle shot shows a tiny bit of the green shift, but I must apologize for my admittedly bad photos on this polish.  I wanted to get this post up as soon as possible since Formula X is a new line and others may need some online guidance before they purchase, particularly at this price point.  AND, it's just a gorgeous polish, so even if the photos aren't that great, you can still see its beauty...THAT'S how great it is.  :)



Look at that bottle shot!  So pretty....


I will admit to some some minor problems with the formula and brush, though.  The formula was slightly thicker than I'd prefer, probably in an attempt to be a saturated one-coater.  However, my little test of backlighting my nails after one coat showed some streakiness, so I feel a 2nd coat is necessary to really show this polish at its best.  I'll try a drop or two of thinner next time to see if that helps get it to the consistency I prefer.  The current thickness made control a bit of a challenge, and my clean up process was a little more involved than usual, even for a dark polish.

I also didn't love the brush.  The stem length was fine, but the brush just didn't seem to like me very much...ie. it's probably user error.  The end of it is highly squared off, absolute right angles, and since my preference is a brush with some sort of taper on the edges, even if just a tiny one, I had trouble with this sort of right-angle brush.  No biggie for most people, I'm sure, but it just made the polishing process a little less fun for me.


I do love the bottle style (pop-off cap, ala Butter London polishes)...it's substantial and elegant and they seem much bigger in "feel" than you'd expect at the .4 fl oz size.  And each bottle is sealed with plastic so you know you're getting one that hasn't been opened and tested.  I love that!

Here are a boatload more photos, I couldn't narrow them down!!


 Oooo, there's a tiny bit of that green!







I hope you enjoyed this post.  I truly love this polish (despite the minor issues) and suspect that I will be wearing it a LOT this winter!!

3 comments:

  1. That's a really neat duo chrome! Thanks for your thoughts on the formula and the brush, I think I'll wait for your review of the other polish you got before I jump on the X wagon :)

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    1. Great timing, I decided to swatch Legend last night after returning from a trip where I'd broken a nail and had to take 'em all pretty short. I like darker colors when I have the nubs. :) I have no idea when I'll be able to do a post on it (holidays, visitors, a trip to Disney, and my hubby retiring from the military and relocating us 5 states away in 2 months have me all in a tizzy right now!), but I wanted to let you know that I like it a lot....dark and vampy somewhat jelly-ish base with shimmery goodness in blues and pink/purple that help lighten up the darkness of the base. 2-coat coverage and a great polish for fall. I still don't love the brush, but that may be user error...I prefer the brushes you can find in the Sally Hansen CSM and Essence lines, which a lot of people don't like, so don't give my brush preference a lot of weight. The formula on Legend was better/easier than Infamous. Hope this helps! I'd definitely pick up more from Formula X when I have room in the budget.

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  2. Thanks for doing this, it looks really nice on you! I especially like the last photo, it almost looks like a muted Peacock Feathers! If you do get through your untrieds (haha, good luck if they're anything like mine) I would Love to see it over black/dark purple, I bet it would be even closer to that infamous Nubar :)

    Great point about the brushes, they are quite angled! I also noticed they hold a huge amount of polish for their size; I had to brush off a lot more than I usually do before applying other shades or things got a little tricksy.

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