Serum No. 5 Swatches and Review

I've got some swatches and nail art for you today! I've actually had these swatches ready for a while, so you'll notice a discrepancy between the length of my nails in the swatches and the nail art. Don't worry, they're still my fingers.

The swatches today are from Serum No. 5. I've got twelve colorful and glittery swatches today. The consistency of the polishes ranged a bit, and you can get the details on that in the description of each polish.

My favorites in this batch include Mint to Be, Happy Special Day, Thanks for the Memories, and Girl's BFF. I used three of these in today's nail art, which I'll tease you with first.

The nail art was done with Mint to Be, Thanks for the Memories, and Girl's BFF. I also used a few other polishes: Mahogany Magic (China Glaze), Neely (Zoya), Case Study (Essie), and Black Onyx (OPI). I also busted out some micro beads from ages ago to outline my two little leopard hearts.

Now onto the swatches! You can get each of these at the Etsy Serum No. 5 store here.

Fallen

Fallen

Fallen - A fall glitter mix, this features copper shimmer with gold, red and orange metallic glitter pieces. It's thin, and looks best worn over another polish. I've used two coats of it over the complementary Life Preserver (China Glaze).

Mint to Be

Mint to Be

Mint to Be - I used four coats of this soft mint shade with nothing underneath. Though a bit streaky, the mix is a great concoction! The base is a sheer mint opaque polish with very subtle darker mint shimmer, plus larger hexagonal silver glitter mixed in. The sheerness of the base makes it perfect for jelly sandwiches, without the extra steps and bottles.

Call It a 'Treuse

Call It a 'Treuse

Call It a 'Treuse - If a dinosaur had chicken pox, I imagine it would look something like this. This is definitely something you want to layer, like I did over Def Defying (China Glaze). Green metallic shimmer base and larger pieces of magenta glitter. I didn't have any trouble getting the purple pieces onto my nails either, which was great!

Forest Lights

Forest Lights

Forest Lights - The shimmer quantity in this formula could probably be used on its own, though I imagine it taking about 4-5 coats to reach opacity where visible nail line wouldn't be seen. So, I used another base color for this swatch (Jade is the New Black from OPI). There's gold shimmer in the mossy green suspension, with larger hex pieces of glitter in colors from silver, kelly green, and teal. I love the name for this polish, as it describes it perfectly!

Spring Into Love

Spring Into Love

Spring Into Love - I love this one! Again, I prefer it over a base color (I used Portia from Zoya here). I used two coats of Spring Into Love for this swatch but I think I actually like it better with just one! I'd call this a princess polish, because not only does it have the pink shimmer base, but also pink, purple, and gold glitter pieces.

Rise and Grind

Rise and Grind

Rise and Grind - I think this may also be a perfect fall color to lay over some fall bases. I used Forbidden Fudge (Avon) as my base, plus two layers of Rise and Grind. Light brown and gold shimmer, plus copper and matte white glitter. I'm crazy about the matte white glitter, which you'll see in two other swatches from Serum No. 5 later.

Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather - If this is bad weather, then get me a raincoat, I'm ready to get out there. I really enjoyed this polish a lot. There's a silver shimmer base, with bits of blue, purple, black, and even a bar glitter, which is silver. The black is my favorite piece, and makes it pop, especially over the base I chose, which is Super Nail-tural Powers (Sation). I used two coats of Stormy Weather.

Pretty Blue

Pretty Blue

Pretty Blue - Honestly, I think Beautiful Blue would've been more appropriate. This thin, clear base suspends blue, pink, and magenta glitter and even holographic flecks. You can see that it didn't tarnish the base color at all (which is Tobey from Zoya). I hate it when glitters have weird shimmer that discolors the base color, but this one doesn't do that at all.

Starry Nights

Starry Nights

Starry Nights - Unfortunately, my picture isn't translating this polish well. The polish is a blue shimmer base, but it also has an irridescent purple shimmer to it, that comes out at certain angles. The holographic glitter are different than in most of the other Serum No. 5 polishes I have today, in that they're oddly shaped. There's a mix of square and stars! The stars are sparse and difficult to find though, and they do kind of perk up at the edges and don't lay flat. I used Celestial (Pure Ice) as my base.

Girl's BFF

Girl's BFF

Girl's BFF - Such a dreamy and lovely polish. I showed it over white, but it would bring a fabulous sparkle to any color! My base color was Purity from Zoya. BFF is a holographic conglomoration, with differing sizes and a wonderful consistency of various holographic glitter and shimmer.

Happy Special Day

Happy Special Day

Happy Special Day - Loving the name of this too. It's a very joyous and fun polish, perfect for a party or some other joyous day. It's made primarily of white matte glitter, but a full spectrum rainbow of metallic glitter and a few bars here and there really bring the party out. There's also some flecks of transluscent holographic shimmer as well, which you can see when you pair it over a dark base, like Raven from Zoya.

Thanks for the Memories

Thanks for the Memories

Thanks for the Memories - Black and white matte glitter in a variety of shapes and sizes, this one's classic. I will always love black and white glitter mixes. This one also has some holographic shimmer, which adds a little more depth when you use it. I used it over Almost Famous (Color Club).

So there's the glitter extravaganza that is Serum No. 5 polishes. Only one of them really worked as a polish by itself, and that's Mint to Be. The rest are best enjoyed with bases.

Which is your favorite? You can pick them all up at the Serum No. 5 Etsy store for $7 for a 9ml bottle and $12 for a 16.7ml. Right now, 20% of your payment will also be going towards a charitable donation! You can see some of the donations in the Facebook album.

These products were sent to me by Serum No. 5. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.