Best of Ulta3

Yet another post to reiterate my love and appreciation for Ulta3 nail polishes. I've collected over 30 of these and they only set me back around $60 in total, most bought for $2 at Pulse Pharmacy or Soul Pattison Chemist. Here is a definitive guide of swatches for what must be nearly every colour.

These are high quality polishes for the price, the cremes in particular are consistently impressive (perfect consistency, ultra smooth and only requiring 1-2 coats) and there are some seriously gorgeous shades. They're cheap enough that you can buy a few each time to just play around with and try out. Essence, the only comparable nail polish range I can think of in terms of price and colour range, only has 5ml in each bottle, compared with Ulta3's 13.5ml. However, Essence makes infinitely better glitter polishes (Ulta3 is more for cremes, metallics and foils).

My top 5 Ulta3 nail polishes: Allure, French Pink, Watermelon, Earl Grey, Envy

l-r: Earl Grey, French Pink, Watermelon

Earl Grey

I've featured Allure and Envy previously, so I won't swatch them again. I'd been searching for Earl Grey for what feels like years, so I was ecstatic when I randomly found it recently. Unfortunately the brush that came with it was defective, so I attempted to replace it with a brush from another Ulta3 polish which I was going to throw out. The problem was when I tried to get rid of the existing nail polish on the replacement brush. I thought all I needed to do was soak it in nail polish remover and clean up the cap as well. But after I dipped my "clean" brush into Earl Grey, I didn't factor in that the remnants of nail polish remover would mix with the nail polish and apply like oil and water to my nail. Minor setbacks aside, Earl Grey is an easy to wear, smoky/mushroomy/putty colour with just enough warmth and deviation from a straightforward grey to give it interest. It was difficult to photograph accurately on my nail, so I'd say the truest colour representation is in the picture of the 5 bottles. The lightness of the grey and the underlying taupe and beige tones give it a point of difference from the mainly blueish/purplish greys or darker taupe polishes I own. French Pink is a very pale pink which I love for a feminine, polished look. It'd be ideal as a base for light-coloured glitter (I'm definitely going to try it with Revlon Popular next time). Watermelon is an orange-based coral with slight salmon pink tones which should complement all skin tones. Bright but not neon, it's one of my favourite polishes for summer or to inject colour year-round.