Tuesday, October 11, 2011

SpaRitual Wilde Collection Fall 2011 Swatches and Review

It's been a long time since I've had SpaRitual on here... And what better way to break the silence than with their fantastic Fall collection, Wilde. This is the best collection I've seen from SpaRitual to date. Have a look.


Howl. My favorite of the bunch. I love these types of browns, especially in fall. It's a dark neutral blackened brown base with warm red/pink, gold and chocolate shimmer. The shimmer is really fine but bright so it looks like the center of the polish glows against the blackened base. It's what I was wearing here:The flash in this picture brings out the warm tones in the shimmer. So gorgeous. Can never have enough vampy shimmers.

Instinct. This one didn't want to show its true color in my photo. It's much more magenta, less blue in real life. It's a red-purple shimmer with blue-purple flash. Sadly, it's the only one in the set that I wouldn't recommend. The formula on it was nearly unmanageable and the color was inexplicably sheer and watery- this is five coats! I don't know if I got a bad bottle or what happened with this one... All I know is this is not the type of color that's worth the extra coats. Lots of similar colors out there.


Rhythm of Life. This is a really festive, Christmassy looking green. It has a blue toned emerald base, but some more yellow toned leafy green shimmer mixed in, giving it a near-duochrome effect. Plus, the finish is so shiny and shimmer, it's almost foil-like in texture. Very beautiful.




Sacred Ground. Sacred Ground is a very special polish. The base color is grey, medium bordering on dark. But when you look closely, you see what's so special about it. It's filled with multicolor shimmer! There's pink, blue, yellow/gold, silver/white, purple and even a little green. The shimmer particles are very large so you can actually pick out all the different colors when you're wearing it. Super cool and totally unique.


Running With Wolves. If this doesn't say autumn, I don't know what does. It's a brown-based coppery shimmer. It looks like molten metal but without the streakiness and flaw-enhancing properties of a chrome. It has that light-in-the-middle / dark-around-the-edges look that I'm a huge sucker for as well.


Spirit Child. This one is really deceptive. In the bottle it looks like a warm red with gold shimmer. The minute I put it on my nails, I realize it's actually a cool cranberry red with pink shimmer. At certain angles it does look warmer and some of the gold seen in the bottle comes out, but in direct light it's a very pinky red. Reminds me of Thanksgiving.


The formula on these was decent. In the past, I've found SpaRitual's formula to be thick and hard to work with, but this batch is a definite improvement on the last SpaRituals I tried. It's thick, but not sticky thick. It spreads easily enough and doesn't run much. Drying time even seems faster in this set than in previous colors. They don't wear particularly long, though. I experienced chipping on day two every time I've worn these.

Overall, I'm thoroughly impressed with the colors in this collection. I don't really care for Instinct because of the poor formula, and Spirit Child is not a type of color I'd normally wear, but the rest are fantastic. The formula seems to have improved since the last time I used SpaRitual, so now I don't have to wait six hours for them to dry.

I do have one complaint not related to the collection. The polishes are pretty hard to find without resorting to ordering online (and very few places besides eBay seem to sell the brand). Heaven help you if you try to contact SpaRitual's customer service about it because they will never, ever respond no matter how many emails you send them. Why bother having a customer service contact at all? I don't get it.

But... despite the bad customer service, these colors are gorgeous. Like I mentioned before, this is (in my opinion) the best, most interesting collection of colors I've ever seen SpaRitual release.

(This was sent to me for review.)

31 comments:

  1. Sacred Ground is calling to me. You're right about availability; I've never seen this brand in stores I go to. Thank goodness for swapping and online shopping. :)

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  2. I saw the bottles in a manicure salon by us and my favorites were Rhythm of Life, Sacred Ground and Instinct. What a luck that Instinct was the only one from these three I didn´t buy :)

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  3. I was totally waiting for this post! And now I'm sure I need these... You're an enabler =D

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  4. Sacred Ground is BEAUTIFUL! That may have to be my first Spa Rituals purchase!

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  5. Beauty.com just started carrying the brand, which is nice - the website often has special deals and coupons for customers, like 20 percent off your entire order.

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  6. I think I need three or four of these. I've never seen SpaRitual, even at my favorite e-tailers. To the Google-mobile!

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  7. Howl, Sacred Ground and Running with Wolves are must haves! I wish this was more readily available in store though..

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  8. I like the swatches and the collection. From the pictures Sacred Ground is lovely and almost looks like a dupe of Midnight Blue Glitter from OPI's Tuxedo Collection, if it is thats cool because its discontinued and hard to find :).

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  9. I just got sacred ground! Your pics make me glad I did!

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  10. I really like this collection too. Instinct wasn't the highlight for me either. I thought it was weird how sheer it was considering it's a fairly dark color. Although I think I only needed three coats when I used it over a ridge filling base coat.

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  11. I have gotten so many Sparitual dupes of Orly's that I probably will pass on all except Sacred Ground.
    To me the colors are a little expected for fall, though, and that is kind of a bummer, since Sparitual usually puts together eclectic collections.
    Thanks for the gorgeous swatches!

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  12. ist one is so hot...pretty colors

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  13. Earthfare, a chain of healthy food stores in the Southeast and Midwest carries Sparitual, although I'm not sure I've seen the new colors there yet. The stores I've been in have the color spoons so I usually go and play with them while the boyfriend shops, lol. I like all these new colors, Sacred Ground looks very different.

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  14. For a brand that has so many gorgeous colours, it's such a shame about their customer service. I don't have any experience with them, but it's terrible to hear. They could be doing so much for their brand, especially if people (like you) are reaching out to them and are interested in their products.

    I love your swatches of these, Scrangie. The best I've seen! You've made me love more colours than when I originally saw these swatched elsewhere. You're so bad for my wallet. :P

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  15. I wouldn't buy from this company simply because the customer's service is bad. I've never actually had any problem with nail polishes (I don't buy them online, lol!), but if something ever happened, I would want to be sure that someone will actually be willing to help me. Thank you for the heads up!

    Anyway, the colors don't really impress me. I think I'm out of inspiration with polishes lately. It needs to be really special to actually spark my curiosity.

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  16. i love rhythm of life so bright and beautiful

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  17. These are all so gorgeous!OUt of all Howl and Sacred Ground are my faves!

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  18. They're stunning! I'm glad you swatched these. I was double guessing on getting this collection and your swatches sealed the deal for me!

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  19. I'm lucky-- there's a beauty supply store in the mall here that sells these, and zoyas, too!! I got most of the collection-- not the purple-- and love them all.

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  20. Howl and Sacred Ground are so effing stunning its not even funny! I wish I didn't have to order these online!

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  21. I have Sacred Ground and Running With Wolves. Because I've ordered from the site before and have never had a negative experience, I purchased these polishes from AveYou's website. I figured worst case scenario, I'd drive the 20 minutes to their brick and mortar store to return the polish. I had no need to do so because I love both colors.

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  22. So many pretty colors - I've never even heard of these guys, thanks for posting these!

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  23. I need this in my life.

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  24. Waves!! I've had success w/ several SpaRituals and picked up Instinct and Sacred Ground from this collex (from aveyou.com/not affiliated). My Instinct was fine, only took 3 thin coats!! Love your pic of Spirit Child, might have to add to my next order. Great pics of all these :)

    I think you got a dud bottle of Instinct.

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  25. Forgot to add: I get mine through Avenue You, who are pretty great for customer service.
    :D

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  26. Howl, Sacred Ground, Rhythm of Life & Running With Wolves are my favorites. If I come across these online I'll order these.

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  27. I some how landed an early release of these and have had them since July. I did not get the teal or the blue one you had so much trouble with and now glad I said no when those were also offered to me at $8/bottle vx $10 retail. So very glad that Beauty.com will be offering SOME SpaRitual polishes - however don't hold your breath they will have many or all the collections - they tend to be spotty on what they offer in polish at Beauty.com even if they do carry the line - they won't have all the shades.

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  28. WHAT is that gold color you have stamped over "Howl" in your pictures? I need it!

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  29. WHAT is that gold color you have stamped over "Howl"? I need it in my life...

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