Cult Nails Behind Closed Doors Collection (Photo Heavy)

Today I have the much-awaited Cult Nails Behind Closed Doors Collection to review for you! As you may know, I was extremely excited for this collection, and it didn't disappoint what-so-ever. But enough chatting, on to the swatches!

The names of the polishes fit well with the "Behind Closed Doors" theme, and each and every one of them gave me a little chuckle.

...to see pictures and a detailed review of each polish in this beautiful collection click read more!


*All polishes are swatched with Cult Nails Get It On Base coat and no top coat.

First up is Disciplined, the shade I was looking forward to the least in this collection. I'm not a huge fan of sheer or jelly polishes (mostly do to my lack of patience for doing more than two coats) but I heard such great things about Disciplined that I knew I'd want to own it.

Disciplined is a sheer grey jelly loaded with large particles of pink and blue shimmer. The shimmer reminds me a lot of the shimmer in Cult Nails Charlatan, and it isn't shy about showing itself. Absolutely gorgeous. This is four coats, the formula was smooth and easy to use, and sheer but not streaky.

Disciplined - 3 Coats

Disciplined - 3 Coats

Disciplined - Direct Light

Disciplined - Diffuse Light

Disciplined is described as a sheer jelly polish. When a polish is described to me as sheer, I always wonder exactly how sheer it really is, so here is Disciplined coat by coat. If you don't mind visible nail line (or have short nails) you could easily get away with just three coats. Personally, I went with four coats. Since Disciplined is so loaded with shimmer it would make a great top coat over another grey to bring gorgeous pink and blue shimmer to any mani. Since I'm not a huge fan of sheer polishes, I'm definitely going to be using Disciplined again as a top coat.

Disciplined Opacity

Sorry if my nails look yellow, I just took off a particularly staining red right before swatching this collection.

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Next is Afterglow. Afterglow is a shimmery brown with heavy pink and gold shimmer. I've heard this one described as copper, but it's much more of a brown to me. The shimmer appears pink when you look straight at the nail, but color-shifts to an amber gold at an angle. With all of the pink shimmer adding to the color, Afterglow reminds me of a red with brown undertones.

I've been searching everywhere for my perfect brown shade and I finally found it with Afterglow. It's a very sophisticated shade, which really keeps to the theme that I expect from Cult Nails polishes.

The formula was smooth but a bit sheer, fully opaque in three thin coats. With careful application you might be able to get away with two coats, but I definitely needed the third.

Afterglow

Afterglow - you can see the pink shifting to gold around the edges of the nail here

Afterglow - Diffuse Light

Afterglow - the pink is really visible here, but it's so much more obvious in person

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Next up: Bitten. Bitten is a raspberry red jelly loaded with glass flecks. This polish sparkles so much that it's just amazing, I don't know that I've ever owned a polish with this much sparkle. 

The formula was great on this one, it's a jelly base and I used three coats because it really added depth to the polish, two coats would be fine for most people.

Bitten

Bitten

Bitten

Bitten

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Coveted was a surprise favorite for me, I'm not usually a huge fan of dark green polish. Coveted is pretty much the green cousin of Cult Nails Iconic. Where Iconic has gold shimmer and flakes, Coveted has green shimmer and flakes. The flakes aren't the mylar flakes that we find in Iconic, but rather flakes of metallic green glitter.

The shimmer in this one is really quite stunning, and the flakes just add a little something extra, and I like the flakes because I feel like it lightens up an otherwise dark polish.

The formula on this one was fantastic, smooth and opaque in two coats.

Coveted

Coveted

Coveted

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Last is Flushed, the star of the show. Flushed is a blue-toned purple jelly (commonly known as blurple) loaded with the most incredible glowing red shimmer. It's similar to the shimmer in the famed Max Fantasy Fire/Clairns 230 but in a polish that can be worn on its own rather than layered. The red shimmer does have a bit of a color shift, but I couldn't manage to catch that here so it will have to wait for another day.

This color is just.. wow! It's so gorgeous that I didn't want to take it off to swatch more polishes. The formula was also fantastic. I used three coats to maintain opacity under my bright lamp, but Flushed was easily opaque in two. The third photo below shows two coats.

Flushed

Flushed

Flushed - 2 Coats

Flushed

Flushed 

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I couldn't be happier with owning this collection. It's balanced with a variety of colors and finishes, every one more gorgeous than the last! The formula was pretty consistent  a bit sheer but easy to control and fast drying. I actually prefer the sheer formula of these polishes to a lot of the thick 'one coat' shimmers we've been seeing this season. I never have bubbling with thin formulas while I've struggled a lot with thick shimmers. They all dried smooth and super-shiny without top coat, although Coveted was a bit bumpy. Overall I know I'll be getting a lot of use out of these polishes!

  Have you picked up any colors from Behind Closed Doors?