Cirque Back to Basics - Review & Nail Art

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Good afternoon!

NYC-based Cirque Colors recently released a set of nail color basics called the Back to Basics Set. This contains your quintessential base coat and top coat, as well as a white creme and black creme. I've been testing them out and I'm quite happy to say they get a thumbs up from me.

This is Carpe Diem, a smooth white creme. I've found that it provides the best coverage in either two generous coats or three thin ones. Carpe Diem levels a lot better than other white cremes I've used.

Memento Mori is this inky black creme. I've used one coat here. It is ridiculously pigmented and ultra black! I would use two coats of base coat, perhaps, because as you can see, my nails aren't perfectly smoothed and the slick black really made that obvious.

Holdfast is the name of the blue tinted base coat, Liquid Laminate is the name of the top coat.

Holdfast dried pretty quickly and strengthens the nail but due to its thin nature, it doesn't fill in any scratches or scuffs on your nail bed. Liquid Laminate is also a thinner topcoat than I typically use, but I like how well it flowed. It is very, very VERY shiny - I found it to be a tad more glossy than Seche Vite. It dries a bit slower than other quick dry top coats (Seche, Poshe, etc) but provided a nail surface that was touchable within 10 minutes.

Here I used all the Back to Basics Set to create some nail art. I used a base of Nfu Oh JS 09 (which by the way, is a lovely light salmon jelly but with an awful formula and brush) on top of Holdfast. I used a brush to free hand some geometric designs using Memento Mori and Carpe Diem. Topping everything off is Liquid Laminate. By the way, Liquid Laminate smeared the black slightly- so I'd recommend waiting about five minutes before putting on topcoat so that Memento Mori has more time to set.

Overall, the whole set runs on the runnier side (pun intended) but the black is really pigmented and the white isn't chalky or skippy. Holdfast and Liquid Laminate perhaps aren't the best base/top coats that I've used, but they hold their own and provide a wicked shine.

Back to Basics Set is $36 for all four products. Individually, the cremes are $13 each and the base/top coats are $10 each. Click here to shop this set and other Cirque Colors Products.