Reviewing Avon Suede and Pure Ice Velvet

Hello again! Are you ready for lots of pictures?

I've been intrigued by these creatures for a few weeks, so tonight I decided I needed to go buy them and get to know them :) I am talking about the Avon Suede polishes and the Pure Ice Velvet polishes. 

Suede or Velvet polishes are meant to be worn alone, without top coat, in order to show the "texture" and "finish" they are inspired by. I grabbed a few from each collection, based on what my caught my eye at the store. 

Pure Ice is a brand sold at Walmart, polishes are $1.97 and they just came out with several collections that look like fun. These are my first Pure Ice polishes ever! I found a display fro their Velvet polishes and I grabbed 5, after swatching them I realized that one of them might not be from the Velvet collection but oh well! It was difficult to tell from the display, people move bottles around and the display was not marked with the polishes that belong to each collection. Here are the 5 I picked up:

Temptress, this is a beautiful purple, leaning towards blue, with tiny gold shimmer, this is the one that might not be part of the Velvet collection. I'm still glad I picked it up, it's beautiful!

Draped, it's a strawberry red leaning towards pink, the formula was a bit thin compared to the other ones, would look best after 3 coats, definitely has a "velvet-y" finish.

Grunge, it's a pink/mauve color, very classy, would look great for the office without being boring! I also recommend 3 coats.

Touch Me Softly it's a beautiful magenta based purple, this baby is ready in 2 coats!

Femme Fatale is a "Christmas green" and it is also ready in 2 coats! I was unsure about this color, I thought I would either love it or hate it, and so far I am loving it.

Here are the swatches, this is just 1 coat. You can definitely see the Velvet finish and while a couple of the colors would look best after 3 coats, the formula was great, super easy to work with and I didn't have to dip the brush in the bottle again to grab more polish for one coat. Amazing coverage, especially for the price. Downside? They smell kinda funny, but the smell goes away when they dry, and they dry quickly.

The brush is just the right size to grab the amount of polish you need.

 Here are the Pure Ice colors after 2 coats:

 Close up:

I can speak to the staying power of these polishes as i haven't had a chance to wear them yet, but from what I have seen, I believe they will do just fine. I rarely keep a mani for more than 2 or 3 days :) I am glad I picked up these polishes tonight.

Now, let's talk about the Avon Suede polishes! There is a local Avon store nearby so I was able to go in and look at them, I got all of them except for the Silver one, it just didn't appeal to me. I got 5 suede shades:

 Blue Royale, this color made me think of dark blue jeans, I had to have it!

 Sumptuous Rose, I see coral undertones on this one.

 Fuchsia Feel, it's a dark pink.

Touch Of Taupe, this is a light brown/nude color, it looks almost gold on camera, it's a bit darker in real life, I like this color a lot because it definitely makes me think of Fall/Winter and drinking hot tea or hot chocolate :)

Soft Violet, a cool based purple.

Here are the Avon Suede polishes after 1 coat, the first thing I noticed was how thick the formula was, for most of them. Definitely a lot more streaky than the Pure Ice colors after 1 coat.

The brush is square, I didn't like that, maybe I'm just not used to it and it would be fine after using it a few times. These are my first Avon polishes, I have no clue if all their brushes are square or if this is a new thing, but it was definitely hard to maneuver.

Here are the Avon Suedes after 2 coats, despite the weird brush, they provide great coverage and dry quickly, I love the finish.

 Here are all the swatches together:

 Pretty huh?

Dupes? Not really, the closest thing to a dupe, would be Avon Fuchsia Feel, which looks to me like it would fall right between Pure Ice Grunge and Touch Me Softly.

Overall I feel both brands provide good and comparable results, they are both affordable, Pure Ice $1.97 (.5 fl oz.) at Walmart and Avon Suedes retail for $6 or so but they were on sale for $3.49 (.4 fl oz.)

I think it comes down to availability and color preference. What do you think? Have you tried any of these polishes? Do you like the Suede or Velvet Finish? I think it's a great trend for Fall/Winter and can't wait to actually wear some of these colors! 

Thank you for stopping by,

Fiorella :)