Hey There!
Today I have the last two polishes from the Cult Nails Deceptive Collection. Today I bring you Alter Ego and Two Timer. Let’s start with Two Timer. 🙂
Two Timer
Two Timer over NOPI Khloe Had A Little Lam Lam
Two Timer over half of each nail painted with FP Black Expressionism.
Same nails as above in indirect lighting.
Color:
Although Two Timer has a goldish hue in the bottle, on the nail it is a green shimmer top coat. You can see over KHALLL it makes the nails look like pretty Christmas green nails and over black it looks darker but still definitely green. I like the look of the half and half nails with this top coat. It’s a little subtle so it gives a bit of a confusing, “that looks awesome but what’s going on with those nails?” effect. I wore them out to dinner and couldn’t stop staring at them. 🙂
Formula/Application:
Non-problematic. Not meant to be opaque. The shimmer is plenty dense.
Yes, Please! or No, Thank You:
Yes, Please. I like the green shimmer topcoat. I used Two Timer over some two-toned green dry-brush nails a while back. It just created a bit of a unified look, blurred the brush lines a little and just gave it a real polished look. I wont use this every day, but I’m glad I have it.
Alter Ego:
Alter Ego over Essence Oh De Prep (medium brown).
Alter Ego over FP Black Expressionism with FP Black Expressionism stripes on top.
Same as above, under indirect lighting.
Color:
Alter Ego is an interesting gold shimmer top coat. Over the brown polish it looks kind of coppery and over black it looks bronze. I bet if you layered this over a mauve it’d look like OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes. Lots of the Holland Collection polishes had this type of shimmer so I bet you could really recreate a bunch of those with this top coat and your existing polishes.
Formula/Application:
Non-problematic just like the rest of these. On one of my polishes I did have a few wonky bristles that I had to cut off of the brush, and this brush came loose from the lid but those were easy fixes and I didn’t want to go through the hassle of returning them. I’m sure Mary would have replaced them with no hassle if I’d wanted to go that route.
Yes, Please! or No, Thank You:
If you like gold shimmer you’ll like Alter Ego! This is a quiet “yes, please” for me. I like the whole collection but I have a hard time finding colors to use with them. It’s fun to experiment but I don’t think I’ll use them regularly. I have nothing like them though, so when I want a nice shimmer top coat I’ll reach for these.
What is your final opinion of this collection? Please let me know, I’m curious to find out. Did you pickup anyof these polishes? Thanks for reading and till next time- Happy Polishing!! 😀
Polish Me, Please! 
Aaah! I love Two Timer over KHALLL and Alter Ego over Oh De Prep! I feel like I wouldn’t be good at coming up with combinations! Nonetheless, I think I will eventually cave and get the set 🙂
I really want to try some different nail art with it. Like tape manis over black w one of these topcoats. They’re pretty dense so they don’t necessarily take over, but they definitely show up over the colors you layer them over. It’s fun but sometimes hard to decide what looks good with them. They’re fun though!
I like both but I think that I prefer Alter Ego. Something about polishes that are just meant to be top coats don’t really appeal to me probably because–like Lesley wrote above–I would be terrible at coming up with interesting combinations. Speaking of finger paints, did you get any of their fall polishes? I went to look at them when they had the bogo sale and omg that whole collection seemed so BLAH! I am wondering if it was just me.
Yeah I totally understand that. I think that’s why I like them a little less than I anticipated. They’re cool tho. And nice formula as always from Cult. I think I saw them at Sally’s but they bored my half to death. I don’t remember thinking anything of them really. I feel like all the exciting fall collections came out in August! Haha. Like On Safari. I think I’ll start busting those colors out. I’m trying really hard to be more seasonal… TRYING!
That is so freaking true. The last fall collection that I liked was Jessica Spicy Dream and that was released a while back! Don’t you think On Safari was way early?? I am not excited about the Zoya Ornate collection nor the OPI Holiday Collection. I got one color from the OPI Collection and was so MEH on everything else that I just passed.
I haven’t seen the OPI collex in stores yet so idk if I’ll get any or not. I think I’ll probably get the glitter but from the press releases it looks like 95% of the collection is steel grey or vampy red. It’s not that those aren’t popular colors but dang… can you please have some variety? I think the Safari collection was super early but now I am in the mood for it. I haven’t really paid attention to the zoya collection but idk… I’m feeling meh lately. I was really happy I was impressed with the ChGs that I just got cuz I was feeling rather uninspired.
These are gorgous i need some cult in my life asap
Thanks, I’m glad you like them!