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Friday 18 July 2014

Max Factor Fantasy Fire Review + Swatches

Hi guys!
Sorry about the wait between posts, I've been in Melbourne this week having a bit of a holiday with the boy. It was great, but cold! I bought so many pretties whilst I was there including fabric, but this is a polish post so I'll talk about my fabric finds another time. One of the polishes I stumbled across was the famed Max Factor Fantasy Fire. 

Max Factor Fantasy Fire over CG Traffic Jam
This polish is a bit of a unicorn in the US as Max Factor isn't sold there. However in Australia, you can find this baby in your local Priceline or Target. I've never looked for it before, but when I did see it at Priceline I snapped it up and then proceeded to stalk every other Priceline in melbourne to check that it was indeed readily available and backups where not required. Side note, there's a Priceline on every city block in Melbourne, can any Melbournites shed some light on this? They are literally everywhere! Not complaining, though! I also found the biggest Priceline ever in Bourke Street Mall. It's huge and the displays are amazing!

Max Factor Fantasy Fire over CG Traffic Jam - Sun
Ok back to Fantasy Fire. The reason this polish is so amazing and sought after is because it's one of the closest resemblances to the long discontinued (2008) Clarins 230. whilst not a complete dupe, it's close enough to kill the lemming for most. If you're not aware of what Clarins 230 is, it's a thin blue/purple based jelly polish packed with red/green colour morphing duochrome pigments. Due to the thinness of the polish, it's usually layered over another colour as it would take 4 coats ore more to become opaque. This is pretty much an accurate description of Fantasy Fire, however the base colour is more red toned. I did not want to waste this little bottle (4.5ml!) so I layered it over CG Traffic Jam to see what it would do. Here's the colour morphing results:

Max Factor Fantasy Fire over CG Traffic Jam - Sun
Fantasy Fire adds a purple tinge to whatever polish you layer it over and spreads quite well, considering how tiny the brush is. I did have some streaking issues, although it's so hard to notice it that it didn't bother me. Also, my left hand got a bit of a thicker layer of Fantasy Fire than my right and the difference in colour is slightly noticeable. The one coat of Fantasy Fire considerably darkened the raspberry pink base of Traffic Jam and gave it this awesome fiery sparkle. In most lights you can see the red shimmer come out, but at other angles it's green! I love this polish, it's awesome! I couldn't stop staring at it. I even saw some blue flashes at extreme angles. Sorry about the crap photos, some were taken in  airport lounges or on the train. Others (the better pics) were taken when I got home, so the tip wear is quite obvious as I'd already been wearing this mani for 4 days.

Max Factor Fantasy Fire over CG Traffic Jam - Sun
Yes here's the crapest worst photo of the day, but you can see the true colour of the mani and the amount of shimmer. Fantasy Fire is truly a work of art for me and I will undoubtedly be buying backups of this polish, but I may wait for some sales as $5.95 for 4.5ml is not cheap! But it's sooooo pretty . . . .

What do you think of Max Factor Fantasy Fire? Yay? Nay? Worth the $15 ebay price tag? I can tell you that it beats the $150 price of Clarins 230 any day!

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