Ulta Carnivale Four Piece Mini Collection Swatch & Review

This mini set from Ulta has a little something for everyone. Four different colors with four different finishes was an interesting selling point in this for me.  Most mini sets have the same finish with various colors, I liked the variety in this one.  My friend Melissa got this for me as a gift for passing my Praxis II (yay!) test a week or so ago. This was one of those items I pick up and put down time and time again so it was good to have someone pull the trigger for me. All swatches have CND Stickey for the base coat and Brucci Nail Dryer for the top coat.

Cha Cha, I Want Samba That, Masque-parade, It's the Rio Deal

I'll start with Cha Cha, which is a yellow creme.  I was hoping this one wouldn't suck, but it's a streaky standard yellow 4-coater.  It does look pretty, I like the shade but I don't like four coats.

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This one was most difficult to apply and had the worst formula from the bunch. I've never had any really bad experiences with Ulta brand polish but yellows seem to be everyone's Achilles heel.

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I Want Samba That, whose name is a pun that goes right over my head (I want some of that?), is a green grass fleck, very sparkly!  The formula on this one was decent, 3 coats shown.

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 I recently swatched a Funky Fingers green grass fleck; I prefer the Ulta shade much more.

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Masque-parade is a purple shimmer polish with pinkish-purple shimmers.  The formula on this one was great! So smooth, very opaque. Two coats.

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The shimmer, seen below, is super subtle and hidden, I had some difficulties capturing it.

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It's the Rio Deal is almost a creme. It's got some jelly-like attributes to it, as well.  It falls somewhere right in the middle as there was still some VNL even though I felt it was adequately covered.  The formula for this one was pretty good too actually. Two thin coats.

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It's a fun, very bright red that leans a bit neon. It's a bit of a all-in-one polish considering how many finishes it manages to have.  It reminds me of tomatoes and while I'm not a big fan of reds, this one is certainly memorable.

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The Ulta Carnivale Four Piece Mini Collection is available at Ulta for $7.99 - I'm pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the swatches except for the crappy yellow. It's such a pretty happy shade but the four coats is a deal breaker for me. Which is your favorite?