Gel II Carousel Collection – Spring 2015

Gel II recently launched the Carousel Collection for Spring, which consists of six creamy pastel shades.  These are exactly the types of colors that make me think Spring!  Below are photos and descriptions of each color in this collection.  I found that the polishes had nice opacity and most of the swatches are shown with just two coats of color, except where noted.  Also I didn’t find any fading issues with any of these colors.

Peppermint Pony is a minty teal green cream.  This shade is in the same color family as a few other teals in my stash, except this is the only one with a cream finish.  Some very similar shades with a shimmer finish are Kiara Sky Scarlett, Ink Cameo, and Couture Million $ Tweet.

Frou Frou Blue is a pale pastel blue with a cream finish.  This is one of the palest blues that I own, and is very similar to Gelish My One Blue Love.

Merry Go-Berry is a really lovely pastel lilac shade.  The only color in my stash that is somewhat similar to this is Sensationail Heirloom Lilac, but it has a shimmer finish.  I really adore this color for Spring!

Prancing Peach is a pale pastel peach with a cream finish.  This is the palest peach shade that I own to-date.  I was afraid that this color would make my skin look washed out, but it looks really nice.  I wore this to school the other night and a few people grabbed my hand to look at the color and everyone loved it.

Mauvelous Melody is a light, but bright shade of pink that reminds me of bubble gum.  I had some difficulties with the formula of this particular polish.  Gel II claims that their polish never separates, but this polish was very separated and no amount of shaking seemed to fix the problem.  I  found it to be a little runny and had to apply three coats to get it to look as opaque as the others.  I don’t have any other pinks quite like this one though.

Bare Bear is a pale neutral brown.  I was also surprised by how much I liked this shade.  I’m not normally a fan of neutrals and most make my hands look washed out, but this color has a lovely warm tone that seemed to work very well with my skin tone.  ibd Dockside Diva is the most similar shade that I have to this, except it has cooler / greyer tones than Bare Bear.  This may be my new go-to neutral!

I’m conducting a wear test with Gel II Peppermint Pony and will report on my findings soon! I’d love to hear your thoughts and experience with the Gel II brand. And let me know which of the shades from this collection are calling your name. :)