Cult Nails: Living Water (and a comparison with CG Smoke and Ashes)

Seeing as the Cult Nails $5 sale is starting in a few hours, I thought it would be a good time to show you one of my favorites: Living Water! It was the polish that led me to join the Cult after all! ;)

Living Water is described as a "deep blue jelly polish with ice blue and emerald green glitter inspired by the phosphorescent sea-water". I really couldn't have said it better myself!

It was definitely a love at first sight for me. Who doesn't love some sexy sparkly glitter twinkling in a dark base? Then, I knew I had to get this after I read the description - my geeky self was hooked when I saw the words "phosphorescent sea-water". How cool is that? ;p

Twinkling... twinkling... *_*

Isn't it just mesmerizing?! *_*

The formula is really good too. It was smooth and easy to apply, taking only two coats to be completely opaque. (Please don't mind the bald spot on my ring finger - didn't realize I mucked it up until I was editing the photos.) It dries really glossy with a nice jelly finish but I added top coat to help the micro-glitter shine - only one coat of Seche Vite was needed.

As promised, here's a quick comparison with China Glaze's Smoke and Ashes which I've previously swatched here. Both are shown with one coat of Poshe base, two coats of color and one coat of Seche Vite. As always, click to enlarge!

From afar (stretch-your-hands-as-far-from-you kind of afar), they are really similar, if not alike. But they are definitely not dupes. Living Water is an obvious darkened blue / teal jelly (look at that shine!) while Smoke and Ashes looks like a nearly black creme. LW also has glitters instead of flecks. The glitters in LW show up slightly more on the nails too - they glow.

Here's one last picture that show the glitters and flecks more clearly:

So do you need both? Not really... Unless you have a weakness for this kind of colors, like me.
If you ask me, I actually prefer Living Water because of the formula and the glowy glitter. But if you don't like glitter removal (I highly recommend the foil method), Smoke and Ashes would be a better choice for you. It's really pretty too!

Cult Nails can be purchased on their website - they ship internationally!
For people staying in or near Singapore, you can also purchase Cult Nails from the sweet Mei Mei at Mei Mei's Signatures for SGD12.50 each. Delivery is extremely fast too! :)

FYI: The $5 Sale starts at midnight EST on April 7 until 11:59pm EST on April 7!
You can now buy up to 3 colors at USD 5 each!
For more details, please check out this post. I am not entirely sure if Living Water will be available as there are less than 200 bottles available in stock as of April 3.

So what do you think of Living Water?
Which other Cult Nails do you like?

xoxo,
mich