Skin & Tonics : Skincare Guides & Product Reviews

Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day. I have a confession to make about that holiday, at the risk of exposing myself as a stick-in-the mud. It’s actually one of my least favorite holidays. I appreciate the whole “celebration of Irish culture” sentiment. People should celebrate their heritage! My problem is that I feel like the holiday was long ago high jacked by frat boys and girls gone wild. Every year, it seems increasingly more like a celebration of drunk driving and puking on the sidewalk. That’s gross, you guys. And you know what else is gross? Green beer. I know, I know, it’s just regular beer with food coloring in it. But it’s usually swill beer, and I don’t like my frosty ale to be unnaturally green.

I may not be a St. Patrick’s Day fan, but this year, I did get into the spirit a little bit, mostly thanks to SquareHue’s March 2013 offering, the O’Hue Collection. I have to admit, given my feelings about St. Patrick’s Day, I wasn’t that pumped about the O’Hue Collection before I actually saw it. I expected three varying shades of green, which wouldn’t have been awful but also not something I’d jump up and down about. When it arrived in my mailbox, I was really surprised by the colors it contained! Instead of sticking solely with the obvious green, the SquareHue team extended its view of St. Patrick’s Day to encompass the beautiful shades of non-green tinted beer.

First up, we have “Blonde Ale.” It’s a lovely, glowing gold that is suitable for wear all year round. The undertones in this gold polish lean more toward beige than they do yellow, making it a glamorous, neutral color option. This one dries the fastest out of the three polishes in the collection, and provides full, smooth coverage in two coats.

Blonde Ale

Amber Lager is a beautiful copper that’s metallic and warm. I loved the shiny finish of this polish, although the color does remind me very much of autumn. When fall comes back around this year, I expect I’ll be wearing this one a lot. The formula for this one also provides full, even coverage in two coats, and dries slightly faster than Patty’s Pint.

Amber Lager

Amber Lager

Lastly, we have “Patty’s Pint.” which is SquareHue’s nod to the celebratory green beer I loathe so much. But the shade is a beautiful, deep, true green that’s very wearable. It has an almost shimmery quality too it, though it’s not remotely glittery. There’s no streaking, and it provides full, deep coverage in two coats. Like the others, it also dries fairly quickly – I was doing dishes less than 10 minutes after my manicure.

Patty’s Pint

Patty’s Pint

I’m extremely pleased with this month’s SquareHue offering. For those who don’t know about SquareHue yet, it’s a monthly nail polish subscription service that sends three bottles of polish to your door every month for $21. Each month features a themed, limited-edition collection that is only made available through the subscription service, and only for that month. Next month’s offering is called “The Bloom Collection.” I’m very excited to see what they come up with for that! If you’d like to get in on the SquareHue action in time to receive The Bloom Collection, you can sign up for a subscription on their website.

Skin & Tonics Rating
Performance: 4/5 – Even coverage, dries quickly
Quality: 4/5 – Formula is nice, very easy to work with
Value: 4/5 – Three half ounce bottles of high-quality polish for $21 (and free shipping) comes out to $7 a bottle – about what you would pay for a bottle of Zoya or OPI

Overall: 4/5

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