Happy Autumn everyone! While I personally have been pretending it’s Falloween since around August, today is the first official day of Autumn. In celebration of the new season, I have swatches of the Heather’s Hues Equinox Essentials collection! This collection consists of 5 creme formulas plus 2 effect toppers. The Equinox Essentials collection is available now (they actually launched at the exact time of the autumnal equinox!) on the Heather’s Hues website. I will have links to everything at the end of this post. Oh and by the way, the cremes from this collection also stamp!
Disclaimer: I was sent these products as PR in exchange for photographs and an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. My photos were taken indoors with daylight bulbs, outdoors with natural light using a peel off base coat plus both matte and glossy top coats.
Aureate
Description: is a mustard yellow creme
Behind the name: golden, brilliant, splendid
Aureate is a beautiful golden yellow creme. I just love this color so much! It’s so perfect for fall plus I’m kinda obsessed with Heather’s yellow polishes. This didn’t have a finicky formula like so many yellow cremes but you also don’t want to overwork this. Good news it applies really evenly so that shouldn’t be a problem. This self leveled perfectly. My photos show it in 3 coats but I think shorter nails can get away with 2 coats.
Kouyou
Description: a perfect pumpkin orange creme
Behind the name: fall leaves changing color
Kouyou is the perfect pumpkin orange creme. It looks a bit like a cantaloupe orange in the bottle but on the nail it’s a pumpkin orange. This had a thicker formula than the rest of the cremes so I did add some thinner to it. When I spoke to Heather about it she said that it wouldn’t be a problem with the official release formula. Even before adding thinner it did self level really well, it just didn’t feel as smooth as her usual creme formula. My photos show it in 2-3 coats. Two of my nails were good in 2 coats but the others needed a 3rd coat.
Petrichor
Description: a fern green creme
Behind the name: the mild and pleasant smell or scent of earth associated with the first rain after a dry spell
Petrichor is an interesting shade of green that I didn’t know I liked until I put it on. Before I got the description, I was calling it a “sage-y but without the grey” green but fern green is a better way to describe it. It applied really evenly, self leveled perfectly, and was close to being a 1 coater on me. I expect on shorter nails this would be a 1 coater. I really liked the toppers over this color.
Rudeneja
Description: a cerise creme
Behind the name: the way nature and weather begin to feel like autumn
Rudeneja had good coverage on the first coat. The formula on this felt close to a crelly (creme + jelly) but it was still opaque in 2 coats. It applied so smoothly and evenly. This self leveled really well. I loved this one paired with Psithurism!
Sirimiri
Description: an indigo creme
Behind the name: a light rain or fine drizzle
Sirimiri had amazing coverage on the first coat! You could definitely get away with applying 1 coat if you really wanted. This color can lean blue or purple, depending on the lighting, so I would put it in the ‘blurple’ category. This applied and self leveled like a dream! My photos show it in 2 coats. I loved this paired with both toppers a lot!
Aki
Description: a versatile polish that can be worn alone or as a topper. It’s packed with an iridescent teal-blue-pink shimmer, holo, and holo flakies.
Behind the name: Japanese meaning sparkle, bright, autumn, fall
Aki blew my mind when I applied it over black! You really see the full shift of colors best over black or by itself but it pairs well with all of the colors in this collection. I really liked it in 3 coats alone on my thumbnail. It does show VNL in 3 coats but it’s so glowy and paired with the holographic elements largely distract the eye from your nail line. Next time I change my acrylic to clear I plan on wearing it by itself again. I could easily see all of the colors in the shift under normal lighting. This had a smooth even formula.
Psithurism
Description: a versatile polish that can be worn alone or as a topper. It’s packed with a red-copper-gold-green iridescent shimmer, iridescent flakes in red-pink- gold-orange-green, and holo microshreds in red, orange, and gold
Behind the name: the sound of the leaves rustling as the wind blows through the trees
Psithurism is jam packed with components but wasn’t thick at all. The flakes and microshreds all apply evenly. I was getting serious unicorn vibes over white. The shimmer colors also reminded me of elusive unicorn pee shimmer. This was stunning in every type of lighting.
But Do They Stamp?
Remember I mentioned that the cremes also stamp? I used my assistant/practice hand Andy aka Handy Andy (named by my fiancé…) to show these stamped over the Heather’s Hues 1 coat black and white cremes. I figured that since I had Andy out anyway, I could check to see if Heather’s black and white cremes also stamped. While these cremes aren’t marketed as stamping polishes, they could definetly be used as such. Her black and white cremes have been my go-to polishes for swatching the past few months and I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to check if they stamped!
Final Thoughts
I am so pumped that Heather’s Hues is releasing creme formulas! I believe the last time Heather released cremes was with her Holiday releases in 2019. Her creme formula is always so smooth and buttery. The cremes also all dry down fairly glossy on their own. My top picks would have to be Sirimiri, Kouyou, Aureate with honorable mentions going to both toppers. This release is also the first official Heather’s Hues release that features new longer caps.
Sale Info
This collection is available now on HeathersHues.com. The cremes will be $9 USD each, the toppers are $11 each or you can buy everything for $67. Heather is in the process of moving so these are being sold on a pre-order basis so allow up to 3 weeks for shipping. Thanks for reading!
Heather’s Hues
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Product List
- Equinix Collection
- Heather’s Hues Shadow (Black) & Illuminate (white) Cremes
- Heather’s Hues Matte top coat
- Maniology stamping plate BM-XL355 (Feel free to use my affiliate code NLN10 to save 10%)
- Red Iguana the practice hand (Andy is in the shade Evelyn)