Pretty Serious Cosmetics Hello World! Collection Nail Polish Swatches and Review

I'm very pleased to introduce to you the first nail polish collection from Pretty Serious Cosmetics. Pretty Serious is a new Australian beauty brand created by my buddy Kaz. We share a love of vintage/discontinued polishes and old Sega games, so when I heard that she was creating her own line of polishes, I was super excited to see what kind of colors she would create. Now the first Pretty Serious collection is finally here and it does not disappoint. Aptly named Hello World!, it's a set of six awesomely geeky computer-themed polishes packed full of bright color, sparkly glitter and even a little duochrome. Alongside the six polishes are sets of matching eyeshadows and lipglosses, but I'll cover those separately as they each deserve their own post.

So, here it is, the Hello World! collection from Pretty Serious!


Pretty Serious BSOD. A deep blue jelly with lots of very shiny blue glitter. The rich blue jelly base is the perfect setting for the glitter. It adds depth without drowning the sparkles, allowing glitter from every coat of polish to shine through at different intensities. The glitter is small, smooth and extremely shiny and twinkly, and at some angles it appears to give off a blue-green sheen.


Pretty Serious CGA. The base color of this one is right in between magenta and lavender. I'm not sure if it's actually a dark pink or a light purple! Either way, it is a light pink/purple creme that's accented by some delicate light blue/green color-shifting shimmer. The bright cyan blue shimmer is visible in any light, but brighter light really brings it out and makes it shine. It looks like a glowing blue sheen over the polish that shifts to a greener color at certain angles.



Pretty Serious Forbidden Fruit. This is a very light grey, or perhaps a slightly greyish white with shiny silvery-white flecks of shimmer. When I wear it, it seems to take on a slightly blue cast, though not quite so blue as it seems here. The shimmer in this is small but defined. From normal viewing distance, the shimmer looks silvery. But, when you look at your nails up close, you can see that some of the shimmer is iridescent, showing little flashes of red, blue, and green.


Pretty Serious Morning Java. This is a warm golden brown and bronze shimmer base with bright yellow-gold microglitter. I can also see some little tiny sparks of copper in here as well. The darker color of the brown shimmer base makes the lighter gold glitter look even shinier. This color makes me think of autumn!


Pretty Serious Tux. This is a very dark blackened teal base with blue-green-purple-gold duochome shimmer. The shimmer particles are about the size of (or just slightly smaller than) the ones in Forbidden Fruit, so they look distinct and stand out against the base. The shimmer in this is also a true duochrome, shifting from blue to teal to green, with a little purple duochrome visible at extreme angles or in dim lighting.


Pretty Serious VT100. A grassy yellow-toned green with big sparkly pieces of yellow-gold foil shimmer. The gold shimmer particles are somewhat irregular in shape and size so it looks more like a broken foil fleck than a uniform microglitter, but it still sparkles just the same. Yellow-leaning greens are my favorite kind of greens and this one really amazes me every time I wear it. The green-gold combination makes me think of money, or more specifically, Scrooge McDuck, in a top hat, skiing down a large pile of money.

The formula on these was great. The texture is on the thick side, but they're smooth-flowing and not sticky or gooey. They all applied evenly and had very good pigmentation. All shades were opaque in two coats, but I did three just to see how it would look. The third coat makes the glitter shades look richer and fuller, but it's not necessary for opacity. The brush is quite soft, but evenly cut. Drying time on these is average, not lightning fast but not slow, either.


Every Pretty Serious item comes in this awesome purple box, adorned with pinup-style artwork by Leigh Young. In addition to the adorable artwork, each box is printed with a full list of ingredients and the URL for Pretty Serious. Each bottle of polish also includes a full ingredient list and a url underneath the bottom label.

Pretty Serious can be purchased from their own secure website, located at www.pretty-serious.com. The website is attractive and easy to navigate and includes all the necessary information such as shipping costs, a FAQ section, ingredients lists for each product and a privacy policy, plus some extras, like a really handy swatch gallery. They currently accept PayPal, but will soon be adding secure Visa and Mastercard processing to the site.

They ship internationally and have shipping rates for each region listed here. International orders are shipped from fulfillment partners to allow for faster transit times and lower shipping costs.

All Pretty Serious products are free of formaldehyde, toluene, DBP and formaldehyde resin, and are both vegan and cruelty free.

I think these are awesome. The theme is absolutely perfect for a first collection. The colors are all gorgeous and the formula is very good. I had high hopes for this collection and it did not let me down. The only criticisms I can find are that the size/volume of the polishes doesn't appear to be printed anywhere on the bottle or box and that they only have six colors! I believe they do have another collection or two coming out soon to remedy that last part. Otherwise, everything is pretty much spot-on. The packaging is professional and attractive (a feature I especially appreciate), the polishes apply and wear well, the colors and themes are cool, the website is secure, easy to navigate and has large, clear pictures of every product (including swatches), they ship worldwide for a reasonable rate and they offer a discount if you buy full collections or matching sets. Well done.

Pretty Serious Cosmetics' Hello World! collection is available now on www.pretty-serious.com. Each 11ml (0.37 fl oz) polish retails for $9.95 AUD (about $10 USD) and nothing is limited edition.

(This was sent for review.)