(This collection was gifted to me in exchange for swatch photos; all thoughts are my own)
Hello again, little ducklings! I’m so happy to have you here.
Glisten & Glow has had a seriously busy September for 2025! Between various group customs, a massive 12-piece collection inspired by The Hunting Wives (blog post here), a Halloween collection available for preorder (blog post coming soon), and this one in this post… I don’t know how Jill does it! AND, she’s been still recovering from being quite sick throughout all of this.
Jill: you are a powerhouse! You make beautiful stuff, and I hope you are able to finally take a break soon.
Onto this collection. Jewels of the Fall is a cohesive 4-piece collection of reflective glitter polishes with shifting iridescent flakes. Because these all dry very textured from the reflective glitters and flakes, you will need a glitter smoother. If you’ve never used a glitter smoother before, it is a formula that goes under your usual top coat to “fill in” the areas around texture in a polish to make a smooth finish. For all of my swatches, I am using Glisten & Glow’s Glitter Grabber and Top Coat (both gifted). I find both of these products to be very quick drying, too!
You can find details of this release at the bottom of this blog post. OK, time to share the swatches and thoughts!
Amethyst Twilight
Amethyst Twilight is a clear-based polish loaded with dark purple reflective glitters and color-shifting iridescent flakes that shift red/pink/orange/yellow/green.
I am wearing 3 coats with Glisten & Glow Glitter Grabber and Top Coat.
Application Recommendations:
- Coats: 2 medium-thick to 3 thin coats.
- Top Coats: Glitter smoother and glossy top coat are a must!
- Nail Art: Beautiful on its own, but could see dark stamping over top or being used as a topper.
- Time: Quick drying formula, but glitter smoother will make it a longer mani.
All of these polishes will apply the same for the most part. Because the polishes are so chock-full of flakes and glitters, I would do either 2 coats of your normal thickness or 3 thin coats. The same goes for Amethyst Twilight. I didn’t see a super noticeable difference in color between 2 and 3 coats in real life, but in my video swatch, it’s clear it gets a bit darker and saturated. Opacity increases with each coat; I could faintly see my nail line with 2 coats that went away with the 3rd. With that, if you do medium-thick coats, I think you could get away with 2 coats fully obscuring your nail line.
With that said, it applies so smooth which is always a pleasure with reflective glitter polishes. Because it’s technically a clear base, I was surprised at how full coverage it was. I couldn’t see my nail line in real life, and I still can’t see it in my photos. I also didn’t have any bald spots on the nail; the flakes and glitters are very well dispersed.
All in all, the purple glitters and iridescent flakes look so beautiful together and it is a gorgeous color story. It is probably my second favorite in the collection!
Amethyst Twilight in indoor studio lighting.
Amethyst Twilight in outdoor sunny conditions.
Citrine Glow
Citrine Glow is a clear-based polish loaded with vibrant orange reflective glitters and color-shifting iridescent flakes that shift blue/purple/red.
I am wearing 3 coats with Glisten & Glow Glitter Grabber and Top Coat.
Application Recommendations:
- Coats: 2 medium-thick or 3 thin coats.
- Top Coats: Glitter smoother and glossy top coat are a must!
- Nail Art: Beautiful on its own, but could see dark stamping over top or being used as a topper.
- Time: Quick drying formula, but glitter smoother will make it a longer mani.
I don’t think I can love Citrine Glow enough… This is exactly the polish I dream of when I think of sheer, ethereal, and sparkly. It’s really not that sheer, but at 3 coats, you can definitely still see a hint of my nail line in photos. But, that peekaboo is just so good! At 2 coats, the nail line is much more visible, so I would highly recommend 3 thin coats or 2 thicker coats to obscure it. With all of this said, it is definitely the most sheer of the polishes in this collection, and because of this, I can also see this being a great topper polish, too!
Now, even though this really is my favorite in the collection, I did experience some bald spots. I believe this was because the formula is just so full of glitters and flakes. However, because the formula isn’t as fluid, you can easily fill these bald spots in by adding a touch more to the end of your brush and literally painting them in, even after you just did a coat (there’s no “pulling” of the bottom coat that would make it look unsavory).
In the bottle, I was the least excited to put this polish on. The bright blue color of the flakes didn’t see like it provided enough contrast to the bright orange-seeming base. However… I judged the book by it’s cover so wrong. The blue is bright, sure, but it adds so much depth to this polish. The blue and orange together almost make it look salmon/pink.
All in all, it is such a unique polish and I cannot wait to wear it again.
Citrine Glow in indoor studio lighting.
Citrine Glow in outdoor partly cloudy conditions.
Diamond Dust
Diamond Dust is a clear-based polish loaded with silver reflective glitters and color-shifting iridescent flakes that shift green/blue/purple/pink.
I am wearing 3 coats with Glisten & Glow Glitter Grabber and Top Coat.
Application Recommendations:
- Coats: 2 medium-thick or 3 thin coats.
- Top Coats: Glitter smoother and glossy top coat are a must!
- Nail Art: Would be best as a topper!
- Time: Quick drying formula, but glitter smoother will make it a longer mani.
With this polish, the base becomes a darker grey at the 3rd coat, so the number of coats here will really depend on how “grey” you want it. The 3rd coat (or a thicker 2nd coat) will maximize opacity, but my nail line was already pretty obscured by the 2nd coat on me. So, how quickly you achieve opacity on this one will depend on how bright your nail line is, how thick your coats are, and how many coats you do.
I experienced no bald spots with Diamond Dust; the flakes and glitter were very well dispersed! However, my point still stands from my Citrine Glow write-up: if you do experience bald spots, the formula’s viscosity works to this favor as you can kind of “spot treat” bald spots with a bit of extra polish on the brush, if that makes sense.
This one was probably the sparkliest to me in the sun, and I think that’s because of the silver color of the reflective glitters. And, the blue-green flakes really play up to that sparkle.
Diamond Dust in indoor studio lighting.
Diamond Dust in outdoor sunny conditions.
Enchanted Emerald
Enchanted Emerald is a clear-based polish loaded with vibrant green reflective glitters and color-shifting iridescent flakes that shift red/pink/orange/yellow/green.
I am wearing 3 coats with Glisten & Glow Glitter Grabber and Top Coat.
Application Recommendations:
- Coats: 2 medium-thick or 3 thin coats.
- Top Coats: Glitter smoother and glossy top coat are a must!
- Nail Art: Dark stamping over top or as a topper would be interesting!
- Time: Quick drying formula, but glitter smoother will make it a longer mani.
This was the only polish in the collection that felt like it started a bit goopier than the others. It should be noted that any time you work with reflective polishes, you should probably have nail polish thinner on hand. After 2-3 manis with a reflective polish, it will goop up, and a few drops of thinner should make it right as rain again (I get mine from KBShimmer, who also offers it in Polish Pickup sometimes). Because of its goopiness, I experienced some bald spots with this as well. But, like I said before, it’s nothing that a little spot treatment can’t fix!
I noticed that going up to the 3rd coat really saturated the green base quite a bit; it really turned the saturated up to 10! Other than that, opacity was reached pretty quickly and, thus, I don’t think the 3rd coat did much for that. My recommendation still stands like the rest of the collection for coats and do 2 normal coats or 3 thin coats.
Enchanted Emerald in indoor studio lighting.
Enchanted Emerald in outdoor sunny conditions.
The Jewels of Fall collection is currently available for preorder for $40.00. Individual polishes will be available starting October 1st, 2025 at 6 PM EDT for $11.50 each. You can find the products for the full collection and individual polishes found here at glistenandglow.com.
