Island Girl Surfer Babe with Cover Girl Fireworks glitter

I was in the mood for some green the other day, so I decided to try out one of my untrieds. I hadn't used it in part because its matte finish had put me off it. I figured adding Cover Girl Fireworks would give it that extra shine and sparkle it needed, so I combined both.  Find out what I thought of this combo after the jump. 

I really like the color of Island Girl Surfer Babe. I'm not sure about the availability of this polish because I got it as a gift from a friend who visited Hawaii. I've only seen bloggers mention this brand in relation to Hawaii, although the packaging mentions an address in Pacoima, CA. I know this brand has limited availability, so I checked at my polish place and it looks like it's very close to China Four Leaf Clover or Color Club Edie.

Like those other two polishes, this color was a bitch to try to capture! It's definitely camera shy. I tried photographing it under various lighting conditions and I think the following picture is the closest to the color IRL.  

I actually got that picture through a fluke. Since I knew my pics hadn't reflected the true color, I found a common household object to compare to.  Behold the humble Rubbermaid plastic drink pitcher. I'm not sure it's useful, but it's something both my place and my friend's have in common, so I figure someone else has it ,right?(And if you're super interested, you can probably find the same pitcher at a Target or something.)

Here's a comparison shot with my finger next to that pitcher.

Anyway, I adore the color of the polish! The finish and application? Not so much! The polish applies super streaky on the 1st coat. A 2nd coat helps a lot, but you need 3rd coat for total opacity. The polish dries to a matte finish, something you wouldn't guess by looking at the bottle. It just looks like a plain creme in the bottle, and it's not the only one. The other polish I have from this brand is has the same matte finish. Here's a pic of the polish at only 2 coats without anything on top of it:

Island Girl Surfer Babe, natural light lamp (minimal cleanup because I knew I still needed to apply the glitter. )

I knew that adding another coat of Surfer Babe and a glitter topcoat would solve the matte-ness problem, but what about the glitter itself? I was thrilled with Cover Girl Fireworks because it appeared to be a polish that consisted only of big hex glitter. I was wrong. The polish is made up mostly of the hex glitters in a clear base, but there's another element thrown in: mini red glitter! Here's a picture of the bottle:

Cover Girl Fireworks, natural light lamp

I guess I'm still not that educated as a polish consumer- I thought it was weird that  Fireworks had a bit of a brownish/maroon hue to it but didn't think to examine the bottle more closely. Turns out, the weird coloring has to do with the mini red glitters mixed in the polish. When I say mini, I mean that they are even smaller than the typical small glitters that you would find in a color like OPI Rainbow Connection. I encourage you to click to enlarge the pictures of my nails and the bottle where you'll be able to see the mini glitters a bit more clearly. It's not that I don't like this polish because of the red mini glitters, it's just that I wasn't expecting them. Otherwise, the polish has a thick consistency definitely delivers mainly hex glitters. The consistency issues probably have to do with the fact that this claims to be a base coat, color and topcoat all in 1 bottle. I got less hex glitters than I expected on the nail with 1 coat, so I did 2 coats. Like other hex glitters I've experienced before,  the large hex pieces do tend to clump together and have to be manipulated to be placed where you want them on the nail. Overall, a nice polish that probably ended up at the Dollar Tree for a reason. I suspect it got discontinued because a) people distrusted the weird hue b)they were (unpleasantly?) surprised by the red glitters or c) they tried to wear this polish on its own since it claims to be 3 polishes in 1 but  were disappointed when it only had minimal coverage.

Do you own any Island Girl glitters? And have you ever been surprised to find an extra element in a polish once you wore it?