Re: Cirque Colors editing swatch photos and colour accuracy.

Please note!! This is a very, very long post, I've put a TLDR below each section to save time.

Top photos: Cirque Colors uploads (here!)
Bottom photos: Original uploads from Lacquerdiary3.14 (here!)

Some context, before I properly get into this:

Yesterday Cirque Colors posted the top images to their account – which are swatch photos from Lacquerdiary3.14 – that were originally posted to Instagram a week ago.

People very quickly realised that Cirque had edited the swatchers photos, and have been sharing the original and edited versions of Piña Jelly to showcase this. Cirque has responded confirming they edited the photos, saying "To ensure color accuracy, we use a standard lighting and color matching process."

TLDR; People pointed out how different the nail colours look in both sets of photos. Cirque confirmed they edited the nail colours.

When looking at the photos Cirque uploaded VS the original upload, I could tell that all photos had been edited, but to varying degrees. Some photos had slightly been edited – such as the hue being changed a small amount – while others had edits made to both the overall colour saturation and individual nails.

I decided to screenshot the photos and colour pick them to see just how much they had been edited. To be as fair as possible, I did this on both my laptop and my phone. I used a pixel grid to ensure I was colour picking as accurately as possible, since jellies can be quite patchy. I also made sure to use the exact same pixel from the original and edited photos. Again, I wanted to be as fair as possible! (I was also in slight denial, I really like their polishes and wanted to believe they weren't still editing their photos to unrecognisable levels, but I stand corrected. 💔)

TLDR; Cirque has edited every photo, I've spent a few hours combing through them, some polishes have been edited to an unrecognisable level.

The photos I've uploaded were done on mobile, so I apologise for messiness! These were much tidier than my laptop creations, so I decided to share these ones.

❤️The Mxcn Cola Jelly edit was both a hue edit (all nails appear slightly more pink) and a spot colour. Mxcn Cola Jelly was changed to be more mauve-leaning. The swatcher notes in their original post that Mxcn Cola Jelly is more brown than it appears in the original photo.

💛The Piña Jelly edit was a hue edit (yellow made more intense on all nails) and a spot colour, with Piña Jelly entirely changing colour. Multiple swatchers have noted that it's very similar to Mango Jelly. I decided to colour pick and compare Mango Jelly and Piña Jelly, and, as you can see, they are nearly identical. Opacity appears to the biggest difference!

💚Toronja Jelly had minimal edits, the green hue has been made brighter on all nails but it isn't very noticeable.

🩷The Guayaba Jelly edits are much more intentional, with both photos having strange spot colour edits. Rose Jelly was changed to a light pink shade instead of it's more peach-leaning original shade. Pink Apple Jelly was changed to a more flamingo pink instead of it's original hot pink shade. The Peach Jelly and Rosewater Jelly edits seem slightly lighter than the originals, which are likely due to simple hue changes. Finally, Guayaba Jelly was changed from a rose-leaning pink to a coral pink. I compared both Guayaba Jelly edits + originals in the second photo (bottom right), as you can see the edits are slightly different shades while the originals are almost identical. Edit 1 is grey-er than edit 2. (It's a bit ironic that Cirque is creating more inconsistencies with their colour edits. 😵‍💫 On that note, kudos to Lacquerdiary3.14 for having such consistent photos and colour accuracy! 💅)

🧡Jarritos Jelly has more strange intentional spot edits, with two colours being made lighter and one darker. Hearth Jelly was changed to a much more mauve-brown leaning shade, instead of it's original red orange shade. Saffron Jelly was changed from it's regular orange shade to a more honey-like shade. Jarritos Jelly was changed from it's bright, almost neon orange shade to a more coral orange. I'm unsure if this one had a hue edit thanks to each being unique in it's changes.

I want to note as well – some of the edited nails have an "aura" that isn't there in the original photos. It's most obvious in the Guayaba Jelly edits, with the pinky in the second Guayaba Jelly photo having the most prominent aura. The area surrounding the nails have a white cast thanks to sloppy spot colouring. As a result, the skin around the nails has also been lightened. I'm really hoping this is a one-off incident and not something they regularly do. ☹️

I also own most of the polishes featured here – all but the new ones. My bottles and photos of past manicures match the original photos much more than the Cirque edited ones.

TLDR; all shades were edited, some intentionally with spot colouring and some with hue changes. The colour correction was sloppy, with the corrections being inconsistent and causing skin to look lighter than what was originally posted.

I apologise for how long this post became, I wanted to make sure I included as much detail as I could. Hopefully everything is understandable! I will edit the post with more details if I've forgotten anything, if someone asks me to, or if Cirque says/does anything important.

My only intention with this post is to share my findings, as I originally thought they had reduced the amount of editing they did after all the backlash they've received previously. I was really sad to find out that they've just gotten better at hiding it after looking at the pictures closely. And being messy enough to lighten the skin surrounding the nail is 😬.

Final TLDR; I'm hopeful Cirque does something to rectify this at long last, I'm hopeful they properly listen to their customers, and I'm hopeful that they'll finally start truly learning from their mistakes. And Lacquerdiary3.14 is a fantastic swatcher that any company would be lucky to work with!!!