swatch: misa dying love

so much for my new year's resolution to post four times a week huh? unfortunately, i've been so busy lately that i kept $opi dark room on for a week and my next mani, opi dutch tulips on for close to another week. i'll try to be better from now on!

here's my current notd, misa dying love (two coats):


dying love is a black with silver shimmer that lightens the polish's overall color to more of a charcoal gray. the shimmer in this polish is so fine that it can barely be made out as individual particles; instead, it just serves to give the polish a pearly sheen.

me: "what do you think about this one?"
bf says: "nothing! it's just black! it's not even a color."

swatch: sephora by opi dark room

i absolutely love this color... i've been wearing it since before the weekend and still have no desire to change my mani:




dark room is a very dark, murky green that's almost black in low light and whose green hue only really comes out in direct sunlight. the polish is thin and appears almost watery on the first coat, but it builds smoothly to achieve opacity within three coats. i feel like i sound so 'flat' here but i really do love this polish - i wear tons of gray in the winter, and i think this color looks great against those clothes.

swatch: rescue beauty lounge lulu

this polish didn't have quite the opacity and smoothness of most other rbl cremes i own, so this mani required three coats:


i wore lulu with a super severe black dress - heavy fabric, high neck, and sharp, padded shoulders. i loved the contrast.

swatch: sally hansen salon quartz chameleon

the last couple of days have called for a neutral/"work-appropriate" mani, so i reached for this untried polish (from the fall 2008 sally hansen/tracy reese collaboration):


quartz chameleon went on smoothly and required three coats for opacity. honestly, i don't love this polish, as it's strangely close to my skin tone and kind of makes me look like i'm missing my fingernails. in addition, i think it's pretty clear from the polishes i typically wear that i don't like shimmer... but hey, at least this is no longer an untried!

bf says: "it's yoooou, babyyyy!"
me: "what?"
bf says: "THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY!"

american apparel polish swatches, part 2: berry berry, factory gray, office, and poppy

here are a few more swatches of american apparel's new polishes - my first set of swatches (with dynasty, mount royal, palm springs, and peacock) is here if you missed it earlier.

given that i'm a huge fan of bright warm-toned cremes, it's no surprise that i love poppy:


this is unfortunately another picture that looks quite off in firefox (way too orange) but normal in safari - it's a vivid red-orange in the same family as opi cajun shrimp. pigmentation on this is great, requiring only two coats for nice opacity, and i know i'll be wearing this polish a lot come spring and summer. excuse the smudged ring finger!

office looked better on my skin tone than i expected, although my favorite mint green is still bb couture laguna lagoon:


this picture is unfortunately off in ff as well (only slightly this time - it's just a bit too light and not blue enough). office was a bit less pigmented than the other aa polishes i tried, requiring three coats for opacity instead of the two the rest required. in a lot of the swatches i've seen this has a strong grayish tinge, but that's not detectable on me. as i look at it against my skin right now, it appears to be pretty much a plain mint green… which unfortunately makes it a lot less interesting than i'd expected!

factory gray changes quite a bit depending on the lighting. sometimes it's a standard gray creme...


while other times it has a strong purple tone (which is again, unfortunately, only really showing up in safari):


factory gray, like dynasty from my last post, is less pigmented than many of the other aa cremes i swatched but is still opaque in two coats. i find it quite unusual and interesting when it has that purple hue to it, but when it's just a regular gray it seems pretty boring to me. this may be because i don't much care for grays on myself, though… i mean, i'm sure poppy has lots of close dupes but you don't see me calling that one boring! ;)

and finally, i loved berry (edit: the aa website is now calling this "berries," but i could've sworn it used to say "berry berry"? weird.):


this polish seems to me like it should be dupable… but whatever the dupe is, i can't think of it! i don't have much to say about this one except that it applied very smoothly and was quite pigmented (perfect in two coats), and i can't wait to wear it as a full mani!

i plan to go back to posting my regular notds for a bit now, and then when i get a bit of free time, i'll add a third part to this american apparel series with some comp swatches. :)

packing for my return to new york...

after a few weeks away. think i brought enough polish? :P


goodbye, sunlight swatches! luckily, i was able to take pics of the rest of the aa polishes today, so they'll be up once i edit them.

american apparel polish swatches, part 1: dynasty, mount royal, palm springs, and peacock

i own an embarrassing number of tri-blend tees and lamé leggings, so i was stoked to hear american apparel had come out with its own line of nail polish. even before i did my research, i was pretty sure they'd be all cremes… and much to my delight, they were! just fyi, these polishes are available on the aa website for $6 each, although i got mine at my local aa store, which was selling 3 for $15.

i want to start with my absolute fave from this collection, peacock:


it was love at first sight for me and this polish! peacock is a gorgeous, richly pigmented teal that was perfectly opaque in two thin coats. when i get a chance i plan to compare this to illamasqua muse and a couple of other teals i have. gahhh i can't stop staring at this color; it's so beautiful.

probably my second favorite of the aa polishes i swatched was mount royal:


unfortunately, this photo looks quite different in different browsers, and i have no idea which version most of you are seeing. :/ please know that mount royal is *not* a straight-up blue creme; rather, it has a purple tone to it. the first time i tried to apply this polish i found it a bit on the thick side, but upon a second attempt it was pretty workable, so i may have to blame user error for this issues i originally had. like peacock, this polish is practically opaque in one coat and perfect in two. quite unique in my collection and really lovely.

i'm still undecided on how i feel about palm springs:


one thing i can say in this polish's favor is that it applied very well for a a pale shade - it was smooth and opaque in two coats, with only a couple of touch-ups needed. i'm not entirely sure who this shade would suit (don't you think it kind of looks like i smeared too-light concealer on my fingertips?)… i need to try it on myself again now that i've chopped my nails. i pretty much always feel better about a polish when i wear it on super-short nails.

and i absolutely hated dynasty on myself, but luckily it'll soon have a good home with a friend of mine:


a dusty light-medium purple in the same general family as opi parlez-vous opi and streetwear jelly, dynasty was less pigmented than the other aa polishes i swatched but still opaque in two coats. unfortunately, wearing this shade reminds me of the reason i got rid of pvo - polishes this color are too close to my skin tone, so they make me look like i've lost circulation to my fingertips or something. if you're ~nc42, i'd steer clear!

part 2 (featuring berry berry, factory gray, office, and poppy) will be up soon, as soon as i have a chance to swatch.

happy new year!

hi everyone, and happy 2010! i have two polish-related resolutions this new year:

first, i'm going to try to make myself always wear a base coat - i tend to slack off on it because my nails are strong and i don't really care about staining, but this way i'll be able to swatch sheers alone if i ever feel like doing so.

second, i hope to strengthen my commitment to this blog and post notds/swatches at least four times a week. i really want to provide a resource for other girls of my skin tone seeking to know how certain polishes will look on them, and that won't happen if i don't post pics regularly!

and on that note, stay tuned for swatches from american apparel's new nail polish collection - i'll start getting pics up tomorrow. :)