swatch: opi miami beet

when changing my polish yesterday afternoon, i had my roommate pick my mani. she suggested a "bright, red-toned purple," and the closest thing i had in my untrieds was opi miami beet!

here it is in the sun:


and since this polish darkens considerably in dimmer lighting, here it is in regular natural light (it's darker still indoors):


when i was placing the etailer order in which i got miami beet, i idly wondered to myself how i'd managed to do without this shade for so long, considering the number of people who rave about it. once the polish had arrived and i had unpacked it, though, i remembered why i'd avoided picking it up in the past - it's reputed to be a dupe for zoya moxie, which i already own. the two polishes do look slightly different in the bottles, so i'll need to do a comp at some point to figure out their precise similarities and differences.

by the way, with regard to formula miami beet is like the vast majority of the opi cremes i own - pigmented, smooth, and opaque and two coats.

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. :)

swatch: nails inc. victoria gate

happy new year's eve to all! this is my absolute favorite holiday... it's so full of promise.

here's a recent notd, nails inc. victoria gate (three coats):


i am lame and sleepy, so i have enlisted my bff poonam to give you her commentary on this shade:
"victoria gate has an excellent application, like so many of the nails inc. shades. the color is a strong berry with purple elements and, while i would hesitate to recommend it as a "fun frolicky" shade, this jewel tone is subtle and extremely apropos for the holiday season! it reminds me of christmas ornaments of days of yore! i would recommend pairing it with a fun colored cocktail or festive footwear for maximum holiday enjoyment! countdown to the new year on my end is 35 minutes, so off i go!"

...mama hearts her exclamation points. see you all in 2010!

swatch: zoya ciara

i actually have this on my toes at the moment, but a picture of my feet will go up on the internet over my dead body. so, a quick swatch!


as i've mentioned before, zoya is my go-to brand for pedis, for a couple of reasons. first, while i normally love the opi pro-wide, trying to maneuver it around my wee nubbin toenails makes for a huge mess. i find the small brush of zoya polishes less than ideal for manis, but absolutely perfect for mess-free pedicures. in addition, while i'll rock even the most out-there colors on my fingernails (teal jelly holo glitter? i'm there!), for my pedis i'm super-traditional: vampy, red, berry, or pink cremes only, no exceptions. and zoya does these more conservative colors so well!

i'm quite happy with ciara - it's very pretty, and while most people would consider it a "safe" color, sometimes that's exactly what i want. plus its application was smooth, and it was opaque in two coats. i do my pedis while standing in front of my desk, putting my feet up on the writing surface one at a time (basically like a flamingo, haha), so i'm always glad to find a polish that minimizes how much time i'll have to spend in that odd position.

by the way, ciara is quite a bit darker in indoor lighting... definitely more of a berry than a pink.

bf says: "excellent application!" that's a big compliment coming from him, since the last time i did swatches, he told me my "gap" was too big, ha!