american apparel summer 2010 swatches part 1: butter, malibu green

hi everyone! sorry for my absence the past couple of days... we've hardly had any sun around here, which makes photographing polishes no fun! this morning, however, we had some nice weather, so i thought it would be a great time to swatch a couple of the latest offerings from american apparel.

as i've posted before, being a die-hard creme lover i'm a big fan of smerican apparel's range of polishes, so i was thrilled to hear that this summer, they were expanding their line to include five new colors: butter, california trooper, l'esprit, malibu green, and summer peach.

i had mixed feelings about butter - i loved the color, a gorgeous warm soft yellow, but i did have issues with the application:


yellows are notoriously difficult to apply, and butter wasn't particularly awful in that respect; it was both thick and runny, and somewhat streaky as well, but most people could probably get it to work in three thick coats (since i didn't figure this out through midway through my application, i used four regular coats for the swatch above). however, the american apparel brush is designed in such a way that the stem retains a lot of polish even if you wipe off your brush well, causing drips and mess if you aren't careful. thus, in order to have a controlled, neat manicure, you have to wipe off the brush and stem so thoroughly that you simply don't have enough polish left to do properly thick coats. if you're able to figure out how to apply butter in a way that works for you, though, the color is very pretty.

malibu green on the other hand, had an awesome formula, and i really liked the color as well:


(please note that the polish is brighter and more saturated irl.) this had the thin, super-pigmented formula that i love and think of as being typical of american apparel's polish! with all my love of crazy polish i've never really ventured into bright blues and greens, so i was surprised by how much i loved this shade... i actually wound up wearing it for three days! the formula of this polish was excellent - smooth and very easy to work with - and it was opaque in two thin coats. malibu green makes a great pop of color against the blacks and neutrals i insist on wearing even throughout the summer, and i'm looking forward to breaking it out again.

i should have the rest of the american apparel summer colors (california trooper, l'esprit, and summer peach) swatched and posted for you on monday... i'll update this post with a link once that's done. happy weekend!

disclosure: the products in this post were sent to me by american apparel for consideration

swatch: chanel illusion d'or over american apparel hassid

when the chanel noir et or paris-shanghai polishes (black velvet, gold lamé, and illusion d'or) first went up on the chanel website, i was tempted by them but ultimately decided not to purchase any. once they appeared to have sold out, however, i felt a momentary panic... maybe i did want them after all, and now they were gone forever, never to be seen anywhere again except for on ebay for $300+! (lest my male friends who read this blog think i'm being hyperbolic, that's what really happened with the last chanel limited edition nail polish, jade - it now sells for several hundred dollars.) so when i saw the polishes back up on the chanel site, i clicked "purchase" without letting myself think twice.

i ultimately wound up purchasing both black velvet (mostly for the packaging, not gonna lie) and illusion d'or. since black velvet can't be worn with topcoat and i'm a slave to my quick-dry, i'll be waiting to wear that one 'til i have a nice chunk of free time; illusion d'or, however, i put on the day after it arrived.

first, a bottle pic:


and a close-up of the polish in its bottle (those little purple iridescent pieces are the coolest thing about this polish, imo):


and now for some mani pics! i put one coat of illusion d'or over american apparel hassid, a fabulously pigmented black that works great for layering! here's the result in overcast light:


in regular natural light:


and finally, in bright sunlight so that you can see how dense yet fine the glitter is:


also, here's a close-up so that you can see the individual glitter particles better. please excuse the leftover red polish on my nail!



all in all, i think illusion d'or is quite pretty. it's still growing on me - i normally prefer cremes or in-your-face bling - but i do like it, especially when the purple bits catch the light.

swatch: american apparel downtown la + china glaze medallion

after i got bored with my aa downtown la mani, i topped it with chg medallion (fine gold glitter and larger holographic glitter in a clear base) to give it a fresh look. please keep in mind that these photos were taken right when i woke up and in the middle of a storm… in other words, not in the best lighting conditions. i can only imagine how blingy this manicure would be in full sunlight!


and here's a blurred close-up to show how glittery and fun this look is:


love! i needed something sparkly to cheer myself up in this gross weather, and this fit the bill perfectly. for the base color, i used two coats of downtown la, and for the glitter effect i used one coat of medallion on my ring and pinky fingers and two coats on my index and middle fingers. just a warning, medallion is a pain to remove, but i'm sure the foil method would get it off quickly and painlessly!

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. :)

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.