Today I has some nail polish swatches I did really quickly tonight. I'm horrible at painting my nails. Like, I just don't have the coordination required to do a decent job. So I just paint mine messily at night right before bed and clean them up in the shower the next morning. XD
I've got a ton of nail polishes and I'd like to have swatches of them for reference about how it looks and more importantly, how I liked the formula and how many coats it took me. I just did skittles for this. Oh, also, I'm in no way a good photographer. I don't have good equipment (I'm always either using an iphone 3GS camera or a cheap little Fuji digital camera), and it's just not something I've worried too much about in my life.
The thumb is Forever 21's house brand Love & Beauty and the color is just called Coral. They suck at naming their polishes, so I'll just say this is the coral from June 2011. It's a really pretty bright coral color with fine gold shimmer. It leans a bit orange in real life, in my opinion. This was two coats and the formula was very nice. I like the brush too. Not super wide, but not super tiny either. I'm going to put this on as a full mani when I'm done with this. Love & Beauty polishes are $2.80, and I think they're made by whoever makes L.A. Girl, though I could be wrong. The colors seem similar, the bottles are the same, and the price when L.A. Girl was sold at F21 was the same too.
The index is Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in 420 Mighty Mango. This is from their new display of these colors and it only cost $1.99. :D It's a nice bright orange-y coral creme. It took me three coats, and the last one I got impatient with and it got all over my finger. XD I think a normal person could do two coats, but like I said, I suck at putting on polish. The formula wasn't horrible, but it was kind of liquidy for me. It made it a little hard to control. I don't like the brush on this. It's pretty skinny, which I hate, and it's really really long, so I had trouble keeping the polish from dripping all over. $1.99
Middle finger is Love & Beauty Lime also from June 2011. It's a super pretty light/bright green with gold shimmer. I don't have any greens that are this bright summery green and yet this pale. It seemed really sheer at first, but it's easily buildable and this was two coats. It's a little bit sheer at the tips, so I'd probably do three normally, but I'm really picky about that. The formula and brush were the same as the earlier Love & Beauty polish, and I liked them a lot. $2.80
My ring finger has another Sally Hansen Hard As Nails polish from the new display. It's 620 Limestone. It's another creme and I really love the color. Super nice and bright. It reminds me of summer and cool tart drinks. I liked the formula on this one better than Mighty Mango. It was a nice consistency and I was fine with two coats. Same problems with the brush though. $1.99
Pinky was Sinful Colors brand in Seaweed. I love Sinful nail polishes and this one was really interesting. It's actually a pretty much dead-on dupe for Stranger Tides from the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection. After I bought my bottle of this I took it over to a store that sold OPI and compared the bottles. XD It's from a limited edition Sinful display I found at Rite Aid. But yeah, it's a weird murky green that my friend and I think looks sort of like boogers. But very stylish boogers. Nice formula. This was two easy coats. I like Sinful's brushes. I just wish my bottle didn't squeak whenever I open or close it. I love how Sinful polishes are $1.99.
I did one more handful of swatches for the night. I was getting really tired at this point (it was almost 1am) so the swatches got messier.
Thumb is Sinful Colors in Paradise. I don't know if it's a core color or not. I just found it randomly put in with the display of neons at Walgreens. It's a really pretty blue. It feels a little powdery or dusty. I love it because it's not too pale or too dark for what I want. It's so hard to find the perfect blue. Formula was very nice and I think this was two coats. Brush was the normal Sinful one. $1.99
Index was Essie Coat Azure, my first ever Essie nail polish. :D I'm sorry, I just can't enjoy plunking down $8 for ONE nail polish. -_- It would have to be a really amazing polish, and while Essie does really nice polishes, they're a little boring usually. But CVS and Walgreens both have the French collection (Spring 2011) on clearance half off. This is another pretty blue and it has a fine silver shimmer to it. It's darker in real life than in the picture. It's also much less bright and a bit more purple and has a really pretty dusty quality to it. I really love the color and the formula was excellent. This was two coats. Brush was skinnier than I like, but with the formula and the fact that it wasn't super long I was fine with it. $4.14
I messed up my middle finger by getting a piece of glitter (from my last manicure) on it before I put on the polish. This is Sally Hansen Hard as Nails 670 Teal Steel and I don't like it very much. This is the first dud for me. It's a nice watery teal, but I have at least three other polishes that look pretty much just like this. And it was quite sheer. This was three thick coats and it's still super sheer in real life. The polish was liquidy and hard to control too, especially with the stupid brush. So yeah, pretty color, but I kind of wish I didn't have it. XD $1.99
Ring was L.A. Colors Color Craze in Sea Siren. I really like L.A. Colors polishes. I get them at the Dollar Tree, and they only have a small selection of colors, but it changes occasionally so I just check a lot. The color on this is a nice teal color that's not super bright and it has a really fine teal shimmer to it. Formula was great and the brushes on these are okay, though I don't like how the part you hold is kind of tapered. And hey, it was $1!
Pinky was L.A. Colors Color Craze in Tahiti Sunrise, and this is a really bad picture of it. It's a coral, but it's more pink than the other two corals I swatched. I think it's mostly pinker because of the bright pink shimmer in it. It's a pretty nice color and doesn't look frosty, but it's really sheer. This was three coats and I got really sloppy so I'm not sure how many would normally be good for this. My guess is four, if you hate VNL like me. It's a pretty color though, and the formula isn't bad, though not as nice as Sea Siren. $1
Soooo tired now. But at least I have all my notes about what I thought about these ten polishes. I think my favorites were the two Love & Beauty polishes and the two Sinfuls.
I'll probably use this blog for nail polish and makeup stuffs and crafting stuffs. I finished a hat yesterday. Yay.
Okay, nail polishing time and then sleep.
Edit: I need to fix those pictures in the next day or so.
