American Apparel Neon Yellow

This summer American Apparel released a line of six limited edition neon nail polishes (followed by a seventh later on). Well, at least, I think they were supposed to be limited edition-- they are up on American Apparel's website and seem to be readily available.

These polishes don't have names, they are just Neon (Color). These polishes are definitely packed with neon pigment, which means they dry in a matte/satin finish, not glossy and shiny. Neon Yellow is an extremely bright (read: retina searing) highlight yellow polish. Seriously, you may need sunglasses to read the rest of this post. Unfortunately, this polish was not easy to work with it all. It was extremely streaky and thick (the ends of my nails look kind of blobby)-- I needed four coats of polish to get rid of streaks and patchiness. I used Essie's First Base base coat and Good to Go top coat with this (and all the other AA neon polishes) and it seemed to work just fine.

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Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade:

Natural light - sun:

I know these are bright and the formula was a total pain in the butt, but I'm not going lie-- I kind of love this. I think it appeals to my inner child-- it's just bright and fun and neon. The picture of the polish in the shade probably comes closest to the true color, as this yellow leans a little green. It's also extremely difficult to photograph neon polishes correctly-- the camera just doesn't like them at all-- and you can see in a couple of these polishes where the polish just looks like a bright yellow.

Anchors Away - Sand & Sea Wrap-up

And here is your wrap-up for the second half of the Anchors Away collection - Sand & Sea! This collection of six polishes was a counterpoint to Knotty Nauticals, which featured some very bright and bold colors, perfect for spring. Sand & Sea featured much more neutral polishes- very calm and soothing. The collection features two sheers and four cremes-- I really liked all the polishes, but unfortunately the formula is a little iffy on some of these.

Below Deck:

Knotty:

Pelican Gray: 

Sea Spray:

Sunset Sail: 

White Cap: 

I think my favorites are Knotty, Sea Spray, and Sunset Sail, but I like all of them.

China Glaze Sunset Sail

The last polish in the Anchors Away collection is Sunset Sail. This is a creamy apricot (or peachy beige?) shade with a nice silvery shimmer in it. While this shade is probably not great for everyone's skintone, it does act as a great neutral shade. Unfortunately, the formula on Sunset Sail was pretty terrible. It's thick, but incredibly patchy on the nail and I needed three coats to even it all out. I think the color is really pretty, but I do wish the formula had been better.

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Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade/weak sun:

China Glaze Sea Spray

The second to last polish in China Glaze's Anchors Away collection is Sea Spray. This is probably my favorite polish in the whole collection. Sea Spray is shimmery light blue. I feel like there's nothing else I can really say about it-- it's just really pretty. It has a slightly dusky quality about it, so it's not super bright but still very pretty and spring-like. This color is similar to OPI's I Vant To Be A-Lone Star, except it is more blue in appearance and less frosty.

Sea Spray was fairly easy to work with and I only needed two coats. I used Orly's Bonder base coat and In a Snap top coat. 

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Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade:

Natural light - sun:

Just a quick comparison: OPI's I Vant To Be A-Lone Star vs. Sea Spray. I haven't had the time to do a side by side comparison yet, but here are a picture of each under artificial light.

Sea Spray: 

I Vant To Be A-Lone Star: 

You can see that Sea Spray is much less frosty than I Vant To Be A-Lone Star. Since Sea Spray was a lot easier to work with and I like the finish a lot more, I think it beats out I Vant To Be A-Lone Star.

China Glaze Pelican Gray

The next polish in China Glaze's Anchors Away collection is Pelican Gray. Grays are also big in the polish world right now, and though I don't really think of grey as a "spring" color, this one is fairly delicate. Pelican Gray is a light grey with a very subtle shimmer in it. I also think this polish leans a little blue. That, combined with the shimmer keeps it from being too heavy.

I ended up needing three coats on my left hand (the one pictured) but only two on my right hand. I used Orly's Bonder base coat and In a Snap top coat-- I'm not very happy with the top coat. It caused some bubbles, which I hate! I also apologize for the fact my nails got dinged up in between my photo sessions-- you can see it the natural light photos. Sorry!

Artificial light:

Artificial light with flash (you can really see the shimmer on the nails here):

Natural light - shade/weak sun (looks more blue here):

I think this is a pretty color and the shimmer gives it depth without being in your face. Like Below Deck, I could see Pelican Gray being appropriate for fall.

China Glaze Below Deck

To make up for a lack of posts last week-- you get two today! We're still visiting the second half of China Glaze's  Anchors Away Spring 2011 collection. With the third polish in this half, we leave the sheers behind and move into the cremes! Here we have Below Deck, which is a greyed mauve creme. According to some other bloggers, Below Deck is apparently very similar to an older China Glaze polish, Channelesque, which was hugely popular when it came out and has been discontinued and is hard to find these days. Since I've just gotten into nail polish, I don't own Channelesque, but I think it's nice that China Glaze decided to revamp an old favorite-- especially for polish fanatics who missed it the first time around. If you would like to see a comparison of the two, you can see a nice one over at The Swatchaholic.

Anyway, on to Below Deck! These mushroom, taupey shades are in right now and so Below Deck is definitely on trend. This is pretty much the only shade I own like this (for now). The purple tones make this more springy than just a straight taupe, but I could definitely see this polish being spot on for fall too, as the seasons are changing.

Below Deck was a bit on the thick side, but I managed to get it to apply very nicely in two coats. I used Orly's Bonder base coat and Orly's In a Snap top coat. I do want to apologize for these pictures, though-- I'm not really happy with the way they turned out. I think at some point I will go back and reswatch this-- probably in the fall!

Artificial light:

Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade:

I wish I had a sunlight picture to show you, but of course the day I was swatching these polishes there was no sun. Argh. Right now, in the middle of summer, I'm kind of focused on bright, sunny colors, but I will definitely pull this out again with fall right around the corner.

China Glaze Knotty

Sorry for the delay with postings! I was off on my last vacation of the summer and did not bring my computer with me so I could be mostly unplugged from the world.

The next polish from China Glaze's Anchors Away: Sand & Sea collection is Knotty. Again, this collection of six polishes is more neutral than the other half of the polishes. Knotty is probably best described as a sparkly golden beige polish. It's not gold gold and it's not really a bronze-- but it is very sparkly. It's also very sheer. I needed three coats to make this polish opaque and even then, I used fairly thick coats. I think this polish is meant to be used as a layering polish, but honestly, I also kind of liked it alone. Usually I'm not a fan of sheer polishes at all, but there's something that pops about this neutral color-- it's really pretty and has some nice pop to keep it from being boring. The fact that it can be made opaque, or with very minimal visible nail line also helps. For this polish I used ORLY's Bonder base coat and ORLY's In a Snap top coat.

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Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade:

Natural light - sun:

I think it's kind of fun and interesting. I will try to layer it over some darker polishes to give you a different feeling for what you can do.

China Glaze White Cap

Ok, summer has finally (maybe!) arrived in Seattle and even though polishes are finally moving onto fall-- I'm not ready yet! In fact, I technically have one spring collection to review!

This is the second half of China Glaze's Spring 2011 Anchors Away collection. This collection of six polishes was called Sand & Sea and is a more neutral palette than the bright, colorful six polishes that made up the Knotty Nauticals.

First up we have White Cap, which is a sheer, white-based polish that is loaded with gold glass flecks. It's a really pretty polish, but clearly meant to be a layering polish and not worn alone. Unless, of course, you like that; in which case, have at it! I used three coats here and there is still visible nail line. It also looks a little streaky, but would look much better with another polish under it.

These pictures are a little old, before I really started to hone my skills. I can't remember what base coat and top coat I used, because I wasn't taking notes at the time.

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Artificial light with flash:

Natural light:

Very pretty polish - I need to try layering it over some other colors!

Zoya Mod Mattes Collection Review

Here is my wrap up of the Mod Mattes Collection from Zoya. These matte polishes were really gorgeous and bright and definitely summer. However, I did have major issues with streakiness with Lolly and Mitzi-- Phoebe was better, but a light touch is definitely required to avoid brushstrokes. I still have technique issues to work out, but I love the matte finish!

My favorite polish from this collection is Phoebe, which has a very subtle shimmer and is extremely vivid. And it's blue. Love!

Lolly: 

 

Mitzi: 

Phoebe: 

 

Zoya Phoebe

The last polish in the Mod Mattes collection is Phoebe. Zoya describes this polish as "bright azure with fine electric blue and violet shimmer with a velvety matte finish. The matte finish amplifies the bright color; this is a matte that positively glows." Like the other polishes in this collection, Phoebe dries matte and flat, but unlike the other polishes, this polish has a hidden shimmer in it. It's gorgeous. And retina searing, wow. This polish is bright.

For me, Phoebe was much better than either Lolly or Mitzi. It was not streaky at all, though because of the brushstrokes I needed three coats to really make it look good. It's still not perfect, but it looks a lot better than the first two. My notes say I didn't use a base coat, but I'm pretty sure I did use Zoya's Anchor base coat with this.

Again, the pictures I have are without and with a top coat. What's awesome is that you can still the shimmer even when the polish doesn't have a top coat, but it looks absolutely beautiful.

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Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade:

Natural light - sun: