As I said above, I’ve been avoiding doing the blues, not putting them on my nails but in making the hard choices. I really, REALLY love blue nail polish. It is easily the most represented color family in my nail polish collection. I’m doing it in three sets. The pale baby blues, the teals and mid-tone blues, and the dark blues. It’s a weird color on your nails because it isn’t actually that attractive (using standard definitions of attractive) a lot of times. While doing the pale blues, I frequently thought there was something wrong with my fingers, as that cold icy effect is a bit disturbing. But I like that. And to be fair, right now the nude nail is in, as in browns, peach, and greys to match your skin tone and I can’t think of anything I would rather wear less than mannequin hands. So, it really is to each his/her own and blue is definitely mine.
This is long, so everything else is below a cut.
As I said in the last post, I really am not going to be getting rid of many of these colors. Even the close dupes. And yet, as I swatched them I did realize that there were a few I could do without. That is something I didn’t think I’d be able to do.
Of this pale, baby blue set I am definitely culling one color. Revlon Sky’s the Limit on my left middle finger. It’s a silver blue and very close to Zoya Hazel. Hazel’s blue base is darker, but the silver is stronger so the two give the same effect on the nail. Hazel also covered the nail much easier being a one coat wonder, where Sky’s the Limit is not quite opaque with three coats. They’re both gorgeous, and I do love Sky’s the Limit, but I’m ok with letting it go.
There are two I’m kind of iffy on. Essie I’m Addicted on my right pinky and Formula X Provocative on my right ring finger. They’re both crèmes, I’m Addicted is a bright turquoise blue and Provocative is a baby blue. However, they’re both a bit patchy and can be difficult to get smooth. Part of that patchiness is the fault of my application on this swatch fest, I didn’t really take my time and so the first coat was a bit wet when the second coat went on so there was some dragging. Part of it is just that crèmes are difficult to get non-patchy versions of, much like matte eyeshadows. I like the color of I’m Addicted enough that I will be keeping it, but I put Provocative into my ‘thinking about it’ pile. I’m just not sure I’ll miss it from my collection.
I had a surprise favorite this round, Essie Barbados Blue on my right thumb. It’s a lovely metallic periwinkle blue and I’m kind of in love. There are visible brush strokes, but that has never bothered me. I just mention it because apparently some people don’t like them. But this color, this color makes up for all the disappointing Essie polishes I have ever bought.
Two colors in this set are super sheer. Sinful Colors Cinderella on my left ring finger and Sally Hansen Sugar Cloud on my left thumb. I think both of these took four coats to get opaque. However, they’re really pretty. They’re both baby blues with pink sparkles; Sugar Cloud has some silver sparkle in it as well. They’re different from each other in that Sugar Cloud is a textured polish. Both of them definitely work better layered over another color. And when you do that, they just shine.
The remaining three are Revlon I’m Electro on my left pinky, Formula X A Little Sexy on my right pointer, and Zoya Rayne on my right middle finger. I’m Electro is a metallic blue with blue sparkles. There is a slight, slight purple shift on it, but I can barely make that out. A Little Sexy is a metallic baby blue. Rayne is a baby blue with turquoise/pale green shimmer. All three of these are very sheer and took more than my standard two coats to cover the nail. But I’m keeping all three.
In general the baby blues were pretty difficult to work with. They tended to be extremely sheer, but all in all I think they’re worth the effort.
As I said in the last post, I really am not going to be getting rid of many of these colors. Even the close dupes. And yet, as I swatched them I did realize that there were a few I could do without. That is something I didn’t think I’d be able to do.
Of this pale, baby blue set I am definitely culling one color. Revlon Sky’s the Limit on my left middle finger. It’s a silver blue and very close to Zoya Hazel. Hazel’s blue base is darker, but the silver is stronger so the two give the same effect on the nail. Hazel also covered the nail much easier being a one coat wonder, where Sky’s the Limit is not quite opaque with three coats. They’re both gorgeous, and I do love Sky’s the Limit, but I’m ok with letting it go.
There are two I’m kind of iffy on. Essie I’m Addicted on my right pinky and Formula X Provocative on my right ring finger. They’re both crèmes, I’m Addicted is a bright turquoise blue and Provocative is a baby blue. However, they’re both a bit patchy and can be difficult to get smooth. Part of that patchiness is the fault of my application on this swatch fest, I didn’t really take my time and so the first coat was a bit wet when the second coat went on so there was some dragging. Part of it is just that crèmes are difficult to get non-patchy versions of, much like matte eyeshadows. I like the color of I’m Addicted enough that I will be keeping it, but I put Provocative into my ‘thinking about it’ pile. I’m just not sure I’ll miss it from my collection.
I had a surprise favorite this round, Essie Barbados Blue on my right thumb. It’s a lovely metallic periwinkle blue and I’m kind of in love. There are visible brush strokes, but that has never bothered me. I just mention it because apparently some people don’t like them. But this color, this color makes up for all the disappointing Essie polishes I have ever bought.
Two colors in this set are super sheer. Sinful Colors Cinderella on my left ring finger and Sally Hansen Sugar Cloud on my left thumb. I think both of these took four coats to get opaque. However, they’re really pretty. They’re both baby blues with pink sparkles; Sugar Cloud has some silver sparkle in it as well. They’re different from each other in that Sugar Cloud is a textured polish. Both of them definitely work better layered over another color. And when you do that, they just shine.
The remaining three are Revlon I’m Electro on my left pinky, Formula X A Little Sexy on my right pointer, and Zoya Rayne on my right middle finger. I’m Electro is a metallic blue with blue sparkles. There is a slight, slight purple shift on it, but I can barely make that out. A Little Sexy is a metallic baby blue. Rayne is a baby blue with turquoise/pale green shimmer. All three of these are very sheer and took more than my standard two coats to cover the nail. But I’m keeping all three.
In general the baby blues were pretty difficult to work with. They tended to be extremely sheer, but all in all I think they’re worth the effort.
On to the teals, turquoise, and medium blues.
Oh dear. And here’s where we see my crazy, because there aren’t really a lot of completely unique colors in this set and yet I cannot bear to part with a single one. And I’m using the most ridiculous justifications to keep them.
For example Finger Paints Surf’s Up (on right thumb) is very similar to OPI The Sky’s The Limit (on right middle finger). And yet Surf’s Up has a very subtle purple duochrome, it’s practically invisible except in direct sunlight. And The Sky’s the Limit has silver and turquoise shimmer in it as opposed to Surf’s Up blue on blue shimmer. And then when you throw in Sally Hanson Sparkling Water into that mix (on my right pinky), it becomes even more ridiculous, because again the colors are extremely similar. I even seriously considered culling Sparkling Water, but the pink shimmer in that one (and it’s sheerness, which makes it an awesome layering color) causes a lot of reticence about culling it. It’s ridiculous.
Technically I probably should have included Zoya Remy, on my right ring finger, in with the darker blues, as it stands out like a sore thumb in this set. But it has a teal flash and I’ve done a manicure with this and The Skies The Limit and darkening color so that my nails got progressively darker, so I knew it was in the same color family and I wanted to check to see how close it is. It is definitely much darker though, so at least that’s ONE color I don’t feel silly about keeping.
And on the other hand we have three colors that look almost exactly the same, and yet the micro differences are enough that I can’t bear to part with them. One really interesting thing about this set is that a lot of these colors are very sheer, or close enough to sheer, and look better layered on another color. That annoys me in some colors, but not this set. Nope, because OMG LOOK AT THAT COLOR takes over and I lose all sense of perspective.
At any rate I know three things. Nothing from this set is being culled. I should not buy any more blue/teal/turquoise nail polishes. And I have a weakness for this color, at least on my nails.
And finally the dark blues.
And this is another place where my crazy shows. Because the only color going from this set is the one on my right thumb. It's one of the NYX samples and is a muddy blue green. Not my favorite at all. The other colors though? UGH, each one of them is spectacular. But I do think it needs to be a very special dark blue before I buy another one.
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