A Plentitude Of Passionate Purple Swatches

I've been working on the idea that I'd work through my untried sooner rather than later, but later is here and I need to get it going. Let's just say I have a lot to work on. 2015 might be full of "tests" like this, we'll see.

Here are 9 purple polishes that I haven't blogged before.

Couple of things first:

• All are three coats unless I otherwise mention it
• All are without top coats unless I otherwise mention it.

Let's go!

Etude House P501 Lunatic Purple

I've had this one for so long I had to shake, shake, shake, shake to get it thoroughly mixed. 

Bit of a satin finish and not quite perfectly self leveling. Very  nice, though.

Like my Etude House polishes, they deliver.

Perfectly gorgeous purple.

Purchased on eBay some time ago.

Jordana Silky Purple

A saturated dusty purple that pushes into the pastel realm. Excellent formula.
Jordana and Milani stand out in the drug store polish category. Take note, Sally Hansen. You've been served.

Hard to fault this puppy. Jordana does a really nice formula although I don't see many of these locally, they are on Beauty Joint and Jordana also has a website, too. I may have to look into that one!

I purchased mine at the rare visit to Kmart.

L.A. Colors Amethyst

This is one that I thought I'd swatched before, but in looking back don't think I did. At least, if I did I buried it in another layering thing. Hmm.

Healthy dose of glass fleck in a dense purple jelly base. It has that purple blue shift in the glass fleck, which I love a lot.

Found in a multi-pack at Ross or perhaps the Dollar Tree, I can't recall which! This also does double duty as a layering polish, but also builds to a good coverage. Nice!

Nfu FS16

This is from Nfu Oh's Fluorescent Series. Nfu Oh is a Korean brand available through Fabulous Street. (oh, forgot to put them in my "where I get it" page)

Intense. Purple. Color.

Very gorgeous. Self leveling, delightful formula. My photo is a touch too blue, but I have it firmly in my purple stash and not the "red purples".
Purchased through Fabulous Street's website. She also has a blog with swatches, it's extensive and worth the browse. I follow it, hasn't updated a lot, but hit a lot of the Nfu Oh's with force.




Nicole by OPI Purple Yourself Together

I've longed for this polish for a while. Gold glass fleck in purple creme and shimmer are really quite a win for me.
This photo was insane. For some reason I could not white balance my camera and my skintone came out so jaundice yellow, I wondered if I had a liver at all. I had to tweak this one a bit, but the color matches the bottle. Mine is very bright, red toned and not as deep as I'd seen online. Certainly not a near dupe of OPI's Dutch You Love OPI.
Wish this one came out better. So frustrating. Need to redo it. Still, lovely polish and nice formula.




OPI Lincoln Park After Midnight

This is an old polish in my collection. Bought it a long time ago but can NOT recall where!
Trifle loosey-goosey. Very dark. As you can see by my index finger, it goes into the realm of black with very little effort.
It's a rich, deep purple that truly reminds me of eggplant, a color that is tossed around with easy, but doesn't always fit.
If you love purple, don't have a dupe, this one is wall to wall purple darkness.




Zoya Lael

Another one that came out far to yellow/orange. This is a bit brighter than the real Lael, but very close on the index finger.
Oy. What a pain!
Not the polish, though. Easy to work with and creamy formula.
Very beautiful dark purple creme polish that, despite my photo, is more plum than straight up purple. It's a very complex polish with a very grown up vibe to it. I will re-blog it down the pike.




China Glaze Anklets of Amethyst

A reddened purple glass fleck that is able to double duty as a stand alone polish - it builds - or a layering polish. Shows a strong blue shimmer.
Here it is alone, three coats.Easy to use, nice tight little formulation.
Double duty polishes are always a win.
I purchased this one through Transdesign/Nail Supplies.
From a collection that came out in 2006 We Adorn You collection.




Dance Legend 827 Surfing At Night

New brand to me based in Russia.They have such a depth of products. They are like an independent label and throw new ideas out there like crazeee.
I buy mine through Llarowe and blog sales. I've not purchased directly, but they do sell it to US customers and their website will instruct you who to buy it from if they don't ship to your country.
Back to the polish: great formula, easy to use and perfectly glossy finish.
I put mine over a pale pink/nude base, so it popped the color up.



There you have it, a ton of purples. I love them and this barely taps into my collection. Long time coming. Some old, some new, but it feels good to get them swatched. Yaaaasss!

Thank you for reading my nail polish journal!

More Layering Fun and Excitement!

I love to see how stuff turns out when I layer it. I will say in advance I am trying to practice clean-up here and there, but as you will see, I might not be adding to the aesthetic of my nail, but well, making it wonky!

Here we go. Picture heavy but lots of stuff.

As a base I used Jordana's Hypnotizing:

A very dark purple that is knocking on the door of a warmer shade. Odd but interesting color.

Much lighter in the bottle:

Even though this is a little blown from the lighting, it's still pretty rich in the bottle and a tad less red, but still you don't think "vamp" when you see it.

I occasionally see these at Kmart, but I go there only once every three months or so, and they have a little display, but I never seem to pick them up. I might rethink this, because the formula was freaking amazing. No other way to put it! Yes three coats were comfortable, but two would do. Also, it dried pretty easily and seems to have an salon type of finish. Rich color and gorgeous gloss, sums up a win all around.

To the layering.
As I always say I have a lot of sheers and top coaty kind of things, so it is often a somewhat random way to get the party started.

Princessa

Unnamed, in a 5 pack with another water with no shimmer, a gorgeous deep purple shimmer and a pale pink with a red shimmer, I've yet to see these again after that first time, but I am glad I got it. Though the pink drove me to distraction - still does I just tried it again the other day, not getting much love, self wetting at every coat and really splotchy - the rest seem to be shaping up into nice stuff.

I call this a blue shimmer in a pink water. It's not even close to being a jelly at all. But, the shimmer is quite beautiful.

Charmingly dense shimmer that loves the flash, and even shows up well under the regular lamps at the top in the bottle shot.
One coat, no complaints, easy to use. Though, I would say, impossible to find, unless you own this set and aren't sure what to do with it. Here's one thing!
:D


Sally Hansen

On that same theme, I have from a small pack of Sally Hansen's a little sheer that has a blue shimmer but is in a plummy purple base, perhaps I'll go out on a limb and call it magenta.

I swatched it onto my thumb to show how strong the base comes through, but though sheer, I feel about three or four coats - pant pant - could make it a stand alone. I like it layered though, and I think in the future this would look hot over some magenta or hot pinks, etc.

A little clean up around the edges might enhance this one, I will say it.

Similar to the Princessa but slightly tilting more into the purple range, I think this is old Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, but I don't know the shade. Wouldn't it be funny if it were Grape Going? *Ponders her own obtuseness for a moment* I don't think so, but then again, I don't know. I think since this one is and Xtreme Wear versus Grape Going being a Quick Dri, I can toss that idea aside. OK. Besides Grape Going's base is more of a blue based purple not so magenta.

Onward!

Elle Elle
Let's drop the shimmers for a moment and try some glitter:

That glassy particle glitter, rather than the larger glitter we all know and are familiar with in Elle Elle, aka LDL, #433.

I am including a bottle shot because if you do see these, you should grab them:

Three things that are plusses:
Rectangular bottle with that post modern edge
Delicious gauzy gold floating in a clearish base
Removable cap

Nice!

This is one coat, perhaps two, but a simple glaze and some delicate gold seems to work. Not a heavy glitter.


L.A. Girl

L.A. Girl, A brand that keeps on giving!
Let me start by saying that I was on their website the other day and it appears that they have discontinued a lot of their cylindrical bottle polishes. Including the Orly Fantasea dupe, Enchanting. They do have it listed under their "Nudes" line, but I can't tell from the swatch if it is it or not.
Many of these can be found at Discountcosmetics.com, which is essentially an online Dollar Tree with not so "dollar-y" prices. They have a lot of the discontinued polishes. Some of their pricing on old Sally Hansen Chromes is worthy of the best eBay scalper. Why do I go on about this? Before it becomes a book report, lets see the pictures:

When cleanup goes tragically wrong! Yes the brush hooked upward and made this darling dent! Gah!

A gorgeous deep green shimmer. Pure green, leaning into the pine family, but never suggesting blue.

It is a shimmer particle, not a tiny glassy flake, and quite a gorgeous one!  

Two coats and the photos - hundreds of them - can't seem to capture it very well, except in flash. Gorgeous!
Personally I can't get enough of it.

What the heck is it??? It's L.A. Girl Metallic Green 262. No longer available and a totally perfect sheer that has a thin base of green that is so watery it would make a perfect franken ingredient or a great complement to the CND Color Effects collection you may have, don't have CND Color Effects? Get this baby. Same concept. Not sure if that was the original intent of this polish, but it's quite a nice discovery!

These old polishes are only $1.99 at Discount Cosmetics Outlet, so they are very close to the same price that they were on the old site. No, I am not affiliated, but I have made an order in the past and was happy with affordable shipping the polishes I got.

I kind of want to run around and try it out on about a dozen nail polishes! Greens, navy jelly, franken it with a few other things...well you get the drift. Nothing like finding a polish that is really fun to wear and goof around with!

Here is a bottle shot:

Nom, nom, nom!

Thank you for reading my little nail polish journal!