Honest Babes

I tried to do some swatches of Nicole Fell From the Tree, Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, OPI's Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow Suede and Revlon's Matte Suede polish in Emerald City.  Can't say these pictures really came out, but maybe they'll help!

Here are the colors themselves - ignore the fact that the Nicole looks aqua.

Observe...

Lippmann's Lady Sings the Blues and Across the Universe debuted during the Nordstrom Anniversary sale, and I'm sure you've seen them on every other blog by now.  What can I say- I got distracted by other colors.  A magpie is me! Wall of text and four pictures of dubious quality...

Orly's Plastix is a limited edition collection of four colors with a really interesting finish.  Despite how airbrushed or Photoshopped the polishes look on my nail, you only need look at my poor, starved for moisture cuticles to see that the picture hasn't been altered.  (OK, I may have used the blur tool on some of the more heinous cuticle parts, but not on the nails or colors themselves! )  The bottles say, "unique texture effect nail lacquer" and I gotta admit- the texture is pretty darn cool.

On my thumb is Retro Red (40738), which seemed to be the hot seller at my Ulta.  Two coats didn't seem to be enough, so I did three, but that could be my fault, not application issues. With the extra coat, the drying time did seem to be affected; I did get some subtle lines in the polish as it was drying.  I must have hit my shirt with my nail while it was drying.   The color is more of an orange red, though there may be a smidge of pink in there, too.  It's more vibrant than what you see in the bottle (also pictured), but then, the bottle is frosted.  I liked the name of Old School Orange, which is a straight up orange, but it's not a color I wear often.  I left it for someone else to enjoy.  On my index finger is Purple Pleather (40740), and it's pretty much purple.  It's darker on than it looks in the bottle.  Two coats was good for it and the color on my middle finger.  Viridian Vinyl (40741) is blue green, though it may lean a bit more teal than green.  It's more vibrant and darker than the bottle.

To compare, I added two coats of Wet n Wild Black Crème covered in CND's Super Matte topcoat (ring finger) and two coats of Orly Iron Butterfly (40255) on my pinkie.  The Plastix formula is in between the still slightly shiny finish of Super Matte and the matte finish of Iron Butterfly.Full sun pictures!

I ignored the gray trend as long as I could.  Gray... feh.  But finally I'm on the bandwagon.  Gray is chic.  And beautiful.  And moody.  I can put on my big girl pants and admit that all of you were right- gray rocks.Five delicious grays