Busy Bees Bring You Swatches!

Hey there!  I'm having a bit of a busy weekend, so I'm going to bring you some swatches while I run around, just to tie you over until I break out the big guns on Tuesday and show you the Super Secret Nail Present I made myself for my birthday!  I'm super excited about that, but for the mean time, I'm wearing more Connect the Dots and doing a short wear test.

I painted it over alternating fingers of Julep's Leah and Pure Ice's Free Spirit.  I put them through a round of dishes today before my husband smashed his wedding ring into my knuckle really really hard (he was flailing around like a moron!  Lucky he missed my nails, but I can't bend my middle finger without some pain now).  In any case, if either of them chip before Tuesday, I will let you know.  For my purposes, three days of wear is all I can stand from a polish, fickle creature that I am.

But enough about that!  On to a little bit of swatch spam!  I decided to pull some colors that I consider staples that I use frequently.  Three of the four are new to my stash, but they fill a niche that I've been making do with other polishes.  They won't be going anywhere, except all over my nails!

This is another one of the new Wet n Wild Megalast colors, I Need a Refresh-Mint, that I went back for after loving On A Trip, which I wore under Connect the Dots for the first time.  I honestly wasn't going to buy this one because it is a color dupe for Color Club's New Bohemian, which I already owned, but I wanted to see if it was more opaque.  It is, which I like better for nail art.  

I wish I had taken I picture of the brush, because it's another reason why I bought this and why I went back for more of them.  I'll do my best to describe it for you, because my camera is charging right now.  These have what they refer to as a "ManiCurve Pro Brush" and it's my favorite shape for polish application.  If you're familiar with Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure line, they have this type of brush too.  It is wide, like an OPI brush, but the corners are rounded, like the shape of my cuticles.  I find it really easy to use this to get a clean line.  I did have more trouble with the individual brushes in this bottle and the next polish.  They were a little more distressed than the one in On A Trip and held a little too much polish.  I'll probably trim them at some point.

This is clearly from the same line as the previous one.  It's a re-release of Through the Grapevine, which was a shade available from the Megalast line before this revamp.  I picked it up because it was pretty and that was about it.  

Everything about these two polishes is the same for me, application, feelings about the color, brushes.  I like them and they're inexpensive.  Need to trim the brush!

I haven't praised American Apparel polishes for a little while, so I think it's time I remind you of my glowing love for them!  These pictures are a bit older and I've been wanting to post them somewhere.  This is Gold Flash by American Apparel.  It's part of their Metallic line and is my go-to gold.  I'm not a huge fan of gold polish for some reason.  Standard gold is too yellow, but while I was at an AA store browsing, I decided I had to at least have one gold and this is what I ended up with.  

It's a very opaque polish like my other AAs and if I am ambitious, I can get good coverage with one coat.  I use it more as a base for other colors, like holos and glitters, where it will get covered up, so a thin not quit opaque coat is good enough to do its job.  It has a fabulous, smooth consistency, which is why it will always have my affection!

Here's the last swatch of the day, Zoya Breezi.  She's new to my stash but is already pretty much one of my new babies.  I am definitely going to need a backup bottle sometime because I can't get enough of her.  She's a blue, which I have many bottles of, but she's a bit different from her siblings.  She's dusty and has a little darkness to her and just seems a bit feisty but fun .

I'm sure I'm starting to creep someone out with all that personification!  Sorry!  Breezi just deserves our admiration!  These pictures show three coats with no top coat and you can see how beautifully shiny this color is on its own.  

Well, there you have it.  A mini-swatchathon.  I'm going to take a break from the blog until Tuesday, but I hope to see you all back then.  I'm hoping to get a blog sale page up then, as well as show you some really fun things I've had sitting around!  Take care and thanks for reading!