Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Andromeda

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Swatch Saturday, and I’m wearing the last American Apparel polish I bought on vacation. It’s the only one of them that isn’t a neon. This is Andromeda, and I’m wearing three coats of it with one coat of Seche Vite.

Andromeda is a pretty unique polish; it’s a thin lavender jelly laden with metallic turquoise and iridescent purple glitter shreds. It’s like a purple counterpart to Sinful Colors’s Green Ocean. I decided to wear this polish alone because I wanted to see how opaque the jelly base would get. It’s still quite sheer, and my nail line is still visible, but the glitter covers the nail well.

Unfortunately, application with Andromeda is not easy. The lacquer consistency is very thick and takes quite a while to dry, even with quick-dry top coat. The glitters tend to stick together and clump on the nail, leaving thick bulges in the polish. Also, it doesn’t always sit flat on the nail, so even with top coat, there’s still glitter that sticks up and keeps the polish from being smooth to the touch. It’s beautiful, so I think it’s worth putting up with.

Outdoors, sunset

There you have it: I’m done with American Apparel polishes for a while, and I’m going to start up my weekly Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer swatches. I’ve missed them.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Violet

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Swatch Saturday, and I’m wearing the last of my American Apparel Neons. Of course, this one is the weirdest I’ve worn yet. Neon Violet is a gorgeous color, but changes dramatically in every lighting condition. In the studio and outdoors, it’s a cool magenta, but in others it’s a very dark purple. I’m wearing three coats of it with one coat of Seche Vite.

Since this is such a dark color, the application was easy with this one. The first coat went on opaque, which didn’t happen with the rest of the neons. It’s so dark and opaque that my white under-coat was completely unnecessary. As with the other neons, Neon Violet dries matte.

Outdoors, it’s even brighter than in the studio. It’s weird, isn’t it? The photos after the outdoor shots were taken in my kitchen, and the color shown here is much more representative of what it really looks like. This color is the one I’m more likely to see, because I’m rarely in harsh light like in the studio. This color change is odd, and while I usually notice a change, it’s never this drastic.

Outdoors, overcast

Indoors, incandescent light

Next week is the last of my American Apparel haul, so stay tuned if you feel like it.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Green

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Swatch Saturday is a little late today due to World Cup and oversleeping. I’m almost done swatching all of the American Apparel polishes I bought while I was on vacation, and this is my penultimate neon polish. This is Neon Green at three coats; two nails have two coats of white polish under them. All of them are topped with one coat of Seche Vite. Note: I put this on in a hurry, and so it’s not my best work. There are some dings in the polish; those are entirely my fault.

Neon Green is awesome. Seriously. It is crazy bright, probably visible from space. Compared to the other neon polishes, this one was a little thinner than the others, but it’s not too bad at the third coat. It looks really nice at three coats, and the color really pops. Neons are the best!

I put white polish on my ring and pinky nails, as I have with every other neon review so far. I’m not sure how obvious the difference is with this one. The ones with white undies aren’t all that much brighter than the ones without. It’s almost not even worth doing.

I took a couple photos outside, even though it’s gray and stormy outside. The color looks amazing outside, but in the photos it’s not much of a change.

I’ve been looking forward to next week’s swatch for a long time now. I can’t wait to show it to you guys.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Yellow

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’m taking a brief break from the Summer of Untrieds Challenge to bring you the regularly scheduled Swatch Saturday. I’m still working through my American Apparel neons haul, and I’m still having a ton of fun with them; I like each one better than the last. This week, I’m wearing three coats of Neon Yellow. My pinky and ring nails have white polish beneath the neon. All nails are topped with one coat of Seche Vite. Photos were taken indoors and outdoors.

So this polish is a little different from the others I’ve worn so far. This one has the most discernable difference between the nails with the white undies and the ones that don’t. This difference is especially visible in my outdoor shots; on the index and middle nails, it’s duller, more greenish, and more transparent than the other two. It’s like lemon and lime. While the white undies makes a difference, though, I’m not sure which I like better. The white foundation gives the color some solidity, but I like the color of the foundation-less nails.

This is the best neon yellow I’ve used so far. All the ones I’ve tried before have been really thin and streaky and basically require three coats over white polish. This one has a great formula and covers well, even though I think it’s a little thinner than the other neons from this line. Despite that, you still get a great look. If you buy any neon yellow polish this summer, make it this one. Seriously, I can’t stop staring at these. They’re so loud!

This photo is the one that, I think, shows the best difference between the white undies and no undies.

I really love these neons a lot. I’m a little sad I only have two more to go.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Coral

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Swatch Saturday is right on time this week! We’re on the second bottle of my most recent American Apparel haul. This is called Neon Coral, though I think it’s really more of an orange. It’s the perfect polish to wear today, too; it’s 97 degrees outside and this polish looks the way the weather feels. I’m wearing three coats of Neon Coral with one coat of Seche Vite. As with last week, the pinky and ring finger nails have two coats of white polish under the color.

I am really into these neons! I am so glad I bought all the ones I didn’t have. The formula is a bit thin, but is still easy to work with and covers well. The color payoff is huge, even without the use of white polish. It’s so bright, my fingers look instantly tanner. It’s delicious. These neons absolutely cannot be beat.

I find it interesting that the use of white polish makes such a small, almost undetectable, difference. I’ll continue to do this with the rest of the neon polishes, just to see if it really is unnecessary. It seems like this was always the disadvantage to neon polishes; the colors are beautiful, but they don’t cover and require white polish. If all six of these manage to break that trend, I will be incredibly pleased.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Red

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This week, I’m taking a break from swatching my Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer collection to try a few I bought while I was on vacation. I had a habit of shopping at places just because I could; my city doesn’t have American Apparel stores, so when I saw one in Philadelphia, I had to stop in. The first time I’d ever been to one was on my birthday trip to Atlanta last year, and I bought six polishes, one of which was a gorgeous neon pink. I was so impressed with it that I swore to myself, if I ever see another American Apparel store, I’m going to grab all the rest of their neon polishes. Well, here we are. Today I’m trying Neon Red. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Neon Red isn’t really that red; it’s more of a bold coral. It’s a beautiful color, certainly. As I did when I reviewed Neon Pink, I put down a coat of white polish, to see how much of a difference it makes. If you look closely at the middle and ring finger nails, you’ll see there’s a very slight difference in color. On my ring and pinky finger nails, I’ve got the undies coat. On the first coat, there was quite a visible difference, but as I added the next coats, the coverage built up and narrowed the gap. I wouldn’t say the white foundation wasn’t a total waste; in some lighting conditions, I can still my nail line on the no-undies nails. The white gives it a little more solidity, even if the polish doesn’t really need the pop.

I’m so happy I grabbed these. For neons, they’re pretty high-quality; you get great coverage and huge color payoff without a lot of white polish. I can’t wait to show you the rest!

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Light Year

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Glitter! My final American Apparel polish is a great one. Light Year is just loads and loads of holo hex glitter. It’s worn here sponged over black with three coats of Seche Vite topcoat. Look at it shine; this is what glitter is supposed to look like.

The bottle shot there is not really representative of the typical result. The glitter itself is very silver; I think it picked up some red color from either the curtains behind it, or from my red t-shirt.

I didn’t get a very good glitter payout with this one. I could get like five pieces of glitter on the brush at most, so I gave up and used a sponge to dab on the rest. Like with the Galaxy swatch I did a couple weeks ago, I got overzealous and put on too much. Sometimes I don’t know when to quit.

I like this one. I like how it looks over black, and I like staring at the glitter when it changes colors. I just wish it was easier to apply.

And there we go: we’re done swatching my American Apparel nail polishes. Next up: a bottle from Germany, and a plethora of indie polishes from Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer. This is starting to get good.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Pink

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I love neons! I’m almost through the American Apparel haul from October; I have one left and a couple others until get into my extensive Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer stash. I think I’m reaching a point where I’m more excited about swatching my unused polishes than doing any kind of nail art.

My first swatch of the year is American Apparel’s Neon Pink. I don’t have anything to add to that. It’s neon, it’s pink, it’s bold and obvious. It’s definitely my kind of polish. You’re seeing it here with three coats and three coats of Seche Vite top coat. All the photos were taken indoors with natural outdoor light.

Before I started, I couldn’t decide whether to use a white foundation coat, or to use it on its own to demonstrate the true color and consistency of the polish. I did both. Can you tell which is which? You probably can, because I suck at cleaning up my cuticles, and you can see the white edge peeking out on my index and ring fingers. I’m surprised to see there’s not much of a difference between the two. The first two coats without the white freaked me out a little, because they were so different. Without the white, I was afraid of having two vastly different colors on my hands, and one with a visible nail line. When I put on the third coat, it was opaque and neon and perfect. Only in some lighting conditions I can see the difference, and even then, it’s very subtle. Without the white, the pink is sweeter and juicier; with it, it has just a teensy bit more pop.

I’m impressed with the quality of this polish. I got great coverage and great color payoff. I’m starting to regret not buying the other neon shades they had.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Galaxy

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

The swatch for this week is American Apparel’s glitter topper Galaxy. All photos were taken indoors with natural lighting. Galaxy is shown here applied by sponge over two coats of black polish, and with three coats of top coat.

Galaxy contains basically every color of glitter in a clear base. Brushing the glitter on had not been successful; I’d get two or three pieces of glitter with a whole lot of cuticle-flooding clear polish, so I took the sponge route, and got more coverage than I expected (or wanted). You should be able to see the colors and glitters here. I think a few of them curled a little, but I’m not too put off by that.

The photography had been a challenge. I thought that since this one didn’t glow in the dark, I wouldn’t have nearly as much trouble getting good pictures. There was a thunderstorm, so I didn’t get as much light as I wanted, and whatever light I did get seemed to just bounce off the glitter and ruin the photo. It took me a long time to get these right.

Overall, I like this polish. Maybe now that it’s been used some, it will brush on a little easier than before. I like the glitter, so I see myself using this frequently in the future.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Moon

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I almost don’t even want to post these today. I have the saddest nails right now, and I’m a little ashamed of them. I had a nasty break over the week and had to cut my nails short. In what is surely to be the saddest swatch of all time, I give you American Apparel’s Moon, the last of the glow in the dark polishes I bought there for my birthday. All photos, except for one, were taken with natural light indoors, and with three coats of Moon and three coats of Seche Vite.

Compared to the other two I’ve swatched, this one is the least wearable on its own. Even with three coats, it’s very sheer, and looks like I’m just not wearing polish at all. There’s a slightly greenish appearance in natural light; in fluorescent light, that color isn’t there. In some photos, the bottle seems to glow; that color is representative of what the glow looks like in the dark. As you’ll see below, I tried to take a glow photo and only half-succeeded. I honestly have no idea how I got those great (by comparison) glow photos for my Neptune review. I haven’t gotten any that good since, and I don’t know what I’m doing differently.

I am so sorry about the appearance of my nails. I didn’t realize how uneven and jagged the edges were until I photographed them with the macro setting. That is just terrible and I’ve been pounding the biotin in the hopes they’ll at least be fingertip-length by the end of the year. It’s weird feeling my actual fingertips on the keyboard keys. My hands look like baby hands; my fingers look like fat sausages. I can’t wait until I have nails again.

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