Pinto (American Apparel)

If I'd swatched this earlier, it would have been included in my neutrals post. Pinto is a lovely rust brown creme from American Apparel. It went on a bit sheer in three coats but otherwise no problems with the formula. AA continues to surprise me with their polishes!

Downtown LA (American Apparel) and Bold Gold (Sally Hansen) Swatches & Review

This is a mani I'm definitely going to recreate pretty soon!

Downtown LA is a standard red crelly that can be found in most brands' collections at least once. Still, it's pretty lovely and a year round standard. Application was okay, but a bit sheer and at two coats I could spot VNL in bright light but it wasn't so noticeable as to be distracting.

one coat; no topcoat

This has been a year of mainstream brands biting indie style. Bold Gold is a recently released glitter from Sally Hansen. It's got multi-size black and gold glitter (and thankfully the only way to do bar glitter, sparsely!) in a clear base. It's not easy to get a great mix of everything, the base is very thick so by the time you tap or swipe the excess of the brush, you lose quite a bit of glitter. Still, black and gold to switch up the standard black and white mix; I love it for the season.

Dynasty (American Apparel) Swatch & Review for Pantone's Radiant Orchid

Pantone released their color of the year for 2014. It's Radiant Orchid and while it is a pretty color, I have a weakness for purple, it is still a bit too cool toned for me. I prefer deeper, richer, saturated shades for my skin tone. It's not a bad looking color, it just wouldn't be my first choice for a color of the year. Try another jewel tone next year, Pantone! We loved Emerald for 2013.

Seamlessly fitting into the recent Radiant Orchid hype, this is Dynasty (American Apparel). It's a slightly muted version of Radiant Orchid. It applies pretty well, but I found the formula a bit thin so three coats would probably be best. Pretty color, I will admit.

Hunter (American Apparel) Swatch & Review

Earlier this past November, I went through my stash and realized that while I had a good amount of most colors, I had very few purple and greens. As a result, I've taken to acquiring every purple or green that catches my eye. Purple is a bit harder for me to stock up on, I get so picky, but I've noticed that I can fall in love with most any green, especially something as dark as this.

Hunter is a beautiful muted dark green. It applies wonderfully and was opaque in one coat. If you don't feel like taking too much care, two thinner coats is fine as well. If you're looking to try out the American Apparel line of nail polishes, I absolutely recommend beginning with the darker shades.

Berry (American Apparel) Swatch & Review

This color is exactly what it says on the tin, as they say. Berry is a yummy looking oxblood berry (remember how popular that color was last fall?) creme with wonderful application. Some of the easiest two coats I've ever applied. It dries so shiny, my camera acted up like I'd put Gelous on it or something.

Love :)

I need to take some shots of it by Urban Night (China Glaze) and Berry Charm (SinfulColors) and see if I've got a possible dupe on my hands.

Manila (American Apparel) & Poppy (American Apparel) Swatches & Review

A summer preview? Or something to wear now that it dropped to 20 degrees Fahrenheit around here.

Manila is lovely mustard yellow creme. I like this kind of yellow; it's not too bright, not too green-toned, but it's got enough saturation in it to look good with my skin-tone. I'm not a fan of the formula, but I wasn't really surprised because this is a yellow polish (pastels, whites, and yellows are almost guaranteed to be a problem). One good thing about the slightly runny formula is that I could do three thin coats with some kind of control. Not much to be done for the streakiness except possibly add another coat.

Poppy is a gorgeous coral red (it's coral then it's orange then it's sort of red depending on the kind of light I'm under) with a crelly finish. This was definitely a better formula than Manila but it still required three coats, easy as they were to apply. The color payoff is worth it, though.

Rose Bowl (American Apparel) & Office (American Apparel) Swatches & Review

More from my American Apparel Haul!

Rose Bowl is a dusty rose pink creme. The formula for this was a bit thin but it didn't affect application too much. I got opacity in two coats and the little bits of leveling issues will be covered up with topcoat, I'm sure. Gorgeous color.

 I have no earthly idea why American Apparel named this one Office. This is one of the better mint green pastel cremes I've worked with. I was extra careful in anticipation and went with three thin coats, but considering how the formula held up, I could have done one normal and one thin coat and been alright. It's not perfect, but relative to other polishes in this shade, not bad at all. And look how pretty!

Mount Royal (American Apparel) Swatch & Review

American Apparel comes under much deserved fire for their usually offensive ads and in my opinion, ridiculous clothing. Whoever they got their nail polish formula from though, deserves thanks, seeing as it's the only American Apparel item I'll be spending any kind of money on (and even then it was because the sale was not directly through AA). The polishes are quite good, so much so that I have a hard time believing that this is their product. I kept checking the logos on the bottles just to make sure I wasn't reading something else (hoping I was, really).

I adore the 15mL bottle design; due to the prevalence of rounded nail polish bottles, square/rectangular shapes always look better to me. I do worry about the glass; unlike some polish bottles I've dropped (thank goodness for sturdy China Glaze glass), I have a feeling that I would definitely get a mess if I dropped these. Due to the shape of the bottles, the brush is very long and it requires some extra care, just to make sure you don't end up with a glob of nail polish dripping down the brush unexpectedly. These are very minor complaints though.

So on to the nail polish itself. Of course, the first one I tried had to be blue (I've never met a blue polish I could walk away from without at least trying it on). Mount Royal is a slightly desaturated blue that leans just a bit toward blurple. I found the formula to be just a bit thin but that didn't work against it much in terms of achieving opacity. Two thin coats of polish and it was perfect.