Comparison of Mint Greens

I have a slightly different type of post for you today. I was going through my spring colors and one of the colors I go to often for spring is mint green, it is such a nice light color and goes with everything! I realized I have several minty green colors and wanted to do a quick comparison post for those inquiring minds out there! I swatched five different colors: Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, Orly Jealous Much?, China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On, butter LONDON Fiver, and China Glaze Re-fresh Mint.

Comparison: Which White?

As you know, black and white are pretty much staples in any nail art lover's stash. I have recently been trying to find the best white of them all. I only have five to share with you today, but I figure that is a good start. The biggest problem I find with white polish is that it gets terribly streaky. When you use white as a base for nail art, you don't want tons of layers before you even start your nail art! I decided to try this over the last design I had on, so see more easily the contrast. I used (Left to Right) Sinful Colors: Snow Me White, Sally Hansen: White On, NYC: French White Tip, China Glaze: White On White, and OPI: Alpine Snow.

One Coat

Above I have a picture of just one coat on each nail and however many coats were needed to achieve opacity. Starting out, Sally Hansen White On was my favorite, and I think it still out performs all the others. It has the easiest formula to work with (a bit thicker than I like, but still the easiest) and it has the best opacity with no streaks. Sinful Colors Snow Me White is one that I have had forever, it also covers very well with only two coats and is a bargain at only $1.99. I would choose this as my backup because of the formula. It is a little runny, making it a little messier. OPI Alpine Snow has been acclaimed by many as their favorite white of all time, but I have to disagree. I only own the mini, so maybe the regular size is different, but I found this to not give great coverage. It has a tendency to streak and not self level, which creates a lumpy surface. I only applied two coats in the photos, but I probably would have applied three if I was using the white for a nail art design. NYC actually was surprisingly easy to work with. I have a distant memory about having a really difficult time with this polish, but maybe it was in the warmer months. This time, it seemed to apply well but didn't give as good of coverage as others. China Glaze...what do I say about White on White? Clearly from the first photo, it has the least coverage of all. I was so disappointed with this polish. I had such high hopes! I think I actually would have applied 4 coats if this were for a design. If my polish has such little coverage, I expect it to be a jelly with a gorgeous squishiness, but this was so streaky! Overall Sally Hansen White On takes it with the best coverage and formula. China Glaze was the big disappointment. I wish I could say better things about it. I would really like to know if the full size Alpine Snow is better than the mini, and if so, why would the quality of the mini be any less acceptable than the full size? Whew, I think this was the most I have written in a while, but I hope it was helpful! I may have a part two if I collect more white polishes soon! Thanks for reading and stay warm out there!

Battle Royale: Cheap Matte Top Coat Comparison

Battle Royale will be my title for any post that is a comparison. I like how epic it sounds! This time around it is a battle of cheap matte top coats! I don't know how you all feel about matte finish polish, but I've noticed a lot of people are on the fence about it. A while ago I wanted to try out a nail design that required a matte top coat. The problem was that I didn't want to spend $8 or more on a polish I wasn't sure I would love. Turns out there are cheap ones on the market! I first found Sinful Colors Matte Finish Top Coat for $1.99 at Rite Aid. More recently I found NYC Matte Me Crazy Top Coat for the same price, $1.99 also from Rite Aid. The only major differences that you can see from the bottles are that Sinful Colors has .5 fl oz whereas NYC has .33 fl oz and SC clearly has a different color tone. Unfortunately neither are fast drying top coats, but in researching it seems there aren't any fast drying matte top coats. I recycled my half moon manicure so I could show you a comparison over colors. Here are the contenders:

The color difference here is color accurate.

The NYC Matte Me Crazy has a flattened but narrow brush, which makes application a breeze. The Sinful Colors Matte Finish has the usual Sinful Colors brush which is thick and rounded.

I staggered the different matte top coats, hoping I could see the difference more clearly. Honestly, I don't see much of a difference. All of my nails feel the same, and they seem to have the same level matte finish. However, I did notice an ever so slight color difference between the two. Can you see it? I think the SC makes the color look slightly lighter.  

Here is another view, can you see the difference?

The difference aesthetically isn't enough for me to fret over. The application difference is something that can help determine which to buy. I found that the Sinful Colors took a long time to dry and had a tendency to apply thick. NYC seemed pretty quick drying and was a great consistency: thin but not runny. I like the flat brush that the NYC polish came with instead of the Sinful Colors brush. Overall, I would say that the NYC Matte Me Crazy is the winner here, though I wish it came with .5 fl oz instead of the .33 fl oz. Would you all like to see matte designs that inspired me in my next post? I hope that you will at least try out the matte trend! For $2, it's not a bad deal! Thanks for reading!