Pink and sheer polish swatches. LOTS OF THEM.

I used to hate pink and sheer nail polish, but after getting thoroughly sick of nude and beige polish, what can a girl do but branch out! Since my nails and cuticles are so nice at the moment, I figured I'd make the most of it by swatching the many polishes I have acquired recently. There will be some non-work ones soon :)

Please excuse any bad clean-up jobs, I don't have a tidying brush yet, so I did my best with cotton buds.

Orly Lollipop

This was the first 'pink' polish I bought and loved. Not only can you get away with one coat if you're careful (this is two here, for swatching purposes) but it has this gorgeous lilac tone. This is only my second Orly polish but I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up with more!

Since most of the rest of the shades I have are sheers, I'll be swatching them over Lollipop and Zoya Pandora (which you can see a swatch of here).


Rokk 96 Cinderella

I wanted something shimmery since Lollipop was THE perfect creme. When I saw this in Price Attack I thought it was too pretty to pass up. Unfortunately what looks like a lovely opaque colour in the bottle is actually really sheer. It's a pink loaded with fine champagne shimmer almost to the point of being a frost, but it's not quite as metallic as a frost and has no streakiness issues.

This is three coats and although it looks great here, in person there's major VNL which I dislike immensely. This is far better as a layering polish.

Pinkie and ring finger over Pandora (two coats of both).
Middle and index over Lollipop (two coats of both).

By layering it over another pink, VNL is eliminated. If you really like playing around with shades/tones, one coat of Cinderella over the base polish will give you more distinct colour differences. I'm thinking about layering this over orange to try and do a more coral shade next :)

Removing this one is a bit more difficult than removing a creme/jelly but not anywhere near as difficult as a regular glitter polish.

NYC Cotton Candy

These cheap polishes I had heard a LOT about but was never able to find - until one fortuitous afternoon at an IGA. Sadly Cotton Candy turned out to be a frosty sheer.

Three coats, with no signs of becoming opaque any time soon! It also has terrible brush stroke marks.

However, layered (carefully!) it adds a pearly sheen. I didn't use a basecoat for these swatches, so it does highlight all the odd bumps and ridges on my nails.

Pinkie and ring finger over Pandora (two coats of Pandora, one of Cotton Candy).
Middle and index over Lollipop (one coat of each).

Ozotic Pro 224

Picked up from a random chemist. I think it was about $12? Super-sheer pink jelly with a scattering of irregular holo glitter.

This is my 'lazy polish'. If I don't want to be bare-nailed but I can't be bothered fussing, I slap on some base coat, a coat of this, some speed-dry top coat and I'm done. Over a nearly-naked nail is my favourite way to wear this.

It can also be used to add some unobtrusive bling to other colours. I haven't tried it on non-nude/pink polishes but honestly, I can't imagine it changing the colour at all because it's SO sheer! You can't get really great coverage with the glitter either, but that means removal is super easy.

Pinkie and ring finger over Pandora (two coats of each).
Middle and index over Lollipop (two coats of each).

The holo particles in this are kind of like flakies during removal - they come off really easily and smoothly.

Revlon Preview Pink (Limited Edition)

I actually got this in the bargain bin at Gloss for about $5. It's a more pink and less frosty version of Cotton Candy - shimmery, soft, doesn't really become opaque. Another nice one for slapping over basecoat if your nails aren't too stained, it almost creates a pink duochrome.

One coat: nice!

Three coats: still not opaque, and now streaky.

Two coats each base colour, one coat Revlon to shimmi-fy.


Rimmel Speed Dry in Ethereal

This is a shimmery pastel pink which occasionally flashes blue/violet. Like Cinderella, it can be built up to opacity if you don't mind VNL, but I find it easier to work with layered.

*examines cuticles*

I think they're ok! Thank goooooood. Like seriously, you guys, I am simultaneously so proud of how healthy my cuticles are and so paranoid I'm going to do something to them. I recommend Palmer's Olive Butter - the concentrated one with Vitamin E. It turned my cuticles from raggedy, misshapen messes into, well, neat and presentable and not flaky/dry/gross! IT'S A MIRACLE. No really, it is, go buy some now.