Two posts in one day?? Yep.
I'm going to start off with Electra and Alcyone, the two blue-purple duochromes. They are photographed as I swatched them, with 1 coat over American Apparel Passport Blue and Zoya Pinta, respectively. Alcyone is on my index and ring fingernails, and Electra is on my middle and pinky fingernails.
Electra is more turquoise/teal, and Alcyone is distinctly more purple. The duochrome:
I'm going to start off with Electra and Alcyone, the two blue-purple duochromes. They are photographed as I swatched them, with 1 coat over American Apparel Passport Blue and Zoya Pinta, respectively. Alcyone is on my index and ring fingernails, and Electra is on my middle and pinky fingernails.
Electra is more turquoise/teal, and Alcyone is distinctly more purple. The duochrome:
Of course, since Alcyone is more purple-leaning, the purple shift is stronger in Alcyone than Electra. Overall, while they're both quite pretty, you probably don't need both. But depending on what you're looking for, they are both lovely! Oh, and I was going to compare these two to Orly Lunar Eclipse...here is a bottle comparison to explain why:
They look pretty similar in the bottle, right? On the nail, not at all. I guess if you're not a blue lover they're close enough, but to me, Lunar Eclipse is totally different. Lunar Eclipse has a bold cobalt jelly base and barely has any duochrome compared to the Pleiades, so I wound up not doing comparison swatches on the nail.
Next up is Maia versus Zoya Valerie. Valerie is on my index and ring fingernails, and Maia is on my middle and pinky fingernails.
Valerie is much darker, as you can see. It's also more opaque, but not duochrome at all.
I also compared Maia to Violet Quartz. Violet Quartz is on my index and ring fingernails, and Maia is on my middle and pinky fingernails.
These were pretty similar, actually! Violet Quartz is darker and has finer shimmer, and I think it's a bit warmer. But Violet Quartz is also discontinued...Maia is a great alternative.
Maia is a lot more duochrome than Violet Quartz, though.
Here are Merope and Orly Galaxy Girl. Galaxy Girl is on my index and ring fingernails, and Merope is on my middle and pinky fingernails. Both polishes were swatched alone, without a black base.
Galaxy Girl is darker, jellier, and has larger, sparser flecks of blue shimmer.
Merope is more duochrome, but Galaxy Girl isn't anything to scoff at, either! I don't think Galaxy Girl is available anymore, unless your Ulta still has some Cosmic FX left over from Fall 2011.
And last but not least, a comparison that wound up being a bit of an ombré: (L-R) Celaeno, Color Club Wild & Willing, Asterope, and Claire's Poison Apple.
They're all fairly duochrome and quite pretty, but definitely distinct colors.
So, that's it for the Pleiades. I hope you enjoyed them, and on Friday I'm going to get started with the glitters!
Thanks for looking and commenting!
