OPI Glacier Bay Blues

OPI Glacier Bay Blues was released in 2004 with the Canada collection. In the bottle, it's a beautiful blurple duochrome that shifts teal and green. On the nail.......

Boring, blurple-leaning blue shimmer. I mean, it's a nice enough color with lots of depth, it's just really not what I was hoping for. This isn't my thing at all.

I was able to coax out a bit of the duochrome...

Better. But it's not often that you'll see it like this. Oh, and did I mention that this is 6 coats? Yeah. It's that watery and sheer. At 3 coats, it was opaque down the middle, but it was still noticeably sheer on the sides. 

This is pretty similar to Nubar Peacock Feathers, so if you can get your hands on that I would defenitely advise choosing it over Glacier Bay Blues. Peacock Feathers looks to be a bit more purple. but more duochrome as well.

Have you tried Glacier Bay Blues? Were you as disappointed in it as I am?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great weekend!

Crowstoes Merope

Happy Wednesday! Today I have for you the last of the Pleiades. Merope is a strange and awesome color, sort of a bruised blue-burgundy with a pink shift. Does that make any sense? Who knows. I do know that it's super cool, and can be worn either alone or over black.

I wouldn't really recommend wearing it alone since it was a 4-coater for me, but if that doesn't bother you, it does look pretty nice!

Nice, strong duochrome. Me gusta.

And here it is over black. This is another good one to layer over black. 1 coat was perfect!

And the duochrome:

Interestingly enough, it was a little less duochrome over black, like Taygete. The black base makes the blue shimmer pop though, so it's not a huge issue to me.

That pink still does show up though!

Now, if you looked at this and thought of Orly Galaxy Girl, fantastic. That's exactly where my mind went too, and once again I actually have the polish to compare! I hope you're looking forward to my comparisons because I've got several.

Have you tried Merope? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Crowstoes Maia

Crowstoes Maia is a warm purple-gold duochrome that shows a hint of green at times. This is one that can be worn alone in 2-3 coats depending on your application.

It's not the most exciting color, but it sure is pretty! I do want to point out that those bubble-looking bits in the polish are NOT bubbles, but larger shimmer flecks. I dig the mix of fine shimmer with bigger flecks. 

You can see a tiny bit of the shift peeking out here.

And here it is!

And here's the green:

Is this cool or what? 

When I put this on, I immediately thought of two polishes: Zoya Valerie and Sephora Pantone Violet Quartz. Fortunately, I actually have those! So you will see those soon in my comparison post.

Have you tried Maia? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Crowstoes Taygete

Taygete is a purple-pink-gold duochrome. I swatched it on its own, and over black. Alone, Taygete needed four coats for opacity.

It's a cool-toned purple, as you can see, which leads me to my next point: I'm not crazy about this one.

I tried capturing the color shift, with little success:

It is there, I promise :| There is a definite pink shift, and at the edges it turns gold-ish. And here it is over black. Again, the shimmer is dense despite the lack of opacity, so I only needed one coat over black, which was nice.

I will say that it is a nice enough purple shimmer...not exciting, but ok.

Also, I was surprised to find that the duochrome is harder to coax out over black. Usually, it's the opposite.

Overall, I have to admit, I'm pretty meh about this one, but if you like purples, this would be great for you.

As for similar polishes, I'm going back to Indigo Bananas. Wednesday and Eris in particular, but the differences are the same as they were before- one has larger flecks of shimmer, and the other one has holographic glitter. I think they're also a bit warmer, in general.

Have you tried Taygete? How did you feel about it?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great weekend!

Crowstoes Alcyone

DISCLOSURE: Alcyone was sent for my honest review by Crowstoes.

Alcyone, like Electra, is a blue-purple duochrome. I'll have a comparison post for you after I've posted the individual Pleiades. Alcyone is also really dense, and I was pleased to find that I only needed one coat over Zoya Pinta. I really like this combination, despite my waning interest in purple.

I had no issues with the formula.

I took a couple of shots trying to capture the duochrome, with mild to moderate success. Again, the shift is a lot stronger in person!

.........Well......I tried :| I hope you can sort of get a sense of what's going on with this polish, because it is complex and super cool!

So, as far as alternatives go, the closest I found were Digital Nails Shadow and Hermes. Shadow has larger particles of shimmer, and Hermes has holographic glitter. I was also thinking that Orly Lunar Eclipse might be close, but it really isn't. Lunar Eclipse has a bright cobalt base and the duochrome is nowhere near as noticeable.

DISCLOSURE: Alcyone was sent for my honest review by Crowstoes.

Have you tried Alcyone? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Crowstoes Electra

DISCLOSURE: Electra was sent for my honest review by Crowstoes.

Electra is the third of my favorites! It's a blue-purple duochrome, and very turquoise-leaning compared to Alcyone, which I'll show you on Wednesday. I have to apologize for these photos. My camera has a hard time with purples, so as you can imagine, photographing Electra was challenging at best.

I layered Electra over American Apparel Passport Blue. I was impressed by the density of the shimmer in this polish. While Orion needed 3 coats over black, Electra was solid in 1 coat layered over Passport Blue. Also, I had no trouble with the formula.

Ok, now here's my problem. There is a definite purple shift, and damn if I didn't try to capture it! But this is the best I could manage.

It's much stronger than this, I promise :|

Freaking purple, man.

Just a note, I did test Electra alone on a nail, but quickly discovered that it's rather sheer, so I didn't bother doing a full swatch.

I think Digital Nails Convergent and Indigo Bananas Maui are sort of similar, but they are much more teal/turquoise-leaning, and apparently have a scattered holo effect. Actually, I think they are more similar to each other than they are to Electra.

DISCLOSURE: Electra was sent for my honest review by Crowstoes.

Crowstoes are sold at Llarowe and Shoppe Eclecticco, and Aussie customers can buy them at Femme Fatale Cosmetics. I believe they are also sold on Overall Beauty, but interestingly enough, when I tried to access the page to link in this post, my antivirus marked it as unsafe.

Have you tried Electra? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Crowstoes Orion

DISCLOSURE: Orion was sent for my honest review by Crowstoes.

Orion, a warm, olive green duochrome, is another one of my favorites! I swatched it both alone and over black. This is four coats of Orion.

You can kinda see the brownish base peeking through. It's very different from the kind of greens I usually wear, and while I'm not really used to it, it's kinda cool.

The color shift is visible without a black base, but it's definitely not as strong as Asterope or Celaeno.

Despite my griping about layering over black, Orion is one color that definitely warrants it IMO. Check it out:

Much better! It's still a warm green, but I feel like Orion looks a lot better without the brownish base peeking through. It looks sort of funky on me. I used 3 coats over black, and the end result was totally worth it. The sun actually bothered coming out the day I swatched this, so I snapped some shots in that lighting too.

And check this out, it's even a little duochrome-y in the sun!

It's a subtle shift, but duochromes usually don't look so great in direct sunlight, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Crowstoes are sold at Llarowe and Shoppe Eclecticco, and Aussie customers can buy them at Femme Fatale Cosmetics. I believe they are also sold on Overall Beauty, but interestingly enough, when I tried to access the page to link in this post, my antivirus marked it as unsafe.

I was trawling through Etsy shops recently, and noticed that Digital Nails and Indigo Bananas have some similar colors. I think Pan and Lowkey are the ones closest to Orion, but they're lighter, and Lowkey has a silvery cast that Orion lacks. Pan is about as duochrome as Orion on its own but has a greyish base, unlike Orion's brownish base.

DISCLOSURE: Orion was sent for my honest review by Crowstoes.

Have you tried Orion? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great weekend!!

Crowstoes Celaeno

Man, I have really been spoiled. For the last three semesters, I've managed to get myself four-day weeks, and I always had either Thursday or Friday off. Now that my internship is in full swing, I'm back to five-day weeks, and I am tired. Hear that? It's the world's tiniest violin, and it's playing just for me.

Anyway, Celaeno! Disclosure: Celaeno was not sent for review- it is one that I won in a giveaway. Out of the eight Pleiades, I have three favorites, and this is one of them. Actually, you're going to see them all in a row. Celaeno is a bronzey-gold-green duochrome, and it is just lovely. I told you on Monday that I don't like layering with black, and luckily, Celaeno does not need a black base. Like Asterope, it is super duochrome-y alone, but unlike Asterope, it is perfect in 3 coats.

Celaeno is great. I had no trouble with application.

Crowstoes are sold at Llarowe and Shoppe Eclecticco, and Aussie customers can buy them at Femme Fatale Cosmetics. I believe they are also sold on Overall Beauty, but interestingly enough, when I tried to access the page to link in this post, my antivirus marked it as unsafe.

I'm not that well-versed in duochromes, so my knowledge of possible dupes is pretty much limited to Ozotics, Sally Hansen Nail Prisms, the HITS Mari Moon polishes, and a few Luduranas. Being a gold/bronze-y color, I feel like there's probably a dupe or something similar somewhere, but between those ranges, I can't think of anything. Of course, there are lots of vaguely similar colors, but none that I think are close enough to warrant a mention here.

Have you tried Celaeno? What do you think?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Crowstoes Asterope

Sooooooooo. I have decided to make this month, Crowstoes Month! I was recently sent some Crows for review, and I also won a bunch of Pleiades in an unrelated giveaway. I'll post more specific disclosures where they apply. As for Asterope, this was among the polishes I won, and was not sent for review. Also, I should apologize in advance for the inconsistent lighting...being held hostage by the weather is a pain in the butt, but I tried to get these to show up as true-to-life as I could.

Crowstoes Asterope is a pink-orange-gold duo/multichrome, and there's even a hint of green when you layer it over black. Personally, I prefer the way it looks alone, but it is sheer and needs 4-5 coats to be presentable.

Despite the sheerness, I didn't have any trouble with application, and there was no bubbling. Here are a couple photos to show you the color shift:

As you can see, it's nice and duochromey even without a black base! And here it is over black. I used 3 coats over Sinful Colors Black on Black.

And the color shift:

See that hint of green at the edges? Super cool. I usually don't like layering over black because there are always those little bits of black peeking out...you can see them pretty clearly in my pictures, unfortunately. But regardless of my layering woes, Asterope is really cool!

The first similar polishes that came to mind were Sally Hansen Amber Ruby and Ozotic Pro 502. Amber Ruby has much denser shimmer, and both 502 and Amber Ruby have stronger color shifts than Asterope, but Amber Ruby was discontinued long ago. And apparently many of the Ozotic 500 series were also discontinued. Point being, Asterope will be much easier to obtain than either of those, and is still quite pretty in its own right! Asterope also reminds me a bit of Sally Hansen Golden Cinnabar, but the Nail Prisms have been gone for ages. Claire's Poison Apple is sort of similar, and I do actually own that one so I can do a comparison. After I finish with the swatches, I'll put up a post with a couple of comparisons.

Crowstoes are sold at Llarowe and Shoppe Eclecticco, and Aussie customers can buy them at Femme Fatale Cosmetics. I believe they are also sold on Overall Beauty, but interestingly enough, when I tried to access the page to link in this post, my antivirus marked it as unsafe.

Have you tried Asterope? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Copperhead

Today I'll be showing you a Lustre Shine. These were released fairly recently, last fall I believe? In stores, there are six colors available (Plume, Firefly, Moonstone, Lava, Copperhead, and Scarab), and I've heard that online, there are two others available (Gilt and Azure). Most of these are dupes to other recently released polishes, and Lava looks really similar to OPI The Show Must Go On, so I passed on everything but Copperhead. I'm reasonably pleased with this one, I guess? It's not awful. 3 coats, no top coat:

It's a brownish, coppery metallic. Sadly, that greenish shimmer you can see in the bottle doesn't actually show up on the nail. It is a bit frosty, but with careful application, you can minimize the brushstrokes. It's solid in 2 coats, but I found that a third really adds depth, so I'd recommend the full 3. Drying time is quick, but I noticed that the wear was not so good. My tips started wearing down by the end of the day...disappointing. At least it's an interesting duochrome?

I have to admit, I think the greyish/plummy shift was a really weird choice. I don't think it complements the base color that well, so this is one of those rare cases where I'm glad that the duochrome isn't super obvious. Oh well, they can't all be winners. Luckily, my mom loves this one, so it'll be headed for her stash.

As far as dupes go, I can't think of any. I'm guessing most companies haven't put out a duochrome like this because the colors don't complement each other too well, lol.

Have you tried Copperhead, or any of the Lustre Shines? What did you think?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

Sephora Pantone Violet Quartz

Sephora Pantone Violet Quartz was released sometime last summer or fall. It is a warm purple duochrome with a coppery shift. 3 coats for opacity. In the shade:

It's a bit warmer in person, but the above photo is mostly accurate. In the sun, Violet Quartz does this really weird thing and a sort of silvery sheen appears? Not a fan of that, but at least it only shows up in bright, direct light.

But in most lighting situations, it looks AWESOME. Check out the color shift. Advance apologies for my dry, awkward hands.

I didn't even have to layer it over black! I haven't tried that at all, actually. Usually, layering over black helps bring out the color shift, but I don't really think it's necessary here. The formula was pretty good- a bit watery at the first coat, but by the time I got to the third, I was used to it and application was much much easier.

I think this is a fairly unique polish, but similar to Nubar Moon Eclipse (or Moon Shadow, I'm not sure which name is the correct one) and Rimmel Zeitgeist. Moon Eclipse/Shadow is pinker, and Zeitgeist is pinker and frostier, with a stronger color shift. Zeitgeist is, however, discontinued, and I think Violet Quartz was clearanced out recently, so if you're after a color like this, Moon Eclipse/Shadow is your best bet. I believe it is available on amazon.com.

Thoughts? Have you tried Violet Quartz, or any similar colors?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!