Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Wheel A: Purple Cremes, Mostly

Welcome to the premiere episode of Nail Wheel Wednesday, featuring the first nail wheel I ever filled in completely (I'd only used them for quick swatches before). Of course I started with purples, which means I about gave up on this series before I started because even after playing with the color correction for ages, it's still not quite right. But I shall forge ahead, since it's got to get easier after the purples. I don't have a master plan for this series, so we'll just have to see how far through my stash I make it before I get distracted or run out of wheels (or space to store them). It's already been an educational experience for me. It's easy to fool myself into thinking I don't have that many similar colors when they're stored by brand as I have them now, but the nail wheel does not lie.

Nail wheel

1. Orly Plastix Purple Pleather (3 coats)
2. Ulta Celebutante (3)
3. Rescue Beauty Lounge Mismas (2)
4. Kiko 292 Light Grape (3)
5. Orly Rio Nights (3)
6. LA Colors Color Craze 563 Nuclear Energy (3) [This one is completely off; it's much brighter and redder than it shows, but adjusting the whole photo to make it look right threw everything else way off.]
7. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Plum Luck (2)
8. Orly Matte Purple Velvet (3)
9. Maybelline Express Finish Matte Grape (3)
10. Maybelline Express Finish Matte Plum (3)
11. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Pat on the Black (3)
12. Revlon Plum Night (3)
13. Borghese Ectasi Indigo (3)
14. China Glaze VIII (3)
15. Orly Wild Wisteria (2)
16. OPI Sapphire in the Snow (3)
17. Ulta Devious (2)
18. OPI Funky Dunkey (2)
19. China Glaze Grape Pop (2)
20. Orly Charged Up (3)

Obviously I've got some dupes and near dupes to weed out of my stash. The photo doesn't show the subtle differences I can pick up if I take the wheel into bright light and study it carefully, but even when I do, I have a hard time making a case for having six medium toned purple cremes, or seven dark ones of varying warmth. I'm thinking reorganizing my collection by color would make it easier to figure out which ones need to go, because I know for sure that I have still more purple cremes that didn't make it onto this wheel (Finger Paints Amethyst Atelier, for instance). I've no idea when I'll be able to make time to do that reorg, though. I thought about it this past weekend, but decided I'd rather do more swatching.

9 comments:

  1. I know - having color wheels (or tip swatches in my case) makes it so obvious how many similar colors you have - it's a bit embarrassing! For example, I recently realized I have about 8 bottles of polish similar to color #6 on your wheel. Scary!

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  2. 7 and 11-17 look scarily similar to me. I'd probably trim those to 5 polishes but I'm not you!

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  3. ABOP, I wouldn't be surprised if I turn up several more that color as I work through this project.

    jaljen, you are right, those are all very similar. 11 & 12 are warmer, more plummy, than 16 and 17 for instance, but in many lighting conditions they might as well be the same. :) At some point I will weed some out.

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  4. Where do you get nail wheels like that? I'd really like to get some so I can see what colors I have without dragging out my boxes.

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  5. Wow this is a lovely collection of purples. For me the one that stands out is #1, it looks really pretty and I love the texture too.

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  6. I've been looking for a nail swatch thing for ages.
    Where did you get that nail polish wheel?

    Thanks!

    <3Mae
    http://maegalsmakeup.blogspot.com

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  7. Zara and Mae, I get my wheels from Trans Design (http://www.transdesign.com/); they're in the Nail Art Displays section. They also have this same oval design in clear and a long rectangular display board with 40+ tips on it in that same section, and the OPI rectangular 12 tip ones in the OPI section. Not sure what shipping would be for just the wheels, since I always order polish, too.

    Cel, good eye! That's from the Orly Plastix collection and has a finish different from any of the others on the wheel.

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  8. Karen- Thanks! I'll go check it out.

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  9. I have color problem with blues/ blue greens. I don't even want to put it on a wheel because I don't want to know the dupes I have. I guess I'm in denial

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Thank you for reading and commenting! I greatly appreciate knowing I'm not just talking to myself here. :) I'm moderating most comments now due to the spate of spammers who claim to be looking for sexy times.