Still Moody

When I first came across that new display of mood polishes, I thought there were about forty colors, because the display looks like this:



Here's a detail shot of the top bit, which shows they're from Blue Cross (if you click to see big, you might be able to make out that they're .25 oz. for US$3.99):



When I inspected more closely, I found there were twelve different colors (though the display is fourteen polishes wide). The first time I spotted these, I got four of them; by the end of the weekend, I had a whole set. Of course I did.

As I mentioned, these don't have color names; they do have different colored stickers on the tops to show what shades they are, but all of those say CHANGES COLOR! (or COLOR! CHANGES, depending on which side you start reading from). The stickers on the display are the same, and the UPC labels are no help, either; they just say "MOOD NAIL", though they do have different numbers, so that's what I decided to call them (because things like Bright Pink/A Slightly Lighter Bright Pink are tedious to type).



Here are the bright, warm creme shades:



Left to right: Eight, Three, Seven, Nine.

On the nail, mostly still cold from running them under the water faucet (all swatches today are four coats over a base coat, plus top coat):



Top to bottom: Eight, Three, Seven, Nine.

Here they are after warming up:



Three (second from top) is the dud in this group; the difference between the warm and cool colors is so slight as to be nearly nonexistent. My favorite, of course, is Nine, the purple/pink at the bottom, but the remaining two do have nice color changes as well. I haven't seen the new Claire's mood polishes in person yet, but Eight (at the top) seems like it might be the same as Excited/Bored.

Here are the cool-toned ones:



Left to right: Five, Six, Eleven, Four.

I didn't manage to get a decent picture of these cold, but here they are warm:



Top to bottom: Five, Six, Eleven, Four.

As discussed yesterday, Five appears to be a dupe for Claire's Happy/Earthy. The other three also look like Claire's dupes to me: Six resembles Peaceful/Confident, with its very slight color change; Eleven looks like the new Flirty/Shy, and Four (a microglitter) seems to be the same as Wild/Calm.

Finally, here are the lightest and softest shades:



Left to right: Ten, Fourteen, Twelve, Thirteen.

Cold:



Top to bottom: Ten, Fourteen, Twelve, Thirteen.

Warm:



Ten and Fourteen are both shimmers, with Ten being slightly more on the frosty end of the spectrum. At first, I thought Fourteen might be the same as Claire's new Awesome/Silly (awesome is a mood now?), but after studying pictures, this one is paler than the Claire's pink. Twelve and Thirteen have the same micro glitter finish as Thirteen. All four of this group have decent color changes, with Ten and Thirteen being somewhat subtle but still visible.

After I did these swatches, I did a test with different top coats to see what effects that might have on the mood changy-ness. For the swatches above, I used Sally Hansen Mega Shine. In my test, I compared that to OPI Top Coat, Sally Hansen Insta Dri, and OPI Rapid Dry. The only difference I found is that with the quick dry ones, the color changed showed up faster, but once they were all dry, I couldn't see any difference in how they reacted. Here's a pic when the quick dries were dry and the other two were still thinking about it:



Top to bottom: SH Mega Shine, OPI Top Coat, SH Insta Dri, OPI Rapid Dry.

I had such fun playing with these that I decided to wear Ten as my work mani this week; I'll have a wear report after I take it off (probably Saturday). Also, I think fun should be shared, so look for a contest announcement later today in a separate entry.