CND Swap

Recently I did a swap with Jen of The Polish-Aholic and was delighted to get my first CND polishes. Well, almost my first; I already had one bottle I'd gotten in a MakeupAlley swap from the era when CND was known as Creative Nail Design and the Colour & Effects system was not yet in place. Even before I got a chance to try the polish, I enjoyed the bottle shape, which is unique in my collection. It's rounded on one side and flat on the other, so the colours nestle right next to the effects and each pair makes a unit that stands apart from the next one thanks to the curved side.






Left to right: Anchor Blue, Emerald Shimmer, Raspberry Parfait, Scarlet Shimmer.

I chose Anchor Blue to swatch first. It was a two-coater, and you can see in the pictures that it was so pigmented that my usual clean-up technique left some blue on my skin (I'm sure if a little more acetone would have taken care of it, but since this was just swatching I didn't subject my skin to that).





I really liked that the labels had extra information about the color and finish on them; it reminded me of Zoya's site, which I've always found helpful—no need to wonder or guess about how sheer something is going to be.

I then layered Emerald Shimmer over the blue, using one coat on my index and middle fingers and two coats on my ring and pinky.





It's no secret that I love layering, so this was right up my alley. The shimmer wasn't streaky at all, so one coat was fine but it built nicely as well. If these hold up in a full mani, I'll have to look for a local supply of this brand, as I liked what I saw when I swatched them. Thanks, Jen!