Contrary Polish

Sometimes I look at my swatching queue and get overwhelmed—who thought it was a good idea to buy all that stuff? Oh wait, that was me. The feeling always passes, but sometimes not fast enough to coincide with an open time slot for swatching. The solution? Skittles. That's what I did recently with some polishes from an indie brand that specializes in shimmers, Contrary Polish. The woman behind these polishes, Carrie, is an online friend of mine, and when she said she was ready to sell her frankens, I looked at the photos and said "here's some money". Then, because I am easily distracted, the polishes sat had to sit patiently waiting for weeks before I got around to trying them. I shouldn't have put it off; these are pretty! Obviously I'm not the only one who thinks so, as it was recently announced Llarowe's Facebook page that Contrary Polish will be sold in that shop, home to so many special lacquers.

Left to right below: Purple Smoke, Gilded Oak, Firebrand, Bright Night.



Purple Smoke is a cool grey with blue and violet shimmer.



Gilded Oak is a warm brown with gold and purple shimmer. I can see this on my nails as a full mani when fall weather hits.



Firebrand is a berry red with red and fuchsia shimmer.



Bright Night is a blue with bright blue and royal blue shimmer.



At this point in my swatching session, I felt more calm about my backlog and decided to try the other two polishes in the set of six on their own. Creeping Moss is a greenish brown with pinky purple and golden copper shimmer.





Inky Fingers is a deep blue violet with green and blue shimmer.







All of these swatches are two coats, no topcoat. I was somewhat surprised that I could stop at two coats, as the first one looked very jelly-esque on most of these. That makes we wonder about layering something in between the coats. I wish there were a think tank which would give me a grant to explore the various options in nail polish layering combinations, as my day job really cuts into the time I have to spend on such important endeavors.