Sample provided for review
The weather today is grey and cloudy in my corner of Michigan, completely unsuitable for swatching Ruby Wing sun-activated color changing polishes, but perfectly fine for sorting through and cropping photos of swatches I did back when the weather was more cooperative. The Ruby Wing Wicked West collection had six shades: Rodeo, Tumbleweeds, Wanted Dead or Alive, Saloon Sweetheart, Back on the Saddle, and Ride 'Em Cowgirl.
These have labels on top of the caps showing the inside and outside colors:
Rodeo is a pastel green creme, a bit too yellow-leaning to be called mint. The formula in the bottle I got was on the thick side; that was good in that I only had to use two coats for full coverage, but less good in that it seemed a bit reluctant to self level.
In the sun, Rodeo changed to a pastel yellow with a sort of dirty tinge; I also saw some hints of peach on my tips, almost like this was a thermal polish. (The bottle in the shot below is mid-change from green to yellow, as I held it in the shade longer than my nails.)
Back on the Saddle ("on", not "in" like the song) has iridescent golden yellow hex glitter and micro glitter in a matching sheer base.
I decided this was a layering polish and put two coats of it over Rodeo. It was pretty smooth without topcoat, so I didn't add any. I liked this combination; it looked very spring-like to me.
Outside, Back on the Saddle turned burnt orange and the look was much more autumn than spring—quite a change. The color change also made some spots where I'd failed to do perfect clean up more obvious, but that's good because you can see the spots of darker orange that this would be if I didn't have the pastel yellow base underneath.
When I came back inside, it was interesting to see the colors change back; I caught the shot below after Back on the Saddle had mostly returned to its pale side but before Rodeo went green again.
Indoors, Tumbleweeds is an acid green creme. The formula on this was thinner than Rodeo but still only needed two coats.
Outdoors, Tumbleweeds was olive green. I'd been expecting more of a brown based on the cap, but I liked the olive well enough.
I appear to have failed to take a close up of the Ride 'Em Cowgirl bottle; it's got gold hex glitter and silver holo glitter shards in a clear base. I layered one coat of it over Tumbleweeds, with one coat of Back on the Saddle on my ring finger as an accent.
In the sun, the clear base of Ride 'Em Cowgirl turns on a reddish orange color; over the green of Tumbleweeds, the combination is a brownish reddish green, very close to the browish orangish green that Back on the Saddle and Tumbleweeds make in the sun.
Saloon Sweetheart is a coral creme indoors. I used two coats for my swatch.
Outdoors, Saloon Sweetheart deepens into a reddish plum hue.
Of course I had to try the glitters over Saloon Sweetheart, too. I did one coat of Back on the Saddle on most of my nails, with one caot of Ride 'Em Cowgirl as an accent.
When I stepped outside, the darker these got, the more the difference between the orangey base of Back on the Saddle and the reddish base of Ride 'Em Cowgirl made itself known.
Above is in full sun; below is in shade but still outside:
The last color in the collection, Wanted Dead or Alive, is the only shimmer in the group. Indoors, it's a turquoise leaning blue. without topcoat, it dries to a semi-satin finish. I used two coats.
In the sun, it's a darker blue.
My favorites are Back on the Saddle and Wanted Dead or Alive. Which are yours?
The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider.
