Wheel V8: Color Changing Polishes

My internet service at home mysteriously started working again this morning after being out since Sunday night, despite no one calling about the work order that was put in for someone to come out to troubleshoot it or even contacting us to say they'd fixed things at their end. So I'm blogging in my bathrobe today, having a lazy morning before possibly skiing this afternoon.

Today for Nail Wheel Wednesday I have a mix of solar and thermal polishes. All the Solars are from Ruby Wing, and all of them are more recent than the thermals from China Glaze and Dare 2 Wear. Those thermals are some ancient treasures I found at nail supply stores; the China Glaze were literally dusty they'd been sitting there so long.

First full wheel photo is in the lightbox as usual; the second is outside in the sun (in the parking lot of the building my studio is in). It wasn't blazing sun, unfortunately, but still strong enough to show some color change in the solars.






1. Ruby Wing Electric Firefly (3 coats)
2. Ruby Wing Wild Flower (3)
3. Ruby Wing Green Peace (2)
4. Ruby Wing Eternal (2)
5. Ruby Wing Poppy (2)
6. Ruby Wing Kitten Heels (2)
7. Ruby Wing Crowd Surf (3)
8. Ruby Wing Eclipse (2)
9. Ruby Wing Centerfold (2)
10. Ruby Wing Sunflower (2)
11. Ruby Wing Desert Valley (2)
12. Ruby Wing Silk Sheets (2)
13. Ruby Wing Myth (2)
14. Ruby Wing In Your Dreams (2)
15. China Glaze In the Mood Plum Red to Shocking Pink (3)
16. China Glaze In the Mood Purple to Sparkle Blue Neon (2)
17. Dare 2 Wear Mood Polish Green 2 Gold Opal (2)
18. Dare 2 Wear Mood Polish Coco Brown 2 Lime Stone (2)
19. Dare 2 Wear Mood Polish Ashy Gold 2 24K Gold (2)
20. Dare 2 Wear Mood Polish Night Stars 2 White Cloud (2)


Bottles 1 through 4:



5 through 9:


10 through 14:



15 through 20:


















The thermals are past their expiration date for changing; no temperature of water I could get out of my sink made them budge:



Destash notes: We all know I'm not good at destashing. That said, I don't spend enough time in the sun to make the solars a big draw for me, so have to judge them based on their indoor color, which gives the shimmers and glitters an edge as far as staying in my stash. As for the thermals, since none of them change anymore, they also get judged based on their bottle color. 16 and 20 are keepers for sure, and I love the fugliness of 19, too.

Ruby Wing The Wicked West Collection

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.

Ruby Wing Sweet Fantasy Collection

It's Wednesday, but there is no nail wheel today as I have too many swatches to share and haven't been able to do that yet this week due to much busy-ness at work, including two half days of training and working on gathering information to apply for a visa to go to Belarus and visit with our contractors there. (If anyone reading this has any tips to share about Belarus, either nail polish related or no, I'd love to hear them.)

Ruby Wing kindly sent all six colors in their Spring 2014 collection for my review. Since these are sun-activated color changing polishes, I had to wait to swatch them until the sun and an available spot in my schedule coincided, which took a while. Finally on a recent weekend, conditions looked good and I pulled out the bottles. The shades here are Silk Sheets, Dolled Up, Kitten Heels, Centerfold, In Your Dreams, and Deepest Desire.



Indoors, Silk Sheets is a light orange with fine golden shimmer. I used three coats for my swatch, though two would probably have been fine. Here it is in my light box:



Still indoors, in direct low light:



In the sun, Silk Sheets darkens to coral:



I was determined to show the before and after colors side by side, so I tucked two fingers into my jacket and waited until the polish had returned to its indoor color, then quickly pulled them out and snapped a quick picture. Not quite quick enough, as you can see below that the two fingers on the right are already starting to darken. These changes happen pretty quickly.



Dolled Up has red, yellow, and blue large hex glitter plus small red glitter in a milky pastel peach base. I used two coats plus topcoat. This left me with the barest hint of visible nail line on some fingers, but I didn't want to add a third coat of color lest the glitter pile up too much. Some of the large hexes had started to curl a bit; this affected the blue ones the most, with the yellow being the best behaved. The topcoat smoothed over those issues.



In the sun, the base turned red, which meant the red glitter started to blend into the base color, especially the smaller glitters. It sort of looks like the color changing pigment got absorbed by the topcoat, as some spots I didn't see to clean up indoors sure turned colors outdoors, and it almost looked like I'd added a red jelly on top of a lighter milky glitter base.



Here's my half and half of Dolled Up, with the rightmost two fingers showing an early phase of the color change.



Kitten Heels is a super bright purple-leaning pink creme when worn indoors. I wouldn't quite call it neon since it dried fairly shiny rather than satin/matte as neons do (my swatch is two coats, no topcoat), but it is definitely very vibrant.



In the sun, Kitten Heels turns coral.



Here's the two colors, one polish shot. I took these shots, so I'm sharing them, even though it looked like this for only two seconds (time approximate).



Centerfold has black and silver glitter in a rosy pink jelly base: very large black hexes, large silver hexes, and small silver pieces. The hexes in this were better behaved than those in Dolled Up; some of the silver ones look curled but that's reflective curling, not actual curling. I used two coats plus topcoat.



The color change of Centerfold is very dramatic; in the sun, the base turns deep purple, so deep that the black glitter blends right in. So deep that I went out in the sun to take photos and then went back inside to do some additional cleanup.





In Your Dreams is a pale blue creme indoors. Two coats were ample for full coverage.



In the sun, In Your Dreams becomes a deeper dusty blue.





Deepest Desire is a shimmer with very slight frosty tendencies. Indoors, it's olive green. My swatch is two coats, no topcoat.





In the sun, Deepest Desire becomes a bronzey brown.





My favorites from this collection are Deepest Desire (though it feels more like a fall color to me than spring), In Your Dreams, and Kitten Heels. I like the outdoor color of Silk Sheets but the indoor isn't that flattering to me, and I'd see the indoor way more often. The glitters just don't quite do it for me.

These colors are available for $10 a bottle on the Ruby Wing webiste. I've seen the brand at Meijer, too, though this particular collection hasn't appeared there yet.

The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.