Borrowed: American Apparel Peacock and Zoya Sooki

Here are the last two polishes that Noelie lent me to swatch.

American Apparel Peacock - Nice formula. This is two coats.


Comparison: American Apparel Peacock vs. Orly Sapphire Silk and Illamasqua Muse - The closest teal I (still) own is Orly Sapphire Silk, but they are not really dupes. I'm glad I got to borrow this shade from Noelie!


Zoya Sooki - 2 coats, but nearly opaque in 1. I liked it, but it was still a little on the warm side for me. Also, I'm not much of a True Blood fan (and when I did watch season 1, I found Sooki to be incredibly annoying LOL)


Comparison: Zoya Sooki and American Apparel Poppy - Poppy has some white in the base, I think.


Comparison: Zoya Sooki and RBL Chinoise - these photographed closer than they are in real life... but I've waited too long since swatching them to remember what exactly the difference was :p I used 3 coats for the RBL and 2 for the Zoya.

American Apparel: African Violet, Hassid, Mount Royal, and Poppy

Oh man, so much fail. I finally decided to create my blogroll after having put it off for a long time. I added about 15 of my super-favourite blogs, and then, I hit "Back" instead of "Save" and it's all gone -.- LOL. I'll try again next weekend.

Anyway, on to the polish.

I picked these up a few weeks ago when that $10 off coupon was still active. I think I have all the AAs that I want, now! Yay!

American Apparel African Violet - When this group of new polishes came out (along with Army Jacket, Macarthur Park, etc.), I wanted to get this. But, holding it at AA, I said to myself "Man, this looks just like Funky Dunkey, and I rarely wear that" and put it back. Then, I had major regret ever since. So I bought it. (Wow, I should have wiped off the bottle before taking this pic LOL)


Comparison: American Apparel African Violet vs. OPI Funky Dunkey - and it's pretty much a dupe for the OPI, LOL. Well, it is more opaque than the OPI and a tiny bit redder, but otherwise... not a big difference. At least I had a coupon!


American Apparel Hassid - Yes, I bought a black that was not Wet n Wild :( This is quite shiny, but actually not as opaque as WnW. It needs two coats.


American Apparel Mount Royal - I don't know why I didn't get this before! I love it! Kind of blurpley!


American Apparel Poppy - I was blanking out on a fourth polish to get, until I remembered that Steph at Short n Chic had featured it back in March. So I grabbed it! It is a really loud colour, I like!

Reswatch: American Apparel Butter and Office

American Apparel's financial situation is really teetering on the edge lately. I hate everything about them except their polishes. It seems they are a bit short on cash, which they are trying to raise. Allegedly, they are not looking for a buyer. We'll see what happens over the course of the day.

I would be lying if I said I weren't secretly hoping for a code (maybe "BANKRUPTCY") so I could haul all the polishes ;)

Here's two re-swatches of two pastels I like very much.

American Apparel Butter - I prefer this yellow over ChG Lemon Fizz because it's not as stark on my skin tone. I had to thin it a bit (personal preference).



American Apparel Office - One of my favourite light greens! I love this polish! I've read that others had application problems with this, but I think the formula is great.

American Apparel Factory Grey, Passport Blue, Rose Bowl

3 more American Apparel swatches! I picked these up back when AA had a friends and family coupon, so I got 3 for $12.

American Apparel Factory Grey - This pulls a little purple on me!


American Apparel Passport Blue - Really dark blue creme. DBF loves to travel, so I had to get this polish for the name XD


American Apparel Rose Bowl - I'm not totally sold on this shade, but I'm not sure if it's the colour, or just my bias against pinks!

American Apparel Cameo Blue, Army Jacket, MacArthur Park

Right before Christmas, DBF and I headed to the mall for some last minute shopping. We decided to split up to cover more ground, and on my way to A&F to make some returns, I found myself inside an American Apparel. Before I knew it, I had walked out with 3 of their new colours :D...

AA Cameo Blue - I really like this! It may be a new Top 20 for me! Great formula! After I took these pics, I realized this reminds me of a darker Essie Lapis of Luxury :)



I don't have anything similar in my stash, but I made some comparisons so you can get an idea of how different it is from other blues:

Comparison: AA Cameo Blue and OPI SSFS

AA Army Jacket - The formula on this one isn't as good as the other AAs I have. It's rather thin and watery, and I used three coats. Still, I really like this colour!



It reminded me of Essie Sew Psyched, so I did a comparison:

Comparison: AA Army Jacket and Essie Sew Psyched


AA MacArthur Park - The formula on this was a just a touch thick, but application was manageable. Nice and opaque!



It's one of those ugly greens, so I compared it with RBL No More War. Pretty different when you look at them side by side, huh? I don't own OPI Who the Shrek Are You, but I wonder if it is close to this?

Comparison: AA MacArthur Park and RBL NMW

AA Butter, California Trooper, Office

I decided to do real swatches of my American Apparel polishes:


AA Butter - I prefer this over ChG Lemon Fizz, but still think it's rather stark to wear to work.


AA California Trooper - I had lemmed pretty hard for this polish, and after getting it, I hated to admit that it wasn't quite right for my skin tone :( I'll give it another try in the winter months when I'm paler, but I may have to put this in my swap/gift pile!


AA Office - I wasn't going to pick this up initially because of the reports on its poor application, but once I was at the store and saw the price was 3 for $15 or $6 each, I just HAD to buy a third polish. This stood out most to me, as I was going through a mint green phase at the time, and I'm so glad I got it. I think I can pull it off at work because it's just ever so dusty :)

I'd like to get more of these polishes, but
a) I truly resent going into that store, and
b) I am almost just waiting for them to declare bankruptcy and just sweep in and buy all the polish on sale. Does that make me a bad person? O_o