Indie: Contrary Polish Mega-Post

I've known Carrie from nail board for a while now, and I tried to enter a giveaway for some of her polishes late last year. When I did, she asked if I wanted to swatch some of her polishes. I said "Yes" and that I wanted to swatch ~ ALL OF THEM ~. So she sent me a huge package with tons of minis, and here I am... about 7 weeks after they came in the mail XD It took a lot longer to put together this post than I anticipated, BUT I hope someone finds this useful, as this is currently the entire Contrary Polish catalogue available to purchase.

Speaking of which, if you find any you want to purchase, you can do so at Llarowe, and you can order minis directly from Carrie (check out the sidebar on her blog here).

I had a stand out favourite colour: Creeping Moss. There's just something about that polish that works so well with my skin tone; I want to make love to it. I'll be purchasing a full size of this, definitely! :)

But every one of these polishes has an excellent formula that applies very smoothly and evenly. These polishes were all swatched with topcoat, as I found them to dry somewhat satin-y on their own.

As usual, all my swatches are photographed with a big ol' diffused flash (so my macro lens will focus on more than just a tiny sliver of my nails), so the shimmer is a bit more pronounced in these photos compared to normal, indoor lighting.


The Original Six

Bright Night (3 coats) - Gorgeous. Dark blue jelly (a warmish blue) with aqua and silver shimmer.




Comparison: Contrary Bright Night and NARS Midnight Express (both 3 coats) - the Contrary looks much lighter because of the shimmer, but the base colour is quite similar. You can see it better in my pinky nail as the flash is not hitting it directly there.


Creeping Moss (2 coats) - Warm, olive brown (slightly purpley red) with copper and pink/fuchsia shimmer. This was an OMG polish for me. So beautiful.




Comparison: Contrary Creeping Moss and Nina Ultra Pro Never Glum Plum


Firebrand (3 coats) - Super complex and pretty dark raspberry red with red and pink shimmer. I used 3 coats for the swatches, but 2 looks fine IRL.




Gilded Oak (3 coats) - Purpley-plummy brown with gold shimmer




Inky Fingers (2 coats) - cool grey blurple with blue and green shimmer.




Purple Smoke (3 coats) - I did 3 coats for the pictures, since I use flash, but two coats looked fine IRL. A cool toned purple (or blue grey) with blue and purple shimmer.




Comparison: Contrary Purple Smoke and Nina Ultra Pro Never Glum Plum - I don't have Revlon Perplex anymore (did I ever have it?), so I grabbed my trusty bottle of Nina NGP for comparison.



Stand Alones

Desert Fruit (2 coats) - Not part of any collection. Beautiful formula and coppery/bronze/red shimmer. I don't have OPI Peel Me a Gobi Grape, but this looks very similar to swatches I've seen!




Comparison: Contrary Desert Fruit and Orly Plum Noir


The Islands

Anna Maria (2 coats) - Dark teal with golden-greenish shimmer




Aruba (2 coats) - Turquoise base with aqua shimmer.




Santorini (3 coats) - A dark periwinkle or indigo or violet (IDK) with blue shimmer. It looks darker IRL than the picture shows.




Comparison: Contrary Santorini (3 coats) and MAC Ming Blue (2 coats) - These photographed more similar than they appear IRL. The MAC is much less purple, and the shimmer appears almost a bit more silvery in the Contrary.




Fall 2012 LE Duo

Bonfire (3 coats) - Again, I used 3 coats for pictures, but 2 looks fine IRL. A warm, slightly orange leaning red jelly with red/pink, gold, and brown shimmer and microglitter.




Hayride (2 coats) - A caramel nude/tan with gold, bronze, and brown shimmer and microglitter. Flattering on my skintone!




Comparison: Contrary Hayride and SH CSM Fedora - I don't have anything close to Hayride, so I grabbed one of my favourite neutrals to compare it with



Holiday 2012

Adorned (over black creme) - A golden flakie topcoat with gold/copper shimmer.




Comparison: Contrary Adorned and Essie As Gold As It Gets - These are quite similar, but the Essie is a lot more dense, so if you prefer a more subtle topcoat, the Contrary is a nice choice. I think there's a difference in the shimmer, too, but it's difficult for me to tell.


Bauble (3 coats) - a bright cherry red jelly (slightly pink) with red microglitter and silver shimmer.




Comparison: Contrary Bauble and Essie Bonded (both 2 coats) - The Essie is a lot brighter and lighter, but the microglitter is pretty similar.


Candlelight (2 coats) - A very dark greenish-brown-almost black with golden shimmer.




Comparison: Contrary Candlelight and Hello Kitty Night Sparkle - These are similar in darkness, but the Contrary is a little bit jellier in finish, whereas the HK is an opaque creme with lots of shimmer.


Frozen (3 coats) - The most well behaved white polish I've tried in a long time! Really pretty white polish with blue microglitter and silver/white shimmer.




Mystery (2 coats) - a dark, rich, warm brown with coppery-bronze shimmer




Comparison: Contrary Mystery and ChG Ingrid - I don't have any browns similar to Mystery, but here it is compared to ChG Ingrid just so you get a sense of the colour


Spruce (2 coats) - deeper and darker IRL with strong green-golden shift.




Comparison: Contrary Spruce and ChG Glittering Garland - Contrary Spruce is deeper and darker than the ChG, and also more of a squishy finish.



Spring Collection 2013 - Love Lyrics

Better Together (2 coats) - Very unique combination of a grey-blue base and turquoise shimmer. I couldn't find anything in my stash to compare this to.




Feels Like Home (2 coats) - kind of a warm purple taupe base with rosey-pinky-coppery microglitter and shimmer.




Comparison: Contrary Feels Like Home and Nina Ultra Pro Never Glum Plum - Sorry I keep comparing things with Nina NGP.


Play Me (3 coats) - Reminds me of SH Mystic Lilac (which I don't have anymore to compare), but I think this is a lighter lilac base and fine green shimmer running throughout.




Comparison: Contrary Play Me and Essie Chinchilly - without flash under low lights it seemed like the base colours were closer, not so much with flash, eh?


Somebody Loved (2 coats) - Pale pink with lavender undertones, lots of warm copper and green shimmers that makes this cool-toned pink flattering on my warm skintone! This might be my favourite of the spring polishes. A pink, can you believe it?!




The Way I Am (2 coats) - This is a greyed-out sage or avocado green (looks less green IRL than these pictures show) with fuchsia microglitter and fuchsia/blue shimmer.




Ain't No Sunshine (2 coats) - A grey blue with white flakies and shimmer.




Comparison: Contrary Ain't No Sunshine (2 coats) and Illamasqua Raindrops (3 coats)


Comparison: Contrary Ain't No Sunshine and Zoya Skylar (2 coats each)



A couple Contrary-to-Contrary comparisons:

Gilded Oak (3 cts), Mystery (2 cts), Creeping Moss (3 cts), CandleLight (2 cts)


Bonfire(3 cts), Bauble(3 cts), Firebrand (3 cts),Desert Fruit (2 cts)



Ok that's everything! Thanks, Carrie, for letting me swatch your polish line and thanks for your patience :)

A few Zoya swatches and comparisons (Evvie, Natty, Dree, Blaze)

I picked up 3 Zoyas from their last promo (3 for $10, shipped), and got another bottle in a swap. Here are the swatches and comparisons:

Zoya Evvie - 2 coats, excellent formula. A dusty green with a tiny bit of blue in it. This reminds me of Avon Olive Green (the RBL ONS dupe), but I purged that a while ago. I think the Avon was darker and more saturated, though.



Comparison: Zoya Evvie and Essie Power Clutch - The Zoya looks quite a bit bluer compared to the Essie. They don't look as close IRL as they do in this picture. If you are into greens like the Essie, I think it's worth having both :D


Zoya Natty - 2 coats, also excellent formula. A dusty cool blue. I love polishes that have a greyish quality to them!



Comparison: Zoya Natty and Orly Sapphire Silk (both 2 coats) - The Orly has quite a bit more green than the Zoya. On the nail, I think I like the Zoya better than the Orly (which is one of my favourite cremes!) They are different enough to own both, but I'm thinking of purging the Orly because I think I like the Zoya on my skintone better.


Comparison: Zoya Natty and Misa Office Polish-tics (both 2 coats) - The Misa is quite a bit more grey and almost purpler. This Misa is one of my favourite cremes too; it is very nice :D


Zoya Dree - 2 coats, a pretty-ugly greenish brown. This is actually more flattering than you might think!



Comparison: Zoya Dree (2 coats) and Illamasqua Hectic (3 coats) - Illa Hectic is one of my favourite cremes as well, and it is just a bit greener than the Zoya. They are not dupes, but they are very very similar. I like both of these more than RBL No More War, on my skintone.


Zoya Blaze - 2 coats. A pinky-red scattered holo. I don't even like scattered holos and this is gorgeous IRL. I'm glad I let someone talk me into getting it! The formula is excellent.

Indie: Oopsie Daisies Conversation Hearts

Hotpinkaurora previewed her Valentine's Duo and as soon as I saw Conversation Hearts, I had to have it. So I boughts it. I haz no regrets!

It's weird because I am not a pink lover at all. But this one is a warm pink, so I thought I would take the chance, and I'm glad I did!

You can get yours here at her Etsy shop, if you dig it.

Oopsie Daisies Conversation Hearts (3 coats on its own) - awesome formula. It looks good at 2 coats, too, if you want a bit less glitter on the nail.

China Glaze Kinetic Candy

I don't typically buy a lot of China Glaze polishes (mainly because I don't find myself at Sallys often), but once in a while I am really pleased with China Glaze. Today's polish is such an example:

I received this polish in a recent swap, and I am quite happywith it, even though it's not terribly exciting-looking in the bottle.

China Glaze Kinetic Candy - 2 coats. This has a surprisingly nice formula for this type of colour. It reminds me a bit of OPI What's with the Cattitude?, but maybe a little dustier (less bright) and a tad darker... and with an immensely better formula. I purged the OPI ages ago. I think this shade of blue works well with my warm skintone :D



If I were the type to do nail art, I think white dots or snowflakes would look awesome over this polish.

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Tuesday night is guilty pleasure TV night: Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game on ABC Family. This episode of PLL is full of hard to believe twists and turns D:

I'm fully entertained :D

Indie: HARE Holiday Hoop-la

I ordered this from Nikole right before Christmas, but it arrived after I had left for Canada, so I didn't get to try it out until after the holidays. Even though it is a Christmassy polish, I think the colour palate transfers well to Valentine's Day.

I think this is super cute and I'm glad to have pulled the trigger on it! It is limited edition, but it is still available at Llarowe, so grab it ASAP if you want it! It might also be available at Nikole's Etsy shop, but currently it seems to be unstocked.

HARE Holiday Hoop-la (1 coat) over Essie Marshmallow

Indie: Smitten Polish mini-spam (a few from "Smitten with the Holidays" collection)

I purchased these in early December, and swatched them just before I left for Canada. I think I wanted to post these swatches a couple times before, but Noelie was also away for the holidays, so I decided to wait until she got back to post these pics! Her Etsy shop is open again (actually, it must have been open for a while, and I just forgot to check again), so you can grab these if you're interested in them!

Smitten Polish Frost Fairies (3 coats) - Very good formula for a white jelly, but I apply whites very carefully :)




Smitten Polish Frost Fairies (1 coat) over Essie Marshmallow (2 coats)




Smitten Polish Winter is Coming (3 coats) - Excellent formula. I think this looks even nicer in person! Plus GAME OF THRONES! 3.31.13!!!! That seems far away :(




Smitten Polish Greensleeves (3 coats) - This is pretty opaque at 2 coats, but I did 3 for the pictures. It dries on the satin side, so definitely looks better with topcoat. Reminds me of a more complex Zoya Ivanka.




Comparison: Smitten Polish Greensleeves (3 coats) and Ivanka (3 coats) - The big flakes in the Smitten give it an overall bluer appearance, but the base seems very similar between the two. Smitten's formula wins, in my opinion.


Smitten Polish A Midnight Clear (3 coats) - Similar to Greensleeves, this one dries to a satin-like finish, so use topcoat to bring out the best in this one. Very pretty.




Comparison: Smitten Polish A Midnight Clear (3 coats) and Zoya Song (1 coat) - These look very close in the bottle, but on the nail they are rather different. The Zoya is darker and does not catch as much light as Smitten.


Hope your 2013 is going well! I've been doing some spring cleaning around the apartment. This morning, I made a post on our apartment's e-bulletin board giving away our old vacuum and steam mop (having been replaced by the Dyson in my previous post, and a new Bissell I purchased from Amazon). I got two responses in about 5 mins of posting. The second person was SO BUMMED that he had missed out. I've never seen someone so distraught over not getting a steam mop before ("my 1st major letdown of the new year"). So, I hope your new year is going better than his, at least!