Delicate

I've been on the hunt for the perfect lavender for weeks, and it felt like I was never going to find it.

I wanted something pastel, but not chalky. Something that was clearly purple, but not too saturated. And it couldn't be too pink, or too blue, or too grey.

In the end, I found my perfect lavender...but not in a store. I found it in my existing stash!
Hoarder.jpg

This is another beautiful Forever21 Love&Beauty polish, named "Dusty Lavender". It is the daintiest pale lavender with a whisper of fine magenta shimmer that only comes out in the sun. Shown here I've layered 2 coats of Sally Hansen Glass Slipper, an ethereal clear flakie, over Dusty Lavender.

Dusty Lavender has a really awesome pigmented formula that's 3 thin coats to opacity. You'd probably be able to pull off 2 if you do thicker coats, even more impressive considering how it's such a pale pastel. Application is a breeze, and this polish unexpectedly dries with a matte finish which is very nice on its own, almost a suede or velvety feeling and less chalkboard-like.

Lavender Dots

This is a mani from the vault today, because I've been testing out a new topcoat and as it turns out it has the constitution of a particularly moody teenager. Zoya Caitlin, Love & Beauty Lavender, Sally Hansen White Veil nail art. I've been playing around with my dotting tools lately, it's quite fun.

A note about Zoya Caitlin: this is one of those colors that seem to have a huge variation among swatches. Scrangie describes it as a "medium grey creme with purple tones" and notes that her photo is not color-accurate, but on me it's more of a dusty lavender than a grey; in many blogger's swatches it looks grey, but looking at my mani in person, it is definitely purple and looks more or less exactly like my photo here. It's also a shade darker and purpler on the nail than it is in the bottle...who knows why? q O - O p Must be a skintones thing. Ah, so mysterious...Either way though I'm a fan! This is my second-ever Caitlin mani, and given how large my stash has grown for a polish to be used more than once within the same year is quite an achievement.

I really ought to do a manicure more prominently featuring White Veil, though, it's one of the more unique drugstore glitters I've come across. In fact Sally Hansen has a pretty good track record of hitting it out of the the park with originality (Glass Slipper, anyone?)...a little recognition please? Sally may be one of the more underrated polish brands out there.