I never knew what a gem of a drugstore Duane Reade was until I moved away from NYC. Such a nice, fully stocked selection of drugstore (and some salon) polishes: Milani, Revlon, Sally Hansen, Borghese, Wet N Wild (not a single empty WnW Craze display!), Tropez, OPI, Essie, sometimes Barielle and Toma. And, of course, Brucci, which I've only ever seen at DRs.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Brucci: it was my first nail polish brand and I used to have a bunch of them in my teens. So I stocked up on them while I was in the city, wore a couple while there, and have duly swatched most of them for you all. The two Brucci polishes I wore while home were quite durable: only a little bit of tipwear after a few days and no chipping. The color selection is decent: it's still very staid compared to other brands -- and has its share of frosty semi-sheers in semi-interesting colors -- but some interesting ones thrown in.
Application for these polishes, in general... a bit watery for me but by no means thin: most polishes were almost totally opaque in two coats. Warning though: this polish requires thin coats because it's so watery. It's not that quick drying and when I was swatching, I found that if I carelessly did a thick-ish coat, the polish would drip down and pool at the tip of my nail while I was photographing! Not attractive. Also, weird. It's a hard polish to control, IMO (again, because of its wateriness): allllll over the nail if I wasn't careful. But for $3, it's not bad. The cremes, especially, were very glossy and had a nice air of sophistication. Anyway, enough blathering...!
Brucci Explosive Meteorite
Pretty basic: dark grey with silver shimmer, giving off an overall charcoal shade. One of the easier polishes to apply. I believe this is new for fall.
Brucci Grape Galaxy
Also new for fall. Very dark purple with light purple and blue shimmer. It looks pretty plain in the shade but very pretty when the sun hits it. Also fairly pain-free in application.
Brucci Grape Galaxy with Sinful I Miss You on top
Multi-sized holo glitter (with silver glitter) in a dark purple jelly. A very silvery type glitter though it does have some holo thrown in.
Brucci Hunter Drive (in sunlight and in shade)
I always find reds hard to capture. This one was pretty watery and sheer: I used four coats for the above, and there was still some VNL. But I really like this polish: it's more burgundy than the photos would lead you to think and it has really gorgeous gold and red shimmer.
Brucci Daniella's Curve
Very glossy mauve-plum shade. One of the unfortunate watery culprits. You can practically see the polish starting to fall off of my nail there. But when applied carefully with thin coats, it's a very pretty color: sophisticated and something you can wear to the office (without feeling really dull).
Brucci Creme de Cocoa
Good basic chocolate brown. Darker and warmer than in the picture. Not something to celebrate but it fills a gap in my stash.
Brucci Creme de Cocoa with Sinful Smoking Hot on top
Everyone's seen opalescent white glitters but this one seemed atypical: it's a very dense, very fine glitter that reflects more green and gold than silver. I was taken aback at how much fire is in this polish!
Brucci Black+Blue
Dark blue jelly. Very pretty but I have several dark blue jellies; I bought this one mostly to franken with. :)
And now, the pièce de résistance...
Brucci Black+Blue with Sinful Nail Junkie on top
Check out this new Sinful glitter. OMG. Multi-sized blue, green, gold and silver glitter in a blue-green jelly. It SPARKLES LIKE WHOA. So f'ing worth the $2, if only for the name alone!
Close-up:
And because it SPARKLES LIKE WHOA, I need a video as well:
Remember to enter yourself in the BB Couture For Men polish giveaway (ends Labor Day). The submission form for the contest will be on the sidebar until the contest ends!
