Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Exposed Nail Polish Swatches

Exposed is the latest brand of nail polish to come to Singapore from the UK, and boy, for a cheap-and-cheery range, they sure have a lot of colours! In Singapore Exposed is carried by GlamoGirl (who by the way also carries a lot of other brands), and you can check out the full range there.


I've got a few of their nail polishes and I thought I'd swatch them for you :) For $12, some of these colours really rock!

First up, we have Cappuchin 18. I actually picked this because I thought it would be a chic nude. On my skintone, it's actually a little darker, but still tres chic. It's a soft coffee brown, and surprisingly actually really nice looking on my skintone! I don't always wear browns, but this is pretty and wearable. There's a nice shimmer too.

exposed nail polish cappucine

Next, we have Flirt 40. I have to tell you, the moment I saw this online in other people's swatches, I HAD to have it. It's a gorgeous pink-purple duochrome that sometimes leans gold, and reminds me of Max Factor's beloved Fantasy Fire, or that hard-to-get Orly Fantasea - the duochrome and base colour are really similar. If you're tired of hunting around for rare polishes, this is a good alternative. Like Fantasy Fire and Fantasea, this one is sheer, so you can layer it over other colours (purple, black, blue, pink, red - the possibilities are endless), but for the sake of swatching, 3 coats as shown below gives you full opacity. Nice!

exposed nail polish flirt

Third is Dazzle 42. This is a gorgeous round holographic shimmer in a pinky-purple tinged base. I think this is best for layering since the base is sheer. Here I'm wearing it over Essie Footloose, and I'm loving the combo! What can I say - any polish with glitter gets automatic love in my book.

exposed nail polish dazzle

Next, we have Aruba 52. This is by far my favourite - and I think it's going to be hot for Spring. One of the Spring 2013 trend colours identified by Pantone is a faded, slightly pastel-looking jade shade called Greyed Jade, and Aruba falls squarely into this colour family, so it will be a great pick for carrying off the upcoming season's colour trends. This polish is very wearable even for people who aren't comfortable green, because it's a toned-down, slightly more sophisticated shade of jade green. I love this. Very chic, fashion-forward but still wearable. Normally I wouldn't expect a colour as subtle as this to come from a drugstore brand like Exposed, but it just goes to show you can get great colours for cheap.

exposed nail polish aruba

I also have Aqua Baby 59, which is a bright, bright blue-leaning turquoise shade. You know I love turquoise shades, so this is definitely up my alley. It's actually surprised me by drying to a rubber-like finish, which I thought was pretty cool, as you can see in the pics below.

exposed nail polish aqua baby

I also top coated over it, so you can see what it looks like with a glossy finish. Beautiful, ain't it? I love this colour - it's a bright shade, very Spring/Summer in feel. And it's also quite universally flattering - because it's got both green and blue tones in it, it will look good on a variety of skintones.

exposed nail polish aqua baby topcoat

Last but certainly not least, Parisan Night 62. Oh la la, this is another gorgeous shade, and what a romantic name, too. This is another complex not-usually-found-in-drugstore-lines colour. It's a lovely greyed smokey blue, but there is a little bit of blue flash too. What I love about this shade is that it always looks smokey blue, even in low light conditions - it never looks black. And it's a really understated, chic colour, too.

exposed nail polish parisan night

Overall, I really like these polishes. Application-wise, these are good, but not spectacular - nothing made me go "Great application!" when I was painting, but nothing made me go "Yucks", either. Coverage is good, too - with the exception of Flirt and Dazzle, everything gives full opacity in 2 coats. Lastly, I definitely appreciate the colour range, and complexity of colours. In Singapore, drugstore lines don't really carry too many shades, so I totally feel spoiled for choice with Exposed. Exposed is available at the GlamoGirl website.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

8 comments:

  1. These look a lot like Sinful polishes, right down to the bottle shape! I even spot what could be some color dupes in there. I wonder if they are made by the same manufacturer?

    Anyway, beautiful swatches, as always! I think Aqua Baby is my favorite.. I'm a turquoise kind of girl too!

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    1. @Innocuous A: They do look a little like the Sinful bottles. Although I don't actually have any Sinful polishes (sadly) so I can't confirm if there are any dupes or similarities other than the packaging. It's true that in general, one manufacturer may produce nail polish for multiple brands (with some customization to bottle/colours/formula etc) so you never know! Unfortunately in this particular case I'm not sure.

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  2. My favorite has to be Dazzle 42. Such a pretty shade. rest of them are also good but I'd pick Aruba.

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  3. They look perfect!!! That dazzle 42 is so pretty!!!

    xo

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  4. I thought they looked like Sinful Colours too and I've got some similar shades like Aruba and Aqua Baby!

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  5. Yes they do look just like Sinful Colors, the bottle shape and the shades. The only difference is the price I think SC can be bought for US $1.99 - don't know how that compares to Singapore dollars?

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    1. @Annabelle Freeman: Wow, $1.99 USD would be like $2.50 in Singapore dollars! That is definitely a lot cheaper, I'm jealous of you US ladies!

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  6. Lovely colours (Parisian Night is my favourite!) but i'm from the UK and have never heard nor seen of this brand, anywhere. So I did a quick search and found their website...Looks like they are either a small name here or new as no actual shop i've know sells them. Will keep an eye out though as like the colour choices.
    I've managed to get hold of some Sinful colors at discount stores here and agree they look like the same bottle shape but apart from that i cant say if they are the same manufacturer or whether they just get their bottles from same place, being that one brand is UK made and the other US.

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