The most complicated purple polish I own

Of all the polishes I've ever swatched on this blog, this City Color shade was, hand down, THE MOST DIFFICULT to capture in a photograph. Why? Well purples are notoriously difficult to capture on film to begin with, but then add in the fact that there's a very slight duochrome tendency to this color, coupled with the fact that it's shimmery and sparkly. Trying to get the essence of this shade in a photograph was impossible, so please please don't rely on one single photo to give you an idea of this color. 

I'm going to refer to this polish as City Color Purple since these colors do not have names. I purchased this shade at Rite Aid for $1.99 and it's part of the Blue Moon Collection which you can see here.

First let's do a comparison with several other purple and blurple polishes I own. I tried to pick the ones that all have some sort of shimmer, sparkle or duochrome tendency to them.

I had no idea when I pulled all of these polishes that City Color Purple was going to look so blue (aka blurple) when compared to the rest of the shades. INDOORS, City Color Purple does not look this blue. It was only out in the bright sunlight that the blue popped.

And no, that's not a typo. There are two WnW polishes here that are both called Buffy the Violet Slayer. There's the Fast Dry formula (which is newer) and then there's the original Buffy the Violet Slayer, which was part of an LE Craze collection from a while back.

For most of these swatches I applied three coats. But some of the shades, such as Purple Pizzazz which is a sheer jelly, required additional coats:

Looking at the above swatches, this shade looks like a royal blue shimmer. But actually, it's not. That's the frustrating thing about this polish!

Here are some swatches of me wearing City Colors Purple, taken in direct sunlight:

See how you can kind of see that slight duochrome-y effect near the tops of my nails? When swatched on the plastic wheel, that all disappeared.

Pretty, yes, but still not completely accurate. The sunlight makes this color more blue than it is to the naked eye, and the sunlight also manages to completely wash out the flecks of silver sparkle in this shade. What's funny is that you can REALLY see the silver sparkle in this photo taken indoors under florescent light.

After about a zillion pics in a variety of different lighting situations, I was about to give up and just never do a post about this polish because I couldn't capture in a photo what I was actually seeing on my nails.

But then...

 I decided to give it one last try on a really old camera, in my living room at night, while sitting on my couch next to a floor lamp. Well who would have known that this combination would produce pics that capture this color's purple side AND sort of show you the flecks of silver sparkle?

Maybe now you can understand why I pulled all of those other true purples for my original comparison swatches! I didn't think to pull any blue polishes because it just doesn't look terribly blue when viewed indoors, even during the daytime. Indoors, it's a royal purple with violet blue shimmer and flecks of silver sparkle.  Look to the top of my nails in the photo below and hopefully you can see the sparkle a bit:

I know it's hard to see because these pics are blurry and small (blame the old camera), but if you look at the bottle itself, hopefully that will give you an idea of the silver flecks running through this polish.

Hands down, this is the most complex purple polish I own, and if you are a purple polish lover, IT IS WORTH THE HUNT. I just can't think of another drugstore purple that even comes close. It's a royal purple with slight duochrome tendencies, violet blue shimmer and silver flecks. This is definitely a chameleon shade that will look more blue outside, but inside? Oooh la la!

By the way, this shade required three coats for good opacity--it's still a bit sheer after two coats but oh is it worth it.

Do you own City Color Purple? If so, do you agree with my assessment? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Some of the polishes featured in this post were given to Nouveau Cheap for previous reviews.

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