Oh, there are differences. There are cremes and foils and glitters; there are orange-reds and blue-reds and neutral reds. But the fact is that when they're on your fingers, 99% of people who notice your nails at all will think (or say), "Red fingernails" - and not look beyond that.
This is not so true with clothing as it is with fingernails. Red is unequivocally my best color, where shirts and dresses are concerned, enough so that people usually comment on it when I wear red. And on the much larger scale involved with a shirt or a dress, then I think the exact color of it matters more. For me, that's blue-leaning reds rather than orange-reds, particularly. I'm not saying these things don't matter at all with nails. Blue-reds look better than orange-reds on my nails, too. I'm just saying the impact is a lot more limited.
Anyway, the fact is that I have way more reds than I need, no matter how you look at it - especially since I don't seem to actually wear red nails that much these days - and it seems like a good idea to look at the various red polishes and decide which ones I like best rather than just start indiscriminately getting rid of them. I talked about red glitters a couple of weeks ago, and there are a few more here, although these are more of the top-coat kind. In fact, let's start with those.
Some of this set give the lie a bit to my all-reds-are-alike, theory, because they are more varied. I think I would be inclined to put a red base-coat under at least some of these, anyway, and that would pull them back to red a bit, anyway.
Ruby Queen and Poppy Fields both have red jelly bases, which is what makes them look alike here. The glitter mixes are not the same, though. Ruby Queen has red and purple glitter, in various sizes; Poppy Fields has red, gold, and some scattered small dark pieces that look black. (Ooh, scroll down to the bottom of this entry for Poppy Fields over Chanel Taboo, which is awesome. I may have to try that over something dark, to see if I can get a similar effect.)
Sparkling Fire is a small glitter in a clear base that goes on pretty thick. The entry I'm about to link to is in Spanish, but shows it layered over red, and it looks gorgeous. I'm really tempted to try that idea this coming week.
Alexa Lace is part of an Alexa Chung series meant to look like various fabrics. This is mixed-shaped matte bits, and over a pale base, it really can look like lace. I think maybe it needs to be applied somewhat more sparsely than I've done here to get the full effect, though.
Cremes part 1:
added: better picture of Via Della Spiga here
Then you go into the slightly more orange-leaning ones, which are the first couple here, especially:
added: better picture of China Flower, better picture of Sooki
I put the toner next to the EmpoweRED bottle because I don't know where else to put it - it's not a regular polish at all. It's supposed to blacken the red - which is why I bought it, because I have a thing about blackened reds - but it doesn't actually do a very good job of it that I've ever been able to tell. Jolly Lolly isn't actually a creme at all; it's a full-on jelly, from the Miss Candy collection a couple of years ago. Except for Jolly Lolly, these are the obvious de-stash candidates because I don't think the orange-reds are good colors for me, as I said. Although I'm most likely to hang onto the Rococo pair as a curiosity. But China Flower and Sooki are not for me, for sure. I might bring myself to part with one of the two near-identical Square Hues, too. (I don't think they're actually dupes, though - Via Della Spiga looks maybe a hair brighter.)
This is metallic-ish things plus the Pixie Dust:
L-R: Razzmatazz (Orly mini), Sugar Sugar (Sinful Colors), Chyna (Zoya Pixie Dust), Karina (Zoya), Unbreakable Heart (Hard As Nails).
Razzmatazz is technically a glitter, I guess, but it really isn't terribly glittery. It has a bit of a metallic sheen but not enough to really make it a glitter. It seems it's trying a bit too hard to be everything to everybody, really. It's pretty, though. It leans pink and has just a little bit of sparkle to it.
I should have put Sugar Sugar and Karina next to each other to compare, but they look awfully similar on the nail wheel. They both are just a hair darker than most of these, and they both have a significant amount of glitter in them but somehow come out looking more metallic than glittery. Chyna, the Pixie Dust, has more tonal glitter in it than most of its Pixie Dust siblings - they tend to be more silvery.
Unbreakable Heart belongs more with the rest of the real metallics, which are the ones below:
L-R: Knees Up (Butter London), Bet On Red (Milani), Just Be-Claws (China Glaze), An Affair In Red Square (OPI)
Knees Up is the one I am least likely to ever give away, even though I don't wear it a lot, because it's the stand-out, a full-on foil. It's really gorgeous. But the rest of these are all very pretty, too. An Affair In Red Square is a classic, of course, and it's been in OPI's core collection for years (OPI's Russia collection was the Fall 2007 release, says Scrangie.) Bet On Red is really pretty and I'm still sort of sad that Milani discontinued this line. But Just Be-Claws, from China Glaze's holiday '13 collection, is virtually a dupe, so I'm set for the foreseeable future there.
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