I know these polishes have been out for a while.  I bought them back in October when I was doing some business travel, but I just saw them again at the WalGreen’s down the street from our house, so I thought I would swatch them while they’re still available.

I started with Mystic Lilac, and only after I painted it on did I remember the problem with this one: it’s pretty sheer.  Even with four coats, you can still see visible nail line and a few bald spots.  It’s a pretty, tannish lilac color with unexpected green shimmer.  It doesn’t seem like the kind of color that should be sheer, though, and by itself it’s just not enough.  This picture shows four coats:

When I went through this the first time, I did some research, and the recommendation is to use Sally Hansen Concrete as a first layer or two, and then put this on top.  I had to make a second trip to WalGreen’s to buy Concrete at the time, and I still forgot about it!  But it does help to have both colors.  The colors are close enough that it doesn’t change the look, but it brings out the green shimmer more.  So I did that for swatching purposes here.  There are two coats of Concrete below, with two coats of Mystic Lilac on top.  You still have four layers of polish, but the outcome is much nicer:

It’s maybe a little darker than the color of Mystic Lilac on its own, but just a bit.

And finally, here is Concrete by itself (three coats):

This one is a pinkish, greyish lilac.  I like it, I think it’ll be nice as an office polish.  The description of Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge makes me think of this kind of color, but I don’t have that one to compare–it was sold out when I tried to buy it in the 50% sale this year (update: got it now!).  It’s now back in stock on the Rescue Beauty Lounge website, but I can’t justify the shipping just for one bottle.  Maybe when the Spring 2011 colors are available and Bruised is back in stock too…