Swatch My Stash! Pretty Serious #2: Blue, Purple, and Neutral

Instead of my usual weekly manicure wrap-up today, I decided to head back into the blog to post the last of my Pretty Serious swatch-a-palooza. This post will include my blues, of which there are many! It will also include a lone purple and a few neutrals. I am, as usual, interpreting “neutral” to include browns, grays, blacks, glitter toppers, and any other color I can’t quite figure out.

I have 11 polishes for this post. As with my previous PS swatch party, I am sourcing polish description information from the internet at large. In general, I will not be using direct quotes of the descriptions, as I don’t like doing that unless they come from the maker’s website or store. If I find a PR post listing descriptions, I may quote from those, and I will show that with quotation marks if and when it happens. Likewise, I am doing my best to source collection and release information from the internet.

BLUE:

Araneae is a deep and dark blackened blue or indigo jelly. I wouldn’t even call this a navy, as it is much darker than that on the nail. I believe this polish first released in 2016 as part of the Midnight Manicures Collection. It has a great formula that is opaque in 2 coats.

This polish has my heart, and then some! You guys know how I love a “so dark it’s almost black” polish. And to have one that is a deep and inky indigo blue … Just wow! I love it. I wish it was a tiny, tiny bit less dark so I could see a little more of the indigo peeking through. But this is a minor complaint for me. I love how it looks on the nail. I love the darkness and vampy depth it has. And I love how it is all squishy and perfect once it is dry.

Davy Jones’s Lacquer released in Summer 2017 as a FaceBook group custom polish. It is an aqua/turquoise base with silvery shimmer or glitters and bits of bright blue running throughout. The brighter blues are either a shimmer or micro micro glitters. I’m not sure which. This polish has a great formula. It is opaque in 2 easy coats.

See how pretty and sparkly this one is? When you look up close, you can see greens and blues in with the silver and aqua. This is one of those polishes that looks simple from far away. But it has a lot of depth and dimension once you really start looking at it.

I like this one for its sparkliness and for the delicate balance it strikes between all the components. My one complaint is that it leans a little more toward the green side of life when I wear it. It looks more blue in pictures, which is why I placed it in this post with my other blues. But I feel it looks more green in real life. I would prefer it to look all blue all the time. But hey, that’s just me. And it’s a minor complaint. I have worn this polish in full manicures. I have also used it in nail art. It was fantastic both ways!

My Immortal is a rich and vibrant cerulean blue base with aqua or turquoise shimmer. This polish released in Spring of 2018. I believe it was a special, limited edition polish created as a gift for a friend of Pretty Serious’s owner. I have read in different nail blog posts that there were only 300 bottles of this polish created and sold. I do not know if that is accurate.

I can’t believe I don’t have a macro shot for this polish. I really need to remedy that in the near future.

So … My Immortal. Oh. My. GOSH!! This is one of my 3 favorite Pretty Serious polishes. It’s this beautiful baby, Khepri’s Amulet, and Wish You Were Beer. If my entire Pretty Serious stash disappeared tomorrow, with the exception of these three polishes, I would not be sad. Well … Let’s be honest. I would be sad. But I would survive.

I love everything about this polish. The base color is blue perfection. I love the shimmer running throughout. It is strong and obvious on the nail. I love how this polish seems to glow and shift depending on the light and the angle of the nail. It is spectacular, and it reminds me of sunlight sparkling off of deep, dark water.

Petrichor released in Summer 2017 as part of the Rainy Days Collection. It is a beautifully dusty and deep blue creme. This polish has a great formula that is opaque in 2 easy coats and nearly opaque in 1.

I don’t have many creme polishes from Pretty Serious. I purchased the whole Rainy Days Collection, and, basically, those are my entire experience with creme formulas from this brand. Based on that collection, I feel like Pretty Serious made a pretty fabulous creme polish! This one was probably my favorite from the collection. I love the color tone, and I love how it applies. Basically, this is a great polish for wearing on its own or using in any kind of nail art.

Precipitation released in Summer 2017 as part of the Rainy Days Collection. It is a vibrant, deep, and very pigmented teal creme. It has a great formula that is opaque in 2 easy coats and practically opaque in 1. I can’t remember if I had staining with this polish or not. I had notes on this whole collection, but I have lost them. Blogger FAIL!!

This is another example of how perfect and lovely Pretty Serious’s creme polishes are. There is no way to fault this polish, other than the potential for staining, which is inherent in pretty much any teal polish. Teal isn’t always my favorite color, but I find I quite like this one. I think it is because it leans a little more blue. I love how vibrant this polish is, and it looks beautiful once it is finished with a glossy topcoat.

PURPLE:

Luminous Doom released in 2017 as a custom polish for the Pretty Serious FaceBook fan group. It is a dusty purple crelly base stuffed full of glitters. I can see turquoise or aqua glitters, silver glitters, and even some holographic action. This polish has a decent formula. I don’t find it to be as impeccable as other Pretty Serious polishes in my stash, but it is easy to work onto the nail. It is generally opaque for me in 3 coats.

I have to admit I love this polish because it is so darn weird. This is an unexpected and playful color combination. I love how the green/turquoise/aqua glitters look against the purple base. And I have to admit this tone of purple hits a soft spot for me. It is on the edge of being pastel without quite hitting that mark. I like how it has an overall muted or dusty appearance, too. This might not be a polish I wear often, but I enjoy the heck out of it when I do!

NEUTRALS:

HTF released in 2016 as part of the Serious Business Collection. It is a black jelly base with red/orange/green shifting multi chrome flakes and gold shimmer. This polish has a good formula in that it applies easily to the nail, and it builds up well. But it is also fairly sheer. I have found I need at least 3 coats for full opacity.

Ugh. Just look at that gorgeous flakey goodness! You guys know I love flakies in all shapes and forms. And I love the dickens out of a black jelly base packed with pops of brilliant, vibrant color. Needless to say, I like this polish a lot. But I feel like the black in the base tones down on the nail to where it looks like more of a soft black-brown. I’m not sure if this is due to the gold shimmer or the flakes or if it is just the way the base color catches the light. I’m not mad at it. It surprised me when I first wore this polish, as I was expecting more of a deep, dark, jet black in the base color. This may sound a bit crazy, but I’m going to go there: This polish reminds me of cola. That is what I think of when I see this base color on my nails. So, yeah … not what I expected based on how it looks in the bottle. And yet, I love it!

Jack Frost originally released in 2016 as part of the Holiday 2016 Ghosts of Christmas Past Collection. This is a topper with a shimmery, iridescent base that is packed with iridescent glitters. It has a great formula. There is a LOT of glitter in here, so it looks thick and lush on the nail at just one coat over a base color. I am not sure if this polish could ever be opaque on its own. I have never tried it.

You guys already know I love all things iridescent just as much as I love all things flakie. Um … wow. That sounded really strange. But you guys know what I mean! Right? Ha!

This topper is stunning. I love how it glows right off the nail. The iridescent glitters in here are sparkly and beautiful. They pick up the light and bounce it back at you in a way that reminds me of glistening snow. I swatched this one over a blue polish, but it looks fantastic over pretty much any base color.

Misty released in Summer 2017 as part of the Rainy Days Collection. It is a light gray-green-blue creme. This polish has a great formula. Even for such a light color, it is generally opaque for me in 2 easy coats.

This is another stunning, impeccable creme from Pretty Serious. Looking at these swatch pictures and thinking about these polishes for this post has made me wish I had purchased more cremes from this brand when I had the chance. They really are lovely and versatile! In particular, I like the lighter color tone of this polish. I like how it is a nice mix of gray, green, and blue. It is a fantastic neutral that will work in any season. Plus, it kind of reminds me of a misty and slightly gray, foggy, and rainy day. Perfect!

Overcast released in Summer 2017 as part of the Rainy Days Collection. It is a warm, medium-toned gray that (at least to my eye) has a good deal of brown in the mix. As with the other cremes from this collection, this one has a stunning formula. It is opaque in 2 easy  coats and practically opaque in 1!

I really can’t say enough good things about the Rainy Days Collection. It was a fantastic and beautiful collection, overall. And each polish within it was a little gem. This is a perfect, perfect gray. It is beautifully balanced and neutral. It looks chic and sophisticated on its own, but it also works beautifully in any type of nail art. You guys know I’m a fan of gray polish, in general. And this is a good one!!

Pluviophile also released in Summer 2017 as part of the Rainy Days Collection. It is a beautiful purple-toned brown creme. This baby has a fabulous formula that is opaque in 2 easy coats and nearly opaque in 1.

So … This polish ran a close second favorite for me out of the Rainy Days Collection. It is so rich and creamy and gorgeous. It makes me think of hot chocolate or something like that. I think this one looks elegant and kind of luxurious on the nail, and the formula is beyond fantastic. This is a fabulous tone of brown, and I LURVE it. Bunches!!

THE WRAP-UP:

So, guys, that brings me to the end of my entire Pretty Serious stash.

I imagine it is no secret by now that Pretty Serious, as a company, no longer exists. Their online store front is gone. Their FaceBook business page is gone. I believe the FaceBook fan group still exists, but I think it is set to secret and no longer accepting new members. The last week or so was a tough one for this brand, for its customers, and maybe even for the world of indie polish, as a whole. Although there are bits and pieces of this much-larger story in various places on the internet, I don’t think anyone will ever know what truly happened or what truly led to the events and actions that occurred last week.

Overall, the whole situation makes me sad. I feel like Pretty Serious was, overall, a good company with a great product. I am a relative late-comer to the indie polish world, so I don’t have drawers and drawers full of Pretty Serious polishes. But, I love everything I purchased from them. I always enjoyed looking at their new releases, even when I didn’t intend to purchase. I often laughed my butt off at the funny descriptions and silly stories attached to Kaz’s creations. I enjoyed the fun and playfulness she and her husband brought to their business and to the world of nail polish. I was a fan of her blog.

I guess what I’m trying to say is this: Good-bye, Pretty Serious. Thanks for all the laughs and the fun. I will miss you.