From the left: Slate Green, Moody Grey, Purple Grey, Nude Beige, Utopia
Except for Utopia, their names are straightforward, aren't they? But we all know name and even bottle color can be very deceiving, let's have closer inspection.
Cause you're not a man
you're just a mannequin
I wish you could that my love is real
but you're not a man
(Sorry, I just can't help it. Every time when I think of the word "mannequin", I hear Katy Perry sings it out loud. )
So Nude Beige does make a good mannequin color. It is a dusty, light taupe creme with the slightest hint of pink. A neutral appropriate for conservative working environment or on days when you wanna lay low.
As with the pastels I shown you the other day, formula on this is thick but nothing unmanageable - I could get away with 2 coats with barely visible brush stroke. It will be prefect with a layer of top coat.
We've seen a lot of dusty neutrals since last year, I was wondering if I had yet again wasted my money on a dupe. I dug into my stash and 3 suspects were found:
Lucky me, there are no dupes! At first I thought Country Club Khaki is the closest because of the lack of pinkness in both. As you can see here, Country Club Khaki is way too brown and darker than Nude Beige.
Utopia was one of the first few Models Own swatches I saw, it went straight to my must-have list.
The color varies depending on skin tone. It is off-white on some, and on me, it is a very pale grey with a touch of pinkish lavender. A lousy description again. In short, it is a mixture of white, grey, pink and lavender. I'm in love with this - it is not loud but it is sophisticated.
Application was like a dream (Utopia!), went on smoothly, sheer on the first coat, perfect in 2.
I would love to see it compared to Color Club Who Are You Wearing? but it is still in the mail.
Slate Green - a dusty light teal creme.
This is love at first sight. I'm not a green person, my green collection is miserable but Slate Green got my attention right away. I guess it is the dusty thing.
When I was a kid, my mother wore a jade bracelet all the time. This is the same color as the bracelet. It is what "Jade is the New Black" should have been.
The formula on this is different from the rest, it is a bit jelly like. On the sheer side and runny, it took 3 coats to be opaque.
It looks familiar, huh? I know what you are thinking, so there it is:
No dupes again. Dirty, Sexy, Money is darker and dustier while Slate Green is like his younger cousin, more vibrant and less moody.
I wanted to say Moody Grey is greenish grey as suggested by its name, but the green is actually more prominent than grey, so I will stick to a medium greyed out green creme. In Cantonese, it is definitely a "鴨屎綠" to me, which means "duck poo green"
Green again? It was quite a challenge for someone who had like 5 greens in her over 100 collection. I didn't know it would be this green, most of the swatches I found were charcoal. Even though it is not the same as I expected, I like its uniqueness.
Great application, it was so pigmented that I could have get away with 1 coat if I have been paying attention.
Purple Grey is a dark greyed out purple creme. To say it's dusty is an understatement - it is muddy.
This is what I wanted my first franken to be - mysterious, very dark eggplant. I kind of made it but I was stupid enough to put in some plastic balls (I thought those were metal!), so I'm not able to share with you here (lucky you).
It is totally unique, as much as I love purple, I don't have anything like this, not even in the most remotest sense. I would imagine it to be the son of OPI You Don't Know Jacques! and Parlez--vous OPI (both are my favourites). You'll be the first to know when the baby is due!
Models Own is a new brand to me so I decided to do a wear test to see how long could it last. I wore for Purple Grey for 5 days as planned - yes, I DID wear it for 5 painful long days. I believe you of all people could perfectly understand how much did I suffer. But I made it, I'm so proud of myself!
I was wearing this with one coat of CND Stickey base and Air Dry. I used another camera with better macro, but its white balance sucks and I was too lazy to edit them. ** These 2 pictures are not color-accurate, please refer to the above swatch picture **
No chipping, just minor tip wear. I assure you it is no-one-but-yourself-could-spot-it kind of minor. It is impressive, especially for someone as rough as me.
It's impossible to pick a favourite out of this bunch - I just love them all. These are the edgy colors that I can't live without.
I'll be back with the last part of Models Own review before you know it.
