American Apparel Violet Panache Swatch

It's Cheap Polish Tuesday and today we've got one of American Apparel's beauties on deck. I don't recall exactly how much I paid for this polish, which sort of makes it iffy if it should make "Cheap Polish Tuesday" with the requirements that the polish must be able to be found for $5 or less. While I know that American Apparel polish can be found in deals of 3 for $15 (yup, $5 each - it makes the cut!), I have seen the prices vary greatly between regions. On the American Apparel website for Canada, the price per bottle shows as $9 each, and no discounts in multipliers. (For the record, I don't remember paying that much, I bought this over a year ago.) Whilst in the US, the polish is listed at $6 each and you can get 15-20% discount if you buy more than 3. In either case, if you are patient, American Apparel often have promotions of free or discounted polish.

American Apparel Violet Panache is from the "Metallic" line but I don't really think it looks that metallic, it's just a simple shimmery, micro-glitter finish. It is a slight duochrome but I might be blind and the difference between the royal blue and the blue-biased cool violet doesn't seem to offer much contrast. The formula is VERY sheer and while I used 3 coats to make full opacity, you could easily find a one coat black and use one coat of Violet Panache to get the duochrome effect. The brush was meh, no real complaints but because of the height of the bottle, it made for a long brush and short handle. Not too difficult to work with but not my favourite.



In either case, for the price it's OK. If you don't have a colour like this, I don't see anything wrong with the colour to have a sour impression. If you dig the colour and the price is right, I'd go for this one but at $9 a pop like on the American Apparel Canada online store? No thanks.