Did you ever try nail polish color-matching from a high-end brand?

The other day I was at the makeup counter of a fairly high-end brand and tried out a seasonal, limited-edition nail polish color on a couple fingers.

The color is really beautiful but the cost of ~$30 is just so high for one jar of polish.

Today I decided to see if I could color match and so started looking at the offerings from some of the major nail-polish companies I’m familiar with from salons over the years.

I’m finding that searching for nail polish colors online is actually really fun and being able to do it on the web through a browser is actually a cool way to scope out new colors! Forget the high-end color that I wanted to match! There are so many more amazing colors out there!

Here are a few cool sites where you can browse by color:

Zoya’s website has a nice color-finder where you can browse by color. You can also browse through their breathtaking collections on the site.

Orly has a by-color page for viewing polishes on their site where you can select color families from a drop-down menu. You can also select between types Creme, Shimmer, Glitter, or All. You can also view their collections on the site.

Opi has an “All Opi Colors” option on their website and their Nail Studio viewer allows you to not only select from different color families but allows you to view them on the nails of a virtual hand which you can actually adjust. Opi also has some wonderful collections to browse through.

For Sation I was not able to find a website for the company but did find a site from a seller which lists their colors many of which – despite what seems like almost non-existent marketing – are quite excellent.

Essie has a nice page where you can view all colors on one page or filter by color family.

Of course there are many more brands out there. If you go to a place like Sephora there will be so many choices.

There are also a lot of really cool websites with inspirational ideas like this one at becomegorgeous.com.

Afternote

In the end, I ordered 5 (!!!) really cool Sation old-school colors online for only $17.22.

This evening I decided to break out my nail polish box and play around. I did my nails in multi-colors, sampling a lot of different colors. One thing I notice is that the higher-end polishes tend to apply more smoothly and leave a more clean-looking coat, whereas the less expensive ones do not have as smooth a surface to the coat and can be trickier to get a good application.

I think then that for less-expensive polishes a base coat is probably necessary to get that really smooth, professional salon type look.