Avon swatches: Nocturnal, Sunshine, Golden Wine and Golden Rose

Well, today's a special day for me: a double anniversary! It's my second anniversary with my SO: two years ago today, I decided to send the most flimsy Facebook message to this really interesting guy I had met walking out of the library the month before. And he sent me a FB message back asking me out... a very long message asking me out. It was like, "So... I'm not doing anything and all my friends are out of town and if you're not doing anything and have nothing better to do -- for instance, if your friends were out of town too -- maybe we could go get dinner... but only if you really want to. It's cool if you don't. But it's really cool if you do. Umm... here's my number." 

It's also been exactly three years since the day my advisor called me to tell me I had been (more or less) accepted by my current doctoral program. I missed the call and spent hours in agony after I looked up the area code and realized it came from this university's town. (She didn't leave a message the first time around.) 

So if this relationship and doctoral program goes well, it'll be my lucky day. If either or both bomb... it's gonna be the most depressing day ever. 

Anyway, enough yapping about various anniversaries... on to polish! Today, I have some Avon Nailwear Pro polishes for you. Avon is my biggest surprise of late. I always rejected the brand out of hand as boring and probably not of great quality. Yeah, I was wrong. (And now, I can't wait to see what else Avon has coming up in this line of polishes... good quality polishes for cheap, frequently with free shipping... you can't go too wrong with that!)

First up, dupe alert...! 

Avon Nocturnal and OPI You Don't Know Jacques! (L to R: OPI, Avon, OPI, Avon)

OPI YDKJ, a polish that I simply adored when I first got it, is maybe just a smidge darker and glossier than Nocturnal but they are very, very, very similar. I prefer Nocturnal because unlike YDKJ, Nocturnal only needed two coats to be opaque. There was still some VNL and uneven spots for YDKJ at three. 

Avon Sunshine

A basic yellow creme. Not incredibly special, either in color or in quality. This is three coats. It's not at all the worst yellow I've used but it's not the best either. (Still, this was easier to apply than quite a few of the yellows I've tried...)

Avon Golden Wine

The gold really shines (or rather, shimmers) in this wine red shimmer. I was afraid it was going to be like Golden Twilight, where the gold is just swallowed up by the base color. The gold here isn't totally present on the nail like it is in the bottle but it's definitely there. This was an NOTD some time ago: I used Diamont topcoat and the tipwear was after a day. Two coats. 

Avon Golden Rose

Well, Golden Wine and Golden Twilight were so great, I thought maybe Golden Rose would be similar... Nope! I found this frosty peach pink pretty unattractive on my nails and, surprisingly, it was somewhat difficult to apply. I found it very thick and brushstroke-y. Definitely not a fan of this one.

Overall, my experience with Avon polishes has been overwhelmingly positive. They're very pigmented, are often perfect in two coats, they dry quickly and they have good staying power. Cheap and good. Qualities I love in my polishes.

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