Meet my Nemesis: Couture Spa Day

Purchased by Me

Hello Loves.  Every blogger has at least one polish that she absolutely hates to love.  For me, that polish is Couture Gel Nail Polish Spa Day.  It is such a gorgeous color, applies perfectly and wears wonderfully.  So why is this polish my nemesis?  The answer is simple.  It stomped my photography butt.  No joke, I have swatched this color on six different occasions and have yet to capture it perfectly.  I have tried custom white balance settings, custom picture modes, different lighting, the works.

2000+ pictures later, and I believe I finally got it.  Ok, so here she is - my nemesis.  This little beauty is Couture Spa Day.  As I mentioned, it is nearly impossible to photograph.  In some lights, it appears more green.  In others, more blue.  As a lover of teals, this one quickly became the polish I hate to love.  It isn't the best color for my skin tone, but I wear it anyway.  :)  In this shot, you can see the green tones fairly well.  Note the stark difference between the color on my nails and the dot on the bottle.

In this next shot, you can see the blue tones more.  This shot was taken with the exact same lighting (lightbox) and same camera settings as the picture above.

Now that you've seen the most color accurate shots I can get, allow me to show you a few of the bad ones.  The pictures below are not edited at all - not even touched up.  I'm showing this collage for one reason: I have noticed comments on several blogs accusing bloggers of color correcting their photos.  If you see a swatch picture that doesn't seem quite right - especially if it is a blue/green shade - please consider that there are many factors that impact color: camera settings, lighting, monitor settings, and even viewing angle if you use an LCD display (just for fun, if you're on a laptop, try tilting your screen while looking at the image below).  Most of the bloggers I chat with regularly do not color correct their photos, so if a color isn't quite right, one of these things is likely to blame. :) 

~Michelle