Color Chameleon

Hi... everyone? I don't really ever know how to start something like this. I had the strong urge to review a nail product I recently bought, and since I've had these urges before I thought maybe I'd just... stick them all in one place? I don't really know, I like nail polish and sharing my manicures so that's what I'm doing. I suppose. Anyway, on to the good stuff.

Today I got in a new product I hadn't heard about until recently and that is Ruby Wing's 'Crowd Surf'. Ruby Wing is apparently a sort of side-brand of colour changing polishes made by Color Club. These polishes are supposed to change colour when exposed to the sun or UV rays, which is a pretty neat concept I thought, so I decided 'hey, why not?' and ordered a bottle.

Outdoors in the shade

It's hard to describe the colour of this shade since it seems to change based on what sort of light you are in. In the bottle, Crowd Surf is a bright purple-fuschia that reminds me of brightly coloured swimsuits and summertime. This is the colour you will see on the nail when in fairly bright-lit areas or when you first step out into the sun.

Full sun before colour change

The colour change when you expose the nail polish to the sun is pretty quick, and I'd say you could get the full effect in under a minute, easily, which is nice. When exposed the the sun, the polish changes to a deeper shade that is very much similar to the first, just slightly darker and maybe with a hint more red. The change is definitely noticeable; I am able to stick one hand out in the sun and keep the other in the shade and see the difference between the two quite easily. The colour difference is more subtle than some of Ruby Wing's other changers, though.

Full sun after colour change

If you can't tell by the photos, though, this polish also seems to change colour depending on what type of lighting you are in, not just by whether you are in the sun or not. In the warm, yellowy type of lighting you often find indoors, the colour looks a lot darker and more purple than when you first put it on. As hard as it may be to believe, the photos I've taken are pretty true to the colour differences you will see.

Indoors with warm lighting

As far as formula goes, this polish isn't the best I've ever seen, but it is decently easy to work with. The first coat goes on a bit sheer and streaky, but will be opaque in 2 coats. I added a third just to even it out a bit. This polish also dries slightly matte so all pictures are shown with two coats of SV. Either way, I do like all of the colours reflected in this shade and overall I think it's a cool product that I would probably buy again if the shades caught my eye.