Large fine liner/striper nail art polish swatch guide

I've searched for a guide like this my self and has yet not found it, so I'm creating one. If your in to nail art, you are bound to have some sort of fine liner to be able to create more advanced patterns and nail art designs. If you don't want to buy polishes with a fine brush you can also just purchase a regular fine brush and dip it in your regular polishes and wash it between uses.

I think that an advantage with fine liners is that it is possible to make the same design on both of your hands comparing to nail art pencils, they are fun but I can't for the love of it make it look similar on both hands.

First up, all my fine liner polishes and then a comparison between them. (the pictures can be clicked to get larger)

The three brands I'm grading are L.A. Colors Art Deco, Color club Art Club and Jordana pop art. It will not be a comparison between brands more about the quality within each polish. If they are worth buying or not. Everything is purely my own personal opinion and all polishes are bought by my self.

The most important thing for me in nail art is that it covers in one coat(line?), ie. it is well pigmented. If I have a black background and painting yellow stripes over it I don't want to put on white fine liner polish first and then yellow fine liner if you know what I mean. Of cause, the formula also is important, it must be easy to control the brush.

This is how I've chosen to test the polishes; over white, gray and black. As you might understand I assumed that all fine liner polishes would pass the white and that the quality ones will show on black. All pictures are without top coat.

And a simple grading:

1 = Crap polish - don't buy.
2 = Okey - in some circumstances, perhaps purchase-worthy in some cases.
3 = Love it! -Great quality, must have! I recommend it.

One finger at a time then:

The index finger:

This is all L.A. Colors Art Deco, and as you can see the names are at the right in the same order as the nails, from top to bottom.

All polishes passed white as I assumed and looked great there.

Red - A creme jelly red which has an okay formula but comes out a bit to sheer on black. Works in white and grey. =2

Metallic pink - Is what it is; metallic pink. Work great on all base colors, also black. =3

Magenta - a matte purple "wanting to be neon but is not" with silver glass flecks. Theoretically it sounds great but in reality it's not, the formula and finish are horrible, and the glass flecks makes it look dirty and texture is lumpy. =1

Hot pink - Neon pink with a hint of silver shimmer in it. Great color but a bit thin and I'd some problem controlling the polish when painting it. Some what sheer over black but great on white and gray. =2

Baby pink - A light shimmery pink with great finish and formula. Perfect over black and in whole just perfect. =3

Lavender - Is actually the perfect lavender color, just like the flowers. But that's the only positive thing with it. It is creme and very sheer. It is even sheer over the gray =1

The middle finger:

All four glitter polishes are L.A. Colors Art Deco and the black and the white are Jordana pop art.

Gold glitter - Gold very fine glitter in yellow clear base, since the glitter is so small the lines turns out great. =3

Green glitter - Green very fine glitter in a clear base, since the glitter is so small the lines turns out great. =3

Blue glitter - Blue very fine glitter in a clear base, since the glitter is so small the lines turns out great. =3

Silver glitter - Silver very fine glitter in a clear base, since the glitter is so small the lines turns out great. =3

Contemporary white - A creme white with perfect formula and covers perfectly on black. =3

Black mark - A black creme. A bit thin which requires more carefulness, but it is new, and I think that it will get better over time. =3 (2?)

(I've tried  L.A. Colors Art Deco - "black" and "white", both of them I can recommend. =3 )

Ring finger:

Here are Titania gold and Bronze from Color club Art Club and the rest is from
L.A. Colors Art Deco.

Silver - A silver shimmer, covers perfect and has a great formula, well pigmented. =3

Titania gold - Like a beige silver shimmer kinda.. A bit thin, and not as god and well pigmented as the above mentioned silver. =2

Gold rush - A gold shimmer, as good as silver. Great. =3

Bronze - A bronze shimmer and it is little bit the same as Titania gold in formula, a bit thin and not as well pigmented as silver. Still good. =2
 
Bright orange - Neon jelly colored like "coral" with some shimmer (perhaps pink?) in it. Since it is a jelly it is not that good, it is too sheer and show the gray base color to much and is too sheer over black. =1

Yellow - A creme jelly which is way to sheer..Same as Bright orange. =1

The pinky finger:

Here Electric universe is from Color club Art Club and the rest is from L.A. Colors Art Deco.

Vibrant - A purple shimmer which is great, perhaps a bit sheer, but I think it might be because it is new. =2 (3?)

Dark blue - A blue shimmer, perfect formula and well pigmented. Perfect. =3

Electric universe - A matte dark blue neon. Pure crap, way too sheer, can't almost see it in the black and the formula and finish result are just bad. Worse than =1.

Baby blue - A light blue creme, well pigmented, great formula, also great over the black. =3
 
Bright green - Bright green jelly. Too sheer, can't almost see over the black. Also too sheer over the gray. =1

Mint green - Light green jelly. Worse than Bright green, too sheer over gray and black. Useless. =1

Result:

I can recommend a lot of them, and some are really bad. I've noticed that formula, finish and how well pigmented the polishes are goes hand in hand. When they are perfect it is even easier to make ultra thin lines.

Bonus picture:

 This is my fine liner polish drawer from helmer.Some what messy.. I've actually got a small box for all the  L.A. Colors Art Deco because I like them more and uses them more often. Now since I ordered more they no longer fit in the small box.

I have a bunch of Sure Promise as well as you can see. They can be great as well, some of them are much better than the ones I graded as 1 above. Their brushes are a bit larger even though they have fine liner as well. The ones I like and is very well pigmented I actually have cut the brush thiner on so I'm able to make thinner lines. As you might know they are 2-way polishes, ie they got a "pencil" in the cap. I almost never use the pencil since I'm not as good in my left hand as my right hand and I like nail art that's the same on both hands. In the whole I can recommend Sure Promise, some of them are crap and some of them are great. Some of them dries super quick and some takes a lot of time. BUT, the price tag.. I've bought them for 1-2 SEK each. That's like 0,14-0,29 $ / 0,09-0,18 £ for each polish bottle. BARGAIN PRICE!

If you see anything wrong or have a question, please shot!