My favorite place in the world to buy nail polish is Nordstroms. It’s an event I indulge in about once a quarter to pick up all the new polishes. I love talking to the saleswomen, especially with January (isn’t that the coolest name?) who keeps informed on what’s coming down the line (although I think that sometimes I can give as well as I get).

In the process, I’ve noticed Nordstrom has been systematically adding different polish lines to their pretty extensive range. The New Black is one them. Although the bottles are miniscule (.125oz), you do get 5 in their larger collections which, collectively at $22, is more than you’d get with a Chanel or Dior. But the nice thing is that you get a bunch of different coordinating colors. If you’re the type that never finishes a bottle (although I’ve yet to meet someone that does this regularly) and would rather have options versus a larger bottle, this might be the solution for you. I have actually bought a few of these “The New Black” color collections but thought the monochromes series might be appropos color pallette to start with.

The Graffiti Collection contains black, grey and silver colors with different finishes. Unfortunately, the individual polishes are not named and the numbers on the bottom of the bottles make no sense as different colors have duplicating numbers. So for a brief description from left to right, there’s a black creme, a black with silver glitter, a grey with pink, blue and purple shimmer, a silver foil and a silver glitter. Of the group the grey is the color that stands out as unique.

I’ve only seen The New Black at Nordstrom, but I understand that HSN also carries it. I picked this collection up around Christmas time and monitoring their online store, it has on and off availability. They also have the Black Ice Collection (containing black creme and the black with silver glitter) and the the Revolver collection (containing the silver foil and the silver glitter) but it would leave you sadly missing the beautiful grey color with the beautiful multi color shimmer.

These went on beautifully. Despite the small bottles, the length of the brush doesn’t suffer and the brush itself was good. Shown is two coats on all colors. The last swatch shows the silver glitter over the grey shimmer.