Monthly Archives

July 2010

China Glaze Holographic china glaze nail polish swatches

China Glaze – DV8 and GR8

Monday, 12 July, 2010

I swear I had posted my swatch of DV8, but I was wrong! I had even put it in my Uploaded pics folder. Very odd. I finally found GR8 and was able to swatch it.

I love the China Glaze Holographics. How can anyone not like them? 😀

See below!

Even without the flash, this color was throwing holographics everywhere. I didn’t know what to do. I finally decided to tame the beast with a single flash setting. It’s a gorgeous teal, isn’t it? It was a nice cool color against my skin tone.

Love how the sun really brought this into play. In the shade it was this deceptive little color was pretending to be a tame gold nail polish. Out in the sun, I swear it was one of my favorite gemstones (lemon quartz) gone wild! It’s a bit warmer in the undertones than I expected and it clashed terribly with my skin, but … how can you deny how gorgeous it looks?!

Chanel – Violette

Sunday, 11 July, 2010
Chanel Violette

Happy Sunday!

Whilst going through a moving box that was innocuously labeled “Bathroom Junk” from three years ago (shhh….), I discovered this little gem – Chanel’s Violette. Released in early 2000, I’d actually venture to say about 2003 since that was when we were living in Scotland and I know that this is where I purchased this color, I had high hopes for this to be a dupe of my infamous lemming/lust/must have/WILL KUT YOU FOR of Chanel’s Brown Sugar nail polish. Released about six months after Rouge Noir – the original – in 1994, I went nuts for it. Loved it so much I scrimped my pennies to share it with friends because I’d buy them a bottle for their birthday.

Brown Sugar is a polish I can definitely wax lyrical on for…well, ever. Four years ago I saw a bottle of Brown Sugar on eBay. I stopped bidding at $40. It ended up selling for $60. To this day, that is one of my true nail polish regrets. I would, in all honesty, trade in all my bottles of nail polish just so I can have a good bottle of Brown Sugar. That is how much I loved that color.

While Violette hits the spot, it’s like eating a banana when you really want chocolate – you get the potassium you wanted, but it’s not the flavor or texture that would send you into your own happy place.  There are also some very subtle differences – Brown Sugar was bit more beige-y, slightly mushroom-y and a tinge more purple. Violette is…well, more violet colored and a lot lighter. I felt Brown Sugar was truly the best neutral nail polish out there. It flattered all my friends’ skin tones.

All right, enough. I’ll stop. Here are the pics.

Formula on this was terrible! But I think this was one of the first bottles of 3 Free, but I could be wrong so don’t quote me on it. These were two thin coats with no top coat put on. It bubbled and I was immediately reminded why I had thrown this color into a box and conveniently forgot about it. My Brown Sugar never bubbled, but it took forever and a millennia to dry.

StrangeBeautiful Volume I

Strange Beautiful – Puce – Volume I

Friday, 9 July, 2010

I love that Jane Schub has has inspirations for her collections of StrangeBeautiful…however, for the lesser artist that I am, I have a hard time figuring out some of the colors. I think I’ve pegged about five of the eight colors. I keep thinking I’m being inaccurate and to be so would be a big injustice to Jane’s collection of … fabulosity.

This particular color I dubbed raspberry merely for generic purposes, but I think it’s “…the color Puce which I remember mixing when oil painting as a child, …” I do hope I’ve got it correct.

Puce, while not a pretty sounding word, means flea in French. However, the color has a bit of an extended range. While technically a dark red, it can run the gamut from purple-red to gray-red. I think Jane got a good handle on it here as it’s a purple red. Frankly, when I saw it on me, I identified it as Alexandrite…an extremely rare stone that is far more precious and expensive than a diamond. While diamonds are a girl’s best friend, Alexandrite was once the birthstone for June babies (and named in honor of Tsar Alexander II of Russia) – before it was discovered to be an extremely rare stone. So rare it is now that when I last checked, it ran for over $11,000 a carat. Yea, try to one up that, diamonds! What makes Alexandrite so unique is that it has the ability to change colors in ambient lighting and…Ok, I digress…Sorry. Back to my regularly scheduled nail swatch review.

Again, color and application is flawless – two coats that dried quickly. No bubbles. Yay!

See why I am so enamored with StrangeBeautiful…

Nubar – Dark Castle – Fortress Collection, Spring 2010

Thursday, 8 July, 2010

I’m back in action…with pictures that I had taken almost 2 months ago. Sorry!

This is Nubar’s Fortress Collection from Spring 2010. While I love the names and the application of the polish this collection left me a bit underwhelmed. Even the one I had anticipated, Knight’s Armor, didn’t make me go squeeeee like I had hoped.

I apologize in advance for the bad application of nail polish – I was too excited and it really shows.

This wasn’t a harsh black, but more of a mellow black with a subtle silver shimmer through it. It appears grey in the bottle but when on me it looked a bit more like charcoal. I think the sun really washed out the potential but if you look at the shade shot it best represents the color.

Once I edit the other shots I’ll be posting them as soon as possible. I’m happy to be back in the loop!