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glitter

China Glaze – Holiday 2010 – ‘Tis The Season To Be Naughty And Nice

Friday, 22 October, 2010

This is a seriously image heavy post…28 pictures. I didn’t want to break it up because…well, I didn’t want to. 😉 It’s my eye candy and Friday Red. Enjoy!

All of these were two coaters and they dried in record time.

BOOM! Right out of the gate…this is my favorite red this season. Beautiful. Opaque in 2 coats.

I liked this, but it’s not my favorite red. It’s a bit too light for me. I am sure it would look better on someone else where it looked ok on me.

A gorgeous mulberry with a shimmer that makes it a perfect holiday shade.

I didn’t think I would like these, but I do. CTY is a lovely metallic foil that some other brands didn’t quite get right. This really sparkled and shined, truly reminding me of tinsel. MK was a lovely rich foil gold…absolutely gorgeous and I kept thinking it was a wonderful shade of almost 18k. Jingle bells is a bronze that doesn’t quite shimmer like CTY and MK, but it is very subtle. While not flashy, it’s still a pretty shade to behold.

A sheer white base with white glitter thrown in…it reminded me of snow.

This is a wicked shade of green…it glows. I swear, it generates its own electricity! Wouldn’t you agree? I mean, just look at it.

A wonderful blue, but it really reminded me of OPI’s Yoga-ta Get This Blue.

The jury’s still out on this color. I can’t decide if I like it or not. It’s a pinky/red jelly based color with pinky/silver glitter. Removal was a pain, but I’m not sure about this.

I no longer mourn the loss (that much) of my beloved Chanel Rouge Noir. How can I with these fabulous dupes that are 3-Free?

Oh the glitter…the humanity. THE SHINY! I like it a lot, but ugh…the removal. The removal is a pain.

How pretty is this? I love that it’s an olive green tossed into the mix…to make it even 700 shades more awesome, they made this a shimmer. Fabulous!

White creme…’nuff said. I think of this as a base for nail art and not just a color to be worn on its own.

This is China Glaze’s answer to OPI’s Tease-y Does It. I like both and I like that this is lighter and has a fine micro glitter.

Of course, I had to include Mistletoe Kisses because it’s part of the collection, even though I had done a comparison earlier in the week. FYI: MMUTM = Meet Me Under The Mistletoe.

And there we go…all 16 colors swatched. Yay! Hope you enjoyed it.

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Deborah Lippmann

China Glaze – Awakening Collection, Halloween / Fall 2010

Thursday, 21 October, 2010

I can’t believe I’ve been sitting on this…but I also know it’s been shown by a slew of other people. I don’t care. Here are my swatches.

Formula was awesome – quick drying and flawless. All of these were two coat applications.

China Glaze is seriously knocking it out of the ball park with their seasonal collections. I enjoyed Awakening and I’m seriously looooving their Christmas Collection – Tis the Season To Be Naughty and Nice. That is up for Friday. All 16 colors.  Anyway…

Here are the three colors from Awakening with a comparison of Mummy May I to Deborah Lippmann’s Bad Romance.

Warning: This is an image heavy post.

 

A black jelly nail polish packed with orange glitter. Very Halloween. Very fun…and I may be rocking it the next few days to support the Giants. Yea, I’m a Bay Area sports girl – born and raised so I feel a lot of loyalty to my home teams.

 

Really liking this green because I don’t have anything like it. I’ve heard it’s similar to SpaRitual’s Optical Illusion, but I haven’t had the chance to compare it because I don’t have OI and SpaRitual is a lot harder to get ahold of than most nail polishes. Pity SpaRitual doesn’t sell on their site because I’d rather purchase through there.

And finally…oldie but goody comparison of Mummy May I and Deborah Lippmann’s Bad Romance. BR is a collaboration she did with Lady Gaga. You can also read the original review here.

Bad Romance has different shapes of glitter and the base is a deeper, denser black. Had I not done a side by side comparison, I’d never have even thought that these were even different aside from the glitter size. Mummy May I is a cute name! I just looked back on my notes when I swatched these and BR and MMI are 3 coats.

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Comparison: China Glaze vs Orly vs Zoya – Mistletoe Kisses vs Meet Me Under the Mistletoe vs Ivanka

Tuesday, 19 October, 2010

Not sure what is up with my comparisons lately. I rarely did them before, but I guess with the whole slew of colors I have…it was bound to happen. 😉

China Glaze’s Mistletoe Kisses is part of their Christmas Holiday 2010 collection of 16 amaaaayzing colors. If all their formulas are like Mistletoe Kisses, I’ll be a very happy girl when I finish my swatching. As it stands, I’ve got Mrs. Claus and Party Hearty down. We’re expecting company this week and it’s only for a couple of days, but the preparation and the cleaning are cutting into my nail polish time.

MMUTM was the darkest of them all and frankly, I thought it was the lightest. Ivanka was the one that literally glowed while next to these colors. While all of these colors are gorgeous, Ivanka just outshined them. I don’t know how she did, but she did. MMUTM is beautiful with gold glitter throughout. Mistletoe Kisses was a bit jelly-like but I did love it. When I’m done swatching the rest of the collection, MK is going to be on my nails for the weekend.

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OPI – Burlesque Part I, Holiday 2010

Thursday, 14 October, 2010

For some reason, I was so enamored with these glitters, knowing full well I hate glitters…yet I just had to have them. They’re a pain to remove, no matter how much foil you use. I’m a sloppy glitter remover. I get frustrated using foil and I end up with the sparkle explosion all over my fingers, as you will see in the pictures.

The formula was easy to use. It dried quickly – yay! No clunky, clumpy glitter. I did two coats of every color. My only regret is that I didn’t do three coats to get the full on glitter effect.

I am going to be doing a blog give-away of these 6 colors. They’ve been swatched once, but I just really don’t want any extra glitter in my collection unless absolutely necessary. So keep watching for the giveaway.

I do like how these glitters look – they’re dense and it’s glitter that’s suspended in clear lacquer. I am generally not a fan of that, but it definitely makes the glitter sparkle and pop. I’ve done some comparisons to OPI’s Absolutely Alice and Mad As A Hatter for a point of reference.

Warning: This is image heavy…you have been warned!

 

I thought this was really close to Absolutely Alice, but it seems I was wrong. So wrong. The glitter in AA is more fine and dense.  The color is also far more popping. Simmer & Shimmer is a bit more subtle…well, as subtle as this whole collection of glitters can get. 🙂

 

I feel like the colorful glitter in here is the same – filled with red, purple and a plethora of other colors. However, the one big difference is the base glitter they used. Mad As A Hatter is silver based whereas Sparkle-icious is gold.

 

I’ve been on a purple kick lately. What appeals to me about this particular color/glitter is that it’s not quite purple and it’s not quite pink. Several years ago I was on a purple and pink design sprees for my jewelry. It sold quite well. I guess I wasn’t the only person who loves purple and pink together.

 

I love this green. It reminded me of the super tiny limes I used to see in India. It’s not the rind, but the inside of the lime…and I always said I wanted a creme in that color. Instead, I’m looking at the sparkling version of it. LOVE IT!

 

Currently wearing this on my nails and on me, it looks more salmon colored than orange. This mercifully is not a crazy Halloween orange, but a nice rich burnt orange. The gold glitter thrown in is absolutely fabulous.

 

How pretty is this? I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of glitter, but this one really made me consider liking gold in general.

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Orly – 'Tis the Season – Holiday 2010

Friday, 8 October, 2010

Orly’s Holiday collection is filled with some pretty fun colors. I love the application and the glitter. The red creme and the color Naughty Or Nice is just wonderful. What I’ve done is try to layer some of the glitters over the cremes. It’s an epic fail, but you’ll still see it. 😀

All the colors dried quickly and were opaque in 2 coats. The glitters were wonderfully dense and very fun to look at on their own.

This is an image heavy post – beware.

 

How awesome is this red? It is freaking gorgeous and I’m happy to include it in Red Nail Polish Friday. On the middle finger is one coat of Winter Wonderland and on the ring finger it’s 2 coats.

 

2 coats of Winter Wonderland on three fingers and 2 coats of WW over Naughty or Nice. I love how WW really does remind me of snow.

 

Normally I don’t like golds like this, but for some reason I found I liked this a lot. Naughty Or Nice is on three fingers while G&G is on my pointer finger. G&G is a dense, heavy glitter. Removal wasn’t so bad! One coat of G&G over NON to see how it would look. Meh.

 

I thought this color was so fabulous in the bottle. Then I put it on me. All the initial beauty of it was washed out by my skin and the sunlight. It’s much, much prettier in person and the shimmer/glitter is well done.

I’ve heard that MMUTM is a dupe for Zoya’s Ivanka. I don’t think so. Below are pictures of Ivanka. Ivanka is lighter while MMUTM is darker, more of a holiday green.

 

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MAC's Venomous Villains Nail Polish Collection

Thursday, 30 September, 2010

These arrived today and I fell in love with the colors in the bottles. I also did a picture comparison with Orly.

The overall formula for MAC is thin and runny. That being said, it dried quickly.

I do wish MAC had put some Villains on the polish bottles. They did it for the other items in the line, so why not this one? Kind of bums me out. Overall the colors were cute, but as you can see, nothing that really wowed me. I’ve seen Mean & Green and Formidable! before thanks to Orly. I’m still going to hang on to these, though. 😀

This is an image heavy post…you have been warned! I tried to best capture the shimmers of the polishes.

There really is no discernible difference between the two, is there? Even the size of the glitter, etc. M&G is a bit thinner than SC. 3 coats of each.

Up close shot of the bottle.

MAC’s formula is thinner and runnier than Orly. You can see it. Other than that, no real discernible difference. This is 3 coats of each polish.

Bottle shot for MAC

This formula was very thin and required 3 coats. But even after 3 coats, you can still see my nail under it. 🙁

Bottle shot

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MAC Cosmetics – Rain of Flowers

Thursday, 30 September, 2010

This color was another one that I was looking forward to when I first heard about MAC’s fall 2010 collection which they called Nail Trend. I don’t know if it’s really a trend…nor do I know if it’s really a collection I’m pleased with. I’m a creme kind of girl and I was hoping for one stand out, much like last year’s much beloved (by me!) Dry Martini. I regret not getting a back-up bottle of that. I’m just grateful I got a bottle.

Anyway, this color was so promising in the bottle. But in the back of my mind, I kept hearing, “OPI did it better with Russian Navy…OPI did it better with Russian Navy…” And ya know what? OPI did it better with Russian Navy.

The one thing that MAC got right over OPI was the formula. It wasn’t a pain to deal with. If anything, it made me really sad because the formula was so wonderful while the color itself was kind of…meh and uninspiring.

From far away (and at night) the color looks like a dark creme.  Even in fairly direct lighting, it still looks like a dark creme. Heck, even in my pictures it looks like a dark creme that had some glitter spilled into it purely by accident.

Please overlook the tip wear – it’s going on…day three (I believe) in the picture.

*cough* very OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, don’t you think?

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MAC Cosmetics – Ming Blue

Wednesday, 29 September, 2010

I’m currently wearing this blue on my nails. I have been for the past few days. I neglected to take a picture until yesterday so please pardon the tip wear.

I like blues like this and the only thing I wish MAC had done was make this polish bolder. Maybe the glitter in it a bit more big and boomin’, ya know? This was opaque in two coats and it dried quickly. However, much as I did enjoy this color, it didn’t live up to the hype I had put in my head for it. Don’t get me wrong – I do like it. I just wish it had wowed me a bit more.

As always, keep clicking the pictures to enlarge until they can enlarge no more! The actual sizes are huge and these are just thumbnails.

Bottle shot!

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