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China Glaze – The Wizard of Oh Ahz Returns

Wednesday, 13 January, 2010

How funny that I am listening to the soundtrack for Wicked as I post swatches and a small write up of this collection…I slack. I swatched these last month, but am only getting round to putting them up.

Dorothy Who? – Indoors, luminescent light

Wow. It’s all I can say. I put this color on and I was absolutely speechless. I have never been a fan of glitter nail polishes. NEVER. But this. This…made me stare at my nails for a little bit. I mean…fascinated me while I took pictures. It’s a bit Dallas Cowboys blue for me, but it’s so damn beautiful. The pictures indoors and outdoors haven’t done this any type of justice.

Dorothy Who? – Outdoors, overcast day

C-C-Courage – This is a royal purple with a twist – glitter. I’d love to see this color without the glitter because I think it would be able to stand alone. It’s beautiful.

C-C-Courage – outdoors, gorgeous sunlight

Cowardly Lyin’ – Very interesting with a jelly yellow base. It’s a very odd cross for me because it’s almost like it was a primary yellow base with gold glitter thrown in to jazz it up and then they made it sheer when I thought it should be opaque.

Cowardly Lyin’ – Outdoors

Good Witch? – It didn’t go too well with my skin tone, but it’s definitely very pretty! 🙂

Good Witch? – outdoors

Ten Man – Indoors, luminescent lighting. Sheer and pretty. I thought it was similar to Tinsel from the Holiday collection, but it’s not. It’s also got a hint of white in it, but just enough to keep this silver. Diggin’ it!

Ten Man – outdoors

Ruby Pumps – Indoors, luminescent lighting with flash

Ruby Pumps – Outdoors, natural light

Overall I liked this collection, but I had issues, massive issues with C-C-Courage…it tended to bubble up far too quickly, even when I put on the thinnest of coats. Maybe it was just me and the formula I got. I even waited 15 minutes in between the first and second coat. To no avail, it still bubbled. Urgh. It also took a while to dry, but the results were still spectacular.

I am not a fan of frosty colors or glitters…so this comes as a surprise for me to like them. Pity Good Witch? and Cowardly Lyin’ didn’t go too well with my skin tone, but face it…I was never meant to wear yellow…and ya know what? I’m perfectly fine with that.

My favorite colors? Ruby Pumps, Dorothy Who? and C-C-Courage.

Collection

China Glaze – Holiday 2009 – Loves You Snow Much

Wednesday, 13 January, 2010

As promised…Emerald Sparkle!

Emerald Sparkle – shade

3 coats…sheer beauty. I am reminded of The Matrix whenever I see this color. I love it!

Emerald Sparkle – direct sunlight

Ruby Pumps – Indoors, luminescent lighting. Taken with hubby’s rockin’, kick butt camera! I love this red. I have two bottles. Why? Because If I’m not wearing Emerald Sparkle, I’m wearing this. It’s beautiful – there is a LOT going on. It’s a gorgeous close to true red. With glitter. Not just any glitter, but tiny flecks that stand out but yet are humble, too. I can’t put my finger on it, but I know that I call this my awesome sauce color.

Ruby Pumps – Outdoors, again, taken with hubby’s awesome sauce camera.

Tinsel – Outdoors, overcast – I like this winter collection….it’s so gorgeous! I also love Tinsel because it’s giving me some real good memories of a nail polish from Urban Decay, back when UD was just starting out. It was silver with this type of glitter – not splotchy and just so festive at any time of the year. Thank you, China Glaze!! 🙂

Tinsel – Indoors; luminescent lighting – still super pretty.

5 Golden Rings – Indoors, luminescent lighting. Love this. I am normally not one to branch out past dark nail polish, but this…this lifted me up and made me consider wearing it more than once. Maybe I’ll team it later on with an awesome red for a moon manicure.

Sorry it’s all blurry – camera in macro mode kept focusing on the nail polish bottle and not my nails. Out of the 5 pics I took, this was the best one.

5 Golden Rings – Outdoors

Collection

OPI Holiday 2009 – Holiday Wishes Collection – Part I

Monday, 14 December, 2009

I didn’t get all the colors because frankly, I can’t be arsed in tracking them down. I do have a color called Festive Fuschia and I’ve been reading on other blogs it’s special only to Trade Secret. I beg to differ because I actually purchased it here in Arizona…and not at a Trade Secret, but rather at my favorite nail supply store…for $4 – holla! I’ll swatch it eventually (like this week) but for now, here is a color that I found and like. A lot.

Sapphire in the Snow – Indoors, no flash; luminescent lighting

I said that I was never a fan of purple nail polish, but this is such a deep dark royal purple that I fell for it. Hard. When in light, you can see the purple shine through. Absolutely beautiful, even if the formula is a bit temperamental. I found that to be true of the Spanish Collection as well. Those colors would’ve benefited from a three coat application and the same applies for the 2009 Holiday colors.

Sapphire in the Snow – outdoors, pretty Arizona sunshine

And there is that gorgeous, dark royal purple coming into play. How can you not fall for a pretty purple?!

Festive Fuchsia – Indoors with Flash

Ok, I’ve swatched it and was so uninspired by the color I just snapped a pic with the flash then took it off my nails. doh doh

It was eh. So uninspiring that I merely just took the picture with a flash and called it a day. Couldn’t even be arsed with going outside and taking a pic in the sun – how sad is that?

Visions of Sugarplums – I found this color kind of fascinating, yet boring at the same time. I know, it’s odd…but there was something about this color that made me go “OHHH, AHH, OH” when I saw bottle. I purchased it at…of all places, Ulta, on the clearance table for $3.98. Two cents cheaper than what I normally pay for OPI prices. I wasn’t going to quibble because it was one of the holiday colors I had been searching for. I put it on me and found the formula kind of runny. It dried fast but you could tell it needed about 15 mins between each application. Mercifully, this only needed 2 coats. This is the color indoors, no flash.

Visions of Sugarplums – outdoors. It sort of redeemed itself here, but not by much…still a pretty color, but one I’d give away to someone who wanted it…like my friend who loves purple.

All A-Bordeaux The Sled! – shade

Ok, this…this…where do I even begin? I must wax lyrical! First coat impression: “I’ve seen this before. I loved it. I know…Chanel’s original Vamp.” I’m not talking about that crap Vamp that’s out now. I’m talking old school, circa 1994/1995 Vamp. The good stuff. I loved that color so much that I wore it till the bottle ran out…and bought another one…and used that up, too! I almost cried when I threw out the bottles, but I have here my new, much more affordable version — even though I only have one bottle. Oh dear.

OPI’s All A-Bordeaux The Sled! – direct sunlight

OPI’s Holiday Glow and My Private Jet – shade

Ok, so I totally messed up. I did my index and middle finger with Holiday Glow and I got a phone call. I had a bottle of My Private Jet (which is NOT part of the OPI Holiday 2009 collection) sitting next to Holiday Glow and thought I was finishing putting on Holiday Glow. I noticed on the 2nd coat. I didn’t want to waste anything so I just kept them side by side. I have to say, they were easy to apply. I like both of them. They’re very pretty.

Holiday Glow and My Private Jet – direct sunlight