Browsing Tag

gold

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?!

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Nubar – Twilight and Sunset – Night Sky Collection – Spring/Summer 2010

Friday, 4 June, 2010

Finally! As promised the rest of the collection…you know, a whole 2 polishes.

Attention: Nail tape newbie strikes again! yes, another epic fail on my part. But I do get credit for trying, right? 🙂 Also, I used the Diamond Top Coat that came with the polishes. It said it would be shiny…and it wasn’t. You’ll see in the pics. Also, I don’t have another Twilight shot because…I deleted it in my attempt to multi-task – you know, book plane tickets, pay bills and run some pics through Photoshop. I learned my lesson, I promise!

Anyway, the formulas dried fast, but I still wasn’t thrilled with them. I guess I’m hard to please? I feel like I’ve seen these colors before and I have – they are Orly’s Metal Goth collection. Sorry, Nubar…I wasn’t impressed with this collection.

Nail tape n00b alert! See? But you can’t really see the shine, can you?

This was sort of matte, sort of shiny…and the top coat wasn’t super shiny and you can see it on my ring and middle finger. I tried to leave the pointer and pinkie finger as a matte.

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Chanel РGold Lam̩

Thursday, 3 June, 2010

Ok, I know I haven’t posted the pics for my nail tape n00b thing, but I do have a valid reason – I didn’t have my camera today. So you’ll have to settle for Chanel’s Gold Lamé instead. Tomorrow is when you can see how I was an epic fail for the Nubar Night Sparkles collection.

By nature, I abhor gold anything – jewelry, nail polish…you get the idea. Then I saw this…and had to have it. Go figure. Don’t know why I had to have it. Like I was going to stab someone if I didn’t have it kind of thing.

Now that I have it I go, “Oh. Can I have my money back?”

It was a lot more sheer than I expected it to be. It bubbled up on me because I did 4 coats. I gave up when I saw it bubbling. It took forever to dry in between coats. I took it off right after I swatched it. How sad. 🙁 Anyway, sadness below.

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China Glaze – Strawberry Fields

Tuesday, 25 May, 2010

For some inexplicable reason, I was completely enamored with this color when I saw it in the store. I had to have it.

I think secretly in my mind I had a vision where it would be this stunning pink with gold shimmer on me. The kind that was so flattering that people would stop me and ask, “What color *is* that? It looks so wonderful on you!”

Sadly, I was mistaken. It aged me. Yes, that is exactly what happened. It aged me. Made my hands look more like old lady than cool hip chick.

What a pity. It’s still a gorgeous color. I may reserve it for my toes, but even then I worry I’ll look like I’m 80, not 30-something.

See the pretty golden glitter in the shade shot? You can actually see the pool of gold glitter where it says Oz. on the bottle. The color looks much better in the shade than in the sunlight shot below. Sunlight just completely wiped it out.

Formula was so good – fast drying and only a 2 coater.

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OPI – At Your Quebec and Call AND Rainforest

Monday, 5 April, 2010

Someone I know has had this color for a while when I had been on the hunt for it.  I finally was able to swatch it a few months ago but forgot to put it up. Then the person just gave me the bottle, citing they don’t really wear polish so what’s the point of having it around? So I grabbed it and ran before she could even change her mind. Thank you! 😀

At Your Quebec and Call is one of those greens that you can still find if you’re looking hard enough…on eBay. It’s not as pricey as OPI’s Rainforest. See the colors below!

A very pretty green-gold, don’t you think? And the shimmer through it is absolutely gorgeous.

I forgot how badly nail polish smelled before most lines went 3 Free. When I put this on, I nearly passed out from the fumes. It was, quite literally, that bad. Drying time on this made me want to gouge my eyes out. The fidgety girl in me was dying at the 30 minute mark…on the first coat. It wasn’t even a heavy application. A heavy application was near impossible because of the runny formula. I’m used to 3 Free and I’ll keep it that way. However, I’m glad I’ve got this bottle in my stash!

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Ginger & Liz – More Love!

Thursday, 18 March, 2010

Yea, I admit it…I really like the formula for Ginger & Liz and the brush is pretty awesome. I was a bit disconcerted at first, but found that the brush really does make a difference. I like it.

This sort of reminds me of Rage from Orly Foil FX, but this is more champagne/gold toned. However, it’s not as gold like Luxe (thank God). This color is currently rockin’ my fingertips.

Aww yea, baby! I’ve said that other colors remind me of Chanel’s original Vamp, but this…this truly comes closest to it, IMO. Others were a bit too dark, some too wine-y, some too red, while others had a smidge of purple. This is what I remember Vamp (Rouge Noir) looking like on me, but glossier. This is a semi-matte (or semi-gloss as hubby said last night over dinner) and I’m loving it.

I can’t wait to get the other G&L colors on my fingers and take pics!

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Orly Metal Chic – Fall 2009/Spring 2010

Sunday, 21 February, 2010

Orly released a matte line of 3 colors called Metal Chic.

I’m not usually a fan of matte nail polish, but I found this collection cool, even if it’s not for me. I did two things on them – I took them as they were originally meant to be worn – as a matte. Then I slapped on a super shiny top coat because I was curious how it would look. Both were pretty and I really preferred the shiny version.

Removing the colors were a PAIN thanks to the glitter…but anyway, please excuse the dry cuticles. Acetone and a strict, “DO NOT USE ANY LOTIONS WITH THIS MATTE NAIL POLISH” makes for a very ooglay cuticle display.

Admittedly this wasn’t the best color for my skin tone…either matte or not, it just didn’t look right. But if I had to choose, I’d say the matte version is much better on me than the one with top coat.
With or without topcoat, this color is freaking gorgeous…
I prefer this with top coat. Can you blame me?
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Hong Kong Collection OPI Spring 2010

Spring 2010 – OPI’s Hong Kong Collection

Saturday, 13 February, 2010

13 February, 2010
4:29PM

Let me first start out by saying that there hits and misses for me in this collection. There are some bright colors in here and that’s what I’ll be showing first. They hurt my eyes…big time. I definitely enjoyed the rest of the collection, too. Very pretty and very not what I expected. I had seen it on some other people, but on me…I fell in love. For once, there was no black nail polish involved. 😀

The formula itself was pretty good, too…I normally have issues with cremes because I am little miss heavy handed in application. You’ll see it here and there throughout the pics but overall no problems. Please excuse the messiness of the manicures. I’m normally a lot more careful in application, but all the colors and the excitement got to me. Haha. Sad, but true.

As always, click to make the pics bigger!

A Good Man-Darin Is Hard To Find
Shade (L), Sunlight (R)
Yea, this was the brightness I was talking about…ouch. My eyes. They feel like burning!
Chop-Sticking To My Story
Shade (L), Sunlight (R)
Ok, for some reason, I loved this color…a lot. It’s not quite pumpkin orange on me and there is enough orange mixed in with a hint of brown that makes it very appealing. I normally would never wear something this color, but for some reason, this really made me excited!
Dim Sum Plum
Shade (L), Sunlight (R)
While it wasn’t my favorite color, I was having flashbacks to their previous Fall 2009 collection’s color Ate Berries in the Canaries. I’ll do a comparison side by side if I remember to after I do a write up on all of these. 😀 I won’t swatch it but I will put my previous pics up. DSP is a pink that I think will go well with people who love these kinds of shades. I really have to be in the  mood for this sort of color. While it’s fun to swatch, it’s not one I’d actively wear if given a choice.
Hot & Spicy
Shade (L); Sunlight (R)
Wow. In the bottle it looked like a bit of an orange coral. Out of the bottle and on me it looks like…an orange coral. Not me. So not me.
Red My Fortune Cookie

Shade (L) and Sunlight (R)
It’s not quite tomato and not maraschino cherry…It didn’t look bad on me, but it didn’t look good either.

Pearl of Wisdom
Shade (L); Sunlight (R)
Even in the shade the polish was able to capture a beautiful shimmer and give off a slight hint of the pinkness within. In the sunlight you can really see the prettiness. This is a sheer color and I think wearing it over a darker color would definitely be the best thing you can do with it.
Now this is where I think the Spring Collection starts to really shine…
Lucky Lucky Lavender
Shade (L) Sunlight (R)
This wasn’t quite as lavender as I was expecting. It’s really kind of…well, a pink lavender, don’t you think? I don’t know why, but the sun really washed out any hint of lavender in this color.
Panda-Monium Pink
It’s actually even prettier in person. I thought I had this confused with Lucky Lucky Lavender, but no…this was the correct bottle and swatch. I’m not a fan of pinks or pastels, but this didn’t stand out on my fingers like spring colored M&Ms. (BTW – love that I went a little nutso with the cleaning of my cuticle on my index finger?! Haha. Silly little Sally Hansen manicure clean-up pen.)
Meet Me On The Star Ferry
Shade (L) Sunlight (R)
Now this color…blew me away. Only because waaaay back in the mid 80s, I found a color by Sally Hansen that was very similar to this. I used it until it dried out and I threw it away. I never was able to get another bottle because for some reason, the jr high kid in me had managed to pick the ONE color that was a limited edition. That alone should’ve been an indicator on my nail polish obsession…anyway, here it is, looking just as good, if not better than what I had in high school. Beautiful berry with a lovely shimmer running through it. The shot of it in the shade reminds me of my much loved and much lamented Chanel’s Brown Sugar. This color really defines the collection for me.
Bling Dynasty
Shade (L); Sunlight (R)
I LOL’d mightily at the name of the polish. I cringed when I saw it in the bottle, but I fell in love with it when I put it on. What a gorgeous shade of gold this is. Definitely a keeper in my book!
Jade Is The New Black
Shade (Top); Sunlight (Bottom)
What rockin’ shade of green this is…I have a dark green that’s more forest green and a light green…and a minty green. I don’t have this kind of green…and I’m in LOVE. Very very pretty.
Suzi Says Feng Shui
Shade (L); Sunlight (R)
This is a gorgeous teal/dusty blue. In fact, it was a color I wanted to paint the walls of our bedroom in but Colin said no. I guess I’ll have to settle for it on my fingers! 🙂
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