Grand Slam! England Swatches

The England set has 3 shimmery, sparkly shades and no crackles! >>

Grape...Set...Match - This is a gorgeous, super shimmery purple, glass-fleckish type shade. The main color is a reddish purple but the shimmer is mostly blue giving a lot of depth.

Servin' Up Sparkle (over Grape...Set...Match) - This is a clear base with different sized holo glitter. Very pretty and very holo. I unfortunately didn't shoot it in great light so you wouldn't know, but it is very sparkly. It is not however, very unique.


Your Royal Shine-ness - This is a silver foil. I felt like this one looked more steel/pewter in the bottle than most silver foils, but now looking at the pic again, it just seems like the same silver foil.

Stand out from this set to me is definitely Grape...Set...Match. What do you think?

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

SUNDAY SPAM

Sally Hansen - Antique Gold (over Wet n Wild - Nocturnal)

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Bangin'

Sally Hansen - Chartreuse Chase

Borghese - Almondine

Essie - Smooth Sailing

Color Club - High Society

China Glaze - Let's Do It In 3D

Zoya - Gaia (over white)

Spring Nicoles

Nicole by OPI welcomes warmer weather with twelve new vibrant shades from the Something About Spring Collection, available exclusively at Target. From bold purples to fierce yellow metallics and iridescent shimmers, Something About Spring has a hue to accentuate every style.

I had an opportunity to wear most of these shades and not just swatch them and I am VERY pleased with this collection.

Dandy Lion - Starting strong. This is a bold, beautiful yellow shimmer. Probably close to China Glaze - Lighthouse. This is so refreshing and perfect for the season change! I loved wearing this and this is also what I used form my leopard mani.

You're S-teal The One - This is a shimmery bright, cobalt blue with a bit of purple duochrome in the shimmer. It's beautiful and makes me think of jumping in a pool.

Iceberg Lotus - This is awesome, glowing jungle green shimmer. The shimmer seems to have a bit of a blurple duochrome at angels as well. These shimmers are really amazing. I bet they would look outrageous with a matte top coat.

Nicole's Nickel - Now we're stepping up our game with glitter!!! This is a fantastic black sheer base crammed with silver multi-sized silver glitter. It creates a awesome silver/black plating finish.

Brilliant Idea - This is a brilliant idea. This is a clear base with multi-sized lime green glitter. This is bright, sparkly and very pretty. This got lots of compliments.

Sea How Far You Go - And we're stepping it up yet again! This amazing. This is a soft, olivey, antiquey, gold shimmer that is sort of a duochrome, but not quite. It is a warm gray at angles. Very interesting and unique.

Make A Comet-ment - (Shown over Sea How Far You Go) This is a fine holo glitter top coat. Not terribly unique, but very, very pretty.

Pink. Seriously. - HAHA! Love the name. This is a serious, saturated pink creme. Got this one on my toes.

I'm A Pool For Love - This is a super vampy, deep, deep, purple with a blurple shimmer. It's like a super vampy OPI - Ink. And I don't know what the name has to do with the color. Doesn't really look like a pool to me...

Pink-nic In The Park - This may be my least favorite, but still nice if you like more understated shades. It's a soft, sort of sheer, bubble-gum pink with a pinky, purply shimmer.

Shell Me The Truth - This is gorgeous. This is pale pink with a strong gold shimmer. This is stunning.

Daffy Dill - This is a "Shrek-esque" green creme. Rich in color and with a super-saturated formula. Awesome.

You should be able to find these shades at Target stores now!
What do you think?!
:c)

-Elaine

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Teenage Dream - The Katy Perry Collection by OPI

OPI has teamed up with Katy Perry to create a collection of 4 glittery shades this winter. Katy Perry is a nail icon so it makes sense to collaborate with her! To complement the shades in the collection, OPI has also released a crackle top coat: whole lotta fun!

Teenage Dream - Semi sheer pink base full of large hexagon holographic glitter and pink micro glitter. This is three coats and I think it does a decent job building up. You could wear it like this, however I prefer it layered.

Not Like The Movies - My favorite of this collection! This is a steel metallic with a green/purple duochrome and little, itty-bitty silver flaky pieces in it.

Last Friday Night - Sheer blue with bright blue shimmer and iridescent hexagon pieces flashing red, blue and green. This one is definitely one to be layered. It looks pretty much identical to Sinful Colors - Hottie which I used layered for this mani.

The One That Got Away - This is a super rich, magenta berry with glass-fleck shimmer. This doesn't have quite as much sparkle as OPI - Let Me Entertain You from the Burlesque collection which I expected it to look just like, but it's beautiful in its own right.

Black Shatter - Shown over The One That Got Away - This is the best thing since sliced bread! I have been having a whole lot of fun with this one. You have to apply this over dry polish. It works best that way. If you ever used the old Cover Girl - Crackles from the 90's you'll remember they had to be applied over wet polish and they took forever to dry/crack. Black Shatter cracks quickly and gives a more uniform look. I am a big fan.

So overall, cool collection. It has everything. Holo, iridescent, duochrome, glitter, shimmer, and crackle! The Katy Perry Collection is out now!
What do you think!?
-Elaine
:c)

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Metal Mash Up

Silver and gold clash? NEVER!

I came up with this mani on New Year's Eve. I really couldn't get any ideas for my mani out of my head except for silver and gold. But I didn't know which. And Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: BOTH!

I started with China Glaze - Cheers To You, a silver foil. Then I added a coat of Nubar - Heavy Gold Glitter and to finish off the fantasticness, I threw on a coat of my favorite holo glitter, Icing - Glamorous.

What do you think?!
-Elaine
:c)

Nicole by OPI - Wal-Mart Exclusives - January 2011

I don't know if there is an actual name for this set or if it is just "Wal-Mart Exclusives". I have swatches for you of four new shades added to the Wal-Mart line of Nicole by OPI. They are meant to be "timeless and sophisticated shades".

He's A Keeper - Bright red, creamy creme. This is sort of on the orange side and I like that. It's hard to make an red creme different, and this one has at least a bit of an edge.

Got Style? - This is a cinnamon, brick reddish, shade with a ton of silver shimmer. This is reminding me of a gingerbread cookie color and I like it because it's interesting but work appropriate. I wore this as a "work shade".

Never Give Up - Unless it's on trying to make polishes like this. This is a magenta with small holo glitter, which should be awesome, but the base is too opaque and frosty, and with the glitter it turns into a lumpy mess. This swatch even has a top-coat on it and it doesn't help even it out :c(

Count On Me - Back to the good stuff. This is a shimmery lilac with a flashy duochrome blue to purple shimmer. This is sheer so I layered it over Sally Hansen - Thinking of Blue.

These are available at select Wal-Mart stores this month.

What do you think?!
:c)
-Elaine

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

New Xtreme Wears, Fall 2010

Man I love Xtreme Wears. I get very excited for new displays. I love the colors, I love the brush, I love the colors.... just all good.

Purple Gala - Man I love this. I wore it for 5 days which for me is a loooong time. It is a purple base that is foily in finish with metallic gold flakes adding to the depth, and foil look. I love it. It looks very similar to Hard Candy - Mr. Wrong, but they are not dupes. I did a comparison:

Index and Ring: Mr. Wrong and Middle and Pinky: Purple Gala
It looks to me like Mr. Wrong is more grayed of a purple. In the swatch it also looks like it has more gold in it. But I like Purple Gala for a few reasons:
- I like the base color better
- I like the formula better. Purple Gala is 2 coats and Mr. Wrong is 3.
- Purple Gala is cheaper and has a bigger bottle
- Purple Gala is more accessible: Hard Candy is only at Wal-Mart.

Purple Fiesta - At first glance I thought there was more of a fiesta happening here. In the bottle it sure looks more exciting. All the holo glitter and holo bar glitter. But on the nail it got lost. Until I came up with an idea. I did three thin, thin coats instead of two coats. Then the glitter comes through more, and more layers gives you more glitter! I love the base color of this. This swatch is top coat-less so it would look a lot cooler with a smooth finish.

Concrete - This doesn't look much like concrete, unless concrete is purple? This is a grayed out purple creme. A "gravender", if you will. I love this. This is two coats.

Plum Burst - Oooh! How pretty. This is a bold, magenta-purple creme. It is very pretty and exciting! It may not be terribly unique, but I like it. This is 2 coats.

Mystic Lilac - This is a recent nail junkie favorite. I like it myself! It is a very gray lavender that has lots of super shiny, emerald green shimmer. The formula is thin on this, but it's a good thing because it lets the shimmer shine through. This is 3 coats.

These new Xtremes are on a new display in drugstores now and they retail for $2.99

What do you think?
:c)
-Elaine

Celebratory Mani for my Readers!

Hi Guys! I am super excited right now because I just learned that I am on Spa Beauty School's Top 50 Nail Blog List! How awesome is that?! I must say thank you so much to my lovely readers because you are what make it possible!!

Here is a mani I did a couple days ago:

This is Sinful Colors - Hot Spot with Revlon - Slipper, a glitter topcoat made up of red glitter, red glitter, and large holo hexagon pieces. It looks so American, doesn't it?! :c)

Icing Swatches

I love to look at all the polishes displayed at Icing stores. They have so many brights and shades in every color. They just look so fun! So of course while I was there I had to grab some of the pretties. I was mostly attracted to loads of holo glitter!

Hot Pants - This is a light to medium blue that falls somewhere in periwinkle to cornflower. It is very delicate and calming. This formula was on the thinner side. i believe I did 3 or 4 coats but now I can't remember which.

Paparazzi - (sun/blurred) Now it's time for holo! This is a orangey, cinnamon base with what appears to be a hint of pink or peach. The holo glitter in this is very packed and sparkly. It reminds me of China Glaze - Ginger but on steroids.

Blackout - (sun/blurred) I had to grab this because it appears as though they reformulated it. This has been available for some time. It is a black with small, sparse, holo glitter. It was very apparent in store that there was a remake because they had bottles of both versions. The older one looks cool, but the glitter is very sparse. The new one had so much prismatic glitter in it that it looked like a smooth-type holo, a la OPI - My Private Jet, or Nubar - Reclaim. Once I got in on I realized it was not like those beauties, but it is still cool. Very outer space looking. If you are concerned about getting the correct bottle of Blackout, it will be the one that looks like this:

It's obvious.

Glamorous - (Sun/blurred) - Oh my stars. This was so amazingly, blindingly, blingy and prismatic in the store I had to have it. (It should also be mentioned that this has been added to my "Top 20" on the right hand side of the page.) I was hoping that it would be full coverage but I should have known better. The swatch above is 4 coats and it's obviously not full coverage but it is EXTREMELY sparkly.

I had to have Glamorous on as a full coverage so I did a manicure with it over China Glaze - Millennium, a silver chrome. The best, most blinged out, disco ball-esque mani ever!

What do you think?!