China Glaze - Island Escape Summer 2011

Take an exotic island escape with China Glaze this summer with a tropical, shimmering rainbow of brilliant bright colors! Mix and match these hot hues to add a candy-like pop to that summer manicure and pedicure.

108 Degrees - This is a beautiful, hot pink, glass-fleck shimmer. This is one of those "pinks-I-love". Very sparkly and flashy and hot hot pink!

Papaya Punch - This is an orange I love! This is a super pigmented, creamy orange. This reminds me of pumpkins, which isn't very summery, but it is still summer appropriate. The formula is a bit thick, but in a good way.

Electric Pineapple - This is fantastic! This is so weird. I really don't think calling it "pineapple" is terribly appropriate, because it's a very, very green yellow. It's definitely more green than OPI - Fiercely Fiona but more yellow than any other green in the same realm. So it's definitely unique. I did a cool mani with this plus China Glaze - Crushed Candy Crackle Polish.

Cha Cha Cha - This is a striking olivey green with strong gold shimmer. I'm sure you have all figured out by now that this is close to China Glaze - Moonpool, but not a dupe. Whether close or not it is beautiful in its own right and I love it.

Blue Iguana - Now I do not know any iguanas that look like this but if I did I would have a stash of blue iguanas. This is a sparkly, shimmery, deep pool blue. The shimmer is an intense glass fleck. It's very watery and the sparkle reminds me of sparkling water in the sunshine :c)

Señorita Bonita - This is a red toned, glass-flecked purple. Very pretty and not like anything I have. The picture really does not do this one justice.

These are 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.

China Glaze 'Tis The Season to be naughty and nice

For the holiday collection this year China Glaze has released a beautiful set of 16 SHADES! I am stunned. This is not only amazing because it is 16 polishes, but it is amazing because they are gorgeous colors. I have swatched all of the shades and did a couple comparison swatches. Swatches and reviews first and comparison s second. Let's take a look!>>>

Ruby Deer - Bright, bright tomato red. Sort of jelly in finish and has a fantastic smooth formula. So, so smooth. Amazingly smooth.

Phat Santa - Another bold red creme but darker than Ruby Deer.

Mrs. Claus - This is very interesting! This is a sheer red with silver glitter. I am so intrigued by this because it seems soooo sheer but with three coats, the color and the glitter still hide any VNL. Very impressive. This reminds me of candy canes. It also reminds me of Zoya - Astra, although it is absolutely not a dupe.

Mommy Kissing Santa - Deep, burgundy red shimmer. This is velvety and smooth and delicious. I love this! I had a client comment that it was gorgeous and very Christmas-y. I said that it was funny she should say that because it was from a Holiday set!

Sugar Plums -Wine shimmer with sparse, tiny holo specks. Similar to a discontinued China Glaze fave, Crystal Ball, but not a dupe.

Naughty and Nice - Deep, deep, almost black, burgundy creme with a jelly finish. I loooooved wearing this. This is three coats, although when I did a mani I did two. When I did this swatch I guess I forgot how to paint my nails and needed to do a third coat to even things out.

Little Drummer Boy - Navy/denim shimmer. Very nice. I wanted to say that this isn't terribly unique/exciting, but I also don't have anything close to it. What did excite me about it, though, is that it has an out of this world formula. Super pigmented and smooth. You can get away with one coat with this one.

Jolly Holly - Wow! This blew me away. This is a rich green with golden shimmer. So beautiful. Just like Little Drummer Boy this is an amazing, smooth, super-pigmented one coat dream.

Mistletoe Kisses - What a cool polish! It makes me smile when I look at it! This is a mix of a really neat, soft green that is sort of between emerald and jade, completely packed with super small silver glitter. Very pretty. I couldn't decide if this is a two or three coater. I guess it's two but I did a third to be sure. I probably could have just stayed at two. This swatch is with top coat and one coat makes this polish smooth. It's not too grainy.

Peace On Earth - Wow! Striking, olive shimmer. This is one of my faves of this collection. I did a comparison with a few other olive shimmers below.

Jingle Bells - Classy gold. This isn't a very yellow gold. It's more or a neutral gold. Very pretty. The finish is hard to describe. It isn't quite a foil. It's sort of a chrome, but not as chrome as a chrome... if that makes sense! It's like a pearlish chrome.

Midnight Kiss - Partying yellow gold foil! There is no ambiguity here. This is definitely a gold foil. This is two coats.

Party Hearty (over white) - Fun! This is a clear base with large red hexagon glitter, smaller green hexagon glitter and even smaller gold and silver glitter. This is two coats over white.

Snow - White Cream. Nothing noteworthy. I am always interested to try a new staple like white creme to see if it may be like, the best white cream ever. But this one isn't . It a standard three coat, sort of difficult to apply, white creme. This is three coats with top coat.

Frosty - Pretty, delicate, snowy, pearly shimmer. It's not like a typical shimmer. The particles are sort of like small pearly pieces. I really, really like this on. It is sort of sheer so it needs at least 3 coats unless you want to layer it over something. This is actually 5 coats but that is because I kept getting my middle finger uneven and had to add more to fix it, but then it was way off then the rest. I do like the look of 5 coats though.

Cheers to You - Silver fun foil. Very pretty and flashy and awesome, but not unique.

And as promised here are a couple comparison swatches:

Sugar Plums on index and ring and China Glaze - Crystal Ball on middle and pinky. Crystal Ball is thinner and has more holo glitter. Sugar Plums only needed two coats, but Crystal Ball needed three.

Peace On Earth comparison. From left to right:

• Peace On Earth
• China Glaze - Cat's Eye
• OPI - At Your Quebec & Call
• Peace On Earth

I was hoping that Peace On Earth would be close to an amazing discontinued olive from China Glaze: Cat's Eye. Cat's Eye is more metallic and not as green.

Midnight Kiss on index and ring. Orly - Luxe on middle and pinky. Close, but not dupes. Luxe has more silver particles giving it a less yellow gold look then Midnight Kiss.

'Tis The Season is available now online and at retailers. What do you think?! :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.

Illamasqua Swatches

How are all you hotties today?! ;c)

Today I am bringing you some Illamasquas. They aren't new, but they are gorgeous! I love the edgy-ness of this line, the bottles, the formula, the brushes, the colors, the names of the colors... They are just amazing! Here is the ones I have:

Hectic, Milf, Elope, Whack, Rampage

Hectic - Dirty olive green creme. How I love it. I know these types of shades are not for everyone but they are for me! My winter coat is the same exact color! This swatch is 3 coats. Hectic is similar to Rescue Beauty Lounge - No More War in that it is a dirty, olive green but it's actually not that close when you compare. Observe:

Hectic on the left, No More War on the right. Hectic is more yellow and calm and No More War is more brown and funky.

Milf - I thought this was a clean, yellow-based mint green, but it is actually a rather dusty color. Mint, yes, but a little dusty. It really doesn't show it's dusty property too much on the nail. It just gives it a slightly aged, vintage look. But it is very evident when you look at it next to a polish like BB Couture - Laguna Lagoon, which is very clean and bright. It is gorgeous though and I love it! I wore it for 3 straight days this week! This swatch is 2 coats.

Elope - Bright, bright kelly green creme. This is very vivid and very green. Perfect for St. Patrick's Day! This swatch is 3 coats. This polish is very vivid. It has a bit of a neonish/antifreeze glow to it in real life. Very awesome.

Whack - Mega bright, super bold, red-orange creme. 2 coats. I LOVE THIS! Best orange creme. And it has staying power. I intentionally wore it one weekend when I knew I wouldn't be able to redo my nails. And it lasted and lasted.

Rampage - Super smooth, jelly finish dark green creme. 3 coats. We've seen it before, I know, but we can always see it again because it is beautiful. 3 coats

Illamasqua is based in the United Kingdom and will ship internationally from this site: http://www.illamasqua.com/ and in the US you can purchase them from Sephora, but they don't carry Elope and Hectic. Lame.

No More War Halfmoon Matte Manicure

Hi guys! I am traveling today so this is a scheduled post. I am not actually sitting here posting this! I am on my way to New York state to see my family! YAY! But I have pics of nails for you!

This was a mani I did last week. After a day of wearing Rescue Beauty Lounge - No More War I wanted to do some sort of halfmoon mani to it. I bought circular reinforce stickers for loose-leaf paper, and was ready to go!

I couldn't come up with a complementing color, and then it hit me. Do it matte! So I stuck on the little reinforcers on the lower part of my nail to mimic my natural halfmoon, and painted the rest of my nail with China Glaze - Matte Magic. I love it!

Have a nice holiday!

50% Rescue Beauty Lounge Today - Last Minute Swatches

Good Morning! I hope you all have your clicking fingers ready and credit cards in hand for the 50% Rescue Beauty Lounge 5 hour only sale today!!! The email says to keep it hush hush except for my "BFF and "in the know" sis"... well isn't that all of you?!
:c)

The code for 50% is VIP 5 HOUR and it is good from 12pm to 5pm Eastern Standard Time today. I stayed up late last night to do swatches of all the RBL polishes that I have. It's not very many, but it may just help someone.

Square Pants - 4 coats

Bikini Bottom - 4 coats (I really believe the 4 coats is worth the end result)

Scrangie - 3 coats

Locavore - 3 coats

Frugalista - 3 coats

No More War - Ah my beloved NMW. How I love this color! It is my NOTD. 2 coats

I honestly don't even have my list ready for today. I am for sure getting Underware, Purple Haze and probably Concrete Jungle. And then I'm on the fence for Starfish Patrick, and some reds and Teal and Dead Calm.

What are you going to get?

Olive Green Franken

So I have mentioned before that my favorite color is green. What I haven't told you is that one of my favorite greens is olive green. So a couple of months ago when my nail polish fetish was kicking in stronger I thought "I need an olive green". A good dirty olive green. I couldn't find one so I turned to frankening and tried a new formula every couple days. I then discovered Rescue Beauty Lounge- No More War which was perfect. BUT... it cost $18 which seemed a bit much. Then I saw Steph's Closet swatch of Comrad Green by Hot Topic and RAN to Hot Topic to find they didn't have it and it wasn't on their website. Well, I then found a suitable mix to franken my own:
It consisted of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Lightening, Tropez - Black Satin, Rimmel- Camouflage, Misa - Hot Couture and topcoat to be glossy.
It looks weirdly light in the bottle but it isn't really.

I dubbed it G.I. Franken.

This is what it looks like on the nail. It is a very cool olive green, but not really dirty enough. I didn't need it to be exactly like No More War, but I did think it would come out more yellow. This is leaning closer to forest green. Even though I used half as much green and black as yellow and tan.

I wrote it Amanda at Dr. Frankenpolish yesterday to pass the challenge to her for this green. I am quite sure she will pass the test!

I intend on geting my No More War today anyway thanks to The Polish Addict's sweet RBL coupon code but I still want to see a good franken of it. I think my next mission will be to franken an olive green that looks like my winter puffy coat:

What do you think?! I think it would be awesome!

And one more pic for fun: I added a Konad stamp to the design with China Glaze-Passion and plate M57.

It's like a wild safari on the nails!

So how does everyone feel about olive green? Love it or hate it?