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.

Glam Slam France

In conjunction with the French Open (currently happening) OPI has released some new shatter shades inspired by Serena Williams. The first set I am showing you is the white shatter/delicious glitter combo>>>

Spark de Triomphe - I was really excited to see this one because I had a feeling from pictures it was more special than a regular silver glitter and I was right! It's actually a mix of silver and gold glitter in varying sizes! SOOOO PRETTY! My pic really doesn't do it justice.

White Shatter (Shown over Spark de Triomphe) - This is a standard crackle in white creme. Cracks quick and is easy to apply. I was concerned that I wouldn't like this combo because I didn't want to cover up the pretty glitter and I actually love it! To vary the cracks, as I applied I moved the brush back and forth while moving closer to the tip. Love it.

The Glam Slam sets are out now. What do you think?!
-Elaine
:c)

More Metal Mixing

After I did the gold/silver mix here, I have been playing around with all the different combos of silver, gold and copper I can. Here is one I did with Revon - Copper Penny and Nubar - Silver Glitter:


You can expect more foil/glitter/metal mixing manicures to come!

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)

Holiday Jewel Basket by Nubar

For the holiday's Nubar has released a gift set of seven shades, including lots of glitter, Diamont top coat and base coat all wrapped in a little cube with a little basket that you can put nail tools and things into. Let's take a look at the shades>>>

Competition Red - Dreamy, creamy, red, red red. Is it just a red creme? I guess. It is a very nice rich red and I like the formula in comparison to other red cremes I have been trying lately because it is more like a true creme than jellyish.

Pixie Dust (over Competition Red) - This is a super shimmery, white/silver dusting of little particles. This is meant to be worn as a top coat. This won't get you full coverage but it is beautiful.

I love looking at the bottle. It's like a magical snow globe.

Silver Glitter - This is a dense, full coverage silver glitter. This is three coats.

Grass Green Glitter - This is a full coverage green glitter with little flecks of gold. This is 4 coats. I wasn't terribly impressed with the formula. It's still patchy after 4 coats. I am looking forward to wearing this over Nicole - Fell From The Tree.

Ruby Red Glitz - This is a red jelly with little red glitter. I love this! I had it on for 5 days which for me is like a decade.

Heavy Gold Glitter - This has to be the best formula for a glitter, EVER. This is two coats, it is full coverage, it was even, smooth and just perfect.

NOT Pictured: Nubar - 2010. 2010 is a flakie in a clear base that was released in the summer and is a close dupe to Sally Hansen - Hidden Treasure and GOSH - Rainbow. It accidentally was forgotten in my samples but if it shows up I will post it.

This is a the basket. You could put about 5-6 bottles in it, but not close it, or you can keep little manicure tools in it.

The Holiday Jewel Basket retails for $49.95 on bynubar.com

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.

Today Was A Fairy Tale - Swatch, Review, Layering and Gradient

For The Holidays this year one of the glittery shades that Deborah Lippmann has created for us is Today Was A Fairy Tale. It says it's infused with Virgin Diamond Powder and I do not know what that does, but it is a shimmery, shiny, sparkly glitter bomb.

Deborah Lippmann - Today Was A Fairy Tale - This is a mix of large, extremely reflective silver hexagon sequins and smaller silver glitter in a clear, but slightly blue tinted, base. The glitter in this is amazing. I don't know if it is certain, but it appears that the hex glitter is cut to reflect more light, just like facets in a diamond. It is extremely shiny. I would normally be upset that the base doesn't have enough pigment to build a opaque enough base, but with this I am fine because I wouldn't want to take away the shine of the glitter. This is three coats.

This is some layering experiments I tried with TWAFT. (hehe) This is two coats over, blue, black, silver and white. I think over white is kind of cool because then it brings out the blue base.

This is the mani I did with it. I started with NARS - Midnight Express as a base, then I did a gradient with TWAFT. I started with one coat way down by the cuticle, then the second coat further up and the third even further up and the 4th was pretty much just the tip. This was very flashy and fun! Everyone loved this. I got lots of compliments.

And I thought this was too hot to not share! It's Kim Kardashian wearing nothing but Today Was A Fairy Tale for a shoot for W Magazine to match the silver body paint. WOW.

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.