Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs [Pic Heavy]

Hello everyone!  I've been wanting to post these for a while now but so many things got in the way.  Most dismal weather that prevented me from getting any good lighting.  I'm going to break down and buy a light box set soon.

This is the last collection I tried with my "claws".  They unfortunately couldn't last for the entire collection.  I thought it was suiting since this is called Claw Polish! ;)

All photos *should* be clickable.

Bordello - dark pink/silver foil.  ONE COAT!!

I'll say it again.  ONE COAT!!1one

MME Moriarty - blood red jelly!  2 coats.

This looks more translucent in the photos than it did in real life.  Three coats might be required.

Morgause - burgandy with a slight pearl shimmer. 

I have trouble describing this one because it's so different in real life.  The colour is so rich and the pearl shimmer is very faint on the nail but you can tell it's there in the luster.  You can see it in the darker photo in the upper right. You can stick with 2 coats just fine but I did three coats to get the same richness that I see in the bottle.

Destroying Angel - dark chocolate brown creme. 2 coats

So glossy!

Maiden - sheer light pink 2 coats.

I honestly never get sheers right.  I would have loved this if it were a creme. 

Croquet - medium pink creme, 2 coats.

I can't believe I'm going to rave about a pastel pink polish.  This was the perfect consistency.  I have NEVER tried a pink cream in this colour range that wasn't streaky and difficult to manage.  Croquet was a little watery, but completely manageable.  I didn't once flood my cuticles or even fear it happening.  Not at all streaky.  If you like pink, this one is GOLD.

Opium Poppy - hot pink creme.  2 coats

Unfortunately I lost the photos for this one in a sea of pink polish pics that I was clearing out of my polish folder.  If this isn't enough I'll re-swatch this one!  It was as perfect in the application as Croquet.  Unfortunately is was clashing with my skin tone a lot in the photos which is why I might have accidentally deleted them.

Overall these polishes were pretty amazing to me for such an "unknown" brand.  I know BPAL has been surfacing pretty successfully in the nail polish blogging world but otherwise people I've spoken to don't really know about it.  The polish always applied well, dried well, and held up well with wear and tear.  I seriously hope they expand their colour selection because this can easily be one of my favourite brands of polish ever.  That is saying a lot.

The site can be a little tricky to navigate. http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/ You want to go to Trading Post, then nail polish.  As you can see they offer quite a bit from their site.

The direct link to their polishes is here.

I will be showing you more of another colour from Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs in a post of it's own.

Embalming Fluid. So check back next week!

If you have any questions about this brand or any of these polishes leave a comment!

[These polishes were provided to me by the company for an honest review]

Fight like a Woman Collection

Today I'm showing you the Fight Like a Woman collection from China Glaze.  (And yes, I'm late.)

Encouragment - Natural Light, Two Coats

A baby pink how *I* image a baby pink would be.  Nice and pale.  Encouragment has a very pretty shimmer to it but I cannot nail down if it is a glass fleck or just a pale pink micro glitter.  Regardless it is very pretty.

Did anyone else get a bottle that was spelled wrong? Isn't it spelled Encouragement?  Oh well.

 

 Empowerment - Natural Light, Three Coats

Pastel pink creme.

 Endurance - Natural Light. One Coat

Medium-dark pink with glass fleck shimmer.

So here it is.  My first review for a while!  These polishes were of good consistency that I have come to expect from China Glaze.  I'm a little stunned that I got a one-coater out of these!  I have never had a once coater from China Glaze before.  Bravo!  The pastel was pretty typical of pastels, slightly streaky but I managed.   You might have noticed a slight bubbling in Encouragment and Empowerment, well, that was my fault.  I didn't realise it until I was editing these photos and I know why it bubbled too.  I was helping my friends move that day so my blood was pumping a little harder and it heated my otherwise corpse-like cold hands.  So FYI, the bubbles are not from China Glaze, they are from *gasp* exercise!

I've gotta talk about the names now.  You've noticed the theme.  Was I the only person who thought that calling the Pepto-pink "Empowerment" was totally weird?  Personally I would have swapped the names for Empowerment and Endurance.  It just seems like a better fit to me.

And now I come to the part where I talk about how breast cancer has touched my life.  Fortunately breast cancer doesn't run in my family.  Cysts and lumps in the breasts yes, breast cancer, no.  My Grandpa's second wife, "Grandma Jean" was hit by breast cancer pretty hard.  She had a double mastectomy when I was younger.  It had either spread to both breasts or she was high risk for getting it in the second breast so they removed them both in one go.  My Grandma was so brave.  I remember her joking about getting a Dolly Parton mastectomy bra for when she went out for parties.  She wanted "variety".  :P
I had my own little scare with breast cancer, thankfully it was just a big benign cyst and I had it removed because it felt like the size of a walnut on the upper side of my right breast.  I don't care about the visible scar at all, but now I'm feeling scar tissue develop on the inside of my breast and it makes me paranoid because I can't tell if there is a real lump there.  (I'm a bit paranoid)

ANYWAYS...  heres to the woman and men who who continue to fight for their lives against breast cancer.

Wassail!

[The collection was sent to me for an honest review by the PR company]

Orly Bloom Collection Review

Hello Ladies!
Writing this blog Sunday night so you can see it tomorrow morning.  (good morning!)
I wanted to try this collection out last weekend, but it was raining and overcast with clouds.
Anyways, this collection was released in the Spring 2010 so chances are you may have already seen it. :P

 

I started out with pink because I am rarely a fan of the colour.  Reminds me of Pepto and Barbie dolls. Unfortunately this pink wasn't doing me any favours.  Sorry pink lovers!

This is Blushing Bud.  It's a hot-pink creme with decent application.  This was 3 coats.

Pure Petunia is a pinky-purple creme.  The application was good, I still needed three coats though.  But It's not unusual for me to use three coats on a manicure.

 

Now this is an interesting colour.  In the bottle it looks like rust with a pink shimmer, and the only shimmer in this collection.  Strange, no?   On the nail Ginger Lily's pink shimmer isn't as obvious and the rich colour of the rusty red comes to life.  This is very unique.  Three coats.

 

I wore Thorned Rose for 5 days straight during the workweek.  In the bottle it looked like a dark berry colour, but on my skin it looked more like a dark red.  Only in some lights did it take on it's berry self.  I love this one.  Orly describes it as a Red Wine Creme, I agree... somewhat.  I thought this one was more like a jelly.  It didn't apply or even look like creme on the brush, and it took 3 coats.  The fact that I wore this colour for 5 days straight with minimal tip-wear is pretty amazing.

 

Oh, well hello there, green polish. Don't you look charming! Wandering Vine looked more subdued in the bottle, but on my nails it became a rich forest green. Two coats!!

 

Wild Wisteria is so wild it made my camera go bonkers.  It's not a navy, rather it is a royal purple creme. This applied like butter and required only two coats.  Below is a block of what I consider the "true" colour for reference since my photos didn't work out too well.

So what are your favourite colours in this collection?  Mine are Thorned Rose, Wandering Vine, and Wild Wisteria.

Orly - Sweet Collection [Picture Heavy]

Hello everyone!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  It was the perfect weather to try out these babies, the Sweet Collection by Orly.  It was released in April of 2010 but was sent to me to review recently.  As always my opinions are my own.

Lemonade - pastel yellow creme.  3 coats.

Lollipop - Light purple creme.  3 coats.

Cotton Candy - Pink creme.  It looks to me like there is a slight orange tone to it, but not enough to be noticeable.  I used 3 coats.

Pixy Stix - Medium pink creme.  This one had some orange tone to it too.  I'd say it was just shy of a coral.  It reminded me of the pink a flamingo can get with plenty of shrimp in it's diet.  But I'm weird.  2 coats.

Gumdrop - Light turquoise creme.  It had enough blue in it to not be a mint green, but it was close.  Great application, 2 perfect coats.

Snowcone - Light blue creme.  Orly describes it as a baby blue, but I feel like it is richer that a baby blue.  2 coats.

My favourites in this collection were Pixy Stix, Gumdrop, and Snowcone.  They weren't your typical pastel colours that we have all seen a million times and they applied wonderfully.  The others were your staple pastels and had some minor streaks that were remedied by applying the polish with the brush as parallel to the nail as possible.

The free lip gloss that came with each bottle.

Lemonade, Lollipop, Cotton Candy, Pixy Stix, Gumdrop, and Snowcone.

The lip gloss had the fuzzy brush that reminds me of a pussy willow.

RIP little fly that got stuck in my polish outside.  A rare casualty of swatching outdoors.  I tried to save it, but I won't go into details about it... :(

[These polishes were sent to me by the PR company to review.]

China Glaze - Hey Doll

Yeah I know I've been slacking in the post department but this 'real life' business is draining me dry.  I'm up at 11:20pm doing this post (past bedtime) and I'll hook it up for tomorrow morning when all you people are awake.

I present to you.... Hey Doll!
Hey Doll is yet another polish from the Vintage Vixen collection and it really surprised me.
Originally I thought, "oh, this one is nice... kinda girly... pinkish."  And when I was applying it in my computer room/second bedroom it grossed me out.  It looked like I was applying pink bile on my nails and contemplated taking it off and starting over with another colour.  I weighed out the pros and cons and decided it was too much work and that I'd continue with the mani and take it off the next day.  Glad I kept it on.  The minute I stepped out of my poorly lit computer room the colour became beautiful.  This goes to show just how much lighting can effect colours.  So ALWAYS bring paint swatches HOME when you are choosing colours to paint your walls.

ANYWAYS....

Natural Light

Flash

Direct Sun. (click for close-up of the shimmer)

Butt.

As you can see this isn't pink bile.  It's a rose pink with a slight warm brown tone with tiny silver flecks.  In some lights it looks closer to purple and others it radiates with the warm tones of Autumn mixed in there with what I consider an antique pink.  You can see in the photos just how much a simple change of light makes this polish morph into a different colour.  

Random: When I saw the colour in the bottle it reminded me of vintage silk undergarments.  

While I don't see me wearing this much in the summer months, I know I'll be sporting it in the Fall.

*Slides off her computer chair and crawls to bed*

[This polish was sent to me by the PR company for review]

China Glaze "Fight Like a Woman" Collection Promo!

Find Strength in the Power of Pink

China Glaze Nail Lacquer Gets the Gloves Ready to Join in the

Fight Against Breast Cancer

Los Angeles, Calif. (July 2010) – Join China Glaze Nail Lacquer this October in the battle against breast cancer, one nail at a time! The professional line of nail lacquers brings on the fight with three powerful pinks. Inspired by the women who fight everyday and those that support them in their battle, these fabulous shades are sure to help you defeat the toughest opponents with style and class. China Glaze representative Rachel Schafer voiced that “in an industry dominated by women, for women, it is important that we strive to work together towards finding a cure.”

The three colors in “Fight Like A Woman” include:

Encouragement – A baby pink shimmer that brings on the cheer

Endurance – Power through the punches with this raspberry shimmer

Empowerment – Stand up tall with this cotton-candy crème on your nails

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the World Health Organization dedicated to the science of cancer and promoting international collaboration in cancer research.

The “Fight Like A Woman” Collection will be available at professional beauty supply stores and select salons this September. Availability will be very limited internationally.

China Glaze colors may change from season to season, but our formula remains the same amazing longwearing lacquer with hardeners. Designed with the professional in mind, our 220-strand brush is great for ease of application. Best of all, our non-thickening formula provides great coverage. For more information, please visit www.chinaglaze.com.


About American International Industries


For nearly 40 years, AII has been the leading manufacturer and worldwide distributor of innovative, quality beauty and skin care products for men and women. Our product lines include Ardell, Andrea, Body Drench, Bye Bye Blemish, Checi, China Glaze, Clean + Easy, Clubman/Pinaud, Duo, European Secrets, EzFlow, Fright Night, Gena, GiGi, Gypsy Lash, IBD, Jeris-Lustray, No Tweeze/Micro Tweeze, 'N Rage, Prolinc, RAW, Seche, SuperNail, Surgi-Care, Waterworks, Winning Nails, Woltra, Woody’s, and Youthair. For more information, visit our website: http://www.aiibeauty.com/

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So what do you think of this collection?

My Grandmother lost both breasts to breast cancer when I was younger, so pink always reminds me of her strength.  :)