China Glaze Mimosas Before Manis and Glitz N Pieces

PRESS SAMPLES

   The actual name of one of the polishes I'm showing you today is Mimosa's Before Mani's, but the grammar of that name bothers me too much to type more than once, so I'm going to fix it for my post.

   Mimosas Before Manis is a pinkish coral with subtle shimmer from the Spring 2013 Avant Garden collection.  It's warm and bright, but not a neon.  The formula was a little runny and I had some streaks with the first coat of color.  But those evened out with the second coat.  The below photos are 2 coats of polish over Finger Paints base coat and no top coat.

Direct Sun

Indoor Natural Light

   Glitz N Pieces is a mix of black and silver glitters.  The glitters are a mix of large and small hex glitters in both sizes and short bar glitters in black.  The formula wasn't bad, but a bit thin so the glitters want to pull to the edge of your nails.  Once again I used a dab/brush combo for application to get the best results.  Below is one coat of Glitz over Mimosas Before Manis and no top coat.

Direct Sun

Indoor Natural Light

Indoor with Flash

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company for consideration.

Maybelline Silver Gleam

   Happy Wednesday everyone.  I have officially started back to work, although only a couple of light shifts so far.  I must say being stuck at home not able to do a whole lot is REALLY boring.  
   Today I have Silver Gleam from the Maybelline Color Show Sequins collection.  This was a limited edition collection back in November, but you might still be able to find the collection floating around.  I saw it at Walmart in December on a brand new Maybelline display.

   Silver Gleam is exactly what you would expect it to be with that name in a collection called Sequins.  It is multi-size silver glitter with holo hex glitters.  The glitter is very dense and gives good coverage.  I used 2 thickish coats over Finger Paints base coat and no top coat.  The formula and application were good, especially for a glitter this dense.

Direct Sun

Indoor Natural Light

Indoor with Flash

   Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them and see more detail.  Silver Gleam is super sparkly and my camera freaked out a bit at it.  This is the only polish I've tried from the Sequins collection, but if I ran across any of the others, I would consider picking them up.

Disclaimer:  The product(s) in this post were sent to me by the company for consideration.

Zoya Ornate Collection Part 2- A Foil, A Shimmer, and A Glitter

   Today I have the second half of the Zoya Ornate collection to show you.  This half consists of a foil, a shimmer, and a glitter.  These all applied easily and I had no issues with any of the formulas.  I used Finger Paints base coat and no top coat for all three.

Ziv

   Ziv is a cool toned gold foil with tiny warmer gold flecks.  I can't decide if I like this one on me or not.  Yellows and golds usually don't work with my skin tone, but Ziv doesn't immediately make me go ick like I usually do.  There are minimal brushstrokes visible, which I really like.  I want to say this is 2 coats in the below photos, but I forgot to write it down so I'm not 100% certain.

Direct Sun

 Indoor Natural Light

Indoor with Flash

Logan

   Logan is an Emerald green base with gold shimmer.  The gold shimmer gives Logan a lovely glow.  This polish simultaneously reminds me of Christmas and The Emerald City from The Wizard of OZ.  The Emerald color really comes out in the sun, although the shimmer makes my camera freak out a bit.  This is 2 coats.

Direct Sun

Indoor Natural Light

Indoor with Flash

Electra

   Electra is a glitter top coat with small silver and holo bar glitters.  The glitters like to hang off the edge of your nails, so you might want to gently run a finger along your nail edge while the polish is still wet to push any strays onto your nail.  I used 1 coat of Electra over Logan and it reminds me a bit of tinsel on a Christmas tree.  I am not a fan of this one.  I have never liked the look of bar glitter and Electra doesn't change my mind.

Direct Sun

Indoor Natural Light

Indoor with Flash

   From the second half of Ornate, Logan is by far the stand out for me.  If you can only get a couple of polishes from this collection my vote goes to Aurora and Logan.  If you're a fan of bar glitter, Electra has a great formula and would be a good addition to your collection.  

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company for consideration.

 

China Glaze Tinsel Town

   Multi-size glitters seem to be everywhere right now.  Some have only one color, some have two or three, and others have a full rainbow of colors.  Personally, I love this trend.  The more glitter the better for me.  In their Let It Snow collection for Holiday 2011, China Glaze brought us three of these.  Today I'm going to show you Tinsel Town.

   Tinsel Town is silver hex and micro glitter in a charcoal base.  If you remember my review of It's Alive from China Glaze's Halloween collection, this is the silver version of that polish. The formula was a bit thick and kinda goopy, but a little nail polish thinner will probably fix that.  Tinsel Town dries matte so if you want lots of sparkle, a shiny top coat is necessary.  The matte look of the polish is very nice as well though.  However, because of the glitter the texture on your nail is rather rough, so to keep the matte look, I would actually recommend a nice thick coat of gelous and then a matte top coat to smooth out your nail.  I used top coat on my ring and index fingers only to try to show you the difference.  My base coat was China Glaze Strong Adhesion and I believe I used 2 coats of polish, but I forgot to right it down.  

   The sparkle and texture of this polish really freaked my camera out.  So I apologize for the less than great quality of these pictures.  They really were the best I could get though.

Direct Sun

Shade/Indirect Sun

Indoor

  

   I really liked this polish.  The formula was a little thick, but that's not overly unusual for dense glitters like this one.  On the nail, Tinsel Town reminds me of malachite jewelry, which I always loved when I was younger.  Please click on the photos to enlarge them and get a better look at the polish, especially the shade/indirect sun one.

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were sent to me by the company for consideration.

China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara

   I'm pretty sure at some point I'm going to start producing glitter instead of new skin cells.  If I haven't already.  I swear it just randomly appears places with explanation some times.  Then, if I can control how/where this production happens, I would use it to make awesome glitter polish on my nails.  And they would look a lot like Lorelei's Tiara from the new China Glaze Eye Candy 3D glitter collection.  This is one of only 2 polishes I bought from this collection.  So far anyway.

   Please enlarge these pictures so you can get a better look at the silver and blue glitter mix.  Lorelei's Tiara has a clear base with predominately silver glitter and some random blue glitter sprinkled in.  Everytime I see the name of this polish I think of Lorelai from Gilmore Girls.  And you know what, I think she'd totally rock this polish.

   Being a glitter polish automatically means a few things.  1)difficult removal. 2)bumpy texture/surface that needs extra top coat layers to even out.  3)Needing a little more time between coats to prevent the glitter from all dragging to the tip of your nail.  Taking these givens into consideration however, Lorelei's Tiara applies very well for a glitter.  The glitter is pretty dense so you only really need 2 coats for good coverage.  3 would be more opaque, but you get so much shine and bling from 2 that you won't really notice that you don't have complete coverage.  I used China Glaze Strong Adhesion base and Seche Vite top coat.  I also used a layer of Gelous gel coat base directly on top of the polish before Vite.  If you've never tried Gelous you can find it at Sally Beauty Supply stores and it provides a nice thick layer over glitters to help make your polish smoother.

Direct Sun

   See the shine?  It's almost blinding in full sun.

Shade

   You can really see the blue to silver proportions in this shot.  I think China Glaze did a great job on the proportions.  The silver is definitely prominent, but there's enough blue to make you notice it.

   Even inside this polish brings the shine and draws your attention.  The shade of silver used reminds me of the silver foil tinsel my grandmother always insisted we cover our Christmas tree in.  Honestly you could barely see the ornaments behind the tinsel some years she would put so much on the tree.  

   This is a great polish to put you in a better mood when you're down.  And it would be perfect for a New Year's party.  This is just a happy polish that makes you want to celebrate.  Or at least that's how it feels to me.

OPI Silver Shatter

   I have a confession to make.  I am a glitter polish addict.  I love looking at my nails and seeing them sparkle in the light.  I've been known to get a bit distracted while in the car from looking at my nails.  Usually while I'm riding, not driving so no worries.  OPI has brought out a Shatter top coat that feeds this addiction with their Silver Shatter.  It adds sparkle and shine to any polish.  And is a great way to hide minor chips and tip wear when you don't have time for a full mani change.

   I tried Silver Shatter over OPI Mermaid's Tears from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection that was released simultaneously.  The directions, like all Shatters, say to use over fully dry polish, but I used it over polish that was still slightly tacky instead.  I think I got good results.

   Watching Shatter polish dry is really fun.  Especially since they dry super quickly.  I trick I've learned with these is to not brush back over polish you've already applied.  I've found that going back over polish can sometimes ruin the shatter effect.  With the silver, the polish will look sheer when you first apply, but becomes opaque as it dries and shrinks up.

   The biggest issue I had with Silver Shatter was cleanup.  With other colors this isn't a big problem.  But the Silver has micro glitter in it that DOES NOT want to come off your skin.  At least it didn't for me.  You can see this pretty well in the shade photo.  On three fingers I applied the Shatter in standard vertical direction.  On my index finger I applied it horizontally and on my thumb I applied diagonally.  Each direction gives a different look that are fun on their own or combined.

Direct Sun

Shade

Indoor

   Silver Shatter is much more subtle than some of the other Shatters.  At least over pastel polishes like the Pirates collection.  But sometimes a subtle shine is what you need.

OPI and Serena Williams Glam Slam! France Part 1

   The OPI and Serena Williams Glam Slam! France collection consists of 2 2-packs.  Each contains a "base" color and a shatter color.  The first of these sets brings you Spark de Triomphe and White Shatter.

   Spark de Triomphe is a multi size silver glitter in a clear base.  But instead of the standard bright shiny silver, SdT looks slightly tarnished.  Like a silver necklace you haven't worn in a while.  And that's a good thing.  It brings a unique twist to this color that I enjoy.

   Because of the clear base Spark de Triomphe would take quite a few coats to be completely opaque on the nail.  I used 3 coats over a base of Beauty Secrets base coat and a top coat of Seche Vite.  Application was easy, not too much clean up needed.  Personally, I find heavy glitters in general easier to apply.  Maybe the thicker consistency of the formula makes it easier for me to keep the polish where I want it.  Removal on the other hand does take longer.  

Direct Sun

Indoor

   At three coats you can still see your nail through the polish, but I actually really liked the look that way.  It's almost like my nails are encrusted with jewels.  This would also be a great layering polish.

   SdT is packaged with White Shatter.  

   I'm going to be upfront with you.  The only reason I used these together is because they were packaged that way.  This is not a combination I would have picked normally.  There's not enough contrast for my personal taste.  

   White Shatter applies very nicely.  A few tips on application.  First, work quickly.  Shatters dry very fast.  Second, make sure you are applying it to a dry base polish.  A good quick dry top coat cuts down on the wait time if you are applying Shatter over a fresh mani and not sprucing up an older one.  Third, because of the formula and speed of drying, Shatters will thicken in the bottle MUCH sooner than a normal polish.  So if you are noticing your Shatter has gotten a little gloopy, add a few drops of polish thinner and give it a good shake.  This should get things back to normal.  ALWAYS use actual thinner.  NEVER use acetone or polish remover in your polish.  This will cause the polish to start breaking down, ruining your polish. 

   I did not put a top coat over White Shatter in these pictures.  If you leave Shatter as is, it has a matte finish.  If you prefer a shinier finish add a layer of your favorite top coat once the shattering process has finished.

Direct Sun

   Look closely at my thumb in this picture.  You'll notice that I applied the White Shatter at an angle instead of in the same direction as my nail.  This gives a much different look to the polish that I really liked.  Even David said he liked that look better.  So don't be afraid to experiment a little with application to get different types of looks.

Indoor

   Glitter polishes really pop underneath Shatters.  Especially if you leave the Shatter's matte finish as is.  Maybe that's my love of contrasting textures coming through.  While I was not a big fan of the White Shatter in this combination, I do like it a lot over darker colors.  Spark de Triomphe I absolutely LOVED.  If you like the shatter look I recommend the White Shatter.  I am going to call Spark de Triomphe a must get.  Yes it's a silver glitter, but the multiple sizes of glitter combined with the slightly tarnished look really make it something unique for me.

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company for consideration.

OPI Katy Perry Collection

   When I saw the first promo pics of the Katy Perry/OPI collaboration I was intrigued.  Then when the polishes came in, I couldn't wait to try them all.  So why it's taken me until now to try and write about them I have no idea.  All of these are beautiful.  

 Teenage Dream

   Teenage Dream is a sheer pink base with pink and multi-color glitter in different sizes.  Application was good for such a dense glitter and it built up nicely.  I used a base coat of OPI Natural Nail Base and 3 coats of glitter.  Top coat was a bit more of an issue.  Because it is such a dense glitter, it likes to eat top coat.  As in while it will seem nice and smooth at first, a few hours later the surface of your nails will feel rough again.  To try to combat this I wound up using 1 coat of Gelous, 1 coat OPI RapiDry, a 2nd coat of Gelous, and a final coat of Seche Vite.  The first two coats were done immediately after the glitter and the second two coats the following morning.  This seemed to smooth the surface out fairly well.

Direct Sun

   Look at that sparkle.  Sometimes there's nothing like some shiny bling to make you smile.

Indoor

   Even inside the sparkle shows up.  Teenage Dream works great on its own or I'm sure would be a good layering polish as well.

See the rest after the break