Color Club Glitter Swatch Spam - Pic Heavy

Holy smokes.
It's been a while.
A long while.


I have serious committment issues with my blog and I've taken it to a whole other level, so instead of harping on it, I have some glittery goodness for your viewing pleasure.


Glitter spam. Does it get any better? Really? Nah, I didn't think so either.


All glitters are Color Club. No, I do not remember which ones although if you ask really nicely, I will let you know what is what. (Comment below if there is one you are interested in!)


I'm lazy tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blurry to show glitter-mazing-ness.

All glitters were layered over one coat of Wet'n'Wild "Black Creme"

Have a fabulous night (or day)!

Mint Polish Comparison Post

This is rather late, but better late than never, right?

I have NO IDEA what is going on with my formatting, but please bear with me.

1. Gosh "Drizzle" - 2 coats

Not even close to mint, this polish is a very greyed out and
dusty, faded green creme.

2. Revlon "Minted" - 3 coats

This is like a more muted cousin of Sally Hansen's "Mint
Sorbet" (#10). Smooth and very pretty.

3. Essie "Turquoise & Caicos" - 4 coats
Jelly based polish, needing 4 coats for opacity. Leans slightly
more green and is darker than the others.

4. Essence "You Belong To Me" - 2 coats
More blue toned rather than a "true" mint. Great coverage
and application.

 

Round Two

5. Gosh "Silky Mint" - 3 coats
Medium warm toned green creme. Although the name says
it's a mint, it leans just a little too green for it to be
considered a traditional mint. Gosh has great formula's,
very easy application.

6. OPI "Mermaids Tears" - 3 coats
A dustier version of "Silky Mint" (#5). Love this colour,
perfect for a more muted mint polish. 

7. Cosmetic Arts, un-named - 3 coats
Very cool, blue-leaning mint creme. Wish it had a name. No
complaints with application.

8. Color Club "New Bohemian" - 3 coats
This is the quintessential mint - my favourite out of them all.
It leans the slightest bit more blue than green and I think
that's why I like it. It works well on my skin tone (it causes
the least amount of lobster-clawness out of all the swatches)
and looks very refreshing.

 

 

Round Three
 

9. Sally Hansen "Green Tea" - 3 coats
Pale, muted mint green. Pretty and whimsical. I love this
type of greyed out polish.

10. Sally Hansen "Mint Sorbet" - 3 coats
Vivid but pale green mint. Perfect for summer; looks
awesome on tanned skin. Application was slightly thick.

11. Avon "Aqua Fantasy" - 2 coats
Very blue but has a very slight edge of green so I included it,
just to compare. White shimmer gives it a frosted feel and
the application was AMAZING. I need more Avon polish in
my life. Like yesterday.

12. Wet'n'Wild "I Need A Refresh-ment" - 2 coats
I kind of hate the name of this polish ... but the polish is
beautiful. More blue than green, the creme formula glides
on smoothly. Pretty but not quite mint. Mint-esque.

 

I wasn't exactly strict with my polish picking; I wanted to
include some polishes that lean a bit more blue (or green) just
to show the contrast to the what is traditionally thought of as
a mint polish. Personally, I feel like this helps the comparison
process.

My favourite "true/traditional" mint out of these 12 that I've
shown is Color Club's New Bohemian. As I mentioned
above, it is a great polish against my skin tone. Unfortunately
for me, most polishes in this colour family give me lobster
claws and a bit bonus, and part of the reason why New
Bohemian won out, is that it didn't cause my hands to look
so red. The fact that it is the perfect blend of blue and green
also helped, haha. ;)

My friend J wanted a review on Minted by Revlon which I
swatched in this post, so for J and all else who want to know
a bit about this polish ...

Application was good although a little thin on the first two
coats. I added a third to smooth everything out and make it
perfectly opaque. It dries shiny in case you're wondering. (I
would still add topcoat for longevity.) I can't comment as to
the wear of the polish because I only swatched it but I find
Revlon to be fairly decent. I don't wear polish for much
longer than a 2-3 days and it lasts well during that time. All
in all, I would give you a big thumbs up and green light:
go buy it! :)

What is your favourite mint polish? Let me know!

- A Polished Touch

Retina's: Who Needs 'Em?

I literally have zero time to post this so it will be very quick, hope you don't mind!

Color Club Wham! Pow! (2 coats)

 

I layered Sparkle and Soar from Color Club's Take Wing collection over top
of Wham! Pow! for some gorgeous shimmer. Then, because I can't leave well
enough alone, I decided to add some - you guessed it - dots.
I love me some dots. <3

For some reason the dots make me think of egg whites and egg yolks, LOL.

Application was good on both polishes, I had no troubles. The only issue
I had was with colour accuracy. My camera gets all freaky if I try to take
pictures indoors of a neon. Hence my outdoor photo.
It was a lot brighter IRL.


Have a great Sunday!

- A Polished Touch

Kismet Nail Polishes

Life = busy. Me = not feeling well. All of that = a week long break. Forgive me? I hope you will. :)

I came across a new brand of polish called Kismet. If you have the retailer "Bootlegger"  at a mall near you, you will probably be familiar with that brand name. It's their "house brand" and apparently they now have their own brand of polishes. The downside of them: no names. Arrgh. Does anyone but myself find that supremely frustrating? WE NEED NAMES, PEOPLE!

Here are two of the Kismet polishes I purchased. One, a win, the other, fail.

2 coats, no topcoat.

I LOVE THIS POLISH. Seriously. This was almost a one coater but I wanted to make sure it would be "camera ready" and added a second coat for good measure. These pictures make it look more red than what it is IRL although it's still very pretty. There is also pink micro shimmer throughout, very nice. I thought I'd try jazzing it up so I grabbed my Color Club Fame & Fortune and went to town. 

Color Club Fame & Fortune

1 coat layered over Kismet polish, no topcoat.

I dinged my ring and pinky nails pretty bad so please excuse the odd two-finger photo's. Fame & Fortune is UNREAL. I love the shard glitter pieces. They are a mix between pink and holographic and the shine and glitter is gorgeous.

2 coats

I find this polish very difficult to categorize. In the bottle it leans more green however my camera picks up more of a slate grey colour. There is some micro glitter/shimmer however it doesn't lay flat, it is a bit gritty and  slightly brush-strokey. Overall, although it was a very opaque polish (I could have gotten away with one coat of this as well) the odd colour and gritty/brush-strokey finish make this a big ol' fail to me. Can't win them all, right?

Bootlegger had a BOGO sale on their polishes so I got both of these for $4.99 plus tax. Not bad, although I will never wear the grey/slate/greenish polish again. The hot, hot pink is fabulous. Complete win.

My Blue Monday post is coming later on today - stay tuned! ;)

Pink Wednesday: Pink Ombre Mani

Happy Pink Wednesday! I've accomplished a lot of "firsts" this month and I'm happy to share one of them with you today. Ombre mani's were all over the blogosphere last year; I haven't attempted one until now. I found it harder than it looks. I'm a little OCD when it comes to certain things. For this mani, I had to make sure all the finishes of the polish were consistent: I chose a crème finish.

I will mention that IRL, the ring finger and middle finger were more different than what they appear in my photo's. D'oh.

The polishes used for this mani are:

Index: Color Club Poptastic

Middle: Color Club Yum Gum

Ring: Sally Hansen Pink Blink

Pinky: China Glaze Snow

No topcoat

My thumb is also China Glaze Snow

China Glaze Snowglobe (1 coat) layered over Pink Blink

Application for all these polishes was fairly decent: the only one I had issues with was Color Club Yum Gum, I found it a bit thick. A drop or two of polish thinner would help. Snowglobe is GORGEOUS. *stares*

I was pretty happy with how this turned out. Finding a darker creme finish pink proved impossible for me so I  just used Snow and made two nails white. I only swatched this but I will definitely try this out as a full mani sometime soon, with different colours of course, gotta change things up! ;)

Have you tried an ombre mani? What colour scheme did you choose?

Sally Hansen Sonic Bloom Gets Fractured

A couple days ago I promised you a non-traditional (ie: not black and silver) shatter/crackle/fractured mani. Today is the day I will show you exactly what I mean. 

I started off with a base of Sally Hansen Sonic Bloom.

Sonic Bloom, 3 coats with 1 coat Seche Vite

I have to say, Sally Hansen Sonic Bloom did not photograph very well. It is a very vivid, bright coral-red creme polish; what you see is a a more muted coral but know that it really is more red and brighter IRL.

Absolutely delightful to wear but horrendous to photograph. Easy application. As with all the Insta Dri polishes, as well as the Complete Salon Manicure line by Sally Hansen, the brush is large and flat. It takes some getting used to and I wouldn't recommend it for those with tiny fingers.

I wore Sonic Bloom for a full day last week and after work that day Mr.Polish and I stopped off at a Winner's we don't usually frequent and saw a Color Club Fractured display. *happy dance* I grabbed only one, "The Great Divide", and knew I was going to layer it over Sonic Bloom when I got home...

The Great Divide with 1 coat of Seche Vite on top

Ouu, pretty shimmer! The Great Divide is a gorgeous deep blue teal with a strong golden shimmer throughout. I haven't seen a shatter/crackle/fractured polish like this IRL so it completely blew me away. This layering combination is very different than what I've seen around and it really reminds me of lava, even though it's not red and black. Is that weird or do you see what I mean?

I'm strangely attracted to how different this is. And now, for a couple more "comical" right hand pictures ... and before you say anything, I have no idea why the left side of the photo's are so over-exposed. I tried to lower the brightness but then it made my hand/nails too dark to see properly. Just go with it. ;)

PS: I picked up a special little polish for my future 500 follower give-away. I like to be prepared and this little beauty was the last one I could find, ANYWHERE. ;)

Revlon Whimsical

Today I have another mani that I'm really excited to share with you. I found Revlon Whimsical at my local Wal-Mart a couple weeks ago and immediately snatched one up. I was very surprised (and pleased) to find this so soon in Canada. My friend Laura from Laura's Lacquers (go check her out, I love her!) couldn't find it near her in the US and I've been reading that a lot of people are having troubles finding it as well. Needless to say, I'm quite the happy lady.

I looked through my collection trying to find the perfect base colour to layer Whimsical over. I didn't want to choose a bright baby blue because the base of Whimsical is much more greyed out and muted - that being said I think I found the perfect "underwear" for layering ... enter Sheer Disguise from Color Club.

Sheer Disguise is from Color Club's Alter Ego: Reveal Your Mystery collection that was released Spring 2011. I really need to showcase more of my Color Club's because it dominates my collection: I have 80 Color Club nail polishes in my collection! 

Sheer Disguise, 3 coats - no topcoat

*dreamy sigh* If you didn't know already, I love me some light blue polish. I can't quite describe how much I love all shades of light blue ... it's gotta be my love of the sky and the multitudes of shades it can be that correlates to my love of light blue polish. Annnyways ...

Sheer Disguise is a gorgeous dusty light blue crème polish. As you can see from the above photo's it didn't self level as well as I would have hoped and I think that is mostly due to user error. (Also read: slight impatience ... who can blame me, I was antsy to use Whimsical!) It also has to do with the fact I didn't add a topcoat because of the layering that was about to happen ...

I honestly forget if I used one or two coats of Whimsical over top of Sheer Disguise. My mistake. 

I'm not quite sure what to say about this polish except that it's perfect in every way possible. A Deborah Lippman dupe at less than a quarter of the cost. YES. PLEASE. I love that when you apply this polish it isn't an immediate glitter bomb; it allows the user to control how much "bling" is applied and I appreciate that about  Whimsical. 

Delicate and soft looking. Flawless. Can we also pay attention to the amazing match of Sheer Disguise to Whimiscal? Yeah. *smug smirk* Haha ... now I feel bad for being the slightest bit cocky. Forgive me? ;)

You need Whimsical in your life. Seriously. That is all.

Color Club "Holiday Splendor"

I did some layering with my Sally Hansen Going Green mani from earlier today. I'll let the photo's do all the talking.

Holiday Splendor, 2 coats - no topcoat
Blurred to show the sparkle, ouuu.

I got the Beyond The Mistletoe Color Club collection a few weeks ago and I'm so in love. Just look at Holiday Splendor. I dare you to say you don't love it as well (and mean it!).

Because of the layering I did Holiday Splendor looks very green in these photo's but it is slightly more blue IRL. I used two coats of Holiday Splendor and it applied wonderfully. The holographic glitter is absolutely UNREAL. You literally have to see it to understand just how radiant it truly is. I need to wear this as a full mani and not just swatch it. 

Holographic glitter - you can't go wrong, can you?