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.

Spring Nicoles

Nicole by OPI welcomes warmer weather with twelve new vibrant shades from the Something About Spring Collection, available exclusively at Target. From bold purples to fierce yellow metallics and iridescent shimmers, Something About Spring has a hue to accentuate every style.

I had an opportunity to wear most of these shades and not just swatch them and I am VERY pleased with this collection.

Dandy Lion - Starting strong. This is a bold, beautiful yellow shimmer. Probably close to China Glaze - Lighthouse. This is so refreshing and perfect for the season change! I loved wearing this and this is also what I used form my leopard mani.

You're S-teal The One - This is a shimmery bright, cobalt blue with a bit of purple duochrome in the shimmer. It's beautiful and makes me think of jumping in a pool.

Iceberg Lotus - This is awesome, glowing jungle green shimmer. The shimmer seems to have a bit of a blurple duochrome at angels as well. These shimmers are really amazing. I bet they would look outrageous with a matte top coat.

Nicole's Nickel - Now we're stepping up our game with glitter!!! This is a fantastic black sheer base crammed with silver multi-sized silver glitter. It creates a awesome silver/black plating finish.

Brilliant Idea - This is a brilliant idea. This is a clear base with multi-sized lime green glitter. This is bright, sparkly and very pretty. This got lots of compliments.

Sea How Far You Go - And we're stepping it up yet again! This amazing. This is a soft, olivey, antiquey, gold shimmer that is sort of a duochrome, but not quite. It is a warm gray at angles. Very interesting and unique.

Make A Comet-ment - (Shown over Sea How Far You Go) This is a fine holo glitter top coat. Not terribly unique, but very, very pretty.

Pink. Seriously. - HAHA! Love the name. This is a serious, saturated pink creme. Got this one on my toes.

I'm A Pool For Love - This is a super vampy, deep, deep, purple with a blurple shimmer. It's like a super vampy OPI - Ink. And I don't know what the name has to do with the color. Doesn't really look like a pool to me...

Pink-nic In The Park - This may be my least favorite, but still nice if you like more understated shades. It's a soft, sort of sheer, bubble-gum pink with a pinky, purply shimmer.

Shell Me The Truth - This is gorgeous. This is pale pink with a strong gold shimmer. This is stunning.

Daffy Dill - This is a "Shrek-esque" green creme. Rich in color and with a super-saturated formula. Awesome.

You should be able to find these shades at Target stores now!
What do you think?!
:c)

-Elaine

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.

Rawr!

This is Nicole by OPI - Dandy Lion stamped with Konad and filled in with Revlon - Copper Chrome and China Glaze - 2030

Nubar Spring Garden

For Spring this year Nubar has created a collection of pastels. Now, usually that is everyone's Spring collection, and usually that is disappointing because there isn't too many ways to change up pastels, but these are actually different. They all have a softness to them, mostly due to the silver, pearly shimmer in them.

Pink Lily - This is a soft pink creme that leans on the peach side. The shimmer is pretty hidden in this one, but it's contribution makes a difference.

Earthen - This is a "greige" creme, that is more on the gray side than beige side. The pearly shimmer really stands out in this one and makes it look less like mud than most greige cremes.

Baby Sprout - Super cool, soft green pastel green. It's not so much a mint... it's like a ... baby sprout, I guess. It reminds me of mint gum. This one is a bit more white and stark that some of the softer colors in this set.

Blue Hydrangea - This is a bright, baby blue with strong, pearly, silver shimmer.

White Peony - This is a super soft white creme that is soft in texture: it's sort of squishy, and it is also soft in color as it is slightly off white, or maybe a smidge yellow or ivory. It's a bit difficult to explain but it's beautiful. It also had an amazing formula for being white. Very easy to apply.

Yellow Primrose - This is a very, very soft yellow with pearl finish. It is so soft of a yellow it is almost wrong to call it yellow. It' s more like a cream shade.

Purple Aster - I love this one. This is a gorgeous shade of lavender. This is one of the ones in this set that has more shimmer than others. I looooved wearing this. It's very pretty and delicate, but interesting and not boring, but not flashy and too noticeable. Good work shade.

Honeysuckle - If you have been searching for a polish in Honeysuckle to satisfy your need of the Pantone color of the year in a polish form, here it is! It is a creme with a slight jelly finish. Very pretty and flattering.

Dewdrop (over Purple Aster) - To complement all the shades in this collection, Nubar released this iridescent glitter in a clear base.

These are available now for $49.95.

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.

Yellow Brick Road Preview

Lady Gaga is always pushing the envelope and exploring new trends. This year’s Grammy Awards proved no different. The award winner arrived in an egg pod and emerged wearing a bold, yellow nail.

The nail color is a new addition to Deborah Lippmann’s line and is called Yellow Brick Road. Celebrity manicurist Deborah Lippmann selected the color with the star to complement the canary yellow outfit she donned during her stage performance.

Yellow Brick Road launches on April 15 and will be available for $16 at www.deborahlippmann.com.

"New" Sinful Colors

I say "new" with quotes because at the time I got them they weren't really very new in terms of when they were released. But they were new to me. But now about 5 weeks have gone by since I bought them, so they are really not new!

Hot Spot - I showed you guys this one before but it had glitter on it. Now we can look at it alone. This is is a deep indigo shimmer with small, sparse, cobalt blue shimmer that isn't very shimmery, but it is in there.

Neon Melon - This is one hell of a neon yellow. You know how with most neon pics I have to give a disclaimer about how it is much more neon in real life? Well, this one is more neon in real life, but the pic does do a decent job of capturing it. This shade is very, very neon. I have lots of favorite neon yellows, but this one flew way up on the list. The only problem with it is it is extremely thin. There is no point in even attempting to wear it alone. It will never be opaque enough. BUT the great thing about neons is that you can layer them over white, which is what I did here. This is two coats of Neon Melon over white creme. SUPER BRIGHT!

All Mighty - This is a very pretty aqua/teal shimmer. It isn't terrible unique; as I put it on it reminded me a lot of OPI - Yodel Me On My Cell. I do love the formula of this. 2 coat dream.

Thimbleberry - I was hot and horny for this one a while back when I heard it was a dupe for MAC - Scorcher. I really love this bright coral, but I also found it was a close dupe to China Glaze - High Hopes so I guess not that necessary to my collection. But still pretty.

Gorgeous - WHEW. This one takes my breath away. This is a intense, metallic turquoise that is almost chrome in finish. That alone I love, but at the edges or at an angle it has a bright blue, aqua duochrome. This shade is very mermaid-y. I think it may be a close dupe to Sephora by OPI - Mermaid to Order, but I don't have it to compare. I will just stick to my $2 Sinful. *LOVE*

Besides for the neon which we all know are not typically two coats, these are all two coats. I have said it before, but I will say it again: Sinful Colors has stepped their game up. They usually get a bad rap for being sheer, but these are well pigmented beauties. Not only were they two coats, but the formula was perfect to work with. Sinful is one of my absolute favorite brands ever!!

Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

I am super in love with my mani, but super upset that pics do not capture its awesomeness. The problem lies in the fact that I used neons (China Glaze - Poolside specifically) for this mani and we all know how hard it is to photograph them. The neon glow and brightness doesn't translate to digital pics, but I will try to explain as we go.
:c)

I started with a base of pure white creme. This allowed me to do less coats of the neon and really made the color pop. Next I painted two coats of China Glaze - Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. Holy cow is that bright! Super neon, hi-liter yellow. I wore this out to see friends the other day and in dim lighting my girlfriend asked if it glowed in the dark! Nope, just super neon!

For the dots, I knew I would be using three different colors and wanted them to look random which actually takes some calculating. To make sure I got the pattern right, I used my polka dot image from Konad plate M79 with white polish first on all the nails. Then I went over the dots with a dotting tool and China Glaze Sun Worshiper, Pool Party and Flip Flop Fantasy.

Besides the fact that my pics don't show off the neonness, they show some white around the dots where I didn't necessarily cover my white base dots fully, but in real life I swear you don't see it. I am staring deep into the dots on my hands and I don't see the white spots. It's like this:

See what I mean? But it actually looks really cute and bright in real life. I hope you can picture it in all its glory!

Have a great Sunday!
-Elaine

Halfmoon on Fire

Hello again! I have a awesome mani for you today I have been dying to do for a while. I thought of it one day months ago. Don't know what took me so long but it's alright. It's here now. I just wish I had some sunlight to take some nice pics. It's really cloudy outside.

I started with an orange base. I had that on for a few days actually. Then I did my cut-in-half-re-enforcer trick to hide the bottom portion and painted the nail with China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky.

I was planning on stamping immediately so I put on a coat of Seche Vite to set that so I could stamp without smudging and used Konad plate M63 to stamp the "flames" if that is what they are, and aligned them with the curve of the halfmoon.

Photo Courtesy of Konad USA

I was very concerned about my alignment. I really didn't think that I would get it right because I am not the best at getting my stamps exactly where I want them, but this didn't turn out too bad! I really like it.

What do you think?
Elaine
:c)