China Glaze Poolside Swatches - Summer 2010

Hello all! I have the China Glaze summer collection for you today: Poolside. The release day is coming up! Just a couple more days! Are you dying for them, or what?!

As I am sure you know, Poolside is a collection of 6 neon shades. And I am sure you also know that neons are next to impossible to capture true to life. I did the best I could, and some come out better than others. So I warn you, these are not terribly accurate, either in shade and/or brightness/neonness, but they will at least help give you an idea. And where I could I did comparison pics. The point is sort of moot if none of the shades being compared are accurate, but at least you can see the differences between two shades.

These are all very awesome and very bright. I had them all sitting out on my polish desk and the BF said "Those are the six greatest nail polishes I've ever seen". LOL! I love when he gets into my polish!

Okay, let's get into it!

Pool Party - This is a neon pink, but it is a very red pink. It's a neon "rink", I guess. I have nothing like it but I did a comparison of Pool Party next to Essie - Flirty Fuchsia from last year's Essie neons so you can see how red it is:

pinky and middle: Pool Party
ring and index: Flirty Fuchsia

Again, neither of these are accurate thanks to the loss of neon in the pic, but at least you can see that Pool Party leans more red than pink.

Flip Flop Fantasy - This is a neon coral. Perfect description. It's not pink, red or orange. It's all of them! And it's neon! This is the stand out shade of this collection in my eyes. I don't think there is a shade like it at all. I don't have a comparison pic to show you for this because it is so unique. This is a must have shade. I adore it. If you don't think it is impressive in my swatch it's because my camera murdered it's magic. Trust me, this is amazing. This is absolutely getting a spot in my Top 20, as soon as I can think of who I want to bump off...

Sun Worshiper - I have been so excited for the release of this collection because of this shade. I just love colors like this. This is a yellow sided, orange neon. The neon glow shows itself much better in this pic than the other neons! *Whew* This is very, very bright. I do own a couple other shades similar:

From left to right: LA Colors - Force, Cosmo - Bus Route #1, Sun Worshiper, Hot Topic - unnamed neon orange
Again, these are far more neon in real life, but at least you can see that Sun Worshiper is the most neon and has the best formula. All are three coats.

Yellow Polka Dot Bikini - This is neon yellow. Neon, hi-liter yellow. This picture is awful. This is not remotely close to accurate. I am ashamed to show it. *hides* This is mega bright. This swatch is 4-5 coats. Some have 4, some have 5. Either way, I probably could have done way more than that!

This is how Yellow Polka Dot Bikini stacks up next to one of my fave polishes ever: Essie - Funky Limelight. I do believe Funky Limelight is a smidgen brighter, but YPDB is still so bright, no one would think you could get any brighter!

Kiwi Cool-Ada - This is a neon green. NEON green. This doesn't look neon at all! Trust me, it is. I thought the formula of this one was pretty nice. I believe this swatch is three coats.

This is how it compares to the other neon greens I own. From left to right:
Hot Topic - unnamed neon green, Sinful Colors - Irish Green, Kiwi Cool-Ada, China Glaze - In The Limelight
I found that KCA was very similar to another neon green release from China Glaze: In The Limelight, however ITL has shimmer. KCA is also brighter and more opaque than Irish Green and the Hot Topic one is really all alone because the shade is very different.

Towel Boy Toy - I love this name! So cute. Anyway, this is a neon blue, and I was impressed by the neonness of it! I expected it to be a bright blue but not terribly neon and I guess it is less neon that the others, but it is still neon. This also differs from the other shades in this collection since it has shimmer and the rest do not. This is 3 coats.

This is how it compares to Color Club - Pure Energy, which we took a look at last week. They are practically identical, but the shimmer in Pure Energy is more apparent and it leans green making these not exact dupes.

The formula on these was thin, but surprisingly buildable. China Glaze isn't trying to hide it. The press release I posted a while back even said these will be on the thin side as they are neons. The first coat is scarily thin. But the second makes a huge difference, and by the third you are smooth sailing. I found Kiwi Cool-Ada, Towel Boy Toy, Pool Party and Flip Flop Fantasy were three coaters, but Sun Worshiper needed a 4th coat maybe, and Yellow Polka Dot Bikini needed it for sure, plus maybe a 5th. BUT a great trick for fixing the need for so many coats is layering these (and this goes for any neons) over a white base. Observe:

One coat of OPI - Alpine Snow + one coat of Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. It still looks streaky since my Alpine Snow was streaky. I should have done 2 coats of it, but anyway, the point is that you can cut down the number of coats big time by using a white base, or help hide any VNL at all, since even the 3 coaters can leave a little VNL.

These also dry very matte as neons do. I added a topcoat for my swatches so they were shiny.

Final Verdict: I think Sun Worshiper and Flip Flop Fantasy are the standouts. Pool Party is unique in my collection and great if you like pinks. Towel Boy Toy and Yellow Polka Dot Bikini are good buys if you don't already have Pure Energy or Funky Limelight (also maybe China Glaze - Celtic Sun. I don't know since I don't have it) and Kiwi Cool-Ada will be dependent on if you like green and if you don't have another stand out neon green shade. It may be skippable, but that is a personal choice that I can't make!

Poolside officially launches in just a few days! APRIL 1st!!!
What are you going to get?
: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.

Flashback: Color Club - Electro Candy

Hi all! Summer collections are upon us and one of my faves for summer is neons! Therefore today I am bringing you swatches of the Color Club Electro Candy collection, a set of six neon polishes. These are not a new release. They were Color Club's summer collection last year. I'm posting them because I recently acquired all of them and I thought it would be nice to swatch them. After how hard in love I fell for Tangerine Scream I had to get them all. And with summer right around the corner, it is a fine time to be showing these off. If you don't like neons on your fingers, then you should definitely consider them for your toes in your summer sandals!

What a Shock! - First off, can I just say: I love when nail polish names have punctuation in them. It's super cute. I sometimes put punctuation on peoples' names in my cell phone. So when my BF is calling me it doesn't say "Tommy", it says "Tommy!". It makes his call seem more exciting. Back to the polish: This is a super bright, neon green with blue-green shimmer. This is way brighter and way greener than the swatch depicts. My camera doesn't like greens and of course, neons are difficult to capture. This is much more glowy and bright in real life.

Volt of Light - This is a neon yellow with blue-green shimmer. The shimmer leans more on the green side against the neon yellow. This is much brighter and more neon in real life. This is pretty difficult formula wise. It took me 4 coats to look decent and I probably could have done a 5th, but I think it is worth it. I am a sucker for neon yellow and this one is so pretty thanks to that shimmer.

Ultra Violet - Ah! This is so cool. This is a neon purple leaning on the red-fuchsia side and it has that blue-green shimmer but it lean more blue against this purple. Super bold and super pretty. Way better in real life.

Tangerine Scream - This is a pretty good depiction of the neon-ness of this polish but the shimmer gets a bit lost. The shimmer is much more pronounced in real life and is more on the green side. This is one of my fave polishes ever. I love this! It's in the Top 20. If you need more persuading: this is the best shade in this collection formula-wise.

Pure Energy - Super bright blue with super flashy blue shimmer. This really almost hits it for a true neon blue although I still wish for a release of a REALLY NEON, neon blue. I am looking forward to seeing how this stacks up against the new release from China Glaze; Towel Boy Toy.

Electro Candy - Very bright, neon pink with blue-green shimmer. Totally 80s! Again, this pic kind of spoils the shimmer but the color depiction is good. The shimmer does actually looks pretty blue.

Being that these are neons they are on the thin side and require an extra coat or two. Tangerine Scream is the thickest and only needs two coats but the rest were all 3 coats with the exception of Volt of Light at four. But that is the price you have to pay for awesome, bright, neon-ness. These do dry shinier than most neons. They aren't as flat as you would expect. I always put a topcoat on all my manis anyway so it doesn't really matter, but it's worth mentioning.

These were last year's summer release from Color Club but they are still available on all our fave e-tailers.
What do you think?
-Elaine
:c)

Claire's Mood Polish Swatches

Hello again! I have the coolest s*** to show you today! I have had so much fun with these new polishes that since Saturday, I have already worn all of them. I can't get enough. They are mood changing polishes from Claire's which are essentially just polishes that change with temperature. They have a "hot" color and a "cold" color.

Claire's Mood - Daring/Innocent, Happy/Earthy, Calm/Wild

Daring/Innocent - This is gray when cool and turns to a yellowish, beige cream when warm. I can imagine the hot color would be difficult to pull off and isn't necessarily "pretty" but I do still like it!

Happy/Earthy - This is a bright, grass green when cool and super bright, nearly neon, slightly green-yellow when hot. The times it was green were strange sometimes. In some lights it looked like a dusty green, like RBL - Diddy Mow. It wasn't like it looked darker in some lights because there wasn't the same amount of light; it was seriously like it was a completely different color all together. Weird. I don't think I have experienced anything like that before. I got these in the mail and when I opened them up in regular incandescent lighting I thought it was a dusty, gray green. Until I put it on and saw it in good light! Then it was like, "BAM! IN YO FACE!

Calm/Wild - This is a medium purple with silver shimmer when cold and bright pink with silver shimmer when hot. Very pretty either way! This baby is packed with shimmer!

The formula on these was very good. I did 2 coats with Daring/Innocent and Calm/Wild but had to pull out three for Happy/Earthy.

EDIT: I forgot to mention: these do not dry shiny. They dry rather flat/matte. All of my swatches have topcoat.

Before I tried these I was under the assumption that they would always look two-toned where the nail bed would be the warm color and the tips would be the cold color but I was wrong. They did look like that a lot, but they also just stayed the cold color a lot, probably because I generally have cold hands. And the weather is still on the cool side. I'm sure in the summer when it's sweltering, I will see the hot color more often. They change very easily regardless. It's a lot of fun. You're sitting on the couch will some wine all cuddled up with the dog and your man so they are warm. Then you go to the fridge to get a snack and then they are cold. You reach into the oven to get your chicken nuggets, they get warm. Then you wash a dish, they go to cold. Then you wash another dish now that the water warmed up, they are warm. You let the dog out, they are cold. You take a shower, they are warm. You run around doing your post shower activities, they get cold. You blow dry your hair, they get warm (you intentionally shoot the dryer at your nails for fun and let your man do it too!) There is no end with these things!! They are sooooo fun!

I like these so much better than the solar changers. The solar changers are fun too, don't get me wrong, but they're only fun if you have sun. You don't need sun to play with these and there are so many changes from moment to moment. I especially like washing my hands in public and then using the hand dryers and seeing people doing double takes of my nails. "Wait! They were just a different color...weren't they?" So much fun.

I must say that I don't think the wear on this is too impressive. I only wore Daring/Innocent for about half a day before I wanted to try out the next one so I didn't notice any wear with that one but I wore Happy/Earthy from Saturday night to last night (Monday) so that was about 48 hours, but I started to see some major chippage by the middle of the day yesterday. Not all the chips actually even chipped. Some spots were just lifting and getting ready to chip. But regardless, it should be said because I don't usually find any polish chippy, ever. It did make it over 24 hours though and I am currently wearing Calm/Wild and did it last night and it's flawless. We shall see. I don't really care because it is worth it!!

At one point I was gawking at them to the BF and I said "I wish all polish did this". Can you imagine it? Even he found them amusing. We were sitting on the couch together and I was holding a mug of tea. He looked at my hand and was like "Look at your nails! Now look at the level in your cup!" The mug was filled about half way and the fingers on the lower half of the mug where there was still hot tea were the warm color and the fingers higher up were the cool color. Everyone loves these!

What do you think? Have them? Want them? Love them? Hate them?
:c)

PS - These are available at Claire's stores now!

Dinosaur Eggs

Hi everyone! I am trying to post this quickly because I really need to lay down (headache ): )

This is a mani I did a while back with all of the Sally Hansen - Complete Salon Manicure Colors I showed you here.

Lavender Cloud, Yellow Kitty, Commander in Chic

Gray by Gray, Thinking of Blue, Plum Luck

And a few more bottle pics:

See you tomorrow with something great!

China Glaze Up & Away Swatches

Check out these bad boys! The Up & Away collection is truly stunning and a must have. There, I said it. Sorry to say it if you have been holding out. You need them.

I had purchased what I thought were the only colors I truly needed as soon as they were available on Transdesign.com. That was only 6 colors (out of 12). Well last week I saw them all in person and my mind changed big time on four more. Yup, I bought them. I feel a bit mad! Mad, as in crazy! I'm over it. I am thrilled I have these. I already gave you peeps of some of the shades in comparison swatches but today I am finally bringing out the full spectrum. Let's get on with it!>>>

Lemon Fizz - Holy bananas. This is a must have for sure because it is a 2 coat yellow and as we saw from the banana yellow comparison swatch, it is the gold medal for brightness, whiteness and application. It think it needs a better name than "fizz". "Fizz" makes me think of "fizzle" like "sizzle or fizzle" (fo shizzle) and that doesn't make it sound as hott as it is. This swatch is 2 coats.

Light As Air - Lavender pastel creme. This is very pretty and maybe not a must have for some if you have lavender shades but I really didn't own anything like it. I love it too! This is not crazy stark pastel. Just a nice sweet, light shade to rock in the spring or even still in the winter. This swatch is 2 coats.

Re-Fresh Mint - What a gorgeous little gem. This was also compared recently and you may have a different opinion, but of all the shades we looked at this looks like a perfect mint to me. I found that trying to get this on in 2 coats was a bad idea. I had to try and make the coats a bit thicker, but being that this is a pretty thick consistency it was then too thick and looked like crap. It looks much better done in 3 thin coats, which is what is in this swatch.

Happy Go Lucky - Great name! This is a very clean, bright, sunshine yellow and the application was great. I did feel I needed a third coat to totally eliminate any streak, but perhaps you could get it on in two. Sometimes yellow looks a bit "eh" to me. I want to love but don't always end up loving it. I love this one.

Grape Pop - Absolutely the most perfect medium purple creme. Not blue sided or red sided. Straight up, middle of the spectrum, royal purple. So pretty! This swatch is 2 coats.

Four Leaf Clover - Are you serious? Buy this.

Sugar High - This is one of the babies that came home from the store after it pleaded it's case. "Oh no, I am not your average pink creme. Mm mm. I am different. I have a bright pop, but not bubble-gummy. No ma'am. I know how you feel about bubblegum pinks and that is not me. I am saturated with color and am salmon-y, making me look sophisticated and appropriate for a grown woman, not a little school girl." So I fell for it. And I should have trusted the swatches I saw because they were right! This is a wildly bright, very, very close to neon pink. That bit of salmon I thought I saw ended up disappearing and this crazy glow came instead. It is far brighter than the picture depicts. It is bright. It is loud. It is bouncing off the walls. It is on a sugar high. This swatch is 2 coats.

Peachy Keen - Yet another second chance pretty. This one never really looked peach to me at all in swatches and it still didn't in store, but that may just be the reason I took it. I think it is more of a light orange (tangerine, perhaps?) and I am obsessed with orange. So naturally, I had to buy it. Creamcicle. That is it. It is creamcicle and maybe has a pinch of peach. This swatch is 2 coats.

High Hopes - What a fantastic name! It's so optimistic. This is a bright punchy coral. I feel like I have plenty corals but for some reason, this one was necessary. I think the thing that turned me on most was that it was very bright and very orange sided. Corals are just attractive anyway. I can't imagine coral looking bad on anyone. But I warn you. This is also wildly, bright. Nearly neon. Be prepared to turn heads with this one. This swatch is 2 coats.

Flyin' High - I wouldn't recommend it. What? Oh, the polish! Right. The reason I didn't order this at first was I guess I wasn't paying attention. It seemed to me that it was just a bright blue creme. Like we don't have a million of them? Next! But then I saw her in store and I realized: Flyin' High, I was wrong about you. You aren't like the others. You are different. There is something about you. You are mysterious. You are bold. You are unique. You go places other blues won't. You are the love of my life. What? Oh. Ahem. Excuse me. The point is this is unique and not like other bright, sky blue cremes. It is darker and has a smidgen of green. I wore this one day and actually had a hard time coming up with the color. Blue? Greenish? Tealish? Robin's egg teal? Depending on the lighting it can look very blue to blue-with-a-smidge-of-green to pretty f-ing green. It is very pretty, but very annoying. Final verdict: I say blue. But I have my eye on it.

So out of a 12 polish collection I felt that 10 were must haves. That has to be the best ratio I have for polishes I have picked up from collections. Other 12 polish collections I have gotten maybe 1-3 and some I pass all together. The only other large nab I can recall is the Romantiques (Also from China Glaze. Pattern?) from which I picked up 7 out of 12. What I am trying to say to you is if you are still on the fence for Up & Away, jump off! The colors are are truly unique. Great work China Glaze! The formula is incredible; Smooth and pigmented and easy to apply. Even the lighter ones, which ended up being thick, work just fine with a little control. And like I said about Re-Fresh Mint; if you have issues with the thickness, just do more coats, but thin coats. The end result will be worth it.

These are available now on all of our favorite e-tailers and I spotted them at Ulta as well. I think it will still be a few weeks until we see them at Sally's.

Yellow creme comparison featuring Up & Away

Hello all! It seems I have several yellow polishes! I thought it would be nice/helpful to do some comparisons of them. There are several other brands "featured" in this post, but I mention China Glaze Up & Away colors because they were the ones I was waiting for to do the comparisons. Also, there was a great discovery made about both the Up & Away yellows once I did the comparisons. First up is the banana yellows:

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Squarepants, Sally Hansen - Yellow Kitty, China Glaze - Lemon Fizz, BB Couture - Little Deuce Coupe

From left to right:
Squarepants - 4 coats
Yellow Kitty - 3 coats
Lemon Fizz - 2 coats
BB Couture - 2 coats

Squarepants is of course a jelly, and Yellow Kitty falls somewhere in between jelly and creme. Lemon Fizz is very creamy and opaque and applied like a dream, and Little Deuce Coupe is right behind. Lemon Fizz is clearly the brightest.

Next up is the sunshine yellows. This comparison was inspired by SalvagedExpression who asked about a comparison about over a month ago! Here it is girl!

Sally Hansen - Lightening, China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky, Diamond Cosmetics - Lemon Yellow Zest, OPI - The "It" Color

From Left to right:
Lightening
Happy Go Lucky
Lemon Yellow Zest
The "It" Color

All were 3 coats with the exception of The "It" Color at four. Happy Go Lucky was super close to being 2 coats. I was really rooting for it. It looked pretty good at 2, but I had to do three for the pic because it did have a slight streak to it. Too bad. I really wanted to report that it was a 2 coater like Lemon Fizz. Anyway, yet again, China Glaze is the brightest, Lightening is right behind, and Lemon Yellow Zest and The "It" Color step down respectively to darker/more orange.

So the discovery I spoke of was just that both of the China Glaze yellows were the brightest against their competitors. Also, they had phenomenal application. Lemon Fizz is an incredible 2 coater, and I think you could get Happy Go Lucky on in 2. It has the potential, I just missed it and had to go for 3.

This Up & Away Collection is really knocking my socks off!

New Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Swatches

Remember how I said Sally Hansen came out with new polishes and I had some to share? Well today is the day I am sharing! It's the new line that has been popping up: Complete Salon Manicure. First off, I love the bottles. They are 0.5 oz but they feel much bigger. They are huge and have a lot of glass making them pretty heavy. They are awesome! The base of the bottles are square, but going up in gets round. And there is a band of rubber on the top for ease of opening and holding while painting. Genius!

Yellow Kitty - Awww! Isn't this adorable!? That is exactly what I think when I look at this. This is a pale yellow cream. Not as bold and creamy as say BB Couture - Little Deuce Coupe, and not as jelly as Rescue Beauty Lounge - Squarepants. It's right in between. This went on pretty well for a yellow, but I did 3 coats still to make sure it was even. Do you think the name is a play on "Hello Kitty"? I wonder...

Thinking Of Blue - I love this color... SO MUCH! I had it on Friday and while at the dermatologist in the waiting room, I heard one of the ladies at the front desk say to the other "her nails are gorgeous". Aw! Awesome! This is a dark blue creme, but it isn't navy. It has a drop of purple, but I wouldn't call it blurple. I think it's indigo. Yup. That is what I am going with. I hear this is similar or maybe identical to Sephora by OPI - Blue Grotto, but I don't have it to compare. Sorry! This swatch is 2 coats.

Commander in Chic - Hottness. This is in that mushroom, brown-taupe catergory, and I can't believe it, but I think this is my first like this. Except maybe OPI - You Don't Know Jaques Matte. But that is matte. I don't have a regular creme like this. This swatch is three coats, but I did very, very thin coats. You could probably do two.

Gray by Gray - This name kills me! Does this look gray to you? NO! It is blue. A gray-ISH slate, blue. But it's very pretty regardless. It is reminding me of the new Spring release from RBL, 360. We'll have to see how they match up someday. This swatch is 2 coats.

Plum Luck - This is a plum creme. I don't have much more to say than that! Plum. Pretty. 3 coats.

Lavender Cloud - This looks white, I know. It is. Ha Ha! It has the ittiest, bittiest bit of lavender. It's like if you took one big fluffy cloud and added one drop of purple to it for the whole cloud. You can hardly tell. I made a comparison swatch next to a real white so that you can see it isn't pure white:

Lavender Cloud on the left and OPI - Alpine Snow on the right.

And I scanned the brochure I picked up at the drugstore so you can see what new colors there are:

PS - These have the same tapered brush as Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri polishes with the big, flat wand:
Have a lovely and relaxing Sunday!