Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Color Club Meet Me at the Rink

purchased by me

Another new spring collection from Color Club is the Pastel Neon collection.  I disagree with the "neon" descriptor, but the polish I got, Meet Me at the Rink, is a lovely color and a lovely formula.  Meet Me at the Rink is a pale sky blue, opaque in two coats with no streaks and no fussiness, plus it dries shiny (which makes me think it's not a neon) and quite quickly.

Indoors with flash:


Indoors without flash:


Meet Me at the Rink is spring in a bottle, and while it's out of stock right now at Head2ToeBeauty, you can find the Pastel Neon collection wherever Color Club is sold.

Monday, March 30, 2015

Color Club Boogie All Night Long

purchased by me

For spring, Color Club has a new collection called Pastel Neon Remix.  I couldn't resist Boogie All Night Long, a pale, glittery pink that glows in the dark.  The formula was typical of most glitters--opaque in two coats, quick to dry and very rough.  I needed two coats of Gelous and one of Seche Vite to get that smooth, glassy look.  Removal required the foil method and a fair amount of patience, but I think the polish is totally worth it!

Indoors with flash:


Indoors without flash:


Boogie All Night has a nice strong green glow, too.  It and the rest of the Pastel Neon Remix are available at Head2ToeBeauty for $3.50 each + shipping.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Zoya Delight Minis for your Easter basket!

press release


You're never too old for an Easter Basket and Zoya Delight Minis are the perfect way to add a little something sweet to it without the calories! For a limited time, you can get the Zoya Nail Polish* Delight shades in special Limited Edition boxes!

These color cuties are available for Pre-Order NOW and will be shipping on 3/23/15!

SPECIAL
Get any 5 color cuties for $20 PLUS Free Shipping! 
Use Code: MINI5

Head to www.zoya.com to pre-order these adorable minis now!


PS - they make the PERFECT gift!

*BIG5FREE: Zoya Nail Polish Formula contains no formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, dibutyl phthalate, toluene or camphor.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Illamasqua Raindrops

purchased by me, affiliate link

Hooray, I finally got my paws on some of the Illamasqua polishes I've been craving!  Since Sephora stopped carrying the line, I watched Hautelook like crazy and actually went to the website at work. *blushes, hangs head*  Anyway, Raindrops is one of their most famous polishes, a soft blue-leaning grey with tiny white flakies.  The brighter the light, the bluer it looks.  Formula was decent, if sheer--I used three coats for my swatches and could have used a fourth.

In the sun:


Indoors with flash:


There are now a few Illamasqua products available on Net-A-Porter, or keep an eye on Hautelook.  Illamasqua has now been on the latter twice, which I think is a good sign.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Monday, March 16, 2015

Essie Spun in Luxe

purchased by me

Spun in Luxe is part of the 2015 Cashmere Matte collection from Essie, and the only one I got because the color was so dark and different from any of the other satin mattes I own.  The formula was nice--well-behaved and opaque in two coats.  Sadly, between the very dark blue and the satin matte finish, Spun in Luxe just looked black on my nails.


However, put some top coat on it, and suddenly it's a different, much prettier animal!


A rich, shimmery navy that just begs to be admired!  So despite my love of satin matte finishes, I'm only going to wear this with top coat from now on.  Spun in Luxe is available wherever Essie polishes are sold.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Revlon Diamond Texture top coat

purchased by me

Although this is called a top coat, Diamond Texture is in fact simply a silver textured polish.  As a polish, it's fine, but I was hoping for something that would transform non-textured polishes into textured ones.  One coat is darn near opaque, and like the Zoya Pixie Dusts and OPI Liquid Sands, Diamond Texture dries very quickly.  Swatches are one coat of Diamond Texture over Butter London Right as Rain.

Indoors with flash:


In the sun:


If you're looking for a basic, pretty, silver textured polish, you can find Diamond Texture at most major drug stores.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Cirque Fascination Street

purchased by me

Blue Mondays aren't quite so blue when you're wearing a gorgeous indigo linear holo with hidden pink shimmer!


Fascination Street can be purchased at Cirque Colors for $15.00 + shipping.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Butter London sale and contest!

press release



Sinful Colors About Blooming Time: Flower Power and Petal Be the Day

purchased by me

As I said in my last post, I am over winter and looking forward to spring.  Sinful Colors is helping out with their About Blooming Time collection!  I snagged Flower Power and Petal Be the Day, and one is a keeper and one is going to a different home.

Flower Power is a milky pink jelly filled with matte white and shiny fuchsia hex glitter in several sizes.  It's flower-like but with a bit of drama, was opaque in three coats and dried very quickly.  It does dry noticeably rough, so you'll want a second coat of a thick top coat, but it's so worth it, especially for $1.99!

Indoors with flash:


Indoors without flash:


Petal Be the Day is a lavender milky jelly with shiny blue and lavender hex glitter in two sizes.  Unfortunately, it was much sheerer than Flower Power, and there was a lot of visible nail after three coats.  This one will probably work well as a layering polish, but I have plenty of those, so I'm giving it away.

Indoors with flash:


Indoors without flash:


A note about finding these polishes--the Sinful Colors promo pictures show a small counter display called About Blooming Time, with 8 polishes.  Three of them are new, the two I've shown here and another glitter called Standing Bloom Only.  The new glitter polishes have little yellow and pink stickers on the cap which say Sinful Colors BLOOMBLAST.  My Walgreens did not have the counter display, just a large end-cap display, and I found these polishes by the sticker.  So don't despair if you don't see the display, just check all the other Sinful displays.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Walgreens Frozen collection: Ice-solated and Kristoff He Goes

purchased by me

Given that there is a foot of snow in my yard and that the temps have hovered around -6º to -10º F for the last month, you might think I'd be over winter.  And I am.  But I am not over the latest Disney and Walgreens collaboration!  For a ton of details and pictures, head over to Nouveau Cheap.  For swatches of two of the polishes, just scroll down.

Ice-solated and Kristoff He Goes were my first encounters with the Color Blast line, and I managed to pick two colors that hit the total best and total worst ends of the spectrum!

To spare you further suspense, Ice-solated was terrible.  For $6.99 + tax, I expect better from Orly than a formula which takes FOUR coats to become opaque and then remains dentable for more than 40 minutes.  Ice-solated is a super pretty color, a light turquoise with blue shimmer, which just adds to the insult.  I bought this on Saturday morning and returned it at noon on Sunday.

Indoors with flash:


Indoors without flash:


On the other hand, Kristoff He Goes was glorious.  A deep teal crème, the formula was perfect--opaque in one coat, perfect viscosity, went exactly where I told it to go and dried swiftly and shinily.  One caveat--Kristoff does stain, so double up on the basecoat!

Indoors with flash:


Indoors without flash:


I will probably try more Orly Color Blast polishes, because I really, really like Kristoff He Goes, but if you're in Walgreens and looking at the Frozen collaboration, save yourself seven bucks and keep going past Ice-solated!