A Week of China Glaze

I wore some China Glazes this week. First up is Twilight. This one is an oldie. I found it dustying. It has an older white label, but I was unable to find out when it was released. It is still fairly to easy to find for retail price on Ebay. 

Twilight is a berry-colored shimmer. It doesn't really fit the name Twilight for me. My mind immediately things of dark colors, or even the Twilight franchise. 

For it being an older formula, it applied very nicely in two smooth coats and didn't take long to dry at all. The formula definitely smelled like it wasn't 3-free.

Here's a picture taken indoors without the flash

And one taken with the flash.

Next is I'm With the Lifeguard. This one was a more recent release as it was part of last summer's Summer Neons collection.

I'm With the Lifeguard is a super vibrant neon green! I'm a huge fan of greens, and I was excited to get my hands on this one.

I'm With the Lifeguard has a subtle shimmer effect to it. It's somewhat difficult so see just because the bright green almost blinds you.

Application was pretty nice for a neon. This took three coats and dried to a satin-finish.

I just had to take a picture of it indoors with the flash because the flash does magical things to neon polishes.

This combo is China Glaze- Techno layered over Wet n Wild- Wet Cement.

Techno was originally released in the 2009 Speciality Colors collection but then re-promoted in the Spring 2012 Electropop collection. This is when I picked my bottle up.

It is filled with medium pieces of prismatic silver holographic glitter, and also has some tiny pieces of glitter.

Application was very simple and it only required one coat.

I used Wet n Wild- Wet Cement as the base color. It is a nice muddy-slate colored creme. It is part of the current Megalast line and it is easily accessible in drugstores. I was blown away with the application of this. The Megalast bottles come with a large brush, and it surprisingly conforms to the shape of my nails pretty well. Two thin coats of Wet Cement was all that I needed for a flawless finish.

Here's Wet Cement with the flash.

Last is China Glaze- Cast a Spell. This one was released for last year's Wicked Halloween collection.

Cast a Spell is a dark green shimmer- almost like a dark olive.

The shimmer in this is gorgeous because it's almost like a golden green. This is what I would consider a "vampy" green.

Indoors without the flash, you can see the golden green shimmer more. It only required two coats.

Here's a picture with the flash.

Manis from the Week

Here are the manis from this week.

First up is OPI- Teenage Dream. This was released in the January 2011 Katy Perry collection.

Teenage dream is a light pink shimmery base filled with prismatic glitter. It is quite sheer and needed three coats in order to be opaque.

Here is a picture I took in the car.

I took a blurred picture to show the spectrum of color. It's gorgeous!

Next is a combination of Sinful Colors- Bikini topped off with All That Glitters- Hole Hearted. This is definitely an early Valentine's day mani!

Hole Hearted is filled with different sizes of matte black hex glitter and white hearts. I just dispersed the glitter in a random pattern, and it just required one coat dabbed around. I had no problem getting the white hearts out of the bottle. I had the bottle upside-down beforehand. All That Glitters recently released a limited edition collection for this Valentine's Day, so don't forget to check out the Etsy shop! Polishes retail for $8.00

Here's a picture of Sinful Colors- Bikini before I added Hole Hearted. This is a bright pink neon shimmer. I needed two coats of this in order to be solid, and it tried to a satin-like finish due to the neon.

Here it is with the flash. It's bright! I don't know much about Sinful Colors collections, but I believe that this shade is older because the label is different than the recent Sinful Colors shades I have purchased.

Next is a green layering combo. This is OPI- Call My Cell-ery layered over OPI- Fiercely Fiona. I have never eaten pea soup, but this combination reminds me of it.

Call My Cell-ery is an older "black label" shade and it was from the summer 2006 Brights collection. This polish is so sheer, that I would not recommend wearing it alone. It added an extra bit of green shimmer to Fiercely Fiona. I only am wearing one coat of it.

Before layering, this is Fiercely Fiona alone. It was released in the Summer 2010 Shrek collection. It is a yellow green creme. This picture was taken indoors without the flash. I had some formula issues with this one. It was very streaky and took three coats in order to be completely opaque. It took a while for it to dry completely also.

This looks more green with the flash. This shade is very similar to China Glaze- Electric Pineapple.

Last is OPI- You Don't Know Jacques Suede. The suedes were released in fall of 2009. You Don't Know Jacques is a medium brown shimmer, that dries to a suede finish. A suede is pretty much a shimmery matte, but I have found that these wear much better than the OPI Mattes.

This applied pretty smoothly, since matte/suede-finishes are fast-drying and require quick application. It only required two coats, and the finish wasn't bumpy at all. This polish chipped after a day, but that is characteristic of these finishes. 

This picture was taken in artificial lighting without the flash. 

OPI- Melody in Mocha and China Glaze- Pure Joy

I got a little bit behind with posting in order to keep up with my manis, so this entry will feature two polishes. This first one is OPI- Melody in Mocha. This is from OPI's 2004 Holiday Harmony collection. It is a black label.

Melody in Mocha is a medium brown shimmer. It is so beautiful in the sunlight! It was a very nice neutral shade.

You can see how reflective it is from this picture taken indoors without the flash.

This picture was indoors with the flash. This polish had a very thin formula and it is somewhat sheer. It needed three coats, but applied and built up smoothly. Sometimes it was streaky.

Next is China Glaze- Pure Joy. This is a new one that was recently released for the China Glaze Holiday Joy Collection. This is a brilliant red glitter filled with gold glitter. This shade just screams Christmas!

This shade can be very versatile. It can be used as a layering glitter or worn by itself. I really enjoyed wearing this alone. It took three coats to be opaque, but it built up nicely.

With this blurred picture, you can see how the gold glitter is scattered throughout it.

Here's yet more polish that I've acquired during Black Friday sales!

Butter London: Henley Regatta, Chimney Sweep, and Thames.

New Kawaii Lacquers!

F4 Polish- Mr. Mouse, Who-Ville, S'Mores, Granite, and a mini Minty Melon they threw in for free :)

I got these from a blog sale. MAC- Al Fredo, Barry M- Silver Cascade, and Enchanted Polish- Gummy Worm

Misa- Embroidered Emerald

I have a special vintage gem today. This is Misa- Embroidered Emerald. It is about 11 years old. I was lucky enough to snag it in a blog sale! I don't have many Misas, but I fell in love with this one as soon as I saw pictures of it floating around in the nail blogging world.

 The color is somewhat difficult to describe. It's green shimmer floating in a dark, almost brick red base that leans towards brown. The base also sometimes looks like a plum. The shimmer looks blue in some lights and green in others.

 In natural daylight, you can see how beautiful the shimmer is!

 In indoors with the flash, this polish looks much different. You can see the dark brown of the base and the shimmer isn't as apparant. The formula on this was a little thin, so I used three thick coats in order to achieve opacity.

Indoors without the flash, it just looks like a plain brown shimmer- but it's definitely more special than that. 

There are a couple dupes to this polish. There's the coveted Urban Decay- Bruise that I do not yet own but would love to. Also in ORLY's Cosmic Fx collection released a couple years ago, Galaxy Girl has the same idea with the color, but instead of a shimmer, it's more of a glass fleck finish. MAC also makes a pigment called Blue Brown which I have that reminds me of this. I will have to add a swatch of it eventually.