Friday, September 30, 2011

Kleancolor Holo Chrome!

Good morning everyone! Fall has finally kicked in here, its cloudy, gloomy and chilly - just how I like it! Sunshine and warmth is way overrated =) Well, except when you are in Hawaii. Did I ever mention how Hawaii is my favorite place on Earth? But even in Hawaii it rains all the time so I guess it can't be sunny all the time there either.

But, I digress. Today I have for you a very blingy manicure: Kleancolor Holo Chrome. I got my first shipment of Kleancolors in the mail yesterday and so far, I am extremely impressed! I purchased them from beautyjoint.com, and they were $1.75 a piece. $1.75 is probably the cheapest you will pay for good nail polish anywhere, even drugstore polishes are generally in the $5-$10 dollar range these days (unless you count Sinful Colors, but I don't because I'm not really a fan of their products). So anyone on a budget who wants to try some unique colors should definitely give Kleancolor a try!

One word of warning about Kleancolors though: they stink! The smell on these is very strong, something akin to the chemical laden polishes of the olden days. From what I gather from the ingredients label, this polish is toulene and DBP (dibutyl phtalate) free but does contain formaldehyde and formaldehyde resin so that is probably where the strong smell is coming from. You will come to learn that I have a penchant for very old, vintage polishes so the smell does not bother me one bit.

Holo Chrome is a fantastically beautiful nail polish! It is a blue-violet (also known as blurple) jelly with tons of holo micro glitter. I used three coats of it in the photos, but you can also layer it over another polish to make it more opaque that way. Application was average, the Kleancolor brush was a bit wider and floppier than normal so it made it a bit more difficult to apply thin and even coats. I really don't mind though, because for a $1.75 polish it is absolutely gorgeous and a little bit of difficulty in the application doesn't bother me. I can't stop starting at my nails, Holo Chrome is so damn awesome!

I nicked one of my nails when I was taking photos, so unfortunately the photo selection I have for you guys today isn't my best. I hope you can get a feel for how sparkly and beautiful this polish really is. So I hope you enjoy the ones I was able to take =)

First I have one taken outdoors in natural light to show you the true color of Holo Chrome:


The rest were taken in artificial light to show you the blingtastic-ness of this polish!






And don't forget to click on the pics to englarge them =)

Hope everyone is having a fanastic Friday!

-Jacqui

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Pink Wednesday: Lynnderella Connect the Dots over Essie Pink Parka

Good morning everyone! Today I have a neon pink manicure for you for Pink Wednesday. I chose Essie Pink Parka as the base color for this manicure because it is my favorite neon pink nail polish that has ever existed! I have several neon pinks of all different shades, and this one is the brightest one that I own. Neons can be pretty tricky as far as application goes, and this was no exception. It was streaky and had several bald spots along the way, so I needed to do a good three coats to get where I wanted this color to be. A good tip is to apply a coat of white under a neon color to help the color really pop, but I didn't do that this time because I feel that Pink Parka is just so awesomely neon on its own. But difficult application aside, this is truly an amazing shade and I'm glad to have it in my collection.

I layered two coats of Lynnderella Connect the Dots over Pink Parka. Isn't it fabulous?! I just love all my Lynnderella polishes. Connect the Dots has black and white square, hex and bar glitter in a clear, shimmery base. Application can be a bit tricky with this one because sometimes the glitter doesn't go where you want it to. So you just have to play around with it a bit and see how it works for you. I put two coats of top coat over the manicure just to make sure everything was extra smooth and shiny!

You may notice that the color of my hands seem a bit off in these photos. That is because neons are notoriously hard to photograph, and you really have to mess with the white balance to get the true color to show up. I find these photos to be very color accurate as far as the polish goes, but my hands, not so much! You can tell how really eye-searingly bright this color is in real life. I think Connect the Dots looks fantastic over neons, so this combination for Pink Wednesday was perfect!






And here is Pink Parka by itself:




Thanks for stopping by! Have a fantastic day everyone!

-Jacqui

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Ugly-Pretty or Pretty Ugly: China Glaze Trendsetter

Good morning everyone! Hope your day is going swimmingly. Today, I am starting a series of posts titled "Ugly-Pretty or Pretty Ugly" because I realized I seem to have an attraction to ugly colors. Well, perhaps colors that others would find ugly and I find them to be fantastic! Anything murky, old lady or baby poop colored, send them my way!

Ugly-pretty is a phrase often credited as being coined by Tyra Banks on America's Next Top Model meaning something that is so damn ugly that it actually looks pretty awesome at the same time. This modeling concept also applies to nail polish. What's hot in nail polish now are colors that may be considered fairly ugly by many people.

China Glaze Trendsetter is one of those colors. It is from the fantastic fall 2011 Metro Collection from China Glaze. The Metro Collection was probably the only fall collection this year that I really loved, and I think this color is one of the reasons why. Trendsetter is a mustardy-green-yellow-brown color with golden shimmer throughout. Some may look at it and think it is hideous, while I think it is brilliant! The shimmer really pulls this color together, making it have almost a brocade finish as it is very dense and velvety.

The following pictures are all two coats plus one coat of topcoat. It is a bit thicker than the rest of the colors in this collection, but the polish leveled out fairly well and did not create any bubbling or other problems. It tends to pull quite green on my skin tone, but I have seen other pictures where it looks very yellow on people. I am completely in love with this color! I don't really care how it looks on my skintone, it's just such a fascinating color that I will wear it no matter what.

Natural Light
Natural Light
Natural Light
Natural Light
Artificial Light - click to enlarge to see the pretty shimmer!
Artficial Light - Mattified with Essie Matte About You Topcoat. Love this!

And there you have it - China Glaze Trendsetter. What do you think? Ugly-pretty or just plain pretty ugly?

-Jacqui

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Lynnderella Love Potion 99 over Illamasqua Baptiste

Happy Sunday everyone! So I'm on day 3 of the nubs and I'm starting to regret it. I miss my long nails already. Ahh well, the good thing about nails is that they will grow back. I'm not the most patient person though and I'm thinking about running about to Sally's and getting some sort of growing potion.

Speaking of potions, today I have for you an amazing polish from the one and only Lynnderella! For those who don't know, Lynnderella is a polish making goddess! All of her polishes are handcrafted from several different types of glitter. Her collections are very limited edition, as she only opens up shop every once in a while for an extremely short time window. I was lucky enough to squeeze in and snag some of these babies for myself!

The one I have for you today is Love Potion 99 from the Early Halloween Collection, which has medium purple hex glitter and smaller holographic glitter in a sheer purple base. It is phenomenal! These glitters tend to go on a bit thick, and once they dry they are a bit rough. It is advisable to do at least two layers of top coat to get a smooth and shiny finish. With my limited photo skills, I wasn't able to capture the true beauty of the polish, but I did my best! Hopefully, I will be satisfied with my picture taking skills one day =)

So here is 2 coats Lynnderella's Love Potion 99 layered over 2 coats of Illamasqua Baptiste. So sparkly! Also, please excuse my cuticles today. I forgot to moisturize last night =/

Artificial light
Artificial Light
Natural Light to show the glitter shapes better.





The last two shorts are of Illamasqua Baptiste. Illamasqua is a British brand currently only available in the US on Sephora.com (as far as I know). I love, love, LOVE my Illamasqua polishes! They apply so smoothly and the colors are so rich and beautiful. They wear like iron too! I currently have around a dozen Illa polishes, and they are all well-loved. 

Baptiste is a gorgeous shimmery dark purple. In certain lights, it looks almost black. It has awesome red and blue shimmer throughout, making the purple tone stand out in bright light.  Those photos are two coats.


Thanks for stopping by!

-Jacqui 



Saturday, September 24, 2011

Orly Royal Navy NOTD

Hello hello! Just wanted to show you guys my nail of the day today. For some reason, I have really been on a blue kick lately, which is really unlike me. I swear this is the last blue for the week!

Orly Royal Navy is from last summer's In the Navy collection, and it is one of my favorite nail polishes of all time. It is a bright royal blue jelly with the most amazing aquamarine shimmer throughout. The shimmer always settles to the bottom, so I have to shake it up for a good few minutes before application. It is a bit of a pain, but it really is worth it because I feel that the shimmer really sets this polish apart. It applies almost like a cream but has that sheer, squishy nature that a jelly has.

I got my bottle at Sally's, but I believe this color is no longer available. I believe many of the online polish retailers still have this in stock for a reasonable price. If you are a fan of blue nail polish, I think this is an absolute must for your collection. I even bought a backup of it when it was on clearance at Sally's, which is something that I don't normally do. That's how awesome it is.

And here are far too many pics of Orly Royal Navy (two coats plus topcoat):







Thanks for stopping by, and hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!

-Jacqui

Friday, September 23, 2011

China Glaze Branding Iron - Vampy Nubs

Good evening everyone and happy autumnal equinox! Today marks the start of my absolute favorite season of the year. There is just something about fall that makes me giddy. The cool, crisp air, the changing leaves, the pumpkins, the apple cider, the bonfires, and of course, Halloween!

I decided to start out the season by chopping off my nails and turning them into nubs. I had several breaks along the edges, so I figured it was time to get rid of my long nails and start fresh again. I am constantly playing with the shape and length of my nails, so please bear with me =)

There is nothing quite like a deep, vampy polish on über short nails. I decided to go with China Glaze Branding Iron, a velvety deep and glowy burgundy red. It is from China Glaze's Fall 2008 collection Rodeo Diva, which in my opinion, is the best fall collection that China Glaze has ever released. It is filled with beautiful, rich colors that really epitomize the season for me. If you have never checked out China Glaze's Rodeo Diva collection, please do! It is absolutely fantastic.

So here is Branding Iron! It is so wonderful and glowy, and such a perfect color for my newly shortened nails. I am in love with it! Hope you enjoy!





And here's one without the bottle so you can get a better view of my nubs. I quite like them at this length!


Hope everyone has a great evening!

-Jacqui =)

Thursday, September 22, 2011

China Glaze OMG Collection and all about HOLOS!

Hello my dear readers! Today, being the last day of summer of 2011, I figured I would do something special for you guys. When it comes to summer and nail polish, of course the first thing I think of is holos! Holographic polishes are some of my favorite in the entire world, but they are becoming harder to come across these days. For those who are like "what in the hell are holos and why does this chick keep talking about them," allow me to explain.

Holographic nail polishes are those that have a certain type of pigment in them that create a rainbow effect on the nail. There are two different types of holographic finishes, a scattered holo and a linear holo. Linear holos are the ones that create a noticable rainbow on the nail, much like you would see in an oil slick. Scattered holos are are polishes that contain the holographic pigment, but the particles do not line up in a linear fashion. Both forms of holographic polish are absolutely gorgeous, but for me personally, I prefer the linear holos. Linears are also much, much harder to find. So technically, I guess you could say that calling these polishes "holographic" is a misnomer, and that they should be called "prismatic" or something along those lines. But somewhere along the way, the term holographic became standard for these types of polishes and I believe that it is going to stay that way.

The China Glaze OMG collection is long discontinued from 2009, and it consists solely of linear holos. This collection is very near and dear to my heart because it is the first collection I really fell in love with after joining the nail polish world. I searched high and low for these puppies, and ending up getting every single one of them through swapping. So basically, the reason I own this entire collection is because of the goodness and kindness of other people. So to everyone who swapped with me so that I could own these polishes, thank you so very much =)

This collection is some of my favorite holographic polishes out there. For the most part, the forumlas were amazing, and often times did not have the problems that holographic polishes tend to have. For one, holos tend to be extremely streaky and patchy. With certain holos, you can't even go over the same spot twice with your brush because it will create huge bald spots in the polish. I only had that problem with one of the OMGs. Out of twelve, I'd say that's pretty awesome. Most of the OMG's were strongly holographic, and there were only a few weak ones in the bunch. You will be able to tell those weak ones when you look at pictures. I think the weakness or strongness depends on the depth of the color pigment, or simply, how deep the base color is. All in all, it is one of my all-time favorite collections, and definitely one of the best China Glaze has ever come out with.

I wanted these swatches to be amazing. I wanted them to be MIND BLOWING! Unfortunately, they're not. My husband had to take our good camera to work today, so I was stuck with the crappy cell phone camera again. So, I apologize for that. Also, my intention was to take all of these pictures in direct sunlight. Unfortunately, the sun didn't want to cooperate and I was only able to take three out of the twelve pictures in sunlight. The rest were taken in our guest bathroom, which strangely has good light for photographing holographics. So, they are not what I had hoped they would be, but I wanted to show you them anyways because they still look pretty cool.

Without further ado, here is the China Glaze OMG collection!

QT - Dark pink holo. 2 coats. One of the weaker holo effects.

BFF - Lighter pink holo. 2 coats.


TMI - Coral-red holo. One of the weaker holo effects.

TTYL - Light peach holo. 2 coats.

GR8 - Yellow gold holo. 3 coats. Had a grittier texture than the rest in the collection.

L8R G8R - Light green holo. 3 coats. Had problems with bald spots during application.

DV8 - Teal holo. 2 coats. One of the weaker holo effects.

2NITE - Medium periwinkle blue holo. 2 coats. My favorite of the entire collection.

IDK - Lavender holo. 3 coats.

LOL - Medium purple holo. 2 coats. One of the weaker holo effects.

FYI - Taupe holo. 3 coats. Another favorite from the collection. Very work friendly way to wear a holo!

OMG - Silver holo. 3 coats. The star of the collection!


And there you have it! I hope you all had a fantastic summer and enjoyed some holo polishes in the summer sun. I will see you all again tomorrow, where I will begin my official autumn manicures. Have a fabulous day =)

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Pink Wednesday: Sally Hansen Pink Insta-Dri Polishes and Stamping

Hello again, and welcome to my very first Pink Wednesday! It will be very quick post today, as I have a ton of homework to go before I head on up to school this evening.

Anyways, I decided to start doing Pink Wednesdays because I seem to have accumulated a boatload of pink nail polishes, but I never seem to wear them. I'm hoping this will help me test out all the lovely pinks in my stash.

For today's nail, I used two pink Sally Hansen Insta-Dris. I really have a love/hate relationship with these polishes, as they are fantastic for nail stamping, but as far as regular polishing goes they really fall short for me. First of all, they have that horrendous "pro wide" brush that seems to be all the rage these days. I know a lot of people like them, but for me, it makes it really hard to control application. Since these polishes are so thick, it would be nice to have a smaller brush for easier control. I suppose they would be good if you were in a pinch, but I prefer to take my time with my polishing and be precise about it. It's just so hard to get a nice, thin coat with the brush and the thickness factor of this polish.

In conclusion, for regular polishing, the Insta-Dris get a C-. For stamping, however, they get an A! I think I'll keep these in my stash just for the stamping purposes.

For the base, I used Insta-Dri Pink Blink from the limited edition Spring 2011 collection. This is two of the thinnest coats I could possibly muster with that damn pro wide brush.



And here is Pink Blink stamped! I used another polish from the LE Spring 2011 collection called Fuchsia Flare. I love these tone-on-tone stamping designs! I used an XL Chez Delaney plate for this stamping pattern. Not my best stamping attempt, but I think it's rather acceptable. From far away, at least =)


Thanks for stopping by today! I have something VERY EXCITING in store for you all tomorrow so I hope to see you then =)

- Jacqui