Haul - Hunger Games, Color Club Magnetics & Layla

If it's not one thing it's another ... for those of you who don't follow the Fan Page, Frisky has been quite sick & so I've been spending some time with her.  She is curled comfortably, close on her blanket on the chair next to my computer right now.

Anyway, this haul post has been a ridiculously long time coming.  I originally shot the haul like a month ago, but I wanted to include the swatches with the blog post & didn't get around to editing those until a few days ago.  Here's the haul vid:

& for a closer look at the bottles - first China Glaze:

Top row are all from the Hunger Games collection - Harvest Moon, Fast Track, Hook and Line, Stone Cold, Smoke and Ashes & Luxe and Lush.  Bottom - First Mate & Long Kiss.

The Laylas, which at this point I have worn each of them & I am so in love:

Black Metal, Silver Galaxy & Metallic Sky.

The Color Club Magnetic Force colors - which, on a side note, are exactly the same down to the name as the Finger Paints magnetics.  FAIL Finger Paints, for shame:

Steel of the Night, Electro-Midnight, Hipnotic & Magnetic Force.

& the last of the magnetics (for this haul) from Claire's:

The Unnamed Silver & Unnamed Green.

My OPIs from the Holland collection:

Vampsterdam - which I recently used in a tutorial - Dutch 'Ya Love OPI?, Gouda Gouda Two Shoes & Wooden Shoe Like to Know?

My very first Illamasqua polishes, which I received for review:

Radium, Bacterium, and from the Theatre of the Namesless collection, Taint & Vice.

And lastly Milani (top) & Savvy & Finger Paints (bottom):

Hot Pink, Lavender, French Rose Opal Frost, Chrome & Comet's Collar.

Finally, here's the swatch vid!

I am not making anywhere near the progress I would like playing catch up.  But just know that I'm also nowhere near ever giving up blogging!  I will fit it in somehow, eventually.

Thanks for reading.  

~Colette

(These Illamasqua polishes were sent to me for review)

China Glaze Magnetix Collection & Swatches (& the Rest of my Huge Nailogy Haul)

I need to put myself on a no-buy ... soon LOL.  But probably not until after I snag some colors from the Hunger Games collection =)  I placed a rather large order from Nailogy after I saw the China Glaze Magnetix collection swatched on The Nailphile.

So hard to resist filling up the cart to get free shipping =)  The original reason for the order was obviously the China Glaze Magnetix collection:

Attraction, Drawn to You, Instant Chemistry, Pull Me Close, Cling On, You Move Me.

Here are the Essie colors that I picked up:

Navigate Her (from the Navigate Her collection), and Armed & Ready (from the Go Overboard collection).

& finally the Color Club colors:

Top:  Glitter Envy & Wink, Wink, Twinkle (from the Starry Temptress collection).  Middle:  Alter Ego (from the Alter Ego collection), Nouveau Vintage (from the Back to Boho collection) & Cold Metal (from the Foiled collection).  Bottom:  Sugar Plum Fairy, Beyond the Mistletoe & Holiday Splendor (from the Beyond the Mistletoe collection).

Here are all of the colors from the Magnetix collection swatched with all 3 of the magnets:

And here are some close up shots:

I don't feel like I'm getting quite as much done this weekend as last, but still - some progress is better than none =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Haul & Swatches - Icing & Claire's Magnetix, Glitter Crackles, Etc

This is around hmm, probably half the hauling I've done lately LOL.  I'll be posting up the other half, which is mainly an order from Nailogy, a little later.

Here's a closer look at the Icing polishes:

Pink, Blue & Silver Magnetix & Purple Glitter Crackle.  I really don't like that Icing doesn't name any of their polishes that have effects.

From Claire's:

Gold Magnetix, Fuchsia & Turquoise Glitter Crackle, & Night Sky - which did in fact turn out to be a dupe for Icing Epic Winning, as you can see in the swatch vid below.

From Hot Topic:

Warpaint Beauty matte top coat Mattify & glow in the dark Glow Turq.

The China Glaze Ulta Exclusive Holiday colors I was so thrilled to find:

Fireside Glow, Ultamate Holiday & Mistletoe Me.

Zoyas - my 2 free bottles & my 2 clearance bottles:

Holly, Izzy, Ali & Paz.

And those that I only had one of each brand:

OPI DS Temptation, Nails Inc magnetic Whitehall, Sephora by OPI Blasted Opalescent Gold, Barielle Pink Sherbert,  Wet n Wild Disturbia (which had something of an accident when I was marbling with it LOL - right into the cup so that's why it's go pink all over).

Lastly (for now), here's a look at a comparison of Night Sky & Epic Winning, swatches of all the Magnetix, and swatches of the glitter crackles:

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

Zoya Fleck Effect Swatchapalooza!

I just kept thinking of more colors I'd like to see LOL - and now I've had a few requests to see these matte, so I'll probably do that over the weekend =)

Do you have a favorite combination?

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Finger Paints Special Effects + Matte Magic

Couldn't resist, especially after I got so many requests:

It only took me 2+ weeks to edit it LOL.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Christmas Eve Haul & Finger Paints Special Effects Swatches

I don't usually go out on Christmas Eve - but I'm glad that I did this year =)

I don't exactly know what's up with these absurd little nail files Orly's attached to the bottles ... and yet I still like having them LOL:

Au Champagne & Ma Cherie from the Holiday Soiree collection.

China Glaze:

Holly-Day & Champagne Bubbles from the Let it Snow collection.

I forgot to take a picgture of the Sparkle Topcoat, but here's the real treat - the Finger Paints Special Effects collection:

Black Expressionism, Asylum, Flashy, Flecked, Motley & Twisted.  They are completely & totally awesome =)  Don't believe me?  See for yourself:

Here are a few close-up shots of the swatches:

& now I learn - a bit late, because I'm so behind on reading other blogs - that Zoya is coming out with flakies!  & I only have like a week & a half to wait until I can order them!  *Drool*  Are you in love with flakies?  Have you picked up the Finger Paints and/or will you be picking up the Zoyas?

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Nails Inc, Icing, Orly & Etc Haul & Swatches & Bottle Pics

Very behind this week.  Lots going on IRL that I don't really want to get into, but I'm going to try & just get some catching up done tonight & tomorrow.  I'm going to admit I may drop out of sight again for a while, I'm just not sure how this is going to go so I'm going to post while I can.

I split the haul & the swatches each into their own vids again this time.  Here is the haul:

& here are the swatches:

& for the bottle pics I kind of broke everything up by brand, regardless of where or when I purchased ... these are all from quite a while ago, I think I recorded the haul vid like 2 weeks ago & the swatches one week ago LOL.  So here we go.

First up, from Sephora at the MoA, Nails Inc:

Top row are my 2 magnetic effect polishes:  Houses of Parliament (which I've worn - check out the post HERE), and Trafalgar Square.  Bottom row:  Electric Lane Holographic Top Coat,  Farringdon Crackle Top Coat, Fitzroy Square, Sloan Square, & Chelsea Square.

Icing ... I went overboard at 2 different Icing stores.  I got 4 different 5-packs of mini bottles - although Icing's minis are pretty decent size compared to for example OPI, at .4 fl oz - but then again, normal Icing bottles are bigger than many brands at .65 fl oz:

First row - Cancun Spring Break set:  Hot Date, Flamingo Dancer, Suntan Lotion, Lime Martini, Blue Caribbean.  Second row - Glow in the Dark set:  Gleam and Go, Lamplight, Twinkle Stars, Glowworm, Moonbeam.  Third row - New York Graffiti set:  Silver Spray Paint, Tag Me Pink, Midnight at Times Square, Black Shatter,  Fourth row - Paris Romance set:  Un Cafe s'ilvous Plait, Paris Romance, Bonjour, Printemps, French Lavender.

And the other single bottles:

Top row:  Glimmer, Gold Dust, At Dusk, Pumpkin, Tiger's Blood.  Middle row:  Rock Star From Mars, Witch's Brew, Vampire's Blood, Cherry Blossom, Orchid.  Bottom row:  Thunderstorm, Twilight, The Golden Age of Glitter, Irish Gold, All That Glitters is Green, Electric Emerald.

Orlys, mainly from Ulta but a couple from Sallys:

Top row:  Crush on You, Nite Owl, Sea Gurl, Fowl Play.  Bottom row:  Space Cadet, Rock-It, Rock Solid.

From Warpaint Beauty:

Dirty Pink, Purple Haze, Galaxy, White Noise.

LA Girls:

Erupt & Rupture.

Hot Topic:

No names on them, so they just go by color on my spreadsheet - Neon Yellow, Neon Fuchsia, Pink w/ Glitter.

Justice - and yes it took some serious courage to go into the kid store for my own purposes LOL!  The sales girl thought maybe I was buying a gift but I fessed up it was for me:

Also no names I could find - Black Crackle, Purple Crackle & Pink to Purple sun changing polish (pics after sun exposure at the end of the swatch vid)

And finally, my unexpected find at DSW, Anise:

Night Adventure, Midnight Electric, Ring My Bell, Pearls for the Devil, Crocodile Tears, Agent Glam.

So yeah, a pretty big haul.  I thought my no-buy following this would last longer - but I forgot how early holiday collections come out.  I spied the China Glaze Let it Snow collection when I hit Sallys today for cuticle oil, and ... well ... I'm sure you can guess.  Another haul post in my future =)  But not before I edit & post NOTDs for the past week!

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Nails Inc Magnetic Polish Swatches

I wanted to get a full post with pictures done today for Nails Inc Houses of Parliament, which is on my nails, but the sun had the nerve to go away mid-afternoon so I'm going to do that tomorrow.  This polish definitely deserves to be seen in the sun & the 3D effect deserves to be seen in motion =)

 

But until then, you can have a quick look at these swatches & check out the magnetic pattern in motion since I used the magnet from the back of the nail wheel - which, as a side note, I don't think gives as nice of a final effect as using the magnet over the top, but it's cool to be able to actually see the polish move around:

 

 

Have you indulged?  Or plan to?  I thought at first I could pass on the gold but with it on my nails I not only want the gold, as I mention in the vid I want backup bottles of the purple & silver.

 

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Comparison Swatches: China Glaze Tronica vs. OMG & Kaleidoscope

I think this is the biggest swatching project I ever did =)  To avoid a crapload of unnecessary typing, see below with the swatches for all of the names, but to start out with, here are each of the collections laid out - I rarely get a chance to pull out my polish & just play, so this was kind of fun.  First pic is Tronica, then OMG, next Kaleidoscope, then all of them laid out together:

OK, everything is going to be in the same basic order for all of the following swatch pics - first polish is from the Kaleidoscope collection (3 coats each), the second is from the OMG collection (2 coats each), and the third is from the Tronica collection (2 coats each).  No top coat on any of them.  I did camera flash bottle shots, natural lamp nail wheel swatches, and sunlight swatches.  Enjoy =)

First the teals & dark purples.  This is the only set where the Kaleidoscope didn't match at all.  Let's Do It In 3D, DV8, Techno Teal - Octa Gone Wild, LOL, Virtual Violet:

Rose pinks & lighter purples.  How About A Tumble, BFF, Electra Magenta  - Visit Me In Prism, IDK, Gamer Glam:

Blues & silvers.  Kaleidoscope Him Out, 2NITE, High Def - Sexagon, OMG, Hologram:

Bright pinks & salmons (lots of pinks of one kind or another with all these collections).  Tickle My Triangle, QT, Hyper Haute - Don't Be A Square, TMI, 3D Fantasy:

Peaches & taupes.  Rated Holographic, TTYL, Digital Dawn - Spin Me Round, FYI, Cyberspace:

Yellows/golds & bright greens.  It's My Turn, GR8, Mega Byte - He's Going In Circles, L8R G8R, Laser Lime:

Here's an overview of the nail wheels - so pretty:

After I got done with all of those, and for the most part disappointed with the lack of holo in all of the Tronicas, I added a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust on them & this is what I got:

Overall - very pretty colors.  Vibrant, pigmented, good application.  Several I probably could have gotten away with just one coat.  Those I've tried work well for marbling & although I haven't tested yet, I have high hopes for their Konading potential.  But China Glaze still needs to re-release the OMG collection.  It's just not fair that they are no longer available.  Or, even better - new colors in the OMG formula.  DV8 & LOL are perfect examples of how awesome linear holos are in a deep vibrant color - I want a forest green, a true red, a navy blue - a real black holo.  Ah, well - we can dream, right?

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette