China Glaze Urban Night

Hello hello!  It feels like a long time since I've last posted, but it's really more like my normal schedule.  Maybe holiday is still lingering in the back of my mind.

I've gone back into my fall colors because I realized that I hadn't even worn a couple of them.  Plus it was really cold when I wore them, so they felt appropriate.  Unlike right now, which is feeling more like spring.  This time last year we'd had snow consistently throughout the season, so everyone in north GA was flipping out.  I much prefer the warm weather.  I hate cold.

Ok, tangent finished.  Urban Night is from China Glaze's Metro 2011 collection.  I was iffy about this one at first just because the purple was so different from any of the other ones I've had in the past and didn't know if it would look good against my skin tone.  In the bottle it looks almost like a rusty purple, if that makes any sense.  But I was very pleasantly surprised with the shade after I got it on my nails.  Turned into a nice plum purple.  =)

The formula was what threw me off.  I expected it to be kind of thick, since most really dark shades tend to be in my experience.  This was a little watery.  I ended up using three coats plus a quick dry top coat, then didn't touch anything for about half an hour.

Strange formula aside, I was very pleased with the outcome.

Shade

Direct Sunlight

China Glaze Urban Night retails for $7 US.

In The Limelight (Neon)

Hello everyone!  Today I bring you something obnoxiously bright!

I wore this manicure before the holidays and just never got around to posting it.  I'd had a particularly irritating day at work and needed something bright to help cheer me up.  If you have ever worked in retail before, you completely understand where I'm coming from.  Holiday season makes me hate the holidays.

Here is China Glaze In The Limelight (Neon).  This was very interesting to me for a few reasons.  The formula was very thin and watery, so I ended up using three coats just to get even coverage, but what I found to be most intriguing was that this shade dried matte.  I like matte polishes, some people don't, but I do.  It makes it look like suede to me.  But this looked like a caterpillar was on my hand as a matte.  So maybe another day.  A top coat made it shiny, so I was happy for the time being with that.

I had used a no chip top coat by Sally Hansen, which has never given me any problems before.  But, the next morning when I woke up and looked at my nails there were huge chunks of the polish completely missing.  Not as in, I hit my hand on something and the tips messed up.  There were huge flakes missing from the middle of my nail.  This mani didn't even last 12 hours before it quit on me.  So disappointing.

But here a pictures of it while it was whole anyway.

Obnoxiously bright, yes?  It did help to lift my mood, so it served it's purpose.

Blue Year's Eve

Hey everyone!  Today has kind of been sucky.  I have no idea why, but on days when I don't have coffee in the mornings everyone, with the exception of a few select people, irritates the crap out of me.  So I came home, made some coffee, redid my nails, and got a glass of yummy French wine.  Today is now much better.

So far I have two out of China Glaze's holiday 2011 Let It Snow collection, and I put them both in one manicure.  I have Blue Year's Eve and Tinseltown.  Blue is a rich royal/denim blue with a blue micro shimmer .  The formula is actually a littler thinner than I'm used to with China Glaze being, but three thin to average coats got full coverage with no bald spots.  I noticed that the base color in this is very similar to an Essie color, and I even did a touch up with it.  Essie's Aruba Blue, while super shiny but not a glitter, is exactly the same blue.  Although, Aruba Blue is more of a summer shade to me, probably because it doesn't have the glitter like Blue Year's Eve.

Tinseltown is a thick glitter in a black jelly base.  Multiple sizes of glitter: large hex, medium size round, and micro glitter all in one!  It's so shiny!  I used it as my accent nail in this manicure, but this one chipped so easily.  I don't know what it is about these super thick glitters, but each one I've tried out so far has done the same thing.  Looks great by itself, then chips two hours later.  I have a feeling that this would stay on better if I used a gray as a base and then put that on top of it.  This one is also very textured, but one coat of top coat was enough for me to get it smooth.

Pictures taken under artificial light with flash.

China Glaze Blue Year's Eve and Tinseltown both retail for $7 US.

For Audrey

I am so excited to be posting the one today, you have no idea.  This one is China Glaze For Audrey.  This is an oldie, but new to me.  I couldn't tell you what year or collection this one came from to save my life, but I'm just happy that it is in my hoard now.

Now, this isn't just any Audrey this one is named after.  This is named after The Audrey.  Audrey Hepburn  was the classiest lady to every be classy in the history of modern cinema.  I idolize her and want to be like her in almost all ways.  I can't say enough good things about her.  And the color that China Glaze did for this polish isn't just blue.  You could call it sky blue, or baby blue, or robin's egg blue, but you would all of you be incorrect.  This shade is Tiffany blue (or as close as they could get since the color with the name is trademarked).  In my imaginary wedding, Tiffany blue is the main shade in my color pallet.

Since it is now winter and I'm completely in the holiday spirit, I decided to add a snowman to my manicure.  I didn't realize just how appropriate my manicure would be since it started snowing while I had this on my nails.

I used Sally Hansen and a dotting tool for the snowman and the snow, a black nail art pen for the arms and hat, and Essie Size Matters with an eye liner brush for the scarf.  To top it off and give just that extra oomph, I used a white glitter by Pixel to put over the "ground snow" so you could see where the snowman began.

This mani actually lasted me about four days with chips only starting on day three and no shrinkage.  Two coats got me complete coverage, and a top coat added extra shine.

Both pics were taken under artificial light, since it has been either raining or just gross outside and cold.

China Glaze For Audrey normally retails for $7 US plus sales tax.

Brownstone

Good morning all!  It is unseasonably warm today for right before Thanksgiving (but I live in Georgia, the weather here can never make up its mind during fall and spring).  I'm kind of in a rush to get the last of my fall colors posted before I move on to holiday colors, so there might be a post a day this week.

Today I bring you China Glaze Brownstone from the Metro line.  It's the fall line from this year which they gave urban/city inspired names to.  I kind of like how CG names things, instead of just calling it the "Fall 2011 collection" or something.

I had no problems with this polish.  I did have problems with banging my wet nails against things while waiting for them to dry, so I had to start over a couple times.  The polish applied opaque in one coat (!!), but it had a couple streaks in it, probably user error instead of the brush's fault, so I topped it off with one extra coat.  I wore it for three days before ADD kicked in, but in that time there was no sign of chipping or even shrinkage, so if my attention could last that long it would have lasted me until Thanksgiving probably.

Sure, the color does very much resemble its name, but I think it looks more like Georgia clay.  Instead of dirt down here we have red clay.  But it's so pretty as a polish, and shiny!  It did dry a little darker than what was in the bottle.  See for yourself.

In direct sunlight

Under artificial light

China Glaze Brownstone retails for $7 US plus sales tax if applicable.

Cha Cha Cha

2 Post Friday!
Because of the power outage mentioned in the previous post, I am making two posts today.

China Glaze has a color called Cha Cha Cha, and boy is it bright.  I didn't realize it until after I wore Midtown Magic that China Glaze has strengtheners built in.  My nails grew quickly and were strong as long as that polish was on them.  So depending on how long I can keep this color on, I will probably be very happy.

The best way to describe how this color look in the bottle and on is Peter Pan green.  Other than that, I'd describe it as a great industrial color.  One of those colors that would never appear in nature, kind of like spilt chemicals.  If you're planning on a Halloween costume of Peter Pan or Tinkerbell, or Poison Ivy, or even a slime/lagoon monster, this would be a great accent to your costume.

Definitely use two coats with this color.  It went on a little streaky, brush strokes were very obvious, but a top coat fixed that right up and added a little extra shine.

EDIT: This color lasted through two extra days of hitting my hands on the embroidery machine and still there were no chips.  That's magic.

China Glaze with Hardeners retails for $8 US

Midtown Magic

Hello friends and happy Monday!

Today's post is featuring China Glaze "Midtown Magic" from the Metro collection.  At first I thought it could be a good dupe for L'Oreal "OWL's Night," but that color is more iridescent, where as Midtown Magic is more of a shimmer with micro glitter.  However, this color is still very nice, especially for fall, and it definitely fits in with the metropolitan theme.  The color itself is more of a dark chocolate with bronze and gold shimmer, which I found to be very distracting in direct sunlight.  I actually got quite a few compliments on this color.

These images were taken from my 3.5 Megapixel camera phone, so quality is considerably lacking in my opinion, especially when it comes to close ups.

 In direct sunlight, so you can see the shimmer.

 Under artificial lighting in the house.  You can still see the shimmer, and a decent comparison with the bottle.

For these images I applied 2 thick coats and a top coat.  Midtown Magic retails for $8 US

Just for comparison, here's L'Oreal "OWL's Night."  This one is definitely on my wishlist.