China Glaze All Aboard Collection for Fall 2014 - My Picks

Hi everyone!

For the majority of this year (and part of last year) I haven't been too impressed by the collections being put out by the mainstream brands. I hardly bought any new polishes from these brands (OPI, China Glaze, etc), and I was starting to wonder if my love of nail polish was diminishing. I'm also not really a Fall person - I really like bright colors, so Summer brights are usually what I gravitate towards.

With that little bit of background, I walked into my nail supply store to see if they had any of the new Fall collections. While most of the promo pictures I've seen online haven't really interested me, I decided to check them out in person before deciding against them. Lucky that I did! I ended up buying 6 shades from the China Glaze All Aboard collection, and 4 from OPI's Nordic collection (These will be up on the blog soon!).

The shades I purchased from the All Aboard collection are as follows (in the same order as shown in the photo below left to right): Lug Your Designer Baggage, Mind the Gap, Conduct Yourself, Nice Caboose!, Choo-Choo Choose You, and All Aboard.

OPI San Francisco Mini Set Swatches

Disclaimer: The products featured in this post were given to me as a gift from Sisi of Color4Nails. I am under no obligation to promote her polish store and do not gain anything from doing so. Any opinions presented in this post are my own.

Hi Everyone!

*Gasp* - another post! So soon... it's a miracle! Well, I found some time to sit down and write a post (who am I kidding? I'm supposed to be wading my way through academic papers right now). I figure you've all seen polishes from this collection about a million times by now, but I'll just swing some of my own quick swatches for you. I recently received the OPI San Francisco Mini set in the mail as a gift from Sisi at Color4Nails (I gave her permission to use some of my swatch pictures on her Facebook page and she wanted to send me a gift, which was very sweet of her). Thanks to her, I was able to try some polishes that I probably wouldn't have purchased on my own (I wasn't too impressed by the promo images of the collection).

Anyhow, I won't bore you too much with my rambling! Onto the polish!

In the Cable Car-pool Lane: A fairly standard dark plum/burgundy. Not an extremely exciting colour for me - I probably wouldn't be able to convince myself to buy this polish if I had seen it on a shelf somewhere since I'd probably have something very close to this in the 600+ bottles of polish that I own. It does have a very nice jelly-esque squishiness to it though. I used 3 coats.

First Date at the Golden Gate: A kind of reddy-burnt orange shade. Like In the Cable Car-pool Lane, it has the squishy look of a jelly with the more opaque formula of a creme. I used 3 coats for this swatch.

Peace, Love, and OPI: Silvery sage-blue-purple duochrome that reminds me of the northern lights. Undoubtedly one of the most buzzed about polishes from the San Fran collection. Initially I had only planned to pick up this polish from the collection, and I'm not too disappointed. I knew from prior swatches that it was going to be frosty, but the duochrome is actually really strong in this polish and kind of makes up for it. Streaks aside, I was pleasantly surprised that the formula isn't too thin - I used 3 thin coats for my swatch here.

Muir, Muir on the Wall: The dark horse in the collection for me. I would have completely passed this one over if it weren't for this mini set. When I swatched this polish I pretty much fell in love with it then and there, and ran out to buy a full size bottle. I can't even describe this one, but the important thing is that it has this beautiful red-coppery slightly duochrome shimmer that is absolutely gorgeous. I love it.

So, what do y'all think? I'm glad I got to try Muir, Muir on the Wall, since I probably wouldn't have known about how awesome it is if I didn't! It's seriously one of those colors I pass by on the shelf/counter and don't look at more closely. Thank you Sisi for your generosity!

As always, thank you for reading! I hope you all have a great week!

Marisa

My picks from the China Glaze Autumn Nights Collections

Hi everyone, long time no see!

Sorry I've been away so long - the usual combination of work and family drama have been added stress lately. I didn't realize how long I've been on the periphery of the nail polish world until I went to my supply store the other day... I didn't realize until then that I hadn't checked out the store since the end of April!

I managed to hold off the polish hoarder in me enough to spend a reasonable amount of polish. I avoided buying the whole collection and limited myself to only a few shades, which I managed to swatch (instead of leaving them on my swatching desk for later). Anyhow, enough of my chittering! Onto the polish! Please click read more after the cut to see my swatches of these polishes!

Left to right: Tongue & Chic, Queen B, Red-y & Willing, Rendezvous with You, Strike up a Cosmo, Goldie but Goodie, and Gossip over Gimlets.

Cult Nails Hypnotic Collection for Fall 2011

Good morning everyone!

   Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but I caught a cold sometime near the end of my trip and I've been miserable ever since. I usually love flying anywhere, but one of the flights I caught Sunday evening included three infants that cried a lot. I understand that they can't help it and usually I can tolerate stuff like this.. but my cold just made everything worse.

   Anyway, enough complaining and on to the polish!

   I'm a huge fan of Maria and the Cult Nails brand, and I almost have all of the polishes that have been released (I'm just missing Quench, which will make its way into my grubby hands at an opportune moment).

   I pre-ordered the Fall collection a while ago, and it finally arrived while I was on the other side of the continent. The Fall 2011 'Hypnotic' collection consists of 4 polishes; Awakening, Hypnotize me, Enigmatic and In a Trance.

In a Trance:
  In a Trance is a gorgeous olive green shimmer. Out of all of the colours, I was the most unsure about this one since I wasn't too sure about how it would look with my skin tone. After trying it on, I think the colour actually looks pretty good on me, and I would definitely wear this again.
   Application was great, the polish went on smoothly and dried quickly. Pictured is 2 coats with no top coat.

Enigmatic:
   Enigmatic is a beautiful plum/wine-ish purple with gorgeous shimmer and tiny scattered silver particles. No doubts about this one, since I love mostly everything purple, and this one is no exception!
   Application was a bit different than In a Trance, I needed 3 coats (but otherwise application was smooth), and the drying time was good. Pictured on my nails are 3 coats except my pinky, which only has 2.

Awakening:
  Awakening is a medium blue-grey which has a smoky appearance to it, which appears to be the trend for this Fall. What really makes Awakening special is the formula. It has this jelly-like creme base that really just glides onto the nail. I had to use 3 coats, but they weren't 3 frustrating ones like some of the polishes I own (Iris Dust I'm looking at you..).

And finally, last but definitely not the least..
Hypnotize Me:
  Okay, so I super love this. I was so eager to put this on over Awakening that I forgot to try it on its own (but that means you're spared from seeing my stained nails). This combination is gorgeous. On its own, Hypnotize Me is small teal-y blue glitter in a light green leaning teal base. Application wise, it's a bit thick, which can make it tricky to apply at times, and I recommend waiting a bit for the first layer to dry before putting a second on if you're using multiple coats. This layering combination reminds me of a lighter, brighter Living Water and I would probably describe this to being like the light reflecting off the waves when you're in the middle of the ocean at mid-day or so. Pictured is 1 Coat of Hypnotize Me over Awakening.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the the glitter in this layering also changes colour at different angles. Near the sides the glitter changes from teal to a fantastic marine blue colour.

Overall, I think this collection is really well suited for Fall. The colours are gorgeous and certainly fit in with this seasons trends. Application was fantastic, which I have already learned to expect from Maria, and all of the individual polishes are even more amazing than I thought they would be.

If you love the colour blue and all of its variations, I'd suggest you try the layering combination of Hypnotize Me over Awakening. It's gorgeous. I love it. I'm wearing it right now and I don't know when I'm going to take it off.

Heck, even if you don't like blue that much.. give it a try. It's absolutely stunning.

So, what do you all think? Have you tried any of the Cult Nails line up yet?

You can purchase the product featured in this post at the Cult Nails website for $10/each.

-Marisa
*note: I purchased the products featured in this post during the collection's pre-sale.

China Glaze - Westside Warrior

Hi everyone!

Happy Saturday! I'm not really doing anything special today.. I think.

I'm still a pretty happy camper, but my final exams for the summer semester are just around the corner (urgh) so I'll probably be away for a little while (double urgh) studying.. but I'll give you a heads up when that date comes closer. No worries though, I'll have a guest blogger (my sister, who has more free time than I do and probably changes her polish more frequently now than me) taking the reins while I'm away.

I'll also be away for a week in August (I'm going to Washington DC -with a brief trip to NYC and Philly.. YAY)
I'll have scheduled posts by then, so hopefully we won't have any large gaps in posting. I'll still be around on twitter, so feel free to tweet me @livelylacquer !! :D

Anyhow, onto the polish.. today I have the only polish I purchased from the China Glaze Fall 2011 collection (it was the only one left, but it happened to be the one I wanted).. Westside Warrior!

I really love this colour! it applied easily and dried fast in two coats.It's a beautiful military/khaki green but my little sister describes it as "putrefied mold.. that's green" and refuses to go anywhere near it (hmm, I wonder if I can make this her pedi colour while she's asleep.. hmmmm)..

I also stamped a really nice vine pattern in gold overtop, which gave it a really nice kinda antique brocade look, but none of my pictures look right and in macro the stamping doesn't look that great, so I'm not going to post any pictures right now. Maybe later when my stamping technique is better I'll do it again.

Well, it's time to go off to DQ to get a blizzard. :D

Have a great Saturday!!

-Marisa