Color Club Alter Ego: Keep It Under Cover Collection Spring 2011 Swatches and Review

Aha... now here's the exciting part. Part two of Alter Ego (or really, probably part one, you can't really Keep It Under Cover after you've already revealed your mystery), Keep It Under Cover. This half is filled with glass fleck sparkle, duochrome shimmer and vibrant color.


Alias. This color has so many faces... It's purple, it's blue, it's glass fleck... It has yellow flash, green flash, red flash... Purple shimmer! Silver shimmer! Pink shimmer! It's freakin' awesome.


Alter Ego. This has a very greyed-out purple base with crazy gold and silver glass fleck shimmer. Very, very shiny... Very cool to look at.


Masquerading. This is an interesting color. You'll notice in the first picture that it dries matte. I'm not sure if it's intended to be a matte, it doesn't seem to have that typical matte formula and it doesn't chip as easily as mattes do... Just a bonus feature, I suppose! In the second picture I've added topcoat. It is a metallic grey-teal, a touch on the frosty side but not super streaky. Nice depth to it, though... Looks light in the middle and dark on the edges, I love that! Black highlights!


Secret Agent. Gorgeous silky vibrant purple. It's a frost. Like Masquerading, it's a silky frost, not a streaky frost. Just a very fine shimmer with a soft-feeling formula. Makes me think of Jessica Birds of Paradise or something.



Total Mystery. I have to apologize for these terrible pictures. Why does it always have to be that the best colors are the hardest to capture? This is the best color I've seen in a while. It's crazy. It's bright blue and purple. Blurple? It's duochrome and shimmery. It's like OPI Ink on steroids. Everyone who saw me wearing it commented on it. I just grabs your eye and won't let you look away. If you like blue or purple, you have to get this one. At least see it in person if you can.


Ulterior Motive. This is a fun one, too. It has a dark pink / dark fuchsia glass fleck base and lots of very visible blue and purple glass fleck pearls. Go ahead, enlarge the pictures, check out those sparkles! I love blue sparkles!

The formula on these was great as well. No application issues to be found. Great dry time and wear time. Opacity was good, but I did three coats on all just to see what it looks like. Also, since this set comes with the Vivid 10 Color Intensifying Topcoat, I put a coat of that on as well.

The Vivid topcoat is a lot like the Milky White basecoat; it has a slight blue-violet tint and it brightens colors. It's not really that noticable. It is a very nice topcoat, though. Very shiny, adds a little brightness. It makes a perfect refresher topcoat if your mani has lost its shine. Dries quickly.

Now, this collection has me excited. The excessive amount of purple and duochrome make my heart skip a beat. Every color is great and beautiful. Total Mystery is a definite must have for me, and I'm thinking about getting a few backups, I love it so much.

And hey... purple glass fleck duochromes for spring? I have to love them for that. Sure, they did pastels too, but they did this at the same time! They gave us holos and duochromes and glass flecks for spring a few years back... Now every year I can't wait to see what Color Club is going to do next. Always a surprise.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Color Club Alter Ego: Reveal Your Mystery Collection Spring 2011 Swatches and Review

This is only one half of Color Club's spring 2011 collection, "Alter Ego." The Reveal Your Mystery set is a collection of light, un-intimidating sheers/neutrals/soft shades. It's practically a polar opposite to the dark, deep, mysterious and colorful shades in Keep It Under Cover.


Get A Clue. A soft pastel pink creme. This is actually a really nice pink because it has a hint of grey and lavender in it. It's very rare to find a pastel pink like this that actually compliments my skintone instead of making my fingers look dirty or bright red.


Give Me A Hint. Your standard grey/taupe/purple hybrid creme. This one leans a little more on the grey side than the purple side than some similar shades.


Incognito. A sheer, fleshy pale brown based nude. This seems neutral toned to me, and against my cool-toned skin it doesn't seem to pull particularly warm or cool. It's like a lighter version of Lippmann Naked.


Revealed. This is an interesting color... It's a warm peach creme base with some red and violet subtle shimmer. I really love how the shimmer lights up the color. It's subtle, but it looks almost like a duochrome when the light hits the shimmer.


Secret Rendezvous. A light lilac creme. This picture makes it seem pure blue, and it is quite blue in real life, but it definitely has some purple to it. I like the name of this because it reminds me if playing DDR. Random.



Sheer Disguise. A nice light grey. I love grey polish. This is a very pretty grey, though there's nothing particularly unique or different about it. It's on the light side and has a bit of blue to it.


The formula on these was great. I had no problems with the formula or the brushes or anything at all. Everything was smooth, fairly even, and perfect in three coats (I did three coats on all). A few can be worn sheer if you do only one coat. Good dry time, good wear time, easy removal, no staining or anything like that. Quite honestly, nothing to report!

The box set of this collection comes with a bottle of Milky White French Manicure Basecoat. I didn't take a picture of it, because, uh, it's clear. But not just plain clear! It's clear with a blue tint and it counteracts yellow tones in the nail. This is a genius product and I think everyone should have a bottle. I've been using it for years and I always make sure I have it on hand, just in case. I were to wear a sheer or for some reason go without nail polish, I would make sure to apply this as my basecoat. Not only will it hide the yellowness of stained nails, it will brighten and whiten the look of the nails and even fix certain types of old nail polish. Really. If you use it as topcoat over certain shades of polish, for instance, a glitter with a clear base that has yellowed with time, it will take out the yellow. Awesome stuff, seriously.

While these are all nice colors and I do like all of them, there isn't anything terribly exciting about them. Well, I guess I suppose that's the point of neutrals and sheers. Good formula and flattering colors, but the exciting part of the collection is yet to come...

(These were sent to me for review.)

Color Club Starry Temptress Collection Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

Wicked Sweet was part one of Color Club's summer 2011 release, so on to part two: Starry Temptress. Both sets are collections of neon shades and while Wicked Sweet was mostly creme, Starry Temptress is glitter. But really different glitter... You'll see what I mean in a second.


Glitter Envy. The glitter in these... isn't sparkly? Crazy, right? I'll post my thoughts on that at the end. Anyway. Glitter Envy. It's a neon green with un-sparkly holo glitter throughout.


Otherworldly. Ooooh... A bright, rich blue with holographic glitter. Not much sparkle, but the glitter adds depth and an interesting starry sky effect.


Space Case. This one is a bit different from the rest because it has a shimmer base instead of creme. If you enlarge the pictures and look closely (in the bottle especially) you can see that it has a smooth green shimmer to it. Very nice.


Ultra-Astral. Wow, bright. The holographic glitter in this seems to take on a blue tint when it's covered by the thick creme base. Fascinating to look at.




Wink, Wink, Twinkle. This one seems to sparkle more than the others. I don't know if it's because of where the glitter ended up when I applied it, or if the base is less dense than the others, but some of the glitter does shine through on the top layer. Gorgeous color. I love the neon purple base with the speckles of silver in it.



You Got Soul-ar. Creamy bright neon orange with hints of holo sparkle. I love these bright traffic cone oranges.


This set includes a bottle of Starry Temptress topcoat, which is a clear base with some iridescent opal glitter. It adds a lot more sparkle to these shades, observe:


One coat of Starry Temptress topcoat over Wink Wink Twinkle, Otherworldly, Glitter Envy and Ultra-Astral, and a coat of topcoat over all of that. See all the different colors reflecting from the glitter? Mesmerizing.

The formula on these was pretty good. They're a bit thick, but because of that they're really opaque. You could probably get away with one thick coat of these, but I did two thin coats in all these pictures and it was perfect. Drying time is very quick and the glitter is shockingly smooth.

So... glitter that isn't sparkly. I have to admit, I'm liking it. At first I was disappointed because that hologram glitter looks so awesome in the bottle, but after wearing the colors for a while, it grew on me. It makes the colors look speckled, spattered, mottled... And I love that you can see glitter through the base color. Gives it a little depth. It reminds me of some of my favorite things from when I was a kid: Jelly shoes and plastic jewelry. Oh man, I loved jelly shoes. Sure, they made your feet all sweaty and nasty and they kinda hurt to wear, but I didn't care! I wish I had a pair to wear now. And they went well with my neon glittery beads and Lisa Frank accessories.

Another interesting feature of these anti-glitters is that they're smooth. You heard me right. Big chunky glitter that's smooth. It lies totally flat, dries totally smooth and doesn't look gritty or bumpy. It doesn't get that lumpy, oatmealy bubbly look. Must be magic. That doesn't apply to the Starry Temptress topcoat, though. That's gritty as hell and eats topcoat like you wouldn't believe. If you've tried the Color Club Japanese glitters or the Pardon My French ones, you'll know what I'm talking about.

That being said, I can easily say I have nothing like this collection. Speckled neons with a hint of holo. Weird, yes, but new to me, and so far I haven't seen anyone else do something like it this year. I approve. Though, if you're looking forward to the holographic sparkle that you see in the bottle, you'll be disappointed in these.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Color Club Wicked Sweet Collection Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

I know... I haven't even posted the Alter Ego spring collection yet and I'm already onto the summer collection. But, since I'm so late in posting spring, I figured why not wait on it a little longer and post the summer sets while they're still relevant?

Color Club is doing two sets of neons this summer, and not just plain neons. This set, called Wicked Sweet, just so happens to to live up to that title. They're not just candy-colored, they're candy scented as well!



Get Your Lem-On. This is a pale, green-tinged neon yellow with a green duochrome shimmer. The sunlight picture shows the green shimmer best and the indoor picture shows the base color truest. It's scented in a sweet, light lemon scent. This has my favorite scent of the bunch. I'd wear it just to smell it! The color reminds me a bit of Color Club Volt of Light.


Gimme A Grape Big Kiss. This is the standard neon fuchsia-purple creme. It looks a bit washed out due to the brightness of the color, but it pretty much looks like most other neon purples. The color is great... but the scent isn't my favorite. It's a candy grape scent, and I've never liked candy "grape"... Somehow the candy interpretation of grape doesn't taste or smell anything at all remotely like a real grape. But, that's just my personal taste here, if you love that candy grape scent, you'll probably really enjoy the scent of this.


I Always Get My Man-darin. A light, desaturated neon orange with contrasting green shimmer. I tried to capture that green shimmer, I really did. It is sneaky, but it's there. Very pretty once you see it in its full glory. The base color reminds me of fake orange juice... Like... what's it called... Tang? Or Sunny Delight. *shudder* The scent is a sweet crisp orange. Very light, but pleasant.

Raspberry Rush. This one is fighting with Gimme A Grape Big Kiss for my favorite color in the collection. It's pink, yes, but it's an awesome obnoxious gorgeous bright pink! It's too washed out looking in this picture (these crazy neon colors freak out my camera!), but you can get an idea of how bright and pretty it is. It's a much deeper pink, more of a magenta. The scent is a sweet candy smell, like the rest, but I can't quite put my finger on what it smells like. It doesn't particularly smell like raspberries to me. It sorta smells like when you open a bag of gummy bears, all the smells mixed together. It's nice, and it reminds me of something from when I was a kid, but I just can't remember what!


The Lime Starts Here. Light neon green jelly-creme. This is close enough to jelly to call it a jelly, right? But it's still creamy looking. So... jelly-creme it is. Nice and bright. Yellow toned. Has a sour candy lime scent. I dig it.


Wicked Sweet. This one looks like Zoya Phoebe with topcoat, doesn't it? Bright near-neon blue with electric blue and gold shimmer. The greenish tint to the shimmer makes the whole polish look teal in some lights. Quite glowy and beautiful. The scent is... blueberry? Blue raspberry? It reminds me of Crater Lake Company's Lemon Blueberry Frosting scent. I'm gonna go with blueberry then. Love it.


Yum Gum. This is a light pink neon, similar to something like China Glaze Pink Voltage. It has a creamy white base to the pink color. I like the color, but that name... Yum Gum? Really? Anyway... the scent is... gum. Bubblegum. Not the overly sweet kind, but the sorta dry hard kind, like the one that comes in baseball cards. Do they still put bubblegum in packages of baseball cards?


The formula was perfect. I didn't really have any problems with application. The texture is on the thin side, but it's not runny. Some of the shades are on the sheer side, but all are good with three coats. I'm wearing three coats in these pictures. The lemon and lime shades would probably look even better with a fourth coat, but I haven't tried. The drying time on these is confusing. They set incredibly quickly, but I found that I was still denting them nearly 45 minutes after application.

One aspect of the formula is notably different than my usual polish reviews... There's a scent. The scent is strongest when first applied and slowly fades away the longer you wear it. When I wore these with a coat of Seche Vite, I could still smell the scent for three days. It was very weak on the last day, but still there. It's not so strong that it gives you a headache, but it's not so weak that you have to stick your fingers up your nose to smell it.

I love the scents in these. They're so much nicer than almost any scented polish I own. They're all soft and sweet, no sharp chemical fakeness. They really truly smell like candy. I remember some of the scented polishes I had in the 90s... I think the brand may have been Loud! Music, or something to that effect. I had a vanilla and an orange one. They have me the worst headache every time I wore them, they were so strong and invasive and sharply fake smelling. None of that here. It can be a little unsettling if you forgot you're wearing scented polish, though. The first time I tried them out, I kept thinking... What's that smell? Why do my hands smell like gummy worms?!

Overall, I'm a fan of this collection. Sure, the colors are fairly common neon colors. Heck, a lot of them even look like existing Color Club neons. The scents make them special. And you know me... I'm a sucker for anything scented. Vanilla scented garbage bags, remember? So yeah, I am definitely a fan!

(These were sent to me for review.)

OPI Black Shatter over Color Club Jackie OH!

Another layering combination with OPI Black Shatter that I really liked.


OPI Black Shatter over Color Club Jackie OH!. I love the combination of the neon with the black on top, it makes the neon look so much brighter. This reminds me of lava. If you have a neon pink or orange, you have to try this, it looks so cool in real life. I've noticed that my Black Shatter always crackles into vertical stripes... that's odd. I want some more random square chunks to happen when it crackles... The kind that make it look like a giraffe pattern... How do I get it to do that?

First Look At Color Club's Spring 2011 Collection, "Alter Ego"

EDIT: Release date is February 15th!


This just in! Do I spy some duochromes? Purple duochromes? Damn, I love Color Club.



Alter Ego!

Color Club lets you create high-fashion looks for every identity with Alter Ego, their latest collection of diverse, long-lasting lacquers!

Alter Ego’s consists of 12 shades! Go incognito with our opaque shades or rendezvous in full view with our sheers of Alter Ego ‘LIGHTS’ and ‘DARKS’!

Alter Ego’s ‘Reveal Your Mystery Collection’ 7 piece salon pack includes Get a Clue, Revealed, Incognito, Secret Rendezvous, Sheer Disguise, and Give Me a Hint shades plus Milky White Base Coat. Their ‘Keep It Undercover Collection’ 7 piece salon pack includes Alter Ego, Secret Agent, Total Mystery, Alias, Ulterior Motive and Masquerading plus Vivid Top Coat.

Get a Clue, Revealed, Incognito, Secret Rendezvous, Sheer Disguise, and Give Me a Hint shades plus Milky White Base Coat



Alter Ego, Secret Agent, Total Mystery, Alias, Ulterior Motive and Masquerading plus Vivid Top Coat.

Click to enlarge!!!