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.)

OPI Femme de Cirque Soft Shades Collection Spring 2011 Swatches and Review

OPI's annual Soft Shades collection is circus-themed this year. I have to say, I like the theme! No Soft Shades collection can rival my love for the old Princess Charming collection, but the names of the polishes in this set are fantastic.


In The Spotlight Pink. A soft, squishy-looking milky pink jelly. This pink is mostly neutral in the bottle, but it does border on warmer/peachy-toned against my skin.


So Many Clowns, So Little Time. This name seriously cracks me up... It's going on my list of all time favorite OPI names. The color is a creamy off white with a slight splash of pink and grey. Reminds me a bit of the whiter version of Bubble Bath.


Step Right Up. This one has a similar finish to So Many Clowns, but it has more pink and peach in it. Very pale, very white-based, slightly muted, like there's one drop of grey in it.


My favorite part of this collection is the glitter topcoat, I Juggle... Men. Well, it's not quite a glitter, but it's a sparkle. It's sort of like... maybe Orly Fifty-Four or CND Sapphire Sparkle, but it's even more like the duochrome shimmer in OPI Unripened / Nicole Blues In The Night. Funky irregular particles, like mini-flakes... Broken crushed flakes... Super duochrome gorgeous. It wouldn't show up on camera all by itself on my nails, but it's really intended for layering anyway, so I've layered it.

OPI I Juggle... Men sparkle topcoat over In The Spotlight Pink.

OPI I Juggle... Men sparkle topcoat over So Many Clowns, So Little Time.


OPI I Juggle... Men sparkle topcoat over Step Right Up.

As you can see, it's subtle over the sheers, but it adds a nice touch of blue/purple duochrome sparkle. It really shows up best over darker colors. It's especially nice over Color Club Total Mystery.

The formula on these was difficult. I found it to be somewhat watery but goopy at the same time, a texture similar to early Big 3 Free polishes. I did have a hard time applying these. They wanted to run into my cuticles. The Pro-Wide brush seemed smaller and flatter than usual and that added to the difficulty. These are meant to be worn as sheers, but my nails are way too stained to wear them that way, so I did five coats of all. When worn sheer, they are very subtle, providing only a slight milky wash of color.

The exception is the I Juggle... Men topcoat, which is a nice thin, even texture. It dries very, very fast and quite shiny, which leads me to believe it is actually a topcoat, quick-dry even, and not just for layering. It's fantastic.

These would probably make a nice, soft, natural looking french manicure. One that looks like clean natural nails with a touch of softness.

While the colors aren't really my thing, I do love that glitter topcoat and I love the names. They're very, very sheer so if you're someone who is only into subtle tints on your nails, these might interest you.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Nubar Spring Garden Collection Spring 2011 Swatches and Review

Here's Nubar's spring 2011 collection, "Spring Garden". A set of pastels that are a little different from all the ones we've seen lately. They're kinda dirty (in a good way) and each shade except Honeysuckle has a silvery hidden shimmer.


Baby Sprout. Not the mint green clone I was expecting! This is just barely green, like a creamy white with a bit of green cast to it. It's lighter than China Glaze Groovy Green. Really pretty color, though unfortunately it gives me mega lobster hands.



Blue Hydrangea. This is a pastel blue- it's like a dark baby blue or a pale sky blue. It is the only one that actually looks shimmery, the shimmer in the rest of the colors is more of a secret shimmer. The shimmer gives it a reflective pearl finish.



Earthen. A dirty, murky grey! I like. It has a little bit of a taupe tone to it, but it looks mainly grey on my skin. The very fine shimmer softens the color a little bit so it looks sort of... fuzzy? It's ever-so-slightly pearly, but only in certain lights.


Honeysuckle. Here's the obligatory Pantone 2011 Color of the Year honeysuckle shade. It's the only true creme in the collection and it adds a jarring pop of bright color amongst all these faded, dusty pastels. It's bright and clean and surprisingly nice; it has a subtle jelly look to it, though I wouldn't call it a true jelly finish (it's too opaque). Oddly, I never think of this color when I think of honeysuckle flowers. The honeysuckles I remember from my Grandma's garden were all white and yellow.


Pink Lily. Light, peachy pastel pink. Slight subtle pearl finish from all that fine silver shimmer in there.


Purple Aster. A light lavender pastel. Not quite as blue toned as it looks here, but still slightly blue toned in real life. I had about two seconds of sunlight to take this picture, I think it shows how subtle the shimmer is. Only a hint of silvery frost, you would never know if you didn't see it in direct light.


White Peony. This looks like a pure clean white in this picture, but in real life it has a bit of a dirty look to it. Not enough to call it off white or ivory, but it looks slightly faded and really creamy. I can't tell if this one has shimmer or not, actually... At some angles it looks like it, but my eyes hurt from staring at it!


Yellow Primrose. Very pale butter yellow. Lighter than Nubar Lemon Sorbet and Maybelline Banana Pudding. Very cute, very springy. The shimmer in this is almost invisible, but it softens the look of the color so it doesn't look chalky.

There's one more color in this collection- a coordinating glitter topcoat called Dewdrop. It doesn't really show up well alone, so I've only photographed it layered. It's a pastel opal glitter in a clear base, reminds me of something like Color Club Bishop's Weed or China Glaze Glacier.

I've done one coat over each color, no topcoat.

Dewdrop over Baby Sprout.

Dewdrop over Blue Hydrangea.


Dewdrop over Earthen.


Dewdrop over Honeysuckle.


Dewdrop over Pink Lily.


Dewdrop over Purple Aster.



Dewdrop over White Peony.


Dewdrop over Yellow Primrose.

The formula on all of these was good. It was thinner than usual but still nice and even, not runny. These weren't as opaque as previous Nubar cremes, I found that I needed three coats on all shades to get them completely even. Drying time is good. Bottles and brushes were all without defect.


These pastels are a little bit different from all the other pastels this year. I really like Earthen and Yellow Primrose, and White Peony is a nice white for wearing alone since it's not quite as chalky looking as other whites.

These will be available soon on ByNubar.com, though I don't know the exact date.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Essie Spring 2011 Collection

Essie's spring collection is pretty nice this year. Take look:


Essie Coat Azure. This is closer to bottle color in real life; my camera makes it look more vibrant than it really is. It's a soft, dusty looking sky blue with some subtle silvery shimmer. It's in the same vein as Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H finish-wise, with the light blue dustiness and subtle shimmer, but the colors are quite different.


Essie French Affair. You've seen this one on me a few times now! A pink that I actually like. This one is different because it has a bit of lavender in it, it's not too warm like a lot of pinks, but it's also not so cool that it just looks purple. Pretty close to my idea of a perfect pastel pink creme.


Essie Kisses And Bisses. This one is hard to capture because it's so sheer, but I can describe it. It's a sheer ivory tinted base with a duochrome pearl shimmer. The shimmer flashes between red and pink at one angle to gold, orange and even a tiny bit of green at an extreme angle. It is sheer, I'm wearing four coats here, but it's amazing for layering:

Left to right (pinkie to index):
Essie Kisses and Bisses, two coats, over Essie French Affair
Essie Kisses and Bisses, two coats, over Essie Sand Tropez
Essie Kisses and Bisses, two coats, over Essie Nice is Nice
Essie Kisses and Bisses, two coats, over Essie Coat Azure

It looks awesome over all the colors in this collection. It turns the cremes into red-pearl duochromes! I think it looks especially incredible over Sand Tropez. This is my new favorite layering polish. Love this color.


Essie Nice is Nice. This one was a little hard to capture, it's not as blue as it looks here. It's closer to the sunlight picture. It's a pastel lavender creme. Very soft and flattering.


Essie Sand Tropez. This shade is a beige sandy nude creme. It has a little bit of grey, a little bit of taupe, very much a 'mushroom' type of shade. It's lighter than a lot of the taupey putty mushroom shades in my collection and I'm very fond of it. Especially layered with Kisses and Bisses!

Essie Topless and Barefoot. This one is similar in feel to Sand Tropez, but it's a pink, fleshy nude instead of beige. It's putty colored. Like someone said about Borghese Almondine, this totally reminds me of Silly Putty! Now I have the urge to play with Silly Putty. Especially since it looks so nice on my nails!

The formula on these was nice and even. I didn't have any issues with the formula itself, but the opacity isn't what I was expecting. They're not sheer, but lately when you see colors like this, they're one-coaters. These needed two at the very least, but I did three just because. They do look best with three. Drying time is quick and these wear pretty well, too.

Overall, strong spring collection. Are the colors totally unique? No, we've all seen these before. Despite not being completely unique, the colors are all perfect. They're just really great pastels. They all look good on and they're all even better layered with Kisses and Bisses. I would wear every single one of these (and I have worn them all but Topless and Barefoot!), they go perfectly with my skintone, none of the dreaded lobster hands. They all have a soft, creamy look instead of a chalky white-out look. I don't mind the chalky look at all, but the creamier finish of these is easier to pull off for most people.

I like 'em. Do you?

(These were sent to me for review.)

OPI Soft Shades for 2010

I didn't actually realize how long it had been since I posted! We took the week off for my birthday and had a sort of pseudo-vacation, worked on some home improvement projects, went to a wedding... nothing too exciting. But hey, did you know that Minwax wood stain eats nail polish? Now I do.

Once again I'm totally behind on all the things I wanted to post... as if I ever caught up in the first place?

So... where to start... OPI Soft Shades? Had a surprisingly high number of emails asking me to review this, so here it is. And useless trivia? 3 of the 4 shades start with the letter 'i'. Confusing!



Isn't That Precious? Soft pink sheer. Has that kinda squishy-jelly-soft look that I like. It's a creme, no shimmer.



I Think In Pink. The darkest and most opaque of the bunch, but still not dark by any stretch of the imagination.



It's A Girl! Genius, OPI, genius. I can see this shade being super popular for the name alone. Think of all the baby shower gifts! It's A Girl baby pink nail polish! But now they need to do a stereotypical baby blue "It's A Boy" to match. It should come with bubblegum cigars.



Pink-a-doodle. Oddly, the only one that doesn't start with 'i' is also the only shimmer. It's very subtle and a little hard to see, but this pink sheer does have a soft shimmer to it. But I do have to say... Pink-a-doodle?? Huh??


The formula on these was a bit tricky for me to use. I generally find that pink sheers are thick in consistency- and these were a little on the thick side. They're all sheers, so I did four coats. Thick plus multiple coats rarely ends well, so if you're doing as many coats as I did, let them dry for a minute or two in between to avoid that clumping-globbing effect. They do excel in not being streaky on the first coat, so if you're into the sheer look, these will work for you.

Now you may ask, "What's the difference between these colors? How do they compare to each other?" And honestly, I have no idea. They look so similar to me that I'm having a hard time finding a way to describe how exactly they're different. I think in this case the idea is to pick the sheer that best suits your skin tone.

Honestly, I liked last year's Soft Shades collection better. Remember it? They were sheer pinks and whites but they had this really neat contrasting shimmer/flash. These are just plain old pink. A little milky and slightly jelly-ish, but still... plain pink. Not that they are ugly, though, cause I don't find them ugly. They're not streaky, not so sheer you need 97 coats and they're actually pretty flattering on my hands... They're just not my thing. And the collection is clearly labelled "Soft Shades" so it's not like we're getting surprised with sheer pinks instead of colors in a regular collection. So yeah, if you like sheer pinks, woohoo! Awesome for you! I'll be waiting patiently for the next collection ;-)

(These were sent to me for review.)

Color Club Pardon My French Collection Spring 2010

I am slightly confused by this collection- when I saw the name "Pardon My French" I immediately thought "oh, another sheer french manicure collection." But... when I tried the polishes on my nails I couldn't figure out how I would do a french manicure with these. The cremes are not really sheer enough to use as base colors, but you could definitely use them as tip colors. Perhaps the idea was to use one of the cremes as the tip color and one of the sheer glitters as the base? Or maybe this isn't a french manicure collection at all, it's just France themed. I don't know. Not even sure it matters! All that matters is... there's glitter.


I Believe In Amour. Pale creme pink.


Pardon My French. Pale pink-peach creme. I like this one... it has this nice delicate peachiness but it's still pretty stark-whitish so it really stands out on my hands. Sorta mod looking but also soft.


Take Me To Your Chateau. A pale blue creme. It's really not as bright as it looks here on my nails, but the bottle color is accurate. Also, see those streaks of darker color? My fault. It's unmixed pigment. It separated a little and I was too lazy to shake it before I swatched. D'oh.


Oh Naturale. Semi-sheer soft peach creme. This is a deeper, orangier peach- kinda like Crayola peach :) This was the only sheer one out of the cremes, but this is three coats and it's nearly opaque- only a little visible nail line.


Now onto the good part... the glitter.

I didn't take any pictures of the glitter alone because my nails were stained hot pink at the time I took these. >.<



Hot Couture over I Believe In Amour. NICE!!! As you can see, Hot Couture is a pastel multicolor/iridescent glitter in a sheer pink tinted base.



Hot Couture over Pardon My French. Also nice! I love how the paleness of the base accentuates the colors in the glitter.

Turn The Other Chic over Oh Naturale. This one is pastel iridescent glitter as well, but this is in an orange base. The orange base is not as sheer as Hot Couture so it's easier to wear alone. It's layered here but doesn't it look like it's alone?

Si Vous Please over Take Me To Your Chateau. This one is my favorite. A clear base with pastel iridescent glitter. Especially nice over this pale blue. It's so snowy and sparkly. I know it's almost summer but I'm really enamored with this wintery look right now. Not that I miss the snow yet...

Like I mentioned before, I thought these were going to be sheer but they really weren't. I did three coats of all and that was definitely enough. The glitters are sheer, though. Formula was basically Color Club standard- no surprises. The glitters are thick like the Color Club Japanese ones. You will want to wear a nice thick topcoat with the glitters because they are on the textured side. They're not that rough, but they do have a textured look after they dry instead of a glassy smooth look.

Can't wait to see what Color Club does next. I always look forward to their collections.

(These were sent to me for review)