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.)

China Glaze Island Escape Collection Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

Another 2011 summer collection! I know, I'm not even done with the spring collections... But these were just so pretty and sparkly looking, I had to try them on... China Glaze Island Escape!


108 Degrees. A glorious glass fleck, the way only China Glaze can do them. The base of the color is a warmer magenta jelly while the glass fleck shimmer is a cooler toned pink and violet duochrome with a little hint of gold. Definitely brings back memories of their old glass fleck polishes... Doesn't this seem like a cousin to the classic China Glaze It's 5 o'clock Somewhere?



Blue Iguana. Another gorgeous glass fleck. This one is a medium/borderline light blue jelly base with a turquoise blue glass fleck and a tiny hint of purple duochrome. The duochrome is really more like a purple reflection- the polish looks blue, but when there's a reflection on the shiny surface, it's purple. Again, reminiscent of those great old China Glaze glass flecks like Drinkin' My Blues Away and Martini Pedicure.


Cha Cha Cha. A bright, glowy, yellow toned apple green and gold duochrome shimmer. Wow... Another flashback! Don't you think this is in the spirit of China Glaze Moonpool? Sure, it's brighter and less olivey, but still has such a similar theme. It's less frosty, so that's good.



Electric Pineapple. A yellow-green creme. I think this is my least favorite of the collection. It's not a bad color, but it looks bland next to all the other shades. It's really similar in color to Zoya Mitzi- it's about a shade lighter and not matte finish, but the shades are similar.



Papaya Punch. I might like this one even more than the glass flecks! It's a medium bright orange creme. It's not a neon and it's not too bright, it still has a little bit of softness to it. It reminds me of the fake cheese powder in boxed macaroni and cheese. I've said the same thing about Color Club Explosive... this is less yellow than that and not as bright.


Senorita Bonita. A red-toned purple with awesome pink shimmer. This was really hard to capture... that pink shimmer doesn't want to show up in pictures! But it's so so so pretty. Might need to enlarge the picture to see it. I think it shows up on my ring finger pretty well in this picture. The shimmer isn't glass fleck like the other colors, it's actually tiny little broken flakes of red-pink foil. Not chunky or glittery at all. Smooth. This color has a lot of depth and even a small amount of gold duochrome on the shimmer flakes. You have to see this one in person.


The formula on these was okay. They're a bit thicker than I expected. They didn't apply as evenly as some of the more recent China Glaze shades, but they weren't particularly troublesome. I might thin mine. Opacity was varied, but good. The cremes and Cha Cha Cha were good in two coats, but I thought the others looked best with three. I'm wearing three coats in all these pictures. No topcoat, either- see how shiny they dry without topcoat? Drying time was good as well.

You know what I like about this collection? It has echoes of past shades. And not random ones, either... Good ones. Ones that we all love and covet. It's like China Glaze is giving a nod to their longtime fans by including memories of some of their best discontinued shades in this collection. There are no direct copies or re-releases, but the similarity is obvious. Love them for that.

Overall, small but strong collection. The colors are WAY better in real life than they were in the promo pictures. The only weak point to me is Electric Pineapple because it doesn't have the same oomph as the rest of the shades. It's just kinda... meh. But the rest get two thumbs up from me, especially Papaya Punch. Love the sparkle and depth of the glass flecks, the flaky shimmer in Senorita Bonita and the brightness of the collection as a whole.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Zoya Summertime Collection Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

Here's part two of the big Zoya summer collection. It's called Summertime and it's six creme shades.


Areej. This one's a deep pink / fuchsia creme. Very smooth and creamy looking, slight muted quality to it.


Breezi. A teal-blue shade. More blue than teal, but has a definite teal tone to it on the nails. My picture makes it seem brighter than it is; in real life it has a soft dustiness/murkiness to it that just doesn't come across in my picture.


Kieko. A red-purple creme. Much more red toned in real life, more of a berry than a true purple. Think Jessica Feather Boa from the Burlesque collection to give you an idea of the shade, it's similar to that but with a little more blue to it.


Mira. A medium purple creme. Again, my picture makes this purple pull too blue toned, it's much more red toned in real life. It's actually really similar to those China Glaze Grape Pop / Rescue Beauty Lounge Mismas type purple cremes that came out in the past few years. It's just a touch lighter and warmer toned, but still very similar.



Sooki. Bright cherry red creme. This is my favorite of the collection. It is loud and obnoxious and AWESOME. It's one of those flashy bright reds that you can see from a mile away. It seems to have a less dense creme finish, like it's almost a jelly, but not quite squishy enough looking. Very hot.


Tamsen. My second favorite in the collection! Can you believe it? A collection with two purples and a blue and my favorite colors are the red cremes... But I'm totally serious. This is a great red. I took two pictures to try to convey the warm orange tone that's in this compared to the coolness of Sooki. This is like a brick red, or even a red-orange. It's muted and a bit dusty looking like some of the other shades in this set. This one changes in different lighting, too... In artificial light it looks more pure red to me, but in sunlight it looks almost entirely orange. Really like the warmth and softness of this particular red.

The formula on these was great. Smooth and consistent, not too thick or thin and no difference in formula across the whole set. Opacity was great, too. They only needed two coats, but I did three just to see how it looked. These do not suffer from the extremely long dry time that the Sunshine shades have, these have a normal/average dry time.

Overall, I can't say I think this is a super exciting collection. I do like the shades, but I feel like I've seen them all too many times before- medium pink creme, purple-berry, dusty teal, medium warm purple, red creme... Nothing really unique or new. Sooki and Tamsen really stand out to me. The vivid brightness of Sooki and the warm rustiness of Tamsen make them very visually appealing compared to the muted pinks and purples in this set. Breezi is a really nice interesting shade, too, but it doesn't excite me the way Tamsen and Sooki do.

Nice formula, though!

(These were sent to me for review.)

Zoya Mod Mattes Collection Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

In addition to the Sunshine and Summertime shimmer/creme sets for summer, Zoya has also released a mini collection of matte finish brights. They are:

Lolly. A bright pink creme matte. I like this shade of pink in the matte finish. It's a cooler shade of pink than OPI La Paz-itively Hot Matte and it has no shimmer.

Mitzi. A yellowy pea green matte creme! This is my favorite of the set. It really stands out on the nails. It's bright but murky at the same time. More dirty and yellowy than OPI Gargantuan Green Grape Matte.


Phoebe. A bright blue matte with blue shimmer. The only shimmer finish matte in the bunch. The shimmer is very subtle but it adds a nice satiny glow to the matte color. Think satin ribbon. Also, I just noticed that I have foundation in my cuticles. Ew. Sorry about that.

Since Phoebe has some shimmer, I was curious to see how it looked with topcoat to make it shiny:



It's nice glossy, too! The shimmer is still subtle but it looks electric. The blue on blue with a touch of green is really eye-catching.


The formula on these was good. You seem to have more time to work with these than previous mattes and that helps application somewhat. Your best bet is still to completely load the brush and cover the nail in as few strokes as possible, but you don't have to do it as quickly with these. They do dry completely in only a few minutes and they don't require topcoat so they're great for when you're in a hurry. They are much more sheer than other mattes and I needed three coats to make them look perfect. The wear time is average for mattes; I wore Phoebe for two days with no chipping or tipwear until the end of day two when a large section of polish on my index finger cracked off unprovoked... It's so weird when that happens. It just goes POOF! and it's gone.


I love the mod look of these. Very funky and even a bit psychedelic. It's nice to see more colors of matte, I'm getting a little tired of all the matte greys and blacks! Matte nail polish isn't over yet... wonder if anyone else will do more mattes this year?

(These were sent to me for review.)

Zoya Sunshine Collection Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

My first summer collection post of the year! A welcome change from all the bland colors I've been staring at lately. The Zoya Sunshine set is the shimmer half of their summer collection. It reminds me a little of their Sparkle collection from last year, tons of glittery sparkle in these. Take a look.



Apple. See what I mean? Look at all that gold sparkle. This shade is a light yellow-toned green with crazy amounts of sparkling gold flecks. It looks like it could be a nice match for Color Club Magic Elf... I haven't compared them on the nail yet, but they strike me as being extremely similar.



Faye. This might be my favorite of the collection. I don't think I have another color quite like this. It's a warm prune purple base with insane gold sparkle. It's so bright. And it's not exactly glittery; the particles are really smooth and thin and shiny, not chunky or rough like true glitter. They blend together and make a really glowy smooth look.



Kimmy. Such a hard color to capture, it's so rich and colorful and sparkly. My camera can't handle it! The gold metal flakes and the saturated warm red go so well together. It looks like fire.



Reva. This color is much cooler and saturated in real life, the lighting is washing out the color in this picture. It's the cool toned counterpoint to Kimmie. It's a strawberry shade... except imagine that instead of seeds, the strawberry is speckled with 24 karat gold.


Rica. A golden coral glimmery shade. I like the depth in this, it's not a flat shimmer at all. The base of these colors is sheer and the gold flecks look really cool through the sheer base.


Tanzy. A light orange with gold fire. It's a little like Gabrielle, but the flakes are smaller and shinier.

The formula on these was different this time around. The biggest difference is the drying time, which is much longer than I'm used to from Zoya. The texture is a little thicker on these compared to the similar Sparkles, and they're more sheer so those factors could contribute to the long dry time. The Summertime half of the collection doesn't have the same long dry time. These were on the sheer side and I found that they looked best with three coats. I'm wearing three coats in all these pictures. Application was good aside from the thicker than usual texture.

All of these colors are so glowy. They're luminous. I really like how they look like they're glowing when you're wearing them. The colors are bright and cheery, and the cheeriness is only amplified by all that golden glow.

My top picks are Faye, Kimmy and Reva. All of them are nice, but those three wow me the most. Faye, because it's unique and gorgeous and Kimmy and Reva because they're so rich and colorful and the red shades look amazing with the gold metal flake.

And, I'm sure you've all seen the news about the promo, but just in case, I'll post it for you:

Do you have an account** on Zoya.com? If you answered yes, a very special offer is waiting for you!

A BOGO (Buy One, Get One) Offer*
on the new Zoya summer collections
12:01 EST 3/21/2011 - 11:59 EST 3/25/2011 only.

As an ADDED BONUS for taking part in the exclusive account holders only BOGO Offer*, standard shipping will be only $2! (Order more than $55 and shipping will be free!)

You can BOGO* any colors from Zoya's ModMattes, Summertime and Sunshine collections! With 15 new colors to choose from you are bound to find plenty of BOGO offer* options to love!

Please see the ZOYA blog (http://zoyanailpolish.blogspot.com) for complete details.

*Offer open only to those with active accounts** on Zoya.com, artofbeauty.com, Qtica.com and qticasmartspa.com as of 3/20/2011 at 5 PM ST. Offer open to consumers, Online promotion only. Continental US ONLY. BOGO Offer* is good on Open stock .5oz Polish ONLY from Summer 2011 collections. (Zoya Summertime, Sunshine and ModMatte) BOGO Offer good for up to 7 polishes. BOGO Offer* code is unique and non-transferable. One code per account. Code expires on 3/25/2011 at 11:59PM EST. Standard ground shipping is $2.00 and FREE for orders over $55. Upgraded shipping not available for this promotion. Please allow standard time for processing and shipping, however if volume is higher than expected please allow up to 4 weeks for shipping and processing. Please allow 2-6 weeks for delivery. Comments, videos and pictures posted about this Zoya.com BOGO Offer* outside of Zoya.com or zoyanailpolish.blogger.com are not representative of the opinions of Zoya Nail Polish, Art of Beauty, Inc., Qtica and Qtica Smart Spa and we do not confirm the accuracy of any postings..

**Qualifying accounts are those with a valid username (email) and password that has been created and used in the last 3 years account must be made by 3/20/2011 at 5PM EST to qualify for the BOGO Offer. No purchase necessary to start an account. Customers are responsible for maintaining active accounts. If username or password have been lost we (Art of Beauty, Inc.) are not responsible for restoring accounts or giving out any account information.

(These were sent to me for review.)

BB Couture Spam featuring Saints of Ruin, Men's Formal and Cantina Nights

I'm really not happy with how some of these pics turned out. I've re-done a few of them a couple times and I still don't like how it came out... But, I already have the pictures taken, I may as well post. I think this is the last of the BB Coutures I have left to post! Well, except for that one collection from last fall but I haven't been able to bring myself to post it... It's just... so... yeah, let's just get on to the post.

Cantina Nights Collection - Summer 2010

Adios Mofo

Blue Bahama


Cosmopolitan



Dirty Mother


Grasshopper



Hangover Blues



Huckleberry Martini (not as blue in real life)



Kamikaze


Kiwi Margarita



Pina Colada



Sex On The Beach


Tequila Sunrise



Men's Formal Collection - Spring 2010

Award Medal

Ceremony

Dinner Jacket



Dress Rehearsal



Incognito



Tuxedo Night

Saints Of Ruin Collection - Summer 2010

Ashes



Dark Tommy




Dying Time



Fairy Tale



Nightmare



Ruby Ruin

(These were sent to me for review.)