China Glaze Spring Preview: Rainbow of Hope

I have some new charity collection news for you today. China Glaze will be re-releasing some of their very popular polishes in a new collection called Rainbow of Hope. China Glaze will donate 18% of sales of Rainbow of Hope to cancer research organizations hand-picked by China Glaze employees. Rainbow of Hope will be shipping in May 2010.

The colors for the Rainbow of Hope collection are:

Sexy Lady- pink
Liquid Leather- black
Recycle- gray
White on White- white
Outtabounds- emerald
Four Leaf Clover- kelly green
Custom Kicks- teal
Platinum Pearl- pearl
Unplugged- brown
Long Kiss- burgundy
Coconut Kiss- purple
Spontaneous- orchid/violet
Bahamian Escape- light blue
Secret Peri-wink-le- periwinkle blue
Rainstorm- blue
Frostbite- royal blue
Happy Go Lucky- yellow
Peachy Keen- peach
Breakin’- orange
Paint the Town Red- red

I have 8 of these colors to show you today- Recycle, Four Leaf Clover, Unplugged, Bahamian Escape, Secret Peri-wink-le, Frostbite, Happy Go Lucky, and Peachy Keen. Some of these colors (Bahamian Escape and Frostbite) are in my top ten favorite polishes ever!!! The polishes I have reviewed before, I’m just going to provide a link to my previous review. I don’t want to bore you with the details if you've already read them!!

Bahamian Escape, two coats, no flash

First up, one of my personal favorites, Bahamian Escape. Bahamian Escape is a gorgeous sky blue. Like the sky in super photo-shopped pictures, LOL. This mani just needs some puffy clouds and we’re set. This is a masterful formula, just perfect. This is two coats and it’s totally streak-free. This is what I had hoped for in the Up and Away collection. Perfection. By the way, that air bubble you see came from my Seche Vite, not Bahamian Escape. I am running low on Seche, so the application is getting to be less than perfect.

China Glaze Frostbite, three coats, with flash

Next up, one you've seen, Frostbite.

From Up and Away, Four Leaf Clover, Peachy Keen, Happy Go Lucky.

Four Leaf Clover, two coats, with flash

Peachy Keen, three coats, no flash

Happy Go Lucky, three coats, with flash

Recycle, two coats, with flash

Recycle is another really great color. It’s a medium gray crème with a bit of a blue-ish tint. In low lights, I would call this “slate” gray. This is two coats, no streaks, great formula again. See a comparison of this and Essie Chinchilly here.

Secret Peri-wink-le, three coats, no flash

Secret Per-wink-le was very hard to photograph (hence the weird angled pic and blurriness). However, it is a gorgeous color in person! It's a beautiful purple-y blue color, maybe more purple than you would imagine periwinkle would be. The color on the blurriest nails in the picture (the two on the right) is more accurate. See how it's more purple? This is three coats. It was even and opaque in two, but on camera I thought it might look better with three. This is a great color for spring and it's less streaky than some other spring polishes I've seen.

Unplugged, two coats, no flash

Finally we have Unplugged. Unplugged is a dark brown-red shimmer. In low lights, this kind of looks like mud. I wore it on my toes once, and you really couldn't see the shimmer, so it was very murky-looking. On the nails though, it’s rather pretty, as long as you know that it is very dark and the shimmer doesn't show up much in low lights. This is two coats. I took one picture with flash so you could see the shimmer.

Unplugged, two coats, with flash

Now, I know some people are not fans of the whole nail polish for charity thing. 18% of sales is not really a big contribution when you could just go donate to cancer research yourself. However, I have had a bunch of these polishes on my list for awhile now (Outtabounds, Custom Kicks, Coconut Kiss, Rainstorm, and Breakin’). So, if I was going to buy them anyway, I think it’s great that now I can buy them and some of my money goes to a good cause! I will definitely be purchasing those five polishes (and maybe more!) when Rainbow of Hope is released in May!

Also on the way from China Glaze is the Summer 2010 collection, Poolside. Poolside is a collection of six new neon polishes. EK and I are flipping out over these and you can bet we will have pictures of all of them as soon as we can get our glittery little paws on them!!!

Polish of the Week: Oops... It's Not Green...

China Glaze Ginger, two coats, with flash

Soooo yesterday I promised you a green Polish of the Week. I originally had a green polish in mind, but I really haven't felt like wearing green polish all week (OMG what's wrong with me?). I think maybe because I'm trying to use some more winter-y colors before spring really hits. So the green will be Polish of the Week next week!

This week, we have a warm and cozy polish color, China Glaze Ginger. Ginger is part of the 50 Specialty Colors collection (see other 50 Specialty Colors here and here) and is a beautiful glitter polish. The base color is a coppery bronze metallic, just the color of a new penny. There are two different types of silver glitter in the polish- a whole bunch of very find silver glitter pieces and a smattering of medium-sized holo glitter pieces. With our love of glitter, Ginger is an automatic winner!

China Glaze Ginger, two coats, with flash

This picture is more color accurate, less red than the first picture.

Sadly, right after taking these pictures, I had one of those "oh my mani is definitely dry" moments when you find out that your mani is definitely NOT dry. But at least I took the pictures first!

Ginger is a year round color, but I am really loving it right now for that warm feeling. It's been raining here for what seems like 3 days straight, so I could use some penny-colored glitteriness in my life!!!

China Glaze Ginger and other China Glaze polishes are available online at 8ty8Beauty.

Comparison Series: Rurples

Here's a quick and dirty comparison shot of the only two red-based purples I own: Nars Purple Rain and OPI Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not. Obviously, they do not look alike. OPI LMLMN is much lighter and more red than Purple Rain. No dupes here!!

Left to right: OPI Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not, Nars Purple Rain, OPI Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not, Nars Purple Rain

Coming up tomorrow: Polish of the Week! It's GREEN!!
Later in the week: A preview of a China Glaze collection coming out in May.

New for Spring: Nars Purple Rain

Nars Purple Rain, two coats, with flash

Clearly I should have taken these pictures yesterday, as today there is no natural light and it is sleeting (still lovin CT). So this post features some of my super blurry, yet reasonably color accurate pictures LOL. I took pictures with flash (see above) to show the shimmer, but I'd hate for you to walk away thinking that the polish really looks like it does in the flash pics.

Nars Purple Rain, two coats, no flash. This is how the polish looks in most artificial lights.

Nars Purple Rain is a red-based dark vampy purple. I love this color because I think we have a lot of blue-based purples (a.k.a. "blurple") in the polish world, so this is a bit different (Rurple? See what I did there?!). In bright lights, it reminds me of a red grape. In most lights though, it's a pretty dark vampy color, but definitely not black. It always has that purple cast to it, so that's another plus about this polish. I really love that a major make-up company like Nars is calling this a spring color. I usually kind of skip spring polish colors and go directly to summer brights. I feel like Francois is saying "It's OK to skip the pale pinks, wear Rurple this spring!" LOL.

Nars Purple Rain, two coats, no flash (cloudy daylight).

This was my first foray into Nars polish, and I'm pretty pleased. The formula is thick, but not in a bad way. Drying time is pretty decent, no long wait here. I noticed that this polish could be opaque in one coat if you are skilled at application. Some of my nails were evenly covered in one coat. I really wasn't trying for one coat either, it kind of never occurred to me that I could get this color even in one coat. The large, square cap of the bottle could be a pain, but it's coated in some kind of non-slip stuff, so it's easy to grip. I would definitely buy Nars polish again (and I will if they ever re-release Zulu!!!!). The price tag is a bit high, but for unique colors, great formula and luxurious packaging, I don't mind!!

This is really my kind of polish. I always feel like darks are SO flattering on my pale skin. Purple is my favorite color too, so it's pretty much a guaranteed win for Purple Rain!

Nars Purple Rain and other Nars polish are available online at Nars and at Sephora stores.

I'm Baaaaaaaaacccckkkk!

Hey lacquer lovers, EC's back from Ireland!!!! I had a pretty good trip, I did OK at the competition despite one judge attempting to ruin my life, and I really missed this blog!!

I don't have a real post for you today, as my nails are recovering from the trip. Nasty airport soap + dry airplane air= SUPER dry hands and cuticles. I need to use my One Minute Manicure today and lots of hand cream!!!

Tomorrow, I'll have a post about Nars' spring polish- Purple Rain! I tried to find Lancome's Europe-only polish release, Pop Petrol (a greeeeen!!!!) in the airport, but no such luck. EK and I have a layover in Heathrow next month though, so we'll look again there!

Nail of the Day: South Beach Re-freshmint

For my last China Glaze Up and Away Nail of the Day (last for awhile anyway), I had to do a look with Re-freshmint. This is a super subtle look, but extremely pretty in person!!!

For this look, I did three coats of Re-freshmint with two coats of Zoya South Beach Ice on top (see South Beach Ice alone here).

Three coats Re-freshmint, two coats Zoya South Beach Ice, with flash

On camera, South Beach Ice just looks like a layer of shimmer, but in person, you can see that it really deepens and adds to the color of Re-freshmint. These two polishes together make one of my favorite looks for Spring 2010. If you own both of these polishes, try this out immediately. If you only own one of these, buy the other one now!! If a polish company came out with a polish that looked like this, I guarantee there would be a stampede for it!!!

Three coats Re-freshmint, two coats South Beach Ice, with flash

China Glaze Up and Away is available online at 8ty8Beauty and in an Ulta store near you. Zoya South Beach Ice is available online at Art of Beauty.

Nail of the Day: Fizz Nova

The next China Glaze Up and Away polish that I wanted to jazz up is Lemon Fizz. I like the color of Lemon Fizz by itself, it's nice and pretty for spring. But when you want something a bit more fun and unexpected, try adding a silver glitter top coat, like China Glaze Nova!

Three coats Lemon Fizz, One coat Nova, with flash

I think that most people would do gold glitter with yellow, so the silver is a little bit different. The pale yellow with the holo pieces in Nova looks really good. I like this combo a lot!

Three coats Lemon Fizz, One coat Nova, with flash

China Glaze Up and Away is available online at 8ty8Beauty. China Glaze Nova is also available at 8ty8Beauty.