Honest Babes

China Glaze made three different colors for Ulta for the holidays last year. As soon as I saw them on The Polishaholic, I knew I had to go out and look for them! While I love to have complete sets, I opted to buy the two holo polishes because I knew I wouldn't wear the pink.

Fireside Glow (1062) doesn't look all that holographic in the bottle. I didn't expect too much of this cinnamon (dark honey?) and silver shimmer, but when the light hit it, wow! I can see red, yellow, blue and green holo even in low light, but those colors are more muted and don't stand out much. But this is great under bright light or in the sun! It's almost muted enough to be office-appropriate and then blingy enough for after hours. I had low expectations for this one, but they were definitely exceeded.

I used three coats for Fireside Glow. I used one coat on my pinkie at first to show how sheer it is. If you have a polish that's of a similar tone, you could layer FG over it. In the bottle pictures, I have three coats on all fingers. FG can feel a bit gritty; I used OPI's regular top coat, then China Glaze's Fast Forward top coat, then repeated those two steps and it's a bit smoother.Do you like holo? If you do, click here!

I jumped at the chance to order a few polishes as soon as the new OPIs were available online.  (Big thank you to Karianne of Neglelakkmani for pointing them out!)  If you didn't want to order online, yesterday was the official release date.  I received an Ulta catalog yesterday with a coupon and a 5x bonus points offer, so if you have an Ulta nearby they're a good choice.  The OPIs are featured on the back of the catalog, but the coloring in the ad is definitely off.  I have heard that some Ultas (and Trade Secrets) already have the collection out, too, instead of waiting until Sunday when their new ad goes into effect as they usually do.  I also bought an Essie, two China Glazes and five Misas to make the order a little more well-rounded.

Here are bottle pics from my order, since some of them are a little similar.  If you're getting deja vu, yes, I did post these on MakeupAlley a few days ago.

This picture is still a tiny bit light, so just imagine everything a smidge darker.  In order, the polishes are Misa Catch A Flick, China Glaze Westside Warrior, Misa Got it Made in the Shade, OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel and Essie Power Clutch (if you don't see the Essie, click on the image and the whole thing will pop up):

This picture doesn't show how Urban-Night is a little more red-toned, but it's pretty decent.  The polishes are China Glaze Urban-Night, OPI Honk If You Love OPI, OPI Color To Diner For, Misa Bop Til You Drop and Misa Pop the Clutch (click on the image to see the entire thing):

Here's a close up of Bop Til You Drop and Pop the Clutch:

And the final picture is of Misa Office Polish-tics, OPI Road House Blues and OPI I Brake for Manicures:

I have some swatches, so I'm going to work on getting those up today.

Revlon's Top Speed fast dry polish in First Class is allegedly a Target-only shade.  While Essie has their own Target-only shades, most (if not all- I'm curious about Red Label) have already been sold before at other retailers.  I wonder if First Class has been sold elsewhere before, but then I wonder why I'm bothering to wonder.  First Class was decently opaque at one coat, but there was a little sheerness that became more evident as the polish dried.  Honestly, I had an easier time with this polish than the Misa and China Glaze polishes I tried out at the same time, both in formula and in brush.  Color me impressed!  I didn't find it to be superbly fast drying, but after a few minutes, I put China Glaze Fast Forward on and my polish was dry (but still dentable) 10-15 min later.  If I exerted enough force, I could dent it the next morning, but I didn't get any dings aside from the ones I gave myself.  I have a little bit of tipwear almost two days later, but I'm pleased with how well this has worn.

The first picture is a maybe little more color accurate as far as I remember, but the second isn't too far off:You know the deal... click if you like blue!

Do you remember what you were doing in early December?  I don't, aside from working.  I did wear this polish combination, but I can't say I enjoyed it.  Other people complimented it, but I didn't really like the color combination.  Picky, picky... that's me!

Ulta exclusive OPI All The Berry Best and China Glaze Mrs. Claus, both from Holiday 2010Read more »

I've been working on this post for a week now and I really am tired of staring at and editing these pictures.  So how about I post 'em, eh?   I brought out all three new "crackle" polishes I have to see how they compared.  Well, more like I just wanted to play with them together!  The base color is RGB's Punch, which is used under all of the rest of the polishes.  I used Clarins 220 (which I'll cover in a different post) on my index finger, the middle finger is China Glaze's Crushed Candy, the ring is China Glaze's Cracked Concrete, and the pinkie is OPI's Black Shatter.  Bottle picture (with polishes in reverse order):

Don't click if you hate crackle!

Hey, remember that contest I had?  I picked winners... and now I'm gonna post 'em!   Without further ado, the two winners of one Black Shatter each (yup, I bought more for the contest) are icitea and dirigible.  Stine Marie has won all four colors plus Black Shatter.  Camelia, you have won the set of ten makeup brushes by Sinful, but if you'd rather have a Black Shatter, just let me know.   If everyone could contact me by February 17th, that would rock.

And since I feel like every post needs to have a picture, here's China Glaze's Zombie Zest and OPI's Simply Smash-ing! and Black Shatter:

And in other news... it's snowing.  Maybe I'll stay home and swatch today!

Who Let the Dorks Out? (SE 293) is from Sephora by OPI's new Glee collection.  It's described as "opaque metallic peacock green," which doesn't strike me as the best description for this polish.  It's kind of a wishy-washy green with icy blue shimmer.  In certain lights, you can see the shimmer turn pink.  I personally don't like the base color and the color of the shimmer together, but maybe I'll warm up to it.  It certainly doesn't make me think of the character of Sue Sylvester on "Glee" or peacocks, and it doesn't resemble the little dot on Sephora's website, either.  In fact, the two crèmes and to a lesser degree Miss Bossy Pants kind of look like their sample dots, but the rest of the colors are off-base.  Hell to the No looks like a shimmery cooler-toned purple on sephora.com, but it's more red-based in color with heavier gold shimmer, for example.  But I digress!

Happy new year, everyone!

Ulta is clearancing out a lot of the holiday collections they received, including OPI's Burlesque polishes.  I was shocked to find two bottles of Elle's Spell by Barielle, so I more than willingly plunked down US$2.99 for one of them.  It looks gorgeous in the bottle!  I've seen some great swatches of it, so I'm excited to see it on the nail.

I loathe Sally Beauty Supply because of the terrible manager at my local store.  She seriously needs to be fired and scuttlebutt says I'm not the only one who has complained.  Yet she continues to be employed... it's a mystery to me!  When I visited a Sallys in a far-flung location, I found the Halloween collection by China Glaze deeply discounted.  Score!  I think I paid $1.99, but I've heard that some people are finding them for $0.99.

anthropologie had a 40% off already discounted items, and shockingly, that applied to Strange Beautiful polishes!  (Not shockingly, it did not apply to the Lipstick Queen three pack of lipstick.   It was still >$40.)  I bought two out of the three SB duos that I found and paid only $3.95 per duo.  Not bad considering they were originally $18 each.

From your left to your right: ChG Mummy May I (942), Ick-A-Bod-y (944), Strange Beautiful polishes in Verdigris and Pink, ChG Zombie Zest (943), Barielle Elle's Spell (5103)

There's been a lot of buzz about CVS' 75% off clearance sale.  It is amazing, and if you have a CVS nearby, get out there and buy some great stuff!  I'm not normally a regular makeup swatcher, but I might do more of that this year.  It's just a lot easier to swatch on nails, so that will still be my focus.   At the CVS I visited, I found the following on sale:

Insta-Dri formula: 06 Rose-a-go-go, 16 Blush Rush, 17 Mochachino, 22 Jumpin' Jade, 23 Blazing Blue

Diamond Strength formula: 90 Brilliant Bordeaux, 92 Deeply Violet, 94 Black Diamond

I assume these are on sale across the country, and there may have been some that I didn't catch that are also on sale.  Some of the deeply discounted colors are very pretty and I'm sad to see them go.

I took these pictures on Halloween, I think, so that should tell you how much of a backlog I have to post.  I really want to get to the new Essies next, but I guess we'll see what happens.   I haven't tried these out yet, but there have been lots of great swatches already.  The only thing I can add is pictures of the sets so you can compare them to the stock pictures, I guess.  This next set is the most boring of the sets, with a candle that I haven't tried out yet.  Mrs. Claus looks nicer in this picture than I remember it being in real life.

These are pretty adorbs!

I was going to post this on Halloween- I even had Photoshop open, editing pics- but then the DVR went kaput.  I spent two hours trying to deal with Time Warner Cable, missing the premiere of "The Walking Dead."  Twice.  Yesterday was el Dia de los Muertos, a holiday I'm fond of, so let's pretend I did this manicure for that, OK?

BEWARE OF MY CUTICLES, FOLKS.  "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."   I tried to blur them out, but I wasn't very successful.

China Glaze's Fortune Teller (28887) is black with copper-y orange glitter. Sometimes I think there's microglitter, glitter and hex glitter in it; other times, I think there's only glitter and hex glitter. The black base is a bit sheer so the glitter can shine through. Because of the glitter, I would caution you to be slightly more careful than usual around your cuticle and nail tips when using Fortune Teller. The glitter can cause an uneven line and stick out a bit. I just lightly tapped my nail tip on a piece of paper to force the glitter back onto my nail all the way while the polish was still wet. I'm not sure if this polish was exclusive to Sally Beauty Supply last year, but I bought it at a discount (US$3.99) there a few months ago. A few more pics...