Honest Babes

CND's "The Look. Night Factory. Fall/Winter 2010" collection contains Urban Oasis (#567/Cool/Opaque) and Teal Sparkle (#568/Cool/Sheer.)  Urban Oasis is a one coat blue green, while Teal Sparkle reflects green and sometimes gold at some angles. I swear I once saw blue, too.  Teal Sparkle is really packed with large shimmer, so subtle it's not.  I don't really like Teal Sparkle over Urban Oasis; I think I'd prefer Teal Sparkle over a green or black/almost black polish.

Here's Urban Oasis by itself in different lighting situations:

Way too many pictures, no joke.

The first thing I did when I got Riva, swatch-wise, was compare it to some polishes I already own.  I wasn't all that impressed with it at first.  But after doing an almost full hand manicure with it, I think I like it more than I initially did.  Is it worth US$27?  Well, that I'm not sure about just yet.

Riva is like a grayed dark light blue, if that makes sense.  It looks different to me in person versus the promotional pictures and dries darker and less dusty/dingy than the color you see in the bottle.  The electric blue shimmer is much more noticeable in the bottle than on the nail.  I originally wrote that Riva wasn't unique and wasn't worth $27 unless you like the color or collect Chanel polish, but I find myself backing off of those statements now.  Riva goes on jelly-like, which I appreciated more with each nail I painted.  I did have to use four thin coats to get my nails to look even, which I don't mind for the right color.  I did get bubbles both times I had Riva on, but I blame that on my China Glaze Fast Forward top coat and Sally Hansen drying oil.  I am really disliking Fast Forward so far- it bubbles and it doesn't dry very fast at all. How much do you like light blues?

To celebrate, here are two pics of... CND's Silver & Gold Sparkling Effects set.   I'm too exhausted to coherently form a lot of opinions, so no OPI stuff at the moment.  I bought this CND set from Transdesign, wondering if the gold was like Gold Sparkle, but I don't think it is.  For one thing, Gold Sparkling, well... it's holo.  The image online did not show that!  I had higher hopes for Silver Sparkling, which turns out to be a blah, run of the mill silver from what I can see. Two images, one blurry, one not...

I can't say I'm in love with OPI's Holiday collection this year, but it is a solid collection.  I don't think there are any standouts that a polish collector really has to have, though Merry Midnight and Shim-merry Chic are rather unusual and worth a look.

PICTURE AND FRAZZLE HEAVY

For my final new CND post, I have Inkwell and Oilslick.  These two polishes are verrrry similar, so perhaps not so stunning by themselves.  But wait until you see the Effects over them!   No basecoat and no topcoat on these either... we were going for speed! Read more »

I've already used CND Rose Water for a manicure, but here's a no basecoat and no topcoat swatch of it with more Effects over it.  I'm also including CND Tutu in this post, since it's pink and lighter than the other two colors I'm going to post.  One thing I haven't mentioned about the new caps is that the rubber somehow shards off the handle.  It ends up on the bottle, the neck of the polish, and occasionally in the bottle itself.  Anyway, here's more about Rose Water and Tutu...Read more »

Here are some more no basecoat and no topcoat pictures of CND polishes.  This time, it's Silver Chrome and Green Scene.Read more »

CND's new line goes on sale today, so here are some no basecoat and no topcoat swatches of CND's Bloodline and Dark Ruby, plus four Effects. I have three more sets of two polishes each to post, so look for those later in the day. And away we go!Read more »

Since my nails are getting long, I decided to try the only sheer French/American-style sheer CND I bought.  Rose Water (#505/Cool/Sheer) looks like the usual milky pink sheer in the bottle.  On the nail, it was much more of a hint of tint, a your nails but better healthy shine.  I did three coats of Rose Water until I felt it had adequately softened the look of the moons of my nails.  My nails looked nice and presentable, but not all that interesting.  This is the kind of polish someone might reach for if they needed natural-looking nails that aren't distracting.

But what fun is it if your nails aren't distracting? Read more »