Christmas news? Really???

Yes, really.  Just saw unofficial sneak peeks of China Glaze’s upcoming holiday colors and gift sets, and while I feel it’s my duty as a nail blogger to spread the news, I shake my head that here it is the last day of March and I’m talking winter holidays.

What will probably happen is that when I want to buy these polishes in early December, I won’t be able to because they will have sold out in October, when I wanted Halloween polishes, which sold out in early September, when I was trying to buy fall polishes that sold out in the middle of summer, when I was still trying to figure out what the heck was going on.  This happens to me all the time with clothes and shoes (bathing suits, sandals, winter robes) — when I need something I can’t find it because it was for sale six months earlier, when I didn’t need it.

Am I ranting?  I think I’m ranting.

At any rate, here’s one of the warm fuzzy promo pics for China Glaze’s “Holiday Joy” collection:

And guess what; the set will have red, red, red, red, and red.  Oh, and some other colors.

In the lower right of the picture, you’ll see that (C) is a creme, (G) is a glitter, and (S) is a shimmer.  I think some of the seven glitters look interesting, and as usual, there will be many gift sets available.  These are sets of two, three, four, or more polishes, sometimes with another little item like an ornament or a candle.  Here’s one really cute set that includes a stuffed animal.

There are a LOT more gift sets — I counted twelve others — red & green, red & gold, red & various glitters, silver & gold, etc., and they really do make good gifts.  I’m not posting pictures of them all now but may another day.

So…. happy holidays!  (???)  And by holiday, I mean April Fool’s Day tomorrow, and no, this is not an April Fool’s Day joke.

New colors for spring and summer

I think I’ve just found my favorite blue-greens.  Zoya’s new summer collections, Beach and Surf, are out and the colors are just gorgeous.

As you can see, each creme (or in the case of Tracie which is a shimmer) in the Beach set has a corresponding color in the foil Surf set.  I was most excited to get my paws on Wednesday and Zuza because I’ve been wanting a blue-green or two that wasn’t too blue and too dark.  They’re perfect!

They look a little more blue in the bottle photo but swatched truly blue-green.  The formulas were great and both covered very well with no streaking in two coats.  I decided to do an accent manicure of Wednesday on my nails with Zuza on my ring fingernail.  Now this is the way to do an accent manicure!  My previous attempt at an accent manicure, using school colors for a sporting event, seemed to be too much of a contrast.

Here are the polishes in indirect outdoor light against the bottle of Zuza, the foil.  They were so glossy I didn’t put on a top coat.

And here with the flash and the bottle of Wednesday:

The flash makes them look more neon, but they are not neon polishes.  I think they’re great for spring or summer, and unlike some greens or blues they don’t make my hands look too red.  I lovelovelove foil finishes because you get the sparkle of a metallic without the visible brush strokes, and it’s much easier to remove than a glitter.

I’m really looking forward to trying the other colors (also available individually) in the sets, too!  Let me know what you want to see.

Spring trio sets from Zoya — on sale, too!

Zoya just listed seven new trio sets, each with “Spring” in the name.  Usually the polishes are $8 each or $24 for a set of three, but now there’s a Good Morning America promotion in which these are HALF PRICE, plus a flat reduced shipping fee.  They’d make fantastic gifts — Mother’s Day, Easter baskets, birthdays — and if you’ve been wanting to try some shades yourself, check out the great color combos.

Please read all the fine print so there are no disappointments:  offer good from GMA airtime on March 29th through 11:59 PST, March 30, 2012 or while quantities last.  U.S. residents only, one order per household, offer cannot be combined with other discounts or offers.  Be sure to enter the code GMAZOYA at checkout.

So, let’s show off these beauties!  Pictures of the collections are shown beneath their titles.

First up, Spring Break — Tracie, Wednesday, Shelby (these are from the brand new Beach Collection)

Spring Delights — Dannii, Poppy, and Happi.  I own all three of these colors and LOVE them.  I’ve swatched  Poppy and Happi before.

Spring Kisses — Lo, Whitney, and Audrina

Spring Lovelies — Miley, Sweet, Pippa

Spring Fever — Creamy, Midori, Hayden

Spring Blooms — Tangy, Venus, Emme

Spring Breezes — Tobey, Lola, Yummy

UPDATE:  The trios are selling out, but Zoya has added several great new items to the sale page, including several 6-bottle samplers and Zoya’s own polish remover.  I’ve been wanting the Sunshine Collection for ages!

Emme, a beautiful pink

Y’know, for pink being my favorite polish color, I sure don’t swatch very many pinks!  Let me try to make a dent in my pink stash with Emme from Zoya.  The site describes it as “Light bubblegum pink with delicate white gold/champagne colored shimmer.”  The color description is right on, but I’d call it more of a frost than a shimmer.

I like that it’s a light bubblegum pink, not a real bright one.  The formula seemed a bit thin and the first coat was streaky, but adding a second and especially a third coat evened it out nicely.  Still, it’s one of the frostier shades I own and the brush strokes are much more visible than I like.

This is three coats, no top coat, under a combination of an overhead indoor light and some indirect outdoor light:

Under a different indoor artificial light it looked more peachy-pink:

With the flash, you see every imperfection in both my skin and my polish application, but it also shows what a pretty pink this is.

I love the color but think I’d find it easier to apply with a different, wider brush that would require fewer brush strokes.  And truthfully, I’m not a big fan of frosts; they look too old-fashioned and way too streaky.  Zoya says this is a cool-toned pink but I think it would be a pretty color on a variety of skin tones.

Achtung! Coming from OPI this fall — the Germany Collection

Left to right, top row: My Very First Knockwurst, Don’t Pretzel My Buttons, Berlin There Done That, Dont Talk Bach to Me, Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!, Schnapps Out of It

Second row:  Suzi & The 7 Dusseldorfs, Every Month is Oktoberfest, Unfor-greta-bly Blue, Deutsche You Want Me Baby, Danke-Shiny Red, German-icure

Oh, these are terrible puns!  Gotta admit, I love the names “Berlin There Done That” and “German-icure” but I think some of them are quite cumbersome.  Do you really want to go in a store and ask for “Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!”??  As far as the actual colors, the top row leaves me cold but I’m drawn to the ones in the bottom row.  Looks like there is a good chocolate brown… maybe two?

OPI is really coming out with lots of collections this year, aren’t they?  Thanks for reading about them here!

Is there such a thing as “the perfect red”?

Bad blogger.  Bad.  It’s taken me almost three weeks to get around to swatching two of the colors from Zoya’s limited edition Bibhu Mohapatra box.

I swatched one of the colors, Zeenat, here, and just loved it.  It’s a silver unlike any of the others I own.

The other two are Parveen, a sheer shimmery honey-beige, and Rehka, a medium-dark red creme.  The story of how Rehka came about is interesting.  Designer Bibhu Mohapatra said that  “…the red was an homage to his mother. When Bibhu was growing up, he remembered his late mother always wearing the most beautiful color of red nail polish on her nails. Because it was customary to eat with your right hand in India, she only wore the red on her left hand. So he always remembered her left hand being painted.”  (from Zoya’s blog)

Since I’m naturally curious, I wondered why that would be so, and I found a web site that talked about the etiquette of eating with one’s hands in India.  Since it’s polite to only use the right hand, and that hand must be kept very clean for reasons of health and hygiene, the nails are kept short and nail polish is discouraged on the right hand.  Learn something every day!

On to the colors.   Parveen is quite sheer but the shimmer is interesting — I thought it was just silvery, but up close you can also see flashes of pink and green.  Unfortunately, like most nude polishes, I think this color gives me mannequin hands.  Still, I want to give it another try in a few months when I’ve had some sun, and I do like it better than another nude I swatched, a light peach from Sally Hansen.  Parveen would make a good office-appropriate neutral.

This is two coats, no top coat, under indirect outdoor light, then under indoor lighting, then with the flash.  (Sorry about the uneven length of my nails; breakages are a part of life!)

The shimmer is so pretty:

Rekha is flat-out one of the most beautiful reds I’ve ever seen and it’s amazingly glossy even without a clear top coat.  Two coats gave excellent coverage.  Even though it’s “just” red, I don’t have a polish exactly like it.  The closest I have is Wocka Wocka! from OPI, but that’s a shimmer not a creme.

Rekha reminds me of those fabulous vintage reds from the 1940s.  Here it is under indirect outdoor light, indoor lighting, and with the flash:

What a keeper!  Sure hope Zoya makes this part of their regular line, and soon!

Too early to be thinking of Halloween?

Never!  I love Halloween.  I cross stitch Halloween projects year-round and like the holiday almost as much as Christmas.  Did you know some polish companies release Halloween collections?  China Glaze is one, and their 2012 collection will be called “Wicked.”

[Photo of collection removed 10/10/2012 due to its alleged theft of artwork.]

 

Not the greatest pictures but that’s all there is right now.  Since dark, muddy colors make my hands look older and more wrinkled, I don’t see anything that thrills me.  Roguish Red looks like a red or two I already have, and Make a Spectacle is a pretty glitter but I think I have a dupe.  Glitter Goblin looks…. unusual.  It will be fun to see actual swatches but I don’t expect those ’til summer.

Speaking of which, Zoya’s new summer collections, Beach and Surf, are now available to order.  That’s what I’m in the mood for!

P.S.  If you want to see China Glaze’s previous Halloween collections, well, here ya go!

2011 “Haunting”

2010 “Awakening”

2009 “Spellbound”

Vintage Minnie Mouse Collection from OPI

When it rains, it pours!  I’ve been reading about so many upcoming collections of nail polish that I’m losing track.  OPI has announced a brand new set of four colors to be released in June called the Vintage Minnie Mouse Collection.

If you’re a Minnie Mouse fan, love Disney, or would just like some cool vintage shades — no purples or greens here! — this might be right up your alley.  There’s a red, a pink, a magenta shimmer, and a confetti pink glitter with hearts:

Put me in the “don’t need it but want it” camp.  I have enough pinks & reds but these are just so darn cute.  I suspect people will be trying to buy the cardboard display rack as much as the polishes!  Wouldn’t the red look fun with white dots, or maybe some black & white glitter?

You know what I really want?  A MINI-set of these colors!  I don’t know yet if there will be one or not but will let you know if I ‘EAR about one. 

Silvery blue

Yesterday I received my Zoya order from their great Buy-3-Get-3-Free sale, and it was a tough choice to pick which one to wear first.  I decided on Jo (Little Women, anyone?), which is a medium periwinkle blue with silver and light blue shimmer.  Here’s what I ordered:  Dannii, Bevin, Akyra, Rea, Jo, and Tess.

Jo has a great formula that’s not too thin or too thick, and it dried quickly yet not so fast that I had to hurry.  Two coats were enough.  Hooray for timesavers that don’t need four or five coats!  Here in indirect outdoor light:

I think it looks slightly more lavender-toned in person but my camera didn’t capture that except in the first photo of the six bottles.  In direct outdoor light:

It looks a bit darker in indoor artificial light, and you see more of the blue shimmer:

It looked the same with the flash as it did in direct outdoor light, so I won’t be redundant.  Here’s a closeup:

Even though Jo is plenty shimmery and shiny on its own I thought it would look really good with Zoya’s Sparkle Gloss Top Coat, which is a clear-based top coat with very fine silvery-white flakes.  I always use a top coat when I do a full manicure, to protect and prolong the polish, so might as well pick a pretty one!

Love it!  Jo sure makes me long for summer. 

Link to Jo

Link to Sparkle Gloss Top Coat

Reissued metallics from Essie

When is new not new?  When it’s a reissue.  Not a thing wrong with reissues; in fact, they’re great if they’re something you want but missed the first time around.

I was alerted to the fact that Target has a new display of Essie metallics, many of which are listed as being “Target exclusives” and I wondered if they were all brand new shades.  I found the display at our local Target — it’s a shallow, wide display on a back wall that contains seven colors.  Five of them are starred as being exclusive to the store and these five are listed as “currently unavailable” on Essie’s own web site.  [Pet peeve:  polish companies, please keep your web sites current!  In this day and age, there's no excuse not to.]

The other two colors are current Essies, so the bottom line is no, these colors are not new.  Here they are (reissues marked with * ):

Buy Me a Cameo

Over the Edge

Pearly White *

Show Me the Ring *

Fair Game *

Loop Hole *

Steel-ing the Scene *

Since the colors have been around for a while, you should have no trouble seeing numerous swatches online from other bloggers and consumers if you’re interested.  I didn’t buy any although I was tempted by Fair Game and Loop Hole.  Fair Game actually looks darker and blue-er than in the above bottle picture; it’s a good steely gray.  All the colors are very metallic/frosty.