My kind of yard sale

This Saturday and Sunday, May 18th and 19th, Color Club is having a sale at their site.  25% off seven-packs, two-packs, four-packs of minis!  Plus the web site says free shipping on orders over $30.  Huzzah — great if you don’t have any local stores that carry Color Club like poor, deprived me.  My local Sally Beauty Supply has them at Christmas time but not otherwise.

CC’s duos are two full-sized polishes.  The regular SRP for a full-sized bottle of Color Club polish is $8, and the duos are usually $12 each, so with the 25% off they’d be $9, or $4.50 per bottle.  Great savings.  Here’s a summery duo of shades:

There are lots of other duos on the site; just put “duo” in the search box.  Many fall and winter polishes from this past year.

The 4-packs are mini bottles, great if you want to try some new colors or if you don’t need full-sized bottles.  They’re half-sized (0.25 oz/7 ml), not ultra-minis with only about a tenth of an ounce like some companies.

Finally, if you really want to expand your polish stash, take a look at Color Club’s 7-packs.  These include full collections plus I believe a clear top coat.  The regular price is $48, so they’re $36 with the 25% off.  Here’s one I’m tempted to get, even though I already own the silver-gold one called Antiquated.  I just love foil finishes so much.

Blogger Scrangie swatched the entire Foiled Collection when it was released in the fall of 2011, and I love her review and photos.  This sale might be a good time to get together with a few friends or family members and place an order.  Think of the fun you’d get, splitting up the colors and having a polish party!

Introducing the Holiday Collection from Butter London

Glitterphobes, beware!  Glitterphiles, have at it!

Glitter is big this holiday season, and Butter London obliges with:

• Fiddlesticks — Full coverage, semi-matte, magenta glitter suspended in a raspberry base
• Scuppered — Opaque, copper shimmer with pink, gold, and green glitter
• Jack the Lad — Opaque, moss green shimmer with gold, turquoise, and green microglitter
• Fairy Cake –  Full coverage, silvery, multi-colour iridescent glitter suspended in a light grey base
• Scallywag — Full coverage, bright turquoise glitter suspended in a clear base

I saw Jack the Lad swatched at PShiiit here and it looks beautiful.  I’ve seen a few of the others swatched online but haven’t been impressed by the photos so I chose not to link to them (sounds snobby of me, but I prefer to link to photos that really show off the polish, are in focus, and so forth).

We can’t turn around without bumping into some holiday polish collection these days — Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s.  It’s all good.

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UPDATE:  10/17/12 — Scrangie shows swatches of this collection plus a sixth color, Shambolic, a purple glitter, HERE.  Lovely!

This is a fall collection…. isn’t it?

In the “I need a life” department, I was quite anxious to check online this morning and see if Zoya’s two fall collections were newly previewed, as their Facebook page hinted last week they might be.  So far, one of the six-color sets is indeed shown, on Scrangie’s page, with a full preview and swatches.  I excitedly clicked over to the page….

…. and was promptly disappointed.

Now, if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know what a Zoya addict I am.  Love their polishes, their colors, their finishes.  But the Diva Collection has me thinking, “Huh???”  I’m not saying that every fall polish has to be some shade of brown, but the six colors shown here look either summery or wintery to me.  Still very pretty, but they’re just not what I want for fall, and actually several of them look like dupes of Zoyas I already own.

The colors of the Diva set are:

• Daul — purple base with gold foil (looks similar to Faye)
• Elisa — metallic red (similar in both appearance and name to Lisa)
• FeiFei — steel blue sparkle (looks similar to Crystal)
• Ray — very dark green metallic (looks similar to Suvi)
• Song — shimmery ultra-bright blue (OK, I don’t see a dupe; it’s a bit darker than both Tart and Tallulah, but I already own enough blue polishes to choke a goat)
• Suri — shimmery royal purple (don’t see an exact dupe for this one either, but many that are similar and only slightly different in shade)

And the names?  I realize that the company wants to appeal to all nationalities, and I’m fine with that, but I just hate it when names are so close that they’re easily confused:  Elisa/Elise/Lisa, Kym/Kimmy/Kimber, Suri/Suvi, and Kylie/Kylie2, not to mention that this is the Diva Collection and they’ve already had a Divas Collection.  Is it so hard to think of new names?

The polishes are beautiful but I’m almost angry with myself for being so childishly disappointed in that they’re not what I wanted.  Is that silly or what!?!  I was hoping for some different finishes — true duochromes or true holographics.  I’d really like to see what Zoya could do with those.  Maybe I’m let down since the Beach and Surf Collections were exactly what I wanted for summer.

I’d love to know what you think of this set — are they must-haves for you?  Are you going to save your polish money for the warm shades of China Glaze’s On Safari Collection or perhaps OPI’s Germany Collection instead?  Maybe China Glaze’s Bohemian Duochromes??

Zoya will have one more fall set to show, which will probably be all or mostly cremes.  I’m betting that the limited edition dark gray-green Evvie will make a reappearance, and that’s a beautiful color that I think is quite different.  I showed you that one here.  Of course, I could be wrong.  Stay tuned!

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UPDATE:  Almost as soon as I posted this, there was more news.  Zoya’s not coming out with two fall collections, but three!  Sort of like two and a half — two 6-color sets and one 3-color set.

The other 6-color set is the Designer Collection, all cremes (or creams, whichever way you want to spell it), and it DOES include Evvie.  It also includes my all-time favorite red, the previously limited edition Rekha, so hooray for that!

The 3-color set is the Gloss Collection of three jellies and has another LE shade from this past winter, Katherine, which I swatched on my Peter Som review and love.  It was so incredibly glossy.

Here are all the color names and sets, from Zoya’s press release:

Inspired by backstage beauties, talented designers, runways and VIP fashion events, the NYFW 2012 Color Collections by Zoya for Fall 2012 are simply stunning. Choose from full-coverage creams and metallics or incredibly shiny jellies. If it’s in style this season – Zoya has it!

 

Each New Fall Collection (Designer, Diva and Gloss) features color that is beautiful, long-wearing and “haute” off the New York Fashion Week (NYFW) Fall 2012 runway!

 

Zoya NYFW 2012: Designer Collection

• Rekha (ZP626) – Blood red cream (Bibhu Mohapatra custom shade)

• Toni (ZP627) – Dark maroon red cream

• Monica (ZP628) – Dark mulberry purple cream

• Natty (ZP629) – Smoked navy blue cream

• Evvie (ZP630) – Evergreen green cream (Peter Som custom shade)

• Noot (ZP631) – Charcoal green gray cream

 

Zoya NYFW 2012: Diva Collection

• Elisa (ZP632) – Crimson red metallic

• Suri (ZP633) – Royal purple metallic

• Song (ZP634) – Egyptian blue metallic with a subtle sparkle

• Ray (ZP635) – Pine green metallic

• FeiFei (ZP636) – Magic blue foil sparkle metallic

• Daul (ZP637) – Magic violet foil sparkle metallic

 

Zoya NYFW 2012: Gloss Collection

• Katherine (ZP638) – Sheer eggplant jelly gloss, buildable formula (Peter Som custom shade)

• Paloma (ZP639) – Sheer berry red jelly gloss, buildable formula

• Frida (ZP640) – Sheer teal blue jelly gloss, buildable formula

You can see the Designer and Gloss Collections at KillerLipGloss.com :

Designer

Gloss

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SECOND UPDATE:  You can now see swatches of the Designer Collection at Scrangie’s site, and in my humble opinion her manicures are much better.  I have and love Rekha and Evvie but most of the other colors in the set leave me saying, “Meh.”  They don’t strike me as new and/or unusual and I have very similar ones.  Natty might be a dupe of the pricey “Blue Rebel” from Chanel, though.  Oh well, if I don’t get all of them then I have more money for other things!

Take Wing with Color Club’s summer collection

I thought I was in too much of an “I want fall polishes” mood to look at new summer colors, but I was so wrong!  Take Wing from Color Club is a set of six bright, sparkly, glass flecked summery colors and I’m sooooo tempted.

The set includes a bottle of “0-60 Speedy Top Coat,” and all the colors are available individually as well.  I believe SRP is about $3.00-$3.50 a bottle at Rite Aid, but since I have no local Rite Aid I can’t be sure.  They’re available online at Head2ToeBeauty for $3.10 a bottle, among other e-retailers.  The cheapest I’ve seen the whole set was $24.99 plus shipping on eBay.

Since I don’t have them I can’t show you swatches but once again, Scrangie and The PolishAholic are there for you with great photos and helpful comments.  In The PolishAholic’s composite photo, the Take Wing polishes remind me of gumdrops!  (I must do something about this food obsession of mine…)  Scrangie says some of them have a slight duochrome effect as well.

Also, looking at other swatches from Scrangie of much more expensive Nubar polishes, I think I can safely say the Color Club ones are dupes for a whole lot less.  I’d love to try these both as they are and also with a matte top coat.

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EDIT:  Just found out that Zoya is having yet ANOTHER awesome promo TODAY ONLY.  Have you put off buying their Beach and Surf Collections for whatever reason?  Now you can get either set — or both! — for half-price PLUS free shipping.  Read all about it at Zoya’s blog, read the fine print, follow the instructions, and enjoy those fantastic summer colors!  (P.S.  That sound you hear is me weeping because I paid full price as soon as they were released.)

What are “Mom colors”? “Grandma colors”?

I’ve been asked this before, rightly so, and thought I’d post about it today.  Occasionally I or other bloggers or people will refer to some nail polishes as “Mom colors” or “Grandma colors.”  Just what does that mean?

There’s no real definition; it’s a nebulous term used when someone thinks a polish is something they’d expect to see on an older person, perhaps literally their mother or grandmother.  Generally, these shades seem to be mauves and some pinks.  But you know what?  Mauve and pink are two color families that I happen to love and which I think are flattering for a lot of people.  I don’t think they’ll ever completely go out of style.

But let’s think back to, say, the 1980s.  Many women wore very brownish mauve cremes which were dull and muddy — not much shine and certainly no shimmer.  They were considered “safe” shades.   You saw them in every office setting and at every PTA meeting.

There are mauves, pinks, and neutrals that can be beautiful without being boring.  A great finish is shimmer, because it gives the polish a little kick without being loud and glittery.  And not all polishes have to have shimmer, because I like cremes too.  In fact, ultra-frosty finishes are often labeled “Mom colors” as well, because of past styles.  (Remember the late ’60s and early ’70s?)

What got me thinking about this today is a great new post from Scrangie with preview swatches of the OPI Spiderman colors.  Wish I could review the new colors too but I have to wait and buy them at retail like most people.  At any rate, look at some of the comments about that frosty pink shade called “Your Web or Mine?”.  Scrangie herself says, “Super frosty warm medium pink. Leans coral. Yikes. DO NOT WANT.”

Others’ comments:  “A frosty pink/coral? BLECH!,” “… why does that pink frost exist?!?!?! That’s something my grandmother would have worn in the 80s.,” “I like the look of it [the pink], but I doubt I’d like it on my actual nail – reminds me of my granny’s nails!,” and “And what about that frosty pink aka “frosty granny”?”

Another thing I think that makes a difference is nail shape. Very oval or rounded nails were more in style decades ago (and will be again, no doubt) and I think that shape makes my hands look older, which is why I go for the squared look now, but still short.  Long, pointy, curving nails?   Let’s not even go there.  Every time I see those on someone, all I can think of are the little aliens in the “Toy Story” movie series, and their cry of “THE CLAW!!”

Hope that explains what I mean.  I’m a mom myself and am certainly old enough to be a grandmother.  As always, take what I say with a grain of salt, and wear the colors and finishes and shapes that YOU like best.

P.S.  Hey, can we stick a fork in the crackle polish fad and call it done?  That dark green crackle/shatter OPI polish shown is one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen and, with my wrinkled skin and big knuckles, I think it would make my hands look like they belonged to The Creature from the Black Lagoon.  Yuck!!

The best thing I’ve read today!

It’s an idea whose time has come.  I’m sure we can all agree that Scrangie has a gold mine here.

By the way, be sure to click on her “get on the waiting list” link!