China Glaze - Riveting

Hello everyone! Yes, I'm alive. I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. Yikes. I've unfortunately been busy with school & family stuff. Add to that the capricious Florida weather & it doesn't make for a good blogging atmosphere. Anyways, I'm here with one of the new China Glaze Capitol Colours polishes. These have been talked & talked & talked about, and for good reason! The first time I saw this press release, I actually got excited about new polishes for once. A lot of collections just haven't been exciting, but this collection has some great colors. I bought Riveting, Agro, Fast Track, & Harvest Moon. The colors of the collection would have made a great Fall release, I think, but you know that won't stop me from wearing them now. :)

Riveting is a wonderful, BRIGHT orange filled with gold & orange shimmer. This color seriously jumps out at you, which is why I bought it. I do love a good orange. :) Even better, the formula was fantastic! Two coats & I was done, no problems. It even cleaned up nicely. You know how some shimmers will leave little glittery bits on your fingers, no matter how much you clean up afterwards? Not with this! It's just a great, glowy golden orange.

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China Glaze - Thataway

Hello everyone! I hope you had a wonderful time ringing in the new year. I sat on my couch and watched Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin on CNN before going to bed around 12:30. Can you tell I'm not a partier? :) Anyways, here's my first swatch of the new year. I got this along with some other new polishes at Sally Beauty a little while ago. I think people forget sometimes how great the core colors of brands can be! Limited edition collections are great but there's so much more. Thataway is part of CG's core collection and a really great polish. It's a soft, almost peachy-coral orange full of yellow shimmer. It initially looks frosty when wet but then settles down into a nice diffused shimmer. It went on super smoothly in 2 coats and has been a very cheery escape from winter. It's been unseasonably warm recently but in the past few days we've had a hard cold snap with temperatures in the 20s at night! That's a big deal for us sub-tropical folks. I'll stay inside and keep warm by painting my nails. :)

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Finger Paints - Ripe Peach

Hi everyone! I have a real, honest to goodness swatch for you today. I know it's been quite a while. This lovely color isn't very Christmas-y but it's sort of hard to think of tinsel and trees when it's been 80 degrees every day for the past week or so. Nevertheless, this is a great color for any time. I've always been a bit hesitant to wear peaches and corals because of the orange undertones but this one looks great. It does remind me of the blush on a nice ripe peach and even has some of the silvery appearance of a fuzzy peach thanks to the soft, subtle silver shimmer. The formula was a little fussy and sheer, needing 3 coats and leaving some thin spots here and there, but it wasn't too bad. I apologize for the massive growth gap, I've had this on for about a week. But the lack of tipwear or chips should show you how happy I am with my Color Club Vivid topcoat and Essie Feed Me basecoat! Everything wears like iron.

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Sally Hansen - Coral Fever

Hi everybody! Sorry again about the late posting, it's been tough getting sunshine to snap pictures in lately. This is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Coral Fever, part of the limited edition Spring collection. I wasn't particularly excited about any of the shades from swatches I saw but I ended up getting this, Model Behavior, and Delphinium when I saw the display at a local store. I generally like the SH CSM polishes, they go on smoothly and have a BIG WIDE BRUSH which is great for my wide nails. Coral Fever was a good example of SH CSM quality, pretty well pigmented and went on nicely in 2 coats. The drying time on its own is pretty fantastic, too! Just maybe 5 minutes after I painted my last nail and finished cleanup but hadn't applied topcoat yet, my mom wanted me to help her take out and play with my rats. I had her open the cage so I wouldn't dent anything and stood there playing the 'my fingers are made of lava, don't touch anything' game until one of the girls went tumbling onto the floor! I scooped her up quickly and I know my nails brushed against her, the carpet, and a wooden bed in the process but when I went to examine the damage.. there was none! My nails were perfectly glossy and unblemished. High-five, Sally Hansen.

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China Glaze - Life Preserver

I've really been liking bright, bold colors for summer and this is no exception. Life Preserver is a nice strong orange color that really pops without being neon. It went on nicely in 2 coats which is always a plus. Next time I might layer Fresh Squeezed on top of it for some sparkly, juicy goodness!

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Nicole by OPI - Fresh Squeezed

Here's another fun summer color! This came from a spring or summer collection from last year so if you really want it, try MakeupAlley or eBay. It's a semi-sheer orange with very pretty pink and yellow shimmer. I must be really changing, I'm becoming tolerant of these sheerer colors nowadays. They used to drive me mad! I'd still probably prefer this with a solid layer of orange underneath though. This is 4 coats.

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Sinful Colors - Boogie Nights

So I love/hate the name of this polish.. It's so fitting but it got the song stuck in my head! Oh well. Boogie Nights is a beautiful orange-y coral that still has just enough pink in it to keep it looking good on me. When I first applied it, it made me think of melon candy. It's a jelly-creme finish that leans more jelly which you can see here by my visible nail line after 3 coats. Normally VNL would bother me a lot but I love this color so much I'm willing to give it a pass. It's perfectly summery and super glossy! I filed my nails down into a rounded almond shape since my nails tend to curl a lot when they grow long and the corners will break if you look at them. So I figured, hey.. no corners, no breaks! It's worked out great so far. Can you tell any difference?

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Let me pick your brains for a second.. Would you like to see what things I'm gathering for a 50 follower giveaway as I pick them up, or should it stay a surprise until I hit that number? I'm ITCHING to do a giveaway but haven't quite got the numbers yet! Perhaps it'd be motivation? :) I'll tell you a little secret about it, there's two hard-to-find polishes in the prize bucket as of right now..

Color Club - Tangerine Scream

Hello there! Finally back with another swatch for you. This is Color Club's Tangerine Scream, released as part of their Summer 2009 Electro Candy collection. I have the whole set, so expect to see them all here sooner or later. This is a great color with a really cool blue-white shimmer that kinda shows up here. It's like most neons, kinda sheer, so I think this was 3 or 4 coats. Worth it though. Oh, and my pinky nail is stubby because I had a little break on Friday.. Sad, but at least I didn't lose the whole nail!

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