Color Club Starry Temptress: Swatches and Review

Let me preface this by saying that I am not a glitter kind of girl. I only have three glitter topcoats, and I've only used one of them twice. With that said, I love the Starry Temptress collection. I think it's the combination of neon and glitter, and the warm spring weather that are making me feel this way. I have a feeling people are either going to love or hate this collection. I don't foresee there being a middle ground on this one.

Ok, on to the swatches. All swatches have two coats, Revlon Colorstay topcoat on top with shade pics first, then sunlight.

First up is Space Case. This is a bubblegum pink with holographic glitter. Sadly, the holo doesn't really show up on the nail, so it mostly looks like silver glitter. That suits me just fine, and this one is actually my favorite of the collection. The formula was ok on this one; the consistency was good. Space Case is the only one that didn't dry matte. It may be because this is the only one that isn't a true neon.




Next is Ultra-Astral, a hot pink neon with holo glitter. As with Space Case, the holo doesn't really translate. The formula on this one was a tad bit thick.




Next is Wink, Wink, Twinkle. This is a mid-toned neon purple with holo glitter. To save myself some time, I'll just say that the holo in each of these is lazy and likes to lie around in the bottle rather than coming out to play. This one gave me the most trouble when it came to accurately capturing the color. Just know that it's much more vivid in real life. Also of note: the formula on this one was the best for me. It was the thinnest of the six.




Next is You've Got Soul-ar. Neon orange with holo glitter.




Glitter Envy. Neon green with holo glitter. Here is where things start to go south. I'm not sure why, but the glitter in this and Otherworldly looks white, rather than silver. The formula on this one was thick.





Finally, Otherworldly. Neon blue with holo glitter. Formula was a tad thick.




Removal was typical for glitters. A pain in the butt. Please excuse the wayward glitter specs in my swatches, but those things hung on for dear life.

I didn't use the glitter topcoat because I'm not ready for all that just yet lol. Each of these dries to a bumpy finish, but a good clear topcoat smooths them out just fine.

Verdict: I've been under a lot of stress lately, and swatching these made me happy. I love all but the last two, but I still love the collection as a whole and I appreciate that Color Club takes the risks that it does.

You know what else I love? That I can buy an entire collection for $8 at Ross. :)

So what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Not sure yet?

Happy painting!

Blue for Autism Awareness: Color Club Otherworldly

April is Autism Awareness Month. Several nail bloggers are wearing blue polish this month in support of the cause. When I heard, I was more than happy to jump onboard. My six year old daughter has Asperger's, and my hope is that more people become knowledgeable about autism and all of the spectrum disorders. The more we know, the sooner we can find out what's causing it.

Ok, on to the polish. I saw swatches of the Color Club Starry Temptress collection at Lovin Nails (great blog, btw. You should check it out!) and ran right over to Ross to pick it up. It is, in a word, amazing. I'll have swatches and reviews tomorrow, but for now, I figured Otherworldly was appropriate for this post. Two coats, Revlon Colorstay topcoat on top:



Happy painting!

Color Club: Yachty, Yachty, Yadda. And crack.

It really is addictive. I'm sure everyone is just sick to death of Crackle, but I can't stop. I saw this mani on Kendal's blog and I just had to replicate it. Mine didn't come out as good as hers, but I love the color combination anyhow.

Yachty, Yachty, Yadda was released with the Yacht Club collection a few years ago. Most of the polishes in the collection were winners for me, but this is my favorite. YYY is a bubblegum pink cream. This is two coats, no topcoat:




I then added ChG Broken Hearted (Revlon topcoat on top):



The result was sickeningly sweet looking. I think I should have used a lighter base color. At any rate, I still love the mani, although it's like pink on crack. Literally, I suppose lol.

Formula wise, YYY is pretty great. I have a lot of pink cremes, and this is one of the least streaky and chalky. It evens out nicely on the second coat. It also wears well. Can't beat that for the price.

Happy painting!

Franken: Teal We Meet Again

I just kind of threw this together last night because I was feeling frustrated. Have you ever looked at your stash and thought, "I don't want to wear any of these"? Well, that was me last night. So I pulled out a half empty bottle of Color Club Naughtycal Navy and started adding stuff to it. I added ChG fairy Dust, Maybelline Going Green, Wet 'N Wild Hallucinate, and Misa Indescribable, and this is what I got. Two coats, Seche Vite on top:



Sunlight:





It's a beautiful sunny day here so I plan to clean my house. Woo hoo! Well, at least my nails will be pretty while I do it. :-)

Happy painting!

Straight to the taupe!

How lame is that title? lol

Anyway, I have some taupe comparisons. I had already planned to compare Color Club Give Me a Hint from the Alter Ego collection with China Glaze Below Deck (re-release of Channelesque) from the Anchors Away collection, but I threw in Pure Ice Taupe Drawer and OPI You Don't Know Jacques just because. I already know they aren't close, but what the hell. No topcoat on any of these.

Index finger: Give Me a Hint (GMaH), 2 coats
Middle finger: Below Deck (BD), 2 coats
Ring finger: Taupe Drawer (TD), 3 coats
Pinky finger: You Don't Know Jacques (YDKJ), 2 coats







As you can see, GMaH and BD are not dupes. BD is more purple; GMaH is more grey. Formula wise, there is no comparison. BD was pretty much a one coater for me even though I did two out of habit, while GMaH needed two thick coats. If you have BD, you don't need GMaH unless you look at these pictures and see two drastically different shades.

TD is pretty sheer and not all that great to work with. YDKJ is standard OPI creme fare (smooth, creamy, pigmented, etc.).

I think I can safely say I have enough taupes. Happy painting!

Part 2...Color Club Alter Ego Collection: Swatches and Review

Today I have part two of the Alter Ego Collection: Keep it Under Cover. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by these. The shades are vibrant and textured, and a couple of them are unique. This is obviously the portion of the collection that was designed for those who like to be bold and daring. Check it out:


Masquerading. Pale greyish-blue frost. This one is odd. First of all, I saw it in the bottle and totally expected it to be sheer. It just had that look to it. Yes, I prejudged. This is a one-coater yall. ONE COAT. Also odd is the texture. I don't think I've ever seen a finish like this. The formula was pretty thick, but not difficult to work with.




Secret Agent. Rich purple frost with purple shimmer. Two coats. I apologize for my fingers, but I couldn't get my camera to pick up the purple no matter how hard I tried. I had to adjust the color to make it color accurate , which resulted in Incredible Hulk fingers. I plan to re-swatch and get some sunlight pics tomorrow if it doesn't rain. This one may be similar to China Glaze Coconut Kiss, but with one difference; in indoor lighting, it looks a little dusky/smoky, which I like.




Alter Ego. Silver with gold (?) flecks and foil finish. Two coats. This one looks like your typical silver foil polish, but the goldish flecks make it unique for me.






Ulterior Motive. Vibrant fuchsia with blue shimmer and foil finish. Two coats. I absolutely love this one. It's just...so gorgeous. I also thought this one would be on the sheer side, but it wasn't. The blue shimmer is very visible on the nail. This one is unique for me as well.





Total Mystery. Royal blue with fuchsia shimmer. Two coats. I love this one too, but not as much as Ulterior Motive, the yin to its yang. Unfortunately, the pink shimmer refused to show up in my pictures, but it is visible in real life. May be somewhat similar to Orly Lunar Eclipse. By the way, this was the only one I used a topcoat on. It dried almost to a matte finish. I used the Color Club Vivid topcoat that came in the set.








Finally, the winner of the collection.

Alias. Purple shimmery foil duochrome that flashes green and gold. And I probably still didn't describe it right, but it's awesome. May be in the vicinity of Orly Out of This World.






Formula-wise, these were much better than those in the first part of the collection.

Final verdict: I think Color Club did a great job with this part of the collection. None of them were boring to me, and a couple were unique. I think they could have released this as a stand alone. I would have paid full price for Alias, Ulterior Motive, Total Mystery, and Alter Ego. I don't have anything like any of them in my stash.

What do you think?

Happy painting!

Color Club Alter Ego Collection: Swatches and Review Part 1

Today I'm reviewing the Reveal Your Mystery part of the Spring 2011 Color Club Alter Ego collection. You can find my review of the Keep it Undercover portion here.

I can't lie...swatching these was quite an endeavor. Why? Because these shades are not my style at all. This collection, like the new Misa 9 to 5 collection, is perfect for ladies who like demure, work appropriate shades. Nothing wrong with that at all, but it's just not me. Ok, here goes. None of these have a topcoat:

Secret Rendezvous, a lilac creme. Three coats.




Incognito. This is a nude creme. It's the sheerest of the bunch; this is three coats, but I probably could have used a fourth.




Revealed. This is my favorite from the collection. Pale peach with subtle pink shimmer (click to enlarge). This is three coats.







Give Me a Hint. A taupe creme. It looks similar to Below Deck, China Glaze's re-release of Channelesque. They aren't dupes, but they are definitely cousins. This is two coats (the only two-coater out of the bunch).





Get a Clue. A baby pink creme. Three coats.





Sheer Disguise. Light grey creme with blue undertones. This is my second favorite of the collection because for me, it's unique. I have other light greys, but none of them have the same kind of blue cast to them. Three coats, except for the index finger. Please excuse my application. I messed up that nail right before I took the pic, so I globbed some polish on to cover the mess).





Formula-wise, I'd say they were ok. These weren't nearly as streaky as I thought they'd be, and they weren't chalky at all. That's unusual for polishes like this. Some people may be able to get away with two coats on some of these, but my application always left me with sparse areas, even after coat number two. Thankfully, the consistency was good on all these...none were too thick or too runny.

I picked up this collection at Ross*, on sale for $7.99. Would I pay full price for it? No, because again, not my style. For the ladies who wear shades like this (I know my friend Candace will like these ;-)), it's nice to have all these shades in one collection. Unlike one company that shall remain nameless, Color Club didn't release a collection full of polishes that look almost exactly like one another. Each of these shades offers something a little different.

Final Verdict: Boring and not unique, but pretty and work appropriate. What do you think?

Part 2 is forthcoming in the near future...

Happy painting!

*None of the bottles have names on them. I've heard about this with the Ross sets. Just an FYI in case anyone decides to get a set from there.