Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The New Black Glimmer Twins - Golden Ticket

Today, I have for you another offering from The New Black.  In addition to their 5 piece sets, they also have little duos that they call "Glimmer Twins".  They offer these little duos in 4 combinations: gold, red, black, and silver.  In each of these duos, you will find a solid, opaque color, along with a coordinating glitter topcoat.  This post is for the golden set.  FYI, like Jewel Heist, these do not have names, so I am calling them Gold Satin and Gold Glitter.




















From left to right you have the solid gold, the solid gold with the gold glitter topcoat, and then the topcoat by itself.

The solid gold in this little set is beautiful.  It is a perfect muted, light gold with a satin finish.  I did have a little issue with brushstrokes, but in this instance, it didn't bother me.  They just added to the satin feel of the polish, IMO.  I have a love/hate relationship with gold polishes.  I adore then in the bottle and then I hate them on me.  One of my biggest lemmings is Chanel Gold Fiction and yet everytime I find it for a reasonable price, I never pull the trigger because I feel it would look terrible on my nails.  I don't feel this way about this polish.  The gold is light enough to be wearable on even the most untanned skin out there.  Also, there is no shimmer in this polish.  It's simply a golden satin.  Gorgeous.  2 coats.

The golden glitter is beautiful, and quite similar to Julep Oscar that I should you a few days ago.  Oscar does seem to be a bit more packed with glitter, but side-by-side, these look identical in color to me.  The picture above is almost at opacity and it is 3 coats, so you could certainly get there with this polish, if you would rather not use it as a topcoat.

Speaking of using as a topcoat, I think the look on my ring finger with the golden glitter over the satin is probably my least favorite way to wear this set.  I think they are nice polishes separately, with the satin being a winner for me, but together, I just don't like the look at all. 

For me, the golden satin is real reason to buy this set.  It is a perfect gold polish, I just wish it were bigger.  The set sells for $10 for 2 0.125 fl oz bottles, and is available on drugstore.com, HSN, and at Nordstrom.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The New Black Jewel Heist

Several months ago, I received a press release for a new brand, The New Black.  A few days ago, I received an unexpected package at my door with most of the product line for The New Black.  There were so many colors that I couldn't wait to try them.

Today, I have for you one of the 5 piece sets of this line, Jewel Heist.  This set includes 5 jewel-toned mini-sized polishes.  As the colors do not have individual names, for this review, I'm going to refer to them by the specific color.

Cobalt Blue - bright blue shimmer.  This one has foil ribbons running through it.  Because of this, I was scared that it would be a frosty mess, but rather than being frosty, the ribbons gave this one a slight foily finish.  The color on this is very saturated and rich.  2 coats.

















Emerald Green - Bright green shimmer with golden flecks.  This one was most similar to Cobalt Blue above, as it also had the silver ribbons.  However, unlike Cobalt Blue, this one did have a bit of a frosty/brushstrokey appearance.  That said, it wouldn't turn me off from the polish and it's not bad, by any means.  Also, this one had a fantastic formula and was a one-coater!


















Pearl Grey - pearly silver with a green/pink multichrome flash.  You can't tell from the picture, but this one was very similar to OPI Not Like the Movies from the Katy Perry collection.  Of all of the polishes in the collection, this one was my least favorite.  I felt, it washed out my hands and the multi-chrome, while pretty was not strong enough for my preference.  This one also had the thinnest formula.  Pic is 3 coats.

Bright Purple - bright plummy purple creme.  This one had a similar that was very similar to one of my all-time favorites, Zoya Charisma, though the color was closer to OPI's Dim Sum Plum.  The formula was great on this one.  2 coats.


















Bright Red - bright red with a jelly-ish finish.  I know reds are a dime a dozen, but this one is a very nice red.  The color is a little deepened when compared to other bright reds, and it leans a bit blue, so it looks nice on my skintone.  The finish is a very nice squishy, opaque jelly finish.  Application was one of the best in the set.  2 coats.

There were several fantastic colors in this set, and all in all, I really liked it.  For small bottles, I had no issues with applying the polish, and I usually do with mini bottles.  You can find The New Black in several places, such as drugstore.com, HSN, and Nordstrom.  The price is expensive, IMO, at $22 for 5 0.125 fl oz bottles, but that's one of the ideas behind this brand... cohesive mini collections that don't require you to buy a lot of full-size polish bottles to reach a specific look.

These were sent to me for review

Monday, February 27, 2012

"Perfectly Polished Prom" Contest

I received this email blast in my in-box and thought I would pass it on to anyone that was going to prom this year or know someone who is.  You could win your "VIP Prom Experience"!

You can enter the contest by going to Facebook.com/teenvogue and then clicking on "Perfectly Polished Prom".  Entries are being accepted through March 12th.

Good luck!

China Glaze Colours from the Capitol Review

Up until my mid-20's, I used to be an avid reader.  I'd read anything you'd put in front of me, but my favorite genre has always been fantasy/science fiction.  Unfortunately, as I've gotten older, my love of books has all but disappeared.  I blame the internet and having twins.  :P  That said, I still love a good story, I simply choose to get that from movies rather than books, nowadays.

So, when the news hit last year that Jennifer Lawrence had snagged the lead of Katniss in "The Hunger Games" movies, my first thought was "what and who", but after a quick Wikipedia search, I was able to know all I needed to know to decide that I was 1. in love with the storyline and 2. couldn't wait until it came out.

Then, I got the press release that China Glaze was releasing a collection based on the movie and I immediately got giddy.  




















I liked all of the colors on the swatch sheet, but I had my favorites, Smoke and Ashes, Agro, Riveting, and Electrify. 

A couple of days ago, I got a small package from China Glaze containing 2 polishes from this collection, and as luck would have it, I received 2 of the colors I initially loved from this collection, Smoke and Ashes and Electrify.





















Electrify - dense gold and  red glitter.  You all know how much I love my glitter-bombs, right?  And this baby is no exception.  I adore this one.  Maybe it's the Aries in me, but I can't get enough of the combination of fiery colors.  I love that the red glitter is larger than the gold glitter.  Application was good on this one.  I was able to reach opacity in 3 coats, though the picture above is 4 coats.  I know in the macro picture, you can see gaps, but to my eye, it looked like it completely covered my nail.  One thing I do want to mention, is that for my first 2 coats, I placed the polish on my nails, rather than using typical strokes.  It made for much less drag, and then I evened it out with the latter coats.  I really loved this polish.  I think this would look fabulous in the fall over a golden or red polish.  This one reminded me of the glitters from RBL, both in application and overall look of the polish on the nail.  So, if you love the RBL glitters or loved them and never got them, you may want to check this one out.  4 coats.




















Smoke and Ashes - Black/green shimmer with blue and green glass fleck.  There are some gorgeous polishes in this collection, but this one stood out to me on the swatch sheet.  I like the cremes in this collection, but if there is one thing that China Glaze does exceptionally well, it's their glass-flecked shimmers.  This one is amazing.  The color on it is so dark and yet, it's obviously a green, and the shimmer is fantastic.  It reminds me of a greener version of the long-discontinued China Glaze Blk-Bila-Bong.  Formula and application were perfect.  2 coats.

The press release states that the collection will be released in early March, before the movie's March 23rd release.  However, I know that I have seen these for sale already on various websites and on eBay.

These were sent to me for review

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Oscar Day!

If you are like me, then the day of the Oscars is like your Super Bowl.  I absolutely love the Academy Awards, have since I was a child.  I remember watching them completely facscinated with the ceremony.  Now that I've gotten older, I also like to watch the pre-shows and make snarky comments about bad dresses, but it still all comes down to the awards for me.  I love them.

So when, as part of my Julep Maven Box, I received 2 colors from their Oscar collection, I was so excited to try them.  I've finally been able to carve out some time for my blog, so in honor of Oscar day, I bring you Julep Viola and Julep Oscar...

















Viola is a rich, dark aubergine creme that leans a bit brown.  It's a gorgeous vampy color.  I love the name of this polish.  I think Viola Davis is one of the most incredible actresses of our time.  I could seriously watch her read the phone book.  As for the polish, as much as I love the color, the application left something to be desired.  The formula on this was very thick.  I had to go slow and be very specific about my strokes.  The color is so pretty, though, that I think it's worth trying a few drops of thinner to see if it's more manageable.  Picture is 2 coats.

Oscar is a golden glitter topcoat.  I'm calling this a topcoat, but in all honesty, this is so saturated with glitter that you could probably use it alone.  It will probably take 3 coats to reach opacity, but unlike Viola, the formula on Oscar wasn't thick or goopy, so you should have no problems with multiple coats.  I really like the contrast of Oscar over Viola, but I also think this would look amazing over a gold polish.  Picture is one coat of Oscar over Viola on my ring finger.

All in all, I like both of these polishes.  The color on Viola is amazing.  I haven't compared it to my collection to check for dupes, but there is a richness about it that makes it quite special.  I just wish the formula was a bit easier to use. 

Both of these polishes are available at Julep.com and retail for $14 each. 

These were sent to my in my Julep Maven Box.  You can sign up for Maven on their website.