China Glaze No Plain Jane with flakies gradient

The next polish from the China Glaze Bohemian collection I tried was No Plain Jane.  I wanted to fancy it up a bit rather than wear it as a straight mani, so I applied Cult Nails Clairvoyant from about 1/3 of the way down the nail, all the way to the tip. When that was dry, I put a second coat of Clairvoyant on just the last 1/3 of the nail.

Some of these photos really show the tinted purple base in Clairvoyant, but mainly because my photos were picking up the bronzey colour shift in No Plain Jane.  In real life the gradient was very smooth.  None of these photos show the full colour shift, was was a bit weird, cause the base colour in No Plain Jane went bronze and the flakies in Clairvoyant went blue. So while the main colours matched well, the duo chrome colour shift in both polishes actually clashed a bit.

The tips were a bit thick and I did get some shrinkage with Seche Vite, but nothing too horrible.  I like the idea of the flakies gradient, I will have to try it again.

A little OMG spam

A few months ago when I was in Sydney I grabbed quite a few bottles of 2NITE, DV8 and TMI from the China Glaze collection.  They were they only bottles that the shop had left.  I bought them specifically to sell (one has to pay for their nail addiction somehow!) and as I was swatching them for my ebay listing, I thought I may as well post the swatches here.

2NITE - Cornflower blue.

DV8 - Teal blue

TMI - Salmon pink

There is something really special about the original OMG collection.  No other holo polish from any brand has ever come close to the ultra fine linear holo effect of these ones.  The holo effect in 2NITE is one of the best.  DV8 and TMI don't show the holo as much, and I wonder if my bottles were thinned a little if they would show more.  These swatches were two coats with no base or top coat.

Swanky Silk with Stickers

Swanky Silk is from the recent China Glaze Bohemian collection. It is a neutral peachy base that has a good duo chrome shift to yellow gold.  This is another one that I have read reviews that say it doesn't have a very strong duo chrome effect, however I thought it was pretty good.

Normally I wouldn't put sticker decals onto a shiny chrome polish like this, but I was nursing a break on my ring finger, and I find things like water decals, stickers and temporary tattoos are excellent at creating some stability for the broken nail.  It was also very late at night and I still had naked nails and I couldn't go to work the next morning sporting my gorgeous yellow tinted natural ones!

Yep, it's a little frosty and shows brush marks like the others in this collection, but I'm a simple girl and am easily pleased, so these still get a double thumbs up from me.

China Glaze - Want My Bawdy chevron with 2NITE

Here is a design I did using China Glaze - Want My Bawdy from the recent Bohemian collection.  I taped off a chevron design and painted it with China Glaze 2NITE from the OMG collection and added a silver edge using Layla Metal Chrome.

Here are a couple of photos of Want My Bawdy on it's own.  Every single review I have read about this polish has said that its the only polish in the Bohemian collection that they don't see any duochrome in at all.  I have to say I completely disagree.  I definitely can see a duochrome effect.  I've captured a little of it in the below photos where you can see the bright cobolt blue base and a purple glow near the cuticle edge.

Does anyone see this duochrome in their bottle?  I'm sure any other people that get a perfect score on this colour test will be able to see it too.

China Glaze Bohemians gradient

I got nail mail the other day which was the full China Glaze Bohemian collection. Having nowhere local to buy it, the cheapest option was to score a set off ebay.  Initial swatches I saw on the collection were disappointing and I was starting to wonder whether or not I should have bought them, but then I saw Fashion Polish's swatches and PWOAR! she made them look stunning and I was glad they would arrive very soon.

Rather than swatching the full collection, I thought I would try a gradient with some of the colours.  I used all the colours in this gradient except the purple one - No Plain Jane.  I painted onto a makeup sponge: Swanky Silk, Rare & Radiant, Unpredictable, Deviantly Daring and Want My Bawdy.  I painted a single coat on my nails with Swanky Silk as the base and then sponged on the gradient with Swanky Silk near the cuticle edge and all the colours down to Want My Bawdy on the tips.

The thing I especially loved about doing a sponged gradient was that I had zero brushstrokes.  I also have to say that I found the duo chrome effect really quite strong with this entire gradient.  On the angle it had a distinct green and teal look to it. I'm looking forward to wearing each of these, I think they are really pretty.

China Glaze Prismatic - Liquid Crystal - pimped

I bought the set of China Glaze Prismatic polishes quite a while back and I finally got around to trying one out.  I'd read on other blogs that these are so much better in real life than they are in photos, and I do agree.  

Most of these have a subtle colour shift, but some of them do not.  The one I chose to wear does have a good colour shift.  This is Liquid Crystal and it shifts from blue to purple.  In fact the colour shift is the exact same one that Ozotic 506 has.  Soooo, what I decided to do was pimp up that colour shift a little bit.

Here is two layers of Liquid Crystal topped with one layer of Ozotic 506 and then top coat.  I love that adding Ozotic 506 on top emphasized the colour shift in this polish, but it's still so sheer that you can see all the pretty glitter particles beneath.  I'm totally going to try this soon with some of the other CG prismatic colours (maybe the silver one that doesn't shift much I could try the green Ozotic 503 over?  hmmmmmm).

Very soon after taking this polish off, I chipped the corner off my nail on my ring finger, and subsequently nubbinised. Note to self - never buff nails again to remove yellow stains.  Sure it works, but my nails are so flimsy at the tips right now its breakage city.  Next time, stick with the yellow and just cover it up.

Colour Club Holiday Splendor

When I first got the Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe collection, this is the first one I put on.  Holiday Splendor.  It's the only one in the collection that has a tinted base together with the holographic glitter.

This is such a beautiful polish.  Seriously.  It is beautiful.  You are guaranteed to get comments on your nails when you wear this polish.  

This was two coats, over Nail Tek II foundation, then four layers of top coat. Color Club top coat that came with the set, Ulta3 non-chip, Gelous and Seche Vite.  Once it had totally dried, it was still a bit textured and not 100% smooth.  I think some of the other swatches I've seen of this must be taken when the top coat is still wet, to get that amazing glossy finish.  Just be warned, these are gritty. Just like the Nubar Sparkles.

It's hard to capture the holographic goodness of the glitter in photos. In the shade you don't see the multi-coloured sparkle, but then in the sun my camera spazzes out and doesn't show any sparkle either.

Here it is in the sun.

Holiday Splendor is very similar to China Glaze Atlantis.  The only real difference is that the jelly base in Atlantis is slightly darker.

The other thing I only noticed today is that Blogger has updated the comments section and it now allows individual replies to each comment.  Have I been under a rock and not noticed this for weeks, or is it just really new?  Either way, YAY, I've always wanted to reply to individual comments and had considered going to another comment plugin.  So expect to receive replies for as long as I can keep up with them.

China Glaze Atlantis

Today another polish I recently got because of reading someone elses blog.  This time is was Kristy from The Polish Haven's fault for making me get the most magnificent China Glaze Atlantis, with this post back in October!

China Glaze Atlantis is a teal green jelly packed full with holographic glitter. These pictures are two coats of Atlantis, two coats of gelous and one coat Seche Vite.  This is a thirsty glitter that will stay gritty if you don't layer on the top coat on.  Of course you don't have to have lots of top coat if your ok with the whole sandpaper feel, but for me it's not just about the smoothness. Having a glossy top also makes the holo glitter shine much more.

I have to apologise for these photos of Atlantis.  I usually take my photos in full sun, but all my sun shots of this were crappy.  So these photos are taken under incandescent light indoors at night.  My camera has a white balance setting, but even with it set to max for incandescent lighting my fingers look a strange yellow colour like I'm suffering jaundice.

And to make things worse, my best photos were ones that showed my fingers in a totally weird and cacky manner.  What's going on here with my middle finger, it's poking forward and looks ginormous - please don't focus on my ginormous nail (it's really not sticking up at you), just focus on the pretties.

You ladies with your pretty photos on your fancy blogs are killing my wallet.  My head says no more, by my heart smiles at the pretties!