How I wore it: China Glaze Let’s groove

I thought I had already shown you my last post from this winter, but I was wrong. There is one more snow-ridden post to go!

Despite being not super-fond of purple, there are some I like. Let’s groove from China Glaze is one of those purples I like. It applies super easily, and it is so shiny but deep at the same time, who could resist?

To add some fun to this rather dark manicure, I decided to wear bright lipstick. This is actually a combination of a very thin layer of OCC Pageant (the only OCC lip tar I own – so far!) and NARS Satin Pencil in Lodhi. The eyeliner is from Inglot (the dark purple liquid one).

My pullover is from Nice Connection (super nice and warm!), the blouse is from WE and the pants are from Benetton. Shoes from asos. See, I feel comfortable wearing the same things over and over again, if only I change my nail polish!

Looking at these pictures I realize that my hair has grown a lot since winter. Time to go and get it cut short again!

How I wore it: China Glaze Love’s a beach

Get ready for some eye-searing uber-neonity! Today I am showing you one of the polishes I absolutely adore, but can’t look at too long: China Glaze Love’s a Beach.

What you see here (do look away every couple of seconds, for your retina’s sake), is a super pink neon shimmer polish.

It applies well, is neon, is pink, has shimmer. What more do I want? A matching lipstick. Oh, wait, I have one: Bobby Brown Neon Pink.

I also have sunglasses, just so you know.  And a matching ring with neon pink and neon yellow glass stones (from Pieces or something like it). Check out how that pink pops in the shadow! Amazing!

And of course, I have pink Converse, and this slightly big pink cashmere pullover (from Nice Connection, well, whatever, I didn’t choose their brand name). 

The pants are, as most of mine seem to be, from WE. So, either  I make a lot of advertising for WE, or I keep on wearing the same pants. You can pick

And last, but definitely not least, here’s a piece of very useful information for those of you that like stamping! The essence polishes of their color changing line are amazing for stamping. Thank you M. for telling me, I tried them all: they all stamp amazingly. And they do slightly change their color if you add topcoat! (all of the 4 available polishes stamped over Love’s a Beach, no topcoat added).

How I wore it: China Glaze Bend over backwards (and a gradient)

Do you know how J calls these How I Wore It posts? HIWI. Like Kiwi, if you’re a German speaker, or HIFI, if you’re an English speaker. Both versions sound absolutely ridiculous to my ears, so don’t be surprised if I will use this abbreviation soon.

Dear M sent me Bend over Backwards, one of the polishes from the China Glaze Cirque de Soleil collection. I had no desire to own this color, so I put it in my “to swatch – to go” box. I must admit, I was wrong to put it there. I thought this brick-red would clash with my skin tone, as it would be too orange.

I was wrong about the color, it is more of a auburn/red, with intense shimmer. It is also very flattering on my, I think, and so vivid, it made me happy to wear it. Especially as the day I wore it, it was raining, but it was ice cold and windy too, a very unfortunate combination!

Keep in mind what I just said about the weather and please disregard my stupid facial expression. It was really cold! I so desperately wanted to wear my new Banana Republic woolen pants in this awesome light grey shade, that I just decided to ignore the fact that it rained.

To match the pants I picked a red cardigan from H&M (one of the first items I bought in red, ever), a scarf I bought in China and a plain grey longsleeve from WE underneath. The ankle boots are from some outlet, they have maybe 5 cm heels, and work good with all my long trousers.

I was so smitten by Bend over Backwards, I decided to wear it another day, but differently. I tried a gradient, usingChG Bend over Backwards (as a base and closest to the cuticle), essie braziliant, Zoya Rica and China Glaze 2030.

I think the gradient turned out pretty cool. I was very proud of myself! In effect, it looked a bit as if I was wearing a tequila sunrise on my nails.

And because I felt so fancy wearing this gradient, here you have two super fancy artsy schmancy pictures of it in action. 

Sunday Spam More Glitter!

 

 

Wishing you a fine Sunday from behind my computer. Hope you all have time to relax before the week starts again!

Today I’m showing you some glitter combinations I wore, tried out and swatched.

First up is Jessica Hot Hot Hot (over butter LONDON Trout Pout). I wanted Hot Hot Hot to be a covering glitter, but what you see below is already two coats. It is pretty and all, but I was hoping for something different.

essie a cut above (over Catrice Have a good day) is hands down my favorite pink glitter. What I like about it is the variety of sizes, but the unity in color. And the glitter payoff is wonderful – this is one coat.

H&M has been stepping up their game when it comes to nail polish. I’m wearing Purple Sprinkles (over Chanel Frenzy), which is a mix of purple glitters and holographic bar glitter. It isn’t a very dense glitter, but it works for a “pimp my office manicure” emergency. Plus, if you like purple, you’ll most probably like it anyhow.

Well, unfortunately, after I put on Purple Sprinkles, I somehow got caught somewhere and ripped a piece of skin from my cuticle. It was very painful, and I didn’t dare to change my manicure, so I just added a coat of nails inc soho street. Sorry about the picture, but I so absolutely adored soho street over Chanel Frenzy, I couldn’t pass on showing you this. And in case you were wondering, this is one coat!

Another H&M polish, Confetti Time, which I liked. It’s a mix of pink, blue and gold glitters, in different sizes (over Chanel Malice). Cute, and I can see this to be worn in many combinations.

This is a tricky combination: The base color is nails inc disco lane (total light box fail, trying to photograph the holographic glitter in there!) and I lazily painted on a silver/holographic glitter from SpaRitual called Illumination and butter LONDON Lovely Jubbly (the pink). Not my best combination.

I have a thing for multicolored glitters too, so I adored OPI Rainbow Connection (Nicka K NY138, hands down one of the best greens I own!). Nothing wrong with a little easter manicure, is there?

And the last one for today is China Glaze Marry A Millionaire on the tips (over OPI DS temptation). I totally love this glitter, and I’m so not over bar glitter yet, especially the smaller kind. 

China Glaze Ultamate Holiday vs Angel Wings

Two polishes were standing on my desk, and I thought, wait! Aren’t those the same?! So I figured I’d show them to you.

China Glaze Ultamate Holiday (apparently an ULTA exclusive) and China Glaze Angel Wings from this year’s holiday collection are the exact same. I swatched them without topcoat, so you can see how matte and gritty both of them dry (2 layers of topcoat and all is good again).

In indirec lighting, in my lightbox. I don’t see any difference.

 with flash: no difference. So, next time you don’t manage to find something that is a so-and-so exclusive, don’t give up hope, it might be released under a different name.

Your weekly dose of holo: China Glaze Spin me round

 

Another China Glaze from the Kaleidoskope Collection – Spin me round. 

 I’m not very fond of this color, it’s a beige/brown nude-tone that I don’t like very much. I used two coats.

The blue metallic triarchy

The other day I received a big swap package, actually, I received two. They were from my swap fairies M. and M., and one of them contained China Glaze Blue Bells Ring, which I waved off as “another blue metallic”. So I figured, why not compare it to the “other” blue metallic polishes I have, to see which one I should keep.

Enter: Color Club Cold Metal and Orly Sweet Peacock. Cold Metal looked much darker and less metallic in the bottle, while Sweet Peacock looked a bit more turquoise than Blue Bells Ring. But, as it often is the case with metallics, the bottle impressions can fool you.

From left to right, two coats: Color Club Cold Metal (pinkie, ring finger), China Glaze Blue Bells Ring (middle finger) and Orly Sweet Peacock (pointer).

I used two coats for all of them to be able to give you a uniform look. Blue Bells Ring really doesn’t need two coats, one is sufficient. Overall I don’t think those three polishes are dupes. The smoothest looking one is Blue Bells Ring, Cold Metal is much darker, and Sweet Peacock looks somewhat more grainy; it is also slightly more turquoise than the other two.

In the end Blue Bells Ring won in terms of formula and also I like the color the best.   

If there are any polishes you want me to compare, just let me know!

ANNY Ocean Blue vs. China Glaze Shower together

 

Just a quick comparison post for you today – ANNY Ocean Blue versus my long time lemming China Glaze Shower together.

ANNY is a brand much easier accessible to us Austrian nail polish lovers. They have received quite some attention with their beautiful deep red polish The answer is love. I decided that this looked very close to China Glaze Shower together, one of my favorite medium ocean blues. Shower together has a bit of a teal-ish look depending on how the light hits, and the formula is just great.

Can you tell which one is which? The picture above is made in sunlight, the picture below shows the tealish side of Shower together a bit better – it was made inside, under a regular lamp light. Shower together is on my pinky and ring finger. 

In the flash light you can tell them apart if you know what to look for, but the ANNY polish is holding up very well. In terms of formula, I preferred the China Glaze, but it was only marginally better to apply than the ANNY polish. I think we might have two polishes so close, that we could call them dupes!

Sunday Spam: China Glaze

Welcome to another edition of Sunday Spam!
Today I spam you with China Glaze polishes that I wore lately, where as lately covers the time span of half a year. Time is subjective, sometimes.

China Glaze C-C-Courage. It’s to purple for me, but I love the golden glitter in it. So.. royal. 2 coats.

China Glaze Liquid Crystal. I love glitter like this, so I absolutely adore this polish. Plus it has this cute periwinkle look, even though it has all the multicolored glitter in it. I don’t care too much about the slight duochrome shift in it, but look at all the glitter!! 2 coats.

China Glaze Mega Bite – this is a polish from the Tronica collection, and it is on the edge between gold and yellow. L.O.V.E. this color. It has this magical glow about it, just marvelous. 2 coats.

China Glaze Rated Holographic – this is a coarse holographic polish in a red/brown color. I didn’t like the color on me too much, and I hate it when the holographic effect takes over. I like it much more in indirect light. Two coats.

China Glaze Ray-diant is another polish from the Prismatics collection, just like Liquid Crystal. This is more leaning towards a green/teal base color, and I love it just as much as Liquid Crystal. Maybe even a bit more. 2 coats.

China Glaze Riveting – one of two orange polishes I like, the other one, essie braziliant, is on my ring finger. Oh, the golden glow in this makes me want to put it on again right away. The China Glaze people really outdid themselves when they created this polish. 2 coats.
One of the colors everybody had a different opinion about lately was China Glaze Trendsetter. Some called it baby poop, others puke, but hell I love this color. It also looks surprisingly flattering with my skin tone, and much greener than other swatches I’ve seen. Plus, the shimmer within Trendsetter is to pretty to be baby poop. And if you still think that it looks horrible, consider this the best polish for young mothers. Two coats.
China Glaze It’s my turn – not really it’s turn for me. The color of this leans too much towards a wet camel, and it just made me look old. Two coats. 

See anything you like?

Your weekly dose of holo: China Glaze He’s going in circles

Hope you enjoy the weekly holo-doses! The problem in winter really is the lack of sun. Whenever the sun is out, say between 1:30 p.m. and 1:35 p.m., I  never have my camera ready or a holographic polish on. Very frustrating.

So here is a lightbox shot of He’s going in Circles, a coarse holographic polish from China Glaze. This collection is pretty old, so you you’ll most probably find them on blogsales only. The color is a somewhat teal-ish green on me. 

So I gave my best and tried making pictures with a direct light source, but this is the best I can do. In this light, the green is more visible, and I have to say, I like this too. Oh, forgot to tell you, this is two coats. I generally prefer the holographics from the Kaleidoskope collection to those smooth linear holographic polishes! Do you like this? Or do you prefer linear holographics?