Revlon Just Tinted

Revlon released a line of four extremely sheer, berry-colored jelly polishes that pretty much “stain” your nails. They call it a “tint” though. It comes with four matching lip stain/balm combo collections called “Bitten”. This entire shebang has a very Twilight theme, and it doesn’t help that Jessica Biel does this commercial for Revlon’s lip stains, where she looks at the camera and says, seductively(!) “Have you been Bitten?” right after making out with a smoking hot guy that looks suspiciously like Edward.

SO! I found this line interesting, albeit not for me. I had to slap on fake nails because my real nails are STAINED and just looks gross under sheer polish. Thanks random green polish I tried on a few weeks ago. Ugh!

All the polishes are at two coats, but I’ve demonstrated some at one coat just for sake of research. They dry to a very satiny finish, definitely soaking into your nails. I really had application issues, it’s hard to even out sheer polishes and jelly polishes and when you combine the two… well.. I tried my best! It definitely builds color the more coats you go.
If the “stained”/matte finish is not for you, well, luckily Revlon also released a special shiny topcoat that gives them this wet luster that’s pretty attractive.

Let’s start with the finish. This is Victorian, at one coat and dry.

You can see the “tinted” effect Revlon was talking about.

This is at two coats. Victorian is a berry pink- between purple and pink.

It does kind of look nice with my skin tone. Too bad these aren’t my real nails! LOL.

With the topcoat. You can see the juicy finish that’s happening.

Looks wet! I’d be afraid to touch them for days 😉

Mystical is a dark berry– I’d say it looks grape.


The topcoat definitely lightened this color up some.

Desire is a bright pink.

I liked this one a lot.

Desire with topcoat

I can’t get over the juiciness! It’s just an interesting finish. Jelly polishes are usually wet looking or “shiny” but this topcoat takes it a bit differently.

Dawn is the most different from everyone– it’s a peach!


With topcoat. I love it, it looks like a tangerine color.

Revlon Just Tinted

Revlon released a line of four extremely sheer, berry-colored jelly polishes that pretty much “stain” your nails. They call it a “tint” though. It comes with four matching lip stain/balm combo collections called “Bitten”. This entire shebang has a very Twilight theme, and it doesn’t help that Jessica Biel does this commercial for Revlon’s lip stains, where she looks at the camera and says, seductively(!) “Have you been Bitten?” right after making out with a smoking hot guy that looks suspiciously like Edward.

SO! I found this line interesting, albeit not for me. I had to slap on fake nails because my real nails are STAINED and just looks gross under sheer polish. Thanks random green polish I tried on a few weeks ago. Ugh!

All the polishes are at two coats, but I’ve demonstrated some at one coat just for sake of research. They dry to a very satiny finish, definitely soaking into your nails. I really had application issues, it’s hard to even out sheer polishes and jelly polishes and when you combine the two… well.. I tried my best! It definitely builds color the more coats you go.
If the “stained”/matte finish is not for you, well, luckily Revlon also released a special shiny topcoat that gives them this wet luster that’s pretty attractive.

Let’s start with the finish. This is Victorian, at one coat and dry.

You can see the “tinted” effect Revlon was talking about.

This is at two coats. Victorian is a berry pink- between purple and pink.

It does kind of look nice with my skin tone. Too bad these aren’t my real nails! LOL.

With the topcoat. You can see the juicy finish that’s happening.

Looks wet! I’d be afraid to touch them for days 😉

Mystical is a dark berry– I’d say it looks grape.


The topcoat definitely lightened this color up some.

Desire is a bright pink.

I liked this one a lot.

Desire with topcoat

I can’t get over the juiciness! It’s just an interesting finish. Jelly polishes are usually wet looking or “shiny” but this topcoat takes it a bit differently.

Dawn is the most different from everyone– it’s a peach!


With topcoat. I love it, it looks like a tangerine color.

China Glaze Island Escape Revisted

Yep, we’re revisiting the CG Island Escape Summer 2011 collection. Why? Well, when I swatched them here a bit of them showed up sheer. Some of you commented and shared the same sentiment about disliking the amount of VNL we were all seeing.

I decided to layer them all over one even base of white polish (In this case, it was my China Glaze Snow, or my “white-out” as I call it XD) It only took two coats to achieve full opacity and near bottle color!

I think it is worth it, the white base really brings out the gorgeousness of these polishes. I would have done 3 layers with a single Island Escape sheer, and still had VNL anyway. Basically, the same amount of layers but with an extreme amount of bling!

Here’s some more close up comparisons of the swatched over white and the old swatches on my nails with all its VNL glory.

Starting with the cremes, and the ones I was “uncomfortable” with.

Papaya Punch
On my nails, without a white base, it looks a bit more of a light papaya color. With the white base the orange is brought out much more strongly, almost mango.

Electric Pineapple
Washed out yellow, but over white it almost is neon. It comes pretty much to life.

108 Degrees
108 Degrees was not exactly a “sheer” polish, I did achieve full opacity with three layers (of course) but it just looks a lot more yummier over white. You can see the silvery white fleck glitter here.
(and why do animal hair always haunt me?! This was in a pet-free DORM room. agh).

Blue Iguana
Sorry about the dent. This one I was not able to get a very good picture of. Over white, I achieved a more bottle color rather than the paler blue that is being shown on my nails.

Senorita Bonita
On my nails the pink fleck shimmer was almost undetectable, and it pulled too pink in the photo. The nail wheel swatch, over white, is definitely ALMOST (haha, an oxymoron. See what I do?) color accurate. This is a hard color to capture. Anyway, over white, the pink shimmer showed through so much more strongly and confidently. This was a color I had always looked forward to when I first heard of the collection, and was disappointed to find how “meh” it looked on the nails 😦 However, over white, it’s revived some of my original faith and love in this color.

And my favorite, layered over white:

Cha Cha Cha!
I was “meh” about it when it was on my nails, but over white? OMG. If I didn’t have so many untrieds, this would be my “go to” color. Hell yeah!

Now, over white, I would suggest/recommend these polishes even more! 🙂 It is not much trouble for me to layer them, and I do enjoy layering polishes to achieve bottle color. The only thing I have to watch out for is making sure the white was applied evenly and is not “too” wet when I apply the first base of color on it, or else it will become a draggy, streaky nightmare. We don’t want that.

China Glaze Island Escape Revisted

Yep, we’re revisiting the CG Island Escape Summer 2011 collection. Why? Well, when I swatched them here a bit of them showed up sheer. Some of you commented and shared the same sentiment about disliking the amount of VNL we were all seeing.

I decided to layer them all over one even base of white polish (In this case, it was my China Glaze Snow, or my “white-out” as I call it XD) It only took two coats to achieve full opacity and near bottle color!

I think it is worth it, the white base really brings out the gorgeousness of these polishes. I would have done 3 layers with a single Island Escape sheer, and still had VNL anyway. Basically, the same amount of layers but with an extreme amount of bling!

Here’s some more close up comparisons of the swatched over white and the old swatches on my nails with all its VNL glory.

Starting with the cremes, and the ones I was “uncomfortable” with.

Papaya Punch
On my nails, without a white base, it looks a bit more of a light papaya color. With the white base the orange is brought out much more strongly, almost mango.

Electric Pineapple
Washed out yellow, but over white it almost is neon. It comes pretty much to life.

108 Degrees
108 Degrees was not exactly a “sheer” polish, I did achieve full opacity with three layers (of course) but it just looks a lot more yummier over white. You can see the silvery white fleck glitter here.
(and why do animal hair always haunt me?! This was in a pet-free DORM room. agh).

Blue Iguana
Sorry about the dent. This one I was not able to get a very good picture of. Over white, I achieved a more bottle color rather than the paler blue that is being shown on my nails.

Senorita Bonita
On my nails the pink fleck shimmer was almost undetectable, and it pulled too pink in the photo. The nail wheel swatch, over white, is definitely ALMOST (haha, an oxymoron. See what I do?) color accurate. This is a hard color to capture. Anyway, over white, the pink shimmer showed through so much more strongly and confidently. This was a color I had always looked forward to when I first heard of the collection, and was disappointed to find how “meh” it looked on the nails 😦 However, over white, it’s revived some of my original faith and love in this color.

And my favorite, layered over white:

Cha Cha Cha!
I was “meh” about it when it was on my nails, but over white? OMG. If I didn’t have so many untrieds, this would be my “go to” color. Hell yeah!

Now, over white, I would suggest/recommend these polishes even more! 🙂 It is not much trouble for me to layer them, and I do enjoy layering polishes to achieve bottle color. The only thing I have to watch out for is making sure the white was applied evenly and is not “too” wet when I apply the first base of color on it, or else it will become a draggy, streaky nightmare. We don’t want that.

Misa Paradise Shore

I was shopping on Head2ToeBeauty the other day, and noticed Misa had their Summer 2011 collection out, called Paradise Shore. I ordered all the polishes and thought it was weird that I hadn’t heard of it before from other notable bloggers. It’s a really good collection, or so I think. 🙂

Notes:
— All shimmers, actually more like flakies suspended in a shimmery base. No cremes here. I like it, very summery! 🙂
— Most were pretty sheer, will want to layer over something else
— All were about 3 coaters
— Formula was generally no issue, but like with glitters gave me issues on removing, and one polish was kind of goopy and pooled over my nails.
— Names are creative and cute (except Krystal Waters, why spell it with a K? uggh)

Onto the swatches!

Mega Margarita
A bright lime green jelly base, sheer with lots of golden/lime green glass flecks. This one is what pooled on me, and I think you can see it in the pic 😦

Summer Love
This one was so hard to photograph! It’s a bright reddish pink, like fuchsia or something. Strawberry? I’m not even sure myself. The camera/Photoshop saving process washed it out quite a bit, but it’s a lot more darker pink than what is being shown. Sheer jelly base, with small glitter suspended within rather than strong flakies. It’s not my favorite at all, hmm.

Mermaid Dreams
I love this one!! Beautiful. A dark aqua shimmer, almost a frost finish but not really. More pearly. A bit brush-strokey, but the formula was fantastic.

Under My Sunbrella
Isn’t the name cute? A lemon yellow with intense yellow flaky action. Actually looks good on me.

Krystal Water
Turquoise shimmer. Another lovely one =) Jampacked with a light shimmer!
…But doesn’t this look familiar? Yes. It’s a cousin to Mermaid Dreams earlier. Here is a swatch of them side by side:

They are definitely close, one is more blue while the other leans to aqua.

Endless Keys
Last but not least, the interesting orange jelly base with bright reflective orange flakies mixed with shimmer. This was the most opaque besides the two blues.

This also reminded me incredibly so of another certain collection, comparisons upcoming very soon… 🙂

Misa Paradise Shore

I was shopping on Head2ToeBeauty the other day, and noticed Misa had their Summer 2011 collection out, called Paradise Shore. I ordered all the polishes and thought it was weird that I hadn’t heard of it before from other notable bloggers. It’s a really good collection, or so I think. 🙂

Notes:
— All shimmers, actually more like flakies suspended in a shimmery base. No cremes here. I like it, very summery! 🙂
— Most were pretty sheer, will want to layer over something else
— All were about 3 coaters
— Formula was generally no issue, but like with glitters gave me issues on removing, and one polish was kind of goopy and pooled over my nails.
— Names are creative and cute (except Krystal Waters, why spell it with a K? uggh)

Onto the swatches!

Mega Margarita
A bright lime green jelly base, sheer with lots of golden/lime green glass flecks. This one is what pooled on me, and I think you can see it in the pic 😦

Summer Love
This one was so hard to photograph! It’s a bright reddish pink, like fuchsia or something. Strawberry? I’m not even sure myself. The camera/Photoshop saving process washed it out quite a bit, but it’s a lot more darker pink than what is being shown. Sheer jelly base, with small glitter suspended within rather than strong flakies. It’s not my favorite at all, hmm.

Mermaid Dreams
I love this one!! Beautiful. A dark aqua shimmer, almost a frost finish but not really. More pearly. A bit brush-strokey, but the formula was fantastic.

Under My Sunbrella
Isn’t the name cute? A lemon yellow with intense yellow flaky action. Actually looks good on me.

Krystal Water
Turquoise shimmer. Another lovely one =) Jampacked with a light shimmer!
…But doesn’t this look familiar? Yes. It’s a cousin to Mermaid Dreams earlier. Here is a swatch of them side by side:

They are definitely close, one is more blue while the other leans to aqua.

Endless Keys
Last but not least, the interesting orange jelly base with bright reflective orange flakies mixed with shimmer. This was the most opaque besides the two blues.

This also reminded me incredibly so of another certain collection, comparisons upcoming very soon… 🙂

China Glaze Island Escape

Hi guys, my China Glaze Island Escape set came in! I’m not that crazy about this set, I was convinced after seeing some really awesome swatches but on me… They’re just meh.

Overall notes:
Formula is fantastic; unique colors that do remind me of an island
The cremes are great, although I’m not a raging fan. Two coats for all the cremes.
The shimmers are sheer (see Senorita Bonita, Cha Cha Cha, 108 Degrees and Blue Iguana) and they were three or more coats.

The Shimmers:

108 Degrees

Cha Cha Cha, a lime green shimmer. This reminds me a ton of Zoya Apple, and I like Zoya Apple a lot better.

Blue Iguana

Senorita Bonita, a light purple-almost fuchsia (this picture pulls too slightly purple)

The Cremes

Papaya Punch. This is really the color of a slightly underripe papaya. This is such a strange color, and I’m not sure how comfortable I am having it on my nails. Pedi color maybe. Or to stamp over.

Electric Pineapple. This color reminds me of something from Illamasqua, maybe Radium. Again, another weird color on me and it’s pushing my comfort zone

Thoughts anyone?

China Glaze Island Escape

Hi guys, my China Glaze Island Escape set came in! I’m not that crazy about this set, I was convinced after seeing some really awesome swatches but on me… They’re just meh.

Overall notes:
Formula is fantastic; unique colors that do remind me of an island
The cremes are great, although I’m not a raging fan. Two coats for all the cremes.
The shimmers are sheer (see Senorita Bonita, Cha Cha Cha, 108 Degrees and Blue Iguana) and they were three or more coats.

The Shimmers:

108 Degrees

Cha Cha Cha, a lime green shimmer. This reminds me a ton of Zoya Apple, and I like Zoya Apple a lot better.

Blue Iguana

Senorita Bonita, a light purple-almost fuchsia (this picture pulls too slightly purple)

The Cremes

Papaya Punch. This is really the color of a slightly underripe papaya. This is such a strange color, and I’m not sure how comfortable I am having it on my nails. Pedi color maybe. Or to stamp over.

Electric Pineapple. This color reminds me of something from Illamasqua, maybe Radium. Again, another weird color on me and it’s pushing my comfort zone

Thoughts anyone?

China Glaze Island Escape

Hi guys, my China Glaze Island Escape set came in! I’m not that crazy about this set, I was convinced after seeing some really awesome swatches but on me… They’re just meh.

Overall notes:
Formula is fantastic; unique colors that do remind me of an island
The cremes are great, although I’m not a raging fan. Two coats for all the cremes.
The shimmers are sheer (see Senorita Bonita, Cha Cha Cha, 108 Degrees and Blue Iguana) and they were three or more coats.

The Shimmers:

108 Degrees

Cha Cha Cha, a lime green shimmer. This reminds me a ton of Zoya Apple, and I like Zoya Apple a lot better.

Blue Iguana

Senorita Bonita, a light purple-almost fuchsia (this picture pulls too slightly purple)

The Cremes

Papaya Punch. This is really the color of a slightly underripe papaya. This is such a strange color, and I’m not sure how comfortable I am having it on my nails. Pedi color maybe. Or to stamp over.

Electric Pineapple. This color reminds me of something from Illamasqua, maybe Radium. Again, another weird color on me and it’s pushing my comfort zone

Thoughts anyone?

Glitter in the Air

You thought I was done with my Lippmanns, didn’t you? So did I! The other day I went to a photography exhibition and my friend, Liane, presented me with this:

Glitter in the Air! So my theme week has gone on for an extra day, making it a total of about 9 days. Wow! 🙂
This is a GORGEOUS polish. I have ordered my own bottle actually. I had to. I couldn’t NOT have this.

Brief swatch. I thought/hoped that the murky grey/pale blue or lilac base would transfer onto the nail, and no dice as you can see above. That was about two coats. It’s a mix of pink and blue hex/round glitter.
So I decided to layer it on a pastel baby blue and wow is it ever gorgeous. It’s a very Easter-y color, too.  I chose Avon Vintage Blue:

Then I layered Glitter in the Air over this!

The only issue I had with this was that it was very hard to align the glitters, but I think that’s just a thing we deal with when dealing with glitter toppers. The sheer murky base muted the pastel blue down and it was PERFECT. However I logged on this morning and found out Chloe did the EXACT same look! GRR. 🙂 I should have gone with yellow or grey. Liane did lilac, (American Apparel L’Esprit if I remember correctly) with matte and it was gorgeous. Oh, speaking of matte…

Yep! I felt that the matte topcoat gave it a lot more Easter feel, it was like an eggshell you know?

However this one reacted badly with the Seche Vite and I felt like it shrank by the hour. Horrible. You can see some tip wear already, and I think this was definitely over 15 hours of wearing it. 😦