Zoya Intimate

Another oldie. I’m almost done with my Spring collections I promise! 😉 This is the Spring 2011 collection, featuring the quite interesting Gemma. All the polishes boasted the fantastic Zoya formula, with two coats each. The polishes are quite perfect for Spring. I can imagine wearing them during the constant rain and dreariness that is Washington DC springtime! 😉

Gemma. Indeed the star and most unique of this collection, but I didn’t really like it much. It looks like vomit and pea soup. It’s got this interesting purple/blue shimmer running through it. Have a closer look:

It looks a lot better in the photos and in that closeup, but it just looks like baby poo on my nails =\ NOT My favorite and definitely something I’m gonna get rid of!

Caitlin is a dark smoky periwinkle blue.

Jules, how I love this one! It’s a lovely gold with glass fleck. Looks great in sunshine! I think any skin tone could pull this color off.

Marley is a light lilac with a delicate pearl finish.

Dove is a perfect soft grey creme.

Dannii! Guess who’s my favorite? Purple with gold glass fleck shimmer– gorgeous in sunlight.

Zoya Intimate

Another oldie. I’m almost done with my Spring collections I promise! 😉 This is the Spring 2011 collection, featuring the quite interesting Gemma. All the polishes boasted the fantastic Zoya formula, with two coats each. The polishes are quite perfect for Spring. I can imagine wearing them during the constant rain and dreariness that is Washington DC springtime! 😉

Gemma. Indeed the star and most unique of this collection, but I didn’t really like it much. It looks like vomit and pea soup. It’s got this interesting purple/blue shimmer running through it. Have a closer look:

It looks a lot better in the photos and in that closeup, but it just looks like baby poo on my nails =\ NOT My favorite and definitely something I’m gonna get rid of!

Caitlin is a dark smoky periwinkle blue.

Jules, how I love this one! It’s a lovely gold with glass fleck. Looks great in sunshine! I think any skin tone could pull this color off.

Marley is a light lilac with a delicate pearl finish.

Dove is a perfect soft grey creme.

Dannii! Guess who’s my favorite? Purple with gold glass fleck shimmer– gorgeous in sunlight.

Essie French Affair

Another Spring 2011 collection! I know 😛 This one I really like, it reminds me of Paris and walks through parks with a parasol. It’s a six piece collection with light colors and cremes, combined with a sheer pink-gold duochrome topper, Kisses & Bises.

All polishes had great formula except Nice is Nice, which I found to be a bit goopy. I’m pretty sure this is just a random bad bottle, the one I had at DC was much better and easier to control. They’re all two coats, and one coat of Kisses & Bises.

Let’s begin with my favorite… I have FOUR pictures of it! Haha.

Coat Azure! It’s an azure blue with a shimmer.

See that delicate shimmer?

With Kisses & Bises over it.

French Affair, the namesake of this collection. It’s a pastel pink creme. Very delicate and beautiful 🙂

French Affair with Kisses and Bises on top. This is one polish that I feel that Kisses & Bises just did not transform. All we see is a pale pink shimmer!

Topless & Barefoot. What a raunchy name 😉 It’s a cool tan neutral creme. Kind of boring until…

Layered with Kisses & Bises!

I like this effect, it’s like sun shining on wet sand on the beach… I NEED a trip to South Padre Island SOON.

Nice is Nice. A pale pastel lilac creme.

I love this combo too 🙂 I really like this topper.

Sand Tropez, a much warmer neutral than Topless & Barefoot.

With Kisses and Bises. This combination really brings out the gold in K&B!

Essie French Affair

Another Spring 2011 collection! I know 😛 This one I really like, it reminds me of Paris and walks through parks with a parasol. It’s a six piece collection with light colors and cremes, combined with a sheer pink-gold duochrome topper, Kisses & Bises.

All polishes had great formula except Nice is Nice, which I found to be a bit goopy. I’m pretty sure this is just a random bad bottle, the one I had at DC was much better and easier to control. They’re all two coats, and one coat of Kisses & Bises.

Let’s begin with my favorite… I have FOUR pictures of it! Haha.

Coat Azure! It’s an azure blue with a shimmer.

See that delicate shimmer?

With Kisses & Bises over it.

French Affair, the namesake of this collection. It’s a pastel pink creme. Very delicate and beautiful 🙂

French Affair with Kisses and Bises on top. This is one polish that I feel that Kisses & Bises just did not transform. All we see is a pale pink shimmer!

Topless & Barefoot. What a raunchy name 😉 It’s a cool tan neutral creme. Kind of boring until…

Layered with Kisses & Bises!

I like this effect, it’s like sun shining on wet sand on the beach… I NEED a trip to South Padre Island SOON.

Nice is Nice. A pale pastel lilac creme.

I love this combo too 🙂 I really like this topper.

Sand Tropez, a much warmer neutral than Topless & Barefoot.

With Kisses and Bises. This combination really brings out the gold in K&B!

China Glaze Tronica

Yep another Spring 2011 collection we’re visiting now! 😛 There was incredible hype about this collection but it is largely inaccessible online. I had to have my awesome cousin hook me up with them! They were released in only Sally’s I think, or something like that.

It’s supposed to imitate the beloved OMG/Kaleidoscope collections from 2006, but when people found out it was going to be scattered holo a lot us were upset. After swatching them in sunlight, I can say there’s a decent amount of holo. A few colors don’t quite have it, but a lot have some holographic goodness in them and I’m satisfied. 😀

Onward to the swatches! I don’t have much to say about them except that they were quick drying, formula was fine by me, and it was two layers for all of them. I didn’t need to use an Aqua Base or anything like that. They weren’t as delicate as normal holographic polish would be. I love almost all of them! There are 12 polishes total.

This one is just highly reflective but not quite holo as the others.

Formula was thin for this one and I got a bit of cuticle drag.

This was a lovely tan holo!

This just looked like sand– not holo at all. This is in direct sunlight!

This had the same situation as Digital Dawn. It had a strong reflective shimmer, but it reflected slightly silver. Not holo.

My favorite. Of course 😉

China Glaze Tronica

Yep another Spring 2011 collection we’re visiting now! 😛 There was incredible hype about this collection but it is largely inaccessible online. I had to have my awesome cousin hook me up with them! They were released in only Sally’s I think, or something like that.

It’s supposed to imitate the beloved OMG/Kaleidoscope collections from 2006, but when people found out it was going to be scattered holo a lot us were upset. After swatching them in sunlight, I can say there’s a decent amount of holo. A few colors don’t quite have it, but a lot have some holographic goodness in them and I’m satisfied. 😀

Onward to the swatches! I don’t have much to say about them except that they were quick drying, formula was fine by me, and it was two layers for all of them. I didn’t need to use an Aqua Base or anything like that. They weren’t as delicate as normal holographic polish would be. I love almost all of them! There are 12 polishes total.

This one is just highly reflective but not quite holo as the others.

Formula was thin for this one and I got a bit of cuticle drag.

This was a lovely tan holo!

This just looked like sand– not holo at all. This is in direct sunlight!

This had the same situation as Digital Dawn. It had a strong reflective shimmer, but it reflected slightly silver. Not holo.

My favorite. Of course 😉

Nubar Spring Garden

A Spring collection in June?! I know 😛 I told you I was behind!

Without much ado, here is the collection! All of them, except Honeysuckle have a hidden silvery shimmer that’s lovely. It has your usual pinks, whites, greens, purples but with a much more murkier depth. I do like this collection 🙂 It’s an 8 piece collection accompanied with a glitter topcoat called Dewdrop.
I love Nubar’s formula even though I don’t use their polishes enough. I like the brush handle, the brush itself, and their formula 🙂 All were opaque by two coats, and Dewdrop was applied with one coat to all.

Dewdrop is a sheer polish, and impossible to become opaque because of its glittery nature. It’s packed full of gritty pastel colored round glitter and would need a topcoat to smooth things out. I did not apply a topcoat in this collection because 1) I don’t when I’m doing swatches and 2) I was on a swatching roll.
I found that Dewdrop looked best with more bolder colored polishes. With the dusty colors in this collection, a bit of them just looked gritty and dirty– not in a good way.

I will begin with the creme by itself, and then a picture of it with Dewdrop. I have all of them except for some reason, this one:

Baby Sprout
It’s not your usual mint green that you see in Spring collections. This is a murky, light pea color.
I forgot to take a picture/apply Dewdrop so no Dewdrop picture for this one. Use your imagination 🙂

Purple Aster
It’s a dusty mauve lavender, and you can see its shimmer here. This one was okay, I usually love purples and everything else in its spectrum but I didn’t go nuts over this.

Earthen is a murky pale grey. To think of it, I wonder how this compares to Skulls and Glossbones by OPI. Hah! I like this one more, I think, it’s an interesting neutral.

Not a fan of Dewdrop over Earthen.

Pink Lily
I brought this one home with me. I love it, it’s a perfect pastel pink with a shimmer.

I’m sorry about the lighting change, lol. This is more accurate to the bottle color, however. And now you see how flattering Dewdrop can be.

Yellow Primrose
A pale pastel yellow, could be mistaken for white.

Reminds me of Easter. I also like this combination a lot. =)

Blue Hydrangea
Baby blue pastel. Reminds me a bit of Essie’s Borrowed & Blue– in fact, I wonder if anyone could do a comparison? I don’t have this one home with me. 😦

You see a lot of the yellow glitter here.

This is a perfect white! It’s off-white, but not yellow to the point where it’s ivory. A lot of white polish tends to be streaky or runny but not this one. It makes my eyes hurt looking at it and trying to figure out what makes it “not white”. Haha =P

White Peony also is a good base to show all the colors of the glitter in Dewdrop =)

Honeysuckle
MY FAVORITE! I don’t like a lot of pinks, but this is a GREAT color. It’s so beautiful! It’s also a true creme, unlike the other 7 polishes. I have worn this twice, and that is unusual for me. 🙂

with Dewdrop. I have to say I like this by itself, but it also looks good with this topcoat.

Nubar Spring Garden

A Spring collection in June?! I know 😛 I told you I was behind!

Without much ado, here is the collection! All of them, except Honeysuckle have a hidden silvery shimmer that’s lovely. It has your usual pinks, whites, greens, purples but with a much more murkier depth. I do like this collection 🙂 It’s an 8 piece collection accompanied with a glitter topcoat called Dewdrop.
I love Nubar’s formula even though I don’t use their polishes enough. I like the brush handle, the brush itself, and their formula 🙂 All were opaque by two coats, and Dewdrop was applied with one coat to all.

Dewdrop is a sheer polish, and impossible to become opaque because of its glittery nature. It’s packed full of gritty pastel colored round glitter and would need a topcoat to smooth things out. I did not apply a topcoat in this collection because 1) I don’t when I’m doing swatches and 2) I was on a swatching roll.
I found that Dewdrop looked best with more bolder colored polishes. With the dusty colors in this collection, a bit of them just looked gritty and dirty– not in a good way.

I will begin with the creme by itself, and then a picture of it with Dewdrop. I have all of them except for some reason, this one:

Baby Sprout
It’s not your usual mint green that you see in Spring collections. This is a murky, light pea color.
I forgot to take a picture/apply Dewdrop so no Dewdrop picture for this one. Use your imagination 🙂

Purple Aster
It’s a dusty mauve lavender, and you can see its shimmer here. This one was okay, I usually love purples and everything else in its spectrum but I didn’t go nuts over this.

Earthen is a murky pale grey. To think of it, I wonder how this compares to Skulls and Glossbones by OPI. Hah! I like this one more, I think, it’s an interesting neutral.

Not a fan of Dewdrop over Earthen.

Pink Lily
I brought this one home with me. I love it, it’s a perfect pastel pink with a shimmer.

I’m sorry about the lighting change, lol. This is more accurate to the bottle color, however. And now you see how flattering Dewdrop can be.

Yellow Primrose
A pale pastel yellow, could be mistaken for white.

Reminds me of Easter. I also like this combination a lot. =)

Blue Hydrangea
Baby blue pastel. Reminds me a bit of Essie’s Borrowed & Blue– in fact, I wonder if anyone could do a comparison? I don’t have this one home with me. 😦

You see a lot of the yellow glitter here.

This is a perfect white! It’s off-white, but not yellow to the point where it’s ivory. A lot of white polish tends to be streaky or runny but not this one. It makes my eyes hurt looking at it and trying to figure out what makes it “not white”. Haha =P

White Peony also is a good base to show all the colors of the glitter in Dewdrop =)

Honeysuckle
MY FAVORITE! I don’t like a lot of pinks, but this is a GREAT color. It’s so beautiful! It’s also a true creme, unlike the other 7 polishes. I have worn this twice, and that is unusual for me. 🙂

with Dewdrop. I have to say I like this by itself, but it also looks good with this topcoat.

China Glaze Crackle Collection

From left to right: Fault Line (dark  purple); Cracked Concrete (grey); Crushed Candy (light teal/blue– color is very accurate here!); Black Mesh (black); Broken hearted (pink, not as dark as shown) and White Lightning… which is white.

Quick photo of the collection. And yes, that is my work keyboard you see. It must be a really slow day here if I don’t get nagged at by the boss for the lacquer smell huh? 😛

 What did I do when I opened the package? Immediately put them on! I’ll do better swatches in a bit.

Thumb: Broken Hearted; Index finger to pinky: Cracked Concrete, Crushed Candy, Black mesh, and Fault Line.

White lightning– it did crack pretty well but my hindsight wasn’t 20/20 when I put it over Alpine Snow 😛

China Glaze Crackle Collection

From left to right: Fault Line (dark  purple); Cracked Concrete (grey); Crushed Candy (light teal/blue– color is very accurate here!); Black Mesh (black); Broken hearted (pink, not as dark as shown) and White Lightning… which is white.

Quick photo of the collection. And yes, that is my work keyboard you see. It must be a really slow day here if I don’t get nagged at by the boss for the lacquer smell huh? 😛

 What did I do when I opened the package? Immediately put them on! I’ll do better swatches in a bit.

Thumb: Broken Hearted; Index finger to pinky: Cracked Concrete, Crushed Candy, Black mesh, and Fault Line.

White lightning– it did crack pretty well but my hindsight wasn’t 20/20 when I put it over Alpine Snow 😛