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?

Zoya Summertime

Here is the other half of the Zoya Summer 2011 collection, Summertime. This is a six piece collection featuring cremes.

The polish was two coater in all of the pictures. Had VNL issues with the red ones, but mainly not too terrible. Formula was stellar. I love Zoya although their price tag could go down a little bit more. 🙂

Love Areej! Such a nice take on the Pantone 2011 Color of the Year: Honeysuckle color.

 Areej, a very strong fuchsia.

This is a bit darker in real life. My camera, and the uploading process washed it out 😦

 Breezi, an interesting blue. Almost teal, almost periwinkle. I looked this color up and it seems to match Munsel Blue, according to Wikipedia’s list of color drops (the little blue square above).

Very dark fuchsia creme.

Great purple creme, this photo shows a bit too purple. It’s a lot more “pastel” (washed out) than the photo showing.

 Sooki is a very cool cherry red. It’s the perfect red creme! I don’t LOVE this because the name reminds me of that horrible Snooki from Jersey Shore and I can’t stand her. 😦

Tamsen is a much warmer red– you can see it has a lot more orange than its sister Sooki above. Dark tomato red. It leans a lot towards the orange side than Sooki, who leans towards cherry. 

Love these cremes… I could do without the two reds though. How about a green? 😉 

I also want to see Zoya name their polish after some REAL women, not these vapid beings that you see on trashy, brain-cell-slaughtering TV shows. =\

Zoya Summertime

Here is the other half of the Zoya Summer 2011 collection, Summertime. This is a six piece collection featuring cremes.

The polish was two coater in all of the pictures. Had VNL issues with the red ones, but mainly not too terrible. Formula was stellar. I love Zoya although their price tag could go down a little bit more. 🙂

Love Areej! Such a nice take on the Pantone 2011 Color of the Year: Honeysuckle color.

 Areej, a very strong fuchsia.

This is a bit darker in real life. My camera, and the uploading process washed it out 😦

 Breezi, an interesting blue. Almost teal, almost periwinkle. I looked this color up and it seems to match Munsel Blue, according to Wikipedia’s list of color drops (the little blue square above).

Very dark fuchsia creme.

Great purple creme, this photo shows a bit too purple. It’s a lot more “pastel” (washed out) than the photo showing.

 Sooki is a very cool cherry red. It’s the perfect red creme! I don’t LOVE this because the name reminds me of that horrible Snooki from Jersey Shore and I can’t stand her. 😦

Tamsen is a much warmer red– you can see it has a lot more orange than its sister Sooki above. Dark tomato red. It leans a lot towards the orange side than Sooki, who leans towards cherry. 

Love these cremes… I could do without the two reds though. How about a green? 😉 

I also want to see Zoya name their polish after some REAL women, not these vapid beings that you see on trashy, brain-cell-slaughtering TV shows. =\

Zoya Sunshine Swatches

I took part of Zoya’s BOGO promotion with their Summertime/Sunshine and Mod Mattes collection, and this one is the Sunshine collection.

General notes:

Two coats for almost all, unless otherwise specified. They all have gold flecks in them and the reds were not photographed adequately because I am a crappy photographer with a decent camera 😉 I personally love this collection, it’s wonderful for summer and definitely great for pedicures and nubby nails. I don’t really have any description for these, so I’ll just let the pictures talk. Enjoy!

Love this.

 Grape with a ton of gold fleck shimmer.  It also caught a ton of shine with my camera it was crazy. It’s my favorite too. I wonder why!

 Cherry red, more bolder than the camera allowed and of course the gold shimmer is muted way way down. I liked this one though!

 Strawberry pink with gold flecks 😉 awesome.

I love this one too. Orange with darker gold flecks.

This one is a lot more raspberry, and the camera refuses to show the gold fleck. The bottle color is accurate (without the gold shimmer), my nails are a bit muted down.

Zoya Sunshine Swatches

I took part of Zoya’s BOGO promotion with their Summertime/Sunshine and Mod Mattes collection, and this one is the Sunshine collection.

General notes:

Two coats for almost all, unless otherwise specified. They all have gold flecks in them and the reds were not photographed adequately because I am a crappy photographer with a decent camera 😉 I personally love this collection, it’s wonderful for summer and definitely great for pedicures and nubby nails. I don’t really have any description for these, so I’ll just let the pictures talk. Enjoy!

Love this.

 Grape with a ton of gold fleck shimmer.  It also caught a ton of shine with my camera it was crazy. It’s my favorite too. I wonder why!

 Cherry red, more bolder than the camera allowed and of course the gold shimmer is muted way way down. I liked this one though!

 Strawberry pink with gold flecks 😉 awesome.

I love this one too. Orange with darker gold flecks.

This one is a lot more raspberry, and the camera refuses to show the gold fleck. The bottle color is accurate (without the gold shimmer), my nails are a bit muted down.