American Apparel - Hunter with Color Club - Holiday Splendor

Merry Christmas !!

Color Club - Tweet Me

Oh bloggy blog blog, how I ignore you. I'd love to promise that I'm back for good, but by now you all know how fickle I am.

So what has motivated me to post? Birchbox and Color Club's exclusive Social Media collection! I was lucky enough to score 2 of these at Birchbox's pop up sample stop for fashion week.

Tweet me is a creamy chartreuse, a color I hated when OPI did it with their Shrek collection but absolutely love now. It's one of those things that's so ugly it's pretty.

The polish comes across extra yellow in these photos, but there is definitely a dose of green in it. The formula was a bit awful, as any formula with yellow tends to be, but after three coats it evens out pretty nicely.

Zoya - Zuza

Oh Zuza. With a promo bottle photo like this, is it any wonder you went straight to the top of many polish fanatics wish lists?

Unfortunately I think that magic is sort of lost on the nail. A foil version of the ever so popular tiffany blue is a great idea, but in the end I simply prefer a creme. I wish Zoya did more of a glitter foil, like their sunshine or sparkle collections. If foils are your thing, this is probably a must have. Maybe I'll like it better with a tan, but I can't really see myself reaching for Zuza over it's creme counterpart (Wednesday).

 

Ok Zuza happens to be very photogenic and looks pretty in these photos, but I didn't really feel like it was *that* special in real life. Maybe I'm crazy and it'll grow on me. We'll see !

Zoya - Yara

Yara is an olive green with gold specks. A lot of photos of this color really highlight the shimmer in it, but on the nail it is pretty subtle. I only have one photo for you, but it's pretty accurate:

OPI - Thanks A Windmillion / Essie - As Gold as it Gets

OPI Thanks a Windmillion is an awesome muted sea green. I love that this looks green on me as my skin tone tends to pull the blue out of these colors. 

I added Essie's As Gold as it Gets on the ring finger, it is a pretty combo but I really love Windmillion on it's own. 

Opi - Stranger Tides

Yo ho ho! Arghg! Other cliche pirate phrases! Stranger Tides is from OPI's latest Disney themed Pirates of the Caribbean collection. It is a very pale, almost khaki green creme. It is pretty unusual, don't think I've seen anything else like it.

I found the formula a tad bit annoying. It managed to be both thick and streaky at the same time (a common problem with pastel cremes). There was also some cuticle drag (for my non polish obsessed friends, this is when applying a second or third coat starts pulling off previous coats and leaves bare spots near the cuticle.) I had to wait a few minutes between each coat to avoid this and needed 3 coats (one thin, two thick) for full coverage.

In the end, I absolutely adore this color, though I'm not quite sure how I feel about it with my skin tone. I'm excited to wear it once I'm tan. I think this will look great on cooler complexions and also on deeper skin tones (aka everyone but me).

Now I must hunt down Silver Shatter so I can frolick around with trendy nails and ignore strange looks from people who just don't understand.

Chanel - Khaki Vert

I very rarely pay full price for a bottle of polish, so if I splurge on a Chanel it has to be something special. Luckily, Khaki Vert lives up to all its expectations. It's a perfect slightly grayed out army green. This is two coats.

China Glaze - Black Mesh / Zoya - Charla

I'll admit my last crackle combination wasn't making me jump for joy. It was interesting and different, but I was still on the fence about it. Well yesterday I was wearing Charla with no intention to put crackle over it and then I got bored and decided to see what happens. I AM IN LOVE. The crackle is a lot less obvious in this combo, from far away it can come across as a deep sparkly green. Once you get close up you get glimpses of the fun crackle texture. My mom even gave this her stamp of approval, which was a huge feat considering my last crackle attempt creeped her out to the point where she didn't even want to look at my nails.

Charla is even more saturated and sparkly in real life. These awkward photos are the most color accurate.

Essie - Sew Psyched

I have been in love with Rescue Beauty Lounge's Diddy Mow since it was announced last winter, so I was really excited to hear that Sew Psyched was a really close dupe. A lovely green/gray with a very subtle shimmer, the color changes a lot depending on the lighting. The polish looks a tad darker in these photos than it is in real life.

Sally Hansen - Lime Lights over China Glaze - For Audrey

Lime Lights is an iridescent mint green. It's very sheer on it's own, but quite magical as a top coat. Here it is over For Audrey - it gives it an awesome pearlized finish. I'm also excited to try this one over some darker colors.

Sinful Colors - Happy Ending

Neon green with a yellow/gold shimmer. I'm usually not a neon green person, but I found the shimmer in this polish appealing. Overall a fun summer color. Goes on sheer, needs 3 coats.

Revlon - Minted

I love this color! This goes right up there with For Audrey as one of my favorite colors to wear with a tan. Minted is very similar to Essie's Mint Candy Apple; however I believe this one looks more green on me where Mint Candy Apple leaned more blue. Formula was easy to work with, but definitely needed 3 coats. 

Milani - Dress Maker

A Chanel - Jade dupe! I don't own Jade, but other polish bloggers have assured me this is close enough. Milani is blatantly knocking off designer polishes with their "Haute Value" collection. I'm all for this considering Jade currently sells for $100+ on eBay.

This was 3 coats and I have no complaints about the formula or application. Thank you Milani !

Sinful Colors - Rise and Shine

This color is gorgeous, but pretty much impossible to photograph. It's a teal green (much greener than blue, but there's definitely some blue in there) and has a very subtle shimmer. It comes across as soft in these photos, but in reality is a totally awesome vivid green. I think this might be my favorite summer polish so far! 

Formula was great for a $2 polish. Needed 3 coats to cover bare spots, but went on smooth enough that I didn't mind. It acts like a neon in that it dries very fast, matte, and photographs much duller than it is in real life, but I would not classify this color as a neon. You definitely need a top coat. 

OPI - At Your Quebec and Call

This is a khaki/olive green with a gold shimmer and some copper micro glitter. It's definitely an unusually color that gets a lot of mixed reviews, but I happen to love it! As you can see in the first photo, I had some tipwear after a few days, but I like the color too much to really care. This was three coats.

Essie - Turquoise and Caicos vs. China Glaze - For Audrey

I was really excited to get Turquoise and Caicos in the mail, but when I opened it it looked very much like For Audrey! Actually, Turquoise is more green. That said, I wore a mixed mani with both for 3 day and no one noticed I had two different colors on.

As far as formulas go, both are not perfect. For Audrey is thicker and only needs 2 coats, the first goes on pretty uneven. Turquoise and Caicos is kind of sheer, needing 3 somewhat thick coats for it to be opaque. I found Turquoise to be a little easier to work with.

Here is Turquoise alone (please excuse the the bumps on my index finger, I had some stubborn glitter stuck to my nail!):

And a bunch of comparison shots:

These shots emphasize the difference in color. In low light they seem almost identical. You probably don't need both. So do I get rid of one? Of course not. A girl needs back up bottles of these things! 

Zoya - Charla

Oh Charla Charla Charla. I want to love you. I think I might love you. But I'm not sure if I'm in love with you on my fingers (yet). I've been wearing a series of purple/pink tones (which tend to look the best on me), so this mermaid manicure was a lil shocking to my eyes.

Don't get me wrong, this color is beyond gorgeous. It's a bright aqua base loaded with blue/green *metallic* glitter. I don't think any swatch online can truly capture how bright, saturated, and shiny this polish really is. Also, it's metallic! I didn't really realize that when I purchased, even though it's clearly stated in the product description. It's fabulous on my toes. Still getting used to it on my nails.

Duri - Divas Only

This is a Zoya Adina dupe I found over at Vampy Varnish. Really interesting purple/green/sometimes pinkish duochrome. I grabbed this for $5 plus free shipping at duri.com, so it was quite a steal! They seem have a lot of other great colors, but I always hesitate to buy without seeing a swatch first.

Diamond Cosmetics - Don't Teal My Heart Away

I have such love for this brand! Fun colors, great formula (just as good as essie/opi, if not better in some cases), and $2.25 a bottle - cant' really beat that. Here is Don't Teal My Heart Away, a really nice teal cream. Available at flossiediamond.com