China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses - A Christmas Polish for St. Patrick's Day

As I was digging through my drawer of green polishes trying to figure out what to wear for St. Patrick's Day, I came across a polish that I hadn't worn in a while - Mistletoe Kisses from the China Glaze 2010 holiday collection.

This is one of those perfect China Glaze glitters. Great formula, opaque in two easy coats, insanely sparkly. Just amazing.

I remember being so surprised when Mistletoe Kisses was released because it's such a light green and holiday collections typically tend to feature darker greens. While I do love Mistletoe Kisses as a holiday polish, it really feels like spring when I look at my nails right now. I think this was a great choice for my St. Patty's Day mani. =)

Total love. I must remember to wear this one more often!

Happy Saturday, and Happy St. Patrick's Day! Thanks for reading. =)

China Glaze Glittering Garland

Glittering Garland is from China Glaze's 2011 holiday collection, Let It Snow. Let It Snow was one of those collections where I started off only really wanting one of the polishes, and somehow ended up owning half the collection. The ones I have are really stellar though, and Glitter Garland is no execption.

Dark, murky green with slightly lighter green glass flecks.

Glittering Garland is very, very similar to Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, but I find the formula on the China Glaze superior. This was two easy coats. The formula is just perfection. And since it's a glass fleck rather than a glitter, this baby is completely smooth with no effort at all.

I know I've got a winner when I put on a polish and three days later I have desire to change it. That happened with this beauty. I just enjoyed wearing it so, so much. Polishes like this one are why I love China Glaze so much.

Happy Friday! Hard to believe we're already nearly a week into the new year. O.o

China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

How in the world did I not post this polish before?! Anyway! Emerald Sparkle was originally released in China Glaze's 2008 holiday collection, Sleigh Ride. It's so perfect that I struggle to put it into words. Observe.

Deep green glitter in a deeper green jelly base. *remembers to breathe* 

The formula is perfect. Two effortless coats. The glitter is very, very fine, so there are no issues with it eating top coat.

Here she is out in the sun. So amazing. So perfect. There were some issues at one point with there being two different versions of Emerald Sparkle - this incredible beauty, and then a much less incredible (though still pretty in its own right) green shimmer. I'm almost sure that that issue has been rectified now, but as I understand it, the key to making sure you have the right one is the number 28843.

So there you have one. Honestly one of my favorite greens of all time - perfect for the holidays too!

An Atypical Holiday Mani - At Least for Me!

I don't wear light shades very much, but when China Glaze Snow Globe arrived a couple of weeks ago, I had this urge to wear it over a sheer white. I pretty much never want to wear manis like this one, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it. This is two coats of China Glaze Moonlight and two coats of Snow Globe.

Here we have it in the sun:

And in my lightbox. The light in my lightbox is warmer than sunlight, so it kind of gives it this more golden cast. But rest assured, it's just the lighting. The mani in real life pulled more white than golden.

I just loved this. I wore it for about three days, which is a long time for me! It felt so clean and fresh after me wearing so many darker colors and reds lately.

Hope your Decembers are shaping up nicely and that you're not going too crazy preparing for the holidays! As always, thanks for stopping by!

A Couple of Blues

Today I have a couple of blues that I hadn't posted yet. The first is Zoya Noel, which is likely the closest thing I'll ever have to a polish with my name. It's a beautiful ice blue metallic polish, very reminiscent of Zoya Crystal, but without the flecks of gold. The application was quite good, two easy coats. Somehow I managed to ding the tips of a couple of fingers within just a couple of hours of putting it on. This worries me a bit because I didn't really do anything that could have caused that, so I hope this doesn't just tend to being chiptastic. =\

And the other is China Glaze Flyin' High. I was expecting this one to be more teal than it looks on me, but on me it's pretty much pure blue. In the lights indoors, it had a very tiny tint of teal to it, but yeah, mostly blue... which is fine with me. =) Great formula on this one though, not fussy whatsoever.

I'm so sorry that I haven't had much time to answer comments lately. I do read them all, and I appreciate every one. I've just been so busy with work, and then being sick and then being busy with work again that I feel like I barely have time to put together cognizant blog posts. So please, please know that I really do love all of your comments, even when I don't have time to reply!

Happy Friday!

China Glaze Winter Berry

I kept telling myself I didn't need another red creme. Turns out, I was wrong! =)

China Glaze's Let It Snow 2011 holiday collection features two red cremes (three if you count the vampier Velvet Bow), with Winter Berry being the one that is cooler in tone. I went back and forth about getting this one. I have a fair amount of red cremes. And honestly... I'm not even sure this is unique in my collection. But the lemming was there and it wasn't leaving, so I went ahead and bought it. And I'm so glad that I did.

Winter Berry is just perfect in every way. The formula is great - two easy coats is what's shown here. It's sort of halfway between a creme and a jelly, so it borders on that wonderful squishy quality of a jelly without any of the opacity or streaking issues that jellies sometimes have.

It's also just about the perfect shade of red for my skintone, which doesn't hurt anything either. =D So do I have a dupe in my collection for this one? Yeah, I probably do. But I love this so much that I'm not even inspired to go and check to see what I have that might be close. And when I do get around to de-duping my collection again (We all know it'll happen eventually!), I'm pretty sure this one will stay over whatever else I might have that's close to it. I just love it that much. =)

Just perfect. *sigh*

Thank you everyone for the well wishes with the bug I had earlier this week. =) I'm finally starting to feel human again, yay! 

And, as always, thank you for stopping by my little blog. =)

An Old Favorite - China Glaze Dorothy Who?

I am very tired tonight, it's been an incredibly busy week, so I will let this one speak for herself. I give you one of my favorite blue glitters EVER - China Glaze Dorothy Who?

China Glaze consistently makes some of my very favorite glitters. Yay for sparkles!

And with that, I bid you all a lovely night (or day, depending on when you read this). Thanks for stopping by! Perhaps one day soon work will stop kicking my butt and I'll be able to be a little more coherent. =)

Some Hard to Find Holos

Over the last year or so, I've managed to get my hands on a few hard to find holo polishes via either swaps or RAOKs. I was taking pictures of them all a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I'd share them here. They aren't the greatest pictures because I was swatching at night, but here they are anyway. Enjoy!

OPI DS Original (Thanks, Moxie!)

China Glaze He's Going in Circles (Thanks, Nan!)

China Glaze Tickle My Triangle (Thanks, kenyameesha!)

China Glaze Let's Do It in 3D (Thanks, Moxie!!)

Hope things are going well for all of you! As always, thanks for stopping by! <3

China Glaze Dripping Wet

Dripping Wet is, without a doubt, the sexiest polish I own. Deep, dark, vampy red jelly. Simply perfection.

Sadly, this polish is now hard to find. I was lucky enough to receive this in a RAOK (random act of kindness) from a sweet girl in return for a kindness that I showed her. That's the kind of karma I love! =)

This is two easy coats. The formula is great, really top notch. I've worn it with three coats before as well, but it tends to look black on me at three coats, while at two it still looks red in most lights.

Just stunning, no?

I hope you all are having a good week. Thanks for stopping by! <3

China Glaze Skyscraper

Skyscraper was released as part of China Glaze's Metro collection for fall of 2011. I resisted this polish at first. "Another blue glitter," I said. "I have Dorothy Who?" I said. "I have Absolutely Alice," I said. And as so often happens, resistance turned out to be futile because this baby is really nothing like any of those.

I guess I would call Skyscraper indigo. It isn't navy. It isn't royal. It's not purple. I've read that indigo is no longer considered a separate part of the spectrum by modern color scientists. I guess it's an orphan like Pluto now.

I'm still going to call this indigo. So Skyscraper is an indigo jelly that is positively PACKED with silver glitter. I cannot believe how sparkly this is.

The formula is pretty standard for China Glaze glitters. It was a tad on the thick side, but a couple of drops of thinner fixed it right up. I didn't even try it with just a coat of top coat to test if it's a hungry glitter or not - my assumption is that anything this sparkly will eat top coat, so what you see here is 2 coats of polish topped with one coat of Gelous and one coat of Pro FX quick dry. It's completely smooth and shiny.

I am so glad that I acquired this polish. It's completely stunning. No regrets whatsoever!

Hope this Tuesday finds you all well. Thanks for stopping by!