Glitter Gal Citrine Swatches and Review

Glitter Gal Citrine.  Know how I like to complain about how gold and silver holos are too common and there need to be more interesting colors than that?  Yeah... this is a gold holo that makes me forget about that.  What makes Citrine so special?  Well... look at it.  It's crazy holographic.  Instead of a frosty metallic base like most holos have, it has a thick golden-yellow jelly base.  That jelly base is packed with very fine holographic particles.  It's so holographic that it's even rainbowy in low light (top picture!).  So not only is it a very strong, richly colorful linear holo, it actually has a bit of depth to it.  It's too beautiful.  It needs to come in a bigger bottle.

The formula on it isn't perfect, but it's not too bad.  It's quite thick and gel-like, so I find it better to do three very thin coats rather than two thicker coats.  It doesn't streak or make bald spots like frosty/metallic-based holos. However, it does take much longer to dry than your average holo, but quick-dry topcoat doesn't ruin the hologram effect on this. 

The only other downside to this gorgeous color is that it's pricey.  $11 for a 0.3oz (10ml) bottle.  That's just a bit larger than an OPI mini.  You can use one coat of this over a complementary opaque base color to conserve polish and it won't cheapen the holo effect at all, but that does tend to change the overall color of it. 

Glitter Gal is an Australian brand, though it can be ordered from US supplier Llarowe. 

(This was sent for review.)

Illamasqua Naked Strangers Collection Summer 2012 Swatches and Review

The Naked Strangers collection from Illamasqua is a different take on summer colors. Instead of the usual summer brights and neons, they've created a mixture of fleshy nudes and gleaming metallics. The full collection consists of two new lipglosses in Intimacy (nude pink brown) and Stranger (platinum gold), Powder Blusher in Naked Rose (neutral beige brown), Cream Blusher in Zygomatic (naked pink brown), and three new nail varnish shades (Faithful, Monogamous, Swinger).

Illamasqua Naked Strangers Collection Nail Varnish

Faithful, Monogamous, and Swinger.

Illamasqua Faithful. Faithful has a light, dusty-looking, slightly grey-tinged brown creme base with lots of bright, shiny copper metallic shimmer and just a touch of golden broken flake microglitter. The contrast in this color is really interesting. In dim lighting, it looks like a dusty, faded, almost taupe-like brown with a bit of red shimmer. In daylight indoors it looks like an earthy copper bronze. When you see the polish in sunlight, then it really shines. All the metallic copper shimmer comes out and adds a glow to the dusty base color, like smoldering embers. Very cool color.



Illamasqua Monogamous. This color dries to a rubbery matte finish, much like the Illamasqua Theatre of the Nameless rubber mattes. The top photo is its natural finish, the bottom photo is with a coat of topcoat. This color is a light pink-beige creme. It looks like a bottle of liquid foundation, it's a very fleshy, skin-like color. Unlike a lot of pale beiges, this one has a very soft look and it isn't chalky or harsh at all. Because it lacks that harsh, chalky finish, it's very easy to wear and looks clean and flattering without being sheer. It looks a lot more peach against my fair/cool skin tone, but it seems lighter and more pink by itself in the bottle.



Illamasqua Swinger. Swinger is a foil comprised of multiple shades of metallic particles. The main color is gold, but a neutral, non-yellowy gold. There's also platinum, champagne, very light bronze and metallic taupe. The overall look of the polish is rough and speckled with a slight green tinge to it. It only looks rough, though. It dries flat and smooth, even without topcoat. Sparkly and dense.

The formula on these was perfect. They glided onto my nails like a dream and none of these shades gave me even a hint of trouble. I did two coats of each and that's all they needed. The drying time on these is slightly faster than the usual Illamasqua dry time, which was a nice surprise. Flawless formula and application, no complaints here.

Overall, a small collection, but a good one. I like the slightly different take on summer color that they've presented here. The palette of matte nudes, browns/bronzes and pinks with the contrast of gleaming metallics is really great for summer, especially on tanned skin. I was especially pleased with the formula of the nail polishes, it was even better than I expected.

This collection doesn't officially release until the end of the month, but if you're a registered member on Illamasqua.com, you can order these items starting today. Details below.

All you need to do is log in to your Illamasqua.com account, or register for an account. A hidden Naked Strangers pre-release category will then be revealed within the COLLECTIONS section on the left menu within the shop.

The Illamasqua Naked Strangers Summer 2012 Collection goes on sale May 31st, 2012 and will be available at Sephora starting on June 7th, 2012. Registered members on Illamasqua.com can order the collection now.

(This was sent for review.)

My Fake Saint Patrick's Day Manicure

I say "fake" Saint Patrick's Day manicure because this is what I should have been wearing, but instead I took it off to put on something that looked crappy, and all day long I was wishing I would have left this on.

I know, the bloody spot on my finger looks gross, and I told myself I wasn't going to take any more pictures until it healed, but this was already on my nails and it looked really good to me and I thought, screw it, I might as well take a picture.

Besides, the "real" Saint Patrick's Day combination I did was pretty ugly and definitely not picture worthy (China Glaze Gaga For Green, which was excellent, but then I ruined it with some terrible looking green glitter on top.) so this is what I'm pretending I wore because it's way better.


Butter London Wallis, two coats. Sometimes it looks green, sometimes it looks gold... I suppose I could call it golden olive shimmer in a dark green sheer base, but that makes it sound plain and it's really not. The finish is chunky and speckled, but completely smooth. This might be my favorite of all the Butter London polishes I've tried so far.

So, what did you all end up wearing? Any cool nail art?

OPI India Collection for Spring 2008 Swatches

The Spring 2012 collections have all started coming out already... But I'm in the mood for reminiscing. Remember the OPI India collection from Spring 2008? That was another one that I went crazy over when it came out. Black Cherry Chutney. Royal Rajah Ruby. Such amazing colors. I loved the collection so much, I even bought the cardboard display it came on. Do you have any of these?

OPI Black Cherry Chutney.




OPI Charmed by a Snake.




OPI Curry Up, Don't Be Late.




OPI Elephantastic Pink.




OPI Get Me To The Taj on Time.




OPI I'm Indi-a Mood For Love.




OPI Keys To My Karma.




OPI Lunch at the Delhi.




OPI Mon-sooner or Later.




OPI Moon Over Mumbai.




OPI Royal Rajah Ruby.




OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue!

Another thing I remember about the OPI India collection... all the brushes were defective! The bristles are all frayed and bent and sticking out everywhere. Combined with the thinner than usual formula on these, they weren't that much fun to apply. Luckily, OPI's formula and brushes are much more consistent now and I rarely have trouble with them anymore. But, despite its flaws, I liked this collection when it came out and I still do.

Nubar Gold Leaf

Nubar Gold Leaf doesn't shift colors as much as some of the other Nubar duochromes, but I actually dig the more subtle look of this. It reminds me of fall, the way the leaves gradually change colors before falling to the ground.

Nubar Gold Leaf. The main colors I see in this are pure gold, bronze, brown and maroon/burgundy. The base is a shimmery brown with the gold shimmer on top. At certain angles I see more gold, at others I see a reddish-maroon type color and almost no gold.

Doesn't it look like fall? Gorgeous.

Nubar Gold Feather

Of all the Nubar duochromes, this one never seems to get any attention. It should, though- it's super cool. Though, maybe it's not truly a duochrome as it doesn't flip from one color to another, it just has a semi-sheer base with a contrasting glass fleck shimmer in a very different color. The shimmer lights up more or less depending on how the light hits it which gives it the illusion of changing colors.


Nubar Gold Feather. This is a warm golden base- a little more on the brown side than pure gold, and fairly red-toned. In some types of lighting it looks more neutral, so maybe there is a little true duochrome action happening here. The shimmer is a very bright iridescent green. It's large, shiny shimmer like a tiny version of a glass fleck particle. It is very obvious and very different from the warm gold base so it really stands out. Such a unique color, there just aren't many (if any at all) colors like this on the market anymore. It bears a certain similarity to the old discontinued Sally Hansen Chill Frost, but has a different finish and a three-free formula.

Re-swatching all my old Nubars has been really fun for me. I'm not quite done with them all yet, but I've already re-discovered so many favorites. Nubar has some seriously amazing colors in their line, including an abundance of duochromes- something most brands lack. Here's to hoping that there may be more Nubar duochromes in our future!