China Glaze Crinkled Chrome Textured Polish Collection 2014 Swatches and Review

 

China Glaze Aluminate

(A-LU-MIN-ATE!)

China Glaze Crush, Crush Baby

China Glaze Don't Be Foiled

 China Glaze I'm A Chromantic

China Glaze Iron Out Details

China Glaze Wrinkling The Sheets

The formula on these is very good.  They're thick but easy to control, and completely, 100% opaque in just one coat. In fact, they look better at one coat than they do at two.  They have a true chrome finish (think China Glaze's Khrome collection from 2009) that becomes reflective when dry.  They have some sandy grit like other sand/textured finish polishes, but they also contain white matte bar glitter for extra texture. They dry almost immediately.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about these yet.  My gut reaction was, "oh, lumpy-looking chromes.... okay," but they're growing on me.  To tell you the truth, I was expecting them to crinkle up almost like a crackle polish as they dried, so the grit texture was a bit of a surprise to me.

Still, it's a unique idea that I haven't seen done before, so that's pretty cool.  Good formula at least. 

This collection is available now!

(collection provided for review)

China Glaze Autumn Nights Collection Fall 2013 Swatches and Review

China Glaze Autumn Nights Fall 2013

 China Glaze Goldie But Goodie

 

 China Glaze Gossip Over Gimlets

 

China Glaze Charmed I'm Sure

 China Glaze Don't Make Me Wine

 China Glaze Kiss My Glass

 China Glaze Public Relations

 China Glaze Queen B

 China Glaze Red-y & Willing

 China Glaze Rendezvous With You

China Glaze Scandalous Shenanigans

 China Glaze Strike Up A Cosmo

China Glaze Tongue & Chic

 The formula of the frosty shades was disappointing but not surprising.  They had a thick, stringy texture and applied streaky, with pooling at the edges and visible brushstrokes that only diminish slightly when dry.  The formula on the rest of the shades was stellar; no problems or texture issues whatsoever.  All dried quickly and were glossy even without topcoat.

I love the foils in this collection.  They're a little different than the standard single-tone foil because they have flakes of gold in them.  It's most noticeable in the photo of Gossip Over Gimlets, so be sure to take a good look at that one.  I believe China Glaze is calling these new two-tone flaky foils "aluminum finish."

 

Aluminum finish? Awesome.  Frosts, though?  Please, no.  Just.... no.  Public Relations and Kiss My Glass were intolerably bad for me, but the other shades weren't as streaky or as thick as those two.  Tongue & Chic and Don't Make Me Wine are closer to a regular shimmer finish than a frost or metallic, but still show brushstrokes if you're not careful.



(collection provided for review)

Maybelline Color Show Limited Edtion Fall 2012 Nail Lacquer Collection Swatches and Review

Just spotted this cool new collection of Maybelline Color Show nail polishes. They have their own display apart from the regular Color Show display and according to their labels, they're all limited edition. The Maybelline Color Show Fall 2012 Limited Edition colors are:


Maybelline Color Show in 700 Avante Green. Green-blue-gold multichrome with metallic chrome finish. Looks like China Glaze Unpredictable to me.


Maybelline Color Show in 705 Auburn Ablaze. Brown base with red and burgundy shimmer. Has a slight purple tone to it at some angles, but looks mostly brown with cool red shimmer on my nails.


Maybelline Color Show in 710 Metal Icon. A medium silver-grey multicolor/rainbow shimmer. There's a lot of different colors in here, but they're subtle. It looks mostly like a grey base with chunky silver shimmer. It's not a Chanel Graphite dupe, but it's similar.


Maybelline Color Show in 715 Boho Gold. Warm gold, olive, yellow-green and blue multichrome with metallic chrome finish. Not a dupe of Chanel Péridot, but pretty close to Deborah Lippmann Swagga Like Us.


Maybelline Color Show in 720 Pink Cosmo. Light pink, lavender, gold and green multichrome with metallic chrome finish. Similar to a lot of the recent pink/gold/green duochromes (Nails Inc. Stratford, Deborah Lippmann Sugar Daddy, China Glaze Swanky Silk, etc.), but lighter and slightly cooler-toned.


Maybelline Color Show in 725 Downtown Brown. Warm, very red-toned brown base with teal-green blue duochrome shimmer. Similar to Urban Decay Bruise / Misa Embroidered Emerald. Basically it's MAC Club eyeshadow in nail polish form.

The formula on these was good but very thin. All the shades were equally thin and very sheer- I needed four coats of each to achieve full opacity and that's what I'm wearing in these pictures. The only actual problem I encountered in application was that a few of the brushes were defective; one had bristles sticking out, one was cut at an angle and one was flared at the ends. Dry time was fast despite doing four coats.

This collection seems to be riding on the Chanel Graphite / Chanel Péridot chrome-finish multichrome/multicolor shimmer trend that's really big right now. I like how duochrome-heavy the collection is, but I already own the original versions of a lot of the colors so it's a bit redundant. However, these are pretty cheap (around $3 each), so they might be a good way to satisfy a lemming for one of the more expensive dupes without having to pay as much.

Nicole by OPI Target Exclusive Collection for Fall 2012 Swatches and Review

Nicole by OPI has more Target exclusives this year and they are quite interesting. Two of them are dupes of recent "mirror chrome" colors you may already have, but the rest of them are completely unique and awesome.


Nicole For Gold Times Sake. This is a polish made up of many different colors of microglitter. The overall color of the polish is an olive gold with red/orange duochrome flash. It shifts colors from earthy dirty olive to pinkish red bronze depending on the lighting. I can see gold, green, light blue, purple, pink and red iridescent particles in this polish.


Nicole If The Blue Fits.... This is another multicolored microglitter duochrome. The overall color is a vibrant indigo blue with green and purple duochrome flash. I can see pink, purple, blue, green, gold and red iridescent particles in here. All the little speckles of shimmer/glitter in here change color when you tilt your nails.



Nicole Iris My Case. Oh.... another one of these purple chromes with slight orange duochrome. Yawn. Okay, okay, it's not a bad color at all, in fact I really like it, it's just... I have three dupes of this already. I love the finish and the duochrome, but can we have a new color now? This and every Peridot dupe might be this year's OPI Catch Me In Your Net.



Nicole Just Busta Mauve. This is just the coolest thing I've ever seen from Nicole. What a crazy polish. It's just like For Gold Times Sake and If The Blue Fits..., except this one is red-bronze based and all the colors really clash and stand out. It's amazing. There's a dark pink and bronze base with lots of orange, gold, blue, purple and red and a strong gold flash with just the tiniest hint of a green duochrome at the most extreme angle.


Nicole Mer-made For Each Other. Blue-green-teal-gold multichromatic chrome-like shimmer. Looks a lot like China Glaze Unpredictable. It's not a Chanel Péridot dupe, but it's in the same family.

The formula on all was just right. The glitters were extremely fine (more of a flat glass fleck or a very small foil particle than a chunky glitter) and very opaque. The chromes were smooth and even, not particularly thick or thin. None of them gave me any trouble to apply and they all looked fantastic at three coats. Drying time is fast on all shades, but the chromes are faster than the glitters. The glitters don't dry dull, but they do sparkle more with topcoat. The chromes don't need topcoat at all (unless you want it, but it doesn't make a difference in the shine).

Amazing set of exclusives this year. The Target exclusives are usually good, but this time they're extra awesome. I could have done without the chrome clones, but they're still really pretty. I would have definitely preferred two more colors of this new multicolored glitter duochrome formula for sure. The multicolored glitter duochromes are unique in my collection and are definitely worth checking out if you see them on the shelf. I'm really impressed that Nicole has done something completely different than anything else I've seen lately. Bravo. These glitters rule.

This collection is available now exclusively at Target.

(This was sent for review.)