Perfectly Polished Tips 183 - NOTD Monday

To get me on track with posting and to force me to photograph my Nail Of The Day more often I'm going to try to do these once a week. I don't change my polish nearly as often as I would like. I used to do 3 or 4 manicures a week. To start it off I have Orly Luxe topped with China Glaze Lightening Bolt.

I saw a manicure similar to this sometime last year when the news the crackle polish was making a comeback was released. I remember using the Cover Girl crackle polish when I was younger and loving it. I didn't keep any of the polish I had when I was younger and I often wonder what gems I tossed out! Anyways I saw the manicure and I needed to replicate it ASAP. The China Glaze crackle was hard to come by in my town. It sold out immediately. My lovely sister was able to find it online and got it for me for my birthday. I finally wore it and was happy with the results.

Even though crackle polish is everywhere right now it seems to get mixed reviews. I personally love it. It's nice for a funky/fun mani and my favorite thing about it? I can slap it over an old mani or one I may have smudged and I am good to go.

I picked up Orly Luxe from my local Sally Beauty I believe it's part of the core collection. Crackle polish can be found just about anywhere in a variety of colors.

Perfectly Polished Tips 143 - China Glaze Kicks

In addition to their Summer Days collection China Glaze also released the Kicks collection. It is made up of 12 polishes, some are creme, some shimmer. I wasn't really impressed with this collection, six of the polishes are pink or are close to being pink. I feel like China Glaze could have done so much better or at least added a little more variety. I will give them credit for having two greens and a teal though.

Oh How Street it Is - a burnt orange creme, this is 3 coats
Style Wars - neon-ish orange creme
Breakin' - a light pumpkin-y orange w/ gold shimmer

Sky High Top - sky blue with aqua shimmer
Custom Kicks - teal with gorgeous gold shimmer & my favorite from the collection
Paper Chasing - grassy green with shimmer
Entourage - pastel lime green with shimmer

Fly - magenta with pink and purple shimmer, reminds me of Essie Jewel
It's Poppin' - hot pink with pink shimmer
B-Girlz - slightly lighter hot pink with shimmer
Laced Up - a pepto/bubble gum pink creme

Sneaker Head - neon cherry red

Over all this isn't my favorite collection from China Glaze but I really like their formula and brushes, I can't wait for their fall collection it looks like it has a pretty neat purple.

Kicks is currently available.

Perfectly Polished Tips 137 - China Glaze Summer Days

I know most of the stuff I am going to post in the coming days/weeks is going to be so 6 months ago, and I apologize. I haven't been the best blogger but I am going to try to make up for it. So even if you have viewed the collections a bunch on the other blogs I hope you enjoy the photos anyways. Also I got a new camera, the following photos were taken on my old one and the reds and pinks always came out slightly off. My new camera seems to take much better photos so I'm really excited about that.

First up I have China Glaze's Summer Days collection. When I saw the promo photos for this collection I was immediately in love. They all have that amazing glass flecked glitter look. I like each polish in this collection which isn't something that happens often. I even love Orange Marmalade and I don't usually do orange.

Orange Marmalade

Cherry Pie - it's not as orange in real life, it makes an awesome pedicure color when layered on top of a red creme.

Raspberry Festival - not as red in real life.

Strawberry Fields - has gorgeous gold shimmer.

Grape Juice

Watermelon Rind

These may still be available in some Sally Beauty locations and I believe they are still available online. They are perfect for summer (or anytime really!).

Perfectly Polished Tips 124 - China Glaze Romantique Part Two

Here is the warm half of the China Glaze Romantique collection. I was drawn to the golden shades in this collection but I feel like I probably won't ever wear them. Unfortunately my camera almost made all of the colors look similar (to me anyways), hopefully the swatches are still helpful!

Emotion

Joy

Poetic

Passion

Magical (more of a sandy color)

Delight (bronze-y brown shade)

My favorites from this part of the set are Magical and Poetic. I love golds but I don't think they love me. I can always wear them on my toes!

Perfectly Polished Tips 123 - China Glaze Romantique Part One

Sorry for the long delay in posts! The holiday season is killer. China Glaze's newest collection Romantique includes 12 gorgeous metallic colors. They are perfect for the upcoming spring season or any time really. They apply smoothly and while I did have brush strokes they didn't ruin the polishes for me. My favorite part about this collection is that they are all one coaters! That alone made me forget all about the brush strokes. I am posting the cool part of the collection first followed by the warm.

Devotion

Awaken

Cherish

Adore

Admire (as with almost every pink my camera distorts it, it's a bit lighter/truer pink in real life)

Harmony (a bit deeper in real life)

Being a cool toned girl myself, I am partial to this collection with my favorites being Harmony and Adore. I wasn't a huge fan of Cherish but it might be a fun pedicure color for me. Personally I think silvers look better on me than golds but I always find myself disliking the silvers and craving gold.

I hope to be back to posting regularly, and I hope you all had wonderful holidays!

Perfectly Polished Tips 120 - Octa Gone Wild

The China Glaze Kaleidoscope Collection is full of holographic glitter and comes in colors that will work with every skin tone. These have recently been discontinued, they are still for sale on the e-tailers (which are listed in my side bar) but I don't know how much longer they will be available for.

I also wanted to apologize for the lack of posts lately. It's the end of the semester so I've been focusing on that. Tomorrow I will be offically on winter break so check back. I have China Glaze Romantiques as well as Carolyn New York Color's Holiday Collection to share.

Perfectly Polished Tips 118 - China Glaze Swatches

Inner Beauty is a sheer milky pink. The picture is two coats and as you can see it's a bit streaky. I don't normally wear colors like this. A ridge filling base coat would make this polish look a million times better. This is a great color for a french manicure or if you are going for that clean look.

Blushing is another sheer color, this is more beige than pink. Again a ridge filling base coat is needed for these types of colors.

This polish was sent to me unlabeled. I've gotten a few suggestions of it possibly being Summer Rain or Rio but I'm not 100%. It's a bit brighter in real life. This picture is two coats and I have a visible polish line, so another coat would probably fix that.

For Audrey is pretty much a dead on dupe for Tiffany's blue boxes. I love this color but only wear it on my toes. Swatching it was the first time I had ever put it on my finger nails. I'm not sure if I would ever do it again. It applies nicely and is opaque in two coats.

Long kiss is a deep red with very subtle gold shimmer. It's an awesome holiday color.

As far as I know all of these colors are current and can be purchased where ever China Glaze is found.

Perfectly Polished Tips 117 - China Glaze Operation Color

I'm kinda late to the party with this collection. It's still fall though! China Glaze released Operation Color for fall 2008. I personally felt like these colors would have been more appropriate for a spring collection but I really like them. As I've mentioned before I love almost every polish with a creme finish. Combine that with hues of blues and purples and I'm hooked. I didn't have any application with these polishes and even though my pictures show two coats of color I have a visible polish line, so in the future I would use three coats of color.

Secret Peri-wink-le is a pastel periwinkle creme. The color shown in the photo is pretty true to life.

Agent Lavender is a delicate lilac creme. I hate how my camera likes to assume anything light colored is white. The color is more intense and less blue. Every since I wore Zoya Miley I fell in love with all lavender and lilac colors. They are so clean and lady like.

Pink Underground is a pepto bismal-y pink with subtle pink shimmer. A year ago I would have been all over a color like this now not so much. Believe it or not though I don't have anything similar in my stash.

Here is Pink Underground with flash to show the subtle shimmer.

Revolution is a tomato red creme. I had to alter it a bit to actually make it look like the polish. The picture is pretty close, it's a bit brighter in real life. This red applied very nicely but I just don't do red as much as I used too.

This collection has two more colors as well; Code Orange, and Golden Opportunity. I don't do yellow or orange so I don't have those to show you. I know a lot of the other blogs have posted swatches though so you should be able to find them easily if you're curious!

Perfectly Polished Tips 107 - Franken Polish Extravaganza

Every now and then I get a lemming for a polish that I either cannot find or doesn't exist. When this happens I turn to my stash to see what I can combine. I try to use cheaper polishes or ones I don't love to franken though. Sometimes I will sacrifice (I used some Zulu once) the favorites though. Over the next few days I will be sharing my personal home creations. This polish is probably going to be my NOTWeekend. I already need a break from using up my untrieds.

with flash.

artificial lighting.

To make this polish I combined: China Glaze Shower Together, Color Club Naughtycal Navy, China Glaze Tinsel, and Pure Ice Oh Baby. I don't have exact measurements because I am a messy franken-er. All of the polishes should be very easy to find.

Perfectly Polished Tips 102 - My Top 20 Part I

So some people have 1 favorite polish or maybe 5. I however have 20 "must haves" that I would like to share with you. Some are my all time favorite, some are from newer collections. These are the ones I am loving at the moment. Although when I think about it this list isn't really fair, as I haven't worn all the polishes I own. Yet. I will admit that I have an unreasonable amount of untrieds but we'll save that for another day! Here is the first half of my top twenty list. In no special order.

China Glaze White Kwik Silvr - reminds me of winter and the glitter is amazing

Nicole Pinkerbell - soft, girly and Tinkerbell is my favorite

Sephora by OPI Metro Chic - unique but chic..it's a fun color

OPI Got the Blues for Red - my HG red creme, it's classic

Zoya Kalista - one of the few glitter polishes, it's so pretty

L'Oreal Emerpor - my newest obsession..dark blurple (more purple) creme

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway - perfect blue creme

butter London Portobello Pink - fun summer color..usually I use it on my toes

Lippmann Collection Fade to Black - 1 coater, great for layering

OPI Designer Series Glamour - looks awesome layered over OPI Dating a Royal

Perfectly Polished Tips 97 - Swatches of China Glaze Spring & Summer 09

Here are swatches of Romantique and Summer Days. They are 2 coats of color, and apparently the chromes apply smoothly which is always nice to hear.

Indoor Lighting.

Sunlight.

1. Passion
2. Magical
3. Poetic
4. Delight
5. Emotion
6. Joy
7. Awaken
8. Adore
9. Cherish
10. Harmony
11. Desire
12. Devotion
13. Orange Marmalade
14. Cherry Pie
15. Raspberry Festival
16. Strawberry Fields
17. Grape Juice
18. Watermelon Rind

Again thanks to Carey for allowing me to post her photos!

Perfectly Polished Tips 96 - China Glaze Summer 2009 Sneak Peak

Again photo thanks to Carey on MUA. Click the photo for a huge picture.

(l-r) Orange Marmalade, Cherry Pie, Raspberry Festival, Strawberry Fields, Grape Juice, Watermelon Rind

These have glass flecked glitter which I am super excited about! These are due out for Summer '09.

Perfectly Polished Tips 95 - China Glaze Romantique Sneak Peek

The lovely Carey over at Make Up Alley scored these beauties today. Carey was kind enough to let me borrow her photos. Click the photos for larger pictures.

(l-r) Passion, Magical, Poetic, Delight, Emotion, Joy

(l-r) Awaken, Adore, Cherish, Harmony, Admire, Devotion

The first set is the warm palette and the second set is the cool palette. These are for Spring 2009 and will probably be released around January or February.