China Glaze Up All Night

Sorry I've been MIA. No excuse other than I've been very busy and it's difficult to find time to upload photos. I have to do it at my parents house because they have a desktop I'm used to working with and I'm currently using a Mac and it drives me nuts to crop and tag on. So I only upload photos when I can get to my parents. Anyway...

I picked up Up All Night a couple of yeas ago at Sally's when it was on clearance. I grabbed it along with some polishes from the X Collection (VII and VIII). I've worn it here and there since, mostly in the colder weather because I tend to wear "appropriate" colors for the season. It's a pretty nice, basic polish.

Direct Sunlight








Not direct sunlight






2 coats China Glaze Up All Night
1 coat Poshe

Up All Night is a deep, dark blue that I actually don't think tends to look black. You know how some vampy, dark colors just look black when you look down at your hands? This boarders pretty dark in some lights, but I never noticed it truly looking black. The bottle has a shimmer that doesn't translate clearly on the nail and it looks like more of a creme finish with some extra shine.

The formula was fine. I found that it's not perfectly opaque in 1 coat like I'd expect colors like this to be. Not a problem, though. It looked amazing after two coats and I will never complain that a polish requires two coats. That's like a standard. The consistency was great. On the thinner side so it was very workable, but not so thin that it would flood cuticles.

Welcoming December with China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara

I went to several different Sally's looking for this polish. I finally found a Sally's that had the collection in, but it hadn't been put out yet. The super sweet sales associate brought out one of the displays for me, and I grabbed the one polish I really wanted from the collection, Lorelei's Tiara.

















2 coats China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara
1 coat Poshe
Please excuse several of my cuticles. That's dried Poshe (not nasty dried cuticles) and I didn't notice it until I uploaded the photos.

I know most of these photos are the same/similar angle. But they all show different angles of the polish, so I decided to not eliminate too many.

Lorelei's Tiara is an INTENSE glitter. It is PACKED with silver micro glitter and larger (but not large) lighter blue glitter. While there is a ton of silver, when you look down at your nails, they don't just look silver. You can easily tell there's blue as well.

The formula was great for what it is. If you use one thicker coat, it'll be totally opaque. Some of my nails were after one coat, but some weren't so I decided to just do another coat to all of them. It goes on easily, though it's obviously a bit of a thicker formula due to the amount of glitter and the successful intention for it to be opaque. But it stayed very even, it was very workable, it was great to use.

And if you're curious, 1 thick coat of Poshe did NOT make this smooth to the touch. It was still textured. Not bad, but if you wanted it smooth, I'd definitely suggest 2 coats of topcoat. It's a hungry glitter!!

China Glaze For Audrey

What a classic polish. I'm assuming just about everyone has this polish in their collection, and if you don't, you're missing out on a staple polish! It's so lovely and simple.











*Please note that I apologize for the poor lighting. I've recently moved and I'm trying to learn the best place to take photos.
2 coats China Glaze For Audrey
1 coat Poshe

For Audrey is a Tiffany blue (arguably) creme that came out in its own collection named for Audrey Hepburn. I say arguably Tiffany blue because as you probably know, the Tiffany blue is a trademark color. The arguably comes in because if you look at different products from Tiffany's, they're all a little different. From bags to boxes to fabric bags, they all vary slightly.

I don't know if it's just my bottle, but it has a HUGE issue with separating. I need to plan to shake this bottle like 15 minutes in advance before I go to put it on. It hates me. It's also not the nicest formula. It's one of those where it tends to dry on the brush quickly, so while it doesn't exactly streak, it doesn't easily glide on. Again, this might just be my bottle and I've had it for a while, but it was this way when I first used it. It's around halfway used give or take, so I'll be getting a new bottle soon enough, anyway.

Lots of CG In The City

In celebration of removing all silk wraps from my left hand, I'm going with a glitter. I avoid glitters when I have a silk wrap on because removal is horrific because I don't use acetone on those nails. But I just picked up the two glitters from the Metro collection the other day, and I don't feel like waiting for the wraps to come off of my right hand.

I had intentions of just getting Skyscraper, but once I saw CG In The City, I just had to have it. So here it is...

1 coat CG In The City over 2 coats China Glaze Spontaneous

Shade

Sunlight


2 coats CG In The City over 2 coats China Glaze Spontaneous

Shade

Sunlight


3 coats CG In The City over 2 coats China Glaze Spontaneous

Shade

Sunlight



I didn't like the way the polish was without a base polish. I felt it looked just... not right. So here's a view on 1, 2, and 3 coats without a base color.

Sunlight

Shade


On its own, it makes me think of someone putting glue on their nails and then rubbing them in sand. It's natural like earthy and raw. Here in New England, we have some beaches that have dark sand (moreso TEENY TINY rock sand) that even looks sparkly because of crushed shells and whatnot. That description makes it sounds way more awesome than it actually is, so don't think you're missing out if you're not from New England lol.

Here's a stock photo that shows exactly what I'm talking about. This photo is apparently from a beach in Portland, ME.

Source

So I'm sure after seeing that, you can understand what I mean. Ironic that it reminds me of sand on a beach when the polish is from a Metro collection and called CG IN THE CITY. Haha.

Let's discuss the color
So China Glaze says this is a "glittering dusty purple, bronze and silver multi-tonal glitter". Well, I'm going to assume China Glaze knows what they're talking about since they made the polish, but I swear I see black glitter. To me, I see light purple, black, bronze, and silver (it's a clear base, by the way). It's such a bizarre mix of glitters. I put it over Spontaneous to try to pull out the purple glitter because the whole thing just confuses me. I might also try it over a bronze (Orly Rage would rock for this!!) and a gunmetal like Zoya Freja. Speaking of which, I have no idea why, but this polish reminds me of the glitter version of Freja. Strange.

Techno Teal

I own 3 Tronica polishes and have only worn one of them on its own (Gamer Glam). I don't know why I kept pushing back wearing them because I've had them at least since February. I know a lot of people were disappointed with the collection, hoping there'd be more holo in the polishes. And it's true, there isn't much holo, but I don't think they're disappointing. It stinks that linear holos aren't more obtainable, but I think these polishes are pretty in their own right.

Direct Sunlight










Shade




2 coats China Glaze Techno Teal
1 coat Poshe

This is a dark teal that looks a little more green on the nail than in the bottle, but it definitely is a blue based teal moreso than a green based teal. It is a scattered holographic that is only really apparent in sunlight or bright indoor lighting, and even then, it's certainly not an in-your-face holo. But sitting in front of my computer screen with the lights out and little outside light (because I have the blinds closed), when I look at my nails, I do see an overcast of holo. So it DOES exist in the polish, just not a ton. Even when the holo isn't apparent, it's still a gorgeous polish in its own right.

The formula was very similar to a linear holo. It's that weird, resistant formula that doesn't want to be on your nails. You need to use gentle, few strokes or the polish picks itself back up on the brush. I'd guess an aqua base might make it better, but I did not use one. It was completely opaque in 2 coats, and I did not have problems leveling the polish after the second coat despite the occasional peel up spots of polish. It did dry very quickly, though. So that was nice!

China Glaze Peachy Keen

I bought this polish a WHILE ago and had used it in nail designs and water marbling, but I hadn't worn it on its own yet. I was looking for something different than what I usually wear color-wise. And once we hit fall, I probably won't touch this color again until spring next year. So better late than never!!









2 coats Peachy Keen
1 coat Poshe

Peachy Keen is a difficult color to describe for me. It is a dark peach that leans orange rather than pink. But only VERY slightly. And it doesn't have a yellow undertone at all. It dries quite different from the bottle. A GOOD few shades darker and less orange/more pink than the bottle. I kinda wish it kept the aesthetic from the color in the bottle instead. They really are like two completely different colors to me. I really wish the color overall was lighter. Which is why I'm dying to get Illamasqua Purity. From comp photos I've seen, it seems exactly like what I'm looking for!!

The formula was interesting. It's a very predictable creme formula, which is just neutral, not necessarily a good or bad thing. It was uneven, but not streaky. Luckily, my top coat evened everything out. I had some cuticle drag on my middle finger, but I think that's just because I was way too overzealous with with my application on that nail, and I forced it to happen. I was going to do a third coat to try to see if it would even everything before the top coat, but I was afraid the color would be even darker, and I didn't want that, so I stopped at 2.

This is the peach color that I'm looking for:


Does anyone have any recommendations for this color!?

If you're curious, it's a screenshot from the CPR video on supersexyCPR.com. And now to step on my soapbox... If you haven't taken a CPR course, you totally should!! And even if you have no intentions of doing so, at least check out this YouTube video about Hands-Only CPR. You do not need to be trained to perform CPR, and you don't even need to put your mouth anywhere near theirs. All you need to do is compressions!!

Zebra With Some Accents

Another day of no idea what to do. I texted my friend this morning whining about how I had NO idea what to do with my nails today. She suggested houndstooth, so I had a go with my old BM plates, which are typically fine in width... however my nails are far too long to do that right now. I needed to try something else. I already had my nails painted white, so this is what I came up with...













Started with:
2 coats Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On
1 coat Poshe

Pinkie, Middle, Index:
Bundle Monster plate BM-223 (zebra) stamped with Sinful Black on Black
1 coat Poshe

Thumb:
Bundle Monster plate BM-223 (zebra) stamped with Orly Royal Navy
Bundle Monster plate BM15 (feather) stamped with Sinful Black on Black
1 coat Poshe

Ring:
1 coat Orly Royal Navy
3 coats China Glaze Dorothy Who?
1 coat Poshe

Oh yeah. How amazingly tacky is this?? I'm all about it, obviously. I messed around with so many different ways of doing this because I had only an iffy vision of what I wanted. Plain zebra stripes was not an option. I debated about doing something red over the zebra (maybe a red rose or something like that), but then I saw Dorothy Who? and decided I had to go with blue. I chose Royal Navy as the zebra on my thumb simply because the feather didn't work over black, even when stamped with a dark, opaque blue (not Royal Navy). The feather, by the way, has zero significance. I just wanted something that wasn't too complicated, and was dense enough to go over the zebra stripes so you would still be able to figure out what it was.

Speaking of the friend I was texting, she doesn't get to see it until tomorrow. Unless she can find my blog. I think only one of my friends has seen my blog. And in case he comes across it again...
HI JIM!!!!!!!!!

The Blue Holo Leopard

So yesterday, I was dead set on what I wanted to do for my nails today. This morning, I was still going to do it. Then I was setting up to do it and questioned if that's what I wanted to do. Because I'm using a linear holo as a base, I then started having doubts about doing a full nail stamp in case it totally covered the linear awesomeness. So I actually googled photos of the bundle monster plate I wanted to use to see if it really covered polishes that much. I even found one using a scattered holo. Ultimately, I figured eh, oh well if it ruins the linear look. It's supposed to rain at 1300 today, anyway.

So this is what I did...















4 coats Nfu Oh 65 (I added another this morning to freshen it up because I didn't use a top coat)
Bundle Monster plate BM-221 with Sinful Black on Black
Dotting with China Glaze Techno Teal

So I realized how nerve wracking stamping was going to be, and became super weary. Because I have FOUR coats of polish on with no top coat and I'm using black to stamp a full nail design, there is little room for error. There was much potential for this to be very time consuming, but I got WICKED lucky and didn't have to redo any. My right hand thumb didn't stamp as vividly as all of my other nails, but it's still fine!!

I had debated about doing the dots on the print because I didn't know if it'd ruin it. But then I thought back to the Revlon Electric stamped flowers saga (here, here, and finally here), and figured what the heck? Might as well. So if you were curious what it looked like without the dots, I did take photos, and here they are:















Now Be Honest
Do you like it better with or without the dots??