Monday, September 27, 2010

China Glaze Rodeo Diva Fall 2008 Revisited

This collection was released in 2008 but to this day, even after the dozens of new collections that have been released since then, China Glaze's Rodeo Diva remains one of my favorite collections of all time. This is what a fall collection should look like.

When I posted my swatches two years ago I was so excited about these colors that I rushed and posted pretty crappy pictures. I just couldn't wait, I was so thrilled that I had to post them immediately! But the lighting was bad, my application was shaky and I had some broken nails. So, I figured it was about time I try to do these amazing polishes justice.

Here they are once again, the incredible China Glaze Rodeo Diva polishes.


Branding Iron. A deep blackened red shimmer. One of my favorite kinds of colors! See how it looks dark on the edges and light in the middle? I can't get enough of those colors.



Cowgirl Up. Amazing red-purple shimmer. Possibly in frost territory? The shimmer is really fine like a frost but this is just too pretty and smooth to be a true streaky-silvery frost. This shade looks really amazing in the sunlight, it has hidden iridescent shimmer!



Golden Spurs. A warm light suede brown base with gold shimmer. This one doesn't look that great on me but I still love the color. So much pretty gold shimmer!



Gussied Up Green. I remember this being my favorite one when I first got this collection, but now I can't pick a favorite. This is a blackened blue-leaning green shimmer. Very dark but when the sunlight hits it it really sparkles.



Lasso My Heart. A mauve purple foil. Not as dense or silver-toned like most foils, this one is pure color and very smooth.


Midnight Ride. Extremely dark purple shimmer. Dark and dramatic. Looks mostly black indoors but in the sunlight you get glints of glorious purple.



Prize-Winning Mare. Similar to Golden Spurs in concept- a light brown base with gold shimmer. This one is much more shiny and metallic, though, and not as warm. The overall effect of this one is actually more of a bronze foil metallic look than just a plain shimmer.



Red Stallion. This color never photographs right for me! It's so metallic and shiny that my camera freaks out. It's a bright metallic red, very glowy, almost radioactive.


Rodeo Fanatic. Medium blue shimmer. Seems to be a tiny bit on the teal side- doesn't look like straight pure blue to me. Maybe there's a touch of green in the formula?



Side Saddle. The base of Side Saddle is a dark brown-toned plum shade. Raisin perhaps? Brown and purple, a bit like Lancome Lizzie Jagger. The shimmer in this is very shiny light gold.


Wagon Trail. What a cool color. It's a black base with gold shimmer but it combines on the nail to look like a olive green. Looks amazing in the sunlight.



Yee-Haw! Orangey, coral-ish pink and gold shimmer. Quite warm. Has an almost duochrome look to is because the pink-coral-peach base and the gold shimmer are each so strong that you see more gold where the light hits it and more pink where the light is indirect.


This was during the area where China Glaze's formula was on the iffy side. Runny, drippy yet thick. Remember those days? The formula on these was actually not bad, but not the easiest to control. I did three coats in all these pictures. Drying time is on the long side for some colors but not for all of them.

Still love this collection... Still get excited about it every time I see the colors. Not very many polish collections have that sort of effect on me!

I don't think any of these colors are particularly hard to find even though they're a few years old. I wonder if any of them have been made permanent? I'll have to find out!

38 comments:

  1. I have 2 of these and I should maybe get more. As a collection it really meshes and has a coherent theme. Definitely worth revisiting.

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  2. Really nice, I like the dark purple one.

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  3. I own side saddle and have contemplated branding iron a few times. This was a great collection... someday a company will nail a collection like this did one again with a great formula. We can all keep our fingers crossed anyway.

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  4. Thanks to your original post, I've got all of these gorgeous polishes!!!

    :D

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  5. With the exception of Golden Spurs, I love that whole collection. I only have Branding Iron. :(

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  6. Oh how much I love the Rodeo Diva collection, too! :) Because of your swatches of the Rodeo Diva collection back then I became a nail polish addict. :)

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  7. I really really want to love these since a lot of people thinks this is the best collex ever, but I just don't. I think I like retro diva more.

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  8. I agree this is a perfect fall collection. I have many of them, love them to death and in particular Wagon Trail...I can't stop staring at my hands when I have it on! I wore it on a shopping trip in a small town here in Ontario, and as I was sitting in a donut shop, a lovely elderly lady (had to be in her 80s) kept staring at my hands. After about 5 minutes, she asked if I was wearing black polish. I put my hands in a sunbeam, and she was mesmerized! She asked if I had my bottle with me to paint her nails...sadly no... Wagon Trail, not only a stunning polish but pleasing to women of all ages! LOL!

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  9. Wagon Trail looks so good!

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  10. Holy crap, I think I need all of these now.

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  11. I'm so glad you posted this - it's such a beautiful collection. I happened to be wearing Side Saddle when I got engaged, and took Cowgirl Up on honeymoon with me. So as well as being gorgeous, they also have sentimental value too. It's like seeing old friends!

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  12. Oh great! I have Cowgirl Up, but now I need all of them!!!

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  13. I adore this collection! I actually just picked up a few of these recently. Love them!

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  14. WOW just wow. There is not one color that I do not like. These are all stunning!

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  15. I'm pretty new to China Glaze so I don't have any of these (yet), but they all look gorgeous!

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  16. This is my all-time favourite China Glaze collection.Every single colour is stunning! Thank you so much for showing these again :)

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  17. Rodeo Fanatic is probably my favorite China Glaze polish and it makes it into my top 10 overall easily (and that says a lot in a collection of 500+ imo). I love this collection. Thanks to you, I will be ordering more of these in the future ;)

    Thanks for your awesome swatches, they look beautiful as always.

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  18. this is absolutely my favorite china glaze collection too! amazing colors, and i think at least half if not all of them should be permanent colors!!

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  19. I had several of these sitting in my cart on 8ty8beauty for weeks while I pondered buying them and then they sold out suddenly today! When I checked your blog I realized it's because of this review! I scrambled to amazon.com and picked up the ones I had been so indecisive about. Better to buy it now than to regret that I didn't later and be unable to change the decision! Beautiful swatches!

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  20. It's so funny that you posted these today because I just bought Wagon Trail two weeks ago based on your old pictures and I'm wearing it right now. I actually think your old picture of Wagon Trail should go up with these because it shows the more gold/black color combination than the olive green and it shines so many different colors! It's gorgeous! Reading Meredith's comment above I'm glad I bought it when I did!!

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  21. Wowza...now THAT is what a fall collection should be. It's hard to pick a favorite. Thanks for posting this.

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  22. I love this collection too and just got the colors I was missing from it in my last online order. I just kept getting the few I wanted, until I finally decided to just have them all.

    Right now, I'm wearing Branding Iron on my toes and red Stallion on my fingers, each with a coat of Savvy iridescent shimmer/glitter on top (Purple Potion on the toes & Magic Pumpkin on my fingers)

    The Savvys are me new favorite layering polishes. Do you have any bottles of Savvy or know where I can find swatches online? I've tried to search for them, but have really come up with nothing.

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  23. There are three colors from this collection in my top 20: Rodeo Fanatic, Side Saddle and Wagon Trail. That amazing Misa Collection came out that year too. What a fantastic fall that was!

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  24. Very nice. Too bad I was only doing french manicures in '08 - I missed this entire collex.

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  25. I have Cowgirl Up and it's the polish that made me experience the "I keep staring at my hands all the time". I own a lot of polish of the same shade, it's my favourite shade ever but this one is truly unique and beautiful.

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  26. I'm with Daph, Rodeo Fanatic is on my top 10 list (and certainly not the only ChG there) but this post is like fuel on the fire to pick up the ones I don't have yet.

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  27. Beautiful swatches. Do you think Branding Iron is similar to OPI Sanguine and Zoya Blair? Would you please do comparisons with this type of polishes some day? :))

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  28. I loved Rodeo Fanatic, but it stained my nails in the worst way! And i've never had issues with any other CG polishes. I was nervous to try any of the others because of it. :(

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  29. All of these are available still on head2toebeauty for only $2.99. They are on page 3 of the china glaze polishes!

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  30. I have to agree, this is an awesome fall collection, I need to add it to my list! :)

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  31. I also love this collection. Wagon Trail and Rodeo Diva are two of my all time favorite polishes!

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  32. I bought Wagon Trail and it arrived here in Italy just today!! It's amazing in the bottle <3. And judging from your pics/comments I could have ordered a couple more!

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  33. I have to check if I have Side Saddle and Branding Iron. I think I do...

    This is one of my absolute favorite collections from them. This and probably Vintage Diva one.

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  34. And I was just finishing my Wagon trail mani! Love it!!!

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  35. Cowgirl Up, Midnight Ride and Rodeo Fanatic were my favs. I always thought Rodeo Fanatic was a deep dark aqua shades.

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  36. I finally own the whole collection. I bought it in bits and pieces. This and the Kalediscope collection are my favorites. Wagon Trail is my very favorite from these wonderful shades. Branding Iron is pretty amazing also.

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  37. I was so excited because I thought the title read "re-release" but then I was sad that it wasn't.
    D:

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  38. Necroposting. But Rodeo Fanatic makes the most beautiful base for Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe.

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