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)

OPI Mariah Carey Collection Holiday 2013 Liquid Sand Shades

 OPI Liquid Sand in Baby Please Come Home

 OPI Liquid Sand in Emotions

 OPI Liquid Sand in It's Frosty Outside

 OPI Liquid Sand in Kiss Me at Midnight

OPI Liquid Sand in Make Him Mine

OPI Liquid Sand in Silent Stars Go By

The formula on these is very good.  They're thin, which makes it easier to apply thin, even coats, which in turn enhances the Liquid Sand finish.  If the polish is applied too thickly, the gritty look of the sand and glitter gets covered up and smoothed over.  I have the best results when I apply very thin coats, waiting until each is mostly dry before applying the next one.  I used three coats of each and all the shades needed three to achieve opacity.  Since these are meant to be textured, they are worn without topcoat.  If you'd like to wear them as shiny, smooth glitter polishes, a minimum of three coats of topcoat are required.

Some of the colors in this collection feel like repeats and duplicates of existing Liquid Sand/textured polishes (namely Emotions, It's Frosty Outside, and Kiss Me At Midnight). Aside from that, all the shades are very pretty on the nail.  I really like the sparkly, sugar-coated look for winter.  It mimics the texture of snow and gumdrops and candied fruit and it just seems so cute and festive to me.  Emotions doesn't quite fit with the rest of the shades in the collection, and it's not bad looking, but a glittery gold or red Liquid Sand would have had more of a holiday/wintery feel. 

For the full OPI Mariah Carey Holiday collection review with swatches, please click here!

The OPI Mariah Carey Holiday Liquid Sand polishes are limited edition and are available at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, ULTA and ulta.com for $9.00 ($10.95 CAN) suggested retail for each nail lacquer. 

(collection provided for review)

China Glaze Happy HoliGlaze Collection Holiday 2013 Swatches and Review

China Glaze Happy HoliGlaze Collection Holiday 2013

(samples provided for review)

 China Glaze All Wrapped Up 
Full-coverage indigo-blue microglitter in a clear base.

 China Glaze Bells Will Be Blinging
 Light teal/aqua blue microglitter and small hex glitter mixed with larger silver holographic hex glitter and bar glitter.



China Glaze Be Merry And Bright
 Large and small purple and magenta hex glitter in a clear base. Glitter is dense enough to be worn alone at three coats, but also makes a good glitter topcoat at one coat.

China Glaze Blue Without You
Cyan blue foil with sparkly silver flecks.

China Glaze Elfin' Around
Warm orangey-coral red foil with light gold shimmer.

China Glaze Just Be-Claws

Rich poinsettia red foil with red sparkle.

China Glaze Mingle with Kringle
Warm gold foil with chunky yellow-gold foil flakes.

China Glaze Put A Bow On It
Full-coverage plum purple microglitter in a clear base.

 

China Glaze Santa Red My List
Cool dark pink foil with silver shimmer.

China Glaze There's Snow One Like You

Girl, there are really no words strong enough to describe all my longing for snow-textured polish.  I don't want my feelings restrained.  Oh, babe, I just need you like never before. Just imagine you'd come through this door. You'd take all my sorrow away.  There's Snow One Like You.

SORRY.  Sorry!  This is a white semi-sheer creme base with large matte white hex glitter and a large amount of textured grit. 

China Glaze This Is Tree-Mendous
Warm golden green microglitter, gold microglitter, and slightly larger (but still tiny) blue-green glitter in a clear base.

China Glaze Your Present Required

Large matte white, cobalt blue, light purple, and light copper hex glitter with smaller copper, green, and white hex glitter, plus very small matte white glitter in a clear base. Good as a topcoat or worn alone with two coats.

The formula on these was varied.  The tiny glitters and the foils were thin, smooth, and perfect.  The larger, chunkier glitters and the textured shade were thick and somewhat gooey.  To apply the large glitters, I needed to dab the polish onto the nail to get even glitter distribution.  Dry time on all shades was fast.  

It doesn't really feel 'holiday', does it?  It doesn't to me, at least.  It is heavy on the red like a typical holiday collection, but there's a lot of other non-traditional shades mixed in here as well.  Your Present Required doesn't look like any other color I own, so that's pretty cool.  The fine glitters are full coverage and extremely sparkly, which I also appreciate.  The foils are shiny and reflective like foils should be, but the colors themselves aren't particularly interesting or new. 

The one problem I have with this collection is the textured polish, There's Snow One Like You.  It looks promising, but it's so incredibly thick and lumpy that I had a very hard time applying it.  It's like there's too much texture. It applies clumpy and all the glitter and grit stick out at weird angles because it's so dense.  Maybe that's the point, though?  To look like freshly fallen snow, while it's still fluffy.

 The China Glaze Happy HoliGlaze Collection is available now!

(samples provided for review)

Nicole by OPI Gumdrops Textured Polish Collection Swatches and Review

Flashback to earlier this year: Textured polishes.  Textured polishes EVERYWHERE.  So many textured polishes.  Not many of them catching my interest.  Okay, lumpy nail polish, it's different, kinda cool, not really my favorite, it'll pass soon.  But textured glitters?  Ones that look like sparkling, sugar-coated little gumdrops on your nails?  Oh yeah.  Now I'm paying attention.

 Nicole by OPI A-Nise Treat

 Nicole by OPI Blue-Berry Sweet On You

 Nicole by OPI Candy is Dandy

 

 Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of my Dreams 

 Nicole by OPI Lilac Gumdrops

 Nicole by OPI My Cherry Amour

These can be worn with topcoat, but it negates the gumdrop-textured finish:

A-Nise Treat with topcoat

Cinna-Man of my Dreams with topcoat

The formula on these is perfect.  Good texture, great coverage, very easy application, no running or clumping.  Very fast dry time as well.  This is three coats of each, but most of the colors looked exactly the same at two coats.  Blue-Berry Sweet On You was the only one that I felt needed the third coat.  Since these are glitters and have added grit, they need, at the very least, three coats of topcoat if you want to cancel out the textured finish and wear them like a regular glitter polish.

My favorite from this collection was Candy is Dandy.  The candy pink shade paired with the sugary-looking glitter (accented with a little bit of hologram glitter!) really drives home that sugary gumdrop theme.  Cinna-man of my Dreams was nice because of the multi-color glitter, but it didn't immediately make me think of gumdrops. 


(samples provided for review)

OPI San Francisco Collection Fall/Winter 2013 Liquid Sand Swatches and Review

OPI San Francisco Collection Fall 2013

Three New Liquid Sand Shades

 (press samples)

Along with the usual set of twelve shimmer and creme shades, OPI is releasing three new colors of Liquid Sand.  Two cremes and one mind-blowingly pretty glitter!

 OPI Liquid Sand polish in Alcatraz Rocks.

Whoa.  Look at this masterpiece of a polish.  It's a deep blue base with the typical Liquid Sand/textured polish grit, but it also has tons of multicolor glitter.  I think I see every color of the rainbow in here.  It looks fantastic as-is, but if you don't mind doing two or three coats of topcoat, you can turn it into a glossy glitter polish with a smooth finish instead.

 OPI Liquid Sand Polish in It's All San Andreas's Fault.

This one is a creme-finish medium taupe brown.  Dries a shade or two darker than bottle color.  Never becomes fully matte after it dries so it has a tiny bit of gloss to it.

OPI Liquid Sand Polish in Wharf! Wharf! Wharf!

Gorgeous, rich blue creme base with textured grit.  Also dries a bit darker than bottle color.  And the name... I know it's supposed to be woof, woof, like a dog, except wharf because it's by the ocean, but all I can think is... Wharf! Wharf!

.... Worf?

The formula on these is a dream.  Perfect thin texture.  Absolutely nothing to even criticize as far as the application is concerned.  One tip for applying, though: Do thin, even coats.  If the polish base is too thick in some areas, it'll gloss out your sandy texture.  Dry time on these is fast.  They do chip faster than a normal polish, but not as fast as a true matte.

If you're only going to get one textured polish this year, seriously consider Alcatraz Rocks.  It's AWESOME.  The other two are cool, but seem unimpressive next to Alcatraz Rocks.  It's a scene-stealer for sure.

(Collection was provided for review.)

China Glaze Texture Collection Summer 2013 Swatches and Review

China Glaze Texture Textured Polish Collection

(press sample)

Here's China Glaze's entry into the textured polish arena.  So far I've mostly worn glitter-based textured polish, but I gotta say, the texture really stands out on matte creme colors like these. I've grown to like the glittery kind, sure, but some of them just look like you forgot to put on topcoat. These are not like that.

China Glaze Bump and Grind.  

Bright fuchsia-coral creme base with sandy texture.

China Glaze In The Rough.  

Light yellow-toned green creme base with sandy texture. Reminds me of really cheap guacamole, the kind that's probably only 2% avocado. 

China Glaze Itty, Bitty and Gritty.

Bright pink coral creme base with sandy texture.
p.s. itty bitty gritty committee 

China Glaze Of Coarse!

Medium sky blue creme base with sandy texture.

China Glaze Toe-Tally Textured.

Light yellow-toned orange creme base with sandy texture.

China Glaze Unrefined.

Light pink creme base with sandy texture.

The formula on these is gritty (obviously).  There are two things to be mindful of when applying this formula: One, the grit can clump together, so you may need to brush over it a few times to get it evenly distributed across the nail.  Two, if the base to grit ratio is wrong, some spots will look smooth and shiny instead of evenly textured.  Thin, even coats are a must if you want a uniform look.  Other than the grit (think of it like glitter), it applies like a normal polish.  These are opaque in two coats (what I'm using here) and dry to a semi-matte finish.

I gave each of these about 15 minutes to dry before photographing them and they all seem to retain a slight amount of gloss rather than drying to a true matte finish.

If you're looking for something unique, unusual, and hell, even flat-out weird, this is it.  The textured look is odd enough, but combined with the unexpected base colors (spring green??) in the collection they're just completely bizarre.  I like bizarre.  Toe-Tally Textured is my favorite here (I just really like orange), but if you want to go all out crazy... In The Rough.  Such a strange polish.

These are available now!

(Samples provided for review.)