OPI Serena Williams Glam Slam! England Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

The latest installment of the OPI/Serena Williams Glam Slam! collection has arrived. The press release is really rather informative for this one, so I'm going to copy and paste what it says here:


"OPI joins tennis superstar Serena Williams in announcing the latest three lacquers in the Glam Slam! collection. To celebrate the world’s oldest, most prestigious tennis tournament, Glam Slam! England features two duo-packs filled with sparkle.

The first Lacquer set includes Your Royal Shine-ness, a metallic silver shade, paired with Servin’ Up Sparkle, a shimmer-packed silver glitter. The second Lacquer set also features Servin’ Up Sparkle, along with Grape…Set…Match, a metallic purple.

“England’s premier tennis tournament warrants colors with extra glitz and glamour,” said Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director. “The next big trend in nails is making lacquer look 3-dimensional by adding different micas and glitters, turning fingertips into jewelry. With two bold metallics and a sparkling glitter, these colors are fit for royalty.”

“For stand-out nails, I love experimenting with different glitter shades,” explains Serena Williams. “The new Glam Slam! England lacquers can be worn alone for a bright pop of color, or layered with Servin’ Up Sparkle to create a textured effect.”

Serena Williams has received the World Number One in singles ranking by the Women’s Tennis Association on five separate occasions, along with being listed as sixth on the all-time greatest champions list. Additionally, she has won two Olympic gold medals in women’s doubles and has earned 27 Grand Slam titles to date. Serena is the most recent player to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously and only the fifth woman in history to do so.

New shades in the Glam Slam! collection will be introduced to coincide with each of the four major tournaments, beginning with the Australian Open in January 2011, followed by launches in May 2011 for the French Open, June 2011 for Wimbledon and August 2011 for the US Open."


So, instead of having crackle/shatter polishes, these sets have a glitter for layering. Here are the shades:


Grape... Set... Match. This is an extremely gorgeous purple. My picture doesn't do it justice- in real life it's about a shade lighter and much more red toned. It's made up of tiny purple-based iridescent sparkles in a purple base. And... it's duochrome! I tried to show the duochrome effect in the second picture. Can you tell? It flashes blue/purple.

Your Royal Shine-ness. First, can I complain about the name a bit? Your Royal Shine-ness. Did OPI forget that they already have a polish named Your Royal Shyness? Way to be confusing, OPI. But, other than the name, the polish is very nice. It's a sparkly silver foil. Unique? Nope. But it sure is pretty.



Servin' Up Sparkle. This is the layering glitter that comes in each set. I think it looks pretty good all by itself. It's a silver-based holographic glitter. It tiny silver and holo particles and some larger round and hexagon holo silver glitter. It is sheer as it is meant for layering, but I'm wearing three coats here and it looks light and sparkly but not opaque.

And layered...

One coat of OPI Servin' Up Sparkle over Grape...Set...Match. Oooooh I like this combination. The glitter in the topcoat enhances the sparkles in the base polish and the end result is really flashy!



One coat of OPI Servin' Up Sparkle over Your Royal Shine-ness. I have mixed feelings about this combination. In the right light it looks spectacular, like a glittery disco ball. But in the wrong lighting, it looks pitted and chunky, like the glitter has sunk too deep into the base polish and left divots. The silver foil does look rather stunning with holo accents, though.


The formula on these was great. No application problems whatsoever. Texture was smooth and even, not too thick, not too thin. I did three coats of each polish and still had a short dry time. Nothing worth noting on the formula end of things.

I think Grape... Set... Match is amazing. It reminds me of a lighter, redder, non-blackened version of OPI Ink, which is still one of my top favorite polishes of all time. I can't think of another polish that looks quite like this. Grape Set Match is awesome and I only wish the other two shades were as unique. The silver foil is easily duplicated, as is the holo glitter topcoat. That's not to say that they're not beautiful, they're just... common. Even within OPI and Nicole's current line you can find similar colors. Maybe the final Glam Slam set will have some truly unique shades.

EDIT: For rmcandlelight, the closest I can do to a comparison at the moment:

OPI Designer Series Radiance
vs

OPI Your Royal Shine-ness

Different lighting, but you can sorta see the similarity, right?

(These were sent to me for review.)

Preview: Color Club Back To Boho Collection Fall 2011

This just in from Color Club:

*COLOR CLUB BACK TO BOHO COLLECTION*
New Bohemian 70’s Inspired Collection Coming This Fall

New York, NY – June 2011 Color Club, a New York based cosmetic brand specializing in nail and lip products announced today its new “Back to Boho” Fall 2011 Collection. The new collection features twelve 70’s inspired longwearing nail polish shades perfect for creating an effortless “Boho Glam” look. The collection will be available in September of 2011. With fun bohemian vintage inspired names, the Color Club “Back to Boho” Collection shades include:


Nomadic in Nude – a must have neutral for the season; off white and creamy
Earthy Angel – Gorgeous creamy camel
New Bohemian – a new 70’s take on Tiffany Blue
Shabby Drab – Purple Greige The ultimate boho color
Rad Nomad – Purple brown crème
Red-ical Gypsy – Boho chic red, a new take on a vintage classic red
Boho Mojo – Silvery, beige pearl
Nouveau Vintage – The perfect understated vintage frosty gold
Voodoo You Do – The perfect charcoal grey for the season with blue undertones
Artsy Crafty – The ultimate muted military green
Blue-topia – Just as it sounds, the perfect shade of deep blue
Rebel Spirit – Deep chocolate brown creme

EDIT: Better pictures! Click to view full size!

"Nail Files" Nail Salon Reality Show Premieres Tonight

You may have already heard about this, but if not, let me fill you in. Tonight, June 21st at 10:00 PM Eastern/Pacific on TV Guide Network, the first episode of the nail salon reality show, Nail Files, will air. It stars salon owner and manicurist Katie Cazorla and revolves around her life running her salon, The Painted Nail.

This is Katie. She looks fun, I love her smoky eyeshadow and the way she's showing off her nails.

To be honest, I am a little conflicted on posting this. If you know me, you'll know I haaaaaaaate reality shows, but... This one is about nail polish! So I'm half super interested and curious to see how much will actually be about nails, and I'm half afraid it might be all hair-pulling, back-stabbing, drinking and catfights. We shall see. Actually, I won't see- my cable provider got rid of TV Guide Network long ago so I won't be able to tune in for this. You'll have to fill me in on it if you watch!

At least I'm hopeful it will show good salon practices and hygiene and help viewers understand what to look for in choosing a reputable salon. Maybe even learn some really helpful nail tips.

I've actually received The Painted Nail's spring/summer polish collection and it is definitely something to be excited about. It's a set of six vibrant, sparkling glass fleck polishes with a coordinating glitter topcoat, all manufactured by Nubar. I'll review these as soon as I can because they're AMAZING. One things for sure: Katie can sure design some nail polish colors. Not a boring pale pink or red creme in sight!

Anyway, if you do end up tuning in for this, let me know what you think!

Sephora Hello Kitty Fragrance

I got this as a sample in a Sephora order a while back. Isn't it cute? I love the packaging and the bottle. The scent is just okay... Not really my thing. It's a fruity floral that reminds me of something like Britney Spears Fantasy. Candy-like. The notes are: Cassis Sorbet, Italian Mandarin, Apple, Magnolia Blossom, Freesia, Orange Flower, Tonka Bean, Vanilla, Musk. But the package! SO. CUTE. It has holographic foil! The bottle is in the shape of a cat head! Hello, my name is Scrangie and I'm a complete sucker for packaging.

Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition Nail Color in Laser

Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition Nail Color in Laser (two coats over black). I love this color. It's some of my most favorite things -bright vibrant blue, glass fleck and duochrome- all in one polish. It can be worn alone, but I find that it has more of a duochrome effect when worn over a dark base.

One of my all time favorite Sally Hansens. Almost as good as the old stuff.

Even more polish shades from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics.

These aren't technically new, but they are new to me. I missed a whole collection! I believe these came out some time last year, but none are limited edition and they're all available on the OCC Website.

I think with this post I will have swatched all of Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics' nail polish shades! Previous posts are here, here, here and here.


Chlorophyll. This picture isn't totally accurate- it seems lighter and more blue here but it is greener and deeper in real life. It's one of those amazing neon teals that love to freak out cameras (think China Glaze Four Leaf Clover). It's an absolutely gorgeous shade with a smooth creamy finish. Bright and colorful but in an uncommon shade.

Inky. Another beautiful yet hard to capture color. This one is a super dark blackened blue jelly. It's more blackened than NARS Midnight Express but still keeps a subtle blue tint to it in indoor light. Such a sexy color.


Radiate. This is described as UV Red. It is a neon red, but it's not pure red- it's like an orangey-pinky-coral red. Extremely bright and glowy, it almost hurts to look at it! It has a creamy jelly finish like Anime. This is my favorite neon from them. Great color and no odd chunks in the formula.


Something. A soft grey-blue. Get it... something blue? This is very pale and is almost more grey than blue in indoor lighting. It's a creme finish. It reminds me of AV without the glitter.


Strumpet. This is a medium berry shade with some extremely subtle gold shimmer in it. It looks more purple here, but it's more pink looking in real life.

The formula on each shade was different. Chlorophyll was thick and a little gooey, but very opaque. Inky was thin and smooth. Radiate was even-textured, a little thick, but not as thick as Chlorophyll. Something was thin and Strumpet was only a little thicker than Something. They all applied nicely and I did three coats of each shade. Good dry time on all shades. All dry to a slightly dull finish, some more than others.

Now that I've just looked at the website again to double-check the availability of these, I see that I am missing one last color: Lo-Fi. Just when I was starting to feel like I'd completed something, haha!

Anyway, OCC has great polish shades, but my favorites will still always be Blackboard and Swamp Thing. You can see all the shades they have for sale here. Don't forget to look at the Lip Tars, they come in shades that match the polish!


(These were sent to me for review.)

Stila NaturalEyes / Natural Eye / In The Light Shadow Palette Fall 2011 Swatches and Review

I've been eyeshadow shopping for my mom lately and when the email from Stila previewing this palette from the fall collection arrived in my inbox, I knew it was something I had to get for her. Except... it looked so pretty, I had to get one for myself, too. Really... this thing is gorgeous.

It's called the NaturalEyes palette. Well, it was called the NaturalEyes palette, but about an hour ago I learned that they've now changed the name to Natural Eye Shadow Palette. Mine says NaturalEyes on the back, but the new ones will probably be different.

Anyway, it's a palette of 10 neutral/earthy eyeshadow shades in a mixture of matte, shimmer/frost and glitter finishes plus a full size Stila Smudge Stick eyeliner.

The palette is housed in cardboard with a bronzy metallic sheen. 'Stila' is printed on the front in gold foil and the back side lists the shade names.

The shades are (left to right, starting with the top row): Bare, Kitten, Bliss, Sunset, Sandstone, Champagne, Gilded Gold, Luster, Night Sky, Ebony. Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Damsel.

Closer look at the glitter in Gilded Gold and Luster.


The Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Damsel. It's a very dark matte brown.

Swatched over Urban Decay Primer Potion. Left to right: Damsel eye liner, Bare, Kitten, Bliss, Sunset, Sandstone, Champagne, Gilded Gold, Luster, Night Sky, Ebony.

The texture of the shadows is varied but good. The metallic/frosty/shimmery shades like Kitten, Sunset and Champagne are amazing. They're soft, pigmented, have great payoff and look really bright and shiny once applied. The shimmers, which are almost really mattes with microglitter, are a little hard and they payoff isn't as good, but they're still nice. The true mattes are a little chalky but apply pretty smoothly. I'm happy with the quality of the shadows. They apply and wear well and the colors are very pretty. Especially Gilded Gold- it's a dark coppery metallic gold with gold glitter!

The eyeliner is amazing. It's so creamy and easy to apply, even on the waterline. Once it sets, it lasts until you take it off. I'm impressed with the formula but I also like the color. It's a matte brown, but it's so dark it's almost black. Very flattering shade on my brown eyes. I've never tried the Smudge Stick eyeliners before but now that I've used two shades, I want more!

The palette also comes with a tiny 'how-to look book' which is actually pretty nice. It's printed on sturdy glossy paper and has instructions for creating six different looks using the shadows in the palette. I didn't get any pictures of it, but I am surprised at how nice they made it instead of making it a throwaway/afterthought to the palette.

One small detail worth noting: The palette claims that the shadows are made in the good ol' US of A, and the liner is made in Germany. That's nice to know, since a lot of the palettes I've been buying lately are made in China.

I played with the palette a little bit but I still haven't tried all the colors on my eyes. Here's a look I did using some of the shades from the palette. It's not a pure NaturalEyes look because it uses things that aren't in the palette, but it is a pure Stila look!

This is:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Kitten on inner lid
Champagne on middle of lid
Stila Glitter Eye Gel over Champagne (seems to be the same shade as Kitten glitter liner)
Luster and Gilded Gold mixed in crease
Gilded Gold on lower lashline
Bare on browbone
Damsel on upper and lower waterline
Stila Smudge Stick in Koi as liner
Revlon Grow Luscious mascara, melted by Visine-A eye drops XD

Nice earth toned shades... Really good palette for making bronzy smoky eyes. I'm thinking I might actually like this better than the Urban Decay Naked palette.

This is part of the Fall 2011 collection, but it's already available on Stila's website, which is where I ordered both of mine.

EDIT: I still can't post comments on my own blog, but I wanted to add this: I have the Urban Decay Naked palette also and I do think this looks very similar. It seems to me like the Stila shadows are better pigmented compared to the Naked palette, but honestly I haven't used my Naked palette much!

EDIT again: And now I realize that I actually uploaded one swatch of the Naked palette instead of the second swatch of the NaturalEyes palette XD I fixed it...

EDIT for hopefully the last time: The name of this palette has been changed again and it's now called the Stila In The Light Shadow Palette.

Color Club Fractured Crackle Topcoat Collection 2011 (part one) Swatches and Review

Guess what! More crackle! I know, I'm getting pretty crackled-out too, but each brand has to have one. I'd been hoping Color Club would do some crackles, and just my luck, they have! This is only part one of the collection. This half of Fractured features a black, white and silver- your basic crackle topcoat shades. Part two will be more colorful with a blue, purple and gold.

I layered them over my existing mani to test them, but I actually liked the color combination, so it stayed. I don't think I've done crackle over this type of color before, but I like it!


Clean Break (over MAC Earthly Harmony). Clean Break is your basic clean bright white crackle topcoat. It's very opaque and has an excellent formula. It crackles beautifully as you can see here, and while it is on the thick side, it's not so thick that it becomes chunky.


Smash Hit (over MAC Earthly Harmony). Smash Hit- again, your basic black crackle topcoat. It's thick and opaque, nice and dark and crackles well.


Broken Tokens (over Smash Hit, which is over MAC Earthly Harmony). I liked the way the colors looked together so much that I didn't want to take it off! Instead, I added a coat of Color Club's silver foil topcoat, Broken Tokens, on top. Looks pretty cool, doesn't it? Broken Tokens is thick as well, but that also makes it opaque. It's sparkly and foily but not as sparkly as OPI Silver Shatter. It's more dense than the OPI.


Smash Hit (over Clean Break, which is over MAC Earthly Harmony). This was just for fun but I love how it turned out. It's like graffiti. So cool.


The formula on these is great. They're thick and opaque so they cover very well. They may have a tendency to thicken in the bottle neck due to their inherent thickness, but I've only used them twice and have not yet experienced that. They crackle quickly and dry lightning fast. I have zero complaints about the formula, bottles or brushes. Speaking of the bottles, aren't they cute? They have a crackle pattern plastic shrink wrap over the handles to distinguish them from the normal Color Club polishes.


Overall, these are really nice crackle topcoats. No new colors here, but for the basic crackle colors, the formula is great and the price is right. Can't wait to see what the color crackle topcoats are like, but knowing Color Club, they're going to be great.

(These were sent to me for review.)

LORAC Limited Edition Multiplex 3D Lipgloss Duo

LORAC Multiplex 3-D glosses are one of my favorite new products. They feed my addiction to all things glittery and duochrome. I never really paid much attention to LORAC until these came out. Sure, I always ordered the holiday lipgloss gift sets, which were amazing, but the rest of the year, I ignored them. Speaking of those holiday sets, anyone else love those as much as I did? They had mini lipglosses with pretty packaging and they were all flavored. Those were great. I don't think they did one like that last year. Anyway, getting off topic here...

In my quest to collect all the Multiplex shades (and as of today, I have them all! YESSS!), I had to pick up this set. It contains a new shade, 4-D, that's only sold together in this duo. That's kind of a drag because I already have 3-D, and I like it, but I don't really need several backups of it. 3-D seems to be their most popular Multiplex shade, or at least the one they're promoting the most. It's in several kits and they always have deluxe sample sizes of it. Suppose I can't really complain because it is an awesome color, but still... I'd rather have new shades in every kit, gives me incentive to buy. Train of thought is derailing...

SO! This kit. It has two full sized Multiplex 3-D Lipglosses. 3-D and 4-D. 4-D is exclusive to this set. It costs $28, which really is a good deal because the Multiplex glosses cost $22 individually.

4-D on the top, 3-D on the bottom.

They have clear acrylic wands with tiny tiny white brush applicators. Those wands look so pretty covered in the sparkles from the gloss. Sometimes I take out the wand just to look at it.

4-D on the left, 3-D on the right, without flash and with flash. 4-D is a bubblegum pink with tons of glass-fleck-ish silver based sparkle. It looks a little frosty on the lips because there's so much silvery-pink sparkle. Not much duochrome to it, just lighter and darker shades of pink. 3-D is a bronzy sheer base with gold/green flash and tons of iridescent pink, rose-gold, bronze and greenish glass fleck sparkle.

The formula on these is different from the first Multiplex shades I bought (right when they first came out). The original formula is thin and slippery, these are thick and sticky. It seems like they altered the formula to make it more long-lasting, but I preferred the light, non-sticky original formula, even if it didn't last as long as these do.

Luckily the scent is the same. I love the scent of these. It's light and sweet, possibly a peach or lychee scent with a smoothness to it like a bit of creamy vanilla? I can't really pin down what the exact scent of these it, but it's a non-sour light fruity scent with a little creaminess to it. Very pleasant. A slight sweet taste as well.

The new formula wears a lot longer than the old one, but now the gloss is sticky. I want the old formula back. I don't mind re-applying!

I already loved 3D, but I'm not sure if I really like 4D. It's a nice shade of pink, but it looks a little too silvery-frosty on me. I haven't worn it much. Not a fan of frosty lips. And I know it's not a frost, if anything it's a glitter, but the light pink pearls reflect so much that it has that silvered-frosty finish in indoor lighting.

This set is limited edition and it was gone from both Ulta and Sephora's websites last time I checked. I did see it in store at both as recently as two weeks ago. I am unclear on whether or not 4D will ever be sold solo, and as far as I know it's exclusive to this set.

Maybelline Blue Brilliance

Maybelline Blue Brilliance (three coats over Zoya Phoebe.) This looks like a pretty cool polish, doesn't it? It's all duochromey and stuff. That's why I was drawn to the bottle on the display. It's a pale sky blue with green, purple, pink and orangey duochrome, just like the awesome duochromes I remember. Sadly, this is crap. Seriously. It made me remember why I stopped buying Maybelline polishes after the Wet Shine Diamonds / Colorama cool stuff was discontinued.

The first problem with this polish is the brush. It has to be the worst brush in drugstore polish. It's long, squared off, thin and floppy. It's totally uneven and limp and that makes it pretty much impossible to achieve a good application. The bristles splay out every which way and they're not all the same length. It also has these weird hard edges on some bristles that scrape the polish as it applies it, exacerbating the streakiness of the formula. The signs of a good polish brush? Smooth, firm (but not stiff) springy bristles with no frayed ends that leave no streaks or scratches in the polish when applying. A dense brush that holds enough polish to cover the nail smoothly, and that gently curves into a c-shape when pressure is applied. This Maybelline brush? The exact opposite of all of that.

The second problem is the formula. It's a runny, globby, streaky nightmare. It streaks worse than almost anything I can think of, runs into your cuticles no matter what you do, and makes weird globs when it settles on my nails. The fact that this is a frost finish doesn't help, though I'd hope their cremes don't streak like this. And the whole '50 seconds' express finish quick dry thing? LIES. Takes forever to dry.

The third problem is the color. What looks like an amazing duochrome in the bottle is actually a watery sheer streaky frosty blue on the nail. I tried five coats of it alone and ended up with a gross striped looking sheer frosty mess. Here I layered it over a bright blue to add more of a blue punch to it, but it barely helped. Why is this so sheer?!?! We finally get an old Sally Hansen Nail Prism-style 3-free drugstore duochrome and it's too sheer to wear alone? And even layered, only the pink side of the duochrome really shows up. I was hoping to get the strong green/orange side that shows in the bottle.

I've heard similar things about some of the Scherer Chameleons. I have a few of those and I've never used them. Maybe it's about time I break them out and try them on.... They can't be worse than this.

Man... they build my hopes up with duochrome dreams just so they can get my $5 and then smash my rainbow-reflecting expectations with a sledgehammer. I think I'm going to go hug my Nail Prisms collection for a while.

Essie Brazilliant Collection Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

Brazilliant is Essie's summer 2011 collection, and it's a nice little selection of colors. No neons this year, but that's okay. I think we're all a little neon'ed out by now...


Absolutely Shore. This is a very pale seafoam green. It's a white or very pale grey base with a balanced amount of blue and green. Soft looking, calming. Not really the greatest color on my skintone, but in the bottle I really enjoy it. This one was pretty streaky, though. I used four coats here to be sure it was completely even.


Brazilliant. The sunlight picture shows the hazy pink shimmer a little better, can you tell it's in there? This is such a beautiful orange. It's bright (but not neon) and has such a pretty coral-pink shimmer in it. It's on the verge of being a duochrome because you notice the pink flash or the orange base at different angles. Love this.




Meet Me At Sunset. Another orange! I'm an orange fan so I'm quite happy about this. This is a pure creme orange, leaning toward jelly finish more than just plain creme. It's darker and more saturated compared to Brazilliant and has a touch of coral red to it. This looks so colorful and smooth and shiny on the nails.


Smooth Sailing. This is a pale periwinkle blue with chunky silver shimmer. It dries darker than bottle color, but it's still a little paler in real life than my pictures show. Another soothing, calming color. It makes me think of sailboats and seashells... But more specifically, sailboats and seashells on blue bathroom wallpaper. Odd association, I know, but the image is so strong in my mind, I had to mention it!

Super Bossa Nova. Okay, this is just completely gorgeous. Seriously. Look at it. It's flashy and colorful without being neon. It's a saturated medium fuchsia with purple/pink/blue/violet shimmer. I love this type of shimmer, it's bright and shiny no matter what the light is like, but it's subtle and not glittery or chunky. It looks illuminated because of the shimmer, not just sparkly. I bet Phyrra will like this one :)

Too Too Hot. A really interesting shade of coral. It has strong pink and red tones, and it looks to me like a light red in the bottle. Once it's on my nails, it looks coral. It's bright and soft at the same time, very colorful and fresh looking but not too flashy.


The formula on these was great with the exception of Absolutely Shore, which was streaky. I did three coats of each color (except Absolutely Shore, that is four coats). The texture is on the thick side compared to recent Essie shades, but that makes it a little easier to apply. The brushes are tiny but very even. I had no issues other than the streakiness of Absolutely Shore and the dry time is excellent on all.

Overall, I like this collection. It's neither edgy nor is it terribly exciting, but the colors are still really nice. I really like all of them. Absolutely Shore is a nice sea foam color that doesn't look like every other pastel green in my collection. The oranges are fantastic, the periwinkle shade of Smooth Sailing makes me feel calm and Super Bossa Nova is eye-catching. No pale pinks, no infinitely dupe-able neons, nothing ugly at all. The collection has a beachy feel that makes it seem summery without having to be super bright.

(These were sent to me for review.)