A polish I really like - China Glaze Afterglow

China Glaze Afterglow. I found this polish in my stash a couple weeks ago. I was moving all my China Glazes into an Ikea Helmer, attempting to sort them vaguely by color. That's when I saw it. I didn't even know I had this. I don't think I've ever worn it. It's a shame, cause it's SO FREAKIN' COOL! It's a sheer polish with a milky nude-peach-yellowy pink base, which throws you off because it looks kinda funky. But the funny base isn't what shows up on your nail- it's the wicked blue iridescence! It has both a bright blue flash and bright blue shimmer particles. It looks electric. I can't stop looking at it. I think it would be amazing for layering over other colors, but I kinda like how this looks all by itself. This is three coats. I think one of the reasons I'm so drawn to this is that it reminds me of a polish I had in junior high. It was from Afterthoughts, remember that place? They sold cheap jewelry and did crappy ear piercing? Anyway, the name of the polish was Angel. Angel looked a bit like this (and a lot of other polishes, white with blue iridescence seems to be a popular theme).

So, there you go. China Glaze Afterglow. Cool polish.

You know... I really like doing random posts like this. I haven't had much time to sit and do 'real' reviews of collections lately (despite the fact that I have months worth of crap to post! Oy) and it really has me thinking.... Random posts are fun. Reviews feel like work, unless it's something I'm super-super excited about, and then it's fun.

And speaking of reviews, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do my full Nubar Prism review soon, as I STILL haven't seen the polishes in sunlight. It's been... what... a week? That's Chicago winter for you. I really wanted to see how much they sparkle in real sunlight and get some better pictures. I may just have to review them with my initial impressions. Hopefully I'll get a little sunlight before they come out and I won't have to do that.

I think that's all I wanted to say... I feel like I'm forgetting something. I don't know. *dodges avalanche of green slime*

If I don't get another chance to post before then, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! I know I will, I'm making rum cake.

My Fyrinnae Collection: Swatches

I've really been digging the Fyrinnae lately and I've gotten a lot of requests to do a whole post on Fyrinnae, so what better time to swatch my entire Fyrinnae collection?

I know some of these are discontinued but I'm not entirely up to date on which are and which aren't. Sorry!

All of these are swatched over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy.

So, without further ado... My Fyrinnae collection. (Please don't forget to enlarge these to see all the great detail in these colors!)

First off, because I'm completely and utterly obsessed and infatuated with these, the Arcane Magics:


Love Potion, Velvet Vampire, Feline Familiars, Avian Shapeshifter, Pyromantic Erotica, Leopard Print Galaxy, Trickery, Greenman's Forest, Evocation.



Electric Stardust, Farseer, Warrior Mage, Dark Fantasy, Sorceress, Mystic, Faerie Glamour, Sequined Master, Healer's Touch, Conjurer.

These are all duochrome/color shifting. I tried to get as many shots as I could at different angles and different lights to show it- you can really see the color flip on the bottoms of the swatches, but I still didn't manage to capture the full glory of these. They're amazing. I need all of them. 100% awesome.


Some black-based (or dark based) colors with contrasting shimmer:


Avenging Salem, BBQ Sauce, Monarch Butterfly, Pumpkinfire, Dokkalfar, Fyre and Ice, Immortality.

Get a load of Immortality... have you ever seen anything like it? It's incredible. These make excellent eyeliners.

Some blues... I really don't have many blues, wow...



Bali Mynah, Digital Faerie, 1.22 Gigawatts, Sleepy Hollow, Strip Poker, Necromantic.


Some earthy colors:

Finnegan's Wake, Nijiro, Cheeky, Half-Elf Hottie, Envy Me, Species 8472, Equality, Beholder, Platinum.

Finnegan's Wake has become my go-to highlight color. And Equality is just beyond compare... They say it's the closest they can safely come to a true holographic shadow- check out all the rainbow prism sparkle!

Golds/metallics. They do golds really, really well:

Griffonrider, Vetala, Fool's Gold, Magic Missiles, Lucky Charmed, Gilded Wings, Shrouded in Gold, Aztec Gold, Newcastle.

Why are you casting Magic Missile? There's nothing to attack here! These are some of the smoothest and most pigmented of all the Fyrinnae shades. They go on like butter. And Aztec Gold? I could bathe in it.

The greens! I need more greens!



OMGWTF, Dragon's Wing, Dragonskin, Leif, Boytoy, Tyr, One Knight in Belfast, Dressed to Kill.


Some red and orange based shades:

Rapunzel Had Extensions, Runed Torc, Red Panda, Lust Bunnies, Cheetah, STFU, Lousy Tip, Sake and Sashimi.

Rapunzel Had Extensions is super duochrome. It's a must have. Very versatile. Sake and Sashimi has some great green sparkle in it, I like it together with MAC Old Gold.


Purples. Of course. I bleed purple. As always, these are more purple and less blue in real life:

Wicked, Chaotic Muse, Careless Memory, Meerkat, Lemmus Sibricus, Neo Universe, Changeling, Incubus.


Light, silvery shades:


Jade Ghost, Otherworld, Lights of Quebec City, Lights of Tokyo, Chrome, Mischief Makers, Atomic Afterglow, Damn Paladins.

Otherworld always makes me think of the song from FFX. It's great for layering over other colors to add green duochrome and sparkle- it's almost like my favorite Bare Escentuals Seashell color. Atomic Afterglow is super complex. And I love the name Damn Paladins. They have the best names.

These are the Hot Tempered Colors. I believe these are all discontinued, though :(

Bitchslap, Catfight, Sarcasm, Wrath, Corrosive, Homewrecker.

Whoa, bright. Neon mattes with just a hint of shimmer to reduce the chalkiness. These stain like a bitch but they're really fun to look at.

Some miscellaneous browns and mauves and a couple comparisons:

Fire Opal, Steampunk, Dark Magic (old), Dark Magic (new), Daemon's Tail, Samhain Spirits, Medieval Haunting, Arcane Magic Faerie Glamour (old), Arcane Magic Faerie Glamour (new).

I know a couple of the shades have been reformulated and as luck would have it, I have a couple old versions! Dark Magic is quite different but I can honestly say I much prefer the blue sparkle in the new version. Faerie Glamour is better, too- much more pigment and green duochrome sparkle.

Have I given you any lemmings? ;-)

Too Faced Glamour Dust Glitter Pigment Swatches and Review

I've been wanting these Too Faced Glamour Dusts forever. The only thing that made me hesitate to buy them was the $17.00 price tag, but when they had that 25% off Groundhog Day sale, I took that as my sign to finally snag them. I picked up all four shades: Blue Angel, Glampire, Nude Beam and Pink Fire.

The packaging on these is extremely nice. This is just the outer box, but there are so many little details in the design that make it look so much nicer than just disposable cardboard. I'm rather fond of the holographic label on the top flap.


The jars themselves are equally nice. They're heavy, thick glass and have very glossy black lids with the Too Faced logo and a decorative border printed in reflective gold. The colors are clearly labelled, and even the design of the label is nice. I have to take a couple points off because somehow my Blue Angel label has fallen off already. Inside the jar is a peel-off plastic safety seal (not pictured) that covers the sifter inserts to prevent spillage during shipping.


Too Faced Glamour Dust in Blue Angel is a softly blue-toned translucent opalescent loose glitter. It has a tiny bit of fine silver particulate mixed throughout, but I don't find that this shows up at all when applied.


Too Faced Glamour Dust in Glampire is a very red-toned brown / maroon shimmer base with chunky, reflective teal/blue duochrome shimmer flakes. Reminds me very much of something like MAC Blue Brown pigment, but more glittery than shimmery.



Too Faced Glamour Dust in Nude Beam is a light pink champagne shimmer base with very chunky iridescent silvery-white based shimmer flakes.



Too Faced Glamour Dust in Pink Fire is a very light silvered pink shimmer base with smaller, but still chunky, reflective iridescent violet and pink shimmer flakes.

These are all extremely pretty in the jar, but don't show up quite the same when applied because they don't stick to the skin very well on their own:

Swatched heavily, no base, natural light and flash. Blue Angel, Glampire, Nude Beam, Pink Fire.

When swatched or applied over a sticky base, they do stick very well, but the glitter in them changes:
Swatched over a layer of Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy, natural light and flash. Blue Angel, Glampire, Nude Beam and Pink Fire.

When used wet or over a sticky base, the glittery particles all clump together and make a chunky, shiny, less-glittery foil like effect. I haven't quite figured out the best way to apply these, but Too Faced recommends their Shadow Insurance Glitter Glue as a base for these. If you apply them wet, you can brush them a little after they've dried to bring back some of the sparkle and take away a little of the clumped-together look, but it still doesn't look like it does in the jar.

So far, the easiest one for me to use has been Blue Angel, since it's essentially just loose glitter:

This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance Lemon Drop
NYX White Eyeshadow Base (lid only)
Sugarpill Tako on lid
Ben Nye Amethyst in crease
Tiny bit of Make Up For Ever #92 in crease to darken it
Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow Pencil in Clash on lower lashline
Stila Jewel Eyeshadow in Aquamarine over Clash
Too Faced Glamour Dust in Blue Angel on lid, applied over a dab of Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Physicians Formula Eye Booster Eyeliner in Black
Stila Jewel Eyeshadow in Opal on browbone

A glitter base like Pixie Epoxy is a must for Blue Angel. It doesn't really work that well wet, and it won't stick for very long on its own. A sticky base will also help prevent glitter fallout, so it's good to have one on hand just for that purpose alone. And since the glitter never shows up in normal pictures, I took one in the dark to show how gorgeous it looks:

The colors in Blue Angel shift a lot, from blue to pink to gold. It looks so much better in real life, it really is an attractive looking glitter.


Even though I think Blue Angel is gorgeous and I like it a lot, it is still just a loose glitter. Opal-style loose glitters aren't hard to come by, and most don't cost $17 like Blue Angel. I had this Wet n Wild Mega Sparkle Loose Confetti in White Icing sitting out on my vanity and I thought it looked pretty similar. It lacks the strong blue undertone of the Too Faced, but they look very close when they're applied.


The new Glamour Dusts also remind me of the old Too Faced Afterglow powders. On the left is Lust, on the right is Betrayal. They aren't exact duplicates, but they have a similar sheer shimmer base / chunky silvery glitter flakes formula. That, and the Afterglow jars contain twice as much product.

What I liked:

• Extremely nice packaging. The jars look shiny and glamorous and the outer packaging looks fantastic with gold and hologram accents.
• All of the colors are really pretty. Especially Glampire.
  
• The jars have internal sifters that work quite well. They're not so tight that it's hard to dispense the product, but not so loose that you accidentally dump out half the jar.
• They look amazing in the jar, they're fun just to look at.
• They're very sparkly.
• They add a sheer veil of sparkle when dabbed over your usual eyeshadow.
• Too Faced shipped my order very quickly, included really good deluxe samples and packed everything securely in pretty pink crinkle paper.
  

What I didn't like:

• They're hard to use. I still haven't quite figured out the best way to use these and get the sparkly end result I want.
• When used wet or over a sticky base, the glittery pieces clump together and look strange and a little wrinkly and ugly on the lids.
• When used without a base, they don't stick. If patted on with some pressure, you can get a sheer veil of it to stay, but not with the sparkle and intensity I wanted from these.
• Lots of fallout.
• The jars only contain 2.8 grams of product and cost $17. MAC's new tiny pigment jars (including Reflects Glitters) contain 4.5 grams for only $3 more.
• Blue Angel is basically just loose glitter.
  

I really love how these look in the jar, and when I swatch them on the back of my hand, I'm mesmerized. I just haven't figured out how to translate that look onto my eyelids. I don't like the way they clump when wet or used over a sticky base, but they don't want to stick otherwise. I like them enough to keep them, but I'm glad I got them on sale, because I don't know if I'd pay the full $17 each again. Looks like I'll have to pick up that Too Faced Glitter Glue now; all the reviews on their website say it's perfect for using with the Glamour Dusts.

If you're looking for the fine and delicate yet crazy sparkly effect that these have in the jar, I'd recommend checking out the Make Up For Ever Diamond Powders. They're stupidly expensive for how much product you get ($24 for just under 2 grams), but they actually stick on their own and are intensely sparkly. They don't clump when used over a sticky base, either. My personal favorite is the #2 White Gold shade. For years it's been my go-to product for instantly adding delicate but intense sparkle to my eye looks and I've yet to find anything I like quite as much as that.

The Too Faced Glamour Dusts are available at Ulta and on Too Faced's website, $17 each.

Orly Mineral FX Collection Fall 2011 Swatches and Review

A couple weeks ago I did a quick post on Rock It from the Orly Mineral FX collection, but now that I have the complete set, it deserves a full review. It is an awesome collection, just as awesome as the duochrome-heavy Cosmic FX collection was last fall.

Some quick details on this collection that I thought were interesting (directly from the press release):

Over-the-top opulence goes glam rock with an eccentric edge that is sure to rock nails in Fall 2011. The afterglow of duo chrome reflection and high intensity pigments create an eye catching effect in the Mineral FX Collection.

The innovator in color and texture, ORLY is the first to create a nail polish that provides high impact, prismatic color infused with minerals. The daring color palette reflects smooth, metallic shimmers embellished with holographic sparkle and burnished gold undertones accented with ultra rich jeweled hues. Mineral FX draws inspiration for these shades from the richness and depth of the tones found in precious metals and rare minerals.

Mineral FX includes the following natural raw materials:
• Fluorophlogopites (crystals) allow for a shimmering color transformation
• Glass particles, precisely shaped and sized, create a radiant, luminous effect
• Mica, silica, and striking pigments deliver the two tone, multidimensional effect in each shade

The shades are:

Emberstone. This one looks amazing in sunlight. It's an orange, coral and red fusion. It has tons of multicolored shimmer particles in it. Yellow and gold, red, pink, orange. Please view these pictures full size so you can see the different shimmer colors. One odd thing about this polish? It looks amazing in sunlight, but so boring indoors/at night. It looks like a plain coral shimmer then. Weird! And just for fun, because I thought this picture looked cool and very much like its name:


Rock-It. Posted this one already, but I'm posting it again for completeness. Gorgeous polish. Plus, the name makes me think of the Rock-It Launcher from Fallout 3, which can use any 'junk' item as ammunition... So, theoretically you could fire bottles of Rock-It from the Rock-It Launcher. /nerd




Rock Solid. This is a dark grey/near black base with silvery grey glass fleck and hologram glitter. This one looks pretty cool. The silvery particles stand out in the dark base and the holo glitter circles add a nice little bit of fire to the polish.


Rock The World. A purple-tinged brown base with heavy gold glass fleck sparkle. Sort of similar to Zoya Faye or OPI It's MY Year, just darker and more saturated. A bit more of that gold sparkle in it, too.


Rococo A-Go-Go. Insanely gorgeous red-purple base with multichromatic glass fleck particles. This one flashes all sorts of colors- red, blue, pink, gold, orange... Super, super pretty. Reminds me a bit of Zoya Valerie.


Stone Cold. This is a blue jelly base with silvery blue flaky glitter. It's not flakes like Nfu Oh flakes, but more like little flaky platelets of glitter. Not your usual perfectly round, flat, stiff glitter pieces.

The formula on these was mostly good, but a little thick. Application was normal on all of them except Stone Cold, which was gooey and thick and gave me quite a bit of trouble. The other problem I encountered was massive bubbling on Rock Solid. I would highly recommend giving these a few minutes to dry in between coats to prevent bubbles from forming. The dry time on these was extremely long for me. I find that they dry quicker when I wait a while in between coats and then use Seche Vite on tip. I did experience denting up to four hours after application, but Orly is usually like that on me so I'm not sure if it's unique to the Mineral FX formula.

Love the colors of these. The depth, the sparkle, the duochrome effect... Beautiful. Orly did a good job on these colors. Sure, some of them are a little familiar, but that doesn't make them any less gorgeous. I only wish they dried faster.

Like the Cosmic Fx collection last year, these polishes are more expensive than regular Orly polishes. MSRP is $10 each on these, though you can get them cheaper online and at Sally Beauty. I'm not totally sure why Orly would charge more for these colors when tons of other brands have duplicate colors and keep the same price.

These are available now. I got half of mine from Sally Beauty and the other half came from Orly's PR, but I've seen the display out at Ulta and CVS as well.

(Some of these were sent for review.)