A Match Made in Heaven

This year for Valentine's Day, Seche and China Glaze released an adorable gift set called "A Match Made in Heaven":

The set contains:

Seche Clear crystal clear base coat

Seche Vite fast dry top coat (the best top coat ever)

Nail decals:

I did a really cute Valentine's Day manicure with these decals but I can't seem to find the pictures anywhere. Decals are much easier to use than those pesky heart nail polishes.

China Glaze nail polish in Innocence:

China Glaze Innocence is my new go-to sheer pink. This sheer, almost jellyish light pink is one of the few I have ever used that looks OK with two coats. This swatch is three coats, but it is more than wearable at two coats if you are in a hurry. For a sheer pink it is exceptionally non streaky. 

This limited edition set is available for a limited time in select salons and spas.

China Glaze Summer Days for Summer 2009

They are here! THE summer collection of the year - China Glaze Summer Days. These polishes are spectacularly beautiful. This is only collection that I have seen in a while where all of the colors are truly must haves. On to the swatches! Oh, one small disclaimer before these swatches. I have yet to see any photographs of these polishes that accurately capture the amazing FIRE that these babies put out. My photographs are no exception. While they are color accurate, you just will not understand how truly amazing they are until you try them. The shimmer and fire from the glass fleck like glitter is just amazing. Now, on to the swatches, really!

China Glaze Raspberry Festival:

Raspberry Fields is a pinkish red with magenta and silver glitter. It really does not remind me of raspberries, which incidentally are my favorite fruit. But who really cares about the name when it is this gorgeous?

China Glaze Watermelon Rind:

Watermelon Rind has a green/teal base with silver, green and blue glitter. This is freaking stunning. 

China Glaze Cherry Pie:

Cherry Pie is a slightly orange toned red with magenta and silver glitter. This shade reminds me of candy for some reason.

China Glaze Grape Juice:

Grape Juice is a purple with silver and purple glitter. The glitter in this one has a very iridescent feel outside in the sun. It certainly is juicy! This is tied with Watermelon Rind for my favorite shade in the collection. 

China Glaze Strawberry Fields:

Strawberry Fields is a deep pink with gold shimmer. This one is particularly glossy looking!

China Glaze Orange Marmalade:

Last but not least, Orange Marmalade. You guys know how I feel about orange nail polish. I think it is really pretty but just not on me. It just does nothing for my skin tone! But this shade is still super gorgeous. Orange with gold and orange shimmer. If you are an orange lover, you won't be disappointed with this one.

Wow! Aren't these amazingly gorgeous? They are all so juicy looking. Like I said earlier though, the brilliance of fire of these in real life is so much more amazing than my pictures. Application was top notch, smooth, and quick drying. All swatches were three coats. Two coats is nice but three coats make these look spectacular!

China Glaze Summer Days for Summer 2009 officially launches in March but sometimes the etailers get these early, so keep your eyes peeled! These will *fly* off of the shelves.

Reader Requests: Comparison Swatches Part 1

Hi everyone!

Hope you all are having a wonderful day so far. My recent posting of spring collections from Zoya, Essie and OPI inspired many of you to write me and request comparison swatches. I am happy to oblige! If you do not see the swatches posted that you requested, do not fret. I will be bringing you more comparison swatches in the next week or so. As always, feel free to e-mail me (nailpolishfan@gmail.com) anytime or just leave a comment if you would like to see a comparison swatch. If I have it, I'll swatch it! If I don't, I'll let you know.

First up, we have OPI Feelin' Hot Hot Hot! and OPI Party In My Cabana, both from their new South Beach collection:

OPI Feelin' Hot Hot Hot! is on my pinky and middle fingers. OPI Party In My Cabana is on my ring and index fingers. As you can see, Feelin' Hot Hot Hot! is a bit lighter and brighter than OPI Party In My Cabana. PIMC is slightly darker and dustier than FHHH (excuse my abbreviations, I get tired of typing the long names over and over again). I prefer OPI Feelin' Hot Hot Hot! out of the two, but if you love pinks, of course they are different enough to justify purchasing both.

Next, we have China Glaze Pink Underground from the fall 2008 Operation Colour collection and Zoya Barbie from their latest collection, Twist:

China Glaze Pink Underground is on my middle and pinky fingers. Zoya Barbie is on my ring and index fingers. Both Pink Underground and Barbie are pinks with a similar magenta shimmer, only Pink Underground is darker. Personally, I prefer China Glaze Pink Underground. But again, if you love your pinks, go ahead and get Zoya Barbie even if you already have China Glaze Pink Underground.

Moving right along to Zoya Harley (spring 2009 Twist collection) and Sephora by OPI Run With It!:

Zoya Harley is on my pinky and middle fingers. Sephora by OPI Run With It! is on my ring and index fingers. Clearly you can see the difference between these too, Harley is a cool toned grey shimmer and RWI has a golden look to it. Funny, before swatching these two side by side, I always knew that RWI was a warmer grey, but I never thought of it as golden. I don't think I will ever think of Run With It as grey again.

Finally, Zoya Harley and OPI "Sheer" Your Toys!:

Zoya Harley is on my pinky and middle fingers. OPI "Sheer" Your Toys! is on my ring and middle fingers. Wow! I never thought that these two would look so similar! You can see that SYT has a bit of a more blue or steel tone to it. Both nail polishes have similar copper flecks, but the ones in Harley are finer and more of a shimmer. The copper flecks in "Sheer" Your Toys are larger, chunkier, and more noticeable. Click the picture to enlarge it so you can see what I am talking about. Again though, I am very surprised at how similar the two of these are. If you are on a low/no buy right now, I really don't think you need both of these. But if you are a grey lover, you'll probably still want both.

That wraps up this round of comparison swatches. I'll have more coming soon! 

Also, just wanted to remind all of you about my random giveaways. I am cleaning out my stash of nail polishe, the unopened ones, and you guys are going to benefit from it! Every now and then, when I am in a random mood, I am going to randomly pick an e-mail subscriber to win the unopened nail polish of my choice. If you are not an e-mail subscriber yet, you should definitely sign up. Just enter your e-mail address in the box below to subscribe.

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Ok, gotta run... talk to you all later! (it's 75 and sunny outside)

xoxo,

Katee

NOTD and My Kids

Hello Readers!

I hope everyone is having a great day so far. Today I have so much to do today so this post is going to be a quickie. I have to go shopping for an outfit to wear to my BF's work Christmas party which is happening this Saturday at a night club in downtown San Diego. I have no idea what I want to wear. 

Now that we are getting into the winter months it is always interesting shopping for clothes here. All of the stores are featuring fall and winter clothes yet it is still semi-warm here. In the evening it does cool off a bit though, so something warmer will be acceptable. 

I have not had to dress up for anything in nearly six months. One of the things that I love about living where I do is how casual and laid back everyone is. It is perfectly acceptable to wear my black Lululemon pants, flip flops, and a t-shirt to about 99% of the places I go. Well not this Saturday, so I had better get shopping!

Anyways, today I am wearing China Glaze Emerald Sparkle:

This is the most AH-MAZ-ING color! Deep, dark, sparkly green. I am in love.

Since I did not plan a very interesting post for you today, I thought that I would take this opportunity to introduce you to my kids, my fur kids that is.

Cleo:

Relaxing with her OPI bear on her favorite sofa. Cleo has very good taste and prefers the Henredon sofa over any of the others.

Vincent:

In bed, as usual. He is the lazier one of the two and is an expert relaxer.

I hope you enjoyed meeting Cleo & Vincent because I know they enjoyed meeting you! They have been asking me when they would get to make an appearance on e-polishblog. They want to be famous :)

Ok, I am off now. Off to clean the house and do some major shopping!! I might take a stroll down the beach too if I have time. See you soon!

xoxo,

Katee

p.s. If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, do it! I am giving away a bottle of Essie Pama nail polish.

China Glaze Romantique Spring 2009 Swatches - Part 2 - Warm Colors

Hello, dear readers!

Today I am excited to share with you the warm colors from the China Glaze Romantique Spring 2009 Collection! As you will see, I photographed the swatches in a variety of lighting scenarios to give you accurate color depiction. 

(l-r, Poetic, Magical, Emotion, Admire, Delight, Passion)

China Glaze Poetic:

This nail color kind of looks like a mix between rose gold and copper.

Indoor, natural light:

Outdoor, full sun:

China Glaze Magical:

Brownish pink? Pinkish brown? Taupey? Sorry, my descriptive powers end here.

Indoor, natural light:

Outdoor, full sun:

China Glaze Emotion:

Bright pink, almost magenta base with silver shimmer.

Indoor, natural light:

Outdoor, full sun:

China Glaze Admire:

Light pink with a purplish hue. 

Indoor, natural light:

Outdoor, partial sun (the fog started to roll in big time at this point during the swatching):

China Glaze Delight:

Coppery brown - my favorite from the warm shades!

Indoor, artificial light:

Outdoor, full sun:

China Glaze Passion:

Dirty metallic gold - very unexpected for Spring!

Indoor, artificial light:

Outdoor, partial sun:

As with the cool colors from China Glaze Romantique that I posted the other day, all of these are almost completely opaque at one coat. Excellent coverage! All swatches here are 2 coats, no top coat. They also go on very smoothly, brush strokes are not a big issue.

Also, the finish is more metallic indoors and then shimmery outdoors. The colors in the Romantique collection are so chameleon like! The finish really gives these nail polishes different personalities under different lighting. 

I also noticed that the metallic finish of these polishes tend to emphasize any unevenness in the texture of my nails. I swatched a few of these with the China Glaze Ridge Filler Base Coat and that effectively camouflaged any ridges and gave a nice smooth base for these polishes. I really recommend it! 

I think that Delight is my hands down favorite from the warm colors. What are your favorites? Which ones are you going to get? Let me know in the comments! Again, these will be available January 2009.

That is all for today, hope to see you back soon. You know I always have more goodies to share with you :)

xoxo,

Katee

China Glaze Romantique Spring 2009 Nail Polish Swatches!!

Hello, dear readers!

WOW, yesterday felt like Christmas for me when the Fed Ex man dropped these off! I am super excited to be able to share with you the China Glaze Spring 2009 collection: Romantique. Today I will be sharing the cool shades with you and then later this week I will share the warm colors with you. The Romantique collection is nothing short of AH-MAZ-ING!!

China Glaze Romantique: Cool Shades

(l to r, Joy, Adore, Harmony, Devotion, Cherish, Awaken)

China Glaze Joy:

Gorgeous icy plum loaded with silver shimmer. Stunning.

Indoors (natural light):

Outdoors (full sun):

China Glaze Adore:

Cool turquoise - like blue. Loving this too!

Indoor (artificial light):

Outdoor (full sun):

China Glaze Harmony:

Gorgeous shimmering Violet. 

Indoor (artificial light):

Outdoor (full sun):

China Glaze Devotion:

Shimmering metallic lavender. This one was the problem child as far as photography goes. The lavender base color is so loaded with shimmer that it was impossible to capture the lavender. But in person, it really is lavender! 

Indoors (artificial light):

Outdoors (full sun):

China Glaze Cherish:

Gorgeous sea foam green shimmer. Unfortunately another photographic problem child. I think it looks gold in these pictures but it is definitely NOT gold. It is sea foam green and it is beautiful!

Indoors (natural light):

Outdoors (full sun):

China Glaze Awaken:

Metallic charcoal shimmer. Stunning!

Indoors:

Outdoors (full sun):

Joy and Awaken are my two favorites from the collection, but all of them are really beautiful.

These colors are so loaded with silver shimmer, they look metallic inside and then outside in the sun they are super blingy, and have a foil like finish. AMAZING!!

All swatches are two coats of nail polish over a base coat, no top coat. All of these nail polishes went on very opaque at one coat. The formula was very smooth and as long as I took my time applying them I did not have any brush stroke issues, which can be a problem with metallics. 

So which colors are you feeling the need for? Let me know in the comments (I live for your comments)!

Remember to check back later because I will have the warm colors for you to see in a few days (I have them now, just have to swatch them).

I believe that China Glaze Romantique should be available online and in stores January 2009. I will let you know if and when I hear anything different.

See you soon and THANK YOU for reading!

xoxo,

Katee

p.s. Don't forget to enter my giveaway! Scroll down to yesterdays entry.

First Ever e-polishblog Giveaway!

Hello, dear readers!

Today I am excited to bring to you the first ever e-polishblog giveaway: China Glaze For Audrey nail polish. China Glaze For Audrey is a lovely shade of light blue that very closely resembles 'Tiffany blue'. You know, the 'little blue box'? I thought that this was an appropriate shade as the holidays are approaching, and many of us girls would love to receive a gift that comes in a 'little blue box'. This is the prefect shade of nail polish to wear ladies to help you drop hints! Or in my case, I like to wear China Glaze For Audrey because I know that it is as close to a 'little blue box' as I am going to get. Not talking about the sterling silver ladies, I want the good stuff - diamonds! Tiffany diamonds come in a velvet navy blue box though... maybe I am wearing the wrong color for dropping hints... I digress.

Here is a swatch of China Glaze For Audrey:

The color in real life is much closer to 'Tiffany blue' than in this picture. I had a hard time capturing the color accurately. I apologize, because I really strive for color accurate photos.

The bottle you will receive will be unopened, of course. The one in the picture is mine :)

To enter, simply leave a comment in this post with your first name and email address. One entry per person, please. Entries will be accepted up until Sunday, November 23, 11:59p.m. Pacific Time. One lucky commenter will be picked at random by the random integer generator. Sorry but this entry is only open to my friends in the continental US and Canada only. 

If you just cannot wait to get your hands on this color or you aren't feeling lucky, you can purchase this shade online from Head 2 Toe Beauty or 8ty8 Beauty (links under the "where to haul" section on the right side of the screen).

The winner will be announced next week, so be sure to check back (I will also email the winner for their mailing address). I also have plenty of nail polish swatches coming up for you this week, so stay tuned. 

Good luck!

xoxo

Katee

NOTD: China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out

Happy Saturday!

Today's NOTD, or should I say NOTW (nails of the weekend) is China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out. This is an amazing, blingy, light blue holographic nail polish. 

China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out:

These swatches are 3 coats with Seche Vite topcoat. 

This post is a reminder to everyone to pick up your China Glaze Kaleidoscope's today because I've heard that the line is being discontinued. If you like holographic nail polishes than this collection (or at least get a few of them) is a must. They are much more holographic than the OPI DS polishes, which are beautiful in their own right, just not as holo as these. 

The China Glaze Kaleidoscope nail polishes cost a fraction of the price of OPI DS nail polishes, which is a good thing. Check out the links for Head 2 Toe Beauty and 8ty8 Beauty under my "where to haul" section if you want to buy these online. These sites offer much better pricing than what you can get in typical, brick & morter, retail stores. 

That is all for today! Thanks for stopping by, and always, I hope to see you back here soon.

xoxo,

Katee

China Glaze Operation: Colour Swatches

Hello, lovely readers!

Today I am sharing with you one of China Glaze "Operation: Colour". This collection was released a few months ago for Fall 2008. I know that I am a little late in the game swatching these but I just thought that I would remind you that it is still fall! It is easy to forget with all of the holiday decorations and items in the stores that I am seeing. 

China Glaze Golden Opportunity:

China Glaze Golden Opportunity is a shimmery, golden yellow.

China Glaze Code Orange:

China Glaze Code Orange is a orange with very fine pink shimmer.

China Glaze Revolution:

China Glaze Revolution is a red creme that reminds me of a ripe tomato! 

China Glaze Pink Underground:

China Glaze Pink Underground is a bubble gum pink with magenta shimmer.

China Glaze Agent Lavender:

China Glaze Agent Lavender is a lavender creme.

China Glaze Secret Periwinkle:

China Glaze Secret Periwinkle is a periwinkle creme.

Overall I am really loving Operation: Colour! I would wear all of these colors both on my tips and my toes. These colors are so unusual for a Fall collection, they are really a breath fresh air! I think that this collection has something for everyone. I also love that none of these color are dupes for anything else in my collection. 

All of these swatch photos were taken outside in the sun with the exception of Secret Periwinkle. I had to photograph Secret Periwinkle indoors under artificial light because the photos made it look blue in the sun. But indoors I was able to get a more accurate depiction of the color.

I apologize but I forgot to take notes while swatching these and so I don't remember which colors were two coaters and which ones were three coaters. I did not have any major problems applying these. The ones that were three coaters probably could have been two coaters if I was a little more slow and careful while applying them. 

China Gaze Operation: Colour can be purchased online at Head 2 Toe Beauty and 8ty8 Beauty, please see the links under the "where to haul" section on the right side of the screen. They are under $3.00 each at these e-tailers. In retail and beauty supply stores you'll likely pay $6.00 each.

That is all I have for you today! Thanks for reading and hope to see you back here soon.

xoxo

Katee