Color Club Pardon My French: Introduction

I have to apologize here. My internet is down at home so I thought rather than get behind in my blogging I'd stop by a Fedex Office and do a couple of posts. Argh! This connection is the slowest ever, a complete rip-off to charge people for internet access and give them this. Fedex Office, if you are reading this, you suck!!

So, instead of doing a lot of work and scheduling several posts for the week, I have gotten one quick post up and nothing else. I upload my pictures to Flickr and download smaller sizes to post on Blogger, and well, that's not a very good methodology when your connection blows chunks.

So, I am going to just do an introductory post to Color Club's Pardon My French collection, then I will give up for the evening. I am backlogged on items I need to post about, but there is only so much I can do!

To the collection at hand. "Pardon My French." This collection is one of three Color Club spring collections. At first glance, I noticed two cool-toned pinks on the left, three warm-toned colors in the middle, then two more cool-toned icy blue and glitter on the right.

"Pardon My French," a very pale milk pink and "I Believe in Amour," a light but vibrant pink.

  

Left to right, below, "Hot Couture," a warm orange-pink glitter, ""Oh Naturale," a light orange-peach, or perhaps an cantaloupe sherbet, and "Turn the Other Chic," an apricot glitter. 

Cool pale blues: a creme "Take Me To Your Chateau," and a glitter "Si Vous Please!" which is an icy glitter that contains some blue and other tones in it.

Then I realized that the glitter could be meant to pair with the cremes, like so: The pink crème plus glitter, peachy-cantaloupe crème plus orange glitter, and the icy blue plus icy white glitter.

Pink creme plus glitter: the creme looks decidedly coolor and more lilac in tone while the glitter is very warm-toned. Hmm.

 

The cantaloupe sherbet creme plus the darker and richer apricot glitter.

  

And, again, the blues paired together, these look the most similar for being a pair. 

 

So, that's a bit of bottle love for you, and tomorrow I will have to work on getting the rest of the posts up. I will either chop it into two huge posts of pt. 1 = cremes and pt. 2 = glitters, OR just a bunch of mini posts for each color. I have several pictures of each.

Essence Purples!!

 

Okay, here are the other swatches I did very quickly last weekend. I also purchased about 3 additional Essence polishes, including a gold and a black, but did not try them on yet. 

Index finger to pinky: lavender ("No More Drama" 27), a shimmery medium purple ("Break Through" 26), a darker purple ("Plum Perfect" 28), and a dark pink red ("So Glamourous" 11).

  

 

  

  

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

So, my fellow Americans, which Essence Colour and Go polishes have YOU gotten now that ULTA is carrying Essence?? Which are your faves?!

Quick Essence Swatches: 1 Green 1 Yellow and 2 Blues!

 

 Y"all, I am so SORRY! I did not mean to take this long to post the rest of my quick Essence swatches. Gee, if I am going to take THIS long I might as well start over and do actual GOOD ones, lol! 

So, index to pinky, I have the yellow ("Sundancer" 23), green ("Check Me Out" 18), sparkly turquoise ("Pool Party" 17), and dark blue ("Underwater" 24).

It's time for Sundancer's close-up:

 

Check out "Check Me Out:"

  

I need to investigate the sparkliness of "Pool Party," more swatching is needed:

  

I love the deep, dark blue of Underwater:

 

  

  

I love these bright, fun colors!! Aren't they totally HOT??? 

Lacquer Link Love! 2/27/2010 (Saturday Edition)

Phresh Mentality paints a few PHRESH mani's in an effort to raise funds to help Haiti

Helen's Nice Things has swatched a Ciate Paint Pot color, but you have to click the link to see which one. :)

Naive Nails has a little Lilly on her tips brought to you from Zoya, of course!

Konadomania is felling a little lot spring like and she is showing it off... on her nails!

The Swatchaholic brings out a lusted over discontinued color from her stash and rallies for the maker to bring the color back.  Please be sure to take her poll located in her blogs sidebar and maybe our voices will be heard.

Oh how I love a pretty textured mani and Bright Lights Big Color is showing off just that!

Hot & Spicy are the words to describe Polish Freak's mani.  Be sure to leave her a comment on how you feel about the color.

Dying to see some swatches of the new Diamond Cosmetics spring 2010 polishes?! Well, Nail'd & Polish'd has just what you need.

Magic Maid has brought you some beautiful swatches from a well known European brand polish.

Tuli's Nails has on polish that's "as pretty as a picture" thanks to our lovely polish blogger Nicole.

Travels with Euridice also has some Essence swatches.  The more the merrier I always say.

Nail-Design is giving us a peek inside her stash and showing us how she stores her polish.

Perfect 10 Beauty has swatched a polish called FABULESS... see if you can guess the brand.

Metallics are deemed to be big for the upcoming season and Manicure Mommas has showed you how to make it look luxe.

polishSWATCHES brings you a closeup of Rihanna's "Pretty Kitty Manicure."  What do you think of the design?

Now for the Network Giveaways...

Konadomania is celebrating 300 followers... click her name to see exactly how.  It's so worth it!

Travels with Euridice is having a Holla for Holos giveaway to show her followers her appreciation.

Neglelakkmani is having a giveaway that's scheduled to end on Monday, so please enter if you haven't already done so.

3 Color Club Spring 2010 Collections

I very recently got yet another VNS haul which included the three spring 2010 Color Club collections. I had just gotten two earlier CC collections that I’ve yet to delve into, but I’ve gotten very interested in this brand, and, well, it’s time for spring collections!!

I don’t know the stories behind the collections and can only base comments on the products in front of me. I’ve seen quite a few posts already on the Rebel Debutante collection, so I’m going to start with the other two and review the Rebel Debutantes last.

The Poptastic Collection is aptly named. It contains “Color that Pops!!” No fancy tag lines, no weird story lines….just color that pops!! And boy does it!! These pictures, obviously taken indoors, are super lame. The bright, high voltage neons only show wimpy ghosts of themselves in these pictures. Shame on me! Okay, sun, as soon as you’re back: it’s on!! The neon challenge of capturing these retina-searing colors---oh, it’s on!

The “Pardon My French” collection is “sheerly chic color hotter than a French kiss.” Hmm, hotter than a French kiss? These colors? Well, the palette is a very pretty one, with a barely there pink, a medium pink, a cantaloupe sherbet (what is this color, I really don’t know! It’s not peach, but is it orange?), and a powder blue, accompanied by three glitters. Does the French reference mean French manicure theme variations? Or is it just a nice collection of pale colors for layering? Well, I delved into this past weekend to find out, so this collection is the first to get posted and reviewed. 

Last, the “Rebel Debutante” collection, a nice collection of mostly subtle and neutral colors that are on trend and classic at the same time. Rebel Debutante contains “rebellious shades that go from classic to trendy …and break all the rules.” Huh? In what way do these colors break ANY rules? How are they rebellious? Pretty shades, yes. A nice, classic wardrobe of color to stand you in good stead, certainly. Rebellious??!

I think this collection would be a lot easier to appreciate without this rebellious debutante nonsense. Is the act of wearing fashion nail colors rebellious for a debutante? If a young woman nearing the age of making her debut wants to be rebellious, she’ll just tell her parents that she refuses to do it. Or, she’ll make sure by doing something super rebellious, like eloping her freshman year….even after the marriage is annulled, the damage is done, no debutante invitation for you, missy!

If you want to stick with the themes of high society and the young, fresh outlook of a woman of debutante age, why not “Modern Debutante?” The colors are classic yet trendy….she is doing her duty, pleasing her parents, and getting to go to a lot of fun parties while maintaining a sense of modern style that just doesn’t materialize with a traditional French manicure or some kind of super sheer pink. "Modern Debutante" is still kind of snoozy as a name, so perhaps jazz it up by calling it “Glam Debutante.” The collection may not be glam but it sure as hell ain't rebellious!! Sigh. Okay, I’ve rechristened it, I can go with Modern or Glam. Wait! Modern GLAMutante, that’s the ticket!

I look forward to trying the er Modern Debutante shades on, as they are very pretty and worthy shades, but as mentioned I'll do them last since I've already seen a lot of posts on them. First, the Frenchies, then the Poptastic, and winding it up with the Debby-tantes.

Announcing My First Giveaway---Holla for holos!

ETA: Hi! Thanks to everyone for the wonderful response to my very first giveaway!! Entries are now closed. Thanks, and good luck!!

Well, it's my giveaway so I can name it whatever I want, lol! No matter how corny. I accidentally ordered an extra bottle of Spin Me Round from Victoria Nail Supply. Thus, my loss (buying the extra I don't need) is going to be someone else's gain!!

If you are a follower of this blog, you qualify to receive this giveaway. But wait---there's more!! I cleared out my local drugstore's Milani Holographic Polish display in order to sweeten the pot, so to speak.

So, the first place winner gets the Spin Me Round plus a set of 6 Milani holos. I will also give some Milanis to a second place winner.

 

  

 

I am THRILLED to have 37 followers, currently. And at only 37 followers, this giveaway will be one of the easier ones to win!

1) Be a follower.
2) Leave a comment on this post between now and March 4 11:59 pm EST and tell me what holographic polish is your favorite.

Bam! You're entered!! On Friday, March 5, I will announce 2 random winners!!!

International followers are totally eligible as long as you live in a place where I can legally ship nail polish. I will send the package, and you will be responsible for any customs duties. I'll do my best to pack it up safely but of course if something happens beyond my control, I won't be responsible for any breakages in transit. I'll cry and commiserate, though, certainly!

Okay, sign on up! You won't be sorry, these are heavenly holos.

Spin Me Round, Like a Record Baby!!

 

Open up your lovin' arms and watch out here I come! Okay, I've got song lyrics in my head as I put together this blog post. And the energetic song is quite fitting for this awesome polish, the last in my 8 part series on the China Glaze Kaleidoscopes. "Spin Me Round" is a light, milky brown holo. On one hand, it's perhaps the most neutral of the Kaleidoscopes that I own, but on the other hand it's one of the blingiest!! I think the only one blingier is the gold one "It's My Turn." Once you get this baby into the light, the crystals light up and sparkle their holographic goodness like noone's business!!

Below, the bottle, with the seemingly benign and innocent crystal-like powder just resting there and waiting its turn to rock out:

  

 

Indeed, it has that light brown with whitish speckles look when indoors or in the shade, above. But, now let's get the sunlight going, and this polish will totally spin you round (like a record, baby, right round round round...I want your luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuv!) 

 

 

  

  

  

 

 

I'm in love with this polish, and in fact I might just wear it to work tomorrow!!! So work appropriate and neutral....so colorful and explosive!!!!

Milani Holos!!

 

This past weekend I decided to try to find the elusive Milani holographic polishes that I had been hearing so much about. I decided to try a 24 hour CVS branch that sometimes seemed to have the special polish collections, and voila!! There was a nice, pristine, full display of the Milani holos. Yay! I immediately snatched them up. 

These polishes are quite similar to the China Glaze Kaleidoscope series and come in six colors. Let's check out the four regular colors first, then the two metallics.

  

We have purple ("Hi-Res"), green ("Hi-Tech"), blue ("Cyberspace"), and pink ("Digital)" colors. 

  

  

  

The colors are pretty and attractive enough indoors without any light shining on them. Moving on towards the rays of sun streaming through my windows, then:

 

  

  

  

  

Ah, the little white crystals spring into action and shine and reflect colorfully!! Very nice, Milani! Now, we also need to look at the other two colors, which are silver ("HD") and gold ("3D").

 

These two metallics have a smooth metallic effect, shown here in the indoors, below:

 

And, now with the light on them, you can see the sparkle and the holo effect, although, with the metallic surface, not to the extent of the other four colors. We don't see the "blaze" or oil slick effect of the others.

 

  

  

Oops, the gold got a little messed up, as it wasn't quite dry. 

 

You can see how the light hits the shiny, metallic surface especially well in the following:

 

Well-done, Milani! I really like this collection. The blue and pink are similar to a couple of my Kaleidoscope polishes, so I think a follow-up post is merited for comparison's sake. Otherwise, these are excellent additions to my growing holo collection!!

Milani special collections can sometimes be hit or miss: Are these showing up in your local drugstores now?? Do you own any?? What is your favorite Milani holo??!