Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau

 

"Take Me To Your Chateau" is a lovely pale blue, perfect this for spring's palettes. The packaging on the Color Club Pardon My French collection set proclaimed that these colors were "sheerly chic," but I reached for this pale blue first, and it has to be one of the most opaque polishes I've ever seen! 

  

The formula is good, but I had just been messing around with some polishes that have a thinner, runnier formula, so I need to use Take Me To Your Chateau with a lighter hand. I will make sure to adjust my application so I go thinner, especially since I did two coats of it.

It's really pretty indoors:

  

Here's how it stands up to direct sunlight:

  

  

 

I like this color a lot. I will interject, though, that I am discovering that my approach to nail color might be similar to my approach to lip color. I can't stand nude lips or pale pink lips---so fake and not at all natural. I tend to stick to shades close to my natural lip tone or deeper and darker. I think I am not too thrilled by super pale shades on my nails. It seems they show all the flaws in my application and just don't look right to me. That said, I am not 100% comfortable with Take Me To Your Chateau but will definitely work on a light touch since this formula is thicker than some brands and hopefully will enjoy wearing it this spring.

Now let's layer it up with its buddy in the collection, "Si Vous Please!" Look at that icy white glitter. You can see some purple glitter in there, but see how the light blue is flashing like crazy in the light??

 

I mean! Look at this glitter! So cool and proud and reserved, yet bringing its own special bling.

 

  

Above, looks like a match made in heaven!! And below, that theory was born out when I put it on the nails!!

 

 

I think the layering with the glitter is fabulous! Imagine how much nicer it will look, also, with a less gloppy looking application of the Chateau blue. The effect is really ethereal and icy, like a winter effect. Nice to wear in February and cooling and refreshing to wear in July!

Here are a couple of shots which show the glitter pieces.

 

Like pale blue opals!! I am realizing that I didn't take any shots that show the glitter on my nail on its own, and I'll have to remedy that. One can expect it to be pretty sheer, though. 

So, is everyone wearing a cool pale blue on the nails this spring? As a change of pace to all the gorgeous turquoise colors??

I Haz a Mad---About OPI Mad As a Hatter!

I couldn't find the OPI "Alice in Wonderland" glitters at my local ULTA, so I had to take matters into my own hands and order them from Victoria Nail Supply as part of my recent VNL binge.

Boy, am I glad I did! These two glitters---Mad as a Hatter and Absolutely Alice---are phenomenal. Glitter can be incorporated into a nail polish in all kinds of different ways. My favorite is a nail polish that IS GLITTER, and that goes on opaque by two coats in order to encrust the whole nail in glitter. The effect is like doing a childhood craft project with glue, glitter, and shaking....voila! Only in this case the effect is sophisticated and awesome. (nothing against the construction paper with glue and glitter designs, of course).

These glitters are definitely in this category. Mad as a Hatter has rather fine glitter that is opaque in two coats---with perhaps a bit of touch up needed to even things up. The glitter color is predominantly silver, followed by purple, then equal amounts of green, blue, red and yellow. Smashing! The idea is quite similar to Deborah Lippman's "Happy Birthday" which has a larger glitter and does not go on completely opaque. "Mad As a Hatter" forms a smooth glitter surface with a bit of fine grit to the touch; just top it off with a good topcoat for a smooth, slick surface.

Look at these colors!






The silver in this polish makes it very shiny and reflective in addition to the sparkle. Check it out in the sunlight!







A shade shot on my back porch.





Some indoor shots.






The Mad Hatter's tea party requires some nice teacups---so I took a shot with my jumbo, oversized Spode cup for a touch of madness.


OPI Alice in Wonderland is rather an odd little collection. It contains two fabulous glitters, the blue Absolutely Alice and the multi Mad as a Hatter shown in this post; joining the glitters are yet two more OPI REDS! Why red? Two of them? They might very well be lovely reds, but after a large holiday 2009 collection that was half reds....well, I would have thought Alice in Wonderland could have two additional super-creative polishes instead. In the meantime, if you like glitter polish, the Alice glitters from OPI are definitely must-haves.

There's No Place Like Home. You can't go home again. But go anyway.

Alternate title: China Glaze Good Witch? meets Chanel Ming

Last weekend I was working in Boston at a conference. I wasn't feeling so hot the Thursday night before I left. Friday I felt much better but knew that when I got to my hotel in Cambridge that I would need a) a nap, and b) a shower. Yikes! I ran out of time and it looked like I was going to have to go out with naked nails!! Ugly naked nails. Well, things got adjusted, with friends picking me up (instead of my meeting them in Boston and then traveling back to the same area as my hotel to eat dinner. Phew!)

I still had limited time. I planned to wear China Glaze "Good Witch?" but had noted its sheerness when trying it on one nail after I got it recently. Still was seeing some VNL (visible nail line) after three coats. What to do, what to do, I wanted it opaque but time threatened to run out...

Well, I had Chanel Ming with me as well. These polishes do not match by any means, but they are in the same general color family, a pink with a bit of salmon going on. Ming actually has much more of the salmon-y orange tone. I know that Ming goes on just fine. I would use it as an undercoat!!

What followed was a big chemical mix that fortunately didn't explode on my nails---just one bubble gurgling up on my right index finger that I managed to smooth out okay. The strategy did work, as I had two thin coats of Ming, which looked nice enough to stop there if I got the call that my friends would arrive soon. I was able to keep going with three more coats of the China Glaze topped by Seche Vite. The basecoat was the clear Seche.



Now, I know that the fans of the original China Glaze Wizard of Ooh-Ahz collection might be a little disappointed. Well, you can't go home again. It's different, apparently, and I actually like it a lot!! Yes, it's a metallic frosty pink with the glitter, and not the gel with glitter that Dorothy Who? is. I knew I had to get it when I saw the pink sparkles peeking at me. Pink on pink, it's just a lovely combination!

I found myself gazing at my fingertips during the evening when I had the chance. The glitter was subtle and very sparkly, and I just loved checking it out by turning my fingers in the light to try to see as much of the sparkle as possible. It's a winner!!


You can't go home again. It's not the same "Good Witch?" But go anyway. It's still a very fun and pretty polish to wear, and I thank China Glaze for at least trying.

Glitter Friday! China Glaze Luna

I am so proud of my invention: Glitter Fridays! See, if your workplace is already somewhat casual, then casual Fridays are not as fun, not nearly as liberating. So, what does one do? Something fun with the nails!! Maybe the environment is casual enough but a little conservative, in which case one of the China Glaze OMG holo polishes will introduce some color craziness. If you can, however, go for some sparkle to make the day go better. Glitter makes everything happier!

So, on a Friday a few weeks back, I chose a super festive glitter polish: China Glaze "Luna." I have to say, I think I went a little too far. Luna is a super shiny silver that without the glitter would be blingy enough. Then, encrust this shiny metal foil surface with some sparkly glitter, and there you go! It was just a little too much shininess during the daytime at work. It was not really a casual glitter, but perhaps too glitzy for the casual workplace!


Is that a criticism or rejection of this polish? Goodness, no!! It's gorgey! It's perfect for holiday parties, New Year's Eve, winter soirees....it adds sparkle and glitz to the evening. Luna is a beautiful polish. The finish on this lacquer is is the same as China Glaze Ginger---opaque, shiny metal with the glitter on the surface like salt baked onto the pretzel .



Ooh, a slightly blurry picture shows the sparkle, above! Forget casual Fridays! Forget Follow Fridays! Forget Freaky Fridays! It's GLITTER FRIDAY. I swear, it will get you through your day and help you get the weekend celebration started.

China Glaze Ginger!

Well, I'm still remembering the nails of November. This post should be about Ginger Bells from OPI, actually. I was determined to wear Ginger Bells on Thanksgiving because it was the perfect gingery, pumpkin-y color. Then, perhaps on that Friday, I would slip into some China Glaze Ginger, with its super sparkliness.

But. I couldn't wait. I went for the China Glaze Ginger the day BEFORE Thanksgiving and that was all she wrote! (That's right, T'giving was all about the glitter!! Sorry, Ginger Bells, maybe next year).




Even without the glitter, this polish would gleam with a super shiny, coppery metallic base. The surface has what I think of as a "baked pretzel effect," with the multi-colored glitter reminding me of the salt baked onto pretzels.

Now for a bit of bottle porn! So pretty, so glittery....the colors! I can't stop staring at the pretty colors of the glitter.

I mean, look at it!!



Yep. Thanksgiving was a time to give thanks, and I was very thankful for fall's bountiful harvest of wonderful polish, with its cornucopia of GLITTER to sate the appetite of enthusiastic nail polish fiends everywhere!!