China Glaze Star Hopping Collection - Swatches & Review

You may all know by now that I am a huge fan of bright polishes, but did you know that I am also obsessed with glitter polishes?  I probably don't wear them as often mainly because removal can be a pain in the butt but OMG they are just so pretty and sparkly! I'm such a girl.  Anyway, I was checking out some of my usual online shopping places and I just so happened to stumble across a new China Glaze collection.  Not just any collection, but a full eight piece glitter collection.  I'm sure these babies jumped straight into my card and I was checking out before my brain even registered what was actually happening.  

Can You Sea Me? is a mixture of silver and blue holographic glitters in a clear base.   I think this one would take a lot of work to build it up to be fully opaque.  The formula is easy to work with, however you do need to use a bit of a dabbing motion for the glitters.  My swatch is one coat over China Glaze UV Meant To Be?

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Picture taken in direct sunlight

Counting Carats is a gold holographic glitter.  Talk about bling!  I really love this one.  I think it is perfect for the holiday season.  The formula is easy to use but again it may take a bit of work to get it to be fully opaque.  I used one coat over OPI Love Angel Music Baby.

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Picture taken in direct sunlight

Give Me The Green Light! is a blue-green glitter.  Really pretty and easy to use.  I used two coats for my swatch.

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Picture taken in light box

Pick Me Up Purple is a pale lilac with holographic glitters.  I love this one.  It's so pretty.  I believe this one could be opaque in two to three coats (something I will definitely have to try in the near future) but I used one coat over China Glaze Tart-y For The Party for my swatch.

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Picture taken in direct sunlight

Silver Of Sorts is a silver glitter.  I found this one had a thick formula but it was still easy to work with.  This one could be opaque in two to three coats, however I used one coat over China Glaze I'd Melt For You for my swatch.

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Picture taken in direct sunlight

Star Hopping is a black tinted base polish filled with dark blue holographic glitters.  This is definitely a great base for some galaxy nail art.  The formula of this one is a little on the thick side but it is easy to work with.

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Turn Up The Heat is described as a berry glitter.  Soooo pretty.  This was definitely one that grabbed my attention first when I unwrapped this collection.  The formula is slightly on the thicker side but like the others it is easy to use.  I used two coats for my swatch.

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You're Too Sweet is a pale pink holographic glitter.  Such a pretty polish.  This one could possibly be opaque in three to four coats but I am really not sure.  I used two coats over OPI Mod About You (although I think I preferred one coat instead).

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How pretty is this collection?  My pictures really don't do these polishes justice.  My personal favorites are Pick Me Up Purple, Counting Carats, Turn Up The Heat You're Too Sweet.

Emily de Molly October 2015 Releases - Swatches & Review

I am slowly catching up with the monthly releases from Emily de Molly.  In fact I have nearly completed the November swatches as well so I will have a blog post for those soon.  Today I do have the polishes that were released back in October.  I believe that these (with the exception of the COTM) are still available in the Australian store and I assume that they may still be available on the US site or some of the stockists.

Anywhere But Here is described as a purple metallic holo with a subtle pink shine.  This was October's COTM.  It's no surprise that I am in love with this colour.  My swatches make the polish look a lot more blue toned than it is.  The colour of the bottle in my light box picture is more colour accurate.  The formula of this polish is fantastic.  My swatch shows two coats.

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Fixed Course is a dark teal green holo.  The formula is great and is opaque in two coats.

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Heavy Aura is described as a light pink/beige holo with tiny translucent red/pink flakes.  Another really pretty polish and definitely unique in my collection.  The formula is easy to use and opaque in two coats.

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Meet My Fate is described as a bright royal blue jelly with copper shimmer, white flakes and iridescent colour shifting flakes.  Just to repeat myself, this is another pretty polish with a great formula.  I used two coats for my swatch.

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Open Season is described as a dark purple jelly that has a strong blue shimmer with sky and turquoise holographic glitter and copper microglitter.  The formula was easy to work with and you can get away with two coats, however I found that I had a slight visible nail line so I added the third coat.

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Picture taken in direct sunlight

Scorched Earth is a burnt orange holo with gold shimmer.  Formula is great and is opaque in two coats.

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Picture taken in direct sunlight

Viridescent is a light green creme holo.  This one I found had a slightly thinner formula and required three coats to be opaque.  The formula was easy to use.

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There is definitely a few really stunning polishes in this release.   Did you pick up any of these polishes?

Born Pretty Store Stamping Plates & 3D Nail Art - Swatches & Review

PRESS SAMPLE

I have been buying nail art supplies from Born Pretty Store for a few years now.  I find that they have a great range of products at affordable prices and what isn't to love about that?  Recently I was contacted to see if I was willing to swatch and review some of their new products.  Naturally I jumped at the chance and today will be sharing with you my thoughts on some of their stamping plates and 3D nail art.  

Let's start with the nail stamping plates seems nail stamping is my go to form of nail art.  I received five plates in total (both the small round plates and the rectangle plates).  Overall, I have found that the designs are a great size and they pick up and transfer quite well.  I haven't had any issues with the designs that I have tried.

Item number 17917

Item number 18074

Item number 17920

Item number 21813

Item number 21815

Along with the plates I also received some 3D nail art pieces.  The first set comes with 10 Christmas themed pieces and the other is a wheel of various ocean themed pieces.  I personally found the Christmas pieces a little on the big side and found they slipped off my nail and if I actually wore them for day the would come off quite quickly.  These are definitely only good for pictures and not a long term mani.

Item number 22963

The ocean themed wheel I am a fan off.  I like that the pieces are a lot smaller and will stay on the nail for longer than the Christmas items.  I also like that these come in the wheel which makes for easy storage and makes each piece easier to see and get out.

Item number 21578

Item number 21578

Born Pretty Store have kindly offered my readers a 10% discount on all full priced items within their store.  Simply use my code JADEG10 at the check out.

Color Club Frostbite Collection - Swatches & Review

Today I have another new collection to share with you.  This time I have Color Club's Frostbite Collection.  The one thing I find with Color Club is that there is a serious lack of their presence online.  Am I the only one that finds this?  A new collection pops up and then you jump on google looking for swatches and then there is nothing to be found?  There is the odd exceptions to this (eg the Halo Hues collections) but for the most part, there is nothing.  So buying these collections are a real gamble.  Let's just jump into the swatches and my review of the Frostbite Collection and I'll give you my overall opinion at the end.

I'm Gonna Luge It is a metallic blue toned grey.  This is my favorite of this collection.  Formula wise is it easy to use and you could nearly get away with one coat.  I used two coats for my swatch.

Polar Vortex is a dark metallic silver.  This is another one that you could get away with one coat.  I used two for my swatch.

Snowed In is a metallic grey.  Again, this is the same as above.  I used two coats for my swatch.

Triple Lutz is a pink metallic.  This one has very visible brush strokes.  I used one coat for my swatch.

What A Flake is a black, white and silver glitter topper.  I really don't like this polish at all.  It's base heavy and the glitters clump together.  It's just hard to work with and doesn't look good in my opinion.  I used one coat over Triple Lutz.

Winter White is a metallic/pearly white.  This one has very visible brush strokes, is slow drying and requires three coats to be fully opaque.  You can still see a visible nail line after two coats.

24 Below is a gold metallic.  This polish is a one coater if you do a careful application.  I used one coat for my swatch.

Overall, this collection doesn't excitement at all.  If I had seen swatches of this collection I would have passed on it.  Formula wise they are easy to work with (with the exception of What A Flake) but they do have visible brush strokes, which is common with a lot of metallics.  My pick from this collection is I'm Gonna Luge It.