Emily de Molly Clean Up Crew - Review

We all know how much of a pain cleaning up after a gradient can be and lately there has been a lot of new products coming out.  Today I thought I would share with you my thoughts and a demonstration of Emily de Molly's Clean Up Crew.  Previously I would either use nothing (which made clean up even more difficult) sticky tape or Loki's Nail Vinyls Nail Aprons.  I also have tried using PVA glue but wasn't a fan of that at all.

Clean Up Crew is a latex based product that helps with easy clean up of messy manis (eg. gradients).  Because this is a latex product it does smell really bad when it is wet (I'm slowly starting to get use to it and I have been using it for at least a couple of months) but the smell disappears when it is dry.  The dry time will depend on how thick you paint it on.  For my example I did a pretty heavy coat and it dried in less than a minute.

How to use Clean Up Crew:

1.  Start by painting your base coat, and colour of your choice.  As I am doing a gradient I am starting with two coats of OPI Alpine Snow.

2.  Paint on Clean Up Crew around the nail.  When Clean Up Crew is wet is will be a light blue as shown in my picture.

3.  Wait for Clean Up Crew to be dry before starting your gradient or nail art.  It will change colour and feel slightly sticky.

4.  Apply gradient/nail art to nails.  I used Grace-Full Nail Polish's Maddison, Emma and Liz for my gradient.  And just check out that lovely mess.

5.  Peel off Clean Up Crew.  This is really simple to do and usually comes off in one piece.  You can see that not all of Clean Up Crew peeled off in one go but its easy enough to fix with acetone and a clean up brush.  

6.  And the finished result.

I haven't actually tried any other products that are similar to this so I can't actually compare them but I can say that I love Clean Up Crew.  It's super quick, easy to use and reduces the amount of clean up time drastically.  It's definitely my go to for all messy manis.  

Clean Up Crew is available from Emily de Molly and retails for $7 for 12ml.   

Flakie Friday - Color Club Snow Flakes

I just realized that this week seems to be focusing on Color Club.  I promise that was unintentional.  I couldn't not swatch the new Color Clubs because they are way too pretty to be sitting waiting for me, and I have been thinking about this combination for ages that it was time to bust it out.  Really I should write "bust it out again" because I have actually worn this combination when I first received these polishes back in 2012/2013.  I absolutely fell in love with it then and I have fallen in love with it all over again.

So what is this combination I am babbling on about?  Well it's the gorgeous Color Club Snow Flakes over Color Club Glitter Wonderland.  I adore Glitter Wonderland on its on but adding Snow Flakes and *insert emjoi hearts*.  Love love love.  I applied the first coat of Snow Flakes normally and then sponged the second coat on for extra flakie goodness.

And of course, the matte version,  These are the type of flakies that I like matte, rather than the metallic ones like I have shown over the last couple of weeks.

So which do you prefer - matte or shiny?  This one I am completely on the fence about.  I love them both equally.  Now I am not sure if Snow Flakes is still available or not.  If my memory serves me correctly Color Club actually changed the polish to iridescent glitters instead of the flakies which is such a shame.  It's such a beautiful flakie polish.

Color Club Pastel Neon Collection - Comparisons

I seem to have started a little thing on my blog where I swatch and review new mainstream collections and then do comparisons with other polishes in my collection.  I have been getting a lot of good feedback from these posts (and they are posts that I like reading if they are available) so I figured it will be something I will continue trying to do.  I don't actually have anything in my collection that is similar to the Color Club Pastel Neon Remix Collection so I will be skipping on that one.  Today I will showing you some comparisons of the Color Club Pastel Neon Collection.

Color Club Diggin' The Dancing Queen vs China Glaze Lotus Begins
These two polishes look so close to being dupes in the bottle but much to my surprise, they are quite different on the nail.  Lotus Begins is darker, dries quicker and has a better formula.  I used three coats of Diggin' The Dancing Queen and two coats of Lotus Begins for my swatch.

Color Club Feathered Hair Out To There vs OPI Suzi Shops & Island Hops
Definitely no dupes here.  I remember Suzi Shops to look brighter on the nail but when you compare if to Feathered Hair it looks so dull.  Both polishes required three coats for full coverage.

Color Club Hot-Hot-Hot Pants vs Essie Van D'Go vs China Glaze Pack Lightly
Definitely no dupes here.  Essie Van D'Go is darker, dries quicker and doesn't apply as streaky as the Color Club or China Glaze. The China Glaze is also slightly darkers and is more orange toned plus it does have shimmer which can be seen in certain lights.  I used three coats of each polish.

Color Club Meet Me At The Rink vs China Glaze Dashboard Dreamer
I honestly thought I had something similar to Meet Me At The Rink but apparently not.  The closest I have is Dashboard Dreamer but that is lighter and has shimmer in it.  In terms of formula, I prefer the Color Club.  It's streaky but isn't runny like the China Glaze.  I used three coats for both polishes.

Color Club Under The Blacklight vs China Glaze Be More Pacific
 These two look more similar in bottles than they do on the nails.  As you can see they are clearly not dupes.  Be More Pacific looks very green in comparison and is darker.  Formula wise they are similar.  They both need three coats for full coverage.

It's always a nice surprise when you buy new polishes and they aren't dupes for polishes that you already own.  I do plan on going through my collection at some point in the new feature and seeing what dupes/comparable polishes I have in my collection.  I am sure I have in my collection.  If there are any comparisons or collections you would like me to compare then let me know and I can add them to my list. 

Color Club Pastel Neon Remix Collection - Swatches & Review

Today I am excited to share with you the Color Club Pastel Neon Remix Collection.  I haven't actually seen or heard anything about this so it was a real gamble when I purchased them because I had no clue what they really looked like.  This collection consists on seven glow in the dark shades  with iridescent glitters.

The formulas of this collection are excellent.  They are super easy to use and dry pretty quick.  They are quite sheer in colour so it's best to layer them.  I decided that seems the colours corresponded so well with the Pastel Neon Collection that I would swatch them over these.  I am not sure if that was in the intention behind them or not but they work perfectly together.  These polishes do glow quite well, however the glow does not last for very long.  In fact, I did have difficulties getting my camera to focus on them before the glow started to fade.  Now let's get into the swatches.

Boogie All Night Long is a pastel pink glow in the dark polish filled with iridescent glitter.  I used two coats over Color Club Feathered Hair Out To There.

Call Of The Disco Ball is a pastel orange glow in the dark polish filled with iridescent glitter.  I used two coats over Color Club Hot-Hot-Hot Pants.

Feel The Funk is a pastel purple glow in the dark polish filled with iridescent glitter.  I used two coats over Color Club Diggin' The Dancing Queen.

Get Down Tonight is a pastel blue glow in the dark polish filled with iridescent glitter.  I used two coats over Color Club Meet Me At The Rink.

It's Electric! is a pastel yellow toned green glow in the dark polish filled with iridescent glitter.  I used two coats over Color Club Under The Blacklight.

On The Flip Side is a pastel green glow in the dark polish filled with iridescent glitter.  I used two coats over Color Club 'Til The Record Stops.

Soul Sister is a pastel yellow glow in the dark polish filled with iridescent glitter.  I used two coats over Color Club Disco's Not Dead.

I think this collection is really fun and matches well with the Pastel Neons.  I am interested to see how these look over other colours.  I am a little disappointed that the glow doesn't stay for very long.  I would say the glow really fades in less than a minute (and I tried different lights and having my nails under the lights for different periods of time and it didn't appear to make a difference). 

I purchased the Color Club Pastel Neon Remix from head2toe beauty.

Color Club Pastel Neon Collection - Swatches & Review

Last week when I swatched the new China Glaze collection I mentioned that I received my two orders from head2toe beauty and it was full of neon goodness.  Well the other order (which took less than a week to arrive so I'm super impressed) was the Color Club Pastel Neon and Pastel Neon Remix collections.  Sooooo many gorgeous colours it was extremely hard to pick what to swatch first so I decided to swatch in the order I purchased them in.

I've been drooling about the Pastel Neon collection from the moment I started seeing pictures on Instagram.  I definitely am not disappointed with the colours at all.  They are all gorgeous.  I am however slightly disappointed with the formulas.  They apply streaky and patchy so need three coats for even coverage (with the exception of Disco's Not Dead.  I actually needed four coats for that one).   I have also used them in my Easter Nail Art Idea (here) and found them a little difficult to work with there as the colours are quite thin.  I was really hoping they would work well in nail art like the China Glaze Sunsational cremes that I love.  Now that being said I love the colours so much that the formula will not actually stop me from using them.

Diggin' The Dancing Queen is a bright pastel lilac creme.  I think this one has the best formula of the collection.  It is nearly completely opaque in two coats so I think if you are really careful with it's application you may be about to get away with two.  I used three coats for my swatch.

Disco's Not Dead is a bright pastel yellow creme.   It's definitely not a typical pastel yellow creme - it's more of a buttery kind of yellow.  I honestly don't know how else to describe it.  This one has the streakiest formula of the collection.  I needed four coats for my swatch.

Hot-Hot-Hot Pants is a bright pastel peach creme.  Stunning colour.  I used three coats for my swatch.

Feathered Hair Out To There is a bright pastel pink creme.  Love this colour.  I used three coats for my swatch.

Meet Me At The Rink is a bright pastel sky blue creme.  I can see me grabbing for this whenever I need a sky in some nail art.  I used three coats for my swatch.

'Til The Record Stops is a bright pastel green creme.  Super pretty green.  I used three coats for my swatch.

Under The Blacklight is a bright yellowy green pastel creme.  Now this colour really surprised me.  I didn't think I would like it as much as I do.  I used three coats for my swatch.

Overall, I do love the colours in this collection.  I do wish that the formulas were better or worked better in nail art.  Hopefully overtime they will thicken up or something and work better.  I will be doing swatch comparisons of this collection hopefully this week so let me know if there are any you would like me to compare.

Tomorrow I will be back with the Color Club Pastel Neon Remix collection.

Miss Ashleigh New Release Thermals - Swatches & Review

PRESS SAMPLE

Happy Easter everyone!  I hope the Easter Bunny has been and left lots of yummy goodies for you.  Today I have been waiting to write for what seems like forever and I am so excited to be able to share it with you guys.  Now some of you may have seen some of these pictures over Miss Ashleigh's social media pages but I decided to hold off sharing the post until the polishes were closer to their release date.  Miss Ashleigh is releasing five new thermal polishes on April 6.  This post is quite pic heavy but I think it needs to be so you can see the transitions with these polishes.

The formulas on these are fantastic and are so easy to use.  While these polishes can look opaque in two coats it is best to use three coats to get a greater colour transition.  I did use ice water and a hair dryer for some of these swatches as the weather was quite hot when I swatched these.

Even The Royals Get Blue is a royal blue to light blue thermal with a mix of fine red, blue and gold glitters as well as small pink hexes and small blue dots.  The transition of this polish is subtle but it is definitely still noticeable.  I love this polish in both the cold and warms states.  I used two coats for my swatches although next time I will probably use three as it doesn't look fully opaque in its warm state.

Picture taken in lightbox (cold)

Picture taken in lightbox (transitioning)

Picture taken in lightbox (warm)

Midnight Shadows is a black to blue thermal with scattered holo a glitter mix different sized silver hexes and large silver dots.  This one is definitely one of my favorites from this release.  Not only does it look awesome when it's hot, cold or transitioning between the two, it also applies really well too.  I used three coats for my swatches below.

Picture taken in direct sunlight (in cold state)

Picture taken in direct sunlight (transitioning)

Picture taken in lightbox (transitioning)

Picture taken in direct sunlight (warm)

Oompa Loompa is a burnt orange to mint green thermal with scattered holo and a colour mix of fine glitters, and small and medium hexes.  I think this is a really cool polish but it's not one that I would normally go for.  It is definitely unique and applies really well.  I used three coats for my swatches. 

Picture taken in lightbox (cold)

Picture taken in direct sunlight (cold)

Picture taken in lightbox (transitioning)

Picture taken in direct sunlights (transitioning)

Picture taken in lightbox (warm)

Picture taken in direct sunlight (warm)

Punk Princess is a brown-black to pink thermal with a glitter mix of fine and small silver hexes, small pink hexes and magenta dots.  This is another favorite of mine.  I love the extreme change in colour.  Again this was super easy to apply.  I used three coats for my swatch.

Picture taken in light box (cold)

Picture taken in lightbox (transitioning)

Picture taken in lightbox (transitioning)

Picture taken in lightbox (warm)

Teal My Heart Away is described as a teal to silver thermal with scattered holo, and a mix of silver and gold holo hexes, small magenta and blue dots and medium sized silver hexes.  This one is super sparkly and like the others it's really easy to use.  The transition between colours is subtle but both colours are really pretty.  I used three coats for my swatch.

Picture taken in light box (cold)

Picture taken in lightbox (transitioning)

Picture taken in lightbox (warm)

Overall I am super impressed with these thermals.  I love that there is such a variety with the colours and degree of transitioning between the warm and cold states.  My favorites are Midnight Shadows, Punk Princess and Teal My Heart Away.

These thermals will be released on Monday April 6 and will be available from Miss Ashleigh.