Review & Swatches - China Glaze Anchors Away Collection

Hey!

My local Chatter's Salon just got this collection in today and of course, I got there as fast as I could to pick these up! Hopefully they'll be getting the Katy Perry for OPI collection in soon because I'm just as (actually, maybe more) excited for that one as I was for this one!

Anyway, I just spent a ridiculous amount of time swatching these because my camera didn't like this collection for some reason. I even had to change my background from white to black because my camera was just spazzing out when I was snapping bottle pictures! Nonetheless, the swatch pictures turned out pretty true to life so that's all that really matters!







Keep reading to see swatches and read the review!



Life Preserver (a burnt orange creme), Hey Sailor (standard red creme), Ahoy! (deep raspberry with pink shimmer)


First Mate (navy creme), Starboard (shamrock green creme), Lighthouse (warm yellow-gold glitter)


White Cap (sheer pearly white with gold shimmer), Pelican Gray (blue-grey with subtle silver shimmer), Sea Spray (dirty light blue with subtle silver shimmer)


Below Deck (dark mauve-grey-taupe creme), Sunset Sail (light nude with silver shimmer), Knotty (light warm brown with pinkish/silvery shimmer, pictures don't do this one justice, it looks like if Ingrid from the Vintage Vixen collection had a baby with Fairy Dust, very unique)


Life Preserver, Hey Sailor, Ahoy!, First Mate, Starboard, Lighthouse


White Cap, Pelican Gray, Sea Spray, Below Deck, Sunset Sail, Knotty


Life Preserver, Hey Sailor, Ahoy!


First Mate, Starboard, Lighthouse


White Cap, Pelican Gray, Sea Spray


Below Deck, Sunset Sail, Knotty

The formula on all of these was fantastic. The cremes all applied like butter and the shimmers were also great. As far as opacity goes, despite the fact that I basically always do 3 coats of polish, all of the creme swatches above are 2 coats - they just didn't need another one! The only colours above with 3 coats are Ahoy!, Lighthouse, White Cap and Knotty.

Although this collection offers a few unique colours that I don't have anything similar to in my collection (Knotty, Sea Spray, Pelican Gray), there are also some colours that are pretty dupeable. I plan to do some comparison swatches for you so that you don't end up with colours that you pretty much already have.

Most of these colours will look great on everyone but I think that both Lighthouse and Knotty will look better on darker skin because they're so warm-toned. I think the best colours for paler folk are First Mate, Ahoy!, and Starboard.

Overall, I think this is a great collection, especially for those with smaller polish collections because you won't end up with colours you already have. I think China Glaze hit the nail on the head with the colours because they're all very nautical and fitting for the theme. Read Full...

Swatches - My China Glaze Collection: Part 2 (Blue)

Hey!

So I know it's been a while since my last of these posts but I promise I haven't forgotten about this project! Today I have swatches of all of my blue China Glaze polishes. I should start by saying that the lighting on some of these isn't the greatest but I must have taken over 100 photos to get what I have here so it'll have to do for now.



Keep reading the see up-close pictures and the names of each of the colours!



Sexy in the City, Frostbite, Blue Sparrow


For Audrey (this colour is not as green in reality as it looks here), Rainstorm, 2Nite


Custom Kicks, Flyin' High, Bahamian Escape


Shower Together, Blue Hawaiian, Towel Boy Toy


Meteor Shower, Midnight Mission, Rodeo Fanatic


Atlantis, Little Drummer Boy, Dorothy Who?

That's it for the blues! Up next: purple. Read Full...

Upcoming Collections - Nicole by OPI - Justin Bieber Inspired Collection

Yeah, you read it right, Nicole by OPI is releasing a collection inspired by teen pop star Justin Beiber called The One Less Lonely Girl Collection.

I don't know what to say about this except that I just don't get it! Where's the connection between Bieber and nail polish? The only reason I can come up with for releasing this collection is that Nicole by OPI is trying to reach out to the younger audience of girls who shop at places like Wal-Mart and they'll be inclined to buy this collection because of the association with Beiber. I understand this reasoning but it still seems a bit ridiculous to me.
Katy Perry, I understand; Serena Williams, I understand; Justin Beiber, I do not understand.

Nonetheless, some of the colours being released do look pretty so if I'm going to be completely honest I might as well admit that I'll probably still buy some of the shades despite the strange inspiration behind the collection.
The first 6 shades of the collection (pictured below) will be released in December while a subsequent launch will release in January.



Left to right:
One Less Lonely Glitter
Prized Possession Purple
Give Me the First Dance
Me + Blue
OMB!
Step 2 the Beat of My Heart

What do you think about this collection? Does it seem strange to anyone else?


Source: lacquerized Read Full...

Upcoming Collections - OPI - Serena Williams Collaboration

Yes, another OPI collaboration set to release in 2011. This time it's with tennis star Serena Williams and the name of the collection is Glam Slam.

To co-ordinate with her tournaments, sets of polishes from the collection will be released one at a time in January, May, June and August. 

The information for the first set of polishes has been released and it will include the black shatter top coat I posted about in the OPI/Katy Perry collaboration as well as a bright green colour called Simple Smashing.

I'm excited to see what the rest of this collection will look like!


Next up: Nicole by OPI teams up with ... Justin Bieber? facepalm.

Source: lacquerized Read Full...

Upcoming Collections - OPI - Katy Perry Collaboration

Set to release in January 2011 is an OPI collection in collaboration with pop icon Katy Perry. The collection offers 5 shades, one of which is a shatter top coat called Black Shatter.



Left to right:
Last Friday Night (a fierce glittery blue)
Not Like the Movies (a sultry silver)
The One That Got Away (an amazing deep berry)
Teenage Dream (a dreamy pink glitter)
Black Shatter (crackle top coat)

Want to see what these shades look like on the nail? Check out the video below!




What shades are you excited about?
As always, I'm most excited about the glitter shades! And I'm of course excited about the shatter top coat.

OPI has quite a bit of information released regarding their upcoming collections so I'll be posting about the others as well.

Source: lacquerized Read Full...

My Makeup/Nail Polish Collection - Storage Tips and Tricks

Hey everyone!

In this post I'm going to post some pictures of my makeup/nail polish collection and how I store it all.
I posted a full collection post on Specktra and I'll post a link to that instead of clogging up this post with all the pictures (there's over 50!).

I have finally found a storage solution that works for me and my space so I'm very happy with it.

I'll try and go over everything and where it came from, how much it was (although all prices will be approximate since some of these things I have had for a while), etc but if I miss anything or if you have any other questions, let me know.

Ok, let's get to it.


This is my whole setup.
The lamp in the back is from Wal-Mart ($40), my lighted mirror on the desk is also from Wal-Mart ($30) and the mirror attached to the side of the desk (which is a lighted 10x zoom mirror with an adjustable arm) is from Sears ($60).

Keep reading for more pictures and storage tips!



This is where I hold the majority of my makeup. It's from Wal-Mart and it was about $30.




These are two of the drawers in the above unit and I'm showing you the inside to show the small bins inside that I use to divide my makeup and make it more neat/manageable.
These can be found at Wal-Mart in sets of either 3 (for the long ones) or 4 (for the short ones) and they're about $3 for a set. They can also be bought individually (like the wide one that holds my MSFs) at any Dollar Store.


This is another drawer system I found at Wal-Mart and it was about $12.


The wide bin in here that I hold back-ups in I got at the Dollar Store.


Same thing with this bin, found at the Dollar Store. Most of the nail art supplies were bought on eBay.


Nails wheels found on eBay.


Palette holder on top is actually a file divider and can be found at any office supply store.
The small 3 drawer storage unit on the bottom was bought at Wal-Mart for about $8.
The 4 drawers are shoe containers that I took out of their plastic holder so that they would fit into my desk compartments. They usually look like this:




The inside of one of the drawers.


These containers actually come as part of a food storage container that I got at Wal-Mart. The inside of the container has these removable dividers that are the perfect size for MAC lipsticks/lipglosses. Plus, now I have a full empty container as well as great storage for my MAC lip products. This was $8 for the whole unit.


I already posted above where I got the 3 drawer units as well as the shoe drawers on the bottom.
The brush holder is from Michael's as are the beads on the inside.


The palette holder on top where I hold my Coastal Scents palettes is another file divider and can be found at any office supply store.
My MAC palettes are being housed in a DVD holder that I got at Wal-Mart. It came in a set of 2 for $10.
The shoe drawers hold more nail polish and their price/where they can be bought has already been discussed.


The first 3 drawers are part of one drawer unit which is again from Wal-Mart and was about $16. The bottom 3 drawers are each individual shoe drawers which have already been discussed. Ideally, I would have liked to have 2 of the 3 drawers units like the one on top but I haven't been able to find them anywhere since I got that first one.


This is one of the drawers inside the unit. The bins inside were already discussed earlier.


This is inside one of the individual drawers. Again, the bins have already been discussed.


This is the basket that's on top of the entire unit and holds all my nail tools, treatments, base coats and top coats. It's once again from Wal-Mart and was about $3.


Phew, that took a really long time!
I hope this was helpful and I hope it gave some of you ideas for your own makeup/nail polish storage.
Here's the link to the entire collection post that I posted on Specktra where you can see any pictures that I didn't post here (like I said before, there's more than 50 pictures altogether).

Have a good day! Read Full...