China Glaze 'Tis The Season To Be Naughty And Nice Collection Winter/Holiday 2010 Swatches and Review

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this posted... I've been having some difficulties. Hopefully I'll be back in the swing of things soon!

What a pretty holiday collection. Makes me feel all cozy and happy.



Cheers To You. Standard silver foil. Very pretty but nothing unique.




Frosty. Such a gorgeous white. It's a semi-sheer white similar to something like Zoya Ginessa- made of shiny white particles in a somewhat milky base. It's just so sparkly and pretty and soft and delicate, even slightly iridescent- see how some of the shimmer pearls change color on the nail? Love this one, it's fantastic.




Jingle Bells. Halfway between a chrome and a foil, more on the foil side. Shiny and reflective. A neutral light gold bordering on champagne.



Jolly Holly. Incredibly gorgeous rich forest green shimmer. The pigmentation is amazing on this one, it's a one-coater even though I did two for the picture. I adore this. It looks really good topped with a layer of Party Hearty, too.




Little Drummer Boy. Soft dark navy shimmer. It's less saturated than a lot of other navy shimmers and it gives it a really soft and sort of faded look- like denim. Great pigmentation on this, too.



Midnight Kiss. Light blonde gold foil. Very festive. A little bit patchy but evens out nicely with two thick coats or three thin coats.



Mistletoe Kisses. This seems pretty unique, I can't think of many other colors like this. It's a silvery green glitter, or perhaps both green and silver glitter together. It looks much lighter than I expected, but that's not a bad thing. It reminds me of those Christmas wreaths with the plastic holly leaves that are coated in this sugar-looking crystalline substance- it's supposed to look like snow on the leaves? Light and sparkly.





Mommy Kissing Santa. Rich red shimmer. Velvety looking. Another one that's not terribly original but still pretty.



Mrs. Claus. A light red tinted base with light silvery red glitter. Different from the usual Ruby Pumps-esqe red glitter. This one looks softer and lighter than most red glitters. It reminds me of the one Color Club did in the mini set for Christmas last year.



Naughty And Nice. Very very dark plum purple. Blackened plum. At one coat it's obviously purple, at two it becomes more black. Similar to OPI William Tell Me About OPI and Essie Velvet Voyeur and all the other blackened-plum shades that were released this fall.



Party Hearty. My favorite. I've worn this four times since I got it and I still love it. It's silver small glitter with larger red and green glitter in a clear base. Fantastic for layering. Good on its own, too, as you can see here. This is two coats, three would have been more opaque but this actually looks good with a little nail showing through.




Peace On Earth. AWESOME! An olive green shimmer! Golden threads running through soft olive green. I'm absolutely ecstatic about this one. It reminds me of the long-gone Cat's Eye shade! Darker and less frosty, though, so definitely improved.



Phat Santa. A maraschino cherry red creme. Very glamorous. This is the darker of the two reds.




Ruby Deer. The lighter of the two reds. This one is more of a tomato-red, closer to something like Zoya America to give you an idea.


Snow. Plain white creme. Dries very glossy and isn't the least bit chalky. Very soft. A little streaky, I needed three coats and that's what's pictured here.


Sugar Plums. A cousin to the discontinued yet beloved Crystal Ball shade. This is a red-plum or burgundy shimmer with teeny tiny itty bitty holo glitter particles. Click the pictures to see them better. You can see them pretty well in the bottle especially.



Here's how Party Hearty looks layered over a foil and a creme:

Party Hearty (one coat) over Midnight Kiss.

Party Hearty (one coat) over Phat Santa.

Lovely, right? Super Christmassy! I'm totally into this color! Anything that reminds me of a holiday. Love. Though, I have noticed that it's gotten thicker each time I've used it. You may need to thin it every now and then to keep it smooth.


The formula on these was varied but good. The plain shimmers were extremely pigmented, a little thick, but nice and smooth. The glitters were a little thick, but that's normal for glitters. The whites and the foils were slightly sheer, I did three coats and that was fine for them. The cremes were smooth and nicely pigmented. Drying time on all is excellent, very quick. China Glaze used to dry very slowly for me but their formula has improved a lot over the years.

Are all the colors unique? No, not really. Red cremes, red shimmer, gold and silver foil, blackened purple creme... all quite common shades. However, all the colors are nice, all the colors are pretty to look at and they all seem to go well together in the collection. None of them are ugly! Yay! I think it's a very appropriate Holiday-themed collection with a few unexpected surprises thrown in. I approve. The greens are especially gorgeous.

These are available online already and they should be in stores sometime in November- individially and also packaged as really cute gift sets.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Nicole by OPI Shades To Crave Collection Holiday 2010

Nicole's Holiday / Winter collection this year is really, really good. I never used to pay much attention to Nicole but lately they're making such amazing polishes that I can't ignore them! Now only if they would do something about that horrible bottle...




Call Me Classy. Only two colors in this collection that don't wow me and this is one of them. Not that it's bad, it's just very common. It's a very cool toned red or perhaps a very dark pink with some violet shimmer.




Fell From The Tree. Dude. Are you seeing this? Rich awesome amazing leafy green metallic! Not a foil, not really a frost, but a really nice metallic green shimmer. Very happy about this one!



Glitz and Glisten. Sheer fuchsia-purple glitter in a clear base. Very small delicate particles, not big chunky ones. This is three coats and there's a little visible nail line still. This is actually really similar to Nubar Petunia Sparkle, which was also gorgeous.





Grant My Wish. ...And stop making these wretched frosty granny mauves! This is a very frosty, silvery, shiny mauve pink. Moving on...




Midnight Snowfall. This is a confusing color. When I first wore it, it was night time and I saw it under artificial light and it was clearly purple. It was the most amazing vibrant blue-toned purple! But then when I saw it in the daylight it was totally blue. I'm not sure what color this actually is. Blue? Purple? Who knows. It's hot either way.



Mis-Magenta Me? I don't get this name. Is it 'Miss Me'? Where does the 'magenta' part come from? Mis-magenta? Anyway. This is a really pretty pink foil. I suppose I could call it magenta. Deep pink on a silver foil base.




Pitch-Black Glimmer. Amazing. I'm in awe of this one. You don't see many black glitters these days... I can't think of more than one or two current shades with black glitter. And for a color that is known for looking dull as glitter, this sure sparkles. It's great layered but I like it best alone. It's not pure black, though. It's larger black particles with some smaller, finer silver and holographic particles. Though I'm not sure if they're fully holo or just opal-iridescent, they're so small and subtle it's hard to tell.



Sensational Scarlet. Sensational is right. It's über-glitter. Red-pink tinted base, reddish glitter, iridescent glitter, all different sizes. This is a lot like Massini (now known as Studio M) Slamming Red but not as sparkly and iridescent. Same texture, too, like oatmeal.



Such A Go-Glitter. Medium sized round vibrant blue glitter and tiny silver and holo glitter in a clear base. This is a sheer glitter, great for layering, but can also be worn alone. This is three coats and you can see that it's still pretty sheer. Four coats would have been better, I think.



The Grape Debate. Very nice soft plum purple creme. Less blue toned in real life, as always. Actually looks purple on the nail, unlike the Ulta one I bought that looks like this but turns near-black on the nail.



Tip Of The Iceberg. Sheer silver glitter in a clear base. Nothing particularly noteworthy about this one. It's nice, but it's not unique. Good for layering. Nice and sparkly and shiny.



Twist Of Fate. Super dense gold plate glitter. Wow, I was not expecting it to look like this! I thought it would be another sheer layering glitter, but it isn't! It's really bold. Gives the most amazing gold-plated look on your nails. Really rich shade of gold too, it looks a lot better in real life.


This collection is a little glitter-rich, and glitters are nice for layering over other colors, so I want to show how they look layered:

One coat each over one coat of Illamsqua Boosh, with topcoat.
Left to right
Pitch Black Glimmer
Such A Go-Glitter
Twist Of Fate
Glitz and Glisten

One coat over one coat of Rescue Beauty Lounge Underwear, with topcoat.
Left to right
Glitz and Glisten
Twist of Fate
Such A Go-Glitter
Pitch Black Glimmer

And here's how a couple of them look over shades from the collection:

Glitz and Glisten over Mis-Magenta Me?


Twist Of Fate over Fell From The Tree.

The formula on these was varied but good. The non-glitters were smooth and pigmented. The glitters were good except for Sensational Scarlet which is super thick and if you're not into that sort of thing you may need to thin it before use. I did three coats of all just for my own sanity, some didn't need all three, some did. Drying time was nice and fast.


Overall, awesome collection. I flipped out when I saw it. It has black glitter!!!! What more could I ask for from a holiday collection? Seriously, who does black for holiday? That scores major points with me. Great glitters, great 'other' shades, only one real dud (the gross frosty mauve).

I've been seeing Nicole at more and more places lately- Meijer, Target, Ulta, Wal-Mart... So it's becoming easier to find. I think this collection may be Target exclusive since that's the only place I've seen it. I could be wrong! But so far, only Target seems to have this in stock.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Man Glaze Mayonnaise

It's been a long time in the making, but now it's finally here. ManGlaze has released their newest shade: Mayonnaise.

Over a year ago ManGlaze sent some of us a teaser picture of a white matte prototype topped with some silver glitter and it looked amazing. Now I can see it with my own eyes. I like.

ManGlaze Mayonnaise. It's a matte white- a nice clean matte white without yellow tones in it like actual mayonnaise would have. It has a slight pearlescence to it to keep it from looking like pure white-out.

He sent along a bottle of Hot Mess so I could duplicate that original white/glitter look:

One coat of Hot Mess over three coats of Mayonnaise.

And with topcoat, just because:

The formula on this was pretty good. If it were normal polish I'd probably say it was too thick, but since it's a matte it has a different set of standards for me. I didn't have any trouble with application- it was thick but not unmanageable. Since it's white it can get streaky and that's why I did three coats. As long as you have plenty of polish on the brush and never let the brush or nail get too dry while applying you won't have a problem. It was easier to apply than KO White which is the only matte white I can compare it to. Not as easy as OPI Alpine Snow matte, but that's basically pure white-out so, apples and oranges. The only complaint I have about the formula of Mayonnaise is that it takes a lot longer to dry than Fuggen Ugly or The Death Tar. I wasn't prepared for that and ruined my first manicure. Just give yourself a little extra time with this one.

Another thing that seems different about Mayonnaise compared to the other ManGlaze shades is that the bottle is tiny. I don't know if it's a mini or if this is the normal bottle size for this shade. I can't find any info on the size or volume of the bottle online to know for sure. I wasn't expecting such a petite bottle- no Costco industrial sized drum of Mayo here! EDIT: Mini is a mini, the one you'll purchase from the website will be normal sized.

In case you've never used a matte polish before, or maybe you're just having trouble with them, here's how you should apply mattes:

Apply basecoat and let it dry COMPLETELY. If it's not completely dry it will cause the polish to crack like those old Cover Girl crackle polishes. Though, you should try it at least once, cause it looks pretty cool.

Get a really big bead of polish on your brush- it will seem like too much, but trust me, you'll need it. Apply the polish in a gentle pushing motion, as if you were pushing the bead of polish down your nail instead of a painting motion. If you use Seche Vite topcoat, this is also the same method you'd use to apply that, if that helps you imagine the motion. Don't stop the brush, don't press down hard, don't go over the same spot twice. You want it to be one fluid motion, from cuticle to free edge, for each stroke you need to make to cover the nail. Aim to cover the whole nail in two to three brushstrokes keeping the brush wet at all times (you may need to add more polish to the brush between strokes).

It is very important not to press down too hard with the brush. It'll cause streaks and ridges. You want a very light touch and you want the brush to stay very wet. Try to use as few strokes as possible. This will give you a smooth, even, ridge-free matte application.

Overall, I'm rather impressed with Mayonnaise. Application was easier than I anticipated. It's not yellowed looking like KO White, but it's also not a stark white-out creme white. It's definitely wearable. It doesn't remind me so much of mayonnaise as it does of royal icing. But, royal icing doesn't sound as nasty as mayonnaise so I don't think that name would have stuck.

(This was sent to me for review.)