Some Color Club Winter Affair

Color Club is doing their holiday collection in full size bottles this year too (remember when they used to release the mini sets?), and this year the collection is called Winter Affair. I snatched some of them - five out of six, actually - and here is three-ish of them.

Glitter Wonderland, three coats. Red leaning purple shimmer with blue micro glitters (very micro). I can never resist a good purple shimmer, and this one is a rather nice one.

 

Ho-Ho-Holly, three coats. Green golden foil. I love these blingy green foils! Totally hot in every way. This is the kind of green that easily escapes the eye of the camera though, but the bottom photo, which was shot in lower light, depicts the color pretty accurately. It's warmer than it shows the fully lit pictures.

And as the sun disappeared and the rain started to pour, I went all in and added the flakie topcoat Snow-Flakes (sic).

It's the variety that changes from orange via yellow to green (and a little blue in extreme angles - if you can catch it). It's not as dense as Essie Shine of the Times, but gives a good amount of flakes in one coat. Also present in these two photos is a glitter from Wet n Wild's Spoiled line, called Show Me the Money, that just happened to stand in front of me, asking to be added. The smaller gold glitters on the surface is the Spoiled, which also has green glitters that don't really show up in the photos. Yeah, I know, I was a little eager.

And now on to what all of you are probably wondering right now, and that is how this lovely green foil compares to Color Club's holiday green from two years ago, Magic Elf.

Ho-Ho-Holly (to the left) is apparently a couple of shades darker, and the gold particles are more dense, so they are not that close at all. Both do run a little sheer though, and for my nail length, the third layer was needed.

I have two more fom this collection, and hopefully I'll feel like wearing them and blogging about them some day soon.

These products were purchased with own funds,

except Show Me the Money, which was a gift.

Swedish word of the day:
affär -noun affair
not to be confused with
affär -noun shop, store
I somehow prefer the latter.

Smokin' Smolder

Back with a full manicure of one of yesterday's Orlys. My first pick from the fall collection was Smolder. I love it - my camera hates it. Glowy shimmer like this freaks the autofocus out completely.

I think you're still able to see what this polish is all about, right? This is three coats - but I believe most of you will feel content at two. I mostly added the third layer because I wanted to see if the color would deepen, and I actually think it did. If you're into these vampy shimmers, you should try it out for yourself. Because this really is a fantastic red shimmer.

I don't know how these photos look on your screen, but the red color is on the cooler side, a little cooler than it looks on my monitor. And if you would like to know more precisely, we're now going to kill a few suspicions. Check below out.

About half of this collection seemed to be pretty much exactly what OPI is giving us simultaneously in their Germany collection, so I compared Smolder to the shimmery vampies Every Month Is Oktoberfest and German-icure by OPI. These shades still freak my camera out, but you can see that despite the fact that both Smolder and Oktoberfest have purple-ish bases, they are very different. German-icure by OPI is much more brown leaning than Smolder. All this will be very apparent in the next image:

Here you can clearly see that the bases are different. Oktoberfest is blurple, almost blue, Smolder have a red leaning plum purple base, and German-icure by OPI has a charcoal brownish base. If you magnify this paper swatch, it is also fairly obvious the shimmer is the same in all.

Of course this means I, personally, need them all. Kthanxbai.

Let's also take a brief look at some of the other suspected dupes. I'll be honest, these photos are not good. But hopefully you can pinpoint the differences.

First, Orly Flicker versus OPI Deutche You Want Me Baby. I thought these would be exact dupes. While they're close, they're not identical. The OPI is more red, a little deeper. I do believe the shimmer is the same, though.

Second, Orly Glow versus OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons. I thought these would be exact dupes also, but as it turns out, they're not, either. The OPI is warmer, more flesh toned, Glow is more beige, grey tinged. I like Glow better.

I hope I could satisfy your curiosity some, and maybe I'll return with better comp photos of Flicker and Glow as I wear them.

Swedish word of the day:
pyra -verb smolder
The Swedish word is kinda cute.

China Glaze I: Lasso My Heart

Theme week! Just when I thought the battle had been won by OPI, you voted China Glaze all the way to the top. And just to make this a little less predictable, you probably won't see many newly released China Glaze colors during this theme week. I'll begin with a shade from one of my favourite collections, which was released in 2008. From Rodeo Diva, I give you Lasso My Heart.

Look! Bleak, Swedish winter sun!



Three coats. Some of you would be content with only two, but ...you know. Me. This rosy color has a purple base, warmed up enough by the gold shimmer to knock it up to a slightly more pinkish hue. In some lights it's definitely purple, but in others it's almost ...grannylike. Rosy. A dark rose, sure, but still. This is what makes me hesitate if I really like this polish all that much, because, even though the color itself is stunning, I'm not sure it looks all that awesome on me.

My mind started to wander around in my stash, and I was trying to recall if I have anything else like Lasso My Heart. I don't, but here's a quick comparison to a couple of gold struck purple shades I have just to shed some light on its constitution.

In the absence of sun, how about some flash light? To the left is OPI Meet Me On the Star Ferry, and to the right is Peel Me a Gobi Grape from the same brand. Lasso My Heart of course in the middle. Not that any of these are all that close, but perhaps, if one's generous, one may conclude that Lasso My Heart is what you'd get if you crossed the two others. But that's being very forgiving.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first post of the China Glaze theme week - I hope to be back with more tomorrow!

Swedish words of the day:
mormor -noun [maternal] grandmother
and
farmor -noun [paternal] grandmother
Swedes try not to get them mixed up.

Readers' choice: A suspicious comparison...

OPI The Muppets are already on shelves pretty much around the world, but a late comparison can't hurt - this one requested by Fairy Lélie. Check it out to see how well founded Lélie's suspicions were...

Duplicates?

No? What, then?

At one coat each - same base color.

And at three coats for full opacity:


And side by side to clear out any questions:

Slight differences? Yes. But pretty much redundant ones? Yes.

To the left is Meep-Meep-Meep from The Muppets, and to the right is Let Me Entertain You from last year's Burlesque. So, the base color is identical, and the color shift of the particles are pretty much identical, but the particles of Meep-Meep-Meep are coarser, and a little more "plastic" - I personally don't think they qualify as classic glassfleck, but you may feel differently about this - while I tend to categorize the particles in Let Me Entertain You as more foil like. However, that's not really visible. What you can probably tell though, is that the coarser particles of Meep-Meep-Meep sits a bit more inside the polish, while the ones in Let Me Entertain You stays more on top.

If you're not a big collector of shades like these, you don't need both. Personally, if I'd go with just one of them, I'd pick Let Me Entertain You, as it is a bit more reflective and most of all: does not eat topcoat like Meep-Meep-Meep does.

Swedish word of the day:
tvilling -noun twin
I guess these are.

Readers' choice: comparisons!

Oh my! I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing, but I'll try to write down a somewhat coherent post anyway. Been working the night shift (11+ hours), and after that slept all day. And now I'm about to apologize for this way overdue post, too. I have gathered a few comparisons you have been asking for, and this is it.

First, PlatinumV asked me a long time ago to do a comparison of shimmers in the petrol spectrum. Well, I can only hope PlatinumV and I are on the same wavelength, because these are the colors I could come up with that "felt right" (yes!).


Check out the wheel, in shade, and in sun:

1. OPI Austin-tateous Turqouise
2. Essence Blue Ray
3. China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic
4. Misa Quirky Smile
5. CHI Hot Ring Illusion Around Saturn
6. LA Girl Metal Deep Sea Mica
7. Boots 17 Exquisite
8. NYX Jungle

Some are apparently more blue than others, and I brought in the OPI mostly for reference - I don't feel like it fits this bunch. Unfortunately it has been so long since this wheel was done that I don't remember if I was consistent throughout with the number of coats, or if I used to have in my head which ones needed more coating than the others... But I do know that the NYX is slightly jellyish and this is three coats, which is also the case with both the Boots 17 bottle, and the LA Girl, where the product is rather sheer.

I still hope this is what PlatinumV wanted to see!

Next, nihrida wants to know how Kiko 337 Viola Pervinca compares to H&M Blue My Mind.

In reverse order:

Yes, this photo is both out of focus and slightly weird in most senses, but I think you'll get the general idea!

jazzqueen64 asked how Ciaté Golden Globe compares to China Glaze Peace on Earth, and this is how:



Same color family for sure, there are some differences, as you can see. Since I'm a collector of this particular type of shade, I don't mind, but perhaps some of you will feel fulfilled owning only one.

I hope these were helpful in some kind of way, and now me and my sad excuse for a brain will retire for the evening. Don't forget you may at any time submit requests on swatches of specific shades, or comparisons! Just email, tweet or MUA PM me.

Swedish word of the day:
pepparkvarn -noun pepper mill
One is standing in front of me while I'm writing...

Some Depend fall swatches

This is my street today:

You get the picture - pun intended. I still felt like swatching some of the new Depends, because, frankly, I'm not sure they really need sunlight. Also, there practically isn't any in Depend's native country anyway, at least not during the season these were intended for.

Instead of showing them in number order, I'm posting them in the order they were swatched. You'll see I chose to swatch a specific group of this collection - those weird frosty ones, who all dry semi-matte.



259. Forest green shimmer. Thinner than I expected, so this is three coats. Expected not to like it very much, but in reality it does look kind of fierce. The finish isn't all that disturbing - if you can handle for example China Glaze Gussied Up Green, you can handle this. The few brush strokes aren't that apparent in an average situation.



262. Black frosty shimmer. Needed two coats. Dries pretty stroke free. Actually a rather nice black. Might come handy on a really gothic day.


253. Mauve sort of frosty purple. I can't decide whether this color is very granny-like or if it's kind of cool. Not cool is the formula. While the green was thinner than expected, the black was good, this one is trouble. It's too thick and doesn't level out, so I still ended up using three coats and it's still uneven, which you can tell from these photos.


253. Greige, edgy nude sort of color. Here's a twist: this one is fairly thin in pigmentation, but is still troublesome to apply. You can tell it's uneven. Maybe had I allowed a wider time frame for drying, it could have ended up better. If you intend to do a thin coat, the polish won't distribute all over the nail, and if you then try a little more product on the brush, it just becomes thick where you land it, still distribute unevenly, and may even end up bubbling a bit. I think I'll try it again though, because this is pretty much as "nude" as I go, and also, it has almost killed my lemming for Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge. Maybe not that close in color or finish, but enough to make a decent substitute for me.

Now, what I'm wondering is if Depend really intended these to dry so un-glossy. From the previous two collections or so, this kind of shimmer has been more or less present, and they always dry like this when Depend makes them. If it's not intended, I don't know what they're up to, but if so, I think it's kind of cool. I like the finish of these even though it's closely reminiscent of a frost. But I will under no circumstances put a topcoat on! I fear that will make them look way less good. The black one would make a good color to slap on when one's in a hurry but the others may need some more drying time. Not that they dry that slow at all, but considered the sometimes troubled formula of the lighter ones.

As an addition, instead of doing a swatch in this pervertedly grey weather, I decided to do a quick comparison of the green creme. A swatch would probably just come out weird considered the lighting conditions, so here's something even worse: a flash lit wheel.

I took out two other Swedish colors that I could imagine would be in the same vein - greyed green creme, but not olive - namely H&M Hunt Me Down and IsaDora In the Army.

Flash from a farther distance: Hunt Me Down, 260, In the Army.

And closer, to overexpose the colors:

So, the Depend is way greener, less yellow or brown. I have no other ideas of what to compare it to, but apparently, it's not as terribly dupey as I first expected.

And to those of you waiting for additional Muppets, I want to wait for some sunbeams before swatching glitters. I think you'll get ore out of them, that way!

Swedish word of the day:
pannkaka -noun pancake
Just had some for dinner...