Tag: China Glaze

Of Life and Lacquer > China Glaze

China Glaze Aroma Café

Posted on by Cynthia

I found a bunch of really old China Glaze polishes at a little hole in the wall beauty supply store that I go to often. I don’t like to spend too much time in there at a time because it’s so dusty that I feel like I need a shower afterwards. Eeeek! I like to peruse the section that I like to call “From the Mesozoic Era” because they have all kinds of crazy bottles that look like they are full of primordial ooze. They are all separated and most of them have long lost the original bottle lettering. This probably sounds like garbage to most people, but to me it is a chance to possibly find a treasure. Since I am a huge China Glaze fan, I was intrigued by these little bottles. Upon further research, it looks like this collection came out in the fall of 2002 and I was so excited to get something so old. This collection precedes my nail polish obsession like so many other awesome collections. It always makes me sad to know I missed out on the OMG collection.

These polishes came in a set of 6 colors and were supposed to have a coffee scent to them. I wasn’t expecting the scent to be there 10 years later–and it wasn’t! They did, however, smell “like a turd covered in burnt hair.” The smell was pretty disgusting and I don’t know if that’s just what happens sometimes when nail polish is super old…or maybe the coffee scent fermented to the smell of death. I also noticed that the formula was kind of spotty and then it went postal when I put a top coat on it as you will see below.

With Milk, Please! was streaky on me and when I applied a top coat, it became a beast. Look at those ripples!! What the heck is that? It’s like ridges. The color is a perfect café au lait.

 

Xpress-Ahh! is a super saturated dark coffee bean color. This one smells bad too, but I like the color better. It also reacted poorly to the top coat but it’s less evident because the color is so dark.

Will I wear these colors again? No. Do I regret purchasing them? NO WAY! I love having these old polishes. I guess you can say the collector in me has taken over. You can still find these on ebay and other independent nail places that never get rid of inventory.

Now I want some Starbucks…Caramel Macchiatos dance around in my head (nonfat and triple shot, of course!) Are you a coffee drinker? What is your coffee drink of choice?

China Glaze On Safari Part 2

Posted on by Cynthia

After swatching all these colors, I can’t, for the life of me, explain why I at first thought these polishes weren’t that interesting. I love all of them, and I’m so happy I got them so early. I love my nail polish place!

 

Kalahari Kiss is not a color that I thought I would like so much. I just love how creamy looking it is without being harsh. Is this considered a camel-type color? I just love it and it was not difficult to work with at all. I did find that I had to allow a couple of minutes in between coats or else I created some bald spots and streakiness.

 

This is another unexpected like. Desert Sun was probably the only really sheer kind of formula…or maybe just a little too watery. It wasn’t so watery that it flooded my cuticles or that it was unmanageable, but I could definitely see a lot of my nail after one coat. I did three thin coats of this one, and it looked perfect. I know it’s not a good description, but this makes me think of pumpkin cream cheese. Weird? Or maybe more orange graham crackers. Ok, I think I’m just hungry.

 

Adventure Red-y is not really…adventurous. Hardy-har-har! I don’t find anything that exciting or unique about this color except that the formula is dreamy. This could be a one coater, but I applied two out of habit.  If you already have plenty of reds and aren’t a hoarder collector like me, this is one you could definitely skip. Is there anything better than a shiny red creme?

 

Well, hello there Mrs. Vamp! I love fall nail polish collections precisely because we get so many beautiful, dark and vampy colors. Prey Tell is one of those really dark colors that almost looks black…almost. However, there is a very beautiful red/burgundy base that can be seen right away. I had a bit of a problems with this one only because I didn’t allow enough time between coats and you can clearly see where I created some bald spots. Otherwise, it’s just perfect and I love how this one looks on me.

 

And lastly, this is Call Of The Wild. Am I the only one who thought of Jack London’s book. Probably. This is a deep reddish chocolate brown. I love chocolate. I love this color too. I wish I had a Toblerone right now. Anyway, this one is a possible one coater as well. I don’t think it’s that interesting, but I don’t have too many brown polishes because they always remind me of poop so I usually pass them by.

Well, what do you think of the second half of this collection? Keep in mind that I am missing the two glitters and don’t plan on getting them. I have seen swatches of them layered over Kalahari Kiss and Desert Sun, and I have to admit that they do look pretty amazing. I just know that I don’t get much use out glitters so I won’t get them just to never use them more than once. I’ve heard that this collection is going to start showing up at Sally Beauty Supply in July so keep your eyes open. Snag some of these babies up because this collection is a big hit in my book.

Thanks for reading!

Gradient Attemp # 2

Posted on by Cynthia

The fact that my last gradient attempt turned out so crappy made me fixate on trying it again so here I am with another post. I feel like I’ve been on a roll lately when it comes to posting so I’m going to try to keep the wind in my sails. I used two China Glaze polishes: Bahamian Escape and Man Hunt. I’ve swatched Bahamian Escape before but I added some swatches to this post again because this polish is so darn pretty.

I used a different type of sponge this time so I do think it created a slightly different effect. I am still not happy with it, but this one looks slightly better than my first attempt so I will keep practicing until I’m a gradation fool.

And just for shits and giggles, here is my favorite psychotic Kelly moment from The Office:

I am looking forward to my salad from Cafe Rio–yum!–and catching up on my favorite blogs. I have tons of reading tonight! 🙂

Father’s Day & My First Gradient Attempt

Posted on by Cynthia

Today being Father’s Day, we took it upon ourselves to use that as an excuse to get together, watch movies and eat as if it were our last meal. My brother and sister-in-law came over and we just hung out all day with my parents. My other brother had to work so he missed out on the fun. Why does celebrating always have to involve being gluttons for my family? I don’t know why, but we ended up watching Rocky movies on Netflix…omg…how cheesy yet entertaining. Who doesn’t like an underdog movie anyway?

Since I was wearing a purple top today, I decided to finally try a gradient nail look. I had seen the Nailasaurus’ tutorial linked on Nicole’s page so I went to check it out again before starting. Well, I am a gradient loser and I have never been able to do it properly so I was excited at the prospect of finally being able to do a decent gradient. It didn’t quite turn out the way I hoped. I used a foundation sponge and it seemed to soak up tons of the polish and not leave any on my nails. I even tried wetting the sponge in hopes that it wouldn’t absorb so much nail polish but that didn’t work either. I wondered if it would work better if I used a different kind of sponge so I tried it with a foamy sponge and that seemed to work slightly better. I am still not really happy with the way this looks because Sammy from The Nailasaurus makes it looks gorgeous and effortless and mine just looks…botched? Anyway, here are some pics. I used OPI Do You Lilac It? for the lighter color and China Glaze Grape Pop for the darker tip color.

And this is what I HOPED it would look like:

(Photo Source)

So what do you think? Maybe I just need a little more practice before it looks the way I want it to. Thank you Sammy for the awesome tutorial and thanks to Nicole for blogging about it!

Oh, I have a question for all of you nail polish addicts out there: Are you at all worried about the health risks of the chemicals in nail polish and acetone? I try not to use pure acetone too much, but non-acetone removers just don’t work. Are you concerned at all? I know for most people it’s not a big deal, but for those of us who blog and change our polish like we change shoes, I feel this is an important question. I sometimes wonder if the concerns are completely overblown and you’d have to basically drink acetone in order to get sick from it. Anyway, I’d like to hear what you think so share away!

China Glaze On Safari First Glimpse

Posted on by Cynthia

When the first promo images of this collection came out, I knew I would love it even if I am constantly disappointed by the disparity between promo images and the real-life polish. I already knew that I was going to pass on the 2 glitters in this collection so that left me with 10 polishes to choose from. I decided to get the first 5 that really caught my attention. I still want a couple more colors which I will most likely eventually purchase later on if become interested enough down the line.

Elephant Walk is a color that I liked a lot more once I got it on my nails. I could see that it was gray with some blue tones and some slight shimmer, but it just looked so much more interesting once I was wearing it. I don’t think I have anything quite like this so I’m loving it (in a un-mcdonald’s kind of way).

Jungle Queen is simply goygeous! It would have been perfect if the shimmer actually showed up on my nails. The only reason you can see a hint of the shimmer is because I had to use flash since it was so overcast today. I am pretty sure that I have seen a few people compare this to Chanel Paradoxal but since I don’t have it, I can’t really say. Dangit…this could have been my perfect color if it had more of that beautiful shimmer. I guess we can’t have it all.

I have been wearing tons of teals lately so Exotic Encounters is right up my alley. Despite having so many teals, I don’t think this one is a dupe for any colors that I currently own; it’s somewhat darker and smokier than most of the teals I usually wear. The formula was super opaque and easy to work with so no complaints from me!

Creamy, dark, shiny creme? Yes, please! Purr-fect Plum is a staple color that I am sure most people already have a dupe for. It’s one of those colors that always attracts me in a way that I forget that I already have similar shades. Oh, the price of being a nail polish hoarder. I did feel that the formula on this was runny city so I had to be super careful and apply thin coats because I did completely flood my cuticles on the first coat. I love you acetone!

SOPI Blue Grotto, I mean Essie Mesmerize, I mean OPI Dating A Royal…err…you know what I mean. This is Man Hunt and yes it is a very pretty blue, but it’s really really overdone. The formula on this one was Raging Waters watery as well so I’m not that impressed.

Have you been able to spot any polishes from this collection yet? Is there a color you’re drying to try? Let me know what you think of these colors. Thanks for stopping by.

Polka Polka Polka

Posted on by Cynthia

I love John Candy and when I started taking pictures of this mani, I instantly thought about this scene in Home Alone. I remember that my dad took my brother and I to watch Home Alone when I was 11 years old, and I thought it was one of the greatest movies ever made. It has become a Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition to watch this along with It’s A Wonderful Life. I think it’s so amazing how things will stick in your mind from your childhood, and they will always bring warm memories. Sorry for the crappy video quality but it’s the only one I could find on youtube that wasn’t super long.

As soon as I wrote in my previous post that I was going to take advantage of the lovely sunglight, it immediately became overcast. Normally I would have had at least 2 hours of useable sunlight, but it didn’t quite work out. I was forced to take pictures inside with artificial light. Poo.

I ended up using one of the new polishes I purchased today: Essie Mint Candy Apple. How gorgeous is this color? Besides falling in love with the color, I couldn’t be happier with the formula. It flowed like butta. I used China Glaze White Out as well. It’s a color that I don’t use often, but I like the formula and opacity.

 

I really like how this manicure turned out. It’s so fresh and spring inspired.

What do you have going on this weekend? Anything fun?

Vintage China Glaze

Posted on by Cynthia

Because I’ve been feeling like freaking shit I went out to get my mind off things and of course I ended up going to one of my nail places to check out some of the old nail polishes I had seen on another trip. I really feel that at this point, I am a nail polish collector so I get excited when I see old stuff. I was wondering if these nail polishes would even be useable without adding some thinner, but I honestly didn’t care because I just wanted them for the bottles.

Here are the two that I picked up:

  

  

  

I love how weird these bottles look compared to the current China Glaze bottles. I think these collections are around 10 years old and when I opened up the bottles, they kind of smelled like death.

Aquadelic Stars

Posted on by Cynthia

My nail polish guy picked up Aquadelic and asked me: “Why do you want this one? It’s like For Audrey and I know you have that one already.” Pffft! Ok, Mr. Nguyen, you do not know your nail polish as well as I thought you did. Aquadelic is NOT a For Audrey dupe. Aquadelic is definitely greener than For Audrey. Yeah, they’re “close” but are different enough that I gladly purchased it.

Aquadelic is one of the few colors from the Electropop Collection that I didn’t purchase right when the collection came out. At first, I had a hard time finding it in stock and then I just forgot about it. When I saw it today, I knew it had to me mine. Muawhahahahaha! I have to say that I found the formula to be a big pain in my big rear end. It dragged, created bald spots, felt goopy…everything I dread. I’m going to add a couple of drops of thinner and hopefully that will help for the next time I use this polish. I hate having to add thinner to a brand new bottle of polish but whatever; it is what it is.

 

I’ve been into stars a lot lately. Can ya tell?

Starry Night

Posted on by Cynthia

I’ve worn this color at least 4 times recently so I can definitely say that it’s one of my favorites. It’s just such a beautiful blue/green/teal with gold microshimmer. I am loving it.

 

This is the only picture that sorta came out of the star Konad pattern that I stamped over Custom Kicks. After I took pictures of the base color, the sun completely disappeared. So annoying. This is actually two different designs from plate M3 that I combined. (Get this plate Vienna!)

I’m not too wordy right now. I think I’m hungry but don’t know what I want to eat for dinner. I think I’ll make myself a tuna melt…that sounds yummy.

 

She Wore Blue Velvet

Posted on by Cynthia

 

Ok, so I know that this color isn’t really blue but more of a purple with some blue in it. However, I kept thinking of the song “Blue Velvet” while I was doing my nails. I also thought of Isabella Rossellini in all her masochistic glory in the movie of the same name. Like tangents much?

First Class Ticket is a purple shimmer dream. It doesn’t look very blue in real life and is definitely one of those dark vampy colors. In the sun, it really shines. There is some pink and blue shimmer hidden in that dark purple base. Oooohhhh so pretty!

 

And with a stamp. Tada!

 

Now I have to go buy a present for the baby shower I’m going to tomorrow. I don’t think my nails are baby shower appropriate so I’ll probably change them tomorrow. 🙁