Nubar Venetian Glass Collection Fall 2010

EDIT:  Sorry... have no idea how I managed to type "2008" up there... O_o

Finally.... Nubar's fall collection! I know, I'm probably the last person to post this... Sorry :( Not intentional! Just kept getting sidetracked by other things!

This collection is inspired by beautiful Venetian glass.


Arencia. Deep red-orange glass fleck shimmer. The flecks and particles seem very golden and have a little hint of a pink duochrome in this shade.



Bronzo. Soft rusty bronze glass fleck. Maybe another way to describe it would be dirty red-coral? I usually think of bronze being browner and not quite as red, this might be more copper-bronze.



Caramello. Oooh pretty. I think this is my favorite of the collection. Really rich sparkling caramel golden-brown. Orange tones. Reminds me of fall!


Oro. Very orangey-yellowy gold glass fleck shimmer.



Rosso. Medium red glass fleck shimmer.


Vaso. Light lilac purple glass fleck shimmer. This one has a soft silvery look to it. Purple-silver fusion.



Verde. Smoky blackened blue-green and gold shimmer fusion. Not as sparkly as the other shades. Similar to Zoya Edyta, but Verde appears to have stronger green tones to me.



Vino. My second favorite! Rich burgundy wine with a slight hint of brown. The glass fleck pearls in this have a pink duochrome like the ones in Arencia!

The formula on these was good! A little on the thick side but very opaque. I didn't have any application issues. Nubar's formula is pretty consistent and I think it's usually consistently good. The only issue I had with these wasn't related to application- some of them dry quite dull- which really is a non-issue because I never skip topcoat, but I did need to use topcoat in my pictures and thought it was worth mentioning.


I'm torn on this collection. On one hand, I love the super pretty glass fleck finish. On the other hand, I feel like there's no variety. It seems like nearly all the colors are orange, gold, red or a variation on those colors. When I think of Venetian glass (or Murano glass) I think of bold bright colors in patterns. I think of swirling veins of gold, orange, yellow and brown glitter encased in glass... but I also think of really rich blue and yellow and orange! I think this collection is missing that typical Venetian glass blue. And I'd just really like a glass fleck Nubar blue. :)

Despite the lack of variety in shades, these do make me think of Venetian glass and the colors are pretty nice though some of them do appear kinda dull and not as sparkly, like Vaso and Verde. I think they're just too opaque and dense and it drowns the shimmer because it's so packed together. You don't hear me say this often but I wish they were more sheer! I think they would sparkle more that way. Think of the Milani Molten Metal collection- sheer but super sparkly.

Lots of glass-fleck style polishes coming out this year! Interesting!

(These were sent to me for review)

China Glaze Vintage Vixen Fall 2010

Finally had a few hours of sunlight. This has been a weird spring. It feels like it went from winter straight to summer for a week and now it's October.... But it's actually May....

Okay. Here goes.


Bogie. Eggplant frost. More of a metallic than a scary frost. Really rich beautiful color. A little vampy, a little sparkly, a little smoky.


Classic Camel. This color is a light golden straw color in some lights and a spicy mustard color in other lights. It has noticeable gold shimmer. It's the type of color that seems like a work appropriate nude shade but it is unique and unusual and very interesting. It reminds me of a more wearable version of Street Wear Dijon. Would look great on darker skintones- I'd love to see this on someone deeper-toned than me.


Emerald Fitzgerald. Sweeeeeeeet. This is a dark blue-green frost. Emerald. Teal? Whatever shade it is, it's blue tinged. This is another one of those little bit smoky colors. Maybe I'll call it... smoky peacock.

First Class Ticket. Can you guess what I'm going to say? I'll say it anyway. This is a purple polish- purple doesn't photograph well- it's less blue in real life. Dark vampy purple that's still obviously purple and not black looking. It's a 'frost' but really it's more metallic shimmer. No icky brushstrokey silvery aging frosty-frost.

Foxy. You've got to be mine, all mine... Oooh... Foxy lady! Totally a foxy color. Autumn red with a little golden brown and a little burgundy. Lots of shimmer. Very cozy.



Goin' My Way? Good gravy do I ever love this color. It's bronzy-brown with gold shimmer and it's gorgeous. It reminds me of late September. It seems almost duochrome because the bronzy base and the gold shimmer are so reflective... It looks... liquid?


Hey Doll! This one reminds me of Sanna! :D This is a pinky-mauvey soft type of color with silver and champagne toned shimmer. Frost. But it's really shimmer.

Ingrid. Soft taupe-brown with gold shimmer. Another new take on that taupe polish trend. I'm not gonna complain- I love it! It looks like suede.


Jitterbug. Gunmetal-silver foil. A little blue, a little grey, a little sliver. Mostly silver. Super sparkly.

Midnight Mission. HOT!!!! Deep blue (but not too dark) with lots of metallic fleck glitter. It doesn't feel like the traditional particle glitter like, say, Dorothy Who has. It feels like very thin metallic flakes, like the kind foils are made of. Sparkle and drama. Perfect.

Riveter Rouge. Autumn red frost with lots and lots of silver microglitter. Teeny tiny glitter, and this one has the traditional glitter, not the thin flake kind like Midnight Mission. It has a tendency to look bumpy because of the glitter in the frost base, but the overall effect is very eye-catching. Sort of a distant cousin to Crystal Ball, just not as flashy.


Swing Baby. Very pretty champagne foil. The particles are a mixture of different colors- I see silver, gold, champagne and even some darker bronze looking ones. Tons of sparkle.


The formula on these was a little tricky. It has a little case of three-free syndrome. You know how that is- you think you've wiped all the excess polish off the brush and then all of a sudden a drip comes out of nowhere and floods your nail? Yeah, a bit like that. Not horrible or unmanageable like the early three-free formulas, but definitely has that runny-yet-thick thing happening. Application itself was fine once I got the hang of the formula. I did two coats in all these pictures so you can see that the opacity on these is great. The dry time is on the long side.


Overall, I think this collection is perfect for fall. These colors all scream fall to me, and everyone knows fall is my favorite... soooo... It's no great leap of the imagination to figure out that I LOVE THESE! Even the reds. They're so sparkly and velvety and vintage-sexy. I don't know if I can even pick a favorite, I like every single one. I think I might wear Goin' My Way, Midnight Mission, Ingrid, Emerald Fitzgerald, Bogie and Jitterbug the most often... But yeah. I like them all. Good job China Glaze!

When I hear the word 'frost' I shudder. You know how I feel about frosts. I know that I'm definitely not the only one, either. So I was a little worried about these until I saw them. I am extremely relieved that they're not that kind of frost. That would have been a huge bummer.

(The skittle swatches are here in case you wanted to compare the sunlight swatches to indoor light.)

(These were sent to me for review.)