New stuff from ManGlaze

We've been hearing for a while now that ManGlaze was up to something... Creating new products... hearing the whispers and rumors. The time is finally here to see some of the new stuff they've been working on, and I was fortunate enough to receive a few samples to review. So, here are ManGlaze's new creations!
Hot Mess matte glitter topcoat, Matte-Astrophe matte topcoat, Matte is Murder. ManGlaze always has excellent artwork on their bottles- these feature work by Joe Simko and Jason atomic. You can click these for a closeup.


Hot Mess. Matte silver glitter. This is a really dense silver glitter that dries completely matte. You can use it as a topcoat to add glitter and mattify, or wear it alone as I'm doing here. Matte glitter is one of my favorite looks in the universe, there's just something about it... It looks like frozen metal platelets or something. Like stones under a layer of ice?


Matte Is Murder. Matte black shimmer. This replaces the original Matte Black / The Death Tar. The Death Tar is now discontinued. Matte Is Murder is really pretty similar, but it seems a touch blacker in matte form, a more visible rainbow shimmer and a slightly more matte finish than the original. It's also vegan.


And... the obligatory topcoat shots!


Hot Mess with topcoat. As you can see, this is an extremely sparkly glitter. Like a little disco ball on each nail. And, as an added bonus, it's very very smooth. Glitters usually leave a bit of grittiness on the nail, and this really doesn't, even without topcoat. Something about the matte finish makes all the glitter particles lie completely flat on the nail.

Matte is Murder with topcoat and Hot Mess matte accent. Hot Mess looks really cool over matte black... it's so dense that you can only see a bit of the black through the silver, which kinda gives it an overall grey look. And the Matte Is Murder with topcoat? Gorgeous. It completely transforms with shiny topcoat... From a badass matte asphalt black to a deep glossy black filled with tons of rainbow sparkles. There is a lot of holographic/rainbow shimmer in here. Click the picture to see it up close. It reminds me of Bloom Mena once there's topcoat on it.

I didn't get a chance to use Matte-Astrophe in these pictures because... well.. the polishes are matte to begin with. But, I did use it for a manicure later that day, so I got a chance to test drive the formula.

Matte-Astrophe is a matte topcoat that can be used either to restore the matte finish on your ManGlaze or other matte finish polishes, or to mattify a glossy color. I used it on top of Sally Hansen Burnt Sienna and it was amazing. Burnt Sienna is kind of a golden-olive-brassy type shade, so when the Matte-Astrophe was applied it looked like antique metal, old brass or even a frosted glass Christmas ornament. (I'll get pictures soon, as well as include this in my Matte Topcoat review.) The one tricky part about Matte-Astrophe is that is *must* be used on dry polish. If the polish is wet -at all, even just a little!- it will cause a crackle effect. This can be used to your advantage, actually... It looks pretty cool when done intentionally. My topcoat crackled on my ring fingers, somehow my polish wasn't quite as dry as I thought it was. The effect it gives is of little rivers of glossy color breaking through a matte surface- kind of how lava looks when the molten red rock shows through the cracked black top. I enjoy it and I plan to experiment a lot more with it.

The formula on all of these is on par with the rest of the ManGlaze line. Perfect. Smooth, opaque, dries extremely fast. I did two coats of each of these colors, you might be able to get away with one if you are more careful in your application. These don't dry while you're applying them so they're extremely forgiving with sloppy application. I didn't have a single problem- the polish went where it was supposed to and brushes fit my nails perfectly. An interesting feature of these particular bottles is that they click closed. When you've closed the bottle tightly enough, you'll hear and feel a little click. I've never experienced that before on a polish bottle, so I thought it was worth mentioning! EDIT: I've just received word from ManGlaze that the clicking isn't an intentional feature- mine might be a fluke! So if yours don't click, don't try to force it :)

The price has gone up quite a bit for the topcoats- Matte-Astrophe and Hot Mess are $13.13. Ha! Love it. (Not the price increase, cause that's a bummer, but the fact that they're $13.13) Matte Is Murder is still $6.66.

Also worth noting: These are a limited run and there are fewer than 1500 bottles available of each. They are numbered as well, which I think is pretty cool. Gives a really personal touch to the product.


Overall, I love these as much as I've loved any ManGlaze product. Like I always mention in my ManGlaze reviews, I really appreciate their sense of humor, their awesome artwork and the fact that they're totally my style. The formula is good, the finish is good, the brushes and bottles are good, I have no complaints.

As far as I'm aware, ManGlaze can only be purchased online at ManGlaze.com and at a few select boutiques. (And while you're on Manglaze.com, check out the picture of Lajon Witherspoon wearing ManGlaze polish. Now that's a celebrity endorsement I can appreciate!)

Zoya Reverie Colors Revealed

Okay, here they are! (Left to right)

Happi: Pink blush meallic
Lana: Rich re metallic
Gwin: Sunny melon metallic
Adina: Duochrome violet metallic
Reece: Gilded rose metallic
Laney: Moonlit silver metallic

Release is January 2010


EDIT: I've just received a little more info on these that I thought would be worth sharing: The finish is supposed to have an iridescent "oil slick" like effect- a subtle duochrome-like shimmer! They're supposed to also be very wearable and flattering. I'll have swatches as soon as I have these in my hands.

Nail Polish Jewelry by GingerKittyDesigns

A few months ago I received one of the coolest gifts ever... One of a kind custom jewelry made from NAIL POLISH. Seriously. Nail polish jewelry. Since then I've been thinking a lot about other colors of polish I'd like to wear as jewelry, but these are the ones I have so far:




Here's my pendant made with China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. I think I wear this one the most often because it's really eye-catching with all that glitter.



Here's a custom piece made with a combination of China Glaze, Rimmel and OPI.


Another custom pendant, isn't it fascinating? Kinda looks like flames to me!


Third custom pendant, very cool swirling design on a gold metal finish.


And last but not least...


A ring made of Essie Starry Starry Night. Oooooooooooooo pretty.......

The pendants come in a variety of shapes, but mine are all the large circle shape on a silver metal base. The plain polish pendants come with a chain, but the custom ones do not. I switched the stock chain out of one of mine and put it on a different one and it looks great.

My pieces are pretty substantial- I believe the pendants are 1.5"? But I like large jewelry so that's perfect for me. I know that she makes smaller ones... but hey... Bigger is better, isn't it? :D

All of these pieces are from Ginger Kitty Designs on Etsy. She does do things other than nail polish jewelry, but here's the polish jewelry section of her Etsy store . Everything is made to order so there's about a one week turnaround time.

This is a cool gift idea for a polish lover. It's hard to buy polish for someone who already has a huge stash, so I'm sure they'd really be surprised if they were presented with a pair of earrings made of their favorite polish. My favorite thing is the ability to pick all your favorite colors and have them swirled together to create a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry.

Also... Tracey, proprietor of GingerKittyDesigns is graciously offering a discount code in her shop for my readers. Use "SCRANGIE" in the notes to seller at checkout to get 25% off of anything over $25 plus free shipping (and hey... how about that... the polish pendants are over $25!). The code will be valid until December 19th (which is the cutoff date for being able to receive your items in time for the holidays).

If any of you do end up ordering some custom pieces, please send me pictures! I'm dying to see everyone else's custom designs.

China Glaze Spring 2010 Up And Away Collection Preview!

I'm so excited I don't even know how to start this post. I just received my samples of China Glaze's upcoming spring collection, "Up & Away" and as soon as I saw them a wave of happiness swept over me! These are seriously gorgeous and the promo pic of these does not do them justice. They are utter creme perfection.


Flyin' High. This is kind of in between a bright sky blue and an aqua-looking teal. I'd say it's more blue- it's closer to Shower Together than it is to Custom Kicks. Whatever the exact shade is, it's gorgeous, glossy and so, so happy looking. The name "Flyin' High" makes me think of a line from my favorite Children of Bodom song to listen to when I'm sad... and this is so completely opposite of that song it makes me laugh. I know, random, right? I can't help that that's the first thing that popped into my head when I saw Flyin' High.


Four Leaf Clover. Super amazing awesome bright nearly-neon teal green creme. My picture is not really accurate to how this color actually looks. It is so bright and vibrant that it freaked out my camera. Seriously! My camera couldn't even focus on this, this one picture is the only shot that even remotely turned out! That is definitely a measure of how awesome this polish is. Picture it much more green, almost neon teal. Deeper with more pigment. You just have to see this one in person. It's... It's... I don't even have a word for it, it's so good... It's über, that's what it is. Green lovers, I'd call this a must have. Definitely.

Grape Pop. Bright medium candy purple creme. What a perfect purple. It's a little bit less blue-y than it looks in my picture, but not by too much. It leans on the side of blue-purple more than red-purple, but it's pretty close to center. This is one of the more unique purple cremes in my collection, the closest cousin to it would be Rescue Beauty Lounge Mismas.


Happy Go Lucky. Bright lemon yellow creme. Another winner. It's quite possibly the best yellow creme in my collection. It's the perfect shade of bright sunshine yellow for my skintone, and it goes on streak free and perfect in two coats. I can't say that about a lot of yellows. China Glaze must have been working overtime on their yellow formula, cause this is just about as good as it gets.

Heli-Yum. Bright deep pink creme. China Glaze calls this shade raspberry, and I'd say that's a pretty good description. It reminds me of raspberry sauce, maybe a little lighter than the actual stuff, more like a raspberry candy. Another super happy looking shade. This one has a jelly-like quality to it, with that kinda shiny-squishy look, but it's too dense and opaque for me to consider it a true jelly. Oh, and I love the name of this one. Hahaha!


High Hopes. Bright pinky-orangey coral creme. China Glaze calls this one Guava, but I'm not entirely sure what color guava is. I've eaten a guava before and it's kind of a rich pink color on the inside... I'm going to call it coral. Bright, bold coral. Very flattering.

Lemon Fizz. Pale lemon sorbet yellow. A pale yellow that doesn't make my hands look like death! Yay! This is very light but it's not exactly soft. It's crisp- it has a very fresh and... solid? bold? look. It has a little hint of honeydew green in it, and I think that sets it apart from a lot of the other pale yellows in my collection. Also applies like a dream, extremely rare for yellows, and pastel yellows especially.

Light As Air. Very light lavender creme. This one makes me think of really fancy petit-fours with little sugared violets on top. This is a really cool color. Like the others, it's a light shade but since it's so dense and stark and creamy it has a very bold look. It really stands out. Again, I'm pleased to find such a nice light lavender that doesn't make my hands look like death! Normally shades like this aren't great on my skintone, this one is different.

Peachy Keen. Light peach creme. Before you ask, I checked, it's not even close to MAC Seasonal Peach. This is pretty unique in my collection- I've never really thought about it before but I just don't have many peaches in my stash. How odd. Anyway, this is a touch paler in real life- a lot like the bottle color.


Re-Freshmint. Pale mint green. This is a really light shade of mint green, but not as light or as blue as Essie Mint Candy Apple. It is more yellow toned than blue toned and it is fabulous. Mint green shades seem to be huge right now, and I think that this is one of the nicer ones on my skintone.

Something Sweet. Soft light pink with a little bit of lilac. See, this one is such a contradiction! On one hand, it's soft, light, girly, delicate baby pink... But on the other hand it's stark, dense, bold mod 60's vintage pink that really seems anything but soft. It's kind of white-out creamy, but very easy to apply.

Sugar High. Nearly-neon candy pink. I think this is just about as bright as pink can get before it becomes a true neon. This is the only one that gave me a little trouble in application- it seemed a little sticky. If I would have let my coats dry a little longer in between, I probably wouldn't have had much of a problem, but hey, I'm impatient when it comes to my nails! This shade of pink makes me think of all the Barbie stuff I had as a kid. Remember how they used to come with a plastic hairbrush, and it was almost this exact shade of hot pink?


The formula on these was excellent. Outstanding, even. The key word here is 'pigment'. These are positively loaded with pigment and they are very thick. That's a good thing. That means one and two coat coverage. A lot of these shades did give me one coat coverage- Four Leaf Clover, Flyin' High, Grape Pop, Sugar High, but I did two coats of each. They didn't need more than two coats. Like I mentioned before, the consistency of these polishes is very thick, but it isn't runny like it used to be. These actually kinda reminded me of Rescue Beauty Lounge's creme formula- thick, smooth and pigmented. The drying time on these is slightly inconsistent, though- some dried very fast and some took about the same amount of time as usual. Maybe they do have a little neon in them.

Overall, I am incredibly impressed with this entire collection. China Glaze have really outdone themselves. Based on the promo picture, I could have gone either way with these- they looked really cute, but they also seemed to be 'normal' pastel cremes. I'm not much of a pastel wearer. And then I thought, "These are all cremes. They could be really boring." But these... these aren't wimpy, boring barely-noticeable pastel cremes. The super dense bold creme base in all of these makes the colors stand out as if you had applied them over white. I keep using the word 'bold' over and over again because that's all I can think of to describe the finish of these. Bold and dense and solid.

I love the overall theme of this collection as well. I mean... let's face it... A lot of us are pretty bummed out right now. The main theme China Glaze wanted to convey with this collection was happiness. The words that come to mind are happy, lighthearted, candy, fun, cheerful, whimsical, carefree... Up and away, lifting your mood, taking you away, there's even a bundle of brightly colored balloons on the picture. I really needed this collection! It honestly brought a smile to my face and I am really looking forward to wearing full manicures of each and every color included.

China Glaze did a great job on these. The finish is impeccable, the formula is improved, the colors are ridiculously happy and cheerful, and Four Leaf Clover should win some sort of award for being awesome.

I don't know the exact release date for this collection, but since it's a Spring collection, I'm going to guess late December or early January. If I do find out the actual release date, I'll update the post with that information.

Zoya Spring 2010 Teaser

Here's the first little peek at what Zoya has planned for next year... This collection is called Reverie:


All I know about this collection is that it's set for Spring 2010 and it'll be a set of six colors.

First impressions? I love the bright, sunny, hopeful look of this picture. The sun is rising and shining with bright colors. That seems pretty symbolic to me, and I really could use a giant dose of happiness right about now. Really looking forward to seeing the actual shades! Model seems to be wearing a metallic coral or pink.... hmm... We shall see!

'Good' Emerald Sparkle versus 'Bad' Emerald Sparkle

A *lot* of people have been asking me about the two different versions of Emerald Sparkle, and I totally didn't realize I actually had pictures of both.
Here's the 'good' Emerald Sparkle. This bottle happens to be the 2009 release, but it's identical to the original 2008 release. Note how it's bright green glitter in a very deep, dark vampy green jelly base.

Here's the 'bad' Emerald Sparkle. This is also from 2008, but after the original release. When it first came out, it was a limited edition and everyone went bananas over it and it sold out in... how long did it take? Days? Hours? Either way it sold out very quickly. Word from China Glaze was that there wouldn't be any more produced since it was limited edition for holiday. Then, a few weeks later, there was some new stock of Emerald Sparkle at the various etailers and beauty supplies and it looked like this. The glitter is the same color, but it's in kind of a murky medium bluey-green base. Not a deep green jelly like the original. The glitter in this one didn't look as sparkly either. For what it's worth, I haven't seen this version since I bought it in late 2008. I have purchased several bottles since then (gotta have backups, man!) and they've all been the 'good' version.

Eventually I'll dig out the bad bottle and the good bottles and do a side by side, but this set of two pictures speaks for itself. There are two versions of Emerald Sparkle in existence. There's only officially been one version, and the off batch was attributed to uneven batch mixing, or so I've heard.

Sometimes companies do release inconsistent batches, it's really not totally unheard of. The main one that comes to mind is the notorious OPI My Private Jet, of which I own two slightly different versions but have seen in person a third variation and have also seen pictures of at least one additional variation. I don't know why or how it happens- formula was slightly off during production? Pigments were discontinued? Who knows... But it's very odd, and sometimes a bit frustrating.

I swear I own two different versions of Ruby Pumps and Purple Panic as well. *cue Twilight Zone theme*

Oops... Barielle sale

I was totally disappointed by the lack of good Cyber Monday sales. So disappointed that I completely missed this email sitting in my inbox...

Until December 2nd, get 20% off your entire order at Barielle! Plus buy 2 get 1 free and free shipping over $50 as usual.

The email doesn't specify a code, so it might just apply automatically.

I don't have too many Barielle swatches (Fall 2009, Fall 2008 and Summer 2009) but you can take a look here if you need help.

The only other polish-related Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal I saw was Essie giving away a sheer pink polish on Friday and a 2oz lotion on Monday. lol. Better than nothing I guess!

EDIT: Holy crap, apparently Zoya had an awesome 'Green Friday' sale too.... I totally dropped the ball on that one. I guess that's what happens when I don't pay attention to my email or Twitter over a long Holiday week/weekend! Boo :(