China Glaze Poinsettia

I haven't worn a red for some time so I chose China Glaze Poinsettia from the Let It Snow collection. Poinsettia is a gorgeous bright red jelly that fits in very well with the Christmas collection it's from.

I used Sally Hansen Tripe Strong for my base coat. Then I applied two coats of Poinsettia which applied like butter! Since it's a jelly after two coats there was still VNL but it actually didn't seem to bother me which is strange since I usually hate it. I finished off with a coat of Sally Hansen Mega Shine top coat.

Now for the photos. As I said there is definite VNL that you can see in the photos.

China Glaze Poinsettia in Artificial Light

China Glaze Poinsettia in Natural Light

China Glaze Poinsettia in the Shade

I can't believe it took me this long to try Poinsettia! Since I had almost forgot about it the jelly formula was a pleasant surprise! I actually can't wait to use this with one of the new Spoiled glitters that I received from Sarah :) Jelly sandwich here I come!

China Glaze Style Wars

Continuing my attempt to pretend it's Autumn I decided to go with an orange and somehow ended up with China Glaze Style Wars from the Kicks Collection. Style Wars is a vibrant orange jelly with a reddish tint to it.

A base coat of Revlon Calcium Gel Nail Hardener to start me off (why do I keep using this??). When I was applying my first coat of Style Wars all I kept thinking of was orange cordial because it was so thin and runny O_o. I followed it up with another two coats to try and get it as opaque as possible. I found the first coat of polish was the hardest to apply because it was so this so I had to paint slowly to control the brush and therefore the polish.

Now I tend to watch a movie while I paint my nails so I have a habit of paint a few nails and then pausing to watch the screen. But with this polish I discovered THIS IS A BAD IDEA!! I did my right hand and then moved onto my left but got distracted by the movie. Then when I got back to doing my left hand I discovered that the polish on my thumb on my right hand had pooled down the side of my nail because I had been holding it at an angle >.< I was one unhappy camper! So I learnt to paint my nails quickly and then lay them flat and keep them there!

After applying my final coat and leaving my hands nice and flat to dry I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Mega Shine for my top coat. Luckily since it is a jelly the mess I made when applying my first coat was easy to remove when cleaning up my manicure.

And pictures!

China Glaze Style Wars in Artificial Light

I'm sitting here looking at my nails in the artificial light and they're not this bright!

China Glaze Style Wars in Natural Light

China Glaze Style Wars in Natural Light

This is one elusive colour to capture! It shifts from a bright candy orange to a bright reddish orange depending on the sunlight.

China Glaze Style Wars in the Shade

Glorious jelly goodness!!! Lol! I really love this colour. I actually didn't realise it was a jelly when I bought it so I was quite surprised when I applied my first coat. As with most jellies there is still a VNL which I usually prefer not to have but I couldn't be bothered doing a fourth coat so late at night. Ooohhh I definitely see a jelly sandwich in my future :)

China Glaze Dorothy Who?

I wanted to change my manicure to something sparkly in preparation for the New Year. But first I had to remove Glittering Garland which wasn't exactly the smooth removal I had been hoping for. Due to the large amount of microglitter in the polish the removal was a bit more involved that usual. As I was attempting to remove the polish, the left-over microglitter made the surface feel like sandpaper and was determined not to come off. First I tried using Sally Hansen Polish Remover, which I usually use when konading as it doesn't leave a film on my plates, but it barely removed any of the polish. Determined I grabbed my Jessica Nail Polish Remover and tried that instead. Thankfully it was a success and, applying some pressure, Glittering Garland finally came off!

Thinking I wanted something as glittery and sparkly as possible I grabbed China Glaze's Dorothy Who? from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection. Dorothy Who? is an intense blue jelly packed with light blue and silver microglitter. To begin with I used Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat followed by two coats of Dorothy Who?. The first coat gives a transparent light blue jelly with microglitter but the second coat gives a vibrant opaque blue jelly base with plenty of microglitter. I had problems with the formula of this polish being on the watery side so I did relatively thin coats in an attempt to control the fallout. I found it frustrating because with the formula being watery I had to use less polish on the brush. Then when I would return with more polish to finish the nail the brush would pull the polish already on the nail as it was quickly drying. So it was a balancing act between working slowly to control the thin polish and working quickly before the polish began to dry. Let me tell you all this trouble was definitely worth it!

I sealed the manicure with a coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat to even out the microglitter and then used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Drops to speed dry it. Then once set I took the following photo's that night under artificial light.

 

China Glaze Dorothy Who? in Artificial Light

China Glaze Dorothy Who? in Artificial Light

See how perfectly Dorothy Who? translates onto the nails. Not to mention just look at all that mouth-watering glitter! 

The following day I took photo's outside in the blasting summer heat. In 38°C heat the sun was most definitely shining giving me the perfect opportunity to show case the beauty of Dorothy Who?.

 

China Glaze Dorothy Who? in Natural Light

 China Glaze Dorothy Who? in Natural Light

I bought Dorothy Who? from Nailetc as a single polish order. It took three weeks to get from the US to Australia via First Class Shipping. What I love about Nailetc is that with each order, even if you purchase only one polish like I did, they give you a code for a 10% discount off your next order!

I chose China Glaze Dorothy Who? because I wanted a sparkling sensation, a glitter-bomb, and that's exactly what I got! I am absolutely intoxicated with this colour! It's just so eye-catching and even as I write this I keep finding myself following the sparkling of my nails and stopping to admire them. Distracting but SO worth it! Along with Glittering Garland this has become one of my favourite polishes - shining blue, glittering silver - I ask you, what's not to love!

China Glaze Glittering Garland

Every since it arrived I've been dying to try China Glaze Glittering Garland from the Christmas Let It Snow Collection. Glittering Garland is a dark green jelly base with yellow/green toned shiny microglitter. When I first saw swatches of it I was reminded of China Glaze Emerald Sparkle which I don't yet have but has been high on my Must Have list.

I had been hoping to wear this one for Christmas but didn't get a chance to change my manicure and so I took the opportunity to try it on now. I applied my usual Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat and then two layers of Glittering Garland. It was opaque with one coat but I decided to put on two in the hopes of longer wear. A coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast topcoat and my favourite Sally Hansen Quick Dry Drops and my manicure was complete!

These are the photo's I took in artificial light that night after completing my manicure.

 

China Glaze Glittering Garland in Artificial Light

 China Glaze Glittering Garland in Artificial Light

Application was smooth and there was almost no clean up. My only complaint is that I found that once I added a topcoat the microglitter was somewhat muted. However, the full effect of the yellow/green microglitter still came through clearly in the sunlight - but not in my photo's!

The next photo's were take the next day in the natural light. Although the microglitter was shining through like crazy every time I tried to take a photo the glitter wouldn't photograph unless it was blurry.You can get an idea of what the microglitter looks like from the photo's in artificial light.

 

China Glaze Glittering Garland in Natural Light

China Glaze Glittering Garland in Natural Light

I am an absolute sucker for greens, add glitter and I'm a complete goner! China Glaze Glittering Garland is currently my favourite green, it is just so pretty with all that sparkling green and in the sunshine it is simply gorgeous! If you don't have this one yet in my opinion it is a definite must have.

China Glaze Velvet Bow

As Christmas is quickly approaching I thought it was time I started picking Christmas colours for my nails. Since I recently placed an order with head2toebeauty as a pre-Christmas treat for myself I decided to go with Velvet Bow from China Glaze's Let It Snow Collection their Christmas release. I used head2toebeauty's 5% saving coupon DEC05 which is valid until 31/12/2011 for anyone interested!

I just have to say how happy I was with my order. I ordered almost forty polishes and they were packaged in sets of 3 in China Glaze boxes with a few bits packaging material inside each box.

 

Then all the boxes were bubble-wrapped together and placed in a shipping box surrounded by more of that packaging material. I had read from others who had ordered from head2toebeauty that they had nail polishes arrive broken (which were later replaced when the customer emailed them) but I am overjoyed that all of mine arrived in perfect condition. So not only were they packaged beautifully but my packaged arrived about 9 days after placing my order! Traveling from the US to Australia, that's pretty impressive, considering the usual snail pace for mail.
 

Anyway now that I've finished gushing over my order on to the nail polish!I used Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat, my go-to base coat since I'm so impatient and it dries so quickly that I can start painting my nails in no time. I applied two coats of Velvet Bow, left it to dry then applied a top coat of Seche Vite Top Coat. As I'm impatient and one of those people who the moment they finish painting their nails manages to knock them against everything I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Speed Dry Drops to quickly set my manicure. I am absolutely in love with these drops! Not only does my nail polish dry extremely quickly but within minutes I don't have to worry about denting or scraping my nail polish as the surface has dried. Thankfully these drops don't seem to cause shrinkage from the tips of my nails like other dry drops do. I took the pictures the next day and unfortunately it's been rather overcast so this was the best lighting I could get.

Velvet Bow is a dark wine jelly colour that I absolutely adore! I  must admit I have quite a fondness for these gorgeous burgundy colours and I had no problems with the application, the formula on this was great.

So that was China Glaze's Velvet Bow from their Let It Snow Collection, my first nail polish to start me off into the spirit of Christmas!