Color Club Blossoming Spring 2012 Collection - Swatches and Review

Today I have the Blossoming Collection to share with you. The set consists of 5 cremes inspired by Spring flowers and 1 Diamond Drops top coat.

Blue-Ming. Minty blue creme. This is one is very bright but not at all neon. I used one thin coat followed by a thicker coat. You may need three if you like them thin. Blue-ming dried at a high gloss without a topcoat. Really pretty but I didn't expect it in the collection. I thought it would be more of a powder blue. That doesn't take away from its beauty though. It reminds me of Aquadelic from the Electropop collection but its definitely more minty.

Sweetpea. Soft and feminine rosy purple/pink. I really like the application on this one. It also has a high gloss and reminds me of Splash of Grenadine.

Hydrangea Kiss. Dusty blue-purple creme. It reads more blue on me for some reason but I like it. It reminds of Lapis of Luxury but much prettier. I used 2 coats.

Lavendarling. Dusty purple creme. I used 2 coats here.

Blushing Rose. A lovely soft pink shade. This was the only one from the set that needed three coats but it was worth it.

Diamond Drops. Color Club described this as a silver ice flake polish. They're definitely flakies, but more of a holographic foil-like flake. The flakies reflect different colors when they are hit by light but my favorite effect was in the shade. I may try to matte them to see what happens.

I tried one coat of Diamond Drops over each color.

Spring is my favorite Season, so I always look forward to new collections this time of year. Color Club based their collection on flowers of the Season. To be honest, I'm not a flower expert, so I had to Google what a hydrangea is, then I realized they were flowers my childhood neighbor had in their backyard. I can say that they captured the pinks, purples and blues of the hydrangea, sweetpea and lavender flowers. I'm not sure of the inspiration for Blue-Ming, it seems to be the outlier in the group. Diamonds Drops is a pretty foil-like flakie which I preferred over the lighter colors in the set.

A few of the polishes dry at a high gloss, as if they are a few drops of clear away from being jellies. My favorites from the collection are Hydrangea Kiss and the Blue-Ming and Blushing Rose combinations with Diamond Drops. Since they are cremes, there are likely some duplicates out there. The only one I can think of for now is Sweetpea's similarity to Splash of Grenadine. Overall they have a good formula and applied well. Definitely worth considering if you don't have anything similar or if you love Spring colors.

The Blossoming Collection will be available in February 2012 at shopcolorclub.com. All Color Club products are made in the USA and are not tested in animals.

~Sent for review by PR~

Zoya Fleck Effects Collection 2012, Swatches and Review

Hello everyone! I'm still slightly under the weather. It's quite funny that I've tried so many things to make myself feel better and today the only thing that worked was painting my nails. Polish makes me happy. It just feels natural to me. Anyways, I wanted to take a moment and thank you all for your sweet comments. I'm still slightly behind on catching up with everything in my life but I hope to be on track soon!

Today I want to share the Zoya Fleck Effects Collection with you. This Collection consists of a green, blue and pink flecked topcoat that can be layered and applied over several colors to create a 3-D effect. I believe they look best over a black creme which is what I used below.

Maisie - Aqua flakie that flashes blue and green in a sheer turquoise base. This was my favorite from the collection. It makes my nails look like the Sea!

Opal - Green flakie in a sheer green base. It flashes a bright green and shifts to a blue.

Chloe - Sheer pink base with two types of flakes. One flashes red to orange. The other flashes green to blue, but my camera couldn't capture this one. It's quite beautiful on the nail.

Opal over Chloe - For fun I added a little Opal to Chloe. Love the look!

A closer view of the pretties.

I applied one coat of each Fleck to create the above looks. They all applied well and removed easily. The concentration of Flecks is what I would consider medium. They're not as thick as Essie's flakies and not as thin as FingerPaints. I like that you can layer the Flecks to create the look that you want. I think it gives you more control over the outcome when you can layer the polish to your own personal taste. Overall I think they're pretty Jazzy! My favorites from the set are Maisie and Chloe.

Zoya Flecks Collection can be purchased from Zoya.com

~Provided for Review~

FingerPaints Special Effects over Purple

Good morning lovelies! Here are a few swatches of Special Effects over purple. For the purple base I choose Zoya Hope. I like the look of Motley and Twisted the best.

And a few close ups.

Swatch of Zoya Hope, a medium purple-violet. I used 2 coats as the base.

And that's all for today. If you haven't checked out my swatches over black you can view them here. Happy Holidays!

Finger Paints Special Effects Collection Swatches and Review

You know you have an obsession when the Sally’s sales lady knows you and your husband, lol. Just when I swore I was finished nail polish shopping for the year, along comes these beautiful flakies!!! I was at home with the little ones and hubby was kind enough to pick these up for me while he was out (kudos to hubby). I’m so excited I got these last night! They are due for release in January at Sally’s Beauty Supply but the SA was kind enough to pull them from boxes. There are 5 polishes in the Special Effects Collection: Asylum, Twisted, Motley, Flashy and Flecked.

I only picked up 3 colors in an effort to avoid dupes. I choose Asylum, Twisted and Motley. Flashy looks like Hidden Treasures to me and Flecked I thought would look like Sinful Colors Green Ocean but boy was I wrong.

First up is Twisted – the best from the collection, IMO. Even though I don’t have the entire collection (haha). Twisted has several colors that pop when applied over black. I noticed red, blue, gold, orange and green. It’s a flakie lover’s dream! I believe the rainbow of flakies come from the duochrome of some of the flakes (red/gold and green/blue). Whatever the reason I’m in love with this one! This was the most concentrated of the 3 that I have, meaning, it seemed to have more flakes inside the clear base compared to the other two. This makes since because it appears to be a combination of flakies from the other polishes.

Asylum – makes a blue and red fireball on the nail when applied over black. This is my second favorite from the collection. It has less flakies inside the clear base than Twisted, but I still only used 1 coat over black to achieve this look. Asylum looks VERY similar to Edge of Glory according to pictures.

Motley – is beautiful but it’s my least favorite from the set. In the swatches I saw it looked blue but on the nail it’s actually blue and green and VERY similar to Sinful Colors Green Ocean. I actually have Green Ocean on the pinky finger in the swatch below. It’s not an exact duplicate but close. Green Ocean’s flakies are larger, brighter and includes fine glitter so bright that it looks like flakes, versus Motley’s blue/green duochrome flakes which are smaller but still beautiful. Both polishes create a bright blue/green shine on the nail and it’s difficult to tell them apart unless you look very closely.

Here are close-ups of the collection.

I was wrong about Flecked. It looks like Motley is almost a dupe to Sinful Colors Green Ocean.

Overall these flakies are the business!!! I’m totally impressed with the Special Effects line. I used 1 coat of each polish over Wet N' Wild Black Creme. Motley and Asylum may require a second coat if you want your nails to look saturated with flakies but I was happy with the effect of just 1 layer. The small FingerPaint's brush allows ease of application and the flakies lay down very nicely on the nail, unlike Green Ocean which sometimes has to be patted down in order to lay flat.

I’m not sure how close Asylum is to Deborah Lippmann’s Edge of Glory polish but it's a great alternative at a fraction of the price. The polishes will be on display beginning in January for $4.99. I copped mind for $4.49 with a Beauty Club Card, lol. I hope you enjoyed these swatches; they were so much fun to do! Now I swear I’m done polish shopping for the year. For real this time! Oh and if you want to see swatches of all 5 polishes visit The Nailphile's blog. She has gorgeous pictures of all 5!

P.S. I have NOT forgotten about the 10-day Nail Challenge. I’ve been busy preparing for the Holiday and entertaining my daughter. I’ll continue the Challenge very soon. I also have another giveaway coming up soon. Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are enjoying the Holiday Season!!!