#TBT: My Favorite Black Label OPIs Part 3

I'm really loving getting to reminisce about days gone by with these vintage polishes my friends. It's Throwback Thursday time again and I have two more colors to share with you to continue the series me and Karen the manigeek from beautygeeks are doing on our 10 favorite black label OPIs. If this is the first time you're reading, you can see Part 1 and Part 2 and learn what the heck I mean when when I say "black label" :)

Hoodoo Voodoo?! is from the Winter Resort collection for the Fall/Winter of 1995, a true old school find. In fact, it's the oldest one I've shown you so far! This was a great collection but this is the only shade from the collection I have. I'm always looking for Black Magic Mountain and Copper Mountain Copper though ;) Hoodoo is a pinky raspberry crème. This practically applied itself, it was so opaque and smooth! This is two coats. It was actually re-released a few years ago with the new "green" formula so you might be able to find it relatively easily.

Sugarplum Yum is from the 2002 Victorian Holiday collection. It's a pale muted silvery purple duochrome shimmer that flashes pink. Super gorgeous and kind of a chameleon, the diverse looks this throws out in different lighting is really cool. It is semi-sheer so I needed at least three coats to cover my nail line. You could probably also layer it over a dark color for another look. This also has a sister polish in a glitter topper, but I haven't found that one yet.

Have you seen or heard of these two polishes? It's so fun to kinda jump back in time and sport something that was so popular in the past on my nails today! Karen's third post is located at HERE, please go check out her two favorites for this week! She really is amazeballs and I adore her nails! And check out her first and second post if you haven't already :D

Muah!

❤ Kellie

China Glaze Summer 2015 Electric Nights Collection Swatches & Review

Hey you! Thanks for joining me today for some polish lovin! Today I have the China Glaze Electric Nights collection for Summer 2015 to show you. It's a twelve shade collection with 9 neon crèmes and 3 neon glitters. This is a super hawt bunch of colors and I can honestly say I love every polish! A little disclaimer, neon shades are very hard to photograph completely accurately so please know that there may be slight color differences versus seeing them in real life. They all dry with a full to slight satin finish so I recommend using a top coat.

Press Sample

First is Red-y to Rave, a bright reddish orange neon crème. This one is bound to be uber popular, it's reminiscent of a redder, darker cousin of best selling China Glaze shade ever, Flip Flop Fantasy. This had a great formula, I used two coats.

Daisy Know My Name? is a super bright highlighter yellow. It's not bad considering most yellow polishes have crappy formulas, but this one took three coats to even out streaks. You could also layer one or two coats over a white base and get a brighter result. I prefer not to use "undies" though, so here it is by itself and I'm happy with the opacity!

Next up is Violet-Vibes, a berry magenta-y purple. Purple is not really my favorite color, but I like this a lot. This was a little thick and slightly streaky, I needed three coats to even it out.

Here is DJ Blue My Mind, a bright medium azure blue crème. I've heard some people had staining with this one but I didn't have an issue, but just be cautious and maybe double up on your base coat. This had a fabulous formula, two coats.

Home Sweet House Music is a hot neon orange. This one had kind of a more difficult formula, like the yellow, but it still wasn't terrible by any means. This one is a little darker in real life than I could capture in a photo, neons freak out my camera! This is three coats. I've heard using a white base with this one makes it brighter.

Next we have PLUR-ple, a cool, deeper but still bright purple shade. It's more of a royal purple than Violet-Vibes. I had to look up "PLUR" because I didn't understand the name of this and apparently it stands for "Peace Love Unity Respect", a mantra of sorts for the rave/electronica music scene. This is a beautiful color. It was a bit streaky so I used three coats.

UV Meant to Be is a lighter cyan blue than the other blue in this collection. I wouldn't say it's completely a neon, but it's very bright. This is probably my second favorite in the bunch, so happy and fun! I used two coats. I've heard this is another one you have to watch for staining on, but I didn't have any.

Glow With the Flow is a warm neon pink. I loved how this looked on me, SO summery! It was a bit streaky on two coats, so I used three.

This is Treble Maker, which might be my favorite of the collection. It's a crazy neon bright green. I don't have anything close to this in my collection and I am head over heels for it! Two easy coats. I've also heard this one has stained for some people, but I didn't notice any.

Let the Beat Drop has neon matte glitters in a clear base. It's got hot pink, pale pink and orange glitters, which kinda tinted the base a bit pink. This was pretty base heavy, so I got a lot of bubbles, but it was easy to get a good amount of glitter on the nail which was nice. This is two coats over Red-y to Rave.

Point Me to the Party is a neon matte glitter mix of pink, blue, green, orange and purple. It is the funnest and you need it! It reminds me of a bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal. Same as the other glitter, it has a lot of clear base which can create thickness and bubbles, but has good glitter payoff on the nail. This is two coats over PLUR-ple.

Can I Get An Untz Untz is the last of the bunch, a neon matte glitter mix of green, blue and purple in a clear base. Same formula as the other glitters, I used two coats over UV Meant to Be. I love the name of this one and love hearing people say it haha.

These are available now at stores like Sally Beauty and Ulta. I am really happy with them all, China Glaze really hit a home run with these in my opinion. The formulas are pretty good for being so neon! And even though I have similar glitters in my collection from indie polish makers, it's cool to see a mainstream brand come out with something so on trend. What do you think of these? Are you neon-hungry like me??

See ya next time!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Color Club Poptastic 2015 Pastel Neons Collection Swatches & Review

What's going on friends? Today I wanted to show you the Color Club summer collection called Pastel Neons. Their summer collections are in a series called Poptastic and this is this year's version. There are seven pastel crèmes with a neon twist in the collection and they are absolutely perfect for the season! And they pair perfectly with a tan ;)

Press Sample

First is Diggin' the Dancing Queen, a warm orchidy pale purple. All of these have similar formulas, kinda thick with almost a crelly type of consistency that lends a little towards the streaky side. I used two thin coats to start and then one slightly heavier third coat to even them out.

Disco's Not Dead is a buttery pale yellow. For a yellow, this had a pretty good formula. It is the same as the others, as described above but a touch streakier. Thee coats here.

This is Feathered Hair Out to There, a nice pale girly pink. This is so lovely and a really classic type of pink. Same formula, three coats.

Under the Blacklight is a glowy greenish highlighter yellow crème. This is actually unique to my collection, I don't have anything like it. I thought it looked pretty great using only two coats, but looking at the photo now you can see on my ring finger on the side there's a little streakiness. Should've used three.

This powdery baby blue crème is Meet Me at the Rink. I really love this one, not a neon but definitely gorgeous. Three coats.

Hot-Hot-Hot Pants is a stunning pale peachy coral crème. This is like a super blanched version of China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, like a sophisticated older sister. Three coats.

Last is 'Til the Record Stops, a cool toned bright pale green. I love green and this is a really fabulous shade of it. This is three coats, same formula as the others.

These are available on the Color Club website for $8.50 each. I know they are also stocked at some e-tailers like Amazon and HB Beauty Bar (I have never ordered from HB but they are cheaper there). What do you think of these awesome pale neons? I think they are pretty perfect for both Spring and Summer, they're so flippen fun!

Have a great week!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Je t'aime! Je t'aime! Collection Swatches & Review

--UPDATED: Now including the two other colors from the collection!--

Good morning! It's Rescue Beauty Lounge time yet again! They have a new collection out inspired by Parisian farmers markets called Je t'aime! Je t'aime! (I love you! I love you!). Be sure to check out the official Rescue Beauty Lounge blog post to learn more about the inspiration behind the collection here. This is a six shade collection, but two of the shades are unfortunately not ready yet. However, RBL wanted to release these four now anyway. The other two will be out in mid April (I think). Let's check these pretties out shall we?

Press Sample

First up is Ah, Oui which translates to "ah, yes". It's a springy bright periwinkle jelly crème that I'm seriously gaga over. This is actually a bit more vibrant in real life, photos cannot do it justice. I have honestly been obsessing over periwinkles this spring and even though I have a few favorites, this might beat them all. It's so shiny and squishy looking, but has a great opaque formula. This is two coats.

Next is Bonne Journee, "good day". It's a cool medium pink rose metallic with tiny subtle bits of copper sparkle.This had a thin formula but was easy to apply. It does turn out a little brushstrokey. I used three coats for full opacity. This isn't a color I would choose for myself, even being a pink lover, but I ended up liking how it looked on the nail.

Here we have C'est Tout, or "that's all". This is a gunmetal grey/silver metallic with a hint of green and sparkly bits of pink, blue and gold. It really does look like liquid metal. This has a fabulous formula, you might be able to get it opaque in one coat, but I used two here. It's a little more brushstrokey than I care for, and I don't know if the color suits me particularly well.

This is Pardonne Moi, a chic way to say "excuse me". It's a gorgeous metallic indigo with purple flashing at the edges. In low light this looks very sleek and duochromey, but outside in full sun it transforms into a brilliant foily shimmer. A thin but manageable formula, this is three coats. The brushstrokes in this one appear to almost melt away when this dries, which I really liked.

You can see in the shade photo how smooth it appears in lower lights, and how the purple comes peeking out.

shade

--Below is the updated portion of the post--

This is Combien?, which means "How much?" - a saying I'm sure you'd definitely need while visiting Paris :) It's a beige gold glass flecky sugary shimmer metallic with hints of pink. RBL says this dries down to a matte finish but the finish doesn't make that super apparent. It's not really my favorite shade but it has a great formula, applies very easily. Two coats.

And last in the collection is Trois Oignons Rouges, meaning "three red onions". I personally detest onions with the fire of a thousand suns, but red onions are pretty gorgeous. This is a magenta purple jelly that dries to a rubbery satin-y finish. It was sort of streaky on the second coat but it evened out nicely on the third. I love this shade!

I wanted to show how it looked shiny, so this is it with a top coat. I might love it even more this way! You can still sort of see the whites of my free edge, but such is life with a jelly polish.

You can check out the other RBL bloggers' posts here: Peachy Polish, Manicurator, Fashion Polish, Makeup Withdrawal, NailsandNoms, WarmVanillaSugar1 and 2, The Beauty Look Book 1 and 2, Refined and Polished and Polish Police.

All the colors in the Je t'aime! Je t'aime! collection will be available for sale on Tuesday, April 28th on www.rescuebeauty.com for $20 each. What do you think of these two additions to the RBL family?

Au revoir!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

#TBT: My Favorite Black Label OPIs Part 2

Happy #ThrowbackThursday! Today I have my second installment of my favorite BLOPIs, you can check out my first post here, it also includes an explanation of what a "black label" OPI is in case you don't know. In a nutshell, it's a vintage OPI from before 2006. This is a collaboration series I'm doing with my friend Karen, aka manigeek from the beauty blog beautygeeks. She's blogging about her favorites at the same time, so be sure to check out her post too!

This is Japanese Rose Garden from the Far East collection which came out in 2000. It's a dusty light rose pink with a slightly frosty silvery pearl finish. This is actually a shade you can still buy today, it's in the core line. This one is a black label though, so it has some chemicals that the core collection doesn't have of course, and I love the formula. While there are some brushstrokes due to the finish, they are subtle and I think the end result is really pretty and just so classic. I don't remember where I picked this up from, I think I got it in a swap a long time ago.

Here is SRO (Standing Room Only) Silver, which I received as a gift from one of my polish besties a few years ago. It's from the Holiday on Broadway collection from 2003. This is a sheer-ish silver holographic polish. It's very thin and the chemicals make it nice and smelly. This is four coats. The fire of the holo really pops out in bright lights, which is why I love it. Well, that and it's one of the more harder-to-find OPI shades, which makes owning it kinda special :) I also love layering with this, it's gorgeous over dark colors.

You can see the two BLOPIs that Karen chose today on her blog HERE. I'm loving this series, how about you? Have you ever gotten a hard-to-find or exclusive polish that made your heart race? I definitely regret not getting into polish sooner, there were such treasures to be had!

Talk to you again soon :)

❤ Kellie

Cirque Colors The Metropolis Collection April 2015 Swatches & Review

Hey there! Today we have some new colors from Cirque Colors for April to add to their Metropolis collection! These are perfect for Spring and fit in with the rest of the great crèmes in the anthology. Let's take a look :)

Press Sample

Vigo is an "orchid pink", it's very smooth and shiny. I tend not to go for this type of shade in general, but they do look very pretty on the nail. This will probably be a really great pedicure color for me! Two easy coats.

Sunset Park is a sweet coral orangey crème. I actually had a little bit of streaking with this one unfortunately, but was able to level it off with three coats. I haven't heard of anyone else having issues with this one so it might've just been my application that day, who knows. Either way, it's a great shade for this time of year!

You can purchase these two shades and the rest of the Metropolis collection on their website www.cirquecolors.com for $13 each. What do you think of these lovely crèmes? I probably swoon over shimmers and glitters more often, but there is just something about a flawless, smooth crème that I just love!

Stay tuned for more pretties!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Confessions of a Nail Polish Addict Tag

I was tagged by my beautiful friend Zenorah in her latest YouTube video to do this tag :) I haven't done one in a loooong time so I figured why not!

Questions:

1. What color are you wearing right now? I'm wearing a new KBShimmer polish from her summer 2015 collection, What Are You Wading For?

#notd is @kbshimmer What Are You Wading For? from her new summer collection #kbshimmer #blue #holographic #prsample

A photo posted by @kelliegonzo on Apr 18, 2015 at 9:37am PDT

2. What nail product can't you live without? Definitely cuticle oil/balms/lotion. I absolutely DETEST the feeling of dry skin. Since I started using Bliss Kiss cuticle oil it's become my absolute staple product of all time, even though I still have a million other products I like to use haha :)

3.What is your favorite nail brand? That's a hard one, but it might be OPI to be honest. I know they are the most mainstream, and it might just be because I have more OPI than anything else, but 8 out of 10 times their formulas are good and I like the vast array of colors. That might be #basic but oh well ;)

4. What shape nail do you wear? I have a consistent square-to-squoval shape. I think it's the most flattering on me. I try to keep the sides a little softer than totally square though.

5. What's your go to Red, Pink & Neutral Nail Polish? Right now for red I'd say OPI Romantically Involved from the Fifty Shades of Grey collection, for pink I'll go with Rescue Beauty Lounge Oh Slap! from the #KDrama collection, and for neutral I have to pick Butter London All Hail the Queen.

6. Short or Long Nails? My nails vary all the time because I usually just let them grow until I get a break then chop them all down. I prefer a medium length on me, but I really don't mind short or long.

7. What nail polish colors are on your nail wishlist? Oh geez, we'd be here all day if I listed all of them! I have a pinterest board of my lemmings here.

8. When do you paint your nails, morning, afternoon or evening? I usually only have time during the week to paint in the evenings, but on the weekends I do swatch & photo sessions all day (weather permitting).

9. What's your top nail tip you swear by? Moisturize! Once you get in the habit, it's not really a big deal to apply cuticle oil or balm or lotion throughout the day. I swear my nail game has improved 1000% since I started consistently moisturizing my nails and hands.

10. What nail polish do you regret buying? Another one where we'd be here all day if I answered haha. I have a really humungous destash bag in my room right now.

11. Neon or Pastel? If I have to pick one, it would be neon but I love them both. Or a hybrid of neon pastel!

12. What's your favorite color right now, you wear all the time? Picture Polish Forget Me Not has been on my nails a LOT lately :)

If you'd like to do this tag, please do so and let me know so I can read your answers!

❤ Kellie

#TBT: My Favorite Black Label OPIs Part 1

It's #ThrowbackThursday time! I'm doing a nice little collaboration with one of my favorite Canadian nail gals, Karen aka manigeek from the beauty blog beautygeeks :) She does the nail posts on the blog and her sister Janine is the main beauty author. Her nails are incredible and I'm so jealous of her application skills. We both love older, vintage nail polish so we decided to cross-post our favorite "black label" OPIs in a few installments, hence the part 1 in the title.

A black label OPI is a polish from before mid-2006, when they still had the "Big 3" chemicals in their formula. The labels were changed from black to green lettering after the change. I believe only dibutyl phthalate was taken out first, then the others left later (source). Although the new OPIs from 2015 are back to black lettering, go figure. The older polishes do not have the pro-wide brush either, it's thinner and round. I think most of the formulas are much thinner too due the chemicals, but I actually love them because they all seemed to stay on the nails much longer. Bring back the stinky poisons! (Kidding...mostly.)

My first favorite BLOPI is At Your Quebec & Call from the 2004 Canadian collection (a little nod to Karen too, eh?). It is a metallic swampy olive green with sort of a gold shimmery duochrome. It looks like a blackened gold in certain lights and almost not green at all, which is crazy cool. This is stunning and such a perfect color to me. I can't remember exactly where I bought this from, might've been a blog sale or ebay haha, but I've had it for a long time and I am just head over heels.

This is Apricotcha Cheating from the 2003 Las Vegas collection. It's a soft peachy orange jelly crème, shiny and so spring-y. I had this polish on my wishlist for a long time before I found it, and when I did it was in a nail salon that did not want to sell it to me. I had to do some serious begging and pleading to get them to finally agree to let me purchase it haha, maybe because it was basically completely full, I don't know. But I am so glad I have it because I really love it. This is three coats.

Please check out Karen's post on her first two favorite black label OPIs HERE, seriously you'll fall in love with her nails! We are both doing 10 BLOPIs each, consequently there will be four more installments of this series so stay tuned next week for another #ThrowbackThursday! What do you think of these colors? Do you have any cool vintage polishes that you love?

We'll see ya soon!

❤ Kellie

Color Club Spring 2015 Shift Into Neutral Collection Swatches & Review

Greetings friends! I am doing really well today, in case you read my previous post about my sick kitty, he's doing much, much better! Yay for healthy fur babies! I have a collection from Color Club called Shift Into Neutral to show you today. It's a gathering of seven neutrals, that actually would be great for palette cleansers with all the neons that are coming out for this summer. I'll give you a hint now, I love them.

Press Sample

First is Barely There, a nudey beige crelly. Fabulous formula and opaque in two coats, which was surprising for this type of finish. This might be my new go-to nude shade!

Blank Canvas is a squishy white crelly. It's not stark white, more on the soft marshmallowy side. It's not streaky, surprisingly, but I did need three coats for complete opacity. You could do two if you don't mind your nail line showing. I didn't really need another white polish, but I ended up liking this a lot and I'm glad I have it.

This gal is Blush Crush, a milky, very pale pink crelly. This is more jelly-ish than the others, making it more sheer. It was still looking a little streaky on three coats and you can definitely see my nail line, but it was getting a little thick so I didn't do another coat. This isn't my favorite.

Next is Get a Mauve On It, a tan-ish muted mauve jelly crème. This is more of a brown toned mauve rather than a pink or purple like most I own. I think this is a great neutral. It reminds me of Zoya Bridgette but less pink. Great formula, great opacity, two coats.

Midnight Mulberry is a plummy dusty purple jelly crème. This is darker than I expected to see in a Spring collection, but it somehow fits in well. This also had a fabulous formula, I used two coats here.

And here we have New-tral, a soft dusty putty pink crème. This was a surprise favorite for me, a perfect girly fresh color. It's one of those pale shades that make me look really tan and ya gotta love that haha! Amazing coverage, almost a one coater. This is two. I can see myself wearing this a lot.

Last we have Sweet Mint, my second favorite of the collection. It's a soft pale warm mint green with some hidden icy shimmer. I love this and it's actually different than any other green mint that I have in my collection which is awesome. This is two coats.

These are available on the Color Club website for $8.50 each. I also know they are stocked at some e-tailers like Head2ToeBeauty and HB Beauty Bar (though I have never ordered from HB). I really enjoyed this collection, it's a great gathering of soft work appropriate colors and there is only one I would skip (Blush Crush). What do you think of these gorgeous soft neutrals?

Have a great day loves!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Sunny's Body Products Spring 2015 Box Review

Hi folks! Today I have a bath and body product review for you, specifically of the Sunny's Body Products Spring seasonal box. There are 10 products in the box, most of them are full size. The products have exclusive scents created for this season that are not sold regularly in her store. I heard about Sunny's brand back when she was a polish maker (365 Days of Color), but she has since decided to focus completely on her body products. My friend Jen the PolishAholic loves this brand and her reviews of the last few seasonal boxes pushed me over the edge to get this one.

A photo posted by @kelliegonzo on Apr 10, 2015 at 8:21pm PDT

First up is the Intensive Cuticle Therapy Oil in the scent Spring Rain, a "musky accord enhanced with a fresh floral bouquet of carnations, tiger lillies, alyssum, orchids, and roses, with hints of fresh greenery". I get a lot of the carnation from this and the greenery. I really like it. This is one of my favorite products she makes, it's so lush and feels like such a treat for my cuticles. It has an eye-dropper type applicator.

Next is the Cuticle Oil in the scent Sun Moon Stars described as "fresh green notes of clover and ivy followed by notes of jasmine, and vetiver. Bottom notes of green stem notes." I think the jasmine and ivy come out the most in this, it's nice but I don't love it. I like the feel of her cuticle oils, they have a roller ball applicator and sink in quickly.

Her All Over Body Balm is in the scent Rainbow, a "unique fragrance beginning with top notes of pear, green grapes, kiwi, raspberry and peach; followed by middle notes of jasmine and lily of the valley with a base note of white musk". It's super fruity with a touch of floral. This is a newer product from her store, you can use it on your elbows, heels, knees, or as a cuticle balm, or even a solid perfume. I quite enjoy it and will probably get this product in more scents.

The Lip Balm is scented like Honeysuckle Mandarin, "a fresh blend of sweet blooming honeysuckle and juicy ripe sour mandarins". I freaking love this scent, both honeysuckle and mandarin are some of my favorites, but unfortunately I don't care for the formula. It's very creamy but too waxy for me and tastes perfumey. I've tried one other lip balm from her in a different scent and it was the same so it wasn't a fluke. I'll stick with my Burt's Bees for my lip needs.

The Hand Butter is scented as Butterfly Flower, described as having fresh ozone notes, lily and sage, tones of cassis, sweet amber and crisp orange flower with a base of musk. That sounds pretty complex, but I mostly smell the ozone and sage. Very fresh and very "spring"! The consistency is super thick and imo best to use before bed as it takes a while to sink in.

Her Miracle Balm is called Chance, a "blend of citron, water hyacinth, jasmine, iris, teakwood, vetiver, patchouli, amber, and white musk". This is probably the lightest scent in the box, very crisp and airy. My second favorite, it's so pleasing! This is also a fabulous product, I think it's her most popular. It's a smooth and very moisturizing cuticle balm that really works.

The Sugar Scrub is in the scent April Showers, "fresh powder, light musk, and just a hint of fresh spring flowers of lavender, jasmine, and tulips". This smells like straight up laundry detergent to me. Not my favorite for sure. It's a new-to-me product from Sunny, I love scrubs and this one has a great formula.

Her Bath Whip has a Clean Crisp Air scent, described as "top notes of fresh clover and ivy. Middle notes of baby's breath, periwinkle, and lily of the valley. Base notes of ozony fresh notes". Unfortunately this is the scent I liked the least, the clover and lily is overpowering to me. I was looking forward to trying this product but I don't think I will be able to get past the scent on this, I'll probably pass it along.

The On the Go Hand Lotion has the scent Breezes and Sunshine, "top notes of blood orange blossoms and sea waves; followed by rose, and sitting on base notes of sea lily flowers and woody notes". From the worst to the best, this is absolutely my favorite of the box. I really love the combo of the florals with the soft citrus, it's so delicate and soft. This is another of my favorite products, an easily absorbed light lotion that moisturizes well. I have another one of these in my purse right now haha.

And last is the Triple Thick Body Cream with the scent Innocence, "top notes of powdery peony petals, romantic alyssum, jasmine, and fresh strawberries. Bottom notes of lily of the valley, Egyptian musk, and vanilla beans". This reminds me of a Lush product scent but I can't quite place which one. I wasn't sure I liked it at first, but after it sinks in the skin and dries down a bit I really liked it. I mostly smell the peony, musk, and vanilla. This is another new product to me, its consistency is in between the on the go lotion and the hand butter. I like it for my legs and feet. I will definitely be getting it in more scents.

I mentioned I have tried some of her products before, but it was cool to get to try so many at once and to be surprised by the scents so I'll probably continue to get the seasonal boxes. I purchased this from her website http://www.365daysofcolorpolishes.com/ for $34. I liked the majority of the scents and I like most of the products, so I would call it a win! Let me know what you think of these and if you have tried any of her products before.

Thanks for coming by today!

❤ Kellie