China Glaze Holiday 2014 Twinkle Collection Swatches & Review

Good day to you! It's Friday so of course it's a good day ;) I want to show you the Holiday 2014 collection from China Glaze, called Twinkle. Think it's about time that I am posting these? Yeah me too, shush haha. This collection has twelve shades full of sparkle and sass and wintery goodness!

Press Sample

First is Define Good... which is a great name haha. This is a shiny ruby cranberryish red with luster shimmer. It has an incredibly opaque formula, it's thick but in a good way. This is two coats, however you could definitely get away with one.

Next we have Out Like A Light, a deep slightly muted grey crème. This is kind of a dark mud color, like deep grey clay mud. It's got an easy to use formula, thin but not overly so. It was opaque in one coat, I've shown you two here.

This guy is called December to Remember. It's a lighter wintery icy blue shimmer with pink microglimmers and foil flecks that turn it duochromey in lower lights. I couldn't get a great shade photo for you but my friend Jen caught some great ones, check out her post here. This is a tad brushstrokey. Two coats.

Speaking of brushstrokes, haha ;) here we have I'd Melt For You. It's a chrome silver that is pretty dope. It almost rivals OPI Push & Shove in it's chromeness, but it's not quite as smooth and reflective as that one. The brushstrokes aren't really that bad in person, don't be scared of it. If you apply it with a light floaty stroke, you'll have no issues. One coat!

This is Tip Your Hat, a medium red crème. This applied so easily and it was opaque in one coat. I used two here because I just do that with crèmes I guess. You might be saying, yawn another red, but c'mon. It's probably the most popular shade of polish in the world, and it is a holiday collection, of course there's a red in it. And as far as reds go, it's pretty great!

Here we have No Peeking!, a greyed icy grape frosty shimmer. This is definitely a frost, but if you are careful with application it looks more like a shimmer. It has similar application to Define Good... but it's thinner and a little easier. I used two coats, but it's opaque in one. Do I sound like a broken record? If so, that's a record I'd like to buy haha.

Meet Me Under The Stars is a black jelly with a slight blue tint filled with tiny silver and black glitters. This is SO pretty! It seriously does look like a sky filled with stars. Excellent formula and easy to use, not thick or gummy. Two coats.

This is a fun one, Chillin' With My Snow-mies! It has a clear base with different sizes of matte white hex glitters. It's like falling snow! Unfortunately there is a LOT of clear base, most likely to keep the glitter from sinking, but unfortunately that means fishing for glitter. I placed the glitter by dabbing it on with my brush, trying not to get so much base on my nail, but you can still see the bubbles where it got thick. I have to say though that I almost don't care because this turned out quite pretty haha. I used one "coat" over Define Good...

Here we have a bright blue micro glitter called Feeling Twinkly. I put it on top of December to Remember. It has great coverage for a microglitter, but I think it would be difficult to get opaque on its own. This is two coats. Dries a little satiny so use a topcoat for maximum shine.

This party animal is called Dancing & Prancing, a clear base filled with muted multicolored foily glitters. This is a nice change up from the usual rainbow glitter mixes we've seen before. Excellent glitter payoff in one coat, seen here over No Peeking!

Next is Pine-ing For Glitter, an emerald tealish green glitter. It has the same itty-bitty microglitters as Feeling Twinkly and also two sizes of hexes which gives it have more dimension. You get a good amount of glitter on with one coat, which I layered over Tip Your Hat.

And last we have De-Light, a light yellowy gold glitter mix in a clear base. It has holographic bar glitter in it too! Yay for this! It is totally a New Year's Eve type of glitter and I love it. Amazing and dense, this is only one coat over Out Like a Light.

I have to admit I wasn't super excited for this collection when I first saw it, but I am seriously impressed with all the great opaque formulas and fun glitters! I don't know if I've ever seen this many one-coaters in a China Glaze collection! My faves are No Peeking!, De-Light, and Meet Me Under the Stars. Tell me which are your favs! Did you pick any of these up? You might still be able to find these at your Sally Beauty Supply or Ulta stores, they may even be on clearance now.

Thanks for taking a trip back to the holidays with me today!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

SuperChic Lacquer Santa's Secret Sack Swatches & Review + Giveaway

Hi there! Today I am bringing some more "holiday" programming, the Santa's Secret Sack that was put together by SuperChic Lacquer for the 2014 holiday season. The sacks were filled with polishes from different indie brands from their holiday/winter 2014 collections. They sold out quickly but owner Jen had a few she wanted to send to bloggers/vloggers for review. I will show you the polishes I got in my bag and then you can enter to win a sack of your own!

Press Sample

First is Matters of the Heart by NailNation 3000. It's my first polish from this brand and it's awesome. It's a medium fuchsia pinky red linear holographic with an amazing formula! Opaque in one coat! I did two, which gave it a slightly deeper color.

This is Bound to the City Life by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer, another new brand to me. This is a midnight blue jelly filled with holographic microglitter. This was a little sheer for me, so I layered on three coats. I really like the end result, like a night sky full of stars!

Here is Caramel Swirl from Colores de Carol, a great indie brand by a fellow blogger. I've tried polishes from her before and they are excellent! This is a medium spicy caramel brown scattered holographic. This was slightly thick but not difficult to use. Two coats here.

And the last polish in my sack was Yuletide by Reverie Nail Lacquer, also a new brand to me. This could be a christmasy polish or a spring eastery type, it's got a grass green jelly base and a rainbow of glitters in multiple shapes and sizes. This one was quite thick. This is only two coats, and even though it didn't make the base opaque I stopped at two because it would've gotten even thicker. This is fun but it didn't really work for me.

My bag also contained a little mini bottle of SuperChic Lacquer's top coat Marvel Liquid Macro. I have gotten a full size bottle of this before and I really love it. It's glossy and fast drying and I've never gotten shrinkage with it. It also dries to a thinner consistency than a lot of quick dry top coats, which isn't really a positive or a negative to me, it might matter to you though so I had to mention it.

I think this is a great idea and so exciting! I haven't tried a lot of the indie brands that participated in contributing products to the sacks, so it was really fun seeing the random polishes that were in mine. Be sure to check out the brands' stores to see what they offer!

SuperChic Lacquer store | NailNation 3000 store | Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer store
Colores de Carol store | Reverie Nail Lacquer store

Now is the chance for you to win your own Santa's Secret Sack! Since you can't buy these anymore, it's great that she included a second sack for my readers! Remember, the winner will not receive the exact polishes that I did, these bags are filled randomly, but you are guaranteed to get a minimum "polish retail value" of $40.

Please enter using the widget below, all rules and regulations will be detailed in it so please read them, but in a nutshell:

- you must be 18 years of age or older
- international entries welcome

- open until February 8th 11:59 pm PST

a Rafflecopter giveaway If the Rafflecopter widget isn't working, click here to enter.

The full list of contributors: Above the Curve, Alchemy Lacquers, Blue­Eyed Girl Lacquer, Colores de Carol, Delush Polish, Dollish Polish, Ellagee, Jindie Nails, Love, Angeline, LynBDesigns, Makeup Monsters, Model City Polish, NailNation3000, Philly Loves Lacquer, Reverie Nail Lacquer, Sea Lore Polish, Sincerely Polish, Smitten Polish, Spellbound Nails, SuperChic Lacquer, Sweet Heart Polish, Wicked Nails. Other Trinkets & Surprises contributed by: Spectraflair4U, Crazy Sister Polish, Wonder Beauty Products & more!

Thanks for coming by today and good luck if you enter the giveaway!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Candy Lacquer Christmas Donner Swatch & Review

Hello to you dear friend! Today I have a really awesome polish to show you from indie brand Candy Lacquer. I love this brand and actually haven't bought anything from them in a while, but when I saw their special holiday glitters for 2014 I had to get one! Are you sick of me showing you holiday polishes in January? Well, sorry 'bout it cuz I have a few more on deck haha.

Christmas Donner is part of the Magical Reindeer collection, a 7 piece collection all full of intense glitter. Sadly this is not available in her shop right now but there are a couple with the same finish/glitter type just in different colors, so I figured it was still ok to show you. This one is a mix of gold/green "chameleon" glitters, dark red and super holographic gold glitters, a great combination. The glitter is very dense but it's easy to apply. This is two coats!

This was hard to photograph. It's like a billion times better in real life. So like I said, unfortunately this isn't available to purchase but you should still check out the other awesome polishes Candy Lacquer has to purchase because they're awesome. This one I purchased for $12, but her polish ranges from $7-12. She has an Etsy store and a Big Cartel store, not sure what the difference is, but I've ordered from both with no issue. What do you think of this glitter bomb? Have you ever tried Candy Lacquer?

Bye loves!

❤ Kellie

OPI Holiday 2014 Gwen Stefani Collection Swatches & Review

Hi there! I am happy to be showing you the holiday collection for 2014 from OPI, their second collaboration with Gwen Stefani. I tried to get these done before the actual holidays, but it's a huuuge collection and it just wasn't in the cards. I hope you still would like to see them though, because they are fab! This collection has a set of six reds, four unique and fun glitters, and eight rich festive shades. Let's see how they look!

Press Sample

This is a long post, so click below to see the individual swatches!

Fingerpaints Holiday 2014 Winter Wishes Collection Swatches & Review

Hi there! I wanted to show you a five piece holiday glitter collection from FingerPaints today, called Winter Wishes. These are very similar in composition and vary mostly in color so that's why you see them on one finger instead of a full mani per color. Let's take a look!

Press Sample

On my thumb is Glisten Here, a mix of greyed out pink, blue, green, gold and silver glitters. My pointer finger has Wrapped in Ribbon, a blingy gold. My middle finger is wearing Ho Ho Happy Holidays, a pale blue and silver mix. On my ring finger I have Sugar & Spice, a cheery red. And last, on my pinky is Silver Bells, an icy silver. They all have finely milled microglitter and all except the blue shade have tiny hex glitters.

full sun

shade

All of these swatches show two coats plus top coat. They are nicely dense and could be worn alone or layered. I quite like them, though they're not necessarily unique. These are available in Sally Beauty stores now for around $5-6 each. What do you think of these glitters? Any catch your eye?

Love ya!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Holiday 2014 Rooftop Soiree Collection Swatches & Review

Hi everyone! Today I have an awesome holiday polish collection from Pretty Serious Cosmetics to show you! The collection is called Rooftop Soiree and it has six awesome glittery shades that will light up your holiday season. This Australian brand has really impressed me in the past with their products and this is no exception, they are fabulous!

Press Sample

First is my favorite, Red Carpet Treatment. It's a red jelly base filled with multisized red hex glitters, silver and purple/blue iridescent mini hex glitter and bits of holographic glitter. It's freaking amazing. It's very deep and mesmerizing, I could look at this polish all day! It reminds me of Lynnderella Undead Red but without the chunky large glitters. I think I like this one more! Great formula, two coats.

Next is Glitz & Glamour, it has blingy silvery flake glitters and champagne gold flakes in a clear base. This one reminds me a bit of those super metallic glitters that you've seen from a few indie brands lately, but this is more delicate and layerable in my opinion. I used three coats here to show it on its own.

Cocktail Bar is a freaking beautiful teal green jelly with a mix of green and blue glitters. This one was a little chunkier than Red Carpet Treatment, but not difficult to apply. You need this, it's amazing. This is two coats.

Here is Daphne After Dark which has multicolored blingy glitters in an inky charcoal almost-black base. This one is super hot, it is a chic more sophisticated version of those "happy birthday" glitter polishes. This is a little thick, I had to take care on the second coat to layer it evenly; I would recommend waiting for the first layer to dry pretty well before the second coat. I used two coats here and two coats of top coat for a glassy finish.

This one is called Moments Til Midnight. It is a deep but bright blue jelly packed full of golden glitters in varying sizes. I really like the idea of this, but it was thick and a little difficult to apply. The large glitters sink in the bottle, but I didn't have trouble getting them out on my brush. I used two coats here with two layers of top coat.

Last is Invitation Only, an awesomely complex shade. It's a metallic grey with color shifting pink and green particles as well as micro holographic shimmer. I love this and it's SO beautiful! I could see myself wearing this all winter long. It's got a thick but not too thick formula, you could get it opaque in one coat but I used two here. It dries shiny, if you wanted to skip top coat on this one you could.

The collection comes in their decorative boxes of course, and they are all jazzed up for the holidays! I love their artwork, it's always so fun!

This collection is available now on the Pretty Serious Cosmetics website for $9.95 per bottle, or you can buy the whole collection for $53.75, for a 10% discount. They ship internationally from their website and they also have various stockists. What do you think of this collection? Does it tickle your holiday spirit?

See ya later!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Zoya Holiday 2014 Wishes Collection Swatches & Review

What's this? Another Zoya collection? Oh yes you heard right my friends! This is the Holiday 2014 collection from Zoya called Wishes. It includes three standard polish shades and three magical pixie dust polishes. Let's take a look shall we?

Press Sample

First is Haven, my favorite from the collection. It's an incredible red toned plummy purple shimmer bordering on metallic. Zoya calls this finish "liquid metal". That glowy brilliance in the full sunlight is almost fuchsia, and I love this. Two coats, a little thick but manageable.

Next is the first of the magical pixie dusts, called Thea. I have to say that I don't care for these three magical pixies. They all have a jelly base color and don't really dry down to that signature textured sugary pixie dust finish, like two of the ultra pixie dusts I reviewed recently. I know a lot of people probably don't mind, it's just not my cup of tea. Anyway, this is a medium to deepish purple amethyst with holographic glitters in varying sizes. Three thin coats, pretty decent formula for a chunky glitter jelly. This is how it looks when it dries without a top coat. Kinda gummy.

Now this is Prim, a polish I was prepared to dislike but I ended up loving. It's really the sleeper hit of the collection. This is a cornflowery powder blue metallic that is bordering on being a frost. The brushstrokes don't really show as much as I thought they would and I just love how it looks. Gorgeous color and it's opaque in one coat! I used two here because I wanted to smooth my application.

Nori is next, another one of the magical pixie dusts. I was hoping to love this but sadly I think it's all wrong for me. Forget about me not liking the finish for a minute, but this tone of blue doesn't look good with my skin tone at all. An upside though, the formula was quite easy to work with! I used two coats here.

Here is Willa, a black jelly crème hybrid. Too glossy and juicy to be a straight crème, too opaque to be a jelly. This is very shiny, kinda thin, but opaque in two coats. Am I the only one who didn't realize Zoya didn't have a straight black in their massive arsenal yet?

And last is Imogen, which is one of my favorite names ever. Again it doesn't dry matte and sugary, but it does end up with a little more texture than the other two pixies in this collection. Unfortunately it is another "no" in my opinion though. I think there might actually be too much glitter in here for me! This was more difficult to apply than the other glitters in the collection but not impossible by any means. Two coats.

So there you have it, the Wishes collection was basically a 50/50 win/lose situation for me, but hey no one loves everything! These can be purchased on the Zoya website, the regular polishes are $9 each and the magical pixies are $10 each. What do you think of this collection? Do these colors say "holiday" to you? How do you feel about the texture (or lack thereof) of the glitters?

That's all for me for today! See ya :)

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Cirque Colors Ultimate Holographic Gift Set Review & Swatches

Hello and how are you my dear? I hope you are well on this fine November day! I am a little under the weather but not too terribly so, thank goodness. Today I would like to show you a really terrific limited edition gift set for the holidays from Cirque Colors. They are an independent brand based in New York. Their Ultimate Holographic gift set comes with eight linear holographic nail polishes in a windowed black gift box.

Press Sample

First up is Alter Ego, a black holographic. This is pretty dark, the black holos I've tried in the past always seem more charcoal colored, but this is nice and inky. Two smooth and easy coats. I used Cirque Colors' base and top coat for all the swatches in this post.

Bejeweled is a bright royal blue holographic. I find blue holos swoon-worthy and this is no exception. So perfect for the winter! Two coats.

Next is Chrysopoeia, which I wasn't expecting to love as much as I do. These really yellow golds can be hard for me to pull off, but this one looked nice with my skin tone. Two coats here also.

Then we have Cypress, which is a little more sheer and thinner than the rest. It's a rose gold coppery holographic with some copper shimmer bits. This was one I anticipated loving, but it doesn't look the greatest with my coloring. Three coats here.

Fascination Street is perfection though, a blueish violet holographic. Really just fabulous, almost a one coater. I used two in my swatch.

I'm also loving Lonesome George, a grassy green holographic. I have seen very few true green holographics so I was happy to see this shade in the box. It's quite lovely. Two coats.

Sani is the only polish in this set that is simultaneously metallic and holographic. I don't know if I have anything similar. It's a chromey silver metallic with true linear holographic pigment, making it incredibly bright, especially in the sunlight. This was kinda hard to photograph, I hope you can see it's uniqueness from my pic. Two coats, a little on the draggy side.

And last is Vesuvius, a medium rose pink holographic. I really love this tone of pink and when you add holo to it, I'm over the moon! Two coats.

The Ultimate Holographic gift set sells for $80. Their polishes normally retail for $13 each so this set gives you a nice discount when buying all 8. It is limited edition so be sure to snap it up while you can! I wanted to mention the great packaging of these polishes, the square bottle looks luxe and is sturdy and I love the caps, they feel like glass!

I mentioned their top and base coats above so I wanted to review them as well. The blue-tinted Holdfast base coat dries quickly and has infused garlic to strengthen nails. I like it very much. The Liquid Laminate top coat is also lovely, it dries really fast and is incredibly shiny. I did notice shrinking at the edges on one manicure I used it with. However that tends to happen with improper application with a lot of quick dry top coats, and my technique could've been off that day. Overall they perform very well and I will continue to use them. They retail for $10 each. They are also included in Cirque's Back to Basics gift set, which also includes their white and black crèmes, for $36.

photo via www.cirquecolors.com

I was also able to try their crystal nail file and tea tree cuticle oil pen. If you know me, you know that I prefer crystal files, they are the BEST for shaping your nails and not damaging. I am also a fan of cuticle oils in general, and this pen is perfect to use on the go. They both sell for $10 each.

photo via www.cirquecolors.com

You can purchase Cirque Colors from their website www.cirquecolors.com or from their assorted stockists. What do you think of the holographic set? Are you buying any polish gifts for friends or family for the holidays? Or maybe treating yourself?

Stay warm and see ya next time!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.