What I Like About Blue

Today I have another shade from Light Brites, China Glaze's 2016 Summer collection. This beautiful blue is called What I Like About Blue.

What is there not to love about this shade? The creme base is a beautiful sky blue and has a fine, slight duochromatic shimmer running throughout which shifts from gold to pink depending on your light source. To be clear, by duochrome I don't mean that the colour shifts in front of your eyes, its more of a subtle change from various light sources. This is, however,  a very unique shade in my collection.

Application was good, the first coat covered well, but you will definitely need two coats for full coverage. The polish dries fairly quickly to a matte finish, typical of neons, however, I would not classify this polish as a neon in terms of brightness or colour.

Overall I love the shade and the combo of bright blue creme and golden shimmer together. It wore very well with minor tip wear.

Summer Time Haul, Y'all!

I am in full summer mode and atiently awaiting a bunch of fun things in July; my birthday, my wedding and a honeymoon trip! So many exciting things to come in my favorite month and season of the year!

Summer screams brights and neons to me, today I have some of my latest purchases (first and largest in quite a while now). It's so surprise that they are all China Glazes, they manage to put out fun and exciting polishes summer after summer that I actually want!

I'll start off with my picks from the Lite Brights, summer 2016 collection first.

Papa Don't Peach and We got the Beet

Papa Don't Peach is a jelly-like coral shade with gold shimmer and iridescent glitter running throughout. Bright and flashy, I love it!

We Got the Beet is a deep plum jelly with golden shimmer throughout. I honestly like this one more than I thought I would! so pretty!

Two coats of each are shown on the nail wheel below.

Bite Me, What I Like About Blue and Lime after Lime.

Bite Me is a bright pink neon with a golden microshimmer running throughout. Excellent formula on this one! The golden shimmer makes the pink warmer toned.

What I Like About Blue was the must have polish for me! A gorgeous bright blue with a golden and slightly iridescent shimmer running throughout. The shimmer is way more visible in this one compared to Bite Me.

Lime After Lime. I love this name, it makes me think of the choreographed dance sequence from Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion! Light, bright and right on the verge of being a neon green. It has that bleached bright thing going on. Another one with great formula.

One to two coats of each are shown in the nail wheel below.

Next up I have some randoms I picked up for a beauty supply clearance section:

In the Limelight, Daisy Know My Name? and Sun Worshiper.

In the Limelight, an oldie but a goodie! From my research, I have found that this was originally from the Wow Factor collection back in the summer of 2006. This shade a bright green neon with a lightly duochome shimmer, flashing green or blue depending on the light source.

Daisy Know My Name? is from last summers Electric Night Collection. I am actually wearing it right now! Its a bright yellow, but not highlighter yellow. Outside in the sunlight it is close to neon teritory on it's own, but I feel it would really pop with a base of white.

Sun Worshiper is a polish I have admired from afar for way too long. A part of the 2010 Poolside collection, this is a bright, in your face nacho cheese neon! I can't wait to wear this with a tan!

Two to three coats of each are shown in the nail wheel below.

So many exciting new polishes to wear making it hard to decide what to wear next! What is your favorite shade for summer?

CosmoProf Haul

Today I have another bright neon haul to share with you! I was pleasantly surprised to find the Electric Nights collection at my local CosmoProf. I have been finding it harder and harder to track down the latest collections at Sally's recently and CosmoProf usually has what I'm looking for. I picked up four polishes from the Electric Nights collection, and one re-promote from 2013's Summer Neons collection.  I have to admit that at first glance this collection didn't appeal to me, but after all the hype online and finally seeing them in person I got why they were so popular.


First up is Are You Jelly?, UV Meant To Be and Treble Maker.

Are You Jelly? is a a neon magenta based purple neon. I originally picked up this shade in 2013, but this re-promote is not the same as the original. The original is more of a true purple crelly. It dried to a matte/satin finish. If you compare the photos in this post to the previous one (original formula) it is not very apparent they are different. In person it is easier to see the difference. Let me know if you are interested in a comparison post.

UV Meant To Be is a light blue with a hint of dustiness. Hard to describe, but really pretty. The only one I purchased from this collection with a glossy finish.

Treble Maker is probably the hardest to describe and one of my favorites! It is a medium green that verges on being a neon, but is not as in your face. this dries to a satin finish.

Next up is Red-y To Rave and Let the Beat Drop.

Red-y To Rave is a bright red/orange coral neon with coverage rivaling a creme. It is super bright and unique. It dried to a satin finish.

Let the Beat Drop is a neon glitter suspended in a clear base. I returned Point Me To The Party due to lack of assistance from China Glaze (they did not respond to me when I contacted them regarding the bleeding of glitters in the polish). I am hoping that the glitters in this one don;t bleed overtime as well, is consists of orange pink and purple neon glitters of various sizes.

Below are swatches of my haul:

And another one of me recreating Point Me To The Party by layering Let The Beat Drop over Can I Get An Untz, Untz. That was a mouthful!

 

I will be layering this combo over white very soon!

Birthday Polish Purchase!

I headed to Sally's super late this month to take advantage of my birthday coupon and picked up some bright shades of polish!

First up are Orly Thrill Seeker and China Glaze Pool Party.

Thrill Seeker is a bright lemon lime green creme that boarders being a neon, but lacks the highlighter pigment. Two coats are shown in the swatches below.

Before I continue, it must be said that the China Glazes I purchased are not the same as the originals (original release). I was hoping this was just a Sally's thing, but unfortunately I have gone to at least three beauty supply stores selling the same (newer) versions. I personally prefer the new Pool Party, it's a more coral based pink. If I recall correctly the original was more of a deeper pink/magenta shade.

Next up are China Glaze Celtic Sun and Purple Panic.

Celtic Sun is the classic yellow neon. For some reason I don't own one, now I do!

I'm not even sure what Purple Panic is supposed to look like, but I don't like it. I was hoping for a magenta based pink neon (similar to what you see swatched on the far right, which is not Purple Panic, more on that in another post), what I got was a muddy purple... Not impressed. It looks way better above in the photos than it does in real life. I think the original had a blue flash of shimmer, which this does not. If you can't tell already, this will be going back... (and I did not include a swatch of it).

Swatches left to right are Orly Thrill Seeker, China Glaze Pool Party and Celtic Sun. In person Thrill Seeker is more green.

I was really feeling neons in July, another bright haul to come shortly!

Summer Recap

Fall... It's coming. Today I have a recap of my summer in Instagram photos.

Sublime with Rome concert in early July, it rained!

At the Junction Brewery in May with blue chevron nails

McDonalds Minion!

China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle on my tips

Coconut water in the Dominican Republic

China Glaze Neon and On and On

During the blackout/flood in early July

Splatter nails!

The cutest alpaca at the CNE

My summer tan with OPI Ya'll Come Back Now Ya Hear

Funnel Cake at the Ex!

Skittle mani refresh

Sigh... so sad to see summer come to an end.

Too Yacht To Handle

This is my favourite polish at the moment, China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle! I almost didn't pick this one up because I already have a large assortment of "Tiffany blue" shades and didn't think I was in need of another one. This shade is super bright, and unfortunately the only photo I have to share with you does not so it full justice.

I don't have other photos because the gel base I applied beneath started to chip and didn't look so good in the photos. It wasn't as noticeable in real life, so I have been extending it's wear as long as I can!

I applied two coats with no issues. The formula was on the thicker side so I added a few drops of thinner to even out the formula. I would describe the actual colour to be close to For Audry but brighter. A great comparison of the two, plus others from the Sunsational collection, can be found here, I love this blog!

Haulin' for FREE!

I got some awesome polishes in the mail last week, best of all these were all completely free thanks to SwagBucks. I have mentioned them in the past but just had to mention them again again. Basically you earn points on their site by playing games, filling out polls, online surveys and web searching and you trade in your pints for anything you'd like! The best are the gift cards, my favorite being Amazon. Check them out if you are interested here.

On to the polish, I have been waiting for these babies for a long time! Sally's hasn't gotten the China Glaze Sunsational in at all yet, weird considering it is a summer collection! I couldn't wait any longer so I purchased them online. My picks include,

Highlight of My Summer, Too Yacht To Handle.

Highlight of My Summer is a bright lime green pastel, very summery. To Yacht to Handle is so awesome, I almost didn't get it because I thought it was too similar to For Audry, this is not the case. More on this polish to come soon.

Shell-O, Heat Index and Neon, And On, And On.

Shell-O is pretty much bang on colour wise to Flip Flop Fantasy, which is one of favourites (currently on my toes!) in jelly form, so you know I just had to have it! Heat index is a bright pink jelly neon, I heard it's sheer, but the colour it gorgeous for summer. Neon And On, And On is a lighter pink based coral neon, this one is a creme.

Swatches below in the following order: Shell-O, Heat Index, Neon And On, And On, Highlight of My Summer and Too Yacht To Handle. All cremes one coat, all jellies two coats on a white tinted nail wheel.

I loved these so much I ordered three more from the collection! Sunsational is a great compilation of shades for summer, China Glaze doesn't disappoint for summer collections, I'm thinking of getting a few more from last years collection!. My only request would have been a bright yellow pastel/neon to complete this years set.swagbucks.com/refer/enthuseme

My Summer Polish Picks!

With the start of May not long behind us it seems the winter that didn't want to end finally turned in to... Summer? We seemed to skip right over to Spring here in Toronto! But hey, I am not complaining one bit. The sunny and hot weather makes me want to bust out my bright, colourful polishes right now! I have compiled a list of my favourite colours and polishes that correspond for summer!

Coral
One of my all time favourite shades of polish, but so hard to find the right one for my skin tone. The perfect coral for me is slightly more orange than pink. Some of my favourite coral polishes are:

Flip Flop Fantasy - China glaze
Manis Before Mimosas - China Glaze

BTW, Flip Flop Fantasy is not even close to being captured properly in that photo, must be the mix of sun and being beside another coral that gives it the glow of fire! For a more accurate look at these shades, and the rest I have swatches in the past below, be sure to click the name of the polish.

Yellow
Summer is about the only time i dear to wear yellow on my nails. Yellow was a trendy shade last summer and I am pretty sure it will be popular for summer 2013 as well! My faves are:

Happy/Earthy - Claire's  -- When warm of course ;)
Sunkissed - China Glaze

I had to run Happy/Earthy under hot water before snapping this pic!

Green
Claire's Happy/Earthy is also a great polish when cold for another summer favourite of mine, green! Here it is cooling off to green.

Bright, summery and bold. My picks for summer are typically neon, however some of my favorites include:

I'm With the Lifegaurd - China Glaze
Baby Green - Nabi

Orange
Orange is one of those colours you can pull off year round depending I the shade. I absolutely love my neons for summer, just to name a few:

Orange You Hot? - China Glare
Japanese Koi - China Glaze (my first EVER China Glaze mani!)

Pink
Who doesn't love a hot pink mani for summer?! I have so many pinks, before I started growing my collection I had a good selection to choose from! Some of my top favourite pinks for summer are:

Shocking Pink - China Glaze
Yum Gum - Color Club

So what do you think of my summer polish list? What are your faves?