Got my replacement polishes and finished my swatches!
Usually I'm all over Color Club's glitters, but this set isn't quite as nice as the creme set... Have a look:
Covered in Diamonds. This is a really interesting glitter. It's a clear base with varying shapes and sizes of clear opalescent mylar glitter. To give you an idea of the texture, think of those horrible NYX "Avenue" polishes, how they're filled with those little irregular chunks of plastic. This is similar but much, much nicer. These pieces are mostly flat and very densely packed so you can actually do one coat and have a good amount of glitter end up on your nail. It's a little difficult to apply- it's extremely thick and a lot of glitter will end up on your nail so you have to spend a little time smoothing it out with the brush. The end result is quite pretty over certain colors but I prefer it alone. It looks like ice crystals and flashes blue, green, gold, yellow, red orange and purple! In fact... this is made of the same stuff the fake snow they use in Christmas displays at the store is made from- opalescent Mylar flakes.
De-Luxe-Cious. It's really not blue like in the second picture, that's just the lighting. I only posted it to be sure you could all see the pretty opal glitter that didn't quite show up in the sunlight picture. This is a grey metallic jelly/sheer base with lots of opal glitter, very much like those Limited Edition / Japanese glitters or the glitters from the Pardon My French Collection. It does look a bit more lumpy because of the darker base color, but not as bad as Ms. Hautie...
Ms. Hautie. I hate to say it, but this polish just doesn't work. The base is too thick and frosty and the glitter is too fine, so when combined and applied it just looks... lumpy. Chunky. Not so hot. In the second picture you'll notice an amazing pink duochrome in the bottle. Sadly, it does not seem to show up on the nail. It looks great while you're applying it before it dries, but I can't seem to make this work for me. It's a metallic grey/silver frost with teeny tiny hologram microglitter.
Red Velvet. Black base with red glitter. While this polish is very beautiful, I can't say it's unique. It's another China Glaze Lubu Heels clone. Worth getting if you don't have any of the other similar shades.
Resort To Red. A frosty medium red. This particular shade of red doesn't really speak to me, and combined with the frosty base it's a color I would normally never wear. However, it does have a redeeming factor- when you apply it to your nail you'll see glints of iridescent color sparkling at you- almost like a microglitter, but so small I can't even make out definite particles.
Snakeskin. This one is really nice. It's a metallic silver base- not quite a true foil but with definite metal properties. It has a strong green tone to it but it's still mostly silver/grey. The best feature is the tiny gold microglitter. It all combines to actually give the appearance of true snake skin. Crazy! Really pretty and not lumpy like the others!
Untamed Luxury. The star of the collection! A breathtaking jewel-tone glitter. It's a blue-green... aqua... turquoise? It's a bit like the color of Zoya Charla- blue green fusion. Super hot amazing! Very flashy. The glitter is suspended in a sheer matching color base, which I feel adds depth.
I experimented a little using Covered in Diamonds over the other shades in this collection and ended up with a couple unexpectedly pretty combos!
Left to right (pinkie to index): Untamed Luxury, Red Velvet, Ms. Hautie, De-Luxe-Cious.
Wild Orchid, Pretty in Platinum, Snakeskin, Resort to Red.
Ready to Royal, Nothing But Truffle, Soft as Cashmere, Positively Posh.
And with one coat of Covered in Diamonds, no topcoat:
Chunky but pretty! Certain polishes seem to make the glitter sink down and create holes while others hold up better and let the glitter sit on top. My favorites for layering with Covered in Diamonds are Red Velvet (how pretty is that combination?!), Ready To Royal, Wild Orchid, Untamed Luxury and De-Luxe-Cious.
The formula on these was fine- same as the other half. The only one that's different is Covered in Diamonds which could benefit from some three-free thinner, but that might make the glitter application more sparse. It takes a little work to get that polish just right, but I really like the look of it.
I hate to say it but I'm a little let down by this set. I wish Ms. Hautie didn't look so bumpy because it's amazing in the bottle! And I like Red Velvet but unfortunately it's a very frequently-duplicated color. Covered in Diamonds is pretty but really strange to use. Resort to Red falls flat for me... My favorite is definitely Untamed Luxury- it's a must have for any glitter lover. I adore it. Snakeskin is fantastic, very odd and unique, but it works. De-Luxe-Cious is also a nice shade but it is a bit on the bumpy side...
I think this collection is missing a holo (and no, Ms, Haute doesn't count!). I've loved the few holos Color Club has done and I'd love to see more of them! I'd also freak out if they did a collection of glitters like Slamming Red and Purple Medallion but in every color. How incredible would that be? I wonder how we could convince them to make those... Hmmm...
(These were sent to me for review.)
Blue Monday. And I still find it so hard to say what I need to say... But I'm quite sure that you'll tell me just how I should feel today....
Golden Dragon. Blue toned gold with green metallic shimmer! Not quite a foil, not quite a frost. Green with gold veins.
Gasoline. Purple and blue glass fleck duochrome shimmer. Amazing.
Holographic. Unbelievable. No wonder this is so popular, it's insane! Perfectly holographic silver. I've heard from a few people that this is reasonably similar to the coveted and discontinued Chanel Holographic.
Purple Heart. A really slick purple/green duochrome. Like a less colorful cousin to Nubar's Peacock Feathers shade or a less metallic gothy version of Zoya Ki.
Rainbow over Purple Heart. I didn't take a picture of Rainbow alone cause it's hard to get it to show up on a naked nail. When I posted about Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure and Nubar 2010 when they came out, everyone asked me if they were similar to GOSH Rainbow. I didn't have it and had never really seen it, so I had no idea. Now that I have it I can say yes, they're totally alike. Red/yellow/orange/gold/green opalescent flakes in a clear base. Amazing for layering.
(I don't know who these pictures belong to- if they're yours, please let me know so I can credit you!)
