CND Indian Rhubarb & Violet Shimmer Effects

So last week, I got home and there was this little box from CND (Creative Nail Design) at my doorstop.  The bad part is that it wasn't my name but it was my address.  After posting on Twitter and talking to other bloggers, I was reminded that I had filled out a survey on their website [official website] awhile back, and turns out I won!  Well, I think I won... it was my address...  Oy.  I've read a few other bloggers who said that it was just a mail merge problem - so I think I'm a winner and someone got a box with my name, but their address.


CND complete redid their polish line, removing all their old polishes and coming up with a new concept - 50 "base" colors and 15 "effect" colors.  You take a base color, then layer it with an effect color.  Here is an amazing blog from The Edge of Sanity where she swatched several of them. [CND Effects: The Pile Up!]


From what I've read, all the winners received CND Indian Rhubarb #528 as their color.  Indian Rhubarb is listed as a Warm Opaque.  It's a solid cherry tomato red that goes on smoothly in one coat.  However, some winners received Copper Shimmer and some received Violet Shimmer.  I received CND Violet Shimmer #558 which is listed as a Cool Sheer.

I used only the Indian Rhubarb on my middle and pinky fingers, and Violet Shimmer on my pointer and ring fingers.  Here are pictures in the sun.

I also took some shade pictures - you can really see the shimmer here.

Indian Rhubarb is definitely a show stopping red - It's a little starking for me but the Violet Shimmer makes the color more wearable for me.  I'm still trying to embrace starking colors.  I also really would like to try more of the "effects" line.  I found the colors for $4.50 and the effects for $5.50 on both TransDesign [official website] and Head2ToeBeauty [official website].

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company because of a website survey giveaway.  For more information, please read this post.

Polish Bloggers Network: Lacquer Link Love 1/22/10

* Chromatic Misadventures has put together a wonderful array of swatches that include nail colors from Nails Inc., Zoya, Butter London, Essie, and so many more.

* Polish Up brings you the sparkled beauty OPI Blues in the Night.
* Can you appreciate a good haul? Well if so, let Black Nail Polish and Lipgloss show off the awesome goodies that she received from Lisa of Glammed Up.
* The Nail Nerd has a polish sweet tooth caused by Orly's Sweet Collection.
* Happy Vamp Valentines Day! The Swatchaholic shares a wonderful Konad sweet... I mean treat with all of you.
* Raz from Manicure Mommas swatches her CND survey goodies and gives you an up close and personal preview.
* Are you quite unfond of the scent of polish remover and feel you could live without the smell?! Well if so, Polish Galore gives a wonderful review of the lavendar scented polish removers Seche Erase & Zoya Remove.
* Kellie from "Also Known As" dazzles us with the gorgeous new shades of OPI's Designer Series featuring polishes infused with diamond dust.
* Probably one of the most popular colors in the China Glaze Up & Away Collection, Prim and Polished brings you gorgeous swatches of Four Leaf Clover.
* Naive Nails gives us a little Absolutely Alice from OPI's Alice in Wonderland
Green is the hottest color of the season.
* polishSWATCHES brings you a shade you'll adore.

and now for the goodies....

Bring on the Network Giveaways!!!

* How would you like to add 3 bottles of China Glaze polish to your collection? Well, let Polish Galore show you how! <- That's me!

* You'll definitely want to be sure and check out the Nail Nerd Giveaway... she's giving away some gorgeous Viva la Diva Nail Lacquers.

* Black Nail Polish and Lipgloss is having a fun and creative contest that you just have to see for yourself. I just can't spill the beans on this one!

* And lastly, have you been dying to get your hands on polishes from the China Glaze Up & Away Collection?! Well, if your answer is yes... check out the Polish Freak and she'll be glad to give some to you.

Claire's Magic with Nfu-Oh 40

On Tuesday, I stopped at Claire's and found some crazy Jolly Rancher scented nail polish and the manager told me that all cosmetics were buy one, get the second one half off - so I started looking at the 3-1 Color Polishes but some jerk had shaken up the bottles, and then I found this.

Claire's Magic is a beautiful dark purple with a dusty rose shimmer to it.  I thought it was originally a duochrome, but especially on the nail I saw that it was really a shimmer.  Because of the half off sale for this, I paid a whole $2 (instead of the normal retail of $4).  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of just the Magic because I was way too excited for this.

Nfu-Oh 40!!!!  This is a green and blue flakie suspended in a clear polish.  Flakies are awesome - it's not glitter, it's not a shimmer... it reminds me of mica flakes.  Depending on the light, you either see a deep royal blue or a emerald green.  This is definitely more expensive at $12.50 a bottle, but I received free shipping so that helped.

Here's a couple of sunlight pictures and you can tell the Magic has the red shimmer, and you can see a strong blue flakie.

A couple of pictures in the shade - now you can see the deep purple shade with the green flakie.  This was a seriously fun manicure to wear.  I originally called this my stepchild to Scrangie from Rescue Beauty Lounge, but especially with it on, there's no comparison - it's pretty but it's no Scrangie :)


Claire's is available world wide or online [official website] and I purchased Nfu-Oh at Fabuloustreet.com [official website].

China Glaze Raspberry Festival vs Heli-Yum vs Sneaker Head

I have a quick comparison post for you of some of the newest raspberry shades from China Glaze.  On the far left is China Glaze Raspberry Festival from the 2009 Summer Days collection, in the middle is China Glaze Heli-Yum from the 2010 Up & Away collection, and on the right is China Glaze Sneaker Head from the 2009 Kicks Collection.

In the sunlight it's obvious that Raspberry Festival is one of the glass fleck glitter polishes and has a slightly darker base than the others.  However, Heli-Yum & Sneaker Head are pretty close to each other - both cremes, both 1 coaters, both the same shade of raspberry.

Then I took a picture in the shade, hoping for something - anything to tell Heli-Yum & Sneaker Head apart.  Honestly, I couldn't find one.  Are they exact dupes?  Well it was hard for me to say no on this - Sneaker Head was SLIGHTLY darker with a tiny bit more blue in the base but it was very hard to tell, especially at a glance.  Do you need both?  Well, if you ask me, the answer is always yes, but that's because I love having complete collections ^___^

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

150+ Followers Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed


I am truly humbled and honored that I have so many blog readers. This will be my last giveaway until I reach 300 followers, but I really do appreciate that you have chosen to read me.

[1] You must be a follower of my blog.
[2] You must leave a comment on this blog entry and make sure to include your email address!

Simple, huh? I'll draw one winner Wednesday January 27 at midnight:01 GMT. (That's 6 p.m. on Tuesday January 26 for people in the central time zone like me!) International users are welcome - I can ship anywhere that the United States Post Office ships to.

* 1 brand new bottle of China Glaze Atlantis (from the Glitters and Cremes Specialty collection)
* 1 brand new bottle of China Glaze Medallion (from the Glitters and Cremes Specialty collection)
* 1 brand new bottle of China Glaze Cleopatra (from the Glitters and Cremes Specialty collection)
* 1 brand new bottle of China Glaze Matte Magic (top coat released in 2009)

Bona fortuna!

100 Followers Giveaway! [Winner]

Thank you to the 112 wonderful readers that all signed up for my 100 Followers Giveaway!  To make it simple and easy, you were each assigned a number by the way you comments (first person was #1, etc).

Then I went to my rusty trusty Random Numberizer located at http://ma.tt/tools/random-number/ and asked for a number between 1 and 112 and I got this:

YAY #91 aka Nelsby http://www.blogger.com/profile/06346386862521059219

I've sent you an email from krystal[at]polishgalore.com  so I can get your mailing information.

If for some reason, I haven't received a reply by next Tuesday at midnight:01 GMT, I will redraw for another winner.

Thanks again and I'll be holding my 150+ followers giveaway next!

China Glaze Heli-Yum

I was pretty excited to try this color in the Up And Away 2010 Spring Collection - China Glaze Heli-Yum.  China Glaze describes this color as "raspberry", so I'm interested in swatching it next to both Raspberry Festival from the Summer Days 2009 Summer Collection, and Sneaker Head from the Kicks Collection (also released in 2009).  But first, let's look at Heli-Yum!

This is another one coater!  I used a base coat of Seche Natural, one coat of Heli-Yum, and then one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

In the sun:

And in the shade:

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Zoya Remove+ vs Seche Erase

If you're like me, you have what happens when it's time to remove polish.  The smell, the cold feeling of acetone on your fingers, scrubbing forever with glitters...


I mentioned before in my nail care post that I use Zoya Remove+ almost exclusively now.  I do use studio 35 beauty polish remover to clean up the edges of my manicure using an ordinary paint brush, and I have a few other jars and bottles of drugstore polish remover around too.


Then I heard about Seche Erase which sounded a lot like Zoya Remove+ all the way down to the slight lavender floral smell.  Problem was I couldn't find Seche Erase anywhere.  No salons or stores carried it and I didn't find it on most of my normal etailers.


Cue TransDesign [official website] again.  Now, here's the issue.  One 8 fl oz bottle of Zoya Remove+ sells for $9.99 on Zoya's website (also the same price in the salon that I frequent).  Seche Erase was only available in 1 fl oz bottles for $1.28 on TransDesign, so I bought 6 of them.  They are relatively the same price though, when you add it up.  The bottles are also quite different.  Zoya Remove+ features the "big flipper" top which has a plunger that when pushed, pools remover into the slightly curved top through 3 holes.  I normally only need one plunge to clean several fingers.  Seche Erase is in a squeeze bottle that you have to manually squeeze onto your removal pad of choice (I use cheap felt found in craft stores, cut into squares).


Application removal wise, I really found both to be the same - both removed the polish quickly, effectively, and had the same good smell, not like normal polish removers.  The ingredients appears to be alike as well except Seche Erase has some oils involved to help with the harshness that is nail polish remover.


Zoya Remove+
* 2-propanone
* Water
* Glycerine
* Fragrance
* D&C Violet #2


Seche Erase
* Acetone
* Water
* Lavadula Angustifolia (Lavender) extract
* Eucalyptus Globulus Leaf Oil
* Melaleuca Altermifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil
* Butylene Glycol
* Benzophenone-1
* Violet 2


Now I must be honest, while typing this out, my eyes bugged out a bit at the Melaleuca.  When my family first moved back to Texas from Oregon, my Dad's friend was selling Melaleuca products and my Dad, being a good friend, bought a little of EVERYTHING.  We had Melaleuca juice, Melaleuca lotions, and the one that killed me, Melaleuca laundry detergent.  My Mom washed all our clothes in it, and we all broke out into this horrible itchy terrible rash.  The only thing that had changed was the laundry detergent, so we threw out all the Melaleuca products and haven't looked back since.  However, Melaleuca Altermifoilia appears to be quite different because I've used Tea Tree shampoo for years without any side effects - in fact it's produced to do the opposite - relax the skin, not irritate it.  I also didn't notice any irritation with the Seche Erase, and as a test, spread it on my palms and back of my hands to see if a rash developed.  Thankfully, nothing happened but wet palms and hands.


I'm going to keep using these both alternatively, especially with a glitter - that's my true test.  Finally, I leave you with a comparison shot of the two bottles side by side.

Seche Natural Matte Finish Nail Treatment

Seche Vite has quickly become one of my favorite products.  Their base coat which I use exclusively now, dries fast, lasts, and more importantly does not allow bleed through with polishes.  Their top coat is amazing - very fast drying, shiny, and long lasting.  I have read of other bloggers having problems with Seche Vite top coat shrinking and "peeling up" on them, but thankfully I've never had that happen.  I did have one bottle of top coat get thick on me, but once I used some Seche Vite Restore (which was given to me from the company), the top coat worked just fine again.


I do follow Seche Vite on Twitter [official Twitter page] and back in early January, they tweeted about their newest product Seche Natural Matte Finish Nail Treatment.  My ears perked up.  According to the box, "Seche Natural strengthens weak nails with wheat protein and calcium.  Ideal for a natural looking matte finish when worn alone or may be applied under polish as a nourishing base coat."


I began a wild goose chasing trying to find of any store in my local area that had even HEARD of this product, but no one had, but I found it on TransDesign [official website] for $4.20 - not bad.  Thankfully, I was blessed with strong nails - no peeling or splitting here, but I figure this can't hurt.  I want to wear it on days that I don't have polish on, or maybe alternate between Natural and Seche Vite's Crystal Base Coat for awhile.

To be honest, I didn't notice that much of a matte finish over my natural nails - this is one coat.  Maybe with longer nails, you'll be able to tell the difference.

Essie Glamour Do

Essie has joined Twitter [official Twitter page] and so I figured no time like the present to swatch the only Essie in my collection Essie Glamour Do.  This was a promotion from Glamour [official website] magazine's 70th anniversary and the first 5,000 people to go to Glamour's website back in March 2009 and enter their information, won a bottle.  I don't know what number I was, but I was in the 5,000!


Free is free, and this was one tiny bottle, at only 0.16 fluid ounces compared to others which are normally around 0.5 fluid ounces.  Even the China Glaze Matte Magic was 0.325 fluid ounces.  Here's my bottle next to a bottle of Seche Vite top coat.

Glamour Do is a very sheer, very light pink.  It took me 5 coats to get this level of opacity, and as you can see, I smeared my pointer finger.  By the time I was done taking pictures, I smeared my ring ringer too, hah.  Overall it's a pretty color, but I'd probably use it either as a layer color over white, or just as a quick sheer for the day.

Essie can be purchased on their website [official website] or etailers like Head2ToeBeauty [official website] or TransDesign [official website]