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.