China Glaze Retro Diva Collection Giveaway!!

So as promised, I am giving away the China Glaze Retro Diva Collection, in its two boxed sets! One person will win the Get Down Tonight set, one person will win the Let's Cruise set. Two winners! Yay!

You can be anyone, anywhere in the world, all you have to do is email me your name, and tell me which China Glaze nail polish is your favorite and why. My email is polishmayhem@gmail.com, it's also in my profile. I will draw two winners at random next Monday afternoon.

Good Luck!!!!

SOME FURTHER INFORMATION!!:
I don't mind if you haven't tried China Glaze, or can't get it. Winners will be picked randomly, not based on answer. Anyone, anywhere in the world can join.
I will pick what set you get, I will try to accomodate a request but can not promise anything at all.
I will get tracking info on the package only if you are in the US, but not if overseas. I may choose to get insurance, I don't know. All the shipping and packaging for this contest is coming out of my pocket, though the polishes come from China Glaze. I will NOT be sending you replacements if something breaks in shipping, or if it never appears. If you are in the USA, since this is a large prize I MAY choose to get insurance. But if I don't I will be very sorry and commisserate with you, and if you are not in the USA you are just out of luck. Sorry, darlings. No one has not gotten a package yet except poor AdorePink, whose polish seems to have vanished. She will probably get another one since it isn't a huge expense for me. But for this giveaway, what I wrote stands.

China Glaze for Days! - Last Day Glass Fleck Extravaganza

To celebrate the last day of China Glaze for Days, I give to you all my glass fleck polishes I have not already posted about on the blog. Enjoy!

China Glaze Fairy Godmother:


China Glaze Belle of the Ball:


China Glaze Straight Up:


China Glaze Martini Lunch:


China Glaze Martini Pedicure:


China Glaze Shaken Not Stirred:


China Glaze Tarnished and Varnished:

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Thataway

Thataway is kind of like an orange cremesicle for your nails. Shimmery and orange but more on the peach/coral side. Fun for summer.

Remember tomorrow is, sadly, the last day of China Glaze for Days and I will be starting a giveaway, both halves of the China Glaze Retro Diva Collection, so two people will win 6 polishes each!! Stay posted tomorrow!

China Glaze Thataway:

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Treehugger

Hmmm, I posted a bit late for Saturday picnic polish choices, but this is what I would have suggested. A nice grass green with a lovely shimmer!


China Glaze Treehugger:

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Liquid Leather

China Glaze Liquid Leather is part of the Patent Leather collection. It was designed to be stunningly shiny and it accomplishes that very well. It also has a gorgeous wet look! It's a jelly, not a creme, so it's easy to apply, and errors clean up well without staining the skin. This picture is two coats, and no top coat!

China Glaze Liquid Leather:

MAC Nail Trend Fall/Winter 2009 Nail Lacquers

MAC is easily my favorite makeup. For eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, range of great colors, pigments, glitters, I just can't think of anyone who comes close. I LOVE them. But MAC seems to treat nail polish as a kind of off the cuff item. Their nail polish is not up to the standards of their other items, and it seems to be designed by a sad lonely team in the basement who never get the stimulation the lipstick and eye people get. Mineralize eyeshadow versus their lacquer? Come on. I do not know if all of these are new or rereleases.

Anyway they ARE my favorite brand of makeup so I will always give their nail lacquer a try. This collection is a sedate, darker collection of cremes, and is far better than the offerings from the rest of the year. It's not going to set anything on fire, but it's a sort of "I'm a powerful businesswoman" sort of collection, certainly a lot sleeker and more sophisticated that the rest of the minimal turnouts from earlier in the year. Though having said that it's by no means a slamdunk palette with no problems. The formula spreads easily, though may need a few drops of thinner. It covers well in two coats, using only one can be streaky and leave sheer areas.

Six shades were released today. Let's have a look. If you like any, run out tomorrow or buy online tonight, because as usual they will probably run out in record time.

MAC Cool Reserve is a sort of taupe with a bit of grape thrown in:


MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious is an almost dark chocolate creme, it's way too dark for milk, too light really for true dark chocolate. This actually has an opalescent shimmer in it, you can see it in the bottle in the picture. But on, it does not show. It's just too little in amount and size.:


MAC Beyond Jealous, the dark forest green creme everyone was waiting for, seriously might as well be black. There is no jelly quality to this, so no lighter areas on the edges and top that let you know this is green. Maybe sunlight helps but I am doubting it.:


MAC For Fun is a simple sort of Tyrian purple creme we have all seen before. It's nice, though unoriginal.:


MAC Dance All Night is probably the most thoughtful addition to the collection. It's a dark brick red, that while amazingly badly named (who dances all night in brick red creme nail polish???) manages to be intriguing and sophisticated. My pick of the litter.:


MAC Dry Martini is an olive brown creme that looks like you just changed a baby's diaper. It's utterly incomprehensible to me.:


Tyler Durden's opinion of MAC's Nail Trend Fall/Winter 2009 Nail Lacquers:
It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.

China Glaze for Days! - Tantalizing Toes and Tipsy Toes

Here are a couple example's of China Glaze's old metallic glass fleck polishes. Maybe a push for them would help bring them back!!

China Glaze Tantalizing Toes:


China Glaze Tipsy Toes:

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Celtic Sun

It's still summer, even if some of us are back to school! There's still plenty of time for neons!

Celtic Sun is kinda like "what if I took the ink out of a neon yellow highlighter and painted my fingernails with it?". Maybe you are like me and think that sounds like a lot of fun.

China Glaze Celtic Sun:

China Glaze for Days! China Glaze Frostbite

Okay Frostbite is yet another blue, I feel like I am posting a lot of blues. But the fact of the matter is China Glaze does blues better than ANY other polish brand. Period, and I stand by that. Frostbite is amazingly luminous.

China Glaze Frostbite:

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze VIII

VIII is not black, it's a deep eggplant. It's got more color in person. Very bold.

China Glaze VIII:

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Visions of Grandeur

China Glaze Visions of Grandeur is a whole lotta grandeur. A deep rich red, it's got a lot of gold shimmer in there too. Reminds me of what my husband called my nail polish this past Friday.

China Glaze Visions of Grandeur:

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Cowgirl Up

China Glaze Cowgirl Up is a yummy sort of red grape color with a super smattering of dark blue shimmer that gives it a slap of hotness. Very tasty.

China Glaze Cowgirl Up:

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Caribbean Blue

China Glaze Caribbean Blue is a bigtime fave of mine. I think it's even better than the picture. It's THE best sky blue polish, IMO. The glass fleck doesn't hurt either!

Caribbean Blue is gorgeous.

China Glaze Caribbean Blue:

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Hot Lava Love

As Dr. Evil would say.... LIQUID HOT MAGMA!!!


China Glaze Hot Lava Love:

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway just stuns me. It reminds me of a black light, it is dark yet it emits light! The cobalt glow of this is stupendous. I LOVE THIS.

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway:

Thoughts and Questions and Babbling and hitting F5

A few notes here. I'm redoing a lot of my pictures now that I am more comfortable with the new camera. So if you see blank pics, try hitting F5 or removing your cookies, they should all show up then. It's very important for me to show actual nail on the hand color, not show it to its best advantage (i.e. what it sparkles like under perfect lighting when you stick it right up against your eye). I want to show what it'll look like at the desk, fixing dinner, shopping, etc. I'm not here for glamour photography, really. The nail polishes shouldn't need my help to look beautiful. Of course I can never capture the full 3D effect of what it will look like on your hand. But I try my hardest for you!! I want to help you pick colors you will love.

Feel free to give me any criticism or tips or requests. Email me at polishmayhem@gmail.com!

Also a note on stuff I'll be swatching. What you WON'T be seeing is me running out to buy stuff I can get cheaper online just to swatch it, or well you won't ALWAYS be getting that, just sometimes. So I am late on things like OPIs a lot of them time, as they do not send me promo polishes. You'll be seeing most of the OPI mattes from me, but I am going to try to give you alternate ways to use them, not just display them in their already swatched by other people state. You won't be seeing Misa's collection from me for some time, as I think they're dead boring and I have to pay out of pocket for them. But I will be swatching probably 90% of Holiday collections because I freakin' LOVE the winter holiday polishes.

Anyway that's an update from me. I start school again Monday. Should be a light semester though, I have 12 credits of Psychology and 3 credits of Political Science.

Zoya Holiday MatteVelvet Polishes Winter 2009/2010

Here's what I got from Zoya today!



The ZOYA color experts have done it again!
Introducing three new LIMITED EDITION, exclusive MATTEVELVET* shades for Winter 2009/2010...


MATTEVELVET WINTER

Savita (ZP504) - plum gray matte shimmer
Harlow (ZP505) - rose matte shimmer
Veruschuka (ZP506) - evergreen matte shimmer

The incredible Zoya MATTEVELVET* shade collection has been expanded with three new LIMITED EDITION beauties. Get all of the color, none of shine with MATTEVELVET*, Zoya’s exclusive blend of matte base and subtle shimmer resulting in utterly wearable and truly stylish nail polish.

Zoya nail lacquers are free of harmful industrial chemicals like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known to cause cancer and birth defects.

Find Zoya MATTEVELVET* as well as over 300 other ultra high-fashion Zoya shades at www.zoya.com. As always, each and every Zoya color is made for women so we name them after women.

*MATTEVELVET nail color by Zoya is not intended to be worn with a base coat, top coat or speed dryer of any kind. Due to the unique matte formulation, color is not as long-wearing as traditional nail color. A completely clean, dry nail surface yields the best results for matte nail color wear. For best results make sure to always prepare nail with Zoya Remove + (3-in-1 nail polish remover, nail plate cleaner and new color prep.) prior to applying color.

MATTEVELVET by Zoya available September 15, 2009.

PRE-ORDER NOW!
Sug. Retail $6.00 per 0.5 oz bottle. U.S.

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Recycle

Recycle is a major favorite of mine. A simple grey creme that is both edgy and sophisticated. I feel like a hi tech cyberspy wearing this.

China Glaze Recycle:

New Sinful Professional Colors

I don't know who in your town carries this, here I get mine at Walgreen's. And luckily a sale, Buy One Get One FREE is going on just in time to buy these great new colors!!! At $1 each (on sale) how could anyone say no?? They have a good formula, dry nicely even if you layer the glitters on thick (just give them a bit of time) and they are pretty. What else do you need?

Sinful Frenzy, purple and blue glitter in a colorless clear base:


Sinful HD Nails, simple grass green frost:


Sinful See You Soon, a black jelly with blue shimmer, like Zoya Kotori:


Sinful I Miss You, a sheerish purple jelly with rainbow glitter. LOVE:


Sinful Call You Later. The Genius of this is the varying glitter size. It has tiny gold glitter for maximum coverage, and big green glitter for color and bling. Fantastic.:


Sinful I Love You, a nice purple shimmer:



Sinful Nail Junkie. My favorite! A lovely ocean blue jellywith small and large glitter that flashes gold, teal and cobalt blue. A stunner.:



Sinful All About You, again small gold glitter to give coverage, and large orange glitter to add a warm tone and sparkle.:




And some others I hadn't noticed before that I picked up on sale:

Sinful Sugar Sugar, red shimmer:


Sinful Vacation Time, a nice mauve creme:


Sinful Let Me Go, a nice lavender frost with a duochrome goldish/blue duochrome shimmer. On the sheer side:


Sinful Rich In Heart, black jelly with red shimmer:

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Crystal Ball

Crystal Ball is a nice brownish wine-red shimmer with a light sprinkling of rainbow glitter. I had never heard of this one, got it at Victoria Nail Supply.

China Glaze Crystal Ball:

China Glaze for Days - China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise

This is a gentler neon, a bright, with a very nice shimmer finish to it. Easy to control, and a great summer eye-catcher.

China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise:

Some New Polish Monkey Junk I Picked Up Today at Sally

I needed some base coat, so I went to Sally to pick up my favorite, Hard Rock. Well when I got it hope, it was open and it had elaked. BUT I did also get some wacky new crap there. They have a new product, little mylar flakes in a number of irridescent colors. They are about $3.50 per jar with Sally card, and one jar will probably last you an entire lifetime. So I bought a few to enjoy.

First thing I did was put a couple on my nails with just topcoat. A bit messy, but not too hard to do. It's not my forte, I am NOT a nail art person, but I had fun. I'd use these on a special day or going to a club or whatever. I doubt I'd do it regularly.

The ones I put on with topcoat:




One over China Glaze Calypso Blue:


A few I haven't tried yet. I'll try them and post pictures maybe next week.

China Glaze for Days! - China Glaze Holographic Polishes

And today I'll show you a few of my favorite China Glaze holographics, there's a lot of swatches of these out there because they are amazing amounts of fun!

China Glaze LOL:


China Glaze L8R G8R:


China Glaze QT:


China Glaze 2Nite:


China Glaze Let's Do It In 3D: