China Glaze - Boundary of Memory (The Giver Collection, autumn 2014) and comparison with China Glaze In The City (Metro Collection, autumn 2011)

China Glaze and micro glitters: WOW they do them so well!
There are two in The Giver collection: Boundary of Memory and The Outer Edge. The last one is probably more of a topper but you could get it semi opaque on the nail if you really wanted to (and I DO, but I'll reserve that for later).
Today it is Boundary of Memory: a splendid mix of black, silver and copper gold micro glitter. The formula was a bit thick, like I was putting a sandy syrup on my nails but it was workable and completely opaque in two coats.

China Glaze - Boundary of Memory

I used Essence Nial Art Peel Off base coat and added one extra layer of topcoat (Essence Gel-Look XXXL shine) underneath China Glaze Fast Forward to even everything out. This whole sandwich was VERY hard wearing! It didn't chip at all and after a week I needed to work very hard to "peel" (more like hack and peck) the whole thing off again.
This glitter mix does remind me a bit of China Glaze In the City (China Glaze Metro collection for Fall 2011) but that polish had more of a lilac undertone and was thus a bit colder in hue.
I will put a comparison swatch up when I have time this week.......

Essie - Strut Your Stuff (Haute in the Heat Collection summer 2014) and comparisson

The weather has turned here in The Netherlands, it's getting colder and the rains have drifted in. I was in need of a bright and intense nail colour and rummaging trough my drawers I found Essies Strut Your Stuff.
Strut Your Stuff is an intense cyan colour with loads of pigment, very fitting for my mood and nicely compensating the weather! This should be the colour of the sky when your are riding around on your bike all day ;-)

Essie - Strut Your Stuff

Lovely isn't it?!
The formula was buttery and perfect; two easy layers and you're done.

Then I was thinking "do I have anything similar to this...I would think so?". Well, no dupes in any way and nothing even that was too similar, really.

Koh! No Worries has the same intensity but is more blue in tone.
The China Glaze Isle See You Later is very transparent (like water) has the same basic tone of colour but doesn't build up enough at all (this was 7 coats!!!).
Essie I'm Addicted is lighter and more turquoise in tone.
Orly Skinny Dip is close family to I'm Addicted but a distant cousin to Strut Your Stuff.

So no dupes in my stash >phieuw<
Perhaps I'm going to decant some SYS into the China Glaze (since the colour is almost identical) and hope this will improve the buildability of it and make it more wearable.

OPI - Today I Accomplished Zero (Coca Cola Collection summer 2014)

Opi's Today I Accomplished Zero is inspired by.....Coca Cola Zero....and I really do hate the taste of that one. It's like drinking liquid plastic or something >brrrrr< and the after taste is the worst >shivers<

And the polish? I wasn't too sure looking at the bottle, it looked murky and unattractive to my eye.
The first coat on the nail didn't change that perspective one little bit: it was streaky and transparent. But coat number two did the trick: there was depth and there was sparkle and glowing ambers in the dark. I love it and it is very wearable!

OPI - Today I Accompliced Zero

I won't start drinking Coke Zero, but I do love this colour and I am definitely going to wear this one very often this fall!
Naturally it reminds us of the Mariah Carey one Stay The Night (one of the first Liquid Sand polishes), but I think the reddish-pink glitter is a bit more red in TIAZ and there is more size variation in those glitters as well

left: Today I accomplished Zero & right: Stay The Night

OPI - My Dogsled is a Hybrid (Nordic Collection autumn 2014) and Elevation Polish - Plumeria (Heights of Hawaii Collection, January 2014)

When I bought OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid, i had the impression it would be a mint. But it isn't it's a light jade or perhaps a minted jade (can one say such a thing?). It's a lovely intense colour, a happy and bright note for autumn: I like it!

And just because the combination looked so lovely I added a coat of Elevation Polish Plumeria, an all circle glitter topper with blue shimmer in it's transparent base.

Elevation - Polish Plumeria & OPI - My Dogsled is a Hybrid

My dogsled was very pigmented and needed only two coats (if you are lucky perhaps just one), it dried very quickly so it's self leveling capacities were not spectacular: work fast and don't fiddle.

Plumeria was very thick and it was hard to place the big glitters. So I did as Elevation Polish says on the website: "To achieve more glitter per nail, dunk brush in polish, swipe brush on the inside neck of the bottle, grab the circle glitters from the inside neck and apply directly to the nail." For the grabbing a used a sate pin.

I think the end result is lovely: the blue shimmer stands out just enough and the soft colours of the glitter compliment the green perfectly.

China Glaze - Release (The Giver Collection, autumn 2014) and comparison to Essie Bangle Jangle, Zoya Caitlin, OPI Parlez-vous Opi etc.

What is it with these taupe, greige, grey-purple colours that makes you want to own them all so desperately?
When I saw the first pictures of the The Giver Collection, I just needed Release immediately!
Release is a fairly neutral greige, not too warm and not too cold: very wearable for all kinds of skin colours.
The formula works reasonably well, it's a bit fast drying so you have to get on with it and don't fuss. I did three coats here to get it all opaque and greigealicious.

China Glaze - Release

Oh, don't you love it?!

It reminded me of a few colours that are sitting in some of my drawers.....soooooooo I needed to do a comparison!

First up I compared Release with Zoya Caitlin, OPI Parlez-vous Opi and Essie Smokin' Hot. Parlez-vous was too mauve and not grey enough, the Essie was too brown and too dark; the Zoya was the closest in colour yet it was a bit darker and was overall a bit too blue.

Zoya Caitlin, CG Release, OPI Parlez-vous Opi, Essie Smokin' Hot

Smokin' Hot, Parlez-vous, Release, Caitlin

Then I remembered Essie Bangle Jangle....that might be the closest friend of Release.

Zoya Caitlin, CG Release, Essie Bangle Jangle, OPI Parlez-vous Opi

CG Release, Essie Bangle Jangle

Bangle Jangle really is a very close friend, the same tone of colour as Release BUT it is a tint lighter then the China Glaze.
So relieve here: I have no dupes, only friends and I really needed this greige, no doubt about that!