China Glaze - Strike Up A Cosmo topped with OPI - Movin Out and OPI - Glitter Bit Of Music

A few days ago I was fiddling around with China Glaze Strike Up A Cosmo, just to get it a bit less grainy and harsh. The colour is very nice, the structure is a bit too flaky and rough for me (perhaps, in hind side I should add a bit of thinner as well). The solution I came up with was to put OPI Movin Out on top of two layers of SUAC. And to top it all off I used OPI Glitter Bit Of Music to get back a bit of the golden sparkle SUAC has. The result is a much smoother polish with loads of sparkle (red in low light en golden in day light) and a bit of the duochrome goodness of Movin Out!

This is what the cocktail looks like:

China Glaze - Strike Up A Cosmo, OPI - Movin Out, OPI - Glitter Bit Of Music

Photo taken outside.

Halogen light.

A bit of a blurry pic to get out the red sparkle!

The combination is delicate but good, I think. SUAC looks a bit more warm (good thing with my skintone) and much smoother then without Movin Out.

Last three China Glaze - Autumn Nights 2013 polishes with comparison!

This post has been waiting and waiting.....my nails looked like sh*t after the holidays, then the light was bad, then the polish did not speak to me: it just was not going to happen, until now.
I have three foils from the China Glaze Autumn Nights Collection; Gossip Over Gimlets, Strike Up A Cosmo and Rendezvous With You.
First up is Gossip Over Gimlets, a dens silver foil with gold flecks:

I compared Gossip Over Gimlets with Annie Never Can Say Goodbye and OPI Designer De Better. GOG was the most foil like of the three polishes and the most harsh looking.
NCSG has pink metallic flecks and has much finer silver metallic flecks. DDB is less dens, finer and has these bronze coloured flecks which gives a much warmer feel to the colour. I like the OPI best!

Next up is the rosy metallic, Strike Up A Cosmo:

Stike Up A Cosmo is also a grainy metallic foil with gold and silver flecks in there. I compared it with Zoya Faye. You can see it is in the same colour family but Faye is lighter (more pink) and has more golden flecks and no silver. SUAC covers almost in 1 coat and with Faye you need at least 2! Perhaps Faye is more spring and SUAC is more autumn.......

The last one of the Autumn Nights series that I have is Rendezvous With You:

Rendezvous with you has a little finer in structure then the other two and it also lacks the gold flecks (only silver here). It is a nice, very saturated, brownish purple colour; very autumn appropriate.
I compared it with Zoya Daul but as you can see there are no similarities between the two.

Over all I find these three metallics a bit too grainy and to harsh looking for my taste. I missed the little extra umpfh, like a nice colour shift or tiny extra colour twinkle (like some tiny little red micro glitters in RWY).

China Glaze Autumn Nights 2013 - Scandalous Shenanigans

The series is being continued today with Scandalous Shenanigans (love that name), a rich blue shimmer, from the Autumn Nights Collection 2013 of China Glaze.
SS (not the best of abbreviations), lets make it CGSS (that's better) is a smoldering velvety deep blue.
If you work precise and do not let the polish pool...this could be an one coater as well (like Queen B)!
It is a bit prone to brush strokes but it levels out quite nicely.

Here it is:

China Glaze - Scandalous Shenanigans

Then I compared it to queen B, just to have a look at the difference in blue tone....

China Glaze - Scandalous Shenanigans and Queen B

Left: Queen B           Right: Scandalous Shenanigans

As you can see Queen B is more purple toned and more dusty. The metallic particles give CGSS that smoldering velvety look.....very autumn appropriate, I would say.

Next up will be my unexpected favorite of the bunch >curious?<

China Glaze Autumn Nights 2013 - Queen B and Essie - No More Film

I just could not resist when I stumbled upon a few of the China Glaze Autumn Nights Collection.....I just had to buy them!
I will start the little series with a creme: Queen B (which will be a reference to Beyonce and baby Blue I presume...). When I opened the box and I saw this colour my first thought was: "I have already seen this polish before". I know it is a plain creme, dark and dusty blue-purple so that is not so peculiar. Yet......Essie kept popping up in my mind....

First some pics of Queen B:

China Glaze - Queen B

It is a very nice dark and dusty purple-blue creme. It is pigmented like crazy and I only needed ONE coat!
Upon removal it does not leave smurf fingers, so that is an extra bonus!

Do you see the Essie colour in Queen B yet.....it is Essie No More Film.
They are dupes.

See for yourself:

China Glaze - Queen B and Essie- No More Film

Pointer and ring: Essie middle and pinkie: China Glaze

Left: Essie           right: China Glaze

My pointer and ringfinger are Essie No More Film and my middle and pinkie are Queen B. In most lights there is no difference, in low light NMF seems to be a tiny bit more purple and less dusty then Queen B.
Essie NMF needed 2 coats to be opaque, so if you do not own the Essie I would recommend the China Glaze. If you have NMF then you do not need Queen B, in my humble opinion.

China Glaze Autumn Nights 2013 - Tongue & Chic

Part 3 of my little Autumn Nights Series is today!

My unexpected favorite of the bunch is Tongue & Chic, a smoldering and lush bottle green (emerald shimmer, China Glaze calls it). I was afraid the colour would be too rich and too cold for my skin tone but it is not! >yeah<
T&C has the same metallic particles as Scandalous Shenanigans and thus the same velvety look....

Here it is *drum roll*:

China Glaze - Tongue & Chic

It is such a deep and murky kind of green: love it! It is like looking in deep and murky waters, with the sun playing on the surface.
It look a bit Christmassy as well :-)

Needless to say, but I'll say it nevertheless: ONE COATER!

China Glaze Autumn Nights 2013 - Red-y & Willing

Last but not least out of my little China Glaze Autumn Nights series, there is Red-y & Willing (like in CG Adventure Red-y; did that, done that...why repeat? It wasn't that cute....).
R&W is in the same family as the prior two polishes (Scandalous Shenanigans and Tongue & Chic) it has the signature metallic particles and has thus the same smoldering velvety look...only this one is red(y) a deep warm burgandy red. China Glaze calls this a red shimmer...well, yes it is. Perhaps more of a burgundy wine shimmer.
 

China Glaze - Red-y & Willing

It oozes autumn, winter, X-mas, cherries in brandy, smoldering fires, velvety drapes and what have you.
I'll wear this again, when the nights are long and the days are cold.

This was, an exception, a two coater.

Here are the three colours together (a winter college style trio):

China Glaze Tongue & Chic - Red-y & Willing -  Scandalous Shenanigans

In the bottle they look quite frosty on the nail that frost disappears and gives it that rich look you see in the pics (I hope).Conclusion for the Autumn Nights Collection quartet: lovely dark and velvety colours but all in all not terribly exciting. The finish is nice but not spectacular...it's a pitty there are no other finishes in the collection it is either creme or shimmer....
It is lovely that three out of four are one coaters >love that<