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!

BB Couture for Nails - Eve (Infamous Lovers Collection 2010)

Infamous lovers...doesn't that sound great?!
And of all these infamous lovers I choose Eve and the colour and name combination is perfection.
Eve is a murky, mossy, swampy green-brown jelly with flashy green micro glitters floating around and a vague brown red duochrome quality. It is a complicated shade (fitting for Eve) that is hard to capture in words and in pictures, but one that is very, very fun to wear!
It is an older polish (2010) but I think if you channel the Sherlock Holmes in you, it might still be possible to find this polish on the web...

BB Couture for Nails - Eve

The first coat was a bit streaky but the second one made all the difference and gave me these beautiful swamp nails!
This would be a very nice Halloween polish as well, come to think of it....

OPI - Red Hot Rio (Brazil Collection, summer 2014)

I love myself a good and juicy R E D. And OPI provides them in abundance this year... Let's recap, it started with: 

Gwen Stefani for OPI: Over and Over A-Gwen

Brazil Collection: Red Hot Rio

Coca Cola Collection: Coca Cola Red

Ford Mustang Collection: Race Red

Fashion Plate MLB Collection: Short-Stop! and Love Athletes in Cleats.

Gwen Stefani Holiday Collection: Cinnamon Sweet, Fashion a Bow, Just Beclaus, What's Your Point-settia? and Red Fingers and Mistletoes.

Well that is 11 fairly straight forward reds in one single year (and I didn't count the almost reds, corals and neons...nor the Mariah Carey Holiday Collection 2013 that was consistent of just reds and golds). As much as I love OPI I think this is an overkill and a huge lack in creativity and imagination! Man they don't even try to make all these reds special or different it's only creme or crelly and (when in luck) a sniff of glass fleck of glimmer.

OK, that said: I bought this Red Hot Rio before the big red polish wave was on it's top....and I must admit I like the colour and the crelly formula of this one. It flows like butter on the nails, self levels like crazy and the red is a beautiful and quite chic blood red.

As is the case with most reds....it is impossible to get the colour right in the pictures.... It sort of is OK in these pics, but it is a bit deeper in real life. This was two layers, but next time I think I will do three to make it look even more squishy and deep!

Love this one, but OPI should stop the red overload: I have more then enough reds!!

Right?!

ANNY - Naked Venus 244 (Yachting Holidays Collection, summer 2014) and comparison with Essie Fiji and China Glaze Friends Forever Right?

I was in NEED of a very pale pink (think Essie Fiji)! What to do, when Fiji is sold out everywhere? In that precarious case one goes to Douglas and buys Anny's Naked Venus....
Fortunately I also found Essie Fiji in the European and the American version (!) so I can compare them all together.
This was two coats of pale pink goodness (the family said it looked like white, but we girls know better, right?!). The Poshé topcoat did some weird shrinking thingy at the edges, so next time I'll use a different brand and hope to avoid that particular problem.

ANNY - Naked Venus 244

Naked Venus is a lovely and very fresh pale pink polish, perhaps I should say it is a white with a hint of pink.
Next I compared NV with the two Essie's I told you about and with China Glaze Friends Forever Right? from The Giver Collection.

From left to right is (in the first picture):
Essie Fiji US, Essie Fiji EU, Anny Naked Venus, Chins Glaze FFR? and Essie Blanc

As you can see the US Fiji is the most pink of the 5 (it really is a true light pink), the EU variation is a bit lighter and has a drop of yellow. Then comes Anny: an extremely pale pink, while China Glaze FFR? is a white with a hint of pink and Essie Blanc is a true white. The China Glaze is the closest to the Anny in colour, formula wise I do not know yet, because I have not worn FFR on the nails yet....

KIKO Quick Dry - Pearly Jeans 856

Allo, allo!
Dark polish again...it's getting later in the year and the need for deep and dark colours is on the rise with me. This KIKO Quick Dry I bought in Italy this summer and it looks very sparkly in the bottle. On the nail there is less sparkle and more of a silver metallic flake effect. Next time I should mattify it, that will be stunning with this polish I think! In the sun the metallic is dominant and in the shade 856 is more of a dark jeans blue with silver linings (I get the jeans part in the name, the pearly bit is a mystery to me: to me it is more a Metallic Jeans, a Studded Jeans or a Sparkly Skinny).

KIKO Quick Dry - Pearly Jeans 856

This was two layers, the first one being very uneven (this polish dries fast...>duh<....and I was surprised!) the second one, more liberal, did the trick and evened everything out. Because of the shine of this type of polish, you get to see all the weird dents and ridges in your nails....... and I used ridge filler!

China Glaze - Heat Index (Summer 2013 Sunsational Collection)

There are those days that you are in need of a good juicy neon pink....today was one of those!
I reached for China Glaze Heat Index, of last years neon summer collection: a perfect neon pink that is a juicy jelly. The jelly makes it succulant and shiny and it makes the neon a bit less harsh. This was three coats and I had still vnl and it is not build-able to opacity I'm afraid BUT the colour was very intense.

China Glaze - Heat Index

If and when you are allergic to jellies and/or vnl, Heat Index is not for you. If you like squishy colour wash on your nails: try Heat Index, you'll love it!
A point to note is that these Sunsational jellies don't last long on the nails...the ones that I wore were heavily chipped after one day or so....perhaps I'm doing something wrong......I don't know?!

OPI - Blue Chips (overstock re-release of OPI - The Flowers are Blue-ming, the Ulta "Too Haute To Handle" collection 2012)

Before the holidays I bought a bunch of cheap OPI's at the Big Bazar, they had all names I had never ever heard of. But Google helped me out; most of these are overstock re-releases of special collections (collaborations mostly).
Today I am wearing Blue Chips (I found out this was The Flowers are Blue-ming of the Ulta "Too Haute To Handle" collection 2012) : a turquoise blue polish with a nice big helping of silver holo micro glitter in the mix. The blue was a bit harsh on my skin tone and the glitter makes tiny bumps on the blue surface so the polish looks bumpy even though it feels smooth due to two liberal layers of top coat.

OPI - Blue Chips / The Flowers are Blue-ming

I compared it to Suzi Says Feng Shui and Absolutely Alice, the first being a bit softer and more petrol blue, the second is deeper in tone and more turquoise.
The thing with Blue Chips is the pearl sensation; it eats the micro glitters and makes the polish look bumpy and flat in certain lights, in the sun and halogen light the micro glitters pop out. They are so shiny that the twinkle overwhelms the pearl completely and makes it look fabulous. So wear this one in the right light ;-)

This was two easy coats and I had chips within a day (hence the name Blue Chips?).