Color Club Harp On It

Nothing To Disclose
Happy Valentine's Day! Today I have one of my favorite polishes from Color Club called Harp On It. This is a silver linear holographic from the Halo Hues collection.

Cosmoprof North America 2017

Nothing To Disclose

Cosmoprof North America was a BLAST! On top of seeing some of my favorite bloggers, I also got to meet with some of my favorite brands, as well as meet some new ones! It's always a pleasure to head out to Las Vegas for a few days to see all things beauty.

Spa Hacienda - Full Set Acrylic Nails

Nothing To Disclose
Spa Hacienda is an upscale spa and salon located in downtown Kingsville, Texas. It is owned by Meredith Benton, a licensed esthetician since 2001, mom and overall rockstar. I first went to her after a disastrous eyebrow waxing and now only trust my brows to her and her manager, Sarah Peterson. During my last eyebrow appointment, I learned that they had added a new nail technician to the group, Esteban Guerrero.

I went to check out Esteban's Instagram and absolutely fell in love with what I saw. Crystals, glitter, holographic powder, mini almond claws, coffins! Between the bold matte colors and mix and match  nails, I was sold. What made things really awesome for me was that I had just recently won a $50 gift card from our work holiday party so I felt like this was going to be the best chance to play "Secret Shopper" and get some awesome nails!

Esteban was able to book me for Friday morning at 9 am, making me the first appointment of the day. I let him know that I was totally open to color, shape and design - I had a $50 gift card and I work on a computer most of the day and have two young kids. He recommended a coffin shape and got to work.

He started with a waterless manicure, removing my old polish, cutting down my natural nail and pushing back my cuticles. Then he used an e-file to prep my natural nail before fitting me with tips and started work on shaping the coffin. I didn't feel any burning or discomfort during the e-filing.

Next came the bonder and acrylic as he shaped the coffin and built up the nail. Esteban works quietly and intently as he would line up my hands to check. Now, I haven't had acrylics in over 10 years, so I felt a little odd moving my hands around and felt like I was apologizing too much but he assured me each time that I was fine.

Originally I was told that I should block an hour and a half for the appointment but at the one hour mark, his next client arrived and we hadn't even polished. Esteban chose a white Color Club gel and started to free hand a negative space triangle on my right index finger. Next came overall color on my right middle finger, ring finger and thumb. On the pinkie, he used a pink Color Club gel. For my left hand, it was again white gel for the middle finger and thumb and on the pinkie, he started a negative space Ruffian nail. My ring finger was done in the pink and my left pointer finger was left clear and he used holographic glitter (UH MY FAVORITE!) to make the tip opaque and then taper down to the nail in an ombre effect. For finishing touches, more holographic glitter was added from the cuticle up on my left ring finger and after top coat, I received some left over holographic glitter on my left thumb. The appointment ended after an hour and 15 minutes.

The price for my nails was $50 even, and I left a 40% tip because it's the holidays and I knew I was going to be reviewing his work on the blog, which some people may not love being reviewed without knowing.

Here are my nails:

Overall thoughts
Since this was my first acrylic set in over 10 years, I'm impressed with how the industry has evolved. While the length is definitely something to get used to, I absolutely love the shape.

As for the designs, I'm in love with all but the negative space designs. The hand painted isn't perfectly straight, which for me, is something I obsess over. The negative space Ruffian drives me absolutely insane. I feel like I looks grown out, not like a Ruffian. While the holographic glitter index nail is my absolute favorite, the glitter needed another coat of gel top coat because there is some rough spots where the gel soaked down and the texture of a rough nail is frustrating to me. 

The thickness is VERY hard for me to get used to. My natural nails are at least half the thickness of these nails, but I don't feel that it's adequate for me to judge since I haven't had acrylics in over a decade. Also, the corners of some of the nails were not smooth which meant I started snagging on everything and it's only been 2 hours since I got these done. 

Gel application does need a bit of work for me - as you can see, some gel is on my skin, meaning that lifting is possible over the coming days and weeks as the gel loosens from the skin. While I like the waterless manicure idea, I would have preferred a cuticle remover like the Essie Apricot Cuticle Remover and some time of cuticle oil in the end like CND Solar Oil.

All that being said, I've shown these to two people who had very different reactions. A fellow nail tech immediately was able to see the flaws and tell me how I can fix it to work in a way I need. My friend, who has no knowledge of nails except she is looking for a place to get her nails done - absolutely loved them and gushed over how amazing they look. 

Esteban can be booked through the Vagaro website. The price list as of December 2016 are as follows:

• Full Set Acrylic Nails - $30
• Acrylic Nail Fill - $25
• SNS Full Set Natural Nail - $35
• SNS Full Set With Tip - $45
• Shellac Polish Only - $20

Again, my above nails were $50. I'm not sure if the $20 went for the specialty shape and each nail being different or how it was broken down, as it wasn't listed.

I would love to try the SNS on my natural nail some time in the future. For now, I am going to try and keep my acrylics as long as I can and will be soaking off with my Steam Off to see how my natural nails survived.

Color Club Stamping Plates

Press Sample

At Cosmoprof North America, I found out that Color Club was going into the stamping business - and boy were they ever! Launching over 40 plates out of the gate, they mean business. Also while at Cosmoprof, I was blessed to meet the husband and wife duo behind the stockist site Color4Nails. This posting will be about the Color Club Stamping Plates but they were provided to me via Color4Nails.

Side note, Color4Nails is a small home business that was founded in 2011. Their goal is to offer unique polish from different counties as well as from independent polish makers. What I really love is that they have some amazing collaboration polishes only available on their website but we will talk more about that later.

The above 3 plates are the ones I received from Color4Nails. Since they were a press sample, I cannot speak to the ease of purchasing through the website, but I was happy that they were well packaged. I had received 2 bottles of nail polish as well and they were also well packaged. If you've been reading PolishGalore for some time, you may recall another stockist/beauty website that sent me a horribly "wrapped" package, so it's important to me that things are properly packaged.

The first plate I used was the Color Club Sixties plate. First, take off the protective plastic from the plate. Apply your desired polish to the plate, remove excess with a scraper, use your stamper, and apply it to your nail. Since this was my first try, I decided to use 4 different designs.

The plates are gold in color and the outer white area is a plastic attachment that keeps you from banging the plate's edge. To keep it clean, I scraped towards the plate instead of off the edge.

For reference, I used a base manicure of LVX "Vanilla". I used Digital Nails "Questionable Browser History" which is a liquid latex masking fluid to cover around my cuticles so I didn't have to clean up as much. For stamping, I used CND Creative Play in "Red-Y To Roll", "Royalista" and "Isn't She Grape". For top coat, I used CND Creative Play top coat. My scraper and clear stamper were from UberChic.

So I'm pretty impressed with the pick up of each stamp. The designs are all well etched inside. The smearing you see is from my top coat. I have to now rummage through my box to find one that doesn't smear. I had also attempted Digital Nails "Ain't Nobody Got Time For That" top coat (smeared) and Anonymous Lacquer "With A Quickness" top coat (smeared) and this was a good 5 minutes after stamping. There's also the possibility that CND Creative Play isn't a great stamping polish. It's made to be a lacquer, and is not branded as a stamping polish.

The second plate I used was called Illusion. I used a base manicure of Glisten & Glow "Snorkel in St. Thomas". I used Digital Nails "Questionable Browser History" for my cuticles. For stamping, I used M Polish "I Need A Vacation" and LVX "Crimson". For top coat, I used Love Angeline "Topped With Love". My scraper and clear stamper were from UberChic.

LVX is used on my index and pinkie, M Polish is on my ring and middle fingers. M Polish is an actual stamping polish and you can see how it works beautifully. LVX also works but it's not as crisp. I actually had a really hard time with this plate picking up images the first time. I don't know if it's a combination of my stamper and polish or what. It looks etched just as well as the Sixties plate, so I'm not sure what's going on but I really love the different designs available.

The final plate I received was Food and this was the one that I felt was the most detailed by far. Sadly, it's also the one I had the absolute hardest with. Granted, I'm still very novice when it comes to stamping, so it may just be all that. I also want to try another stamper in the future.  I used a base manicure of Dermelect Explosive. I used Digital Nails Questionable Browser History for my cuticles. For stamping, I used M Polish "Pish Plashin' Around", CND Creative Play "Red-Y To Roll" and "Isn't She Grape?" and LVX "Mink". For top coat, I used Love Angeline "Topped With Love". My scraper and clear stamper were from UberChic.

Not going to lie, I feel like a major failure right now with this last plate. I tried a double stamp on my ring finger and that just looks like mud. My index refused to take up the image. The words are a mess on my middle finger. The only one that came out half decent is my pinkie. I think my base manicure probably wasn't the best idea either. I should have gone with something more neutral. 

Overall I think these plates are really nice - well etched, durable and lots to choose from. I don't feel totally defeated and want to look at picking up some more stamping polishes. M Polish is currently closed so I can't grab any more of hers but there are a couple more indie companies popping up and there's always Konad as well. I'm hoping Color Club comes out with a line as well.

You can purchase the Color Club Stamping Plates directly from Color4Nails here. Be sure to check out Color4Nails's social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration. For more information, please read this post.

Color Club Under The Blacklight

 Nothing To Disclose

Color Club has really taken steps to brand themselves in the last few years, starting with the new logo and crisp white caps. This year, they are going even further by enlisting world renowned nail artist Robert Nguyen to help promote their lines which includes gel (and the Halo Hues in gel form!) and they just launched their Color Club Sports website for all those sports lovers in your lives.

But recently, I came across a deal on Zulily that included duo sets of the Poptastic Pastel Neon collection for $8 each, so I swooped in and got them all. Today I have Under the Blacklight, a pastel neon yellow. I used a base coat of Glisten & Glow Stuck on Blu!, 3 coats of polish and finished with Digital Nails Ain't Nobody Got Time For That. It took all 3 coats to even out and not be streaky or chalky. I was actually pretty happy with that, as yellows are notorious for being problem children.

Here in my light box, you can see how buttery happy this color is. No white coat underneath needed! I know that this whole pastel neon thing was a thing and I don't hate it but I'm not sure that I love it.

Here in the sun, you can see a little bit of coat build up near my cuticles which is why I stress that you need thin coats when applying any polish. You don't want to see the lines where you've added more.

In the shade, the color really takes on the pastel nature and makes it more eye pleasing to me. My husband thinks it looks more green than yellow in real life and here it almost has a lime look to it.

Finally inside with indirect light, you see that buttery softness again. This is a great addition for nail art or a great base for some nail art but I'm not sure that I would wear it on a daily basis. 

Color Club is located on several etailers, including Head2Toe Beauty which has it for $3.50 or on their own website for $8.50 each.  You can also Like them on Facebook, Follow them on Twitter, follow on Instagram, follow on Pinterest and subscribe on YouTube.

#31DC2013 Day 3: Yellow Nails

Cutting it close today, I know. But I had a glorious 3 hour nap as it rained, so sorry, not sorry.

Today's challenge was yellow nails, and this was a challenge for me because I typically HATE yellow polish.  Like really hate.  First I thought about glitter, then cremes, then golds and then I just got distracted.

When I was searching my boxes, I immediately came across Color Club Daisy Does It, which is a yellow microglitter shimmer in a slightly yellow base. However, it was just too sheer so then I found my Ruby Wing Birdie and put down 2 coats of that.  (I started my manicure with Cult Nails Get It On.) Then I added 2 coats of Daisy Does It. But I didn't feel complete so on my ring finger, I added one coat of Sation Twinkle, Twinkle Big Star and one more coat of Daisy Does It to make the glitter look more yellow than gold.  Add Cult Nails Wicked Fast top coat and DONE.

I actually really, REALLY liked this manicure! I didn't get as much glitter as I hoped out of my Sation bottle. The larger rainbow reflective pieces sank towards the sides of my nails and all that really stood out was the red glitter, but I can't wait to layer it over white and see it all pop out. I even considered wearing this look to work! It's just the right touch of glamour.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Recent NOTDs

If you follow me on Instagram, then I totally apologize for the repeat photos but I thought I'd share a few NOTD polishes I've been wearing lately!

Starting with some naked nails:

1 October

10 October

27 November

And now some color!

Sation Diamond Diggin' Diva

Color Club Harp On It

Layla Softouch

Ruby Wing Sand Dune (shade on left, sun on right(

Jelly sandwich of Cult Nails Bitten & OPI Servin' Up Sparkle

Cult Nails Disciplined with Jindie Nails Tried & True

China Glaze Glistening Snow

It's been fun wearing nail polish again!  I hadn't been wearing full manicures lately and missed it.

Color Club Style Icon

Skipping around through brands and collection - today's post is from Color Club's 2012 Fall collection titled In True Fashion.  This was a 12 piece collection that was split into 6 cremes and 6 shimmers.  This is Style Icon, a blue based red jelly that was a bit vampy on the nail.  I used a base coat of Poshe, 2 coats of polish and a top of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.

Here in the sun you can see a bit what I mean about it being a jelly like polish - it looks almost watery on the nail instead of fully opaque.

In the indirect sun you can see the vampy red coming out a bit - it's much lighter than the bottle but still not too jelly.

Finally indoors you can tell that this is light and jelly while still being a bit vampy like corn syrup blood that's too thin.  Or not?  Either way, I'm not sure I'd purchase this for the sake of owning a red jelly.  I would like to test it in a jelly sandwich but I may need to just go with 2 coats tops.  Pretty, but not really my cup of tea.

Color Club is located on several etailers, including Head2Toe Beauty which has it for $3.50 or on their own website for $8.50 each.  You can also Like them on Facebook, Follow them on Twitter, follow on Instagram, follow on Pinterest and subscribe on YouTube.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Color Club In True Fashion

While I was at Cosmoprof last month, I got to take lots of pictures of upcoming Color Club collections, including the Fall 2012 "In True Fashion"!  I plan to spend part of this weekend getting that post up, along with my last few Cosmoprof goodies that I have to share!  Then it's back to LOTS and LOTS of swatching! Meanwhile, please enjoy the following press release from Color Club (all images courtest of Forsythe).

INTRODUCING IN TRUE FASHION FALL 2012 NAIL POLISH COLLECTION FROM COLOR CLUB

Straight off the Runway Comes this Season's Hottest Collection of All-eyes-on-hue Lacquers

May 2012 - New York, New York - Color Club, the New York based nail color company announced today the debut of In True Fashion, the new fall 2012 nail polish collection from Color Club. Straight off the runway comes what is sure to be this season's hottest collection of all-eyes-on-hue nail lacquers. The Collection features 12 seasonally inspired nail polishes – from Look Book and Personal Stylist to First Looks and Model Behavior – this new vegan, formaldehyde, toluene and DBP-free collection will ensure you are runway ready.

Introducing the In True Fashion Collection from Color Club:

Look Book: Bright Red

Style Icon: Burgundy

By Design: Plum

In the Limelight: Periwinkle

Muse-ical: Gray

Fashion Moment: Eggplant

Editorial: Peridot Duochrome

Port-folio: Purple Duochrome

Personal Stylist: Blue Duochrome

First Looks: Blue Green Metallic

Model Behavior: Bronze Metallic

Show Time: Charcoal Metallic

Color Club’s In True Fashion Collection will be available in August of 2012. All Color Club products are made in the USA and are not tested on animals. Products are available at shopcolorclub.com.

About Color Club

A favorite of celebrity manicurists and nail color fans worldwide, Color Club is renowned for its high performance rich shades and exceptionally safe products. From the brightest neons, to glitter and French, all nail colors are vegan, formaldehyde, toluene, and DBP -free – and made in New York, NY with the best raw materials. Products are available at shopcolorclub.com

Color Club Take Wing

Randomly, I saw this collection out before it was supposed to be.  But now that it's officially summer 2012, be on the look out for Color Club - Take Wing!  (All images courtesy of Color Club)

Introducing the Take Wing Collection from Color Club

Color Reaches New Heights with This Enchanting Collection of Bright Shimmering Shades

December 2011 - New York, New York - Color Club, the New York based nail color company announced today the debut of Take Wing, a new nail color collection of bright, shimmer-infused shades inspired by vibrant butterflies and spring metamorphosis. Fly high with color and soar to sparkling new heights with this new collection featuring six unique shades. Aptly named WingFling, Sparkle and Soar, Metamorphosis, Fly with Me, Sky High and Daisy Does it, this new vegan, formaldehyde, toluene and DBP-free collection is a completely new way to experience the metamorphosis of Spring.

The Take Wing Collection includes (from left to right):

WingFling: Red/Pink Shimmer

Sparkle and Soar: Orange Shimmer

Sky High: Blue Shimmer

Metamorphosis: Turquoise Green Shimmer

Fly with Me: Lime Green Shimmer

Daisy Does It: Yellow Shimmer

Color Club’s Take Wing Collection will be available in April 2012. All Color Club products are made in the USA and are not tested on animals. Products are available at shopcolorclub.com

About Color Club

A favorite of celebrity manicurists and nail color fans worldwide, Color Club is renowned for its high performance rich shades and exceptionally safe products. From the brightest neons, to glitter and French, all nail colors are vegan, formaldehyde, toluene, and DBP -free – and made in New York, NY with the best raw materials. -

Color Club Blossoming

Spring is almost here folks!  It was in the 80s here today and I actually turned on the air conditioning!  YAY!  To help pick up your spirits (or at least mine), here is a great spring release from Color Club!  (PS: I don't know why it says it was being released in October 2011 - I just got the release 2 weeks ago and the actual polishes arrived at my house late last week.)


Edit: I heard directly from Color Club and the reason that the release says October 2011 is that's when it went out to other beauty editors (think print).  This collection is intended as a Spring release for February 2012.

Introducing The New Blossoming Collection from Color Club

Rich Color Has Bloomed & Everything is Coming up Couture

October 2011 - New York, New York - Color Club, the New York based nail color company announced today the debut of Blossoming a new nail polish collection for Spring. With the beautiful budding flowers of the season as an inspiration, rich color has bloomed! Add Diamond Drops topcoat for a “morning rain-kissed” effect. Blossoming features six nail polishes -- from Hydrangea Kiss, Sweetpea and Blue-ming to Blushing Rose and Lavendarling. This new vegan, formaldehyde, toluene and DBP-free collection is sure to signal spring is in the air... or blossoming.

The Blooming Collection includes:

Hydrangea Kiss: Dusty blue-purple crème

Sweetpea: Rosy Pink crème

Blue-ming: Bright blue-green crème

Blushing Rose: Baby pink crème

Lavendarling: Dusty purple crème

Diamond Drops: Silver ice flake polish

Color Club’s Blossoming Collection will be available in February 2012. All Color Club products are made in the USA and are not tested on animals. Products are available at shopcolorclub.com.

About Color Club

A favorite of celebrity manicurists and nail color fans worldwide, Color Club is renowned for its high performance rich shades and exceptionally safe products. From the brightest neons, to glitter and French, all nail colors are vegan, formaldehyde, toluene, and DBP -free – and made in New York, NY with the best raw materials. Products are available at shopcolorclub.com.

Color Club Boho Mojo

There's going to be a lot of pictures today because Color Club Boho Mojo from the Back to Boho collection is a weird little color.  It's the greenish silver pearl color and with pearls come streaks!  I used a base of Duri Rejuvacote, 2 coats of polish and a top of CND Air Dry.  Formula was otherwise good.

Extreme sun here to show that it's not completely opaque with my 2 coats.

You can see the olive silver here in the sun as well.

In this shade picture it's more silver than green (I think?)

Okay, it's really silver here - and loads of streaks!

Finally indoors with the flash - olive, silver, pearl.  Not my favorite but definitely a fall color.  I read somewhere that the best way to hide the streaks of pearl is to add a coat of glitter - I should have done that!

Color Club is located on several etailers, including Head2Toe Beauty which has it for $3.00.  You can also Like them on Facebook and Follow them on Twitter.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.