China Glaze Pool Party

China Glaze Pool Party is one of the hot new neons from the Poolside collection, launching April 1, 2010 both domestically and internationally.  This is a serious hot pink neon and like neons, it dries matte.  I ended up testing out the polish both by itself and then with one coat of China Glaze Snow under it to make the polish pop.  The formula was great - like most neons I've tried, the first coat is a little streaky/bald but after the second coat, you're done.  This first set has a base of Seche Natural, the pointer and ring finger has 2 coats of Pool Party and the middle and pinkie has 1 coat of Snow and 2 coats of Pool Party.  I did a heavy color correction on all my pictures to bring out the neon to true life, but it makes the background (and my skin) do funky things.

This is my sun picture.  As you can see, the different in having the base of white (Snow) and not having the base of white isn't that great.  With Snow, the color pops a bit more but again it's a matte finish on both.

Shade picture - again that neon is a HOT color - burning retinas.  Seriously.


Next I added a coat of Seche Vite because I'm a shiny creature by nature.  First up is my sun picture.

You can start to see a tiny difference in having Snow on the middle and pinkie fingers.  The color is a bit lighter than without.  I will end up using Snow under all my neons from now on because it does make the color a bit truer to life than when I just use the neon alone.

Shade picture - this is such a hot pink - I do love it a lot.  I think this would also be amazing as a pedicure.


I also finally broke out the light box to try and capture the hotness of this color.  It's not bad, but it was VERY hard to attempt to take pictures of my hand in the light box, even with my Gorilla tripod.  I think I'll stick to the Texas sun for my hand pictures, but for a bottle picture, it's pretty awesome.  This just makes the bottle GLOW.

Poolside launches both domestically and internationally on April 1, 2010

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

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

Nfu-Oh Sale

Woo!  I found this floating around in my inbox from FabulouStreet.com [official website]


We're pleased to offer you a Store Coupon for March Special.

You can redeem this coupon during checkout. Just enter the code in the box
provided, and click on the redeem button.

The coupon code is fabmarch2010

The coupon is valid between 03/01/2010 and 03/31/2010

Don't lose the coupon code, make sure to keep the code safe so you can
benefit from this special offer.

March 2010 Special (10% off)

From now until Mar 31st, 2010, enjoy a 10% discount when you puchase $125 or
more.

Offer have unlimit usage.

deborah lippmann Sale

I still haven't gotten my hands on a deborah lippmann, but sales help!

You can buy deborah lippmann polish at her official website here.

China Glaze Snow vs Moonlight vs White on White

For my Poolside swatches, I wanted a good white to put under as a base coat, in order to really make the neons pop.  Imagine my surprise when I realized I had THREE white cremes (so I thought) in my China Glaze stash.


The Glitters and Cremes (also known as the Specialty collection) that came out last year had a large about of pinks and whites, but all were a little different.  That's where Snow came from.  Moonlight is from the Blush Collection.  Finally White on White is a core line color.


In my sun picture, it doesn't look like there is ANY difference, which made me question my collection habits ^_^

I used Seche Natural for a base and then just one coat of each polish (because I was going to be layering the neon on top).  That's when it became clear.

Snow applied the best - while it was still a bit streaky, it had the best overall coverage in one coat.  Moonlight is super sheer - that's a big no go for my purposes today.  Finally White on White while opaque, had more bald spots than Snow.


I did get 2 swatches of Poolside in today, but I don't want to TOTALLY overload my faithful readers.  Soon my pretties!


China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

Illamasqua Information

I still haven't seen a bottle of Illamasqua in person, but I'm hoping that will change soon.  I went to my local (and by local, I mean 176 miles north of me) Sephora on Monday but nada.  Official PR below:

Since its launch in the UK last November, Illamasqua has caught fire with beauty aficionados thanks to its unique night-time make-up concept and extraordinary color range – and has now become the hottest, most buzzed-about brand in the industry. Thousands of professional make-up artists, club kids, beauty junkies, industry insiders and even cutting-edge celebrities like Sienna Miller, Lily Allen, Adele, Beth Ditto and Karen O. are clamoring for the newest, best and latest colors and textures from Illamasqua.

In fact, it’s this global demand for Illamasqua that prompted the brand to finally bring its top 200, best-selling products to the United States through Sephora, the ultimate beauty authority. Its much-anticipated debut will be at Sephora’s newest location, 5 Times Square, on July 31^st, as well as on Sephora.com. 26 additional Sephora stores throughout the country will carry Illamasqua in October of this year.

News of the Illamasqua launch leaked and spread quickly among fans, including beauty bloggers who were among the first to post about the launch with rabid anticipation, sharing the news of this one-of-a-kind, make-up line with their readers. This loyal, cult-like following is not just because of the professional quality and range of products to choose from, but because of the unique point of difference as a night-time make-up brand that encourages self-expression and the unleashing of the alter ego.

Created with the eye of world renowned make-up artist Alex Box, and developed by a team of leading chemists and manufacturers of stage and screen make-up, Illamasqua offers everyone – from London club kids, visionary make-up artists and global fashion icons, to the passionate everyday beauty consumer – the tools to create the most striking, expressive looks possible.

A huge range of Illamasqua’s best-selling colors will be available in the U.S., including 40 different eye shadow shades, 22 high-performance nail varnishes, color-intense lipsticks, lipglosses, lashes and much more, creating a kaleidoscopic, pigment rich palette sure to seduce with its heady mix of color, creativity and limitless imagination.

Illamasqua is available in the United States exclusively at select Sephora locations as of October 2009 and on www.sephora.com. For more information, log on to www.Illamasqua.com

Illamasqua (from what I can tell) sells for $14 a bottle and they have 22 shades currently available.  I'll keep looking and get back to you ^_^