China Glaze Howl You Doin'

Press Sample

Also from the Monsters Ball collection, today I have China Glaze Howl You Doin', a purple base with orange and blue flakies and frankly I really was excited about this. It looked so vampy and pretty in the bottle. Sigh.

I started with a base of Cult Nails Get It On, then used 2 coats of polish and finished with Cult Nails Wicked Fast. The formula on this polish absolutely sucked for me. It was thick and bumpy and dragged on the nail. It dried bumpy and matte (which is why I needed the top coat).

 See the pinkie? See that pulling? Rawr. I was so sad panda about it.

Even in the shade you can see the bumpy texture and whatnot. I just didn't love this polish at all.

I feel like this one will end up my shelf for awhile which makes me sad. I think maybe if I thin it out a little, it may be better.

China Glaze [Website] [Facebook] [Twitter] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty, Sally's Beauty Supply as well as TransDesign.

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

Morgan Taylor Royal Life Holiday

These are the days when I wish either Morgan Taylor was available to the non-professional or that I had a license because this Royal Life holiday collection is aaaaaaamazing. They are available for $8.50/each  at beauty supply stores like CosmoProf.

This collection is just stunning.

Regal As A Royal

Wrapped In Riches

To Rules Or Not To Rule

Sapphires, Rubies, and Emeralds Oh My

Where's My Crown

Fit For A Queen

Get in my collection!

China Glaze Boo-gie Down

Press Sample

So maybe you remember the drama from last year's China Glaze Halloween collection. Long story short, the 3rd party graphic designer that was hired to make the box artwork ended up stealing a photo off DeviantArt and changing the colors. Well China Glaze fired the graphic designer (and who knows what else) and this year as a sign of good will, they worked with the original artist Abigail Larson for the box artwork. Abigail even got to sign the image which is in all beauty supply stores and I think that's really awesome.

When I saw these at Cosmoprof North America, all I wanted to do was hide them in my bag and run away. I'm such a sucker for glitter. When these arrived at my door, I decided to try Boo-Gie Down first. This multi-sized orange, black and white glitter needed a good base color so after looking in my stash, I decided on Electric Pineapple from the 2011 Summer Collection "Island Escape". I had a base coat of Rejuvacote, 2 coats of Electric Pineapple and then just one coat of Boo-Gie Down. I topped my nails with Cult Nails Wicked Fast to smooth out any glitter and add shine.

I had tried a new manicurist and she just didn't quite get my cuticles smoothed out so I apologize for them. I'm also working on keeping them oiled at all times so they look healthy and moisturized.  So here it is in the sun - you can see all the different glitters in there... small, medium and large (pointer) as well as bar glitter. Great mix for Halloween!

I tried using the glitter on its own for an accent nail but I feel like it just makes the nail look dirty - like you stuck your hand in salt and pepper. Otherwise, I'm in love.

This photo is indoors without flash. I'm still without a storm door so I'm trying to find good lighting in my house for photos. This was also taken with my PaS camera instead of my DSLR so it's all a learning curve up in here.

If I had to pick one polish out of this whole collection that's a MUST BUY, I'd say it this one. Definitely a big fan of the size of glitter and the appropriateness for Halloween. I'm seriously thinking about making this my Halloween manicure but with all fingers using Electric Pineapple instead of just 4 out of 5.

China Glaze [Website] [Facebook] [Twitter] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty, Sally's Beauty Supply as well as TransDesign.

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

China Glaze Monsters Ball

I snagged this picture at Cosmoprof North America earlier this year. The Halloween Collection - Monsters Ball is already out in Sally Beauty Supply stores and available online but in case you hadn't seen it, I have a bit more information for you (but no bottle shots, sorry).

The 6 piece collection includes

Howl You Doin': Shadowy purple glitter

Bat My Eyes: Ominous gold glitter

Boo-Gie Down: Multi-sized orange, black and white glitter

Fant-Tastic: Mysteriously mixed up green, blue and magenta glitter

Bump In The Night: Hair-raising black texture

Ghoulish Glow: Glow-in-the-Dark top coat.

Additionally, the artwork for this collection was done by Abigail Larson, which made me excited.

ORLY Updates

ORLY has really worked hard this year to revamp their line, starting with the new logo and working all the way to their new website. (All images courtesy of ORLY)

They have also released several awesome collections. First is the fall 2013 collection Surreal. This was a pretty full palette of duo-chromatic shimmers and soft cremes. 

Purple Poodle: Fuchsia duochrome shimmer

Digital Glitter: metallic duo-chrome glitter

Angel Rain: Light blue duo-chrome

Pink Waterfall: Pink creme

Teal Unreal: Teal creme

Pixi Powder: Light purple and gold shimmer

The Surreal Collection launched in September and are available for $8.50 each.

Also launched in September was the new Matte FX collection. I got to sneak peek these at Cosmoprof North America and it was so unique! While most polish companies are just pushing out a matte top coat and calling it on trend, ORLY took it one step further and added flakies to the mix.

Three top coats - to include just a plain Matte Top (clear, matte finish).

Green Flakie Top Coat

Sheer green base with purple, blue and green flakies.

Pink Flakie Top Coat

Sheer pink base with multi-colored iridescent flakies

And to throw it into the mix, two lacquers as well.

Iron Butterfly

Charcoal matte shimmer

Purple Velvet

Purple matte creme

Launching this month in support of Breast Cancer Awareness, ORLY is re-introducing the Pretty in Pink Collection in which 20% of the profits will go towards Cancer Schmancer. Founded by actress and cancer survivor Fran Drescher, Cancer Schmancer is an organization that focuses on education, prevention and early detection of cancer. The Pretty in Pink Collection includes one all new glitter shade, Pink Your World.

Fight On

Chunky Pink Glitter/Blue Pearl

Pink Your World

Pink Glitter w/Holo and Gunmetal Glitter

You Are Not Alone

Cool Tone Pink Glitter

And there you have it! I can't wait to see what they come out with this winter and in the months to come. I've already fallen in love with their water based stripers (soon to come on PolishGalore!) so I'm looking forward to what's next!