I anticipate nothing more in the nail world than Autumn collections, especially from my favorite polish brand, so I'm ecstatic to show you China Glaze's Fall collection for 2011. Autumn is my favorite season; the smells and sounds, the temperature, the associations with new school clothes and new beginnings from my childhood... All of it gives me a huge boost in mood and I live for it every year. When Fall nail collections come out, usually in Summer, it gives me a little of that feeling in advance. It's like getting two Falls! So I'm very excited about this collection. It's got a very different feel than last year's Vintage Vixen collection which was full of complex shimmers and jeweltones. Metro is largely cremes, and most are very unique and range from muted to vibrant giving a nice mix that will enable everyone to find something they like.
Click to see the swatches!
Nubar Finest Silks Collection - $49.95 for the set, $7.95 a la carte at bynubar.com
The polishes in Nubar's latest collection, Finest Silks, are inspired by and named after several luxurious fabrics. All are cremes but Organza which is a light and airy white-silver that you can wear over the other shades if you wish, or alone. You'll notice that there are only 7 swatches here because I don't have Taffeta to review, so if you're looking for that I know there are other blogs with great swatches of it, so check them out first if you're interested in buying Taffeta. As far as the rest of the collection, there are some pretty nice shades in it and they're all very creamy and pigmented.
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Barielle Style in Argyle - $8 each at Barielle.com
Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year. I know it's a lot of people's favorite season, but the first sniff of that crisp air and my sense of well-being and mood shoot through the roof. I like to take joyrides with the windows down a lot in the Fall, to look at the rolling hills bursting with the colors of changing leaves, feel the bite of the air; everything is right with the world when Autumn is on the way. One of my favorite things about Fall is the clothes. I love warm colors, cozy fabrics, and the excuse to wear dark lipstick! This sweater-themed collection from Barielle pretty much screams Fall and I'm really excited about it. There are a couple shades that might leave you scratching your head, but that's sort of the beauty of it. If you'd like to see swatches and read my review of them, keep reading!
Click to see more Barielle Style in Argyle
Orly Space Cadet - Available online at transdesign.com and at Sally Beauty stores.
Orly Cosmic FX is a further foray into the world of the avant-garde nail polish for this brand. We have begun to see nail brands taking huge leaps in their offerings, and Orly has done it to the hilt by releasing 3-6 piece small collections pretty frequently in new finishes and colors that we don't see very often, or haven't seen before at all. This collection is filled with 6 foil textured polishes in duochrome and uber-sparkly finishes. The foil in these polishes is made up of tons of micro-fine foil pieces suspended in a sheer base and they are 100x more shiny and sparkly than the Foil FX collection released by Orly earlier this year. Space Cadet is one of the most hyped of the collection not only due to it's superior duochrome that has super-high light reaction, flashing several colors at the tiniest flick of the wrist, but also because of the fact that it's a dupe of MAC Mean & Green polish from the upcoming Venomous Villains collection (Orly Galaxy GIrl is a dupe of MAC Formidable! as well. I hear the upcoming OPI The Show Must Go On which will be released for this Winter will be a MAC Bad Fairy dupe as well!)
Regardless of the dupe-ability of this polish, it's incredibly unique and I can guarantee that unless you have press samples of MAC Venomous Villains, you haven't got anything like Space Cadet in your stash. The polish is incredibly sheer, though, so I used three coats over a black base. I could have done two coats over black but that would have been too easy ;P I tried three coats of this polish alone and it was still too sheer. I will give it another try alone when I have more time and patience because I can only assume that while the duochrome is enhanced over a black base, the sheer blue base of this polish probably adds a lot of depth if you take the time to build it up right. This is the sparkliest polish ever. I kid you not. There are foils, glitters and shimmers that have stolen my heart in the sparkly department, but the tiny foil pieces in this polish work together to give the nail a space-age crazy-metallic sheen. The colors that it flashes, depending on the light, are pinky violet, acid green, washed-out bronze, taupey-plum, amber, orangey pink. There's probably more but that's all my feeble mind could handle identifying right now.
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Urban Decay Naked Palette - $44 at Ulta.com
I'm sure that the manic frenzy for this new Urban Decay palette hasn't escaped your attention if you shop for makeup online, read beauty blogs, or belong to any of the number of makeup forums out there, but in case you've managed to avoid the mental chaos, let me introduce Naked. Having been in stock several times on sephora.com, and selling out almost immediately each time, it's obviously well-loved. It's reported to be a permanent addition to the UD lineup, but that hasn't stopped people paying prices in excess of double retail on eBay (gack!). It's now in stock at Ulta.com, and if you're lucky you might find one at your local Sephora. As of right now, it's slightly difficult to get, but hopefully that won't last long as it's an amazing palette. I drove a 130 mile round-trip to a Sephora because after calling around they were the only Sephora even relatively close that had it. They had one left and held it, and I still counted myself lucky.
The deal with this palette is that it includes 12 full-size shadows, two mini liners in the form of a double-ended pencil, and a mini Urban Decay Primer Potion all for $44. Considering that UD shadows are $17 each for a single, this is a crazy deal. That's not all that makes this palette amazing... In every UD palette I've ever owned, there seems to be at least one or two glittery shades which I never use, but every one of these twelve are smooth and glitter free. There are mattes, satins, shimmers and frosts, but no glitter! With twelve shades of neutral shadows ranging from ecru to steel, you can create any number of flattering and varied looks that go from day to evening.
If you'd like to see the swatches and review, keep on reading! Click for more...
Nubar Venetian Glass collection - $49.95 for the set, $7.49 individually at bynubar.com
Nubar has a new collection coming out next month, and it's full of luscious vibrant Autumn shades all with a snazzy glass-flecky shimmer finish. It's part foil, part metallic and I like 'em! Inspired by famous handmade Venetian Glass, these shades evoke a festival-like mood and reflect a rich antiquity. While several of the shades are just far too warm for my skin, they're still so rich and beautiful. I look forward to seeing them on lots of other people with skintones different than mine. If you'd like to see some more photos, read on!
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China Glaze Vintage Vixen collection - available starting in early July online and at Sally Beauty
The Fall shades I've seen so far for this year aren't only about the rich and vibrant colors, or the deep vampy tones. While they're all those things, they also seem to be about finish and texture more than ever. This 12-piece collection from China Glaze hits on almost every finish, and even invents a few we've not seen much of before now. I am really into this collection; from the throwback 1940s names and vibe, to the rich and interesting shades and finishes, I'm all about these polishes. I've done some swatches for them, and if you'd like to see them and hear what this girl thinks about them, keep on reading!
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