The forces of the universe have been conspiring to prevent me from posting this collection. First, a while back, I decided to take a new approach to swatching. Instead of just painting my nails for a quick photo and just writing about my brief opinions, I decided to actually wear all the colors in collections I review. The result was a copious amount of notes on each color, similar to what I usually write for posts on manicures. But then, to my chagrin, the evil google virus did away with all my efforts. As far as nail polish goes, the notes lost, are the equivalent of the Library of Alexandria burning down. Sadly, here are my briefer impressions based on what I remember from wearing this colors.

Color Club had an interesting concept for this spring collection, these colors were intended to be mixed and matched to create various funky frenches. I can totally see where they were going with that idea, these colors (a mixture of shimmery sheers and opaques) do compliment each other well in the french format. However, this collection also lends itself to amazing layering combinations. I would have loved to have shown you guys the sheers from both Catwalk Queen and Femme Fatale over black and white but I’ve been so busy I just haven’t had the time. But, fear not, Scrangie has some great swatches of these shades over black.

Color Club Femme Fatale consists of ultra sparkly pink and yellow toned micro-glitter suspended in a gel like whitish polish that applies clear. This is 4 coats, it’s simply gorgeous over black. (Please excuse the perpetual yellowness of my nails.)

Color Club Oooooo La La is a stunning, wearable white with a pearl finish. I usually don’t like pearl finishes but I absolutely loved this color. This is 3 coats. The application was a bit off – the coats applied unevenly so you have to be careful to be apply as evenly as possible. While I would consider this color a PITA, it’s not impossible to work with and I think the pay off is worth the extra effort. This color is perfect as a base on which to layer the sheer colors in this collection.

Color Club Oui! Oui! Oui! consists of a very fine green shimmer in a sheer whitish base. My picture isn’t very accurate as far the shimmer, the green is way more obvious in real life. This one is also stunning over black. I believe this swatch is 4 coats.

Color Club Revvvolution is just, wow. WOW. I guess I might be biased because I love all holos – but this one is particularly brilliant. It’s a dark charcoal, pretty much black for all purposes, medium grain holo. The holo has a predominately greenish cast to it. Revvvoltion is very well pigmented. For me, it was essentially perfect in one coat but I applied two for good measure. I haven’t done a side by side swatch, but from memory, I can tell you that this is darker and more opaque than OPI My Private Jet. MPJ is one of my favorite polishes of all time, but I actually think that Revvvolution might take it’s place.

I’ve gotten a lot of complaints about the quality of my images of holographics so I’ve been trying to find alternative forms of lighting that are better suited to showing the holographic effect of these polishes. This picture isn’t as vivid as Revvvolution is in real life but I think you get the idea.

Color Club Where’s the Soiree? is a black creme that doesn’t dry glossy. It’s not exactly matte, but closer to a satin finish. It applies well in 2 to 3 coats. I would want to maintain the unique finish so I would probably either use no top coat or a matte top coat. Where’s the Soiree? is also perfect as a base for layering the other colors in this collection.

Color Club Worth the Risque is a medium grain holographic silver with a bluish cast. Like Revvvolution, the holo has a greenish cast to it. It’s a 2 to 3 coater. LOVE it.

Here it is in different lighting… *drool/dies*.

If you follow my blog, you know how important today is to me. So, in good polish addict form, I had to choose a color that reflected my feelings about this historic day. Darren Garnick recent asked me if I was doing anything special with my nails for the inauguration. My initial reaction was, hell yes. I wanted to do something ridiculously flashy, like yellow, to represent my happiness and my hope for a brighter future. Instead, I decided to go something flashy, yet subtle. I figured OPI Designer Series Coronation (the name is fitting in a silly way) would be the perfect color.

Coronation was recently released with the new Designer Series colors (all of which you can see on Scrangie’s blog). I was pretty surprised to find that Coronation applies like a glitter top coat. Essentially, this polish is extremely dense multi-sized holographic glitter suspended in clear polish. With just one coat you get an effect similar to other dense glitter top coats. I put it over Zoya Trixie, it looked nothing short of amazing.

The holographic effect isn’t the uniform oil slick effect found in previous Designer Series colors. Instead, it’s like an amalgamation of multi-sized glitter each flashing brilliantly and individually. The shape of the glitter is irregular, each one like flecks or erratically cut chucks. I see as many as 3 different sized pieces of glitter. When applied with multiple coats (3 is what I did for the picture above) the very small pieces of glitter come together to build opacity. The image to the left was taken with flash and shows Coronation’s holographic glimmer. In the sunlight you get a slightly more uniform holographic reflection but it’s not high intensity, meaning the holo isn’t as colorized or rainbow-y as other holographic polishes.

Happy New Year Everyone! I have a few nail polish related resolutions this year. First and foremost, I’m going to cut back on my nail polish expenditures. I’m only going to order colors when I run out of staples and I plan to limit myself to 3 to 5 per order. I’ll allow myself impulse buys but only for colors that are hard to find and already on my wish list. Addicts refer to this sort of endeavor as a low-buy/no-buy. I don’t know how successful it’s going to be but I’m going to try!

We’re finally approaching the top 10 in the countdown.  Number 11 is an exhibitionist, OPI Designer Series Exclusive.

Don’t mind my bottle, it’s a little jacked-up. Exclusive is an older color and I believe I received it in a swap. I’m a pretty huge fan of holographic nail polish in general but there is something particularly beautiful about Exclusive.

My love for this color is surprising because I’m really not a fan of pinks but Exclusive is just so… luxurious and exquisite. My picture above just does not do it justice. The nail wheel swatch to the left is more accurate in showing the amount of bling one should expect from Exclusive. As you can see, this color goes all out. Love it.

OPI My Private Jet is definitely in the top half of my top 20 favorite polishes of all time. Released with the OPI Night Brights in 2007, My Private Jet has recently gone the way of the Dodo. Rather, OPI has made the baffling decision to discontinue this most beloved color. When we caught wind that this color was discontinued, most girls decided to pick up an extra bottle for posterity. It was around that time that the color discrepancy between the original batches of My Private Jet and the more recent batches became apparent.

The original MPJ is large bright dense prismatic holographic glitter suspended is semi-jelly-ish charcoal polish. The color is not exactly black, but pretty close. I’ve always preferred wearing it with 4 coats to build the opacity of the base color. Other girls circumvent the multiple coats but layering the original over black or charcoal. The new MPJ is more opaque, lighter colored, with finer less prismatic holographic glitter.

It’s hard to tell the difference in this photo but I assure you, they’re not very similar at all. This swatch is 4 coats of the original MPJ and 3 coats of the new MPJ. I could have easily gotten away with 2 coats on New MPJ but I’ve evolved into a habitual 3 coater, I can’t stop myself. I do like the new version, but the old version is always going to have a special place in my stash.

Here are the Contenders.

My initial thought was the Orly is just a glitter top coat that is slightly more reflective than normal glitter. INM is pretty much the same as the Orly with smaller glitter and more density. INM (both the silver and gold versions) is the only brand of glitter top coat I own that completely settles at the bottom. The bottle has a sticker on it that says, “shake it up” which, of course, is blasphemous – one should never shake a bottle of nail polish. To get all the glitter to evenly disperse throughout the bottle using the correct method (i.e. rolling the bottle inbetween your fingers) is incredibly time consuming and irritating. Finally, the fan favorite, Wireless, from the OMG collection, is the densest of all with the finest glitter. Let’s Do it in 3-D, from the Kaleidoscope Collection, is not a topcoat, it’s only here for comparison because it looked so much like Wireless to me that I initially mistook one for the other when I was taking these pictures. Wireless is probably just a more diluted version of Let’s Do it in 3-D.

This is 2 coats OPI – Black Onyx and 1 Coat for each Top Coat.

-Now for the real bling-

Clearly, Let’s Do it in 3-D brings the most *bling*. However, it’s not actually a top coat – it can’t win this contest. China Glaze – Wireless Top Coat is my pick. Owning both Wireless and INM is justifiable. They aren’t duplicates and the effect is clearly different. INM is basically a really nice (although run of the mill) glitter top coat while Wireless is more unique, I’m hesitant to call it glitter top coat at all. There is nothing really wrong with Orly, but if you own INM – no point in picking up a version with bigger and sparser glitter (unless you’re looking for something like that.)