TRONICA SWATCHES!!! *pic heavy post!*

What what!!!

My girl Janet sent me a text yesterday to say that she'd been to a beautician supply shop in town and that they had new nail polish.  Thinking that it was China Glaze's On Deck collection, I wasn't overwhelmingly excited.  The colors look nice, but nothing that I'm impatient for.  When she replied, though, she said that they had Tronica.

WHAT.

I had a miniature freakout before begging her to take me to pick them up today.  So this is a massive shout out to the totally awesome gal that never seems to get tired of feeding my polish habit.  Janet, hugs, kisses, and massive squishes to you!  Thank you!

My two little lovelies.  I may or may not have squealed like a wee girl in my car after I bought them.

Here is the China Glaze Tronica collection all together.  Don't mind the bracelets holding them in place.  Turns out polishes in round bottles like to roll over and hide their labels.


I'll apologize before I start for a few things.
A) It's winter in Indiana and I wash my hands 234238923 times a day.  All the lotion in the world can't save my skin right now, especially if I'm swatching.
B) Being winter in Indiana, there's no sun out. :(  I'm happy with a collection of holo polishes regardless, but you'll have to wait for another blogger to post sunny pictures.
C) Between my OttLite, my camera, and all of the negative sun going on here, I know that I didn't do these justice.  I really wanted to share the collection with everyone, though! :)

All of the pictures you see are two coats of polish with no top coat, in an effort to make the holo effect stand out more prominently.

Techno Teal

This is maybe my favorite polish of the bunch, but it's very hard to pick just one!  I feel as if this color is comparable to DV8, but I also believe that it's a darker hue of teal.

Hyper Haute

I really loved this color as well!  This was a deep, gorgeous raspberry holo that I can't wait to see out in the sunshine!  Comparable to QT.

 

Virtual Violet

A nice, dark purple holo.  This picture even picked up a bit of the holo effect.  I feel that this polish is comparable to LOL or Color Club's Wild at Heart.

 

Hologram

Silver holo.  This is the only one that I had some issues with.  I didn't feel that the holo effect in this one was as evident as the others.  Also, with such a light color, I did have some balding.  Comparable to OMG.

 

Laser Lime

Lime green holo.  Goes on a bit sheer at first, but can be layered up.  There will still be a bit of VNL with only two coats of the lighter colors, but an extra coat would do the trick.  Comparable to L8R G8R.

 

3D Fantasy

Mmmm, red holo. :)  Comparable to TMI.

 

Cyberspace

This is a light taupe holo.  Very work appropriate.  I wonder how it compares to Butter London All Hail McQueen?  Comparable to (though not a total dupe, in my opinion) FYI.

 

Electra Magenta

I don't know if I would call this one magenta.  I'd be more willing to call Hyper Haute magenta, not this.  I found this one to be a pinky-purple shade.  A purplink. :3  Comparable to BFF.

 

Digital Dawn

I suppose that this is a dusty rose color, but there was so much copper in it that it reminded me more of a certain brand of battery than of a rosy shade.  Not my type of color, but like the rest, the formula is nice and even.  Comparable to TTYL.

 

High Def

I would say that this is more of a medium blue holo.  It's not standard blue, but it's not dusty, light, or sky, either.  Comparable to 2NITE.

 

Gamer Glam

Light purple/saturated lavender holo.  Comparable to IDK.

 

Mega Bite

A gold holo.  Again, not my cup of tea as far as color goes, but everything else about it is just right.  Comparable to GR8.

I haven't yet seen these colors compared to the polishes in the OMG collection, but as I pointed out with each polish I swatched, I feel that they're basically either the same, or so similar that you don't need both.  I own most of the OMG collection, so it's a slight disappointment for me.  However, I think that the Tronica collection is going to be a great way for people to pick up colors that they missed out on when OMG was readily available.  Also, these China Glaze holo polishes look like they're fantastic for stamping, and I've seen some really amazing nail art where they're used.  For avid stampers, having this new-old collection back will probably be very nice.

I personally feel like the formula on these new Tronica holos is better than the formula from the OMG collection.  Maybe I'm imagining things?  I had many issues with streaking and balding with the OMG colors, and I didn't have those issues with these polishes.

Don't forget your holo polish basics!  Wearing a base coat with this formula of polish can be the cause of bald spots and drag, so it's advisable to not wear one at all.  Don't worry about nail staining, though.  Holo polishes seem to have a different pigmentation that doesn't (so far as I know) stain.  Two coats is sufficient for a dark color, maybe three for a lighter shade.  Wearing a top coat over the polish will reduce the rainbow effects, so if you can keep yourself from wearing a top coat, the polish will give you a greater show.

Which Tronica polishes will you be picking up?

Thank you for reading!

China Glaze - Zombie Zest

I love Autumn.  Everything about the season is wonderful to me.  The weather is changing, the days are getting shorter.  I think that everyone that gets to experience Fall to the fullest looks forward to the beautiful transformation in the leaves of the trees, and savors the crisp bite in the morning air.

Of course, Fall also means that Halloween is coming.  I'll confess to not being in love with Halloween, but it always brings fun along with it.  And it really wasn't until getting into polish that I realized that I'd been missing out.

The title of this polish alone had me completely hooked before I even knew what color it was.  Zombies have always been a favorite of mine.  Groaning, mindless hoards with a single purpose.  Braaaaaaaaaiiiiiinnnsssssss.....!!!

Wonderful boyfriend just bought us a game called Zombie Fluxx.  It's a great game with endlessly changing rules and gameplay.

It's a really good time!  There's even a card in the deck that demands you moan like a zombie whenever you draw one from the deck.  If someone else catches you not doing it, you have to draw another card! :)

The title of this polish had me thinking a little too in depth, though.  I mean, really...

+   

Did anyone else think about it this way?  Haha!  On to the polish pictures~!!

 This is three coats of Zombie Zest with a top coat of Seche Vite.  I LOVE this color!!  Look at all that shimmer!  Just look at it!
 

Poooooooliiiiissshhhhh....!!!

Without a doubt, this color is being worn again.  And again, and again.  I love this ugly-pretty green shade.

 

Just out of curiosity, I decided to paint up my right hand with both Zombie Zest and Orly's new It's Not Rocket Science.

As you can see in the bottle picture above, it looks like Zombie Zest would be less shimmery.  But can you tell the difference?  I hardly can.  I can't tell at all in person.  In the picture, there's a very subtle difference.  Index and ring fingers were painted with Zombie Zest and middle and pinkie were painted with It's Not Rocket Science.  I really like both, but gosh.  The Orly cost twice as much!  So if you've been thinking about buying It's Not Rocket Science, you should just grab a bottle of Zombie Zest instead. :)


Did you get your ghoulish hands on Zombie Zest?  How much do you love it?

Thanks for reading!

Nudies + Grab Bag

You read right.  Nudie nails.  It doesn't really ever happen anymore, so I thought I'd take a picture to commemorate the day.

They're short and kind of stained, but they're mine, and I like them. :)  There's not a lot that I can do about the length.  I'm always wearing strengthening base coats, but my nails always split and peel at the edges.  Especially my pointer and middle fingers.  When they peel, they're weakened, and when they're weak like that, they grow very oddly.  It's much easier to keep them short than be bothered by their awkward growth.  As for the stains, well...  All I have to say for myself is that my love for Four Leaf Clover (the only polish I've known to stain me) is greater than my love of perfect nails.

I actually went with nothing but a clear coat for almost eight hours.  And I'm proud to say that I wasn't sleeping ANY of that time!  Haha!  It was pretty distracting to let them go bare like this.  I found myself looking at my nails so much.  Awkward...

While I was cleaning out my old photo folder before The Wipe, I deleted a lot of old nail pictures.  I found a few pictures of random that I did save, though. :)  I don't think that it would hurt to post them.

These hands are clearly not mine, but I did the nail polish. :)  My mum's best friend's daughter (pretty much my adopted little sister) asked me to do her nails for prom this year, and this is what we came up with.  I was pretty proud of it, considering I'd never done a French manicure before.  The color we used for the tips was Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in (I believe it's called) The Real Teal.

This was two coats of China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise and one coat of China Glaze's Medallion.  I usually don't like gold, but I liked these two colors together.  If I did this again, though, I'd go with a base color that leans more blue than green.

I did this one while I was working long, ridiculous hours between the two jobs.  Two coats of China Glaze's Re-Fresh Mint and two coats of China Glaze's Dollhouse.  I've had Dollhouse for quite a while, and just wanted to use it on something.  Ehhhhh... :)  And the green got all bubbly on me.  My coats were too thick, I guess.

I did this one quite a long while ago, but it was really pretty!  Two coats of Orly's Enchanted Forest and one coat (ONE COAT!) of Cover Girl's City Lights.  So stunning out in the sunshine!


What fun combinations have you found?  I love contrasting colors, and I'm open to suggestions! :)

China Glaze: QT

Let me tell you a tale.


Once upon a time, there was a newbie polish lover.  She read blog after blog about shimmering blues and greens, glittery purples, and every other eye-catching hue.  In her devoted reading, though, she was dazzled by something so interesting, so exotic, that she was determined to find it for herself!  What was it, you may ask?

The elusive dusty.

Oh yes, the newbie polish lover was enthralled by the thought of finding discontinued polishes and ridiculously low prices.  For her interpretation of the dusty she'd read about, she searched high and low.  Wasn't there a discount supply store going out of business SOMEWHERE in the kingdom?!  No!  She couldn't find a single one!  And as her search dwindled, she grew despondent.

As a last resort, the tired and disappointed girl walked to a small nail salon after consoling herself with ice cream.  The chimes tinkled overhead, and a woman yelled from the back of the shop to ask if she wanted a pedicure.  But the girl was paralyzed by the sight before her.

Oh wonder!  Oh glory!

"Do you sell your polishes?"


Believe it or not...  The newbie nail polish lover is me (WHO KNEW!).  This whole last week has been a complete joy.  Step aside, Sally Beauty Supply!  Get out of the way, Ulta!  Nail salons are officially the bee's knees.  One great thing is finding the discontinued or highly coveted shades for next to nothing.  Another great thing I've found is that now I'm able to get my grubby little mitts on polish brands not even commercially sold in my city.  My favorite part of this is the hunt, though.  You may go into one salon looking for a certain polish and not find it, but it's almost guaranteed that you'll find something different but just as fantastic!

Let me just name off the fantastic polishes I found this week! <3

China Glaze:  QT (featured today!), OMG, L8R G8R, Blue Island Iced Tea, Entourage, Rainstorm, and Paper Chasing.
OPI:  Holiday Glow, Midnight Blue Glitter, and Can't You Sea?
New York Summer:  Amaranth and Hot Atomic Red
Cosmo:  Lords of the Bling and I Found Nemo (also, super great names!)
Creative: #373 Limelight
Freshcover:  Chez Michelle, Anticipation, Hard Grape

Actually, this week was filled with polish-y goodness.  While cleaning my room, I found some (China Glaze Shower Together [my first CG!], and Sally Hansen's Honeydew and Night Hydrangea).  While visiting a friend, I was gifted some (mini OPI bottles of Eiffel for this Color and RapiDry Topcoat!  Thanks, Angela!!).  And while trying to resist at Sally's, I bought one (but WHO can resist China Glaze Medallion for $2?!).

...Also, my ebay order came today.  OPI Black Cherry Chutney, and China Glaze DV8, TMI, LOL, Cherry Pie, Orange Marmalade, Dollhouse, Moulin Rouge, and Gussied Up Green.  I was SUPPOSED to get Mom's Chiffon, but I was sent a bottle of Groovy Green instead! :(  And lucky me, the only bottle that leaked was (you guessed it) Groovy Green!  And I can't even be excited about the color, as it looked JUST like Re-Fresh Mint from Up and Away.

All of that said, I'm up to my eyeballs in polish right now.  The next few weeks would serve me VERY WELL if they were no-buy (or very minimal-buy) weeks.  Cheap salon polishes are a great find and SO cheap, but that only lets me believe that I can get more. *o*


QT was the first polish that I picked up and refused to put down again at my very first dusty.  The ebay store I'd decided to buy from didn't carry QT, even though I desperately wanted it!  Imagine my joy as I found the bottle, brand new and untouched, on the rack!  Let me show you this little darling!

Isn't it beauuuutiful??  Quick apologies for the sloppy application.  I was in a hurry to meet a friend, and I NEEDED to show him this really great polish!

Swoon!

This was two coats.  I wasn't used to the holographic formula, so I did have some drag, but it dried very quickly with perfect coverage.  I also didn't experience bad flaking or chipping!

This is near the top of the list for my favorite polishes of all time!

 

Just let me have one more enchanted sigh before I go!

Now that I have a bunch of the OMG collection, I'm looking forward to wearing them.  Indiana actually took a turn back to freezing temperatures and snow flurries toward the end of the week, though, and it felt unjust that I couldn't wear these gorgeous holo polishes out into the sun!

Hold onto your socks, ladies.  I had some really gorgeous finds from my dusty hunting excursion this week, and I can't wait to share them all with you!

-E

Claire's Mood Polish: Happy/Earthy and China Glaze: Rose Among Thorns

I keep promising that I won't schluff off, and then I do it anyway.  Tonight's entry is going to have to be another double post.  Between working, cleaning, family stuff, and a certain boy who shall not be named, I'm being kept very busy.  Physically, mentally, emotionally.  It's not at all a bad thing.  Just bad news for the poor photos that wait in my folders to be posted. :)

So less blah-blah, more pictures!

This is Happy/Earthy, one of the really neat color-changing "mood polishes" from Claire's.  I don't really think we need to go into the fact that the colors change due to body temperature rather than actual mood (and really, who ever gets into "earthy" mood?  Not me!), but we DO need to get into the clear truth that these polishes are still pretty cool.  I own the yellow/green, teal/blue, and pink/magenta colors.  I have yet to try the pink/magenta, but I have worn the teal/blue before.

The application is kind of nasty.  I'm not very used to using polishes that dry to a satin/matte, so the polish setting up while I was still painting was a bit of an issue.  Top coat is almost mandatory, as the finish without one is substandard.  I did really enjoy the fact that, when you're painting on the second coat, you can see the difference in the dried polish on your nail vs. the different color of polish on your brush.

Ignore the nick, please.

This polish really looks fantastic on ladies with longer nails.  I still think it's fun on my shorties, though. :)

I still think that yellow is hideous on me, though.

With the temperature of my hands, this is how it looked most of the time, though sometimes the nail bed had a bit more of a greenish tint.

This is what it looked like after a douse of hot water.

BRIGHT HIGHLIGHTER YELLOW.

This was after a few moments under the cold water tap.

Notice how my pinky is already changing back, as are the very bases of my nails?  That's just a good testimony as to how warm my hands are all the time.

Check out this great water spotting action!

True story concerning this polish:  The day I wore it to work, I spent a lot of time watching it.  My favorite thing happened when I was filling up a bucket of water for my bread.  The water I was using was very cold, and the tiny spatters coming from the bucket would fleck my nails with green for a few seconds before my natural body head would overtake the spot with yellow again.  It was the coolest thing!

This was two coats of Earthy/Happy.  I had trouble with it flaking off in giant chunks once I'd gotten it wet, but if you don't have worries like that, then these mood polishes will be a lot of fun to try out.

Next up on the docket...

 

China Glaze's Rose Among Thorns

Where has this polish been all my life?!  It's fantastic!

Indoors, the polish might looks like an ambitious but not overly rich red.

In the direct sun, though, it's a gorgeous neon red-coral.

Gorgeous!

Instead of being a thick, goopy bright, Rose Among Thorns was a very thin polish.  The mani above is three thin coats.  It does dry to a satin-matte as well, but top coat fixes that right up.  While we're on the issue of top coats, though, please ignore my index finger.  I've found that my top coat is what's making bubbles appear in my polished nails.  I ceased use of the topcoat I'd been using and switched to something else temporarily.  The temporary fix is working well enough for now.

Rose Among Thorns is a very "me" type of color.  I love it, and I'm definitely wearing it again.  Next time, I'm going to try white polish beneath to keep the main focus on the real star of the show: bright neon coral!

I hope that you're all doing well!  I need to kick my blogging routine into gear and start posting earlier so that I can't even use the excuse that I'm tired or need to go to bed.  No excuses, just polish!  And I have some really neat stuff coming up to show you, so I'll be back!

Thank you all for reading and being so patient with me!

-E

China Glaze: Grape Juice and Raspberry Festival

It's so hard to get back on track when I want to show you the polish I'm wearing today so much!  But after skipping the post that I had planned for yesterday to showcase Timbleberry, I feel the need to go back and cover what I missed.

Because let's face it.  China Glaze's glass fleck polishes?  TOO GOOD TO MISS!

Grape Juice.  Oh, how lovely!  Can I admit that this is the one polish from that collection that I thought I could live without?  I very humbly retract that statement!

Just look at this shine!  All of the light-refracting glass flecks in this polish make it gorgeous.  Packing jelly polish with these little babies was sheer genius.

Who could really decline to wearing something so shimmery and gorgeous out on a sunny day?

Though it looks rather blue in the bottle, it's not. :)  My nails in these pictures are a much better representation of true color than this bottle shot.

Cute enough to eat. <3

This was two coats of Grape Juice, and I felt it was a good amount.  In the sun pictures, I can see that it's still a bit sheer.  This doesn't bother me considering the type of polish being worked with, but if it bothers you, hit it with another coat.  I also feel the need to say that I do have very short nails compared to other blogging laides.  I didn't see a visible nail line under two coats, but you may.  Sweep on another coat or two until you're satisfied with the results. :)

So, onto China Glaze's Raspberry Festival.  I should just warn you now...

 

That's right.  I'm going out on a limb and showing you my pudgy little Hobbit toes.  But let me tell you.  Nobody in Middle Earth could resist these little tootsies. lol  I put this polish on Thursday.  After wearing open-toed shoes, spending too many hours in my work shoes, running around bare-foot, and just being a bit unkind to my feet in general, this polish hasn't budged.

LOOK AT HOW SHINY IS IT!!!

Raspberry Festival is my Preeeeciiioooouuuussssssssssss. <3

Not to mention that I was so darn lucky in finding it for $3.99 at Ulta a while back!

Oh my goodness, I love these polishes!  Of China Glaze's 2009 Summer Collection (consisting of Raspberry Festival, Cherry Pie, Orange Marmalade, Strawberry Fields, Grape Juice, and Watermelon Rind), I'm only missing Cherry Pie and Orange Marmalade.  And you can bet your sweet glass flecks that they're on my list to buy!  The collection is so perfect for the bright sun that I may forgo most of the new Pool Side neons to get my hands on this collection.

What do you think?  Are you in love with the glass fleck?  Which is your favorite color from the collection?  Should I just give my stubby toes back to the Hobbits already?

-E

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

...for Sinful Colors' Timbleberry.

(Annstah, this one is for you!)

Right before I started up Persistently Polished, Annie over at NAILSTAH posted this review of China Glaze's Pink Chiffon.  (Of course, her review only made me want it. *facepalm*)  Sinful Colors' Timbleberry was brought up as a possible dupe, and was suggested as a possible dupe for China Glaze's Sugar High from the Up and Away collection as well.

I think that both Pink Chiffon and Sugar High are similar pinks, so I can't at all blame anyone for feeling like one polish could dupe both.

I put Timbleberry on last night in hopes that it would come close to Annie's super pretty Pink Chiffon. Unfortunately, it isn't even close.

A word of apology for the glitter all up in my cuticles in the pictures. lol  The last post I made about the struggle with Slamming Red?  That's what's left of it.  After that disappointment, I didn't feel like going at my poor nails with an orange stick.

I'll admit that in some pictures, it does look pinkish.  This direct sun picture brings out some interesting tones in Timbleberry.  But make sure you take a good peep at the picture below with the polish's name sticker and my thumb.  That seems closest to real life.

This polish is a bright, almost neon color.  Unlike a neon polish, though, it dries with a shine. :)  I would consider it a coral, but it very much has a red base rather than pink.

This wasn't an overly pigmented polish, but it was far from sheer.  Two coats was perfect.  It was a little thick, but I imagine it was just the bottle I got.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems darker in this picture.  Which is overall more accurate.

And just for comparison, I took a couple more pictures.

This is Timbleberry next to China Glaze's Sugar High.

And here's Timbleberry next to High Hopes.

(Both Sugar High and High Hopes are from the China Glaze Up and Away collection)

Almost the same, right? :D

The photos don't seem to show that High Hopes is subtly lighter than Timbleberry, but if you're not a stickler for owning the name brand, you can save yourself a few bucks. :)

Thanks for reading!

-E