China Glaze: "Flyin High" (Up & Away Collection)

Happy Wednesday! I hope all of you are making it through the week okay. Summertime is in the air and I wanted to share with you some photos from the beach. My husband and I went to the beach a few weeks ago just to walk along the boardwalk and get some grub. Connecticut doesn't really have very pretty beaches but it's still nice to get out by the ocean every once in a while. I would NEVER swim in the Long Island Sound though, it's just to icky. It's got INSANE amounts of seaweed and is just too murky for me to ever step into. Hahhaa But here are some photos:

Chick's is a pretty good eatery on the sound that we like to go to every now and again. They have FREE beach parking, customer or not so it's enticing to say the least. We always end up buying some food when we're there so it's a good policy on their part to offer free parking.

This place should be on Diners Drive Ins and Dives it's just a throwback to a different time. Food is greasy and satisfying though and come on, where else can you get a foot long lobster roll smothered in butter, fries and cole slaw for $11.99 with an ocean view?

Anyway, on to the polish.... That day I wore China Glaze's Flyin High from the Up & Away Collection released earlier this year. This is the final polish that I needed to swatch for that collection. Took me long enough, eh? I loved all of the colors from this collection and it has the distinction of being the first collection that I purchased in its entirety. Go China Glaze!

This color is a really pretty light almost robin's egg blue. It's a bit less baby blue than robin's egg but it's close. I love this color. This has a really nice shiny quality to it as well which I always enjoy.

The formula on this one was one of the best in the collection for me. It went on smoothly without any real trouble. A winner in my book!

So what were your favorite polishes from the Up & Away Collection have a look back at all of my Up & Away swatches and let me know which ones you like best!

Until next time, be safe and keep on polishing those fingers!

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Essie "Pop Art Pink"

Good afternoon everyone! Today I have a swatch of Essie's "Pop Art Pink" which came out with the Art of Spring Collection earlier this year. Essie describes this color as "a sheer chiffon pink" which sounds accurate to me. It's a light milky semi sheer pink. I say semi sheer because as you can see in the photos I was able to achieve opacity with 3 coats. Note though if your nails are any longer than this you will probably have more trouble achieving opacity and will have to deal with the dreaded visible nail line (I had this on longer nails before and 3 coats still had some VNL).

I think this would make nice pedi color for those times when you want something sort of neutral on your tootsies.

The formula was okay, better to work with than some of the others in the collection. It wasn't too think so it didn't make too much of a mess.



I probably won't wear this one too often. Maybe once I find employment I will rock this in the office but daily it's not really for me. I prefer a more opaque baby pink like China Glaze's "Something Sweet". I just cannot deal with any VNL.

Disclosure: "Pop Art Pink" was furnished to me by Essie for consideration. All reviews published on this blog are at my own discretion. Please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

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China Glaze "Heli-Yum"

China Glaze's "Heli-Yum" is a raspberry pink creme from the Up & Away collection. I purchased mine on TransDesign back when this collection first came out. This was one of the colors I was most excited about and it ended up being the color I was most disappointed in.

I find the color of this one to be a little off. To me it's not quite red but not quite pink. I think for me to have loved it it needed to be more of one or the other. On my hand it's just boring. It looks blah. I was so excited when I first heard about it. Raspberry sounded so sexy to me. Instead it's just boring, standard, dull.

The formula was fine. Pigmented and thick but not goopy. I needed two coats for opacity which is great.


So how do you feel about "Heli-Yum"? Is it a favorite of yours or did you find it as dull as I did. I am super bummed this color didn't work for me but that's life!

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China Glaze: "Happy Go Lucky"

China Glaze's "Happy Go Lucky" came out with the Up & Away collection. I love this whole collection for the most part because I really love cremes and each Up & Away color is a creme. "Happy Go Lucky" is the warmer of the two yellows in the collection and boy is it bold!!! It totally reminds me of a taxi cab. If I was better at Konad (ugh, still mad about that waste of money) I'd have tried to do a black checkerboard design on this or something. So I will call it a taxi cab yellow, though it some lighting it absolutely leaned mustard like good ol' French's yellow mustard.

Yellows are notorious for streak-age but this one was not too bad. Something about yellow pigment is just not fun to work with however I think China Glaze did a great job with the formula on this. It's highly pigmented and perfectly opaque in two coats and as you can see the finish is smooth and streak free.

Upon removal I am happy to report there was no staining. I don't know why yellows and greens make me worry about staining when it reality I only ever experience slight staining with reds. This removed well.





Overall a nice polish. I love China Glaze and this is a great polish. I am not sure this is a color I will be rocking much but it's nice to have in my collection. It's sort of ugly but not ugly, you know what I mean? It has a place in the collection but it won't be worn often. What do you think of "Happy Go Lucky"? Are you brave enough to rock this yellow!?

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China Glaze "Something Sweet" from the Up & Away Collection

China Glaze's "Something Sweet" is what I have wished and hoped all pastel pinks would be. For years I have been drawn to pastel/baby pink colors only to be disappointed in the fact that I could never get them to be opaque! This one delivers in just two coats, TWO coats!!!

This polish is gorgeous. It applies quite easily for a pastel, it was not too thick like some pastels tend to be. It's pastel pink with maybe the slightest hint of lavender to it. This is honestly one of the best polishes I own. China Glaze really hit the nail on the head with this collection.

I love this color. I think it's fashionable but not fashion forward so you can totally wear it to work.

What do you think of "Something Sweet"? Do you have it? Do you want to get it? Do you think it's a nice color?

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China Glaze: "Peachy Keen"

China Glaze "Peachy Keen" is another polish from the Up & Away Collection. This "peach" creme is a color that everyone seemed to be extremely excited about. I too was excited about this color however I do not think this worked for me at all.

I have seen some beautiful swatches of this color where it appeared to be the perfect peach tone. On me, it's orange, and this tone of orange looks bad on my skin. I guess my coloring makes this look more orange.


The formula on this polish is thick and pigmented. It's opaque in 2 coats but I used three to clean up messy application. I find thick polishes a bit difficult to apply well, no matter how precise I try to be. Pastels like this are notoriously hard to work with, this wasn't horrible but not great.

Do you have "Peachy Keen"? What do you think of it? My eye always wanders to these cantaloupe/peach/orange colors and time and time again I am disappointed with how they look on me.







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China Glaze "High Hopes" from the Up & Away Collection

"High Hopes" from China Glaze debuted with the Up & Away collection and is described on Trans Design as "guava". This color is a true stunner; a gorgeous high gloss orange tinted red creme. This color is super flattering and SUPER difficult to photograph. I'd say these photos lean a tiny bit more orange than the actual color is but I did my best. I promise, this is NOT saftey orange. Now let's talk fruit, shall we?







This is a guava, which like I said "High Hopes" is described as. I personally think "High Hopes" is more of a papaya... as long as we're on the tropical fruit comparison right?










This is a papaya, I think this is closer to what the color is than guava. Perhaps we can call "High Hopes" a guava-papaya. Yes, a hybrid.








The formula on this one is wonderful. This collection has consistently impressed me and this color is no exception. It's so bright it borders on pastel. It's thick and pigmented, goes on smoothly and is opaque in two coats. This is one of my favorites from the collection. It's going to be perfect for summertime. I think I will be pulling this one out a lot when I am tan.

What do you think of "High Hopes"? Did you pick this one up, or do you plan to?




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China Glaze "Grape Pop" from the Up & Away Collection

China Glaze "Grape Pop" is a gorgeous bright royal purple that debuted this year with the Up & Away collection. I see it described on Trans Design as a "bright plum" but I disagree. Plum to me suggests a really red based purple but to me this is a blue based purple.

I love purple cremes! This is no exception, this color is fantastic and the formula on this is almost perfect. It's opaque in one coat, yes, one coat. However, these photos are two coats because I like to add a second coat to even out any mistakes I made in application.

If you love cremes and you love purples ORDER THIS NOW!







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Pastel Yellow Comparison Featuring "Lemonade" & "Lemon Fizz"

Today's post is a comparison of two pastel yellow colors from two companies' spring collections. We have China Glaze's "Lemon Fizz" from the Up & Away Collection and Orly's "Lemonade" from the Spring II Sweets Collection coming in April. As you can see from the photos below the two colors are quite similar. China Glaze's "Lemon Fizz" is a teeny tiny bit warmer but I feel like you can really only see that warmth in the photo comparing the bottles:



On the nails I feel like the colors are almost identical. If you look closely enough you can see the slightly warmer tone on the China Glaze but honestly these are essentially dead on dupes. I actually enjoy this color, I was not sure how I'd feel about yellow nails but this color yellow is actually quite pretty!



As far as the formulas go they are quite different. I feel like the Orly is thick and the China Glaze was thin. Pastels and yellows are both known for their finicky application as they often are streaky. I feel like these two were actually both pretty nice applications though I think the Orly has a very slight edge in application. The Orly was thick and applied pretty smoothly, almost no streaking. The China Glaze was much thinner and on the first coat was quite streaky but that completely evened out upon second coat. Overall both polishes performed well for pastel yellows. The difference was not enough for me to say I prefer one over the other. The final look of both polishes was smooth and streak free.

If you're looking for a nice pastel yellow either of these two will satisfy your craving. I feel like you cannot go wrong with either one as the differences are negligible. Besides the tiny difference in application and slightly warmer hue of the China Glaze they're great dupes. So if you can get one but not the other don't fret.





China Glaze's "Lemon Fizz" is available now from places like Sally Beauty Supply and Trans Design. Orly's "Lemonade" will be available in April 2010 and comes with the matching lip gloss seen in the photo (smells like lemons).


Disclosure: "Lemonade" was furnished to me by Orly for consideration. All reviews published on this blog are at my own discretion. Please refer to my Disclosure Policy.


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China Glaze: "Light as Air" (Up & Away Collection)

"Light as Air" is part of China Glaze's Up & Away collection. Transdesign describes it as periwinkle which I guess makes sense. I think it's a lilac/lavender color, very pastel, leans a bit gray. It's beautiful! My husband was not a fan of it though. I said "do you like this?" he said "ehhhhh" LOL. Colors like this are right up my alley though. Purple cremes and me are best friends. Not sure this particular shade is best for my skintone but I will rock it nonetheless because I love it too much.

The formula on this is on the thick side. I didn't find it particularly difficult to apply. I was anticipating streaks but I didn't really get any. It's pretty much opaque in one coat, this is two just to fix any minor imperfections. I love two coaters. I die a little inside when I have to do more than two coats.

How do you feel about "Light as Air"? Did you pick this up yet? Are you planning to?

P.S. sorry about the nubbins, I had two bad breaks this week.






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