Lacquer Slacker Liz: Color Club

Showing posts with label Color Club. Show all posts

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Color Club Ulterior Motive

Ulterior Motive was released by Color Club as part of the Alter Ego collection for spring 2011. It has a medium-dark translucent fuchsia jelly swimming with pink and blue glass flecks. On the nail it has a beautiful shimmering gift-wrap-ribbon look, the color is bright, bold and highly reflective with a purplish pink flash and sparks of light from the glass flecks glowing in the depths of the polish.

Application was sweet. The consistency is fluid, smooth and slightly oily, with just a fantastic, self-leveling painting viscosity. It goes exactly where you put it and stays there. Doesn't pull patches either. Since the base is translucent, it's sheer going on with buildable coverage. I used two coats but recommend three for bottle color and more complete opacity. This polish goes on evenly, so two coats give even coverage, but because it's translucent the depth of color changes depending on how the light hits it. I only had a little cleanup to do, which always makes me happy, and it was surprisingly easy with no staining left behind. All in all, a wonderful application experience! Ulterior Motive dries naturally in very good time to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Ulterior Motive over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Color Club Ulterior Motive

This one just glows on the nail, so pretty! I love how strong and visible the glass fleck shimmer is. From afar with its pinkish purple flash it takes on a metallic purple look but the minute you get anywhere close to it you can see the translucence of the beautiful fuchsia base with the glass flecks glowing from within. Lovely polish!

love,
Liz

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Color Club Miss Bliss

Miss Bliss was released by Color Club as part of its Halo Hues collection for spring 2013. This collection marked round two for Halo Hues -- the first was released for fall 2012. Both shared the same smooth user-friendly formula and uber linear holographic display, with the second collection delivering more intense and saturated base colors.

Miss Bliss is a medium-light cool rosy pink linear holo with a slightly metallic appearance due to the intensity of the holographic display. The formula for this was primo, just perfect. Fluid but not runny with silky smooth self-leveling flow, this polish glides onto the nail without any of the patching or grabbing that was characteristic of many holographic polishes that came before the Halo Hues (cough, Layla, cough, Nfu oh). It does show irregularities in the nail bed, however, and I used two coats of my favorite ridge-filling basecoat, Butter London Nail Foundation, on the most ridged of my nails -- but honestly, the dramatic holographic display of this polish will make you forget every flaw you might have otherwise noticed.

Pigmentation is excellent with near one-coat coverage, but two thin coats are best for 100% opacity without thin spots and the richest most dynamic holo display. Cleanup and removal are straightforward and trouble-free except for some sparkling particles of holo pigment that want to cling to the skin when you go to remove any swipage. Miss Bliss dries naturally in very good time to a smooth shiny finish that takes well to topcoat without any noticeable disruption of the prismatic flair.

Photos were taken in indirect and direct natural light and show two coats of Miss Bliss over Seche Rebuild treatment and Butter London Nail Foundation basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Color Club Miss Bliss

This is just a magnificent example of a linear holographic polish. The flair is powerful and all of the rainbow colors are present and well defined. For linear holo lovers, all of the Halo Hues shades are worth seeking out. Personally, I prefer the more nuanced prismatic display of scattered holos, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the amazing beauty of a linear holo like Miss Bliss.

love,
Liz

Monday, February 24, 2014

Color Club Berry and Bright

Berry and Bright was released by Color Club as part of its six-polish Winter Affair collection for holiday 2012. The collection was really great, beautiful unusual polishes with nice formulas, probably my favorite holiday collection ever. There were two versions of it, one that sold at Sally's and included two re-promoted colors, and one with six new polishes that sold everywhere else. Berry and Bright was part of both. It has a scented blue-based medium red jelly base packed with metallic flaky shimmers, dimensional, luminous and bold. It's the kind of polish that's guaranteed to make your nails look like a million bucks!

Application was great. The consistency of my bottle was fluid and smooth and laid down evenly over the nail. Pigmentation was also great -- Berry and Bright is for all practical purposes a one coater. The scent is very light, sweet and fruity with a touch of bayberry to it, and is just barely perceptible on the nail as a whiff of sweetness once the polish has dried. I did a less than stellar job with cleanup, but it was easy to do and left no staining. Berry and Bright dries in average time to a smooth satiny finish that wants a good topcoat to look its best.

Photos show two coats of Berry and Bright over Seche Rebuild treatment and Butter London Nail Foundation basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Color Club Berry and Bright

Berry and Bright is what I call a gift wrap ribbon polish, a bright near metallic with a high shine. It also has that lovely, prized lit from within quality. The shimmers interact with the pinkish red base and give the polish subtle color shifts in sunlight, with the red giving way to flashes of blood orange or purple. Very unusual and really beautiful. The finish is very much like a glass fleck with fiery speckles of red and orange glowing from within the layers of base.

I can see this being fabulous for the holidays but it is pretty enough to wear anytime you want a manicure that will stand out. It's got a gregarious quality that can't help but attract attention!

love,
Liz

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Color Club Otherworldly

Otherworldly was released by Color Club as part of its Starry Temptress collection for summer 2011. This collection featured six neon polishes containing a mix of tiny hex glitters in white matte and silver holo together with an iridescent glitter topper. Otherworldly is the blue of the collection and while I wouldn't call it neon it is a very bright medium cerulean blue creme/jelly hybrid. It contains the aforesaid mix of small hex glitters in white matte and silver holo, which provides a fabulous effervescent effect. Looking closely at this polish almost gave me vertigo -- the white glitters look just like bubbles rising to the surface with a flash of color every now and then from a holo glitter in just the way bubbles will flash when the light catches them.

Application was a cinch! The consistency was smooth and light despite the glitter and the polish self-leveled surprisingly well. Pigmentation is very good considering there is a certain amount of translucence to this polish, and I got great coverage in two coats. Cleanup was easy with no staining left behind. Otherworldly dries in very good time to a satiny matte finish that is smooth, another surprise with all the glitter it contains. I expect removal will be a chore, but worth it for this bubbly little gem.

Photos show two coats of Otherworldly over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of HK Girl.

Color Club Otherworldly

Color Club Otherworldly, a little blurry, apologies -- my macro refused to focus on these tiny glitters!

Color Club Otherworldly

I am really enjoying wearing this polish and stopping everything to gaze at it repeatedly. It is giving me fantasies about diving into a deep pool of clear blue water and rising to the surface along with the bubbles, or settling happily up to my neck in a bubbling hot tub with a flute of champagne somewhere nearby. Oh, if only! Well, any polish that puts me in that state of mind is a winner with me.

love,
Liz

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Color Club Wild at Heart

Wild at Heart was released by Color Club as part of the eponymous Wild at Heart collection for fall 2009. It's a very beautiful deep violet subtle holo polish with a loose scattered prismatic display in direct light and glowing dimensional color in indirect light. While the prismatic flair isn't as pronounced and well-defined as a true linear holographic polish, the holo pigments do produce a lovely shimmering rainbow effect over the nail.

Application was pretty awesome. Wild at Heart has a fluid consistency that is thin but not runny, easy to apply and flows smoothly over the nail in a great self-leveling manner. Pigmentation is excellent -- this polish is an easy one coater. I did two to improve some of the edges on the first coat. Wild at Heart dries naturally in very good time to a smooth shiny finish. Application of topcoat does not seem to affect the polish's holographic properties.

Photos show two coats of Wild at Heart over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of HK Girl.

Color Club Wild at Heart

And here's how it looks in bright indirect light....

Color Club Wild at Heart

Wild at Heart is a gorgeous polish. The color is vivid and regal and glowing and it goes on like butter. I can't believe I've had it for as long as I have without wearing it!

I'm not sure whether it is still available from Color Club, I couldn't find it on their website. It does turn up on ebay occasionally and I see it listed in blog sales from time to time. If you see it, snatch it up because this puppy is well worth having.

How do you dispose of polishes when you need to thin the herd? I donate mine or gift them, but I've thought about having a blog sale. Have you ever had a blog sale? Do you purchase polishes from blog sales?

love,
Liz