China Glaze Smoke and Ashes

So I finally found the elusive Smoke and Ashes! The last one in the display!

 

Smoke and Ashes, two coats. It is a black base with green and blue shimmer (click the pictures to enlarge them). As most everyone already knows, this one represents District 12 which is coal. The two main characters are from this district aka why this was the first polish to sell out and stay sold out for almost a month. 

The formula on this was awesome. I was pretty surprised about it actually. It pretty much completely opaque in one coat, but I did two because my coats weren't all that even. But one good even coat will do it. Dry time was also awesome, by the time I finished painting all my nails, my first hand was already dry. 

You can definitely see the shimmer better in person, it's always hard to capture shimmer that's set in a dark base on camera. But, I love any kind of black with cool colored shimmer so this was a no-brainer for me. Had to have it, as did most other people lol

Until next time,

The Wicked

China Glaze Capitol Colours Luxe and Lush!

So I'm still on the hunt for the very elusive Smoke and Ashes and I've officially decided that I want Agro as well, but until I get those, I have Luxe and Lush for you!

 

indirect sunlight

 

direct sunlight

left to right:

One coat of Luxe and Lush over OPI Alpine Snow

One coat of Luxe and Lush over Sinful Colors Black on Black

One coat of Luxe and Lush over OPI What's With The Cattitude?

One coat of Luxe and Lush over bare nail

You can enlarge these to get a better view.

When I first got this and looked at it in the bottle, it looked just like a regular flakie polish to me, but it turns out to be a lot more interesting when paired with the right color. 

 

One coat of Luxe and Lush over OPI You Don't Know Jacques. Yes, this is it. I love this over browns. It brings out the yellows and oranges in the flakes and in the sunlight it looks completely like broken glass. The flakes are definitely more like shards, so it's very different from traditional flakie polishes.  

This one represents District , which is luxury items, but I'm not sure that it completely captures i. I'd think glass before I think luxury items on this one, but I do like it nonetheless. 

The formula on this is a little weird, it's a little thick and more like a jelly finish. So, it can get a little goopy. But other than that, I had no problems with it.

Anyone going to see the Hunger Games this weekend? Anyone wearing Hunger Games polishes or inspired manis to movie?

Until next time,

The Wicked

China Glaze Capitol Colours Stone Cold!

A couple of weeks ago I got my hands on two of the three polishes that I wanted from the China Glaze Capitol Colours collection, and I have one of those for you today.

 

Stone Cold, two coats. This is a matte dark grey with silver shimmer. This color represent District 8 which is Masonry, and it definitely represents it well. It looks a little glossier here than it actually is because I think I had used lotion and probably shouldn't have lol

The formula on this was good, some people have said that it is a little thick but I did not have any problems with it. The best part is that is dries super fast because it is a matte. 

I feel like it might be similar to Manglaze Fuggen Ugly, but I'll have to do a comparison to be completely sure. It seems similar, yet different.

I actually just read the first two books of the Hunger Games and I'm looking forward to the movie. After reading the books, the colors make a lot more sense! I was pretty confused when I first saw the collection, but reading the book made me like them even more!

Happy New Year Nails!

Happy New Year's eve and an early Happy New Year to everyone! We had a little crisis for about two days where the blog got somehow deleted (I almost had a heart attack), but it's back now and his is my New Year's eve mani!

Crazy glitter explosion!

Two coats of China Glaze Tinsel Town, one coat of Forever 21 Silver (large and small holo glitter) over that and then one coat of Sally Hansen In the Spotlight (holo bar glitter) over that. Then of course trusty Seche Vite to smooth everything out.  Sorry this is a little blurry, but you can enlarge it to get the details of the various glitters I used. 

I really like the all the different shapes of holo glitter over the dark glitter and base of Tinsel Town. Definitely gives it more dimension and tons of added sparkle.

We, here at We are The Wicked, want to wish you guys a super awesome, fun and safe New Year! Hope you continue to follow us in 2012!!!

Until next time,

The Wicked

China Glaze Tinsel Town!

So those nails inc swatches are a little delayed, I had all the pictures ready, but got a new phone and none of the pictures transferred ugh. I did try to email them to myself before I switched phones...but they didn't send. Double ugh. So instead I have China Glaze Tinsel Town from their Let It Snow collection! Obviously the collection is completely holiday themed, and this was my favorite of the bunch.

Tinsel Town, two coats. This is actually a very interesting polish. It has a blackened base, that has a very interesting blue tint to it. If you enlarge these pictures you can see the slight blue color. I think it depends on the lighting, in day light you can see the blue but when it's darker you can't. So this polish is jam packed with silver glitter. There are smaller pieces and larger hexagonal pieces (that look round in these pictures, explanation below). I love the combination of this silver glitter and the darker base because the overall look of the polish turns into a charcoal glitter, which is awesome. 

Here is a close up bottle shot so you can see the actual glitter in the polish. If you enlarge this (sorry it's a little blurry) you can see that the larger glitter is actually hexagonal! On the nail with the naked eye they just look round, so that's really cool. 

The formula on this is amazing. Even though it is packed completely with glitter it goes on smooth and has killer coverage. It's opaque in one coat, but some spots can come out with less glitter than others so two coats is perfect. One thing to note is that the glitter may settle a little farther down in the bottle, so you need to fully dip your brush in the polish to pick up all the glitter, or just make sure to shake it up really well. The dry time is pretty good. When I first did my nails with this, I thought they were dry and then ended up smudging pretty much all my nails. So make sure to give it enough time to dry (15 minutes didn't work out for me) or use a fast drying top coat to speed up that process. So overall, I really love this polish. It's awesome and sparkly and interesting and super great for the holiday season!

Until next time,

The Wicked

Upcoming China Glaze Crackle Metals and Orly swatches

Crackle mania continues! A few days ago I found out that China Glaze will be releasing a 6 piece collection of metallic crackles and as far as I've seen, they are pretty awesome. They should be released around July/August.

They look pretty cool, don't they? I'm not sure how much longer this crackle thing will last, but at least this is somewhat new. Here is a link to the swatches:

http://www.scrangie.com/2011/06/china-glaze-crackle-metals-collection.html

And now here are some of those full Orly swatches that I promised a while ago.

Ancient Jade, 2 coats. It's a really nice muted green, very much like the color of jade. I like this one a lot. At first glance it looks like a minty color, but it isn't at all minty, it's much more green. So, it looks pretty opaque with one coat, but it is a tiny bit streaky so I suggest a base coat to smooth out your nail before you put this color on so it doesn't streak or bubble up. 

Pure Porcelain, 2 coats. I have the same suggestion for this one in terms of the base coat. But I really like this color because it isn't as sheer as most light cremes. I love that it is completely opaque in 2 coats. It's great.

These are the two Orly cremes that I have (both from the Precious collection) and I have to say that I love the pigmentation of them. Even though they are on the lighter side (especially Pure Porcelain) they are great in 2 coats and aren't as sheer as expected. For my next post I'll be showing the two iridescent shades that I have from the Precious collection.

Until next time,

The Wicked

Upcoming Collections Part 2!

Deborah Lippmann Spring 2011
These are the 2 new shades from Deborah Lippman

 

Left to Right:
Glitter in the Air- blue base with pink and blue glitter
Naked- beige, fleshy tone

I thought this was pretty interesting when I first saw it, I'm intrigued by Naked, I'm not usually a fan of beige polishes because they are really sheer and this one is no exception, but I like this one. Glitter in the Air is just very unexpected for me, it's cute and little girly but nice. It is a very sparse glitter. Here are some really great swatches
http://www.scrangie.com/2011/03/deborah-lippmann-spring-2011-swatches.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Scrangie+%28Scrangie%29



China Glaze Island Escape Summer 2011

Left to Right:
Papaya Punch-orange creme
108 Degrees-berry pink with micro glitter
Senorita Bonita-purple shimmer with pink micro glitter
Blue Iguana-sparkly blue
Cha Cha Cha-green shimmer
Electric Pineapple-lime green creme

Very island-y! I think the collection fits perfectly with the name. My favorite color by far is Papaya Punch, it's not too orange yet not too light. I love it. Here are links to 2 different swatches
http://thenailphile.blogspot.com/2011/03/china-glaze-island-escape-swatches.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FJLnsFULL+%28The+Nailphile%29

http://www.scrangie.com/2011/03/china-glaze-island-escape-collection.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Scrangie+%28Scrangie%29


Also I wanted to mention that hautelook.com is having an Urban Decay sale which ends Saturday 4/2 at 11 am. They have a bunch of products for a really reduced price, including their Apocalyptic Nail set for $10 and Ink for Eyes in Pyrotechnics for $6.50! Reminder: this is a private sale site so you'd need to sign up.


Until next time,
The Wicked