Cosmoprof 2011 - China Glaze Preview!

Warning: VERY picture heavy! 

At Cosmoprof this year, I got the chance to check out all the awesome new stuff from one of my favorite nail polish brands, China Glaze! Luckily, I was lucky enough to be allowed to take photos, and I'm sharing them with you today!

There are SO many awesome collections coming up!  Let's start with Halloween!

There are 6 colors for Halloween:

Goulish Glow- A glow in the dark polish

Black Crackle- a black crackle

Crimson - a vampy blackened wine red

Near Dark - a swampy blackened green

Haunting- Black with silver sparkle

It's Alive- Swampy olive with multi-sized glitter

OMG I want 'It's Alive' SO badly!

Now let's take a look at Holiday - Watch out - there are TONS of Gift Sets!!

The holiday colors include: 

Velvet Bow - crimson creme

Winter Berry - bright red creme

Ring in the Red - red glitter - multi-sized glitter particles

Poinsettia - warmer bright red creme

Twinkle Lights - gold, green, and red glitter mix

Champagne Bubbles - golden yellow shimmer

Holly-Day - bright green creme

Glittering Garland - shimmering evergreen - is this what it's all a-'bough'-t?

Blue Year's Eve - Royal Blue Shimmer

Tinsel Town - Gunmetal glitter - multi-sized glitter particles

Icicle - silver metallic 

Snow Globe - iridescent white glitter - multi-sized glitter particles

 

Some of my favorites from the collection:

China Glaze Ring in the Red

China Glaze Snow Globe

China Glaze Tinseltown

China Glaze Twinkle Lights

Phew! That was A LOT of Holiday!  Awesome stuff, right?! I'm totally LOVING Tinseltown and Twinkle Lights the most!

Now for the non-holiday collections, get prepared to have your socks knocked off!!

First stop is ELECTROPOP!  Inspired by Gaga, the colors are bright and fun!

The colors in Electropop include:

Kinetic Candy - pale blue creme

Electric Beat - sky blue creme

Aquadelic - aqua creme

Gaga for Green - grass green creme

Sunshine Pop - yellow shimmer

Make Some Noise - red-orange creme

Wicked Style - pink-based red creme

Fuchsia Fanatic - Fuchsia creme

Gothic Lolita - Purple with blue/purple shimmer

Dance Baby - bubblegum pink creme

Sweet Hook - lilac-y pink creme

Techno - silver glitter with large hex holographic glitter

And the collection I think that I am the MOST excited to get my hands on...

EYE CANDY! Inspired by Marilyn Monroe, this collection of glitters is bound to be a girl's best friend. 

Colors/Glitters in the Eye Candy collection include: 

Blond Bombshell - gold  - multi-sized glitter particles

Love Marilyn - Red & silver  - multi-sized glitter particles

Material Girl - pale & darker pink  - multi-sized glitter particles

Marry a Millionaire - purple & multi-colored  - multi-sized glitter particles

Some Like it Haute - Gunmetal and iridescent - multi-sized glitter particles

Lorelei's Tiara - silver & teal  - multi-sized glitter particles

PHEW!  Did you make it this far?  Are you as thrilled for the upcoming collections from China Glaze as I am?  A lot of these colors are really freaking awesome!!  I swear I started drooling a little when I saw the Eye Candy Collection, and when I saw the Halloween set with the glow-in-the-dark polish and black crackle I kicked myself for not thinking of that before! lol

What is YOUR favorite upcoming collection? Is there a specific color you especially love and have to have?

Cult Nails Hypnotic Collection

While at Cosmoprof this year, I had the pleasure of meeting Maria of Cult Nails fame. While I've heard wonderful things about her polishes, I had never gotten to see or try them in person...until now. Maria was generous enough to gift me a couple of her latest collection, the Hypnotic Collection, and  I am super excited to show them to you! These polishes far exceed my expectations, and the polish I didn't really think I'd like (it's so sheer, and my nails are so stained!) turned out to be the gem, and my favorite of the four!

The four colors included in the Hypnotic collection are In a Trance, Awakening, Enigmatic, and Hypnotize Me. 

Cult Nails In a Trance

Murky olive green shimmer that has hints of gold and coppery awesomeness.

This is the color I was SUPER excited to check out, and it surely didn't disappoint. When the sun hits this polish, it is stunning! A perfect color for fall, I wouldn't miss picking it up if I were you. 

Opacity scale (1-5): 3

Use for Konad: TBA 

Finish: Shimmer, 2-3 coats to be opaque

Cult Nails Enigmatic

Winey purple with silver sparkle.

This silver sparkle in this seems to pick up different colors of the rainbow - at first I thought it was holographic, but it's not. Very pretty though! 

Opacity scale (1-5): 3

Use for Konad: TBA 

Finish: Shimmer, 2-3 coats to be opaque

OMG, look at that amazing deep blue sparkle!

Cult Nails Awakening

Dusty teal creme

This, although simple, is a gorgeous color, and I wore it for 5 days straight!! Paired with Hypnotize Me, I truly couldn't keep my eyes off it (especially in sunlight!) This polish IS fairly sheer, but it did build up very nicely in only 3 coats. 

Opacity scale (1-5): 2

Use for Konad: TBA 

Finish: Creme, 3 coats to be opaque

Cult Nails Hypnotize Me

Sheer green base with green and blue glitter. 

Though I would probably never wear this color on its own, since my nails are so stained, I absolutely adore this color over Awakening.  LOVE. IT. The glitter in this polish morphs from different angles and over different colors. This is a MUST purchase. Bear in mind that, like most glitters, this dries to a semi-matte, textured finish, so you'll definitely need a top coat like Seche Vite.

Opacity scale (1-5): 1

Use for Konad: TBA 

Finish: Glitter, a million coats to be opaque :-D

Cult Nails polishes can be found at www.cultnails.com and are sold for $10 per bottle. 

Disclosure: Polishes in this post were provided for review by the manufacturer. 

Cosmoprof 2011 - CND Shellac

So at this point, I'm sure that 99.99999% of you have heard of the wonder product from CND called Shellac. I'm not here to introduce it to you. I'm here to PROVE it to you! As you may know, Shellac's claim to fame is that it is scratch-resistant, smudge-proof, etc. for 2 weeks! I have to say, I was skeptical. I knew that I had to put it to the test...normal nail polish rarely lasts a few hours on me before I see tip wear. Yes, yes, yes, I'm one of those girls that do bad things to their nails, I've even been known to use my nail as a screwdriver. Yes, I know. I tell you this so you can fully comprehend the awesomesaucenosity that is Shellac.

The proof is in the pictures....

The new Shellac colors!

The superstar of the new Shellac colors - Zillionaire, a flakey!

Day 1. 

On the thumb, Kristina did a cool technique where she cured the Shellac like normal, then buffed the shine off it, then added small droplets of Shellac top coat, then cured it, which looked like water droplets!

On the ring finger of each hand, she did black glitter 

(which was my idea, but it didn't really show up *sadface*)

Day 15.

I didn't get a chance to take a picture on Day 14. See how much it's grown out?!  NUTS!  I have to admit, I was getting stir crazy with it on so long. As you can see, it is actually still in REALLY good shape. There is a crack on the thumb nail, but that is where I accidentally bent my nail when packing some boxes, so it's my fault. 

Minor tipwear. 

Some tip wear, and some minor chips (which happened on Day 14) 

Bear in mind this is my dominant hand, so it gets abused the most. 

The removal process.

The removal process was super easy - just had to soak the pad of the removal wrap with acetone, then apply it pretty much like a band-aid, wait 10 minutes, and it comes off really easily.

Bandaged hand!!

WHAT?!  Look who I got to meet!

I got the chance to meet the artistic genius behind the CND Fashion week nails, co-founder and style director of CND, the fabulous Jan Arnold... and get this, she knows my blog!! *dies*

Overall, I was exceptionally impressed with Shellac. It wore strong through all 14 (15) days with only minor tip wear, even with how hard I am on my nails. The only downside I see of it is that I got bored with the color after a few days, and my nails grow so fast that the space created by the growth was distracting. Fun fact though, you CAN paint over Shellac, and remove it with Non-Acetone remover, and it won't damage the finish at all!

Are you as impressed with CND Shellac as I was?