OPI Ulta Exclusives Holiday 2010

Every year around Christmas, OPI does a set of three holiday-themed polishes exclusively for Ulta. Last year's collection raised the bar so high, that I was super excited to see what they did this year.... But I was sadly disappointed, after hearing from a very reliable source, that no one knew anything about them and there probably wouldn't be any this year.

Then, imagine my surprise, when everyone on Twitter was, well, atwitter with excitement over this new OPI Ulta exclusive gold glitter polish. I immediately drove to Ulta and returned home with these safely in tow.




All The Berry Best. A medium berry toned red shimmer. It's rather washed out here because of the lighting; it's a couple shades darker in real life. Regardless, it's my least favorite of the collection. It has some really great gold duochrome in the bottle, but on the nail it's just an average looking red shimmer. It does have a really nice velvety looking finish, though.



Gift of Gold. Now THIS is a glitter. Amazing. It's so ridiculously sparkly. It's a lighter gold mixed with some darker gold and even a bit of what looks like copper or bronze glitter. It's very opaque, too, needing only one to two coats depending on how thick or even you do your coats. It's still rough and hard to remove like other glitters, but it's just soooooo pretty. The best one in the collection for sure. OPI really knows how to do glitter and I'm really glad they've been doing a lot of it lately.


Plum Full Of Cheer. The flash picture shows the base color of the polish and also shows the pretty multi-colored shimmer, but in real life it looks more like the top picture. This is not a bad color at all, it's extremely pretty, one of my favorite types of purples, but it's just so common lately that it doesn't feel special to me. Shimmery, glowy, red-based dark purples are great, I think I'm just a little burned out on them. I had hoped for something really special like last year's Visions of Sugarplum.

Wait a minute... Wasn't last year's Ulta Exclusive holiday collection a gold, a berry-red and a dark purple? What was the year before that? I only remember the gorgeous pink microglitter one.

The formula was good, so no complaints there. The Gift of Gold shade was really thick, but that's part of what makes it so opaque and dense. I only needed two coats of each color (and that's what I'm wearing in these pictures) and the drying time was very good. They were a little dull without topcoat, so I am also wearing topcoat for these pictures.

They're nice, and Gift of Gold is very nice, but they didn't knock me over with awesome like last year's set. Maybe they'll do something more unique this year!

Essie Winter 2010 Collection

As with most Essie seasonal collections, I'm not sure if this has an official name or not! So I'm just calling it Winter 2010.

I only have four of the six colors so this will only be a partial review.


Going Incognito. The star of the collection. This is a very blue toned green creme. In some types of lighting it's teal but in others it's a true green. It's a little but muted looking, too. Green is such a rare thing for Essie, so seeing this color makes me really happy.



Hot Coco. This is a soft dusty taupe brown. The color on my nails reminds me of melted milk chocolate. In a way it's similar to OPI Over The Taupe- more brown than taupe but but a greyed-out look to it.


Silken Cord. Gorgeous bright fruity red. It may be hard to tell from the pictures, but this is a very candy-colored type of red. Instead of a true red, it's more of a pink red, like a cross between Red Nouveau and Watermelon. Very fresh and crisp and cheerful looking.


Luxedo. A blackened plum-brown. This is two coats and it looks like it's just plain black with a hint of brown, but it's actually a super deep purple shade. At one coat it's visibly purple, and if you can apply it evenly enough it looks really nice that way- semi-sheer, jellyish. Looks a bit like Fall's Velvet Voyeur.


I haven't seen the other two shades, but I'll keep my eye out for them. This collection is mysteriously absent from every store I've been too this season.

The formula is good. A little on the thin side, but easy to control and with nice opacity. Most shades only needed two coats but they all look even better with three. I had no problems with application, no bubbling, no streaking, good wear and dry time. Essie's brushes are very thin, which can be tricky to adjust to if you usually use the big thick fluffy brushes like I do. But, overall, no problems!

Very happy to see Going Incognito in this collection. Such a gorgeous shade. Very proud of Essie for branching out into true greens!

(These were sent to me for review.)

Christmas Eve Mani

I really like how this one turned out. Very appropriate seeing that it just started snowing as I type this :)


This was:
Two coats of China Glaze Frosty
Konad m59 in Light Blue Konad Special Polish
Color Club / Art Club silver gems from the holiday gem wheel
INM Out The Door Northern Lights in Silver, fully shaken

I originally tried to do holo silver snowflakes but they didn't show up at all! So then I tried to do gold snowflakes (you can see it on my pinkie) but it looked to warm and un-snowlike. Finally settled on the baby blue Konad polish and it was perfect. Not much contrast, which I like for this design. Added the gems because it didn't look icy and sparkly enough for me and then the Northern Lights because it still wasn't sparkly enough.

I did fewer gems on the left hand just to see how it looked:

I think I like more gems better.

So, I guess it's not specifically Christmassy... More like a winter-themed nail art. Ooh, it would even make a great Hanukkah mani, too.

I'm thinking I want to do something with a green base on Christmas Day. Maybe start with China Glaze Jolly Holly, then do something with gold and red and jewels? Hm. Better start brainstorming.

Since I probably won't get a chance to post tomorrow, I want to wish you all a merry Christmas! ♥

Color Club Enchanted Holiday Collection Winter/Holiday 2010

Christmas polish posting continues with the latest from Color Club. Enchanted Holiday is a set of four mini (but still good size- .25 oz- half size!) Color Club shades plus a sheet of adorable Christmas decals which sadly I don't have a picture of. The kit is accompanied by a little set of holiday gems for nail art- little stars and beads and jewels. Which, if I wasn't in a complete creative slump, I could totally use to do some cute Christmas nail art. Actually, I have one idea for a design, I might just have to give it a try.... Anyway, the polishes!



Enchanted Holiday. Gold glitter in a clear base. Bright and shiny!


Magic Elf. This color is AMAZING. Look at it! It's insane! Light green and dark green tones with tons of iridescent gold sparkles. It's almost a foil it's so sparkly, but it doesn't have a metallic silver base like most foils. Just super shiny sparkly crazy green and gold. Now, the rest of the colors in this collection appear to be re=promoted Color Club shades, but I can't say I've seen this one before. Wonder if it will ever be released in full size?


Snowflakes. A light opalescent glitter in a slightly shimmery milky sheer base. Great for layering but it will lighten the color you layer it over because of the clear/whitish shimmer in the base. Looks nice alone, but I should have done three coats instead of two. Reminds me a bit of China Glaze Glacier.



Wish List Red. Obligatory Christmas/Holiday collection Ruby Pumps clone. Not that that's a bad thing because the color is gorgeous. Fiery red glitter in a candy red jelly base. Really can't go wrong with this color.

As usual, the formula was great. Not too thick, not too thin, applied easily. Color Club minis do have a small brush but it seems to hold a decent amount of polish and doesn't give me much trouble. I do like that color club minis are .25 fl oz- a full size is usually .5 fl oz- sometimes minis are smaller than half size which can make them harder to use and you get less polish. Drying time on these shades is good. Enchanted Holiday and Snowflakes are definitely on the gritty side and will need a little extra topcoat to smooth.

Cute set, I love the decals! Hopefully I'll be able to do something cute with them soon and post it. While we have seen three out of the four shades in this set, I think it's totally worth getting for Magic Elf alone. Now I'm starting to worry about having to ration my mini bottle of Magic Elf... Really hope I can get that in full size soon!

(These were sent to me for review.)

Finger Paints Winter Dreams Collection Winter/Holiday 2010

Another lovely Christmas polish collection for your viewing (and perhaps purchasing) pleasure...

This time it's Finger Paints' Holiday set and it's a good one. Finger Paints' winter collections always kick ass. Such an overlooked brand (possibly because you can only buy it in one place), but they really do make great colors.


Holiday Winter Wishes. This is a three-way tie for my favorite polish of the collection. I can't pick just one favorite. This is a really unique glitter, too. At first you might think it looks like Zoya Luna or China Glaze The Ten Man (ten man... ten man... still hate typing that name) but it's really quite different. It's a silver glitter mixed with some very soft gold and champagne glitter in a semi-sheer just barely gold tinted silvery-white base. It has an overall soft, sparkling snowy champagne look. Not pure silver, not strong gold. Lovely. (Irrelevant yet funny: Mine was labelled "Mulberry Madness" and I was all, "this doesn't look mulberry to me!")
EDIT: Heather, you're right, this is Winter Wishes! Mine had the wrong label and I don't know where I got Holiday from XD



Holly Good Times. This is the second one tied for favorite. It's amazing. I know this is supposed to be a Christmas-themed collection, but this one totally screams Thanksgiving. It's a simple combination of gold and red glitter in a clear base, but it looks much more fancy and complex than it actually is. I don't have another glitter like this. To make it even better, it's sheer enough (but just barely) for layering- looks really nice over brown.


Just Plum Fun. A very dark red-toned purple shimmer. Very pretty, not terribly original or exciting, though. Love the color but I was hoping it would be a bit more sparkly!


Merry Mittens. My only disappointment in the collection. It looks amazing in the bottle but it comes out very lumpy/bumpy on the nail. It's a cranberry frost base with tiny gold microglitter, that should have been a dead giveaway that it would end up lumpy. The base is so thick and frosty that the glitter can't shine through. On the upside, it's so thick that it's completely opaque in one coat.


Mistletoe Mischief. This is also tied for favorite! Obviously. Dark green jelly, sparkling green microglitter? It practically has my name written all over it. It does not disappoint. While it is the sheerest color in the collection, the sheerness actually makes this polish better, adding depth to what could have been just a plain green glitter. I love jelly glitters.



Mulberry Madness. Madness, I tell you! MADNESS! Or... something like that? It's not exactly mad, but it is sparkly. It's a little darker than my picture shows. It's a mulberry-red tinted base with pink/red and subtle silver glitter. I was expecting yet another Ruby Pumps clone, but it's actually not! It's different! It's darker, more wine toned. Reminds me of Thanksgiving again. Cranberry sauce. Hm.

The formula on these was varied but good. Mulberry Madness, Holiday Wishes and Merry Mittens were thick, the other three were average. Opacity was great, most needed only two coats, Merry Mittens needed just one. I did three of all and the only one that looked better with three was Holly Good Times. Drying time was a little slower than average. The glitters do dry rather rough, so you may want to double up on topcoat. Actually, try putting a coat of Gelous on before your topcoat, lately I've been finding that to work very well for smoothing lumpy glitters.

Awesome collection. I love to see a good old-fashioned red and green glitter holiday collection. It isn't all red and green, either. It has silvery champagne (would that be platinum? White gold?), gold/red glitter and even a purple. Good balance of 'fun' and 'traditional.' Two thumbs up from me!

(These were sent to me for review.)

CARGO Lumières du Monde Palette Winter/Holiday 2010

CARGO is still a fairly new brand to me- I've not used very many of their products so I was really excited to try this eyeshadow palette they've released for holiday 2010. Here's the product description:

"Lumières du Monde - ($29 regular retail value of $175)

This gorgeous holiday palette, meaning “lights of the world”, with original artwork contains eight professional-quality eye shadows and a blush/bronzer duo for an alluring holiday glow. With a retail value of $156 this kit will outlast the wintery weather and take you – or your Secret Santa – well into spring. A collection of matte and shimmering shadows offers an endless number of color combinations for any occasion, day or night. Shades include:

· Eye Shadow in Deep Teal Green

· Eye Shadow in Sparkling Bronze

· Eye Shadow in Periwinkle Purple

· Eye Shadow in Sparkling Electric Blue

· Eye Shadow in Sparkling Brown

· Eye Shadow in Matte Beige

· Eye Shadow in Matte Warm Grey

· Eye Shadow in Glittery Gold

· Blush in Rome paired with Medium Bronzer"

When it arrived in the mail, boy was I surprised! This thing is MASSIVE. Huge. Monstrous. The sheer size alone really makes you feel like you're getting a good deal.

Here's what it looks like inside:

Open palette- indoor and in sunlight. It has a cover that flips open like a book and it has a magnetic closure so it can't open accidentally. I don't know if you can tell from the picture because I haven't included anything for size reference, but these shadow pans are huge. They're the size of a Stila or Make Up For Ever shadow pan. The bronzer/blush combo is about the size of a MAC bronzer compact. If you divide the cost of the palette it comes out to about $3.20 per item.

Here are the colors swatched (indoors and in sunlight, no base):



Smoky teal, shimmery gold, glittery blue, duochrome purple, glittery brown, warm matte beige, matte white, shimmery khaki, bronzer, blush.

The pigmentation is really good on these. Usually when companies do big "value" palettes for holiday the quality ends up suffering (for example Tarte, Lorac.), but not in this case. These all applied smoothly with great payoff. Some of the shimmery colors are a bit flaky- the gold and khaki colors- but the rest are smooth and even.

The description lists a warm grey, but the palette doesn't actually have one. Unless they're referring to the nude beige color? I'm not sure in what universe nude beige equals grey, but can you do?

I haven't used all of the colors on my eyes yet, but judging from the ones I have used, I feel confident saying that the application on these colors is great. I've used the duochrome purple, the blue with glitter, the gold, the khaki and the matte beige and the pigmentation and blending were just right. I had no issues other than a mild amount of fallout, which is really a non-issue in my opinion. The blue with glitter is especially smooth and blendable, but the glitter doesn't really show up on the eye. I'd assume the same for the brown with glitter.

The bronzer turned a little orange on me, especially when I tried to mix it with the pink blush. I'm fair and cool and the bronzer is quite warm. The whole palette actually seems suited more for a warm skin tone than a cool one.

Overall, I really like this palette. It has fun colors and it's enormous. Good combination of mattes and shimmers and even a little glitter. It has a color light enough for a highlight that isn't super frosty (one of my palette pet peeves is including only super frosty highlight colors) and colors dark enough to define the crease. I don't believe I've ever used Cargo's eyeshadows before (except for the Eye Bronzer and a really old palette I used once) but now that I've tried them out and liked them I'm really tempted to try more.

I think this really would make a good gift. The pretty design on the front, inside and on the shadows and the almost comically large size of the palette are really special and the price is right.

(This was sent to me for review.)