Polish Days March are here!

Sadly I don’t own many vintage nail polishes but the two I have – Clarins 230 and Dior Enchanting Garnet – are my treasures. When I read that Vintage will be the March theme for the Polish Days I knew it was time to use Dior Enchanting Garnet (859) for it.
The first attempt of my vintage manicure failed badly. I should have sticked to my first thought, a Brush Stroke Manicure, and not try a spontaneous idea. After I wiped down the desaster of a manicure I went through my stash and not only picked Dior Enchanting Garnet again but also some of my other oldest nail polishes (and some new ones because they matched the other jewel tones). While colors like China Glaze Wagon Trail or OPI Midnight in Moscow aren’t actually old or vintage by any means they were one of the very first nail polishes I bought when I became a nail polish enthusiast.

The first Brush Stroke Manicure I personally saw was the beautiful Jewel Tone Abstract Brush Strokes manicure by Sarah from Chalkboard Nails. I fell in love with how gorgeous the texture of the nail polishes looked and couldn’t wait to try it myself someday. ♥

With a very little amount of nail polish on the brush and more layers of brush strokes I wanted to achieve a more “destroyed” look and I am very happy about how it turned out.

Dior Enchanting Garnet is the almost mauve-ish looking color in this Brush Stroke Manicure. It is such a pretty color. I am looking forward to not only wear it again but also to post it as a full manicure.

Looking at the stunning (almost emerald) green that is Essence All Access makes me a little sad. It must now be already over two years since it was discontinued. Of course I have quite a lot of backups but it is sad to see that such a breathtaking color is no longer available.

Have you tried a Brush Stroke Manicure yet and if yes did you like how it turned out?
It was so much fun to do. I started with a layer of OPI Goldeneye which in the end wouldn’t have been necessary, though. You have to do more clean-up than usually after you’re done with this look but it is worth it.

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Ready for part 2 of my China Glaze Hologlam swatches? Today I am showing you the remaining six shades of the soon coming Hologlam nail polishes: Astro-Hot, Galactic Gray, Get outta my Space, Infra Red, Not in this Galaxy and When Stars collide. These six shades are the warmer colors of the China Glaze Hologlam collection and also as gorgeous as the first six shades you can see here. Just one color isn’t really my cup of tea.

China Glaze Astro-Hot is a pretty medium baby pink with the a metallic or khrome base. Like Cosmic Dust and Sci-Fly By from part 1 of my review also Astro-Hot can apply with a few minor brushstrokes due to the metallic base.

Galactic Gray is love. Do you remember the MAC eye shadow Hocus Pocus? If Cosmic Dust remembers me a bit of my beloved Smoke & Diamonds eye shadow Galactic Gray reminds me of Hocus Pocus which is a very dark taupe (or murky brown) eye shadow. The linear holographic shimmer on China Glaze Galactic Gray is also one of the stronger ones in this collection. Beautiful.

Get outta my Space (I always want to write Myspace ) also has a stronger metallic/khrome base. It is a beautiful muted warm lavender holo with a stronger holo effect though.

A bright holo! Finally! Infra Red is the brightest or most saturated holographic nail polish of the China Glaze Hologlam collection. As much as I love Infra Red I wish it would have been a true red holo. I do love the warm pink color but just guessing from the name alone I would have hoped for a red holo.

Not in this Galaxy sadly isn’t my cup of tea. Peachy nail polishes don’t look good against my skintone most of the time so I am not 100% liking how China Glaze Not in this Galaxy looks on me. It still looks better than most peachy nail polishes on me because it almost looks like a bronze color with cooler untertones instead of just peachy.

When Stars collide is another one of my favorites from the China Glaze Hologlam collection. Its maroon base is beautiful and makes it – together with all darker shades from the Hologlam collection – quite unique.

The application of the last six six China Glaze Hologlam nail polishes in this post was a bliss as well. I had to be a bit more careful with the lighter colors because of the metallic base but it was easily manageable.

Even if the China Glaze Hologlam nail polishes aren’t as holographic as the OMG nail polishes I am still looking forward to buy backups. Not only because I am a holo addict but also because I really like them and I am glad I could buy them early with the help of the wonderful Susan from Singapore. ♥

What are your favorites from the Hologlams?

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend! ♥

I often get asked what kind of camera I use, how I take my pictures and how I edit them to make them ready to post. While it is quickly told with what camera I take my pictures (a soon eight years old Nikon CoolPix 5600) and which lighting I use (lightbox with indirect light for duochromes and multichromes and one desk lamp with a 70W halogen lightbulb for everything else), rotating and cropping pictures, correcing the colors and contrast and sharpen is also an important step on the constant mission for the most possible color accurate and perfect swatch.

Another and rather annoying thing is that every couple of months you get a troll comment saying that pictures look too photoshopped and not natural. With the term “too photoshopped” I associate especially makeup pictures where the skin isn’t looking like skin anymore and makes the person rather look like a fake silicone doll which is not a pretty look.
Reading this term is not only annoying but also hurts because I spend a lot of time swatching the nail polishes and also especially with clean-up so that there is no smudge, no flodded cuticles left before I take the actual pictures. I also always moisturize my cuticles and the skin around my nails before I take pictures to make sure my fingers look as smooth and healthy as possible. Not to mention the dozens of times I moisturize my hands and cuticles with Lush Smitten and Lemony Flutter during the day and the daily hand mask when I go to bed.

To show that it is not all magic and because I like sharing how my actual swatch pictures are created step by step I decided to write a “Behind the scenes” on picture editing the way I do it to have a hopefully as color accurate as possible swatch in the end.

This is how the picture straight out of my camera looks. I always try to be both as close to my nails as possible but also to photograph as much of the black background as possible to have the most options for cropping the picture the way I like it.

I like using different angles for my pictures and if I post single NOTDs I switch between the angles to not always have the same angle in the featured picture on my feed. The top and left of the picture are in the position I want to have them but the bottom and right still need to be cropped.

The picture on the left is now cropped but I still didn’t photograph enough of the background so I needed to enhance it a little. Because I now have the informations about the nail polish on the bottom I rather have more background than I eventually will need after the text is added. What is too much can always be cropped later.

Often I have to either make the pictures a bit lighter or darker because my little camera doesn’t always photograph my skin and the nail polish the same way. Sometimes my skin is too light – like in this case – or too dark. It is not always much but it’s not like how it looks when I look at my hands so I correct it if needed to have a as much consistent skintone as possible.

My camera always captures my skin too saturated so I tone it down a bit.

As much as I love my camera – it works perfectly for its age even though it is not even a DSLR – it doesn’t always capture colors like they look to me. Sometimes a red can be too orange, a pink too purple, a blue to teal or in this case the pink too warm so I color correct it until it fits to how I see the color when I look at my nails and not how my camera sees it.

Due to the rotation and resizing of the picture the original sharpness will be reduced so I sharpen the picture again to make it more crisp again.

My final step is adding my watermark, the text with the information about the nail polish and to crop the few pixels at the bottom which I don’t need after the placement of the box with the text. Then I save the picture and I am done.

I hope you enjoyed this little (or long and picture heavy ) view behind the scenes of The Swatchaholic. I am very proud of my pictures because they are so much work especially before I even start taking the actual pictures but also the little tweaks like the color correction are important. The differences between the original and the final picture might not seem much but for me they are essential to show you the nail polishes as color accurate, as true to real life as possible.

The comment or post I see every other month on about if pictures are too photoshopped is really getting on my nerves. Just because a picture looks neat doesn’t mean that someone photoshopped its soul out of it. The preparation of our nails is as important as our actual photo setup. I highly recommend to check out Martha’s (The Polished Perfectionist) tutorial how to clean up nails and Michèle’s (Lacquerized) tutorials on how to apply nail polish and how to clean-up. An angled brush and acetone nail polish remover are my holy grails for perfectly clean manicured nails.

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

What can I say. I am a holo addict.
The last information I have on the official release date of the long anticipated China Glaze Hologlam Collection is April however a couple of weeks ago the Hologlam collection was already available in Singapore and is also now already available in the UK. Thanks to the fantastic Susan I could buy all twelve Hologlams with her help in Singapore. Thank you so much love! ♥

Since the Tronica Collection for Spring 2011 with its sparse holographic shimmer was disappointing for everyone who waited for another OMG like collection there were high hopes for the China Glaze Hologlam collection.
The good news is that the holographic shimmer of the China Glaze Hologlam collection is the same as in our beloved OMG collection however it is less intense.

China Glaze Cosmic Dust is a medium dark silver with a tiny bit of a pewter undertone. Cosmic Dust is quite a bit darker than the silver holo OMG from the OMG collection. It reminds me of a holographic nail polish version of my beloved MAC eye shadow Smoke & Diamonds. Next to the less intense linear holographic shimmer another detail makes the Hologlam holos different to the OMG holos: a lot of them – like Cosmic Dust – seem to have a slightly metallic base. Not only metallic looking but also you can see a tiny bit of brushstrokes.

China Glaze Don’t be a Luna-Tic is a seafoam, almost aqua holo. It has the same bit of metallic effect like Cosmic Dust.

Sadly China Glaze OMG a UFO is the weakest of the first six Hologlam nail polishes I am showing you today. The moss green base, which reminds me a bit of a lovechild of Catherine Arley 803 and A-England Princess Sabra (Tristam Eyes), is gorgeous though and right up my alley.

China Glaze Sci-Fly By is a baby blue linear holo with the same little metallic effect like Cosmic Dust and Don’t be a Luna-Tic. Sci-Fly By has the strongest linear holographic shimmer of these six Hologlams.

China Glaze Strap on your Moonboots is my favorite nail polish of these six Hologlam nail polishes. The dark navy blue base looks beautiful together with the linear holographic shimmer.

China Glaze Take a Trek is a gorgeous slightly murky denim blue holo with a tiny bit of a teal undertone.

The application of all six China Glaze Hologlam nail polishes in this post was a bliss. The formula is not too thin, not too thick and easy to work with. Because I always wear holos over a Aqua Base coat I applied the Hologlam nail polishes over one coat of Nfu.Oh’s Aqua Base. My nails naturally have a few ridges and it is always best to apply a holo over a very smooth nail to ensure that the holographic particles can lay as flat as possible on the nail for the best possible holographic effect.

As you can see the holo effect of the China Glaze Hologlam nail polishes isn’t as strong as in our beloved OMG collection but still gorgeous. The size of the holo shimmer seems to be the same as in the OMGs though. What I am also missing a bit are brighter colors however I also like to see new additions of holographic nail polish colors like the dark navy Strap on your Moonboots or the denim Take a Trek to my holo collection.

What do you think about the China Glaze Hologlam collection? Are you looking forward to them?
I can’t wait to pick up backups of a few or even each of them. ♥

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

As soon as I saw the first promo pictures of the Chanel Eclats du Soir de Chanel Holiday 2012 Collection one item caught my attention: the beautiful dark red, almost burgundy nail polish Malice (637). I knew that I needed not one but two bottles of this beauty.

Sadly the Eclats du Soir de Chanel Collection never made it to any department store in my town. As far as I know Chanel’s Holiday 2012 Collection only made it to two counters in Germany – both far, far away from me. Thanks so my fabulous friend Brooke I could purchase two bottles of Chanel Malice in the US. ♥

Chanel Malice (637) is breathtaking. The already stunning promo pictures didn’t do it justice. The dark red, almost burgundy base and the ruby red shimmer create a stunning and glowy look.

I am so happy that I could get my hands on Chanel Malice, twice! What can I say, I love backups. Thank you so much for your help Brooke! ♥

The application of Chanel Malice (637) was like applying butter. It almost applied itself while gliding with the brush over my nails. Malice was almost opaque with one coat but I applied a second coat just out of a habit.
It has been a few weeks since I was wearing Chanel Malice but looking at the pictures makes me want to wear it again asap! The untrieds screaming in the background will keep me from wearing it too soon again though I am afraid. Sorry Malice!

Could you get your hands on Chanel Malice too? If yes do you love it as much as I do?

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend! ♥

Oh NailNation 3000 Eve #403 I love you. ♥

My love for holographic nail polishes no secret and I strongly believe in that owning enough holos is impossible. That we are now seeing more holographic nail polishes released by mainstream brands excites me after holo addicts had such a long lean period without the release of new ones. With the rise of indie brands the need for holos could be satisfied in the meantime and we are luckily still seeing new stunning and unique indie creations like NailNation 3000 Eve #403.

NailNation Eve #403 is a gorgeous, almost borderline cornflower, blue with not only linear holographic shimmer but also holographic glitter. I must admit at first I was afraid that the combination of a stronger holographic shimmer and holographic glitter would end up in NailNation 3000 Eve #403 being too gritty. Or that the fine holographic shimmer would cover up the glitter too much but both wasn’t the case. Eve is a gorgeous and unique blue linear holo with a twist.

Isn’t NailNation 3000 #403 pretty? I love how gorgeous both the holographic shimmer and glitter look together. ♥

Depending on the lighting Eve can look lighter and less saturated, even more cornflower blue. The more direct the light is that hits the nails the more saturated NailNation 3000 Eve #403 looks.

The application of NailNation 3000 Eve #403 was great. The formula isn’t too thick or thin and Eve was opaque after three thin coats. I needed to apply two layers of top coat to even out the little bumps from the holographic glitter though.

I also purchased NailNation 3000 4 Get Me Not #850 which looks gorgeous as well and I am looking forward to wear it too. Have you purchased NailNation 3000 nail polishes yet and do you love them too?

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Oh piCture pOlish Starry Night.. be still my heart. ♥

One nail polish effect I can’t get enough of is the piCture pOlish scattered holographic finish in their squishy jelly bases. Just a few weeks ago piCture pOlish Cosmos stole my heart and just one look at it made it immediately to my favorite nail polish of 2012. I knew the second I saw Cosmos that I would need every other scattered holo jelly piCture pOlish ever made and will make in the future. Kryptonite, Monroe and O’Hara – all of them. And now piCture pOlish together with llarowe did it again with their new collaboration shade Starry Night.

piCture pOlish describes Starry Night as a charcoal scatter holo jelly with multi-colour sparks. When I first looked at the bottle I thought it is a black scattered holo jelly but when I applied it I was excited to see that is a charcoal scattered holo jelly. ♥

In the pictures I am wearing three coats of piCure pOlish Starry Night but if you would apply a fourth coat you might make it look almost black if you like.

Have I already mentioned how much I love this scattered holo shimmer?
I am having difficulties with spotting the multi-color sparks because I always thought the piCture pOlish scattered holo effect is made of bigger and smaller holo particles so I thought the smaller shimmer particles are smaller holo shimmer particles. But either way I love how pretty the different sizes of the shimmer are floating in the squishy jelly base.

Llarowe and piCture pOlish did a perfect job with the creation of Starry Night. I love the charcoal base and my obsession with love for piCture pOlish’s scattered holo nail polishes is no secret.

The application of piCture pOlish Starry Night was a bliss. With the first coat though I thought “oh my, this is never going to end up opaque” because it is very sheer and even watery at the first coat. With the second coat I was very positively surprised though to see that – if you don’t mind a bit of visible nail line – it was almost opaque. With a third coat it was perfectly opaque with no visible nail line on my nails. Also the application of the second and third coat wasn’t watery anymore.
I love how shiny the jelly bases of piCture pOlish are on their own even without a top coat. I added a top coat to my manicure because I wanted it to dry asap but Starry Night is so shiny that it doesn’t even need one.

Are you as in love with the piCture pOlish scattered holo effect as I am?

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Every time when I am wearing a red nail polish like the beautiful Cirque Curiosity from the Objet d’Art Collection I am asking myself why I am not wearing red nails more often. They are classy, beautiful, bright and gorgeous to look at.

Cirque Curiosity is such a bright, saturated and eye catching tomato red. It reminds me of OPI Dear Santa which is one of my favorite reds with shimmer flecks but Curiosity seems to be even brighter and also the gold shimmer flecks, which are almost insivible once Dear Santa was on my nails, are more prominent. The shimmer flecks in Curiosity are smaller too. So delicate, so pretty. ♥

When I was wearing Curiosity I couldn’t stop staring at my nails. The tomato red jelly base is breathtaking and I love how pretty the gold shimmer flecks are floating in it.

Isn’t Cirque Curiosity squishy to look at?

The application of Cirque Curiosity from the Objet d’Art Collection was a bliss. It was opaque after two coats but because my camera tends to see more than I do I applied a third coat.

Sadly I catched another bad cold which I am still recovering from so it was a bit quiter in the last weeks here I am sorry. Just having a few days of feeling better between two colds isn’t fun.

Have you purchased something from the Cirque Objet d’Art Collection yet?

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Oh China Glaze DV8 .. be still my heart. ♥

Confession time: I am a holoholic. When I see new collections with holographic nail polishes I don’t sit down and think which colors I like and could buy. No. The only thing that crosses my mind is MUST BUY ALL THE HOLOS!

When news came up about a new holographic collection by China Glaze called Hologlam a few months ago I knew I would need them all. They are due to release this Spring but Susan from The Subtle Shimmer already found them in Singapore. Sadly the Hologlam collection appears to be not as holographic as the highly coveted OMG collection from Spring 2008 but they still look gorgeous.
To celebrate that I can get my hands on the China Glaze Hologlam beauties I decided to wear China Glaze DV8 from my most beloved OMG collection. I was considering to wear DV8 or LOL but DV8 won.

Teal linear holographic deliciousness. What more to say? ♥

I absolutely adore the China Glaze OMG collection. Over time I was very lucky to get my hands on all twelve OMG nail polishes and even a few backups but right now their prices on evilbay are sadly insane.

Due to the Jessica Hologram Chic aqua base coat China Glaze DV8 was a bliss to apply. No dragging, it almost applied itself and was perfectly opaque after two thin coats. Oh China Glaze OMG collection how I love thee! ♥
Even if the upcoming Hologlam collection won’t be as holographic I am sure I will still love them. They are holos after all!

Could you get your hands on some or even all nail polishes from the China Glaze OMG collection? Soon this collection will be already five years old. If you do have some or all of them which is your favorite OMG nail polish?

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

There are nail polishes which cause an instant desire to own them the second you see them. You see a swatch and know you would love to own and wear it.

When I saw Sam’s gorgeous swatches of Deborah Lippmann Raise Your Glass I was mesmerized. Mesmerized and sure I would never be able to paint my nails with this beauty.

Deborah Lippmann Raise Your Glass was released exclusively to Holt Renfrew stores to celebrate their 175th Anniversary. If it wasn’t for the kind and generous help of Eugenia (you need to check Eugenia’s gorgeous swatches of Deborah Lippmann Raise Your Glass as well) owning Raise Your Glass would have stayed a dream.. but Eugenia made it come true. Thank you so so much! ♥

Deborah Lippmann Raise Your Glass is such a fascinating nail polish. Its warm dark magenta base color and the small hex fuchsia glitter make it a completely unique nail polish in my collection. The base of Raise Your Glass isn’t a jelly. It is a creme which makes the effect that the glitter is floating in the nail polish even more prominent because you see how the glitter disappears in the layers of the nail polish.

The base color of Deborah Lippmann Raise Your Glass also is kind of a borderline magenta. It is too cool toned to be a red but also almost too warm to be classified as magenta. Stunning. ♥

The fuchsia glitter in contrast to the warmer base makes such a pretty contrast.

The application of Deborah Lippmann Raise Your Glass was great. After two coats it was opaque. Due to the glitter it was a bit bumpy though so I added two coats of Gelous before my top coat to even it out.

Could you get your hands on Raise Your Glass? I really hope that sooner or later someone will release a dupe of Deborah Lippmann Raise Your Glass. It is such a beauty and I wish it would be widely available.

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend! ♥