China Glaze Let It Snow Holiday 2011 Collection Part 1 Swatches and Review

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers!  Today, I have the first part of the China Glaze Let It Snow Holiday 2011 Collection!  I bought 9 out of the 12 polishes in this collection and bought them as sets in and of themselves so today you get to see the Winter Ice portion!

As per the name, this part of the collection features blues, greys, silvers and sparkles!  This is actually my favorite of the sets so I wanted to show it off first!  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

Above:  2 coats of Blue Year's Eve

This polish is stunning!  This is truly a perfect royal blue shimmer!  I truly fell in love when I put this polish on.  It was almost a one coater but I put on a second coat for full opacity.  I just love how deeply pigmented this polish is!  It's such a great fall/winter color.  In fact, I'm looking at the swatch of this right now (I swatched it a couple of weeks ago) and I want to put it back on tonight!  As far as I know, no staining with this blue either!

Above:  2 coats of Tinsel Town

Tinsel Town is a gorgeous charcoal grey micro glitter that also has larger, hexagonal glitter packed into it.  Fully opaque in 2 coats, to me it looks like glittering pavement.  I love it!  As many grey and silver polishes that I own, I don't have a dupe to this.  I've been wearing it as a pedicure for about 2 weeks and it's just so pretty!  I love how it's dark but glamorous with all the glitter.  It is a bit of a pain to remove, but totally worth it!

Above:  2 coats of Icicle

Icicle is a very pretty silver foil.  I have a lot of silver foils, some are lighter, some darker, some more sparkly, and Icicle is a pretty standard light smooth silver foil.  It's pretty but not the most unique.  It is fully opaque in two coats and would be great as a base for layering!

Above:  1 coat of Snow Globe over various polish and bare nail

Last but certainly not least is Snow Globe.  You may remember that I recently did a comparison of Snow Globe to MAC Unconditionally Fabulous and found that they were fairly close!  Above you can see Snow Globe over my bare nail as well as the other 3 polishes in this collection.  Look how stunning it is over Blue Year's Eve!  Here is a macro shot of it:

Absolutely stunning!  I just want to layer Snow Globe over everything!


So there you have it!  The first 4 polishes from the China Glaze Let It Snow Collection!  So far, I'm very impressed with these polishes!  They are all opaque in 2 coats (with the exception of Snow Globe of course) and very pigmented.  Blue Year's Eve is definitely my favorite!

What do you think of these polishes?  Any must haves?  Any dupes?

UNICORN PUKE GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers!  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!  Today I FINALLY have the winner of the Unicorn Puke Giveaway!  So now, without further ado, on to the winner!

Congrats Connie!  She has already been notified via email and will have 48 hours to respond!  Thank you so much to everyone who entered and I will be drawing the winners of the 1,000 follower giveaway today as well!

Giveaway Update

Good afternoon Lacquered Lovers! I hope all the Americans had a fabulous Thanksgiving and that everyone else is gearing up for a great weekend. Just a quick update to say that I'm a bit swamped and therefore will post the Unicorn Puke giveaway winner on Monday morning! I apologize for the delay but have a great weekend!!!

Deborah Lippmann Dance Music Holiday Mini Trio vs Wet N Wild Ice Baby Collection

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers! I know, I know, I'm a bad blogger. I fell off the wagon with the 30 days of untrieds, but sometimes life just gets in the way! So, to make up for it, I've been trying to show you some awesome collections and today will be showing you a fun comparison post!  As you've seen on here already, Deborah Lippmann came out with a really cute mini holiday trio called Dance Music a few weeks ago that's 3 really cute and fun glitters.  Similarly, Wet N Wild released a limited edition collection only at Walgreens called Ice Baby that's all glitters and when I saw the two, they looked similar but I wasn't quite sure if they were dupes so clearly I had to swatch them together!  So now, without further ado, on to the polish!

 Above:  2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Just Dance

Above:  3 coats of Cost is no Issue

Above:  Pointer and Ring Finger - 2 coats of Just Dance/ Middle and Pinkie Fingers 2 coats of Cost is No Issue
First up we have Deborah Lippmann Just Dance vs Wet N Wild Cost is no Issue.  The first major difference is opacity, it only take 2 coats of Just Dance to be opaque while it takes three for Cost is no Issue.  The second major difference is color.  Just Dance is far more teal and a bit more vibrant where Cost is no Issue is lighter in color and more pale.  As you can see when they are swatched together (both using only 2 coats) Just Dance is much brighter, more highly pigmented and has much more teal than aqua to it.  For me, Deborah Lippmann wins this round!

 Above:  2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Flash Dance

 Above:  3 coats of Wet N Wild Back Alley Deals

Above:  Pointer and Ring Finger - 2 coats of Flash Dance/ Middle and Pinkie Fingers - 2 coats of Back Alley Deals

I really thought that these two were going to be dupes when I first saw them, until I put them on the nail and it became clear that they were very different.  First of all, it only takes two coats of Flash Dance to be opaque whereas it takes three for Back Alley Deals.  Also, Back Alley Deals is far more purple!  The base of Back Alley Deals is a dark purple glitter with fuchsia larger pieces of glitter so the overall look is more purple whereas Flash Dance is more of a fuchsia base with hot pink larger glitter giving it a much more pink look.  For me, Wet N Wild wins this one because I prefer the purple to the pink base, however both are gorgeous!

 Above:  2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Dancing in the Dark

Above:  Pointer and Ring Finger - Deborah Lippmann Dancing in the Dark/ Middle and Pinkie Fingers - Wet N Wild Diamond in the Rough

I know, I know, I forgot to swatch Diamond in the Rough by itself!  I honestly thought I had worn it before!  Oops!  Anyway, can you tell the difference between these two?  If I had to fine something, the base of Dancing in the Dark is a smidge darker than Diamond in the Rough, but unless I was really looking for it, these two are dupes!  Both dark grey glitter bases with larger hexagonal holographic glitter.  These two truly are 99% identical.

All in all, are these collections (or at least the three that "match") dupes?  I have to say no!  While Diamond in the Rough and Dancing in the Dark are dupes, the blues and the purple/pinks are different enough to justify having both.  Of course the price points are very different with the Wet N Wild coming out to $2.99 per bottle, although they are fairly hard to find being a limited release and the Deborah Lippmann set being $29.  If you're a glitter fan though, treat yourself for the holidays!

What do you guys think?  Dupes or not?  Do you have either or both?  Which do you like better?

LACQUERED LOVER AND RICKY'S MATTESE ELITE GIVEAWAY!!!

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers!  Do I have a treat for you today!  As you may remember, yesterday I reviewed the entire new Mattese Elite Seductive Winter Wonderland Collection found HERE.  Today, I give you a chance to win the ENTIRE collection!

All six of these gorgeous polishes can be yours!  Glitters, shimmers, holographic, iridescent, it's everything you could ever want from a nail polish collection!  To win this fabulous prize, just fill out the form below!  Don't forget to check out Ricky's for all your beauty needs!  A huge thank you to LeAnna and the amazing crew at Ricky's for hosting this awesome giveaway!  Be sure to read the rules and regulations below before entering and good luck!

Mattese Elite Seductive Winter Wonderland Swatches and Review

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers!  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!  To kick off a Monday, I'm going to show you guys an awesome new collection by the fabulous Mattese Elite! 

Seductive Winter Wonderland was released last week and as some of you may remember, I already swatched one color from the collection that was a holo!  So today, I have the full collection to show you all!  There are 6 polishes in this collection so there are a lot of pictures to come!  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

 Above:  2 coats of Uninhibited

Above:  Macro shot of Uninhibited

According to Ricky's, Uninhibited is "an icy opalescent pearl."  I'd say that pretty much sums it up!  I was very excited that this polish wasn't nearly as sheer as I thought!  What you see above is 2 coats and there is hardly any visible nail line.  There is also a tiny flash of blue in the white which makes it really pretty and I'm guessing it will be a great layering polish!

 Above:  2 coats of Temptation

Above:  macro shot of Temptation

According to Ricky's, Temptation is " a chilly blue, softened by an aqua sheen."  I personally think this leans a bit towards teal, but it's just semantics because this polish is gorgeous!  I love the shimmer in it and how deeply pigmented the color is.  This was so pigmented that it was almost opaque in 1 coat but I threw on a second for good measure.  If you're looking for a gorgeous jewel toned blue, this is your polish!

 Above:  2 coats of Intoxicating

Above:  Blurry Macro shot of Intoxicating

According to Ricky's, Intoxicating is "a deep plum augmented with more subtle pink and blue shimmer."  What they don't tell you is that it looks like a glass fleck!  I love glass flecks!  I included the blurry macro shot because I think it looks pretty cool.  This color is like Barbie on steroids!  Hot pink with bright pink and blue flecks?  Really a fun color for the holiday season and perfectly opaque in 2 coats.

 Above:  2 coats of Seduction

Above:  Macro shot of Seduction

According to Ricky's, Seduction is "a lavender-based explosion of iridescent sparkle."  Yep I'd say that's pretty spot on!  Seduction is packed with a light purple, almost silverish micro glitter that's also packed with holographic glitter!  It's a holographic explosion!  This might be my favorite shade in the bunch!  It's so unique and sparkly!

 Above:  2 coats of Passion

Above:  Macro shot of Passion

According to Ricky's, Passion is "pink, purple and silver glitter collide in this romantic outburst."  The dominant color in this polish is definitely the pink, which is kind of a dusty pink which is interesting, but the purple and silver really pop out in the sun or with a flash!  In the bottle I was expecting it to just be pink so I was really excited to put it on the nail and see how many colors were in it!  This was mostly opaque in two coats which was great for a glitter!

 Above:  2 coats of Mysterious

Above:  Macro shot of Mysterious

According to Ricky's, Mysterious is "blue meets green in this polychromatic glitzfest."  I kind of love that description!  I already reviewed this last week so just look at the pretty pictures!

All in all I think this is a great collection.  Mattese Elite is really stepping up and becoming a player in the nail polish world and I'm so excited for them!  Mattese Elite polishes retail for $5.99 each and can be found either at Ricky's stores or at their website.

What did you think of this collection?  Any must haves?  Any dupes?

Note:  Some of these products were sent to me for review.  Please see my disclosure policy above for more information.