Capitol Colours: Fast Track

The much anticipated Capitol Colours collection from China Glaze (aka the Hunger Games collection) has finally arrived! My order from SallyBeauty.com arrived on Wednesday and I had to try at least one as soon as possible. It was a tough decision because I wanted to wear them all at once!

Unfortunately, I couldn't do that because our Board of Trustees was in town. I needed something subtle, but not boring, so I went with Fast Track. It's a gorgeous beige with golden shimmer. This polish is packed with shimmer. At first the color seemed a little underwhelming, but after wearing it for two days, I am in love with this color.

I used Orly Bonder for the base coat and two coats of Fast Track. Depending on your preference for opacity, Fast Track could possibly use three coats. I topped it off with Seche Vite, as usual. China Glaze did not disappoint on the formula with this one and I can't wait to try the other Capitol Colours that I picked up. 

The Capitol Colours collection is available now. I got my haul from Sally Beauty, but some other websites have them as well. It goes without saying that I'll have to choose one to wear when I actually go to the see The Hunger Games.

Once again, have you picked up any of the Capitol Colours? If not, what are you waiting for?! 

First Frankens: The Adele Collection

Happy Sunday everyone!

I've recently been experimenting with frankening. Although, is it still considered frankening when using polish bases (with no color) and adding pigments and glitter? Either way, I'm going to refer to it as frankening to make it easier for everyone. Anyway, I've been trying a few different combinations, but yesterday I finally came up with three concoctions that I absolutely love. This collection (if you can call it that) has been in my mind for a while and I'm glad I finally was able to make it happen.

I've called the trio of nail polishes that I've created The Adele Collection. For some reason the colors reminded me of the titles of Adele songs. The three colors are titled Rumor Has It, Rolling in the Deep, and Set Fire to the Rain. Each color was handmade with clear bases and different pigments, 100% made by me and not using existing nail polishes. I hope you enjoy them! (Very pic heavy post!)

First up is Rumor Has It. I've noticed that unique greens were some of the most loved polish colors of 2011. I can't even count how many times I saw butter LONDON Wallis and Chanel Peridot on everyone's Top Nail Polishes of 2011 lists. Rumor Has It is inspired by these colors, although of course not a dupe. It's a green with a hint of gold shimmer (I suppose).

I mixed all three of my frankens in empty Manglaze bottles that I got for Christmas. They're perfect for frankening because of the wide mouth, plus the labels are just so cool.

It turns out that Rumor Has It is difficult to photograph. The above picture was taken with the bottle in a light box, which turns out more golden. In person, the color in the bottle is more green, not gold. 

Above is Rumor Has It in natural light, which is a lot more accurate to what it looks like in person. I wouldn't call it a duo-chrome, but it definitely likes to shift a little. 

Next is Rolling in the Deep. It's a purple shimmer creme that leans a little silver (I still don't know how exactly to refer to them, they're not quite creme, but not 100% shimmer). To me, Rolling in the Deep goes with the aesthetic of Adele's 21 album cover. This was the color that helped to set off the rest of the trio. 

Here is Rolling in the Deep photographed in a light box and the pictures below were taken with natural light, which is the most accurate.

Last in the trio and personally my favorite color (although I love them all), is Set Fire to the Rain. It's a mix of three different micas that just went together so naturally. Set Fire to the Rain shifts the most out of the three colors. It's a coral with golden shimmer. 

Again, the above is the lightbox photos and below is natural light.

The natural light shows the golden shimmer. Gorgeous if I do say so myself! I also compared Set Fire to the Rain to Wet n Wild's Waves of Enchantment from their Mermaid Cove collection. On the nail wheel at least, Waves of Enchantment didn't cover as well in 3 coats and Waves is more pink with larger shimmer particles, so it is still not an exact dupe. (I wasn't going for a dupe of Waves, but when I swatched Set Fire, I couldn't help but swatch Waves too.) 

I wasn't able to do swatches on my nails yet. Today I was preparing for the upcoming week, which was hard on my hands and I don't think my poor nails could have handled it today. So I did swatches on a nail wheel instead. Each swatch is 3 coats, with no top coat. 

I hope you enjoy these frankens as much as I enjoyed creating them and seeing the outcome. Please share your feedback in the comments section. I would love to hear what you think! 

I hope to have more frankens for your viewing pleasure in the future!