Polish of the Week: China Glaze Orange Marmalade

China Glaze Orange Marmalade, three coats, no flash

After having China Glaze Strawberry Fields as the last Polish of the Week, I decided to dig up another polish from the 2009 China Glaze Summer Days collection- China Glaze Marmalade.

All the polishes in the Summer Days collection are that beautiful glass-fleck finish that China Glaze does so well. Orange Marmalade is a gorgeous, super sparkly medium orange. This color is perfect for summer. I wear orange polish a lot in the summer, especially on my toes. It's just so bright and cheery.

China Glaze Orange Marmalade, three coats, no flash

I did three coats of Orange Marmalade in these pictures. The polish dries fairly quickly and wears like iron! I wore this for four days with no chips and hardly any tip wear. The best thing about the glass-fleck finish is that it's as shiny and sparkly as glitter, but it's really easy to remove. It removes just like any other polish. I wish more companies would develop a formula like this. Super sparkly, without the hassle!

China Glaze Orange Marmalade, three coats, with flash

China Glaze Orange Marmalade, along with the rest of the Summer Days collection, is available online at 8ty8Beauty.

This was kind of a short and sweet post today, but I do have a good review of four of the polishes from the Essie Summer Collection- Demure Vixen, Knockout Pout, Haute as Hello, and, of course, Pretty Edgy! Hopefully, I'll have that review up later tonight/tomorrow morning!

Sally Hansen Salon Grass Slipper

Ahhhh! I know it's been quite slow around here lately, and I apologize again!! It's less than two weeks til our North American National Championship competition, so EK and I are practicing like crazy and we're also exhausted!!!

Sally Hansen Salon Grass Slipper, two coats, no flash

Today I have some pictures of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Grass Slipper. At first glance, you might think it looks like OPI Who the Shrek Are You?. However, OPI Shrek is much lighter, more yellow, and looks more like pea soup. Grass Slipper is a lovely medium green with not too much yellow. I didn't do a direct comparison of Shrek and Grass Slipper because they are very very different, but here's one of my Shrek pictures so you can see how different they really are. If any of you would really like a direct comparison, just tell me in the comments!

OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, three coats, with flash

In the pictures, I am wearing two coats of Grass Slipper. This is a nicely opaque polish, no problems with coverage. The Sally Hansen Salon polishes have that long, flat brush that covers the nails in three strokes or less. The drying time was nice and fast as well. With these polishes, you are supposed to be able to skip base and top coat, but I always wear them anyway. This dries fairly shiny though, so you could possibly skip the top coat. Overall, I think this one is a real winner. If greens are your thing, I'd call this a must-have. I think it is also more flattering to a wider variety of skin tones than OPI Shrek.

Sally Hansen Salon Grass Slipper, two coats, no flash

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure is available at a drugstore near you.

Zoya Color Lock System Review

Zoya Color Lock System (plus cat)

Before I start this long overdue review, I do want to apologize for the lack of posts around here. EK and I are once again preparing for a competition, this time it's the North American National Championships. So we're having lots of practices, while also working, and we're generally exhausted the rest of the time.

I expected a LOT from the Zoya Color Lock System (seen above with my kitty, who refused to move). In case you don't know, the Color Lock System includes Zoya Remove+ (a remover and nail prep), two base coats (Anchor and Get Even), a top coat (Armor), drying drops (Hurry Up), and polish restoring drops (Renew) for when your old polish gets all thick and gross.

Zoya Adina on Day One of my Color Lock System test

Now just as some background here, I know some people have problems with the wear of Zoya polishes, but certain base coats can not be used with Zoya polish. They contain an ingredient that makes the polish chip and wear horribly. When you find the right base coats, Zoya polishes last for ages. I once wore Zoya Harley with NO base coat and NO top coat and it was chip-free for FIVE days. A small amount of tip wear was present on the fifth day, but not too offensive. So this is why I expected big things from the Color Lock System.

I started out swiping each nail with Remove+. Then I applied one coat of Get Even ridge-filling base coat. Next, I applied two coats of Zoya Adina and one coat of Armor top coat. A few minutes later, I applied the Hurry Up drying drops. I believe I followed the directions exactly.

So here is my problem- the whole thing took so stinking long to dry that I ruined every nail on my right hand and messed up a few on my swatching hand before my nails were dry!!! I even applied the drying drops two more times, but they didn't seem to help at all! I waited an hour and 45 minutes before doing anything with my hands and still proceeded to ruin my nails. I know that to get a mani to last, you need to follow all the steps and wait for it to dry, but I don't have that kind of time to sit around doing nothing! So the polish doesn't look too hot in the Day One picture.

Zoya Adina with Color Lock System after four days of wear

By day four, I had a big piece of polish that had chipped off of my nail on the cuticle side, not even a chip from the tip. I don't know how that happens. I also had quite a bit of tip wear. More tip wear than I had when I wore Zoya Harley with no base coat and no top coat. So honestly, between the ridiculous drying time and the fact that I don't even think this made my polish wear very well, I'm not impressed with this system at all. I'll give it another try sometime, but I'm not looking forward to sitting around for 2+ hours waiting for it to dry. This is NOT a must-have at all. Please give me my Seche.

Zoya Adina with Color Lock System after four days of wear, with flash

Zoya Color Lock System and Zoya Adina are available online at Art of Beauty.

The Zoya Color Lock System was sent to me by a PR representative for Art of Beauty. For more information, please see our Disclosure Policy.

Polish of the Week: China Glaze Atlantis

China Glaze Atlantis, three coats, with flash

Polish of the Week this week is one that we already featured when the China Glaze 50 Glitters came out. However, it's so gorgeous, I really think it deserves it's own post. I'm talking about China Glaze Atlantis. This polish is a beautiful sea green jelly base packed with tons of small silver and green glitter pieces. The effect is stunning. It reminds me of being underwater in really clear water and looking up to see the sunlight streaming down. Atlantis makes me want to go swimming ASAP. Sadly, I have to work instead.

China Glaze Atlantis, three coats, with flash

This is three coats of Atlantis and there is a little VNL as with most jelly polishes. It doesn't bother me on this one though! EK has had this polish since the 50 Glitters came out and I have been jealous of it ever since then. I finally purchase my own recently and am SOOOOOO glad I did. This is a total MUST HAVE.

China Glaze Atlantis, three coats, sunlight

China Glaze Atlantis is available online at 8ty8 Beauty.

China Glaze Strawberry Fields

China Glaze Strawberry Fields, three coats, no flash

China Glaze Strawberry Fields is from summer 2009's delicious Summer Days collection. I bought the entire Summer Days collection and still love every single one of them. All six polishes in that collection are China Glaze's famed glass-fleck finish. This finish looks like little pieces of colored glass on your nails- gorgeous!

China Glaze Strawberry Fields, three coats, with flash

Today I have some pictures of Strawberry Fields for you. This is a unique and beautiful pink with a very noticeable gold flash. It's gorgeous on toes or nails! Shown is three coats. There is a little bit of VNL with some of the Summer Days collection, but it never bothered me. The whole Summer Days collection was and still is a MUST HAVE for me!

China Glaze Strawberry Fields, three coats, no flash

China Glaze Strawberry Fields is available online at Transdesign (find it in the "China Glaze A-Z" section).