Diamond Cosmetics Fall 2009

This was supposed to be posted weeks ago... But better late than never!

Angelic. Sheer clean white. This is a very sheer shade, a soft squishy-looking white that looks very clean and bright. That is... if your nails aren't stained like mine! (They actually look a lot better since this picture was taken). I did four coats on this to see if I could get it to be opaque. Sheers make me feel naked. As you can see, it's not opaque at four coats so it's best left as a sheer or a base for a french manicure.

Never So Evergreen. Smoky blue-toned green with gold shimmer. Gorgeous. This green fits in with that 'smoky' sub-trend I'm noticing this fall. Lots of dark, cloudy looking shades. This one is a fairly dark shade of green, slightly blue-toned and speckled with golden shimmer particles. This shimmer definitely looks like individual particles rather than an all-over shimmer effect. It looks hazy.

Plum Pie In The Sky. Vampy blue-purple creme. This one was so hard to photograph. It's a very dark 'blurple' (that's such a funny word!)- in real life it's a little more purple and less blue than the photograph shows. This color also strikes me as being smoky. It has that soft, dusty, hazy look.

The Naughty Intern. Glossy wine red creme. This shade is pretty straight forward: wine red. It's dark but I don't know if I'd place it in the vampy category, it's still pretty light as far as wine-reds go. More of a medium red I'd say.

So Berry Sweet. Bright pink berry creme. This was another hard-to-capture shade. It's a nearly-neon shade of berry pink, kind of fuchsia, kind of purple... right in between there somewhere.



Sweet As Sugar. Sheer pinkish-nude crystalline shimmer. This one is really beautiful. My pictures don't really capture the effect, but this is made up of tiny crystal shimmer beads. When the light hits this, it sparkles in all different colors. It's a little bit like OPI Princesses Rule or Hollywood Blonde, same type of shimmer and finish. It's very sheer, but almost too dense for layering.

And here are two other shades from Diamond:
Fuchsia Flash. Bright fuchsia shimmer with a strong blue/violet flash.


Tropical Dream. Smooth light orange with fine gold shimmer.

The formula on these is good. It's a thick formula and it's pretty easy to apply. Opacity is good on all shades but the sheers. Some only need one coat, but I did three just because. Out of habit, I suppose. The drying time on these is a little on the slow side. I'd recommend a good quick-dry topcoat with these. Some shades dried a lot faster than others, it may depend on the pigment.

Overall, some really nice shades, good formula and extremely affordable. In case you've forgotten, Diamond Cosmetics shades are $2 a bottle. They have a pretty good color selection and are always releasing new shades.

And I'm also happy to say that Diamond Cosmetics has a new color chart on their website! I remember when I first heard about Diamond Cosmetics' website, all they had were these teeny-tiny little color dots and you couldn't tell what color the polish was and they went by number so you were basically ordering blind. Not anymore! They have big, accurate color samples and names to go along with the numbers. Check it out! While you're there, you should try out their Super Base basecoat and their Almond Cuticle Oil with Ginseng. The Super Base is a really nice basecoat to use with these, it really grips the polish while you're applying, and the Almond cuticle oil smells really good but also doubles as a speed-dryer (like those drops I love!)

As far as I'm aware, Diamond Cosmetics can only be purchased from their website.