Color Club Winter Affair Collection Holiday 2012 Swatches and Review

Christmas has come and gone, and the holiday season has long passed.  Spring is about a week away here in the northern hemisphere and the last of February's snow has just about melted from my yard.  Yet, here I am, posing a Christmas/holiday collection.  Truth be told, it doesn't really scream 'holiday' to me apart from the obvious paring of red and green, so no worries about wearing out-of-season color.  (Like I ever worry about that, hah!)

Anyone else have a really weird winter?  I know I mentioned it before, but it didn't even feel like Christmas happened this year.  Maybe it's because there wasn't any snow, but, man... So weird.  At least I bought an ugly sweater.  It's so horrible, I love it so much, you'd be proud of me.

ANYWAY.  Color Club Winter Affair!

 Color Club Berry and Bright.  This is a cool-toned medium red with a near-foil-looking glass fleck finish.  This is the kind of red that glows on your nails.  The glass fleck particles shine through the jelly-like red base and give it a subtle color shift and intense luminosity. 

Color Club Gift of Sparkle.  This is my favorite of the collection.  It's a pretty busy polish.  First you have a really pretty blue-toned purple shimmer base.  Then there's a ton of red and plum shimmer mixed in to give it a near-duochrome look (though the red shimmer is more intense in the bottle than it is on the nail).  Then, on top of that, you have a hefty amount of glitter.  The glitter is a tiny, round, silvery-toned holographic type.  There seem to be some smaller iridescent particles mixed in, too, but they're hard to see.  This one is a topcoat-eater, but the end result is worth it.

Color Club Glitter Wonderland.  A heavy blue-purple shimmer in a red-purple base with tiny specks of red, blue, and purple microglitter.  This polish is more interesting up close than it is at arm's length, plus it was more sheer than the rest in the collection.  I needed three coats of this while the others were perfect at only two.

 Color Club Ho-Ho-Holly.  A green and gold foil.  The green color is quite rich when viewed straight on, but if you tilt your nails or view the polish in dim lighting, the gold flecks in the foil base stand out nicely.  This is mostly a warm, yellow-toned green, but at the edges of the bottle and on the edges of the nail, a cool, blue-toned green flash peeks out.




Color Club Winter Affair.  I love this type of color.  A dark base with lighter duochrome shimmer.  The base of this one is a very dark purple.  It has an earthy, brown-toned softness to it and it's nearly black.  The shimmer is a tiny glass fleck type that reflects several different colors.  I see wine purple mainly, but there's also red, gold/yellow and orange.

The Winter Affair collection also includes a red-green flaky polish called Snowflakes.  It doesn't look like much all by itself (though it does look cool solo, just subtle), but layered, it's a different story.  This is your basic red-green flake polish (think Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure), nothing new or unique, but it's still pretty.

Color Club Snowflakes over Berry and Bright.

Color Club Snowflakes over Gift of Sparkle.

(BEST!  AHHH SO COOL!)

Color Club Snowflakes over Glitter Wonderland.

Color Club Snowflakes over Ho-Ho-Holly.

(Does not show up all that well.)

Color Club Snowflakes over Winter Affair.

(Multi-color effect strongest over this one.)

The formula on all of these was good.  Nothing note-worthy.  Standard Color Club quality.  The only qualm I had was that Glitter Wonderland was a three-coated while the rest were opaque at two.  Dry time was quick, the brushes were good, really not much else to add!

Great collection.  Gift of Sparkle is the must-have, in my opinion.  It's the only color that actually looks new to me.  Different.  Unique.  They're all super pretty, but that one's just... wow.  Even if it does need extra topcoat.

(This was sent for review.)