Goodbye, 2013!

2013 has been a very weird year.  I know it's super cliche to say this, but it really did go by too fast.  Faster than I realized.  It's kind of scary.  Things changed.  I changed.  I can't remember a year in my life that even compared to this year.  I know that I've been mostly absent on here, but that was just an unexpected side effect, not an intentional occurrence.

I visited lots of new places, met lots of new people, and had so many new experiences, both good and bad.  There were more good things that happened this year, but the bad was still there.  It's kinda funny, now that I think about it, that I missed my annual post on Depression Awareness because I was too depressed to write it.  Ha!  But I'm grateful at least for the balance. 

I'll cut it short here so that I don't get too mushy or rambly, but I do want to thank you all.  Thank you for coming here and leaving me nice comments and words of encouragement, and thank you for not forgetting about me.  Thank you for all the fun conversations on Twitter and Instagram, and thank you for just being super cool people.

I hope 2014 is even better!

(Enchanted Polish The Youth)

(not at all relevant to the post, I just thought it was really cool looking)

(happy new year)

Urban Decay Blackheart Nail Lacquer for Holiday 2013

 Urban Decay Nail Lacquer in Blackheart(sample provided for review)

Blackheart is a really cool color.  It's a multichrome polish with the dominant color being a murky red-toned purple shimmer (the blackened kind that looks dark on the edges and light in the center, my favorite).  The other colors come out when you tilt your nails: A sort of olive-yellow-bronze at one angle, and a green-blue-teal at another.  Throughout all the color shifts, it still maintains an overall murky-dusty grey haze.  It's a dirty duochrome.  I love it. 

Formula and application are good.  It's thin but not watery.  Due to the thinness of the polish, I needed three coats for complete coverage. 

This is the second new color that Urban Decay released for Holiday 2013.  The other one is Zodiac, which is also a duochrome (yay!).

Both the new Urban Decay polish shades are available now (and both are limited edition).


(sent for review)

China Glaze Happy HoliGlaze Collection Holiday 2013 Swatches and Review

China Glaze Happy HoliGlaze Collection Holiday 2013

(samples provided for review)

 China Glaze All Wrapped Up 
Full-coverage indigo-blue microglitter in a clear base.

 China Glaze Bells Will Be Blinging
 Light teal/aqua blue microglitter and small hex glitter mixed with larger silver holographic hex glitter and bar glitter.



China Glaze Be Merry And Bright
 Large and small purple and magenta hex glitter in a clear base. Glitter is dense enough to be worn alone at three coats, but also makes a good glitter topcoat at one coat.

China Glaze Blue Without You
Cyan blue foil with sparkly silver flecks.

China Glaze Elfin' Around
Warm orangey-coral red foil with light gold shimmer.

China Glaze Just Be-Claws

Rich poinsettia red foil with red sparkle.

China Glaze Mingle with Kringle
Warm gold foil with chunky yellow-gold foil flakes.

China Glaze Put A Bow On It
Full-coverage plum purple microglitter in a clear base.

 

China Glaze Santa Red My List
Cool dark pink foil with silver shimmer.

China Glaze There's Snow One Like You

Girl, there are really no words strong enough to describe all my longing for snow-textured polish.  I don't want my feelings restrained.  Oh, babe, I just need you like never before. Just imagine you'd come through this door. You'd take all my sorrow away.  There's Snow One Like You.

SORRY.  Sorry!  This is a white semi-sheer creme base with large matte white hex glitter and a large amount of textured grit. 

China Glaze This Is Tree-Mendous
Warm golden green microglitter, gold microglitter, and slightly larger (but still tiny) blue-green glitter in a clear base.

China Glaze Your Present Required

Large matte white, cobalt blue, light purple, and light copper hex glitter with smaller copper, green, and white hex glitter, plus very small matte white glitter in a clear base. Good as a topcoat or worn alone with two coats.

The formula on these was varied.  The tiny glitters and the foils were thin, smooth, and perfect.  The larger, chunkier glitters and the textured shade were thick and somewhat gooey.  To apply the large glitters, I needed to dab the polish onto the nail to get even glitter distribution.  Dry time on all shades was fast.  

It doesn't really feel 'holiday', does it?  It doesn't to me, at least.  It is heavy on the red like a typical holiday collection, but there's a lot of other non-traditional shades mixed in here as well.  Your Present Required doesn't look like any other color I own, so that's pretty cool.  The fine glitters are full coverage and extremely sparkly, which I also appreciate.  The foils are shiny and reflective like foils should be, but the colors themselves aren't particularly interesting or new. 

The one problem I have with this collection is the textured polish, There's Snow One Like You.  It looks promising, but it's so incredibly thick and lumpy that I had a very hard time applying it.  It's like there's too much texture. It applies clumpy and all the glitter and grit stick out at weird angles because it's so dense.  Maybe that's the point, though?  To look like freshly fallen snow, while it's still fluffy.

 The China Glaze Happy HoliGlaze Collection is available now!

(samples provided for review)

Urban Decay Zodiac Nail Lacquer for Holiday 2013

 Urban Decay Nail Lacquer in Zodiac

(sample provided for review)

Zodiac is one of two new limited edition holiday nail polish shades by Urban Decay.  It's a dark blue-green base with dense gold-green duochrome foil shimmer, plus a decent amount of bright blue microglitter. If you look closely, there are even little flashes of pink/purple duochrome microglitter as well, but they're not as obvious as the blue. The dark base gives the polish a blackened look, but the shiny metallic shimmer looks even brighter because of it.  Very nice contrast in this color.

The formula on this polish was very good.  It has a thin texture that applies smoothly and without running or pooling.  The brush is a little too soft for my taste, but otherwise it's nicely shaped and gives a good, precise application. I needed three coats for complete coverage.  Dry time is quick.

One thing that's cool about this polish is that it has a matching Moondust eyeshadow.  The color of the Zodiac polish is a little different from the Zodiac shadow, but they're close enough to be cousins, if not siblings.

I can't even tell you how excited I am that Urban Decay is making nail polish again, let alone full sized bottles.  The minis were cool, but I much prefer these. The packaging is amazing.  I mean, come on! It has a skull on the top! What's not to love? Now if only they would bring back Toxin in that skull-topped, black-chrome-handled bottle.  I can dream, right?

Zodiac is a limited edition shade and is available now on urbandecay.com.

(sample provided for review)