Color Club Starry Temptress Collection Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

Wicked Sweet was part one of Color Club's summer 2011 release, so on to part two: Starry Temptress. Both sets are collections of neon shades and while Wicked Sweet was mostly creme, Starry Temptress is glitter. But really different glitter... You'll see what I mean in a second.


Glitter Envy. The glitter in these... isn't sparkly? Crazy, right? I'll post my thoughts on that at the end. Anyway. Glitter Envy. It's a neon green with un-sparkly holo glitter throughout.


Otherworldly. Ooooh... A bright, rich blue with holographic glitter. Not much sparkle, but the glitter adds depth and an interesting starry sky effect.


Space Case. This one is a bit different from the rest because it has a shimmer base instead of creme. If you enlarge the pictures and look closely (in the bottle especially) you can see that it has a smooth green shimmer to it. Very nice.


Ultra-Astral. Wow, bright. The holographic glitter in this seems to take on a blue tint when it's covered by the thick creme base. Fascinating to look at.




Wink, Wink, Twinkle. This one seems to sparkle more than the others. I don't know if it's because of where the glitter ended up when I applied it, or if the base is less dense than the others, but some of the glitter does shine through on the top layer. Gorgeous color. I love the neon purple base with the speckles of silver in it.



You Got Soul-ar. Creamy bright neon orange with hints of holo sparkle. I love these bright traffic cone oranges.


This set includes a bottle of Starry Temptress topcoat, which is a clear base with some iridescent opal glitter. It adds a lot more sparkle to these shades, observe:


One coat of Starry Temptress topcoat over Wink Wink Twinkle, Otherworldly, Glitter Envy and Ultra-Astral, and a coat of topcoat over all of that. See all the different colors reflecting from the glitter? Mesmerizing.

The formula on these was pretty good. They're a bit thick, but because of that they're really opaque. You could probably get away with one thick coat of these, but I did two thin coats in all these pictures and it was perfect. Drying time is very quick and the glitter is shockingly smooth.

So... glitter that isn't sparkly. I have to admit, I'm liking it. At first I was disappointed because that hologram glitter looks so awesome in the bottle, but after wearing the colors for a while, it grew on me. It makes the colors look speckled, spattered, mottled... And I love that you can see glitter through the base color. Gives it a little depth. It reminds me of some of my favorite things from when I was a kid: Jelly shoes and plastic jewelry. Oh man, I loved jelly shoes. Sure, they made your feet all sweaty and nasty and they kinda hurt to wear, but I didn't care! I wish I had a pair to wear now. And they went well with my neon glittery beads and Lisa Frank accessories.

Another interesting feature of these anti-glitters is that they're smooth. You heard me right. Big chunky glitter that's smooth. It lies totally flat, dries totally smooth and doesn't look gritty or bumpy. It doesn't get that lumpy, oatmealy bubbly look. Must be magic. That doesn't apply to the Starry Temptress topcoat, though. That's gritty as hell and eats topcoat like you wouldn't believe. If you've tried the Color Club Japanese glitters or the Pardon My French ones, you'll know what I'm talking about.

That being said, I can easily say I have nothing like this collection. Speckled neons with a hint of holo. Weird, yes, but new to me, and so far I haven't seen anyone else do something like it this year. I approve. Though, if you're looking forward to the holographic sparkle that you see in the bottle, you'll be disappointed in these.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Color Club Wicked Sweet Collection Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

I know... I haven't even posted the Alter Ego spring collection yet and I'm already onto the summer collection. But, since I'm so late in posting spring, I figured why not wait on it a little longer and post the summer sets while they're still relevant?

Color Club is doing two sets of neons this summer, and not just plain neons. This set, called Wicked Sweet, just so happens to to live up to that title. They're not just candy-colored, they're candy scented as well!



Get Your Lem-On. This is a pale, green-tinged neon yellow with a green duochrome shimmer. The sunlight picture shows the green shimmer best and the indoor picture shows the base color truest. It's scented in a sweet, light lemon scent. This has my favorite scent of the bunch. I'd wear it just to smell it! The color reminds me a bit of Color Club Volt of Light.


Gimme A Grape Big Kiss. This is the standard neon fuchsia-purple creme. It looks a bit washed out due to the brightness of the color, but it pretty much looks like most other neon purples. The color is great... but the scent isn't my favorite. It's a candy grape scent, and I've never liked candy "grape"... Somehow the candy interpretation of grape doesn't taste or smell anything at all remotely like a real grape. But, that's just my personal taste here, if you love that candy grape scent, you'll probably really enjoy the scent of this.


I Always Get My Man-darin. A light, desaturated neon orange with contrasting green shimmer. I tried to capture that green shimmer, I really did. It is sneaky, but it's there. Very pretty once you see it in its full glory. The base color reminds me of fake orange juice... Like... what's it called... Tang? Or Sunny Delight. *shudder* The scent is a sweet crisp orange. Very light, but pleasant.

Raspberry Rush. This one is fighting with Gimme A Grape Big Kiss for my favorite color in the collection. It's pink, yes, but it's an awesome obnoxious gorgeous bright pink! It's too washed out looking in this picture (these crazy neon colors freak out my camera!), but you can get an idea of how bright and pretty it is. It's a much deeper pink, more of a magenta. The scent is a sweet candy smell, like the rest, but I can't quite put my finger on what it smells like. It doesn't particularly smell like raspberries to me. It sorta smells like when you open a bag of gummy bears, all the smells mixed together. It's nice, and it reminds me of something from when I was a kid, but I just can't remember what!


The Lime Starts Here. Light neon green jelly-creme. This is close enough to jelly to call it a jelly, right? But it's still creamy looking. So... jelly-creme it is. Nice and bright. Yellow toned. Has a sour candy lime scent. I dig it.


Wicked Sweet. This one looks like Zoya Phoebe with topcoat, doesn't it? Bright near-neon blue with electric blue and gold shimmer. The greenish tint to the shimmer makes the whole polish look teal in some lights. Quite glowy and beautiful. The scent is... blueberry? Blue raspberry? It reminds me of Crater Lake Company's Lemon Blueberry Frosting scent. I'm gonna go with blueberry then. Love it.


Yum Gum. This is a light pink neon, similar to something like China Glaze Pink Voltage. It has a creamy white base to the pink color. I like the color, but that name... Yum Gum? Really? Anyway... the scent is... gum. Bubblegum. Not the overly sweet kind, but the sorta dry hard kind, like the one that comes in baseball cards. Do they still put bubblegum in packages of baseball cards?


The formula was perfect. I didn't really have any problems with application. The texture is on the thin side, but it's not runny. Some of the shades are on the sheer side, but all are good with three coats. I'm wearing three coats in these pictures. The lemon and lime shades would probably look even better with a fourth coat, but I haven't tried. The drying time on these is confusing. They set incredibly quickly, but I found that I was still denting them nearly 45 minutes after application.

One aspect of the formula is notably different than my usual polish reviews... There's a scent. The scent is strongest when first applied and slowly fades away the longer you wear it. When I wore these with a coat of Seche Vite, I could still smell the scent for three days. It was very weak on the last day, but still there. It's not so strong that it gives you a headache, but it's not so weak that you have to stick your fingers up your nose to smell it.

I love the scents in these. They're so much nicer than almost any scented polish I own. They're all soft and sweet, no sharp chemical fakeness. They really truly smell like candy. I remember some of the scented polishes I had in the 90s... I think the brand may have been Loud! Music, or something to that effect. I had a vanilla and an orange one. They have me the worst headache every time I wore them, they were so strong and invasive and sharply fake smelling. None of that here. It can be a little unsettling if you forgot you're wearing scented polish, though. The first time I tried them out, I kept thinking... What's that smell? Why do my hands smell like gummy worms?!

Overall, I'm a fan of this collection. Sure, the colors are fairly common neon colors. Heck, a lot of them even look like existing Color Club neons. The scents make them special. And you know me... I'm a sucker for anything scented. Vanilla scented garbage bags, remember? So yeah, I am definitely a fan!

(These were sent to me for review.)

OPI Black Shatter over Color Club Jackie OH!

Another layering combination with OPI Black Shatter that I really liked.


OPI Black Shatter over Color Club Jackie OH!. I love the combination of the neon with the black on top, it makes the neon look so much brighter. This reminds me of lava. If you have a neon pink or orange, you have to try this, it looks so cool in real life. I've noticed that my Black Shatter always crackles into vertical stripes... that's odd. I want some more random square chunks to happen when it crackles... The kind that make it look like a giraffe pattern... How do I get it to do that?