China Glaze ‘Spellbound’ Halloween 2020 Collection – Swatches & Review

October 28, 2020December 29, 2020 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

Listen, one thing I’ll forever love about China Glaze and something I hope they never stop doing is releasing collections just for Halloween. Some of their iconic and most talked about releases have been previous Halloween collections, and I’m sad that I didn’t join the nail community until after some of these classics. (Forever wanting a bottle of Don’t Let the Dead Bite). They have come out with some of the most weird and unique shades for these collections and just GIVE ME MORE.

Now 2020 has been real weird, and of course has affected releases overall. Because of –you know-, China Glaze didn’t release a fall collection for the year, but we still did get a Halloween release and that’s all I need. (I fully know at the point of posting that most of these shades are sold out, but I did still want to get this review up! Mostly for archival purposes, or for anyone who happens to run across them in a destash or otherwise!)

So today we’re looking at the China Glaze Spellbound collection, a 6 bottle release for Halloween! This features 3 matte finish shades, and 3 “normal” finish polishes. I grabbed 3 from PolishPick, but this collection was definitely very popular and was sold out in a lot of places by the time I was getting around to reviewing. I posted about missing out on 3 shades and one of my nail friends Joy from @JoyDumpling (follow her immediately) sent me the 3 I was missing! Forever the nail community is one of the most generous and the friendships I have from it are my favorites.

Alright random little wholesome friendship story aside, let’s get into the swatches!

Orosa Beauty ‘Night Train’ Fall 2020 Collection – Swatches & Review

October 26, 2020November 29, 2020 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

PURCHASED

As mentioned many times before, I stick to mainstream brands with this blog and my reviews. The indie world is so large and expansive that I’m not even sure where to start! And I know my wallet wouldn’t be able to handle expanding fully into indie reviews as well 😂 (There are so many great reviewers already doing entirely indie-specific posts, so definitely check them out!)

But there are a couple smaller brands now that I just enjoy, and have expanded to reviewing consistently on the blog! And one of them includes Orosa Beauty. They might not technically be “indie” in the way of one person handmixing polishes, but they are still a smaller independent nail polish brand. I did receive a couple collections in PR, but even now when I’m not, I still purchase them to try out as I just enjoy their polishes. It’s just something about those square bottles that are so pretty.

So we’re looking at their Fall 2020 release today! This is the ‘Night Train’ collection and features 6 cream shades. I know cream finishes might not be the most exciting for everyone, but it seems like Orosa is building up a good catalogue of cream shades before branching out into other finishes. Listen, I love all polishes equally so I’ll never say no to a solid cream formula.

I grabbed this off of their website for $60 for all 6 polishes. You do save the price of one polish when purchasing the full set, otherwise each shade retails for $12.

Let’s get right into the swatches!

Loud Lacquer x Bailey Sarian ‘Aqua Tofana’ Collection – Swatches & Review

October 22, 2020November 29, 2020 GingerlyPolished3 Comments

As mentioned before, I’ve enjoyed adding a couple smaller brands to my list to regularly review. And today we’re looking at a newer release from one of those such brands!

This is the Loud Lacquer collection titled ‘Aqua Tofana’. It’s in collaboration with Bailey Sarian, a makeup YouTuber. I absolutely love Bailey, and her series of “Murder, Mystery and Makeup Mondays”, where she recounts a true crime case while doing her makeup. (She does her makeup just to have something to do with her hands, she doesn’t stop to talk about products or techniques – it’s just focused on the case as an fyi). There was one specific night when I worked late and just had on a playlist of those videos to pass the time, so they’ll always have a place in my heart.

The name ‘Aqua Tofana’, as well as the shade names of the polishes, are in relation to Bailey’s video about Giulia Tofana, a woman from the 1600s who was a “professional poisoner”. That’s right, we’re combining two interests, nail polish and true crime today.

I grabbed this off the Loud website. The full bundle retails for $55 for the 4 polishes, otherwise they range from $12.50-$14.50 each. The bundle came with a fun look booklet, showing the promotional photos of Bailey, as well as these 2 stickers containing references from her videos! (I say “suspish” far too often). Overall it was so fun, and I enjoyed the little extras! They’re currently out of stock on the website, but I highly recommend following Loud on Instagram, as they notify when restocks happen.

As mentioned we have 4 polishes in the set – one cream, 2 shimmery metallics, and one topper. Let’s get into the swatches.

Zoya ‘Luscious’ Fall 2020 Collection – Swatches & Review

October 15, 2020December 2, 2020 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

Slow and steady, we’re slowly catching up on my backlog of blog posts! I’ve mentioned this in other posts, but for some reason I definitely got behind on blogging, and just needed a break from it, which I took for a couple months! But now I’m feeling motivated again, and posting! I know some of these collections are “older”, and we’re well into the next season but I did still want to post these reviews, especially for brands that keep shades around. I’m writing this post actually in December, but I adjusted the date to when swatches went up on my Instagram – to keep them spaced out and not overwhelm anyone reading the blog! (And of course, I know people would be more interested in winter collections, so I want the current season to be the most recent posts on the blog). ALRIGHT ENOUGH BACKSTORY.

Today we’re looking at the Zoya release for Fall 2020! Zoya keeps around the shades released in their collections as individuals (you might just have to search the shade name, or scroll through the library to find them). And they fully advertise at least 2 collections at a time, so there’s no need to rush out and buy this collection immediately. This post is to help you decide for whenever you choose to grab some of the shades!

This is the Luscious collection, and as usual is made up of 12 shades. We have creams, we have some foils, some shimmers and one gorgeous shifty beauty! These retail for $10 each on the Zoya website – though I did grab them on a 50% off sale. (I always recommend following brands on their Instagrams, or through their newsletters to get information about sales. I’ve been able to grab all of their seasonal collections this year on some sort of deal!)

We have a lot of shades to look through, so let’s get right into the swatches!

Essie ‘Let it Ripple’ Collection – Swatches & Review

October 2, 2020November 29, 2020 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

Essie is on a new game of releasing 8 billion collections a year, so of course we have another Essie review to talk about! Really keeping my nails and my keyboard busy, aren’t they? And it means we have lots of variety of polish to choose from, so you can pick and choose which shades strike your fancy!

Though they are releasing so many collections a year, I’m here as your friendly neighborhood reviewer to say that you’re not at all obligated to collect them all. Sure, I do just because I enjoy it, and I like reviewing them, but I don’t recommend everyone go crazy like me. And this is a great example of a collection that might not appeal to everyone, and if it’s not your preference, feel free to skip out! In the end it’s up to each individual person to decide what they want to add to their collection, I’m just here to show you how it looks!

ALRIGHT enough chattin, lemme tell you what I’m even talking about here. We’re looking at the Essie ‘Let it Ripple’ collection today! It features 6 shimmery and shifty shades that Essie says are “inspired by the pearls and shimmer from sun glistening off of ocean waves”. They’re all very glittery, but pretty well are opaque in 2-3 coats.

These are all still available on the Polish Pick website! It’s where I grab all of my Essie collections, and if you regularly read my posts, you’ll hear me talk endless praise about it every time.

GINGERLY POLISHED

Month: October 2020