Color Club Almost Famous Swatch and Review

~purchased by me~


I bought this in a set from either Marshalls or TJMaxx a few years back, can't remember which store exactly. They had the entire poptastic collection for $9. Crazy! I snatched it up even though I wasn't a really into creams at the time and I am so glad I did! This is probably my most used collection for nail art and the like. Today I have Almost Famous for review. Here's what I used!

Almost Famous is an bright yellow neon cream. As to be expected with Color Club, the formula is fantastic. I used three here but you can probably get away with two.

I wished that we had Rite-Aids where I lived so I can have easy access to this brand but alas, it is not meant to be. For a little while I thought that Sally's Beauty Supply was going to start carrying the brand but that was only a few select shades over the christmas holiday. Oh well, it's for the better; if I had easy access to it that would mean I would have easy access to it and I probably have enough brands tempting me as it is :)

It kind of reminds me of the powdered cheese you get in those macaroni and cheese boxes haha. I still like it though!

Though this is old you can still buy it online at several retailers. They may also have it at your discount stores like Ross, Marshalls and TJMaxx so keep an eye out! This collection is definitely worth picking up!

Neon Orange Comparison (think Traffic Cones!)

~purchased by me~


I like neon's an awful lot, especially in the summer. They make your skin look so tan! I ran across some Milani Neons at my dollar tree and picked up this lovely little orange shade. When I got home, I remembered that I already had some other neon oranges and so of course, comparison time!

Color Club Wham! Pow!, Milani Neon Awesome Orange and Misa Six Pack Summer. I gotta say, the Color Club and Misa have super cute names haha. I have some more really bright oranges but they are much lighter and more yellow than what you see here. These are all traffic cone orange colors.

Wham! Pow! (Thumb), Awesome Orange (I+M), Six Pack Summer (R+P) 

Holy wow, neon oranges are super hard to take pictures of! They all look really similar in these pictures but IRL, you can tell the difference between them fairly easily. The moment I put on the Color Club shade, I could tell it was way brighter than the other two. Definitely no dupe there. The Milani and Misa were a lot closer but they are still actually different with the Milani being a shade darker than the Misa. Not dupes but you don't need both. I would actually recommend the one that is the most different, the Color Club. It's the brightest with the smoothest formula. The whole Color Club collection (Poptastic) was a win. Three coats, no topcoat was used on all of these.

I thought maybe if I took a pic of them separately that you could tell the difference better, but no not really lol. You'll just have to take my word for it. You can tell that Color Club Wham! Pow! is a lot brighter so I guess that's all that really matters.

Milani Neon Dude Blue vs Color Club Chelsea Girl Comparison

~purchased by me~


I have a hard time seeing the "neon" in neon blue polish. I don't really know if a bright neon highlighter blue color can be captured by nail polish. I keep on trying to find one anyway ;)

These are the only two neon blue polishes that I have; Milani Neon Dude Blue and Color Club Chelsea Girl from their poptastic collection. Both are cream (creme?) neon colors. I decided to do a quick swatch to see if they were dupes.

Milani Neon Dude Blue (I+M) vs Color Club Chelsea Girl (R+P)

Dude Blue is slightly darker than Chelsea Girl. I honestly don't really think they look all that neon but then again, I haven't ever seen a neon blue that looks neon to me. I mean, the color is the right shade of highlighter, as in I've seen a blue highlighter this color, but it seems to lack that bright intensity that a highlighter is. You know how highlighters look fluorescent? This just looks bright to me. And the Milani version isn't even all that bright, especially when compared to the Color Club.

Formula was good. I did two coats of each, no topcoat. I like how they were both not streaky or needed white undies to reach perfect opacity. Though they both didn't quite reach my standards of "neon", they are both lovely bright blues. Also, no dupes!

I don't usually like opaque bottles like the Milani bottle but they did a really good job with matching the bottle color to the actual color of the polish inside. The entire Color Club Poptastic collection is fantastic and if you can still find it, I would recommend getting them. They are all bright creams (cremes?) with great formulas. I believe I purchased the whole set at Marshall's for $8. The Milani Neon's are starting to pop up at dollar stores around my area so if you are interested you can check there. Do you have any blue neons that you absolutely adore? Comment to let me know what they are because as of now my search continues for the perfect neon blue!

Blackheart Beauty Nail Polish Swatches and Comparison Part 2

~purchased by me~

Hello!
Here is part 2 of my blackheart beauty nail polishes. I have Purple Green Iridescent, Oil Slick and Violet Tendencies.

From left to right, Purple Green Iridescent, Oil Slick and Violet Tendencies.

First up is Purple Green Iridescent. This is a murky plummy color with bright green shimmer running through it. Makes me think of alien skin! Formula was good, this is three thin coats.

Blackheart Purple Green Iridescent, three coats with topcoat

I thought it looked awfully close to Color Club's Port-folio. It's probably also like Zoya's Adina but I don't own Adina. Here I have Port-folio on my index and middle finger and Purple Green Iridescent on my ring and pinky. Both topcoated.

Color Club Port-folio (I+M) and Blackheart Purple Green Iridescent (R+P)

 Port-folio has a better formula and is less sheer. This only required two coats. Can you tell the difference? I can't! I call these dupes! They are really similar in the bottle too.

Blackheart Purple Green Iridescent and Color Club Port-folio

Next we have Violet Tendencies. Blackheart has some really uncreative names but this one was pretty good lol. This is three coats with topcoat. It's a purple to blue glass fleck duochrome, pretty!

Blackheart Violet Tendencies, three coats with topcoat

I thought it might be similar to Sally Hansen's Laser and Milani's Blue Lightening. Here I have Laser on my index, Blue Lightening on my middle and Violet Tendencies on my ring and pinky. They look a lot closer in the picture than in real life. They are actually quite noticeably different, it's just that they all have that purple-to-blue duochrome glass fleck to them. There are a ton of other polishes that look like this. This is just the three I have.

Blue Lightening (I), Laser (M) and Violet Tendencies (R+P) w/ topcoat

Blue Lightening is the most opaque of these three, needing only two coats. It's also the only one with a royal blue base. Laser needed three coats and had a more purple base. Also, it has the weakest duochrome effect. Finally, Violet Tendencies has a clearly violet base. If I recall correctly, the duochrome becomes a lot stronger if you layer Laser over a black base, which is how I usually wear it. Bottle shots!

Sally Hansen Laser, Blackheart Violet Tendencies and Milani Blue Lightening

Last up is Oil Slick. This has duochrome glass flecks similar to Orly's Space Cadet or Hard Candy's Beetle but in a dark evergreen base. Gorgeous! I don't own anything like it. This is three thin coats.

Blackheart Oil Slick swatch, three coats with top coat

And a bottle shot, just 'cause it's pretty.

Blackheart Oil Slick

So that's the six blackheart nail polishes I have to show you. I actually have two more but I didn't include them in this mini series because one of them, I fudged with and added some more color to it to make it less sheer and the other is a glitter topper with taco-ing glitter that I'll probably dump out and use the bottle to franken with! I'll make a post about those two separately. Hope you enjoyed the swatches and comparison!
Blackheart Beauty nail polishes can be purchased at Blackheart Beauty or Hot Topic for $5 or less.

Blackheart Beauty Nail Polish Swatches and Comparison Part 1

~ Purchased By Me ~

Hello!
I have six blackheart beauty nail polishes to swatch and compare for you but I'm going to break it up into two posts. So the first three are Golden, Pastel Green and Glow Away.

From left to right, Golden, Pastel Green and Glow Away

I love the skull bottles that these polishes come in but some of them do seem to have a problem with keeping the polishes from evaporating. Even worse, the polish that suffered from this the most is Glow Away, one of those layered polishes that say "DO NOT SHAKE" on it. I added a few drops of thinner and gently rolled it to keep the layers from mixing and to restore it to its proper consistency.
Anyway. So first up is Golden. The formula was nice and smooth. The below swatch is two easy coats.

Blackheart Golden, two coats with topcoat

I thought this polish looked very similar to Revlon's Gold Coin. I swatched Gold Coin on my index and middle finger and Golden is on my ring and pinky.

Revlon Gold Coin (I+M) and Blackheart Golden (R+P)

As you can see, while the color is the same, the difference is in the finish. Golden has a much smoother finish and Gold Coin is a bit more grainy. Gold Coin can be opaque in one coat but I used two here. You have to use two coats for Golden because the brush is a little rough and you need to "float" the second layer on so that you have a smooth finish. They look really similar in the bottle.

Blackheart Golden and Revlon Gold Coin

Next up is Pastel Green. This is 4(!) coats. The issue isn't in it's opacity, but in the formula. The rough brush doesn't really help. It goes on streaky and runny but the color is awesome, a sort of neon pastel. I got ton of compliments wearing this one. You may be able to get away with 3 careful coats.

Blackheart Pastel Green, 4 coats with topcoat

I thought this looked similar to Color Club's Twiggie. I have Twiggie on my index and middle finger and Pastel Green on my ring and pinky.

Color Club Twiggie and Blackheart Pastel Green

Twiggie has a far superior fomula, this is two easy coats. It is a shade darker (I had to color correct it in photoshop so sorry if if looks strange). But the colors are pretty close. Kissing cousins you could say. In the bottle they look really similar as well.

Color Club Twiggie and Blackheart Pastel Green

Last up is Glow Away, obviously the most creative name in this group lol. This is three coats. Because it's a glow-in-the-dark polish, it's grainy from the glow particles. Once again, the brush isn't very helpful. The color is a sweet pinky coral and it dries matte. I've swatched it with top coat.

Blackheat Glow Away, three coats with topcoat

I thought it looked smiliar to China Glaze's Flirty Tankini. Flirty Tankini, two coats, is on my index and middle while Glow Away, three coats, is on my ring and pinky. Both are topcoated.

China Glaze Flirty Tankini (I+M) and Blackheart Glow Away (R+P)

Flirt Tankini has a better formula and it also has some fine pearl like shimmer running through it which mirrors the glow particles in Glow Away. While very close, Flirty Tankini is a little darker and more of a true coral while Glow Away is more of a pink coral. Bottle shots are pretty close as well (the pink dominates the layers).

China Glaze Flirty Tankini and Blackheart Glow Away

Also, Glow Away glows in the dark. I couldn't quite capture Glow Away glowing because my camera couldn't seem to take a picture in the dark. So what I did here was focus my camera in a lighted room then quickly into the dark room before it could refocus. Sorry, this was the best I could do!

Blackheart Glow Away in the dark

You can purchase Blackheart Beauty nail polishes at Blackheart Beauty or Hot Topic, in store or online. These retail at Hot Topic for $5 but they regularly have them on sale for BOGO free or BOGO half off.

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Because of the oddly shaped bottles, I had a hard time learning how to position my fingers. I think I got it in the end but I apologize for the multiple finger positions. I'm still learning what I like and I promise I'll get better!