Entries for Sunday September 26
China Glaze’s Midnight Mission
- Manufacturer: China Glaze
- Availability: originally released in July 2010 as part of China Glaze's Vintage Vixen collection
- Color Range: dark navy blue with blue glass fleck
- Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
- Cost/Amount: USD$6 for 14 ml / .5 fl oz
- Would you purchase again: yes
- Similar shades: Essie's Starry Starry Night
NOTE 03/25/2013: I will no longer be purchasing or reviewing any new China Glaze products, aside from the two that I have in the publishing queue. All previously-published posts will remain up. Info & links of interest
When the promo pics for the Vintage Vixen collections hit the beauty- and nail-blogs, I almost immediately rejected the idea of buying Midnight Mission: not because it wasn’t pretty, but because I’m more a fan of browns, oranges, reds, and golds…and because I have some lovely navy polishes already. So why add another navy, however lovely-looking, to the stash?
It all seemed rather well thought out. And then I placed a second order for some polishes that I’d missed from this collection, my first order out…and decided, what the hell. Midnight Mission, come on down!!
Midnight Mission isn’t a frost or a glass-fleck, it’s a glitter. But it’s a sparser glitter than some other glitter polishes - so there isn’t as much effort required when you finally do want to remove it. One coat gave me good color, no streaks or thin spots. I put on two coats, and while it deepened the color a bit, it wasn’t a dramatic increase in color depth. (That tells you how well that first coat went on!!) After the annoying disaster that was Borghese’s La Scala Rose, which showed significant tip wear after less than 24 hours, seeing how easily this applied and how well it lasted has really impressed me. I’m glad I did decide to get this color, even though I do have other navies: the silver microglitter means that this is definitely different, the China Glaze formula means that it will actually strengthen my nails a tiny bit (thank you, kaolin clay), and the application was amazingly smooth, easy, and hassle-free.
Shiro Cosmetics’ Pikachu / Shiro Cosmetics’ Thunderbolt
- Manufacturer: Shiro Cosmetics
- Availability: part of the Super Effective collection
- Color Range: vivid sun-yellow with red sparkle
- Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
- Cost/Amount: USD$5 for 1.8 - 2.0 grams
- Would you purchase again: yes
- Similar shades: Aromaleigh v1's Nico (minus the red shimmer)
A lovely bright yellow. I held off on getting this initially, because I thought: “I’ve got Aromaleigh v1’s Rocks! Sonic Eyes yellows, and I’ve got some bright yellows from other collections and companies; I don’t really need another.” Apparently, I have little power to resist a really good primary color with a twist.
This color has the rich sun-yellow base color, a good level of pigmentation, and the very definite red shimmer. I don’t know if it’s because the red is mixed with another color of shimmer/mica - possibly yellow - or if it’s just more sparse; but it seems that the bits of red shimmer are easier to visually spot when I either pat this color over primer, or when I foil it. Foiling really fronts the red shimmer quite a bit. I love the way this looks!