Yes, this came out for Fall 2008 so you probably saw the swatches that summer before. Yet, I love all of these so I decided to do the whole collection.
We have here, L to R, Golden Jubilee, Sea of Light, Star of Bombay, Golden Maharaja, Mandalay Ruby and Midnight Star.
I started swatching these Fall of 2009 when they were first on sale and did two of them. They are named after actual gems, and I'm telling those stories too.
First we have Mandalay Ruby.
This was the cheapest one, $2.99. The others were $4.49 and I searched everywhere to find all of them with their rings. Seems that people shoplifted the rings! You might still find these around.
The real Mandalay Ruby.
Mandalay is in Burma where they have ruby mines.
I read up on the Mandalay Ruby and found out that a good color for rubies is the shade of "pigeon's blood." Great. Now that's all I can think of.
Glamorous! All in all, a very respectable red. Clear color, just a hint of darkness, a priceless ruby! I found out that real rubies always have flaws. That's how you can tell it's real.
The other one I swatched previously was Golden Maharaja.
This is not golden, really, except when you look up close.
Isn't that cool? The first coat comes out very reddish, then you get a rich brown, and with the last coat this shimmer comes out strong.
Here's the real Golden Maharaja.
The Golden Maharaja is a 65.57 carat diamond!! Holy wow. It's not Indian, however, and has no cool historical tale. It's from South Africa, was shown at the Paris World Fair of 1937, spent some time in a museum and was sold in 1991 for $1.3 million. Snore. I was hoping for it being in the crown worn by some ancient ruler's elephant or something. Pretty though. I didn't know diamonds came in this color.
Looks great on me. Would have been cooler if they made it that teardrop shape though.
Next up let's go with Sea of Light.
I was convinced this would look horrendous on me, and guess what? It doesn't!! I gave my first one to my sister before I even wore it. Took me awhile to find one with a ring on it.
I think it's coral enough to really work on a variety of skin tones.
The real Sea of Light. How amazing is this. It's called the Darya-ye Noor Diamond of Iran. One of the largest diamonds in the world, and pale pink, one of the most rare.
The shape of this one is pretty accurate!
Golden Jubilee.
I wasn't sure how this one would work on me either, and I really liked it. A whole lot. It was a lot sheerer than the others and came out a nice soft peachy gold.
It looks really cool posed on my jeans here.
Here's the real deal:
The Golden Jubilee Diamond is the largest faceted diamond in the world. It used to be called "The Unnamed Brown," and was considered a bit of an ugly duckling in the gem world.
Makes a nice ring.
It's a fine feeling to wear all of these priceless gemstones!
Star of Bombay.
I've heard of people (Jen from Nevertoomuchglitter) like to franken with this because it's such a pure blue. No red or green in it.
Here is the real one.
The real Star of Bombay is a star sapphire, a really interesting stone. It's blue and when you put it in the sun this star appears. This gem was given to the Smithsonian by US movie star Mary Pickford. It's from Sri Lanka.
The polish is a lot darker. Looks close to black.
I think even navy blue is lighter than this. It's as close to black as you're gonna get while still being blue. Love this!
The last one is Midnight Star.
It's a gorgeous pearly muted purple. Really unique.
And what does the real Midnight Star have to tell us?
This is also from Sri Lanka and there was some debate over whether it was really a ruby, but no, it's also a sapphire. It has a reddish tone which was deceivingly ruby-like to some. It's compared to the color of the sky after sunset.
Well, this polish isn't really like that, but boy is it ever pretty.
It does have that same smokey, mysterious look.
These are fun to sort.
Two frosts (orange & purple), two cremes (blue & red), two sort-of-shimmers (pink & brown).
Two round rings (red & purple), two oval rings (orange & blue), two rectangular rings (pink & brown).
Warm colors (pink, brown, orange), cool colors (red, blue, purple).
It has traditional (red and pink)
Gothy (purple and blue)
Season-appropriate (brown & orange)
I wish there were more of them to do! I loved the formula of all of them as well as the colors and the fun of the names.
I like the uniqueness of this collection and I really love swatching a whole collection, it's really fun!
Part of the 2009 Holiday Collection. It's a muted pumpkin color, suitable for wall and finter etc. It just looks GREAT. That's the word I kept thinking. I even said, "Doesn't this look great?" and my coworker said, "Yeah."
Even though I don't think it does any favors to my skin tone, it's just unusual enough to look very current.
not so much. It sucked the life right out of it.
I'm going to put the bottle picture in too, even though it sucks. The picture, not the polish.
It's got flakes and glitter and makes an excellent top coat. Turns Ginger Bells brown, but the flakes are the color of the Ginger Bells. Very pretty and would work on a number of colors as the base. I haven't tried it alone yet.
I've been reading mixed reviews about this and the Avril Lavigne song for the movie - but I really like both of them!!
This is a fabulous polish, but it gets noticed. If you work in the kind of place where they don't really approve of this kind of thing you probably want to use it on the weekend. Yeah, I got some looks. I keep forgetting I'm supposed to be professional. Borrrring. lol
I bought this a while back. It is professional and I have a sweater that matches it...very nice for working.
But it's brownish without being brown, it's purplish without being pinkish and that works and I like the name.
I think this calls for watching a movie (We got Whip It on Netflix) and sending my newly driver licensed son out for Ben & Jerry's and taking a nap with the kitties.
This was the cheapest one, $2.99. The others were $4.49 and I searched everywhere to find all of them with their rings. Seems that people shoplifted the rings! You might still find these around.
Mandalay is in Burma where they have ruby mines.
Glamorous! All in all, a very respectable red. Clear color, just a hint of darkness, a priceless ruby! I found out that real rubies always have flaws. That's how you can tell it's real.
This is not golden, really, except when you look up close.
Isn't that cool? The first coat comes out very reddish, then you get a rich brown, and with the last coat this shimmer comes out strong.
Looks great on me. Would have been cooler if they made it that teardrop shape though.
I was convinced this would look horrendous on me, and guess what? It doesn't!! I gave my first one to my sister before I even wore it. Took me awhile to find one with a ring on it.
The real Sea of Light. How amazing is this. It's called the Darya-ye Noor Diamond of Iran. One of the largest diamonds in the world, and pale pink, one of the most rare.
I wasn't sure how this one would work on me either, and I really liked it. A whole lot. It was a lot sheerer than the others and came out a nice soft peachy gold.
The Golden Jubilee Diamond is the largest faceted diamond in the world. It used to be called "The Unnamed Brown," and was considered a bit of an ugly duckling in the gem world.
It's a fine feeling to wear all of these priceless gemstones!
I've heard of people (Jen from Nevertoomuchglitter) like to franken with this because it's such a pure blue. No red or green in it.
The real Star of Bombay is a star sapphire, a really interesting stone. It's blue and when you put it in the sun this star appears. This gem was given to the Smithsonian by US movie star Mary Pickford. It's from Sri Lanka.
I think even navy blue is lighter than this. It's as close to black as you're gonna get while still being blue. Love this!
It's a gorgeous pearly muted purple. Really unique.
This is also from Sri Lanka and there was some debate over whether it was really a ruby, but no, it's also a sapphire. It has a reddish tone which was deceivingly ruby-like to some. It's compared to the color of the sky after sunset.
It does have that same smokey, mysterious look.
It's exactly like Borghese - Palermo Plum.
My cuticles are so unhappy these days. Winter is getting really long. My application kind of sucks here too.
Anyway, everyone, enjoy your day, no matter what kind of expectations are involved. It's still a great day and only a few weeks left to Spring and pedicure weather shortly after that!!
On the left is old school - Red Ebony. Middle is Passion, right is Naughty (Coquine!)
See that "dome cut brush" thing? It's crazy, man!
The new one is on the right. It doesn't look as big here, but that thing is 3-dimensionally huge. It's a little hard to deal with, but I have fairly small nail beds. Would probably work really well if you have wider and longer ones.
It's gray with just a taste of something greenish. I thought it was black. I like this, although would put on another coat; this is two. It's similar to other grey metallicy hint of color things that I have.
I love this. It's an awesome black red. I know I have something similar to this, probably Petites, but the red glitter is a lot more obvious in that. This is subtle, a real undercurrent.
Here we are a little closer to Passion. It's what I strive for.
Now see this is only ONE coat. Mismas is courtesy of Michelle from All Lacquered Up. Look it up.
This is actually a really lovely purple. In the bottle you can see a lovely blue collecting around the top before you shake it. This is a dark purple that holds its own and is in no way black or vampy. I think she really achieved her goal with this.
