China Glaze - Up and Away - Part III - Blues, Greens & Purples

If you've missed them, click for:  Part I - Yellows and Part II - Pinks.

Finally, we get to my favourite colours of this collection and the one lacquer that I believe, in years to come, will be a lacquer that everyone has, or should have, in their collection.

China Glaze - Up and Away - Part II - Pinks

If you've missed it, click here to see Part I - Yellows.

We're moving back into Jacie comfort territory with the pinks.

Every single one of these pinks is an out and out winner, although the pastel pink still poses a problem in terms of formula.

Stay tuned later today for Part III - Blues, Greens and Purples including one lacquer that is an instant classic.

China Glaze - Up and Away - Part I - Yellows

I know you've all seen the China Glaze Up and Away collection a million times on a million other blogs, so I'm offering nothing special here on YGN today.

Pretend like it's the first time.  Come on!  Surely the Oscars inspired you how to feign surprise, shock and awe!

Part I is the Yellows (including the orange and corals).  I found a couple of dupes for some of these (indeed, I think most of this collection is dupe-able), which I've also included.

Stay tuned later today for Parts II (pinks) and III (greens and purples).

LA Splash - Mystery Red

This LA Splash is from my Fiji Finds.  I have no idea of the name of this. If there was a sticker it's long gone.  And, aside from the front of the bottle, all of the imprinted information has been scratched off.

I had zero expectations with this.  The formula, in the bottle, looked separated and 'oily' and the brush was wonkadonk.  The only reason I really bought this was the novelty factor.

Given the horrors of the brush (seriously it looks like a stippling brush), I ended up using a spare OPI Pro Wide Brush* instead, shook the bottle really well and hoped for the best.  If ever there was a Kamikaze Manicure, this was it.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised.  Although the lacquer had completely separated, which no amount of shaking would resolve, it still applied well enough that I only needed two coats.

Of course, given all that shaking, this bubbled pretty much straight away (which you can see on my index finger).

But it's still a good result.  It's just the kind of blue red that I covet with a passion.  I just wish it wasn't so crazy past its use by date.

*Don't throw away your OPI Pro-Wide Brushes once the bottle has finished / can no longer be used.  Clean the brush with acetone and store in a dry, clean container.  I have about ten that I keep, which I use when I'm applying a lacquer that has a rubbish brush, as happened here.

Essie - Mesmerize

You may remember how I managed to come across Essie's Mesmerize.

I've finally gotten around to wearing this and, I must say, it totally lives up to any expectations I might have had for it.  It's a cracker.

Mesmerize is a creme cobalt blue.  I don't have another blue like this in my collection.  For me, anyway, it's quite unique.

Application wise, if every lacquer applied like this lacquer, Melburnians would get to see Jacie smiling from ear to ear on a daily basis.

This has the perfect consistency for a lacquer.  Not too runny.  Not too thick.  Dries quickly and only needs two coats to get to opaque. 

I'm so glad I picked this up when I saw it.  It's Essie at its absolute best.  I wish Essie did more of these really strong and bold colours because the colour and formula are second to none.

What do you guys think?  Are there any other cobalt blues I should be looking at?  I'm kinda embarrassed that I don't have more right now!