Avon Cosmic Collection Swatches & Review

One brand of polish I always forget about because it's not on stores' shelves is Avon. They have some fantastic nail enamels though, and tonight I'm showing you most of their Cosmic line, which features fantastic holographic polishes!

Holographic polishes, for those of you who may not know, are peppered with a fine holographic dust, which causes them to reflect tiny rainbows in light, and especially sunlight.

For that reason, I've taken all of these swatches in the sunlight, so you'll see that discrepancy from my normal photos.

The colors Avon gave me for review came in a gorgeous rainbow, and I thought they'd be perfect as a rainbow gradient across all five nails on one hand. The result is breathtaking!

The transition is subtle on the nails, but I love how perfectly they blended together! I can't decide if my index or middle finger is best. Which is your favorite?

These polishes were all fantastic! Almost all of them only required two coats for perfect opacity! The only one that didn't was Celestial.

Read on for all the swatches and reviews.

Hardwired

The need to paint my nails and give some interesting content for my readers to look at is hardwired into my brain. I guess this wiring made its way to the forefront this evening for this monochromatic manicure.

I'll be entering this into Leslie's Monochrome contest (which I encourage all of you to enter into as well!). Here's the color breakdown: Stranger Tides (OPI) is the base, the darkest stripes are Exotic Encounters (China Glaze), the medium teal is Sea Breeze (Avon) and the lightest mint color is Re-Fresh Mint (China Glaze).

Wouldn't you say this is the motherboard load of teals?

Chevrons for Chloe

I got to do another lady's hands today! Special occasions always call for a special treatment, and my good friend Chloe wanted her treatment for the eve of her birthday to be a manicure done by yours truly. Ever eager to paint on canvases that aren't my own, I gladly accepted!

She wanted something to the tone of Marina's tribal nails, using three of her favorite colors. If you know her, you already know what those three colors are: coral, teal, and gold. As I was sketching up an idea, we both liked the way chevrons sans-tribal print looked that we decided to do that as the trigger pistol accent. Have a look!

The nude base is Did You Ear About Van Gogh? (OPI), the peach is Peachy Keen (China Glaze), the greenish teal is Jade (Avon), the gold for the tips is A Show at the Palladium (Wet n' Wild Chrome), and the gold chunky glitter for the base of the three nails is Set the Stage (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear). We loved it!

Pretty Little Poppies

I think I've found the next best Nailed-It-Nail-Polish. I absolutely love this soft pastel blue color. It's from Avon, called Vintage Blue. It does look a bit vintage. I'm not sure if 50s is considered vintage yet, but it is to me. The Tupperware, the porcelain, the phones, the toasters, the dresses. But it also looks great with some little poppies.

Nugget's V-Gap

Have you met Nugget? She's pretty great. She's just over a year old, full of life, and I think she may have an extra pair or two of vocal chords. She'll remind you if you've forgotten about dinner, and will do just about anything to get to food. She's a tiny thing, weighing in at 7.4 lbs., but I guarentee you, you've never met a cat like her. I love her.

When I got my order of Avon polishes from my friend Tammy this morning, I was surprised.

I swear I didn't choose these shades intentionally, but how good do they all look with one another? I wanted to use the brown polishes tonight, and after looking at them, I noticed that they looked like Nugget! So I give you, my Nugget V-Gap!

I used four colors for this guy. I started with Beige Blast (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri), Nomadic Nude (Color Club), Vintage Boutique (Avon), and Forbidden Fudge (Avon). It's all freehand, and I used the brushes that came in the bottles. I absolutely adore this, and so does Nugget.

Gilded Leaves

Recently, I won my first giveaway by luck of the draw over at grape fizz nails. The prize was the coveted Whimsical (Revlon) and another beauty, Violetta Sparkle (Avon). That package arrived today from Canada, so I decided to use my prize for tonight's manicure.

I had an impossible time trying to get a good picture of the combination I came up with, so these pictures aren't the best. You get the general idea though.

The plate used is BM-11, which is quickly becoming my favorite plate to stamp with. (I used it a while back during my mini self-challenge and again for Secret Agent Lila.) The polish to stamp with is Passion (China Glaze). They're more fun in person. I couldn't quite get the shine from Seche Vite to show up properly.

Thank you again Anne for the lovely giveaway, and the great prizes!