Color Club's 'Backstage Pass' collection swatches.

I first heard about Color Club's 'Backstage Pass' collection just a few weeks ago, when we were seeing the CosmoProf Sneak Peek posts on blogs. I've seen posts where they are said to be release next month. There are 6 glitters to this collection, and I unfortunately only picked up three. I have 'Backstage Pass', 'Wish Upon a Rock-Star' and 'It's a Hit!'.

I am missing 'Take the Stage' (gold glitter), 'Platinum Record' (silver glitter) and 'Fame & Fortune' (red flakie). The only other one I saw was 'Take the Stage', and because I knew I wouldn't wear it I decided to leave it there for someone else who will love it.

Please note that the swatches below are with no base coat/ridge filler or top coat.
(Just a reminder, you can click on the photos to enlarge and show texture. I left them large)

It's a Hit!, Wish Upon a Rock-Star, Backstage Pass

First up for review is 'Wish Upon a Rock-Star'

One coat of 'Wish Upon a Rock-Star'

Three coats of 'Wish Upon a Rock-Star'

'Wish Upon a Rock-Star' is similar to all of the 'Happy Birthday' dupes we have been seeing, but only in color. This is most definitely not a dupe, I would call them distant cousins. This has small round multi colored glitter, mixed with large lavender hexagonal glitter pieces in a clear base. The colors of the small glitter pieces are red, blue, green, silver and gold.
Formula on 'Wish Upon a Rock-Star' was decent, but I think this glitter is meant to be layered over a base coat (as shown below). One coat was easy to work with. The only issue was that the larger hexagonal glitter pieces would be placed sporadically and sometimes only towards the end of the nail. Two coats of this became more difficult. By the third coat it became a complete mess. The main issue here is that the larger hexagonal glitter pieces tend to curl up and not lay flat, so where there are pieces close to one another you get clumping.

Here is 'Wish Upon a Rock-Star' layered over a basic black polish:



Second for review is 'Backstage Pass'.
I instantly fell in love with this one, and as soon as I got to the car I opened it to find this:

That is one wonky brush! It was hard like a rock and was completely unusable :(

One coat of 'Backstage Pass'



'Backstage Pass' has large hexagonal glitter in a clear base. The glitter is magenta, lavender, silver, and what I would consider a gunmetal gray. This is '1 coat' over black polish.

I'm going to formula with 'It's a Hit!' since they are basically the same exact formula, just different glitter colors.

Third for review is 'It's a Hit!'

One coat of 'It's a Hit!'

'It's a Hit!' has large hexagonal glitter in a clear base. The glitter is lavender. This lavender glitter is the same as seen in 'Wish Upon a Rock-Star' and 'Backstage Pass'. This is '1 coat' over black polish.

Formula on 'Backstage Pass' and 'It's a Hit!':

Ok, formula. I'm not sure where to begin. I put '1 coat' but technically it's not one coat. I couldn't get the glitter to adhere to the nail in a regular sweeping motion. This glitter was basically dotted on and put in place as carefully as possible. This was very time consuming and it took a lot of patience. Just swatching these without clean up and dry time took me well over an hour.

The biggest problem here is that the large hexagonal glitter is not flat, it's curled. When you get two pieces curling next to one another, or on top of one another it gets very 'clumpy' looking and there's really no way to easily flatten it out. I didn't wear these after I took the photos. I posted a side view photo which shows that it's not flat. It's actually no where near flat. I can't even imagine trying to put a top coat over this. I would imagine that if I were to wear this that the glitter would easily flake off throughout the day.

Overall:

I think 'Wish Upon a Rock-Star' is super cute. It reminds me of happy times and parties. I could totally see this being a glitter worn during the holiday season. I'm sure I will wear this again, but only layered over another color. I won't attempt to get this opaque by itself again.

I love the idea behind 'It's a Hit!' and 'Backstage Pass' but the execution is terrible. The curled glitter makes me want to throw these out of my car window while speeding down the highway. I really love Color Club and I hate to say anything bad about them but I highly doubt I will attempt to wear these again, which is sad because they are gorgeous in the bottle :( 

Maybe Color Club will re-release these with FLAT hexagonal glitter. A girl can hope right?

EDIT: These have been reswatched over white:

http://hauloffame.blogspot.com/2011/09/color-clubs-backstage-pass-collection.html