Friday, August 30, 2013

OPI In the Cable Car-Pool Lane: Swatches and Review

Hi everyone and happy Friday!  I made a last minute decision yesterday to take the day off of work so that is why my post is late.  I was a little naughty and slept in pretty late but man did it feel good.  Today I have another new OPI polish from the San Francisco collection.  We are winding down through the second half of the collection but there are still a few more pretties to show off.

Today I have In the Cable Car-Pool Lane, which is a deep berry creme although I felt that maybe it could be a crelly.  I really liked this polish and it had a good formula.  I used two easy coats with topcoat for the photos below.  It's a very pretty fall color.




I decided to jazz it up with some dots in OPI MBSW, OPI Baby It's Coal Outside, and OPI Strawberry Margarita.



I really liked this color and will be sporting a lot during fall.  Did you pick this color up?

Thursday, August 29, 2013

OPI Muir Muir On The Wall: Swatches and Review

Hi everyone, happy Thursday!  Today I bring you another OPI San Francisco polish which was a surprise hit for me.  Muir Muir On The Wall is a deep vampy shade of a brownish purple (plum?) with plum shimmer.  I love vampy shimmers like this one, which is similar to OPI Germanicure from last year.  When I looked at both of them, Germanicure seems to be more vibrant while Muir Muir has a dusty and more subdued quality to it.  It looks very dark indoors but once outside it lights up.

The formula on this polish was good.  The first coat was a little thin but I used a slightly thicker second coat to fill everything in.  Photos are shown with topcoat.




When I was trying to figure out how I wanted to add to this polish, I was thinking that I didn't want to cover up this gorgeous shade.  I decided to add to it by using the glitter topcoat OPI Minnie Style which has magenta, red, and white glitters.  I wasn't sure if this combination would work, but I ended up really loving it.

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So, can you tell I like this shade?  This is definitely my favorite so far out of the entire collection :)  Did you pick this polish up?

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

OPI Keeping Suzi At Bay: Swatches and Review

Hi everyone....what day is it?  Hump day!  That commercial with the camel loving Hump Day gets me every time, it's just so cute :)  Welcome to Wednesday where we are halfway through the week.  Today I have yet another polish from the OPI San Francisco collection which seems to be taking forever to get through, one swatch at a time.  I hope you aren't sick of it yet!

Today I have Keeping Suzi At Bay, which is a medium blue cream polish.  Blue is my favorite color of polish to wear, so it's no surprise that I love this one.  It's a bold blue but it has a dusty quality to it which I find really pretty.  The formula was great on this one, no issues to report.  I used two easy coats plus topcoat for my photos.



Cinderella hand alert!!!  Although not as nice as my swatching hand, I present today's nail art with my rarely seen right hand.  I finally got the saran wrap technique to work and I thought it turned out really cool over the blue polish.  I used the shimmery black OPI Baby It's Coal Outside and the greyed out white OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  For this technique I did things a little bit differently.  I started off by putting my polish on a paper plate, then dipped my crumpled saran wrap into the polish and dabbed it on my fingers.  That's the only way I've gotten it to work so far.


I thought I could be sneaky by reversing the images of these last two pictures so that they looked like my left hand.  Little did I realize that the OPI bottle would end up backwards....that's why the photos look like they are on different hands haha!


Overall this is a really good color in my book.  Did you pick this polish up or do you plan to?

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

31 Day Challenge by Chalkboard Nails

Hi everyone, just a quick second post for the day :)  I just found a really fun challenge created by Sarah of Chalkboard Nails.  She always has the most beautiful nail art!  What's even cooler is that this is the third year that the challenge is taking place.  Since I am new to blogging this year, this will be my first year taking part.  I think this will really help me improve my nail art skills and I think the themes are really fun.

Will you be joining in?

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9RojW4rzhdEdFXIVXFliE5wWRAxWmiW2G5XaErDO4gGrlHUcw_-7HuymMzxM7bmuQR1y4YaVr-gdz_73_rq2MeXQWOPl8xRmcTgR_mdEISLucnQqRxk7QjbtaxYXLpuoO1CiHhyOoWhc/s1600/31DC2013.png

OPI A-Piers To Be Tan: Swatches and Review

Hi everyone and welcome to Tuesday.  Today I have another OPI San Fransisco color as I make my way through the entire collection.  I know most people would like to see the collection as a whole, and I do plan on doing that at the end, but one swatch at a time has been a good pace for me since I was so sick last week, this is also why the nail art has been simple with each color.

Today I have a A-Piers To Be Tan, which is a warm caramel brown.  I'm not good at figuring out which colors clash with my skin tone...pretty much because I would still wear them anyway if I liked the color.  I thought this one wouldn't look good with my pale ghost skin, but I don't think it's too bad.  This polish had a good formula of a standard cream.  For my swatches I used two easy coats with topcoat.




I'm not sure if I would necessarily wear this color on its own, but I do think it would be great for nail art.  For my simple design, I chose to do a ruffian with OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender. 



Overall if you like browns, you will like this caramel-y tan color.  The formula was good, no complaints there!  Did you pick this color up?

Monday, August 26, 2013

OPI Peace & Love & OPI: Swatches and Review

Hi everyone, welcome to Monday.  I am finally starting to feel better after last week so hopefully it's going to be a good week!  Today I have the polish that I anticipated the most from the fall OPI San Fransisco collection.  Peace & Love & OPI is a duochrome polish that changes to different colors in different lights.  I've seen this polish as grey, blue, green, and purple although I couldn't for the life of me get that to photograph in my pictures.  

I have to admit for this being my most anticipated polish, I was a little bit let down.  While it is a pretty and unique polish, it's not my favorite out of the San Fransisco collection.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, maybe for the duochrome to be stronger.  Don't get me wrong, this is a stunning polish, just not exactly what I thought it would be.






For some simple nail art, I jazzed up the tips with a diagonal of Suzi & the 7 Dusseldorfs.  I thought the colors complemented each other well and the purple tips went nicely with the purple duochrome in Peace & Love & OPI.  In the first photo you can see a bit of the purple duochrome near the cuticle line and in the second photo, you can see the blue duochrome.



Did you pick this polish up?  What did you think of it?

Sunday, August 25, 2013

OPI Embarca-Dare Ya!: Swatches and Review

Hi everyone, happy Sunday!  Today I woke up to a lovely homemade breakfast that my husband made for me with pancakes and hashbrowns.  It's even more special considering the pancakes can't be made with eggs, wheat, or dairy.  He's a great guy and it was a great way to start the day.  I'm still on the recovery side of this stomach flu but it's getting better now.  

Today I have a surprise favorite from the new OPI San Fransisco collection.  This was a surprise favorite of mine so far.  Embarca-Dare Ya! is a magenta shimmer that has a really glowy quality to it.  The formula was really good on this one as well and covered in two easy coats.  The photos below are with topcoat.




For my nail art, I finally got a gradient to work with a makeup sponge.  I did a fall colored gradient with some shimmery OPI Sprung on the tips.



Is this a color you would wear?  Did you pick this polish up?

Saturday, August 24, 2013

OPI First Date at the Golden Gate: Swatches and Review

Hi everyone and happy Saturday.  Do you have any fun plans for the weekend?  I am still recovering but I am pretty sure I will be making a trip to Ulta just to get out of the house :)  Is it weird I've been looking forward to it for the last three days?  Sad but true I'm afraid ;)

Today I have the first of the reds from the OPI San Fransisco collection.  I'm not really a red fan, but I did like this one.  First Date at the Golden Gate is a medium red crelly polish with orange undertones.  The formula was good for a crelly, I could have used three coats in some spots, but if you are careful, two would be fine.  I used two coats with topcoat for the photos below.  This one was really shiny and I love the name :)




To dress it up, I did an easy cloud mani with OPI Oy-Another Polish Joke, which is a golden shimmer and then a layer of OPI The Living Daylights.



So what do you think of this polish?  Are reds your thing?  Did you pick this one up?

Friday, August 23, 2013

OPI Haven't The Foggiest: Swatches and Review

Hi everyone, welcome to Friday!  Let's just say that I am really happy to have the weekend coming up to rest and recover.  Today I have the second polish from the OPI Fall San Fransisco collection.  This is another polish I was up in the air on, but I just really needed to see it on the nail to be sold.  

Haven't The Foggiest is a silver foil polish, but it's actually different than your typical silver.  Foggiest has a darker silver quality to it, almost a medium grey color, which makes it prettier than a regular silver in my opinion and more wearable because it's not as flashy as a regular silver.  The formula was great and it was very opaque in one coat.  I used two for my swatches, with topcoat, to fill in a couple of areas that weren't fully covered.  




For my nail art with this one, I wanted to stick with something simple and easy but still bright to transition from summer to fall, since we still technically are in summer.  I did some simple freehanded stripes with OPI Diva of Geneva and OPI Suzi's Hungary Again!  I really liked the combination of the foil with the cream polishes.  What do you think?  Did you pick this polish up or do you plan to?


Thursday, August 22, 2013

OPI Dining Al Frisco: Swatches and Review

Hi everyone, welcome to Thursday.  I finally figured it out....I have the stomach flu.  Geez, it took me long enough.  I'm back at work today and playing it by ear.  I did manage to swatch this lovely blue and do some minimal nail art showing this color off.  You know you aren't feeling good when you aren't sure if you can even paint your nails!  Although I haven't been responding to comments, I do read them and I want to thank everyone for their kind words :)

Today I have this pretty blue from the new OPI San Francisco collection.  I've heard mixed reviews on this blue in particular because of its frosty nature.  I was worried about the frostiness, but I have to say that it really didn't bother me.  This polish is a medium airy blue with a little bit of frostiness to it.  The formula on this one was really good.  It was pretty much opaque in one coat but I used two coats with topcoat for all my photos.  Sorry for the nubbin nails.  When I got back from vacation, pretty much every square tip I had was broken in some way so I just had to take the hit and cut them down.



You can sort of see bruststrokes in this one, but I think they are much less visible in real life.  I wouldn't consider it a very "brush-strokey" kind of polish, just slightly.  The formula was very good with no streaking, pooling, or problems.


As soon as I did this look, I realized that I had done a similar look with Hard Candy polishes a few months ago.  But in all honesty, I was too sick to redo it so here you have a pink and blue triangle tip again :)  I taped off the triangles with painters tape and used OPI Strawberry Margarita (my new favorite pink) and OPI Which is Witch? to create the triangle. 



Tomorrow will be a new day and a new San Francisco color!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Hit Polish Nail Lacquer: The Wizard of Oz

Hi everyone, happy Hump Day.  I am back at work, although, if it were up to me, I most definitely wouldn't be.  I've been pretty sick with this food allergy and it is still affecting me today.  I haven't slept in two nights and have an ongoing migraine among other problems.  My most favorite side effect would have to be that my stomach is so swollen and bloated that none of my pants fit...aka how to make yoga pants work acceptable :)  I will see how the day goes though.  My coworker even told me I look gaunt...which seems pretty hard to pull off because I am on the curvy side of the body spectrum.

Today I have a new-to-me indie brand, Hit Polish Nail Lacquer.  I had never heard of this brand until I saw a notification in my facebook feed of a surprise mini set featuring The Wizard of Oz.  I've said before how obsessed I am with The Wizard of Oz, even since childhood, and without too much thinking, I ordered this mystery box.  All I knew was that I would be getting a mystery box with four mini polishes along the Wizard of Oz theme.  I was very happy with my purchase. 


I wanted to get these polishes swatched before I left on vacation because they were supposed to be up while on vacation, which as you all know, didn't happen because of how busy I was.  This is also why I chose to do a skittle mani with the colors.  Like a dork, I left the names on my computer at home, but I will update them when I get home from work.  For now, just look at the glittery prettiness! 


Yellow polish (to be replaced with names once I get home): A cream polish with what looks like holo and silver microglitter.  Two coats, with topcoat.

Green polish (pretty sure this is Emerald City): A glorious glitterbomb of a polish filled with green glitters.  Two coats, with topcoat.

Glitter Mix: This is my favorite polish of the bunch, a mixture of white, black, red, green, gold, and silver glitters in various shapes.  One coat over Essie Vested Interest, with topcoat.

Pink polish: Baby pink crelly polish with silver and pink glitters, very subtle and pretty.  Two coats with topcoat.


And here's the macro shots: 





I was very pleased with my purchase from Hit Polish Nail Lacquer.  This was my first mystery type of item and it is something that I would do again :)

I also wanted to give a quick update on things coming up soon on the blog.  Admittedly I am a little light on material so I decided this morning, in my allergy induced stupor, that I wanted to do something a little different with the OPI San Francisco collection.  I couldn't swatch them because I get red hives on my hands during an allergy attack, but they have finally calmed down enough to be acceptable in a hand macro shot.  I decided to feature one polish a day with swatches, descriptions, and a different nail art look.  My first polish is on my nails today, and will hopefully be on the blog tomorrow.  I didn't plan on such a wordy post today, but I bet you learned more than you ever wanted to know about food allergy attacks haha ;)