OPI Designer Series: Design & Extravagance

Hello Lovlies!

Finally some sun to swatch! I've decided to start showing two polishes at a time, because I will never get through them in a timely manner at the rate I'm going. Today I have the last of my stronger linear holos, Design, and my favorite of the non-linear holos, Extravagance.

Design is a gorgeous linear tan holographic polish. In person, this is a perfect match to my skin, so I get holographic mannequin hands, which I find so very pretty. The above swatches are 2 coats, and there is no visible nail line in person, but for photos I could have used 3.  

Extravagance is a rich raspberry scattered holographic. Photos don't really do this polish the justice it deserves. The first one above only hints at the kind of lush, subtle holographic goodness I see in person looking at this color. Coverage on this is wonderful... the above are 2 very thin coats, but 1 thick one would probably suffice. The only downside to this one is visible above... it's tough to clean up, and like many in the red family, it tends to stay visible in cuticles.

Until next time,

HeatherS  

OPI Designer Series: Original

Hello Lovelies!

Today's OPI Designer Series polish is Original! Original is a pretty lilac holographic polish that covers beautifully in 3 thin coats as you see below.

They say you always remember your first, and Original, as the name would suggest, is the first holographic polish I ever got, so I can thank it for starting my holo obsession. Of all my holos it's seen the most wear over the years. I attribute this to it's versatile color... it's subdued enough to not be completely off the wall, but it's still purple and funky and different. 

Until next time,

HeatherS

OPI Designer Series: Signature

Hello Lovelies!

Continuing on with the OPI Designer Series today is another classic holo: Signature.

Signature is a lovely rose pink holographic that is definitely more cool toned than warm toned. It's very understated in low light, looking a bit plain and mauve. It has one of the strongest holo effects of all the old DS polishes.

Now, I'm not really a girl who likes pink polishes... in fact pretty much every other polish color outnumbers pink in my collection, but this is a really pretty one. 

Until next time,

HeatherS

OPI Designer Series: Glamour

Hello Lovelies!

Alright, today I have my absolute FAVORITE of the OPI Designer Series... Glamour. My amazing mother got me this polish for my birthday 2 years ago and I've been head over heals with it ever since.

*swoon*

It shouldn't really come as a surprise that I love this color so much, its a rich royal blue holographic polish that appears a bit indigo in low lights and applies like a dream in 2 coats. This is definitely high on my list of favorite blues, and it would probably make the list for favorite polishes.

Until next time,

HeatherS

OPI DS Diamond

Hello Lovelies!

Continuing the OPI DS swatches today is Diamond. Diamond is a bit of a holographic ugly duckling. It's too silver to be a purple, too purple to be silver, too dusty to be lavender, with a touch of taupe in certain lights... I've determined it's probably best to call it a thistle color. The holo is strong, but not super linear, and it really doesn't show well in the bottle.

 Initially when I bought this color I was sort of underwhelmed. Yes, it's a fairly strong holo, yes it's unique, but it was sort of... safe? Something about the kind of dusty thistle color of it didn't really appeal that much to me, so into the drawer it went, never really brought out again until it needed swatching. Then something odd happened... I put it on, and it was like a completely different color than I remember. It suddenly seemed chic, and a little edgy with it's dusky looks. I honestly didn't take it off for about 3 days, and so many different people commented on how pretty it was. I sort of love when a polish surprises me like that.

Have you ever had a polish that deserved a second look?

Until next time,

HeatherS

OPI Designer Series: Desire

Hello Lovelies!

So I have decided that I want to start off 2013 swatching all of my OPI Designer Series polishes. I have already shown you Sapphire, but I may redo that one. As I mentioned, I collect the old school DS polishes, with the really linear gorgeous holographic details. I have a few from the second series with the more scattered holo and metallic effects, but I'll be saving those for towards the end.

To kick-start, here is Desire... and what a pretty thing it is. Desire is a milk chocolate-y holographic brown shown here with 3 coats. I usually layer this over a brown creme like Essie's Little Brown Dress, but I wanted to show it to it's full potential on it's own. The first photo below shows it in shade to give you a better idea of it's color.

*Please pardon the beagle hair... I didn't see them until uploading.

 *sigh* So pretty. I really hope with China Glaze and Color Club releasing new holographic collections that OPI will do the same.

Until next time!

HeatherS

Oh Em Gee!!!!!

Hello!

Earlier this year I posted about my first successful lemming capture with China Glaze's No Way Jose. Today, I have the Holy Grail of lemmings for me... China Glaze's OMG. I lucked out on ebay and while it's the most I've ever spent on a singular polish, I didn't get scalped for it, and it's worth every penny. OMG is the most holographic holo that I own. It's a crisp, cool, super linear holo silver that pictures really don't do justice to... but I'm posting them anyway.

I love it so much I want go to bed with it and kiss it in many soft private places. The only downside to this saucy little minx is that it's fickle; the wear time is next to nothing before it starts chipping. That's okay though, I still love it.

What's your Holy Grail polish?

Until next time.

Battle Of The Birthday Glitters

Hi again!

So I was looking back at my entries, and I realized I never posted the comparison for Milani Gems and Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday that I promised to. Since that first post I have gotten my hands on 3 potential dupes for Happy Birthday: Milani Gems, Ulta Pinata-Yada-Yada, and Wet N Wild Party of 5 Glitters.

I know that Gems has added large pink hex glitter since I bought my bottle, so it's now even closer to HB then this photo shows. Pinata-Yada-Yada is the closest color match to some of the colors of HB. Party of 5 Glitters is not even close, but it's the cheapest at $1.99 a bottle, so if your care more about price then true duplicability, it's a definite contender. All of these "dupes" have hex smaller glitter, while HB has square, also HB's small blue glitter is a bright royal blue, while the others are more of a cyan color. Of them all I prefer HB, but Gems and Pinata-Yada-Yada are tied for me as the best dupe (both are available for about 5 dollars).

Until next time!

In A Tizzy Over Tanzy

Hello all!

As a general rule, I severely dislike summer. I don't like 110 degree temps, I don't like kids being out of school everywhere, and as a natural redhead the sun is my worst enemy. The thing I do love about it though is the nail polish collections, filled with neons and sparkles and glass flecks oh my! So since my southern California weather has decided that summer is on its way, I chose to break out one of the absolute beauties of the new Zoya Sunshine collection that I used the BOGO code they released to get. This is Tanzy, a stunning tangerine sparkle, foil, something or other (not sure what to call the finish on this one except to call it AWESOME). I am completely in love with this color, even in super dim light it glows, seriously can't-stop-staring fantastic color!

This was two coats. This polish applied beautifully, dried fast-ish, no word yet on ease of removal, but I'll let you know when I take it off (though I'm expecting it to be a sit and soak kind of removal without a lot of rubbing a la OPI Burlesque's shimmers).

Until next time!

Why I'm Blue About One Day Without Blues

Hello all!

So a couple of weeks ago there was news around the nail blogs about Toms Shoes and Essie teaming up to give away 5000 bottles of a "special" color called One Day Without Blues, a tribute to Toms Shoes annual One Day Without Shoes in support of impoverished children. The deal was go on Toms facebook page, like them, potentially win a bottle of this super special polish. Well I did win one, but when it arrived today I instantly thought it looked familiar, and upon comparison, my suspicion was confirmed that One Day Without Blues is indeed Coat Azure. Don't believe me? Here are the pics.

Thumb, middle, and pinkie: One Day Without Blues
Index and ring: Coat Azure

Index and ring: Coat Azure
Middle and pinkie: One Day Without Blues

Now, that being said, I still love and adore this color... it's a beautiful shimmery blue that applies wonderfully, I was just disappointed that it's a re-release under a new name. Granted, that means if you didn't win the promotion  it's not like you can't get your hands on this color if you don't have it already, which is good.

As always, until next time!

Tronica Completed

Hello all!


Today I had enough of a break in the torrential rain to get super fast swatches of the last two polishes from the China Glaze Tronica Collection. So here we have Gamer Glam (holographic dusty purple) and Hyper Haute (holographic raspberry pink).

As you can see, Gamer Glam is much more holographic then Hyper Haute, but it's still not a super heavy holo. I think both are gorgeous color wise, and they both applied wonderfully just like the rest of the collection... the above swatches are each 1 coat, no topcoat, no streaking or bald spots and dried completely in less then two minutes. Overall I can say that this entire collection, while not quite as holo as I would have liked, was definitely a welcome addition to my stash.

Until next time!

Essie Has A Dirty Mind

Hello all!


Anybody ever notice the craziness of some of these polish names? OPI and China glaze tend to try and be punny and/or sexual (Mmm... Vould You Like A Lick-tenstein/Limbo Bimbo), some brands intentionally go for slutty and crazy names (Cheeky Monkey, which I'm dying to get my hands on some day), but I find that Essie has some of the most overt names to their polish (Meet Balls, After Sex, one of my favorite reds BTW). Today's swatch is one of those crazy named semi-sexual polishes, Over The Knee.


Over The Knee is a super-cozy chocolate milk color with gorgeous red shimmer in it, like a lighter redder version of China Glaze's Ingrid. Colorwise it's most like the first and last pictures, but it changes a lot depending on the lighting I've noticed.

Well there it is, hope everyone is doing well. Until next time.

Not So Drab...

Hello!

Okay so today's polish I can't find swatches of anywhere. It shows up on no lemming lists, and there isn't a swatch on a google search to be found, which is a total shame, because this polish is capital B Beautiful. Seriously, I can't believe Scrangie wouldn't have this posted anywhere.

I found this lovely little girl when I walked into a beauty supply store on my way to work hoping to find OPI's Teenage Dream from the Katy Perry collection. When I managed to get the only one in the store (I just love being that lucky girl) I decided to do a quick scan around. I found myself at the Jessica rack, and while most of the rack (like 99%) was your typical reds, pinks, and nudes, the very last slot had this one lone ugly duckling that just screamed "Take me home with you!"... so I totally did.

This is Camouflage by Jessica, a metallic, shimmery, olive green with heavy golden tones.

This was really hard to photograph because of the gold to it. Really it's slightly greener (The second sunlit picture is most color accurate). I don't have anything quite like it in my stash, Zoya's Irene is too green with none of the gold, China Glaze Peace On Earth is too dark, more brush strokey, and has none of the shimmer.

A note on formula: This was a little weird... first off, CHEMICALS... this is so not B3F and stank to high heaven. It takes a while to dry even with a coat of Seche Vite and some dry drops. As for application, I found that it wasn't hard to work with per se, just odd. Some nails applied thick and almost...chunky, maybe? But they leveled out smoothly, while other nails were thinner. I suspect I may have just needed to give it a good shake, but anyway, oddness, and definitely a pretty one that is deserving of more blog-lovin'.

Until next time, be good humans.

Holy Holographic Batman!

Hey there!

Today I got a "Get anything of your choosing free" coupon from Sally Beauty in the mail, so I decided to stop in when I was out and about. Well, as I was opening the door my eyes zoomed over to the display for the Tronica collection from China Glaze (which officially launches tomorrow in Sally's but mine put them out early). Well, I damn near ran to it and promptly picked up every color in the display (sadly Hyper Haute and Gamer Glam were nowhere to be found). Here I have sunlit skittles of the other 10 in the collection.

Note: Please pardon the lack of clean up... My hand is still broken (I took off my splint for the pics), and I didn't have time before I lost the sun to clean up the cuticles.

Electric Magenta... pinker in real life, and more holographic then this picture indicates

3D Fantasy... GORGEOUS... rosy, bright, slightly less holo then the rest of the collection, but the color makes up for that.

Digital Dawn... holographic roan... brown with a strong red lean, really different

Cyberspace... Pretty holo neutral. one of the strongest holo effects in the collection.

Hologram... great holo silver... reminds me of Color Club Worth the Risque and China Glaze's OMG's lovechild. 

Virtual Violet... My favorite new holographic purple... rich, not too red, fairly strong holo-y goodness.

High Def... pretty, kind of acid-washed looking blue. One of the least holo in the collection.

Techno Teal... Teal, pretty, but underwhelming. Not a very strong holo, but applied beautifully.

Laser Lime... The most holographic polish in the collection... Not this pale in real life, very summery feeling.

Mega Bite... Much yellower in person, with a stronger holo... I prefer this to the gold from the OMG collection.

A note about these holos... They are a softer holo then the OMG polishes, but they apply so much better then the OMG's, with no bald spots and seven out of ten of these swatches are 1 coat, the 3 with 2 coats are Laser Lime, Hologram, and Cyberspace. The pigmentation of these are lovely, all of them are bright and attention grabbing (with the exception of the very neutral Cyberspace, which gives me holographic mannequin hands in person, though these pics don't show the awesomeness). Anyways, that's my haulage... I feel that I will pick up the last two from the collection as soon as I find them.

Until Next Time.