Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Sephora by OPI: Break a Leg-Warmer!

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Honestly this is one of my favorite colors.  Now sometimes I think that when I say 'favorite' I am guilty of overusing the word.  Often times in the moment of having a certain color on my nails I can clearly think that it is a favorite polish of mine but then I don't use it for months and months.  With this polish that definitely is NOT the case.  I am so in love with this color I seriously use it all the time.  Originally I bought this polish based on the name and the collection that it was from.  At the time I thought the color was nice but didn't think I would use it all that often.  Boy was I wrong.  

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This color came out during the fall of 2010 as part of the Sephora by OPI 'Urban Ballerina' collection.  As a former dancer I am obsessed with anything whose name is related to anything with dance, or maybe it isn't so much because I'm a former dancer but more because I have a polish addiction.  Anyway I am so happy that I fell in love with this color, it's perfect for any occasion and season and goes on creamy and opaque after about 2 coats.  This is a dark muted charcoal grey color with a bit of a blue tinge.   Thank god Sephora has this included in it's permanent collection!  

*natural sunlight, 2 coats, Canon T3.  

Monday, May 21, 2012

Essie: Go Overboard


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One of the three colors featured in Essie's spring collection announced earlier this year, 'Go Overboard' is the namesake for the entire collection.  This creamy dark blue has green undertones which creates this perfect in-between from true blue to navy blue.  

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This color reminds me a lot of my high school colors (teal & black) and would have been perfect to wear at pep rallies or other school functions.  I think that this type of teal/navy color is great to have in your collection because it is so beautiful to wear for any occasion but it is also work appropriate.  

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'Go Overboard' is one of Essie's more opaque colors, a nice change from the millions of sheer baby pinks, and I was surprised at how creamy it was in one coat.  Of course I did 2, which made it absolutely perfect.  


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I re-painted my middle and ring fingers in other colors that I had in my collection just to show a comparison.  My middle finger is painted in 'Khloe Had a Little Lam-Lam' from the Kardashian Nicole by OPI collection and my ring finger is painted in 'Dark Room' from the OPI collection at Sephora.


*natural sunlight, 2 coats, Canon T3.  

Thursday, May 17, 2012

On Trend: Zig Zag Enamel Rings

On Trend: Zig Zag Enamel Rings




A look that's been very popular lately amongst many, including a ton of fashion bloggers, has been these zig zag enamel stacking rings.  Sadly, I am still without these rings as when I wanted to place my order on asos.com they were out of stock.  :( Hopefully I can get my hands on these soon, before they go out of style!  I prefer the look of the Asos rings, the Charlotte Russe ones look a little thinner than I would like, however they are a good alternative.  I have also heard of an alternative at Target for about $6 or $7, however I could not find it online to include in this post, so stop by your local store and see if they have any in stock!

Sephora by OPI: Keep Me on My Mistletoes


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While I was still away at school in Chicago OPI released their Muppet collection, just in time for the holiday season.  Bloggers and YouTubers alike were all going crazy over this color called 'Designer De  Better' and I thought I HAD TO HAVE IT.  Finals, Christmas shopping, and traveling home got in the way and somehow I completely forgot about this polish.  

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Fast forward to Christmas morning and as my family and I were unwrapping presents I received this nail polish in a gift from my sister.  I was so excited!  Not only had I forgotten about the OPI polish, but I swear that this Sephora by OPI color 'Keep Me on My Mistletoes' is an exact dupe.  

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I've never owned nor have I seen the other OPI polish in person, but when I logged online and started comparing swatches I'm absolutely certain that they are practically the same thing.  Plus I like the name of this one better.  The Muppet color was limited edition, and I'm pretty sure that this one is too due to the holiday themed name, but you might still be able to find it somewhere (my local Sephora still has it in stock).  

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I don't take pictures of all the brushes for every single polish that I post about, mainly because it's boring and you can't really tell much of a difference in the pictures if they aren't next to each other to compare.  However, I do think that you can tell the difference in this one.  This was the first Sephora by OPI color that I've had with this thicker brush.  The older Sephora colors that I own have a much thinner brush, but they seem to have upgraded to this size which is somewhere in between the old Sephora one and the current OPI normal brush.  I'm not complaining, I definitely like this sturdier version.  

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'Keep Me on My Mistletoes' is a gold based polish that has a bit of that foil effect, jam packed with a ton of silver shimmer and sparkle.  It is very similar to the last post I did (OPI 'Glamour Game') which is why I'm posting them one after the other.  The OPI color would be more to the taupey natural side of gold and this one is leaning more to the pure gold color.  Don't get me wrong though, I love both and I'm very happy to have them both in my collection.  

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 This color required 2 regular coats and 1 thinner final coat to get it to the opacity seen in the bottle.  Also you should note that due to the mass amounts of microscopic shimmer this is almost as difficult as a glitter polish to remove.  Now you don't have to use the foil method, just keep in mind that you need to scrub a little harder than usual.

*natural sunlight, 3 coats, Canon T3.


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

OPI: Glamour Game

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I was in a gold mood this week and picked out this baby from my collection.  Whenever I'm in the mood for something subtle but still glamorous this is my go-to color, hence the name 'Glamour Game'.  It's not too shimmery or glittery where it's obnoxious but it has just that right amount of shine to enhance the color and keep it from being a boring skin-tone finish.

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This is actually one of my sister's polishes, I stole it from her a few years ago (shhhh...) and I've used up a good bit of the bottle since then.  When I went away to college I left this at home, partly because I felt guilty and partly because I didn't have room to pack any more polish.  This week when I used it again for the first time in about a year I remembered how much I love it.

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'Glamour Game' originally came out in OPI's 'Holiday in Toyland' collection back in 2008.  It can simply be described as a gold shimmer with a subtle silver sparkle.

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*natural sunlight, 2 coats, Canon T3.  


Saturday, May 12, 2012

Revlon: Minted

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When I first saw mint nail polishes sometime last year, I assumed that it would be a trend for the winter through spring seasons, I certainly never expected it to become one of my favorite colors to wear. 'Minted' by Revlon is very similar to 'Mint Candy Apple' by Essie (which I do not own but I did get the chance to borrow it from a friend...several times).  However the Essie polish has a bit more of a white base to it, which also tends to make that formula a little streakier on my nails.

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Since I do not own the Essie version of a mint color I saw this at the drugstore and thought that I couldn't pass it up, give me a break it was under $4.00!  I purchased it, even though I was a bit skeptical that I would have the streaky issue like I did with the Essie one which resulted in me painting on 4 or 5 coats to get full opacity.  Revlon surprised me with this one!  Three coats and I got this beautiful shade of mint just like it appears on the bottle, another plus for me is that I think this mint color (a bit more of a green base) looks better on my skin tone.

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*natural sunlight, 3 coats, Canon T3.

Friday, May 11, 2012

OPI: No Room For The Blues


 Doing the glitter accent nail has been a trend for a looooong time now, and I admit I was a huge fan when it started getting popular around last summer or so.  I kind of gave up on it for a while, but this combo really made me remember how much I loved it.  The reason that I started it up again was because I had been trying to figure out a way to wear the polish 'Dorothy Who?' by China Glaze, I didn't necessarily like the way that it looked on all of my nails.
 That being said, I didn't really like the way that 'No Room for the Blues' looked on my skin tone either, but adding the glitter to spice it up a bit really changed my opinion.  This is such a fun color for the summertime, and in the combination it looks extra amazing.  'Dorothy Who?' is a blue based polish with fine silver glitter, and even though the glitter isn't chunky, this polish looked pretty watery for a glitter, however during application it wasn't as sheer as I thought it would be (always a plus!)
'No Room for the Blues' was easy to apply, it was pretty opaque and creamy after 2 coats, but like always I added an extra.  Even though I knew it would be a pain to remove being that it is a straight up glitter polish, 'Dorothy Who?' was easy as well.  I'm almost certain that I could have gotten away with one coat, but two coats really added the extra shimmer.

*natural sunlight, 3 coats of 'No Room for the Blues', 2 coats of 'Dorothy Who?', Canon T3.

Essie: Secret Story


 When I saw this in the display of Essie polishes I immediately knew that it would be going home with me.  I have a ton of pinks in my collection, but I had recently begun looking for a bright pink color that was on the verge of being considered neon.  However, before I purchased it I did that little bubble test ( you know what I'm talking about right?  Where you tilt the bottle to see the little bubble of air?), anyway I could already tell that it was going to be a pretty sheer color.  The photo above is after only one coat.
 Surprisingly enough, this photo was taken after only two coats!  I thought that I would have to build up at least 4 or 5 coats to get this shade to the opacity that is shown in the bottle, but I was pleasantly surprised.  This blue-based neon pink is the perfect shade for summer, not only does it scream fun but it is also very 'on-trend' for this year.
 Of course, in typical fashion I painted on an extra coat just to be safe.  I absolutely love the way that this color turned out when I was done, it was so shiny that I contemplated not using a top coat.  I'm thinking that what I originally took as a sheerness to the color turned out to be a jelly like quality.  'Secret Story' makes my nails look amazing, I've never had a polish that looked this much like jelly before and I'm completely loving it.

My younger sister (who's in 7th grade) is on a school trip to California this week and she asked me to do her nails before she left.  I had just gotten home from the grocery store with this polish in tow, and I knew that this color would be perfect for her.  I'm a little jealous though, I like the way that this color looks on me but it looks even better on her.  She liked the color when I was done with her nails, so hopefully the staying power will last throughout her trip!  

*natural sunlight, 3 coats, Canon T3.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Sephora by OPI: Ms. Can't Be Wrong


Let me be honest, I bought this color solely because of the name.  I already had a fuchsia color like this in my collection (from some drugstore brand) but I can never refuse any type of product with a cute or funny name.  Personally, I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to certain things and I can also be a bit stubborn about things, which meant that I thought this name was perfect.  Now while I bought this color because of the name I was pleasantly surprised with the color.  It's one of those colors that I love, those darker shades that look amazing on shorter nails, for some reason I really enjoy the way that it makes my hands look.

While it is a bit on the darker side of the pinky/red genre, it isn't so dark that it can be categorized as a vampy shade.  Now I have my share of dark and glossy polishes I like colors like this that are more in the middle ground.  This color is also pretty opaque, something that I am always delighted by.  I honestly don't really mind having to paint on multiple coats of a polish, I mean it really isn't that hard to pop in a movie and paint a new coat every 10 minutes or so, but I also love a polish that I can slap on in 2 coats and run out the door.

This color is a lovely opaque creamy fuchsia that is perfect for any occasion or any season.  'Ms. Can't Be Wrong' isn't one of my most used polishes nor is it anywhere near being my go-to color, but it is a color that I'm glad to have in my collection.  Of course, the cute name doesn't hurt.

*natural sunlight, 2 coats, Canon T3.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Essie: Nice is Nice


Around this time last year I began looking for a pastel lilac color to add to my collection.  However with so many choices out there the internal struggle I have with picking out polishes began again.  This color also reminds me of a color that Essie introduced this year not too long ago, I believe it is called 'To Buy or Not To Buy'.  While I already own and love this color, I contemplated buying the other color just because I thought the name was so cute.  My sister talked me out of it (thank god, everyone knows I don't need any more polish) however after looking at some swatches I think that they have their little differences.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still very happy with this color HOWEVER, I think that 'To Buy or Not To Buy' would be worth checking out as well if you don't already have a shade like this in your collection.  

I finally decided on this color after searching through most of my favorite nail polish brands for a color similar.  'Nice is Nice' is the perfect pastel purple for me.  It has quite a bit of white in it which I think makes it very wearable for anyone.  It's also a very creamy color which looks quite nice and opaque on the nails although it takes a few coats to achieve the color shown in the bottle.  Nevertheless, I love the way that this color looks, especially with purple being my favorite color.  It's not a stand out purple which means that this color is great for outfits of any color variety, which is always a plus.

*natural sunlight, 3 coats, Canon T3.
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