OPI Touring America: Swatches & Review

 Happy Tuesday!  Sorry I’ve been so MIA lately!  This has been a crazy few weeks.  So far this month I’ve been to Dallas and San Francisco, heading to Phoenix this weekend, and then Indianapolis in a few weeks!  Whew!  Either way, it’s no excuse for ignoring my love of nail polish! 

Today I have for you a few polishes from the OPI Fall 2011 collection, Touring America.  For the most part this collection underwhelmed me – I thought the collection was bloated, full of colors we’d seen before and names nowhere near as creative as collections past – but, I was shopping a few weeks ago and decided to give these 3 polishes a try.  If you like your polishes dark and vampy, there’s probably something here for you to enjoy.  Read on!

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First up is I Brake for Manicures.  I Brake for Manicures is a grayish purple crème.  It walk the line between gray and purple very nicely – just when I think it’s leaning more to one side of the color spectrum, I take another look and find it to be dead center between the two colors.  This was 2 coats of I Brake for Manicures.  The formula was great, as to be expected from OPI, but overall I thought the color was not at all flattering on me – very flat/dead, and the gray base just reminds me of ashy-ness! Haha.  Take a look for yourself!

 

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Up next is Honk If You Love OPI.  Honk, as I like to call is, is an eggplant purple crème.  Again, the formula on this one was impeccable, needing just 2 easy coats for full opacity.  I love crème polishes, and I love me some purple, so does it surprise anyone I find Honk If You Love OPI to be full of all kinds of WIN?

 

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Last but not least is my favorite from the trio, Road House Blues.  Gah, I am on such a blue kick lately!  Road House Blues is a navy tinted blue crème, and while I figured I would, I didn’t have anything like it in my collection!  Everything that I have this dark is much more of a true blue.  This is 2 coats, and I love that this is a dark blue without being near black (since, you know, those kind of colors actually show up as black on me!).  Take a look!

 

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And there you have it!  While I’m still less than impressed with the collection, I’m happy to welcome Honk If You Love OPI and Road House Blues to the Polish & Tonic collection.  I Brake For Manicures may be hitting the gas pedal to my swap/share pile, though.


What do you think?  Am I being too harsh on I Brake for Manicures?  Did you pick up any other polishes from this collection? And have you snatched any polishes from the other OPI collection that’s getting a ton of buzz? (Don’t worry, I’ll be reviewing the Muppets polishes soon!)

Cult Nails In A Trance

Good Morning!  I hope everyone had a great weekend!  I was out in LA at one of my favorite spots to celebrate a friend's birthday, and then Sunday I finally unpacked my last box!  Whee!  Moving is officially over!  Now is the fun part, when I get to start shopping for furniture to fill out the place.

Today I have for you Cult Nails In A Trance.  This is a new brand to my blog - it's a small boutique brand started by Maria, a longtime blogger at www.r3daily.com.  Maria is so passionate about polish that she started her own brand - how inspiring!  I had heard about Cult Nails for the past few months, but made my first purchase when I saw a swatch of In A Trance. In A Trance is an olive green polish with a gold shimmer.  Cult Nails has a great, highly pigmented formula - the first coat fully covered the nail, and the second coat really added 'oomph' to bring out the beauty in the polish.  Take a look!

If you all can't tell, I have been really excited the past few months about finding green polishes that look great on me.  In A Trance is decidedly in the 'love' category with other past faves, and I'm so happy I bought this!

In A Trance was released as a part of the fall 2011 Hypnotic Collection.  It's currently available on the Cult Nails website.  Each polish retails for $10/each, and while only about a year old the Cult Nails line already includes a variety of creme, shimmer, and glitter polishes.  To celebrate reaching 2,000 fans on FB, Maria is offering free shipping on all Cult Nails orders now through Thursday 10/6 11:59PM EST.  If you're interested in trying out the brand, this would be the perfect time!

UPDATE: Maria is currently hosting a giveaway on her blog!  One lucky winner will receive 1 polish in each color from the current Cult Nails collections.  If you're interested, head on over to R3 Daily for the details on how to enter! "and tell 'em Large Marge Amber sent ya!"


What do you think?  Do you have any olive green polishes in this color family?  Are you an instant fan of Cult Nails?  And what polishes are you thinking of picking up while there's free shipping?  Sound off in the comments!

Fall ‘11 Watch: Chanel Peridot

Good Morning!  I know, I know, I’ve been M-I-A this week.  I really wish I had a good excuse for you.  But I don’t.  I painted my nails Saturday for the first time with a new brand, Illamasqua, just to play around with it, so I didn’t bother taking photos.  Obviously I also didn’t expect to still be wearing it 5 days later, yet here I am.  It’s wearing like iron and blowing my mind, but I promise to do some swatching this weekend!

Today I have for you another polish from the Chanel fall 2011 Illusions d’Ombres collection, Peridot.  Peridot is a gold polish with hints of green, depending on the angle you look at it.  I wouldn’t call it a true duochrome, but it’s definitely trying.  It ends up looking most of the time like a gold polish with a green cast to it.  I did 3 coats for this mani, but I could have gotten away with 2 – I think the 3rd coat just helped the polish to pop more for the photos.  Take a look!
  

 
You can kinda see the green/teal duochrome peeking out the sides, but it never really makes a full on appearance on the nail.  While I don’t normally go for these warm-toned gold polishes – actually, this may be the only gold polish I own! – I’m still cuckoo for Peridot.  Somehow, some way, I just think it works for me... or maybe I’m just in a very special place of denial.


Chanel Peridot is limited, so grab a bottle while you can!  I also previously reviewed another polish from this collection, Graphite, and apparently it’s already sold out on the Chanel website.  Pick up Peridot while you still can.  It retails for $25 per polish, and is also available at Nordstom and Macy’s.

What do you think?  Would you call Peridot a duochrome, or just another gold polish?  Do you have any polishes similar in color?  And what fall collections do you have your eye on?

NARS Night Series Collection: Swatches & Review

 Happy Tuesday!  Today I have for your one of my favorite collections from this fall, the NARS night series collection.  Based on their popular eyeshadows, NARS released 4 polishes in this collection and it's sure to have something for everyone.  I've posted the polishes in order of least fave to most fave.  Let's take a look (and don't forget to click on the pictures for larger images).

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First up is Night Rider.  No, I can’t say the name without thinking of David ‘Don’t hassle the hoff” Hasselhoff either.  Night Rider is a soft plum with silver glitter polish.  Honestly, it reminds me less of a glitter, and more of plum version of Chanel’s Graphite with the foil finish.  This was my least favorite of the collection – it just doesn’t do anything for me and doesn’t pop against my skin tone.It's also really different from the other polishes, and stands out - for all the wrong reasons.

  

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Up next is Night Breed, a black base polish with TONS of silver glitter. No, really – a TON of glitter.  It’s blingy awesomeness.  My only dislike is the black base – I’m not a huge fan of black polish, so I really really liked this, but the black base held me back from instant love.
 

 

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The next 2 polishes are not only faves from this collection, but also faves in my overall collection – that’s how much I love them.  Night Porter is described as a blackened polish with green pearls.  On the nail, it looks like the polish is green with black shadows around the perimeter – it’s so hawt!  Even if you don’t normally wear greens, or shy away from bold color polishes, check this one out – I think Night Porter would be flattering on most skin tones, because it’s so dark and vampy.

 

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And now, my friends, my favorite polish from the collection – Night Flight.  Very similar to Night Porter, Night Flight is a blackened polished with cobalt blue pearls.  This polish is pure SEXY.  I seriously could wear this every day from now till Christmas and be just as happy each day as if it was the first time I’d worn it.  Okay, maybe not that, but you get the idea.  It’s FANTASTIC.
 

Do you see the purple flecks in Night Flight? How beautiful is that?!?!

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And there you have it!  For me, Night Flight and Night Porter are the absolute must haves from this collection.  Black polishes with silver glitter has been done many times before, so while Night Breed is nice, it’s not unique.  Night Porter gets a complete pass from me – it just doesn’t seem to fit the collection at all.

NARS polishes retail for $17 and are available at NARS counters in Nordstrom or online at NARS Cosmetics.  These are limited edition, so grab the ones you like while you can!


What do you think?  Have you picked up any polishes from this collection? Do you loved these blackened polishes like Night Flight and Night Porter? Or am I completely overreacting, and you've totally seen this look before?   (And if you have seen it, tell me where!!!)

Fall '11 Watch: China Glaze Trendsetter

It's a gorgeous day in LA!  What is everyone up to?  I did a lot of swatching and photographing this morning, and am about to head out to do some dusty hunting and look for old nail polish favorites!  Although being so nice out, I may let myself be derailed and lay out by the pool for a few hours - we shall see.


Now that I'm all setup in my new apartment with my shiny new light tent, I am soooo ready to start whipping out the fall polishes!  At least over the next few days, if not weeks, I'm going to be taking a look at all the new polishes released this fall.  Some brands have left a lot to be desired with their fall collections - I'm looking at you, OPI Touring America! - but others have really stepped up to the plate and brought awesome us awesome colors and textures!

Today I picked out a color perfect for transitioning from summer to fall, China Glaze Trendsetter.  Trendsetter is a mustard yellow polish with the most gorgeous yellow gold shimmer.  This polish is so atypical from my normal style!  I tend to shy away from warm-toned polishes, but since discovering my love for olive green/ugly pretty polishes like RBL No More War, I've been out hunting and buying up everything remotely in the color family.  Including Trendsetter.

And just because it's a stunner, I did a close up to really show off the shimmer:

Trendsetter is even more amazing because when you see the bottle at first you think 'ooh, might there be a shimmer in there?' but when it's on the nail, the shimmer is so much brighter and noticeable!

Trendsetter was released as a part of China Glaze's fall 2011 Metro Collection.  Polishes retail for $6-$8 each for a 0.5 fl oz bottle.  Check  back soon for more swatches and reviews of other polishes from the Metro Collection!


What do you think? Are you into these murky yellow polishes?  Have you already picked up any other polishes from the Metro Collection?  Sound off in the comments below!

Last Night's Nails: Chanel Graphite

Last Night's Drink: London Pride
Last Night's Mani: Chanel Graphite

Hi Everyone! I had another post planned for today, but late last night a friend called and we decided to hit up my local bar for an hour or so before closing. I had a polish on my tips that I wasn't feeling, so I quickly acetoned it and reached for a new, sexy fall color - Chanel Graphite. Graphite is a metallic foil polish with hints of silver and gold. It really reminds me of pewter in color. This is my first Chanel polish (actually, my first polish ever over $20!) and I was curious about how the color would look on me. Graphite applied easily; I could have gotten away with 2 medium coats, but in order to get rid of all VNL, I applied 3 thin coats. Check it out!

(Chanel Graphite; direct sunlight; no flash)

(Chanel Graphite; in shade; no flash)

(Chanel Graphite; closeup; direct sunlight; no flash)

Chanel Graphite is all kinds of WINNING! I absolutely adore this polish. It's a beautifully cool-toned metallic, but as you can see in shade, it flashes green/gold. Graphite was perfect for going out - I wore it with jeans and a cute black top, and dark/smokey makeup, and pewter/metallic flats. Kind of wish I had a photo of the full ensemble for you! The only problem I have is trying to figure out what polish to pair with Graphite on my toes - I was wearing a summer bright that obviously clashed, but I feel another metallic on the toes - like Chanel Peridot - would be too much metallic. Maybe a vampy dark?? I'm not sure. Going to have to play around with it.

Graphite was released as a part of the Chanel Illusions d'Ombres Fall 2011 Collection and is currently available at Macy's, Nordstrom's, and other Chanel counters, as well as chanel.com. Graphite is only available for a limited time, so if you like it, be sure to grab one up soon!


What do you think? Are you loving this mani? If you have Graphite, what pedicure color have you paired with it? Do you have any polishes from Chanel? And are you still in the mood for summer, or anxious to start wearing the fall colors, too?