OPI Nicky Minaj Collection: Fly & Save Me

Good Morning!  Happy Hannukah and Merry -almost- Christmas!  Is anyone still shopping?  I am all done!  I actually overshopped - I have a bunch of returns, but my mama didn't raise no fool - I am not going anywhere near a mall today or tomorrow!  Haha.  For Christmas, I bought myself a new car on Sunday - a Prius!  I will miss my BMW, for sure, but I love the Prius because it's friendly to both the environment and my wallet.  It's a super fun car to drive if you're a tech nerd (like I am), as the car gives you soooo much information about how eco-friendly your driving is! Haha I hope it doesn't get old. 

Anyway, as soon as I bought the Prius, what better way to not be eco-friendly than to make an unnecessary trip to the beauty supply! LOL I drove down Sunday night and was surprised to find the new OPI Nicky Minaj Collection available!  You can check out the full press release for the collection over at Fashion Polish.  I'm trying to be better at controlling my polish spending, so there were only 2 must-have colors for me - Fly, a bright aqua turquoise, and Save Me, a holographic bar glitter in a micro silver glitter base. 

These colors are AMAZING!  I did a mani with Fly and Save Me as an accent nail.  Fly was the to-be-expected OPI formula with great pigmentation, requiring only needed 2 coats.  It's a tad more green in reality than showed up in the photo (turquoise is such a hard color to photograph!).  Save Me was a little tricky to work with - you have to kind of 'place' the bar glitter on the nail - and this is also 2 coats.  I think, for the future, Save Me could use a 3rd coat, but otherwise, I loved both polishes!

Check out how Save Me looks in the bottle - it's very accurate, and it was such a sunny day that in all of my photos the sun is reflecting off the polish like crazy!  Here's another look at Save Me up close:

The OPI Nicky Minaj Collection will be available in the usual retailers beginning January 2012.  I'm sure another popular color will be Superbass, a deep purple shatter.  It was sold out at my beauty supply, but I didn't mind since I'm over the shatter craze anyway.  But, if you're interested, keep your eyes peeled - it's going to sell quickly!

Deborah Lippmann Good Girl Gone Bad

Good morning!  As I mentioned last week, this past Sunday was AIDS Walk Los Angeles.  I made it!  Yes, I managed to walk a whole 10K – and then some, about 8 miles total – and with the help of family and friends, raised over $700 for AIDS Project Los Angeles.  I am excited about this achievement, and can’t wait to do it again next year! 

For AIDS Walk, I wanted a fun mani to keep me going and so reached for a new polish for the holiday 2011 season, Deborah Lippmann Good Girl Gone Bad.  How much do I love the name of this polish?  Good Girl Gone Bad is my favorite Rihanna album, and has my favorite 2 favorite Rihanna songs, Disturbia Breaking Dishes.  But I digress.

Good Girl Gone Bad is described as a ‘cabernet glimmer'.’  The color is definitely a cabernet/red wine, but I’m not sure what a glimmer is – so I’d call this a micro-glitter.  What surprised me about GGGB was the rough texture of the finish – it was very grainy, and you’re going to need a good thick topcoat, like Seche Vite, if you’re like me and prefer a smooth, high gloss finish on your manicures.  This is 2 coats of GGGB:

I wouldn’t say I loved Good Girl Gone Bad quite as much as I expected, but it’s still a beauty!  I used CND Shiney as a topcoat for this mani – before I realized the texture was so gritty and dull – so I’d like to try the mani again with Seche Vite to see if it could really shine!

Good Girl gone Bad was released as a part of the Deborah Lippmann Holiday 2011 Collection.  It retails for $16 for a 0.5 fl oz bottle and is currently available in stores at Planet Beauty and online at lippmanncollection.com.

Dior Purple Mix With A Sparkling Twist

Happy Friday!  I'm happy it's the weekend, but more happy it's September 16.  Why, you ask?  What's so special about the 16th?  I have 2 words for you: Ryan. Gosling.  Yea, that sessy man has a new movie out today, Drive, which I have been dying to see!  I cannot wait - will probably check it out tomorrow, even though my movie buddy is out of town this weekend.  Also on the agenda is to play with my new light tent!  I'm trying to upgrade the photo quality here at P&T, and this should be a big help!  Can't wait to swatch and try it out over the next few days!



Today I have for you Dior Purple Mix.  Purple Mix is a deep purple creme with strong gray tones.  I think this color is the perfect transition from summer to winter.  It's not too summer bright, but not quite a fall vamp color, either (although you can vamp it up with Dior Rock Coat, which was released in the same collection this past spring).  This was a great formula, as to be expected from Dior, and only required 2 coats.

To spice up the mani, I did an accent nail using Kleancolor Midnight Seduction.  Kleancolor is an awesome cheapie nail polish brand popular for it's holographic flakie and glitter polishes, and the popularity is well deserving.  Their polishes are awesome for layering!  Midnight Seduction is a micro glitter with silver, teal, and pink glitters.  It's so beautiful!  Because it's micro glitter one coat would have sufficed for layering, but I wanted to fully bling out the nail, so I added a second coat.  Voila!

Let's just say today was full of love - I love Purple Mix, I love Midnight Seduction, and I love my new light tent!  I can't work out the light tent, though, until I have something to photograph - so I'm off to swatch!


What do you think?  Do you like this particular shade of purple?  Are you taking your time transitioning to fall colors, or have you nose-dived right into the season, with dark, sultry vamps and all?  And what photography tips do you have for me?  Sound off in the comments!

My European Vacation: Part I

Good morning!

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, this week we're taking a look at all the mani's and pedi's that were during my London/Paris vacation earlier this month. Up first is my pedi - OPI Funky Dunkey and Butter LONDON No More Waity, Katie.

Funky Dunkey is a bright purple creme that shows a lot of blue in its base. It's highly pigmented which is wonderful - some will get away with just 1 coat, but I applied 2 thin coats to get full coverage and no VNL. No More Waity, Katie was originally a limited edition release from BL for the royal wedding this past spring (everyone was cashing in on it!). It's a purple glitter packed into a purple-gray base. For the pedi, I applied 2 coats over Funky Dunkey to get maximum glitter coverage. I swatched the pedi on my hands - take a look!


The first pic is a look at the mani in natural light. You can see on the ring finger that I applied an additional coat, just to show how the purple-gray base of NMWK really grayed out Funky Dunkey. Here's another look in artificial light:


All in all, I was quite happy with this pedi! It lasted the full trip, with one minor nail getting chipped from a drunken night out on London's cobblestone streets. What can I say? Crazy is how I roll!

OPI Funky Dunkey is currently available. Even better - ULTA has the entire OPI Shrek Collection currently on clearance for $4.99 each. Get thee to an ULTA, stat! (And while you're there, I'd also recommend picking up Ogre the Top Blue, another fave of mine from the collection.) Butter LONDON No More Waity, Katie is now a part of its permanent collection (yay!) and is also available at Ulta. 2 beautiful colors, one store - what could be easier than that?

What do you think? Have you tried any colors yet from the OPI Shrek Collection? Is NMWK a must have? and were you into the hype of the royal wedding?

Happy Birthday Mani!

Hello Lacquer Lovers!

I am BACK! And I missed you all sooooo much! I had the most fantastic vacation in London and Paris, filled with lots of sights, laughter, beer, wine, and most important - FROMMAGE. Oh, the Frenchies love some wine, cheese, and bread. Gosh, I could totally move there. I did a few mani's while I was away, and also did a lot of shopping and came home with a bounty of international nail polish! Oh, the haul was fantastic. This week I'll be focusing my blog on all things vacation, but first...

yesterday was my BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday to me! I'll probably start lying about my age Hollywood-style in the next year or so, so I can't tell you how old I am. But, I spent the day being thankful and grateful for all the blessings I have received, including an amazing family, friends who are family, and a wonderful job that I love and lets me travel to London and Paris for vacation.

For my birthday, I wanted to throw on some nail bling. Normally I don't wear the glitters to work - but I also normally don't work on my birthday - so for this day I decided to make an exception. For the mani, I started with one of my most favorite colors ever, OPI Dim Sum Plum. Dim Sum Plum was released last year as a part of the Hong Kong Collection (I believe this was S/S '10) and is still available. It's this perfect pink-purple creme that is highly pigmented. The polish applied easily and some people can get away with 1 coat, but I did 2 just to eliminate any VNL. To bling out the mani, I did an accent nail on my ring finger with Rescue Beauty Lounge Frugalista. Frugalista is a silver and purple glitter packed into a clear jelly base. I used 4 coats just to get full coverage on the nail. Take a look!


And an up close look at all the glitter in its glory:


Oh. Em. GEE! How cute is this mani? I'm actually still wearing it for the second day - I just can't bring myself to take it off. While Dim Sum Plum is still available, unfortunately Frugalista is sold out on the RBL website. I found my bottle at Planet Beauty a few weeks ago, so if you're in CA, you may want to call around to your closest PB and see if they have any in stock!

What do you think? Are you feeling the metallic/glitter accent nail trend? Do you have any colors from the OPI Hong Kong Collection that you j'adore? And what vacation plans do you have for the summer? Sound off!