2012 Spring Flings: OPI Holland Collection Part II

 Good morning!  Happy Monday!  Did everyone have a great weekend!  It was friggin’ GORGEOUS weather here in LA!  My friends and I had a blast at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica on Saturday, and then stayed over and partied it up all day Sunday.  It was a great weekend, I got absolutely nothing done that I needed to, but whatever – that’s what Monday mornings are for!

Today I have for you the remaining 3 shimmers from the OPI Holland Collection (you can see the first part of the collection here).  Again, I cannot give enough praise for this collection!  All of these six polishes are so incredibly amazing.

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Up first is Dutch Ya Just Love OPI?  I mean, really, dutch ya just love the name of this polish?!?! LOL This is a deep red-based purple polish with a gold shimmer.  It was instantly a fave as soon as I saw promo pics, and the polish delivers in real life, too!  This mani is 2 coats of DYJLO.  Take a look!

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Next is Gouda Gouda Two Shoes.  Mmmm, gouda.  Such a tasty cheese.  This is a light pinkish-rose tan colored polish with a gold shimmer (yea, I have no idea how to describe this color!).  This is a great neutral polish for work!  I didn’t really expect to like this one at all, as I do not typically wear these nude-colored polishes, but Gouda Gouda Two Shoes was a total surprise!  It’s probably my biggest surprise from the collection.  I’m glad I didn’t skip it, though, and can see myself reaching for it often for a great look at work!

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The last shimmer in the collection is Wooden Shoe Like To Know, a medium-brown polish with gold shimmer.  This one is a total stunner!  The deepness of the base color keeps it a little edgy, but on my skintone particularly, it’s still somewhat neutral and safe for work.  I also love that it’s not so dark that it goes into vampy territory – a perfect brown for spring and summer!

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And there you have it!  Of all six shimmer, I’d have to say I Have A Herring Problem is my absolutely fave, with Wooden Shoe Like To Know a close second.  These are all great polishes, though, and I think a great addition to any polish addict’s collection!

The OPI Holland collection will be available beginning this Thursday, February 8, at your regular OPI retailers, including Ulta, JC Penny’s and beauty retailers.  Each polish retails for $8.50 for a 0.5 fl oz bottle. 


What do you think of the OPI Holland Collection?  Are you as crazy as I am for the shimmers?  Did any of the crème polishes in the collection catch your eye?  Sound off in the comments below!

2012 Spring Flings: OPI Holland Collection Part I

Happy Saturday!  What’s everyone up to this weekend?  I’m heading out to Santa Monica later to help celebrate my one of my bestie’s birthday.  I’ll also be having a few extra drinks to celebrate the end of the graduate school application process!  Yay!  After 4 long months, the tests are done, the scores are in, and the applications have been submitted!  Now I’m just twiddling my thumbs till March, when I’ll find out where I’ve been accepted!

Today I have for you the first swatches of the collection I’ve most been obsessing for this spring, the OPI Holland Collection.  I have been drooling over the swatches on the blogosphere for the past few weeks, and now, they are mine!  I’m so happy!  The collection is made up of six shimmers and six cremes.  The shimmers are what really had me excited, so I’m going to show you three today, and the three others tomorrow.  Read on!

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Up first is I Don’t Give A Rotterdam.  Such a cute name!  IDGAR is a light blue base with a gorgeous silver shimmer.  The base reminds me a lot of a periwinkle blue.  Seriously, OPI outdid itself with these shimmers!  This is 3 super thin coats of IDGAR.  I could have gotten away with 2 slightly thicker coats, but I’m in the habit of 3 coats to avoid peeling, so that’s what I did.  Please excuse any bumpiness on my nails – they’re peeling – bleh! – but it's not bubbles in the polish.  Take a look!

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The next shimmer is I Have A Herring Problem.  This polish is a slightly smoky teal base with a rose gold shimmer.  Again, stunning!  At first I constantly thought this was really close in color to I Don’t Give A Rotterdam, but now that I have them side-by-side, they are two distinct polishes for sure.  Again, this is 3 thin coats of IHAHP:

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The third polish I have for you today is Pedal Faster Suzi!, a soft, slightly muted pink with a silver shimmer.  The shimmer is similar to the same silver glory in I Don’t Give A Rotterdam.  At first I wasn’t very interested in Pedal Faster Suzi!, but since I was buying the other shimmers, I thought I’d pick this one up as well – my OCD strikes again!  I’m glad it did, though, as I loved this polish!  It is a soft pink, but the slightly grayed tone to the color keeps it from being too safe.  This is definitely a fun polish for work!

 

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And there you have it!  The first 3 of 6 shimmers from the new OPI Holland collection!  Are you loving these polishes as much as I am?  Of the three here, I Have A Herring Problem is probably my favorite, but I seriously love all three of these and am happy to welcome them to my collection!

The OPI Holland collection will be available beginning this Thursday, February 8, at your regular OPI retailers, including Ulta, JC Penny’s and beauty retailers.  Each polish retails for $8.50 for a 0.5 fl oz bottle.

What do you think of the collection so far?  Sound off in the comments below!

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!

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!)

Les Jeans de Chanel: Coco Blue

Happy Friday!  I hope you're all getting ready for your weekend!  I am not at all looking forward to my WW weigh-in tomorrow - this has not been a good week.  But, it's a new day, I'm shaking off the mistakes of the past few days, and looking to getting it right today!

Today I have for you the third and final polish from the Les Jeans de Chanel collection released for FNO, Coco Blue.  Coco Blue is a light blue polish with a sparkling blue shimmer.  I could not catch the shimmer well on camera on all - my apologies.  It's a pretty color, but it reminds me more of summer than fall.  To me, Coco Blue was the weakest polish and least fave in this collection.  It is pretty, though, so maybe I will love it more next spring/summer!

 

  

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I dug around in my own personal collection to see if I had any polishes similar to Coco Blue.  To be honest, I don’t wear light blues like this often, and I only came up with one that was even close – OPI What’s With the Cattitude?, a limited edition light blue crème released last year as a part of the OPI Shrek Collection.  Coco Blue is noticeably darker than WWtC, and also has a shimmer (which is more apparent in the swatch below) that is missing from WWtC. 

L-to-R: Chanel Coco Blue, OPI What's With the Cattitude?

 
I prefer Coco Blue because it’s darker and works better with WWtC, but I’m also a fan of WWtC because it was my mani for my 30th birthday last year!

 
Lesson learned: Friends Don’t Let Friends Do Jager Bombs. Let’s just say I’m not sure how much I remember of the night after this drink, but my friends tell me I was epic.

The Kindness of Strangers

I have a nail swatch to share with you later today, but first I wanted to take a moment and talk about something special that happened to me earlier this week.  I personally think I hang out at the best nail forum on the entire interwebz, and the women I meet with over there to discuss all things nail polish are fun, hilarious, and extremely kind.  We aren't allowed to swap or sell polish to each other there, just share in enjoying our addiction. 

When I first started hanging out over there I heard of these things called RAOKs - Random Acts Of Kindness.  Think of RAOKs as care packages from one nail polish lover to another.  I have sent a few RAOKs to some folks who helped me out at one point or another (like when I was planning for my London trip, and needed help figuring out what to bring back) or just because someone was really desiring a polish I had but knew I would never use.  Well, I’m sure you can see where this is going – last week a member contacted me to let me know she had an extra polish on my wishlist and wanted to send it to me as a RAOK.  She sent me that polish – and a lot more! – and the RAOK has floored me. I swear, I even cried a little as I opened the package.  I can’t even say this was like Christmas in September, because my family doesn’t really celebrate Christmas anymore, so this was even better! 

Here’s my RAOK package:

L-to-R: Le Metier de Beaute Silk Road Collection, Rock 'N Romance Collection

L-to-R: OPI Creme de Menthe, Mad As A Hatter, Damone Roberts 1968, Julep Whitney

Clockwise from top: Rococo Gold Leaf, Illamasqua Hectic, RBL Black Russian, Poco a Poco, Chanel Quartz

I am so grateful to the amazing angel who sent these to me!  I’m cherishing them all, and expect to see swatches soon!

Pink Wednesdays: OPI To The Rescue!

Happy Hump Day!

This morning I was looking through my untried pink polishes in order to decide what to wear today, and originally I was planning to bring you a pink polish from my first Julep maven box.  I did my nails all up - and the polish turned out to be a not-hot, streaky, bubbly mess!  To add insult to injury, I even used all Julep products (base coat, polish, top coat) for the mani!  I was not happy - Julep's formulas I'm learning can be very inconsistent one polish to the next - but luckily I was stuck on a conference call for work, so I had time to swatch on a new mani!

The mani started today with OPI Sparrow Me the Drama.  I had previously reviewed Sparrow Me the Drama with a few other polishes from the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection a few months ago, but I hadn't yet actually worn it as a mani - surprising, because I loved the color so much in my review!  Well, SMtD came to the rescue this morning.  It's a rose-pink creme with a slight dusky quality to it; it made me think of a pink nail polish with a little dirty water mixed in (not as gross as that sounds, I promise!).  I also decided to bling the mani up a bit, so I added a coat of OPI I Lily Love You from the Nice Stems collection, also released earlier this summer.  ILLY is a holographic flakie polish in a pinkish red jelly base.  I think the combo came out well, but take a look for yourself!

Here's a close up of the flakie gorgeousness that is ILLY:

This is such a sparkle-tastic mani!  The reddish-pink jelly base of ILLY really transformed the color of Sparrow Me the Drama, but I was okay with it. It makes the mani more warm toned all-around, and I just keep staring at my nails today, looking at the holo flakies from ILLY.  Love!

Both Sparrow Me the Drama and I Lily Love You are still available.  You may want to check out your local ULTA to find them, or if you're in CA, head to Planet Beauty - one of my new favorite boutique beauty shops.

Les Jeans de Chanel: Blue Boy

Happy Friday!  What will you be up to this weekend?  The insane heat wave has finally broken here in LA, which should mean some quality time at the pool for me!  I'm also hoping to catch a few movies as well, so it should be a fun weekend all around.

What better way to kick-off a fun weekend than to celebrate Fashion's Night Out 2011 last night in West Hollywood?  LA had big parties at Century City, Beverly Hills/Rodeo Drive, and West Hollywood/Robertson.  I went over to Robertson, home of my new favorite Chanel boutique.  Finally - I have an awesome SA for Chanel!  The SAs at Macy's and Nordstrom were not great at all, so now I'm happy to have someone I want to go to for all my future Chanel needs.  As a part of FNO, Chanel released a special limited edition collection of blue polishes named Les Jeans De Chanel.  These Chanel FNO collections are always hot items - just head over to eBay and look at the prices for last year's Les Khakis de Chanel collection!  I picked up each of the polishes in the collection: Coco Blue, Blue Boy, and Blue Rebel.  I instantly fell in love with all 3!

Today I am wearing Blue Boy.  Blue Boy is a medium blue polish with strong gray tones.  It is a thin formula, and was very squishy, feeling almost like a jelly when I applied it.  It's definitely not a jelly, though, and built nicely to full opacity in 2 coats.  My recommendation is to start with a thin coat, and let it dry, as you will get drag if you try to paint over a wet nail.  Then, I applied a thicker second coat to get the perfect mani.  Take a look!

Chanel Blue Boy, outdoors, natural lighting

 

Chanel Blue Boy, indoors, artificial lighting

 You didn't doubt for a minute that I was in love with Blue Boy, did you?  If I could marry Blue Boy, I probably would.  Or at least offer up myself to him to be his baby mama - wedding ring be damned.  Kinda like how I feel about Kevin Alejandro on True Blood.  You know.

I also dug around my stash to try to see if I had any polishes similar to Blue Boy.  The closest I could find was Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Gray By Gray.  They're close, but definitely not identical.  Where Blue Boy leans blue, Gray By Gray is most definitely a gray.  To also show how gray-influenced Blue Boy is, I also swatched OPI Dating A Royal, a true blue creme, to show you the difference in the colors.

L-to-R: OPI Dating A Royal, Chanel Blue Boy, Sally Hansen CSM Gray By Gray

Les Jeans de Chanel is currently available online at Chanel.  They retail for $29/polish, which is a steep price tag, even for Chanel (regular polishes retail for $25 each).  I believe there was a limited quantity of the collection available in Chanel Boutiques and in Neiman Marcus.  If you're going to try to pick up Blue Boy or any polishes in the collection in person, do it soon and definitely check ahead - many locations sold out last night, and my particular Chanel said that while they didn't sell out, they were instructed to pull them off the shelves after the FNO events concluded.  They should be available online through the end of September, or until they sell out, whichever happens first.  Don't miss out on these!

Unicorn Pee Wanna-Be: OPI Movin' Out

Good Morning! Today I have a fun, picture-heavy post for you. If you're like most regular folks, the title of this post probably had you doing a 'huh?' when you first read it. Unicorn pee? Whaaa? If you're a nail polish fanatic, though, you probably know what it is - Clarins #230. #230 is this multichrome-y awesome polish that is pretty much the Holy Grail for nail polish fanatics. Swatch and Learn has one of the best posts on Clarins #230. (Really, do yourselves a favor and follow the link and check out photos for a few minutes. It is a stunner, this I cannot deny.)

Would I love to show off for you all my own bottle of Clarins #230? Why, of course! But I don't have one. Why not? Because it was discontinued years ago. And it sells on eBay for around $50 or higher a bottle. Yes - crazy eBayers are spending $50 on a bottle of polish. Crazy people - I mean, think of all the polishes me and my bargain-hunting skills could find for $50!

So, instead of dropping $$$ on #230, I spent about $ on #230's wannabe little unicorn sister, OPI Movin' Out. Movin' Out was released back in 2003 as a part of the OPI Holiday on Broadway collection, so it's pretty old and took some effort to find. The Polishaholic reviewed Movin' Out a few months ago, and ever since her post I've been lemming this polish. I finally got my hands on a bottle, and here we are at today's picturefest!

First, I started with CND Blackjack. Blackjack is a basic black creme with the CND formula I love. I could have gotten away with 1 coat, but applied 2 to make sure it was even and give Movin' Out the best opportunity to pop.


Then, over Blackjack went 1 coat of Movin' Out.


How many different colors do you see? I started counting, but stopped at a BAZILLION:


Oh snap! She sparkles!


No really, she SPARKLES! She's like polish and nail bling all in one:



OPI Movin' Out is long discontinued, but you can get your own bottle of Unicorn's little sister with just a little bit of googling. Check out sellers on eCrater or Bonanza first, before you go and get ripped off on evilBay. Happy hunting!

Pink Wednesdays: Zoya Areej

Good Morning! Oh, how I've missed you guys! I had a great long weekend in Virginia Beach with my family, but getting back to LA was heck on Sunday! First my flight from Norfolk to Charlotte was delayed due to storms, and then leaving Charlotte to fly to LAX we were delayed due to a disabled plane on the runway and later storms. I was delayed overall about 3 1/2 hours, crazy! It did make me realize, though, that I am so spoiled living in LA - it's not near any other airports, so we never have congestion issues with landing/taking off (like you have in NYC), and I've never had a flight delayed due to weather conditions. Aaah, there are so many benefits to west coast living!

Today we're celebrating Pink Wednesday with Zoya Areej. Areej is bright pink creme that has blue undertones. It applied easily in 2 coats, as I've come to expect from Zoya polishes. they really do have a great, consistent formula! I occasionally find 3-coaters with other salon brands, but not at all yet with Zoya. Take a look:


When I tried Areej on, I thought she looked familiar and I might have a similar color already in my collection. I dug around and pulled out one of my favorite pinks, OPI Dim Sum Plum, to see if I had a dupe on my hands. Check out the swatch below!

(Zoya Areej and OPI Dim Sum Plum; direct sunlight, no flash)

(Zoya Areej and OPI Dim Sum Plum; artificial light, with flash)

To my eye, in the direct sunlight they look identical. However, with artificial lighting and flash, I can see a slight difference. Areej looks at tad more blue than Dim Sum Plum. However, I don't think this is noticeable to most eyes, so for all intents and purposes I'm calling them dupes. I am a huge fan of Dim Sum Plum, which means Areej is likely going to make her way over to my share/swap drawer. She is a beauty, though, so maybe I'll change my mind!

Zoya Areej was released as a part of Zoya's Summertime Collection this summer. It retails for $8 per polish and can be purchased at Zoya.com (be on the lookout for promotions! they have them all the time) or in store at Ulta and other salon retailers.


What do you think? Do you think Areej and Dim Sum Plum are dupes? Which formula do you prefer, Zoya or OPI? And do you have any other colors from the Zoya Summertime Collection?

Pink Wednesdays: OPI Blushingham Palace

Happy Wednesday! (Really, every day is happy for me this week!) I'm up an at 'em early this morning, doing laundry and packing for Virginia Beach. I'm hoping to actually do a lot of blogging today to keep you all happy while I'm gone for the next few days - fingers crossed I get it all done!

It's another Wednesday, which means another pink polish! Today I have for you OPI Blushingham Palace. Blushingham Palace is a soft mauve-y pink with a pearl finish. I have to admit, this is not normally my kind of color - I usually do not like pearl finishes, as I constantly imagine they're something my mother would wear, and I don't normally go for (what I thought was) red undertone pinks; I prefer cooler blue-based pinks. So how would Blushingham Palace turn out? Let's take a look!

Here's the close-up:

...and another look, with flash:


Initially I thought Blushingham Palace had a red/warmer undertone, but as I was writing this I really am seeing a lot of blue/purple, especially under the flash, so the polish is much cooler than I thought. I definitely loved wearing this polish, and found myself checking out my nails throughout the day. It is a very sophisticated nail - perfect for work, or attending events where you want to show style without being overly 'look at me!' (think 'guest at a wedding').

Blushingham Palace was originally released way back in 2003 as a part of OPI's British Collection (I would have drooled over the entire collection, I'm sure, if I was into nail polish then - I love all things English!). It was discontinued at the end of 2010, but you can still find it fairly easily if you don't mind doing a little bit of searching. Online retailers such as Amazon, TransDesign, or AveYou are you best bets. Or, you may want to head to your local Trade Secret or Beauty First salon, as this is where I found my bottle in a clearance bin (even better!).


What do you think? Are you feeling this delicate pink color? Do you have any similar colors or dupes for Blushingham Palace, since it's now discontinued? Or are you still in the mood for the bright yellows, blues, and corals of summer? Sound off in the comments!

Comparison Swatches: Battle of the Blurples

Hi Everyone! It's Tuesday, Tuesday! Why am I so happy for a Tuesday, you ask? Well, in my mind, it's actually my Thursday - tomorrow is my last day of work, then I'm headed back east for a long weekend at Virginia Beach with the family. I'm super excited as I haven't seen a lot of my family since last fall (I rarely go home for the holidays - it's too cold!), but am a little leery of the heat wave that's been blasting the east coast. Must remember to pack a LOT of natural fibers and skirts!

Today I have for you a few comparisons - what I call the battle of the blurples. If you didn't know, I hang out a lot over at The Purse Forum talking nails with the awesome ladies on the board, and recently we've discussed known nail polish dupes. I had for a long time heard that the colors in today's review maybe/maybe not were dupes of each other, and so I decided to finally swatch them out. Up for battle are OPI Funky Dunkey, Rescue Beauty Lounge Mismas, and Butter LONDON Marrow. All of these polishes are purple with a blue undertone (hence, blurple), which is pretty much my favorite color of all time - I love purples because they're work safe but still have personality; the blue undertone goes well with my cool skin-tone; and they work in all seasons - spring, summer, winter, and fall. As a matter of fact, Funky Dunkey was released in Spring 2010 as a part as OPI's Shrek Collection, while Mismas was a part of the fall 2009 Bloggers Collection from RBL, and Marrow released in the Butter LONDON Fall/Winter 2010 Collection. It's a timeless color that never goes out of style or season.


I swatched all three polishes on a nail wheel (2 coats each, no top coat) and then proceeded to take dozens of photos to try to capture any differences. Take a look at a few shots:

(Funkey Dunkey, Mismas, Marrow; indoor artificial lighting, no flash)

(Funky Dunkey, Mismas, Marrow; outdoors, direct sunlight, no flash)

To my eye, Marrow is noticeably darker than the other two with more gray in it's color, making it almost an 'ashy' blurple. It's so dark that while I think you could pull this off for a summer mani, the color feels much more cool fall/winter than the other two. It's definitely not a dupe, and a keeper.

Funky Dunkey and Mismas, though, are really really close. I will say there are definitely formula differences - Mismas went on beautifully, in true RBL fashion, and didn't need a 2nd coat (although I did apply one). Compared to Mismas, Funky Dunkey was noticeably less pigmented per coat and felt a little more watery, but was fully opaque in the typical OPI-required 2 coats. It's definitely the same color of blurple; they even separated the same in the bottle. Mismas may be a hair darker than Funky Dunkey, but I also question if that isn't just pigmentation; with a 3rd coat, I think Funky Dunkey would be even more close to Mismas.

The verdict - their dupes. If I had to keep on or the other, it would be Funky Dunkey - same color for half the price, leaving me a spare $9 or $10 to go pick up another polish!

Funky Dunkey was a limited edition release. You can find it at various online retailers (retail price $8.50/bottle), and it was recently placed on clearance at ULTA for $4.99 (along with the rest of the fantastic Shrek collection). Mismas is currently sold out at rescuebeauty.com, but fans rallied for the recent Bring It Back vote, so it should be making another appearance some time in 2012. Marrow is currently available at ULTA, Nordstrom, and other places where Butter LONDON is sold; retails for $14/polish.

What do you think? Could you spot a difference between Funky Dunkey and Mismas? Do you agree this is an anywhere, anytime kind of polish? Do you have any other blurples in this color family? Sound off in the comments!

Pink Wednesdays: OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y?

Happy Hump Day!

I have been slacking off on celebrating Pink Wednesdays lately. Seriously, if I was really one of the Plastics, they so would have banned my arse by now. But I really do want to be one of the cool kids in school again, so I have for you today OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y?. DYTIT was one of the six "sorbet-like" polishes (read: jellies) from the OPI Texas Collection released this past spring. I reviewed Houston! We Have a Purple a few weeks ago from the collection. DYTIT is a bright raspberry-tinted pink polish with the high gloss finish we've come to love from jellies. We also know jellies apply very sheer, and for the photos below it's 3 medium coats and still a lot of VNL showing. Take a look:

And the close-up:


I actually wore this mani a few months ago - it was the first sorbet/jelly I tried from the Texas collection. I initially loved it, but when I swatched the polish, and looking also at these photos, I realized the VNL drives me CRAZY. I just hate to see the nails underneath - blame it one too many french manicures in my past. I guess I could use a white base coat, like a ridge filler, to minimize VNL, but I still don't think it would completely go away. As much as I love this color, I fear it's going to have to make it's way to the swap/donation drawer of my awesome new Helmer. Too bad.

What do you think? Am I just being too intolerable of VNL? Have you tried any of the other polishes from the Texas collection?

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!

The Untried Diaries: OPI Houston We Have A Purple

Happy Thursday! Two more days till the weekend! It feels like it's been forever since I last posted! Last weekend was a crazy one - I was visiting friends in San Francisco and Sonoma for 3 days, and needless to say, there was a lot of drinking! The drive up I-5 was easy-peasy on Saturday, and seriously the most painful drive ever on Monday - it's amazing what 72 hours of binge drinking can do to the body.

Today's mani is actually the mani I rocked for the weekend - OPI Houston We Have A Purple. HWHAP was released this past spring as a part of the Texas Collection, which included six polishes (including HWHAP) with a "sorbet-like" finish. Read: it's a jelly polish! I had already worn and fallen in love with Do You Think I'm Tex-y?, a bright pink jelly from the collection, so a few weeks later when I was back at Ulta, I had to pick up HWHAP too.

HWHAP is a purple polish with a cool pink undertone; it almost looked like a purple-ish raspberry on my mani. Try as I might, I wasn't able to capture the true purple tint on camera, but below is fairly accurate. As it's a jelly, the polish had a super high gloss finish (Love!) and as expected had VNL at two coats. I did a third coat for a little more opacity, but most people who love jellies would have been happy at two.


And here's a close-up:


But of course I loved Houston We Have A Purple! This polish is right up my alley in terms of both finish and color. It definitely brings a happy summery vibe to my nails, and I won't be surprised to find myself reaching for this polish several times throughout the summer.

What do you think? Do you have any jellies or polishes from the OPI Texas collection? And if you have seen the jellies from the OPI Texas collection in person (www.opi.com), be honest: can you really tell the difference between Too Hot Pink To Hold 'Em and Do You Think I'm Tex-y? I know I can't!