2012 Spring Flings: Dior Waterlily

Happy Tuesday!

Keeping in the spring fling trend, today I have for you another Spring 2012 release, Dior Waterlily.  Waterlily was released as a part of the Garden Party collection.  It’s a pale green polish with a gorgeous green and silver shimmer.  As we know, Dior shimmers do not normally translate to the nail, but the shimmer in Waterlily did!  The formula was a little thicker than expected, but not too difficult to deal with.  This is two coats – check it out!

This polish is friggin’ GORGEOUS!  I’m always surprised when these pastel greens work on my skin tone, and this one is a total stunner for me!  Waterlily is a scented polish, and when it dries down it has a slight rose-tinged aroma.  I found it very pleasant, but then didn’t notice after the first hour or so.

Dior Waterlily is selling out fast! If you’d like to add it to your collection, I’d suggest doing it sooner rather than later.  I know its gone in and out of stock on Nordstrom.com, and I think on Saks.com as well.  It’s currently out of stock at Dior.com, but watch it – I expected a limited number of polishes may come back in stock.  You can also use my current favorite way to purchase Dior beauty products – call up Rachelle @ Dior Palazzo in Las Vegas at (702) 734-1102. She’ll totally take care of you if she has Waterlily in stock (and please mention Amber sent you!)


What do you think?  Are you feeling this pastel green dream?  Or is it not really your flavor?  Have you picked up the other polish from this collection, Forget-Me-Not?  I don’t have my hands on it yet, but hope to get it soon!

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!

Last (Sunday) Night’s Nails: Holo Edition!

 Hi Everyone!  Happy almost weekend!  I hope some of you are enjoying shorter weeks, with the MLK holiday this past Monday.  I am wrapping up business school applications, which are all due next week.  Can’t wait to be done with this phase of the process!  I have still been taking photos of my manis, so I have tons of polishes to show you, and just need to do some serious blogging to catch up!

Last Sunday was divisional playoff weekend for the NFL, and since my team the Pittsburgh Steelers are out, I decided to cheer for the NY Giants (whom I hope will lose to the SF 49ers this weekend! I’m such a fickle bandwagon fan).  To celebrate the Giants while drinking beer with friends, I whipped out a fantastic blue holographic polish, Make Up Store SIW.  This polish was a gift to me from a friend, and let me tell you, the holo is eye-popping!  I used Nfu Oh Aqua Base as a base coat, 2 coats of SIW, and CND Super Shiney to top it off.  Even with top coat, all this holo glory!  Take a look!

Can you say va-va-VOOM!  OMG, this polish was amazing!  I actually wore it for a few days after, and I never wear these bling-y polishes to work!  This may just be my favorite holo I own.

The only sad thing about this mani is that I can’t run out and buy all the other holo polishes from Make Up Store!  Unfortunately, it looks like it’s a Swedish company, and they only have one store in the US, in Denver, CO.  No online shop, no shipping from the store.  Le sigh.  If you’re lucky enough to be near Denver, definitely head over and snatch these up!  For me, I’ll just wait till the next time I fly Pittsburgh, and plan an extra long layover at Denver airport.  Ha!

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!

Chanel Khaki Vert: Mine. Finally!!

 Howdy, strangers!  What’s everyone up to this weekend?  Anything fun, or are people going to the mall to throw elbows and squeeze in last minute shopping?  Folks at the mall are CRA-ZY.  I did all of my shopping online, and anything I thought I might need to go to the mall and buy… well, that person just got re-gifted something from my own stash LOL.  I don’t do malls between Thanksgiving and Christmas, fer sure. 

I’m spending my day studying for the GMAT – less than 2 weeks to test day! – but took a break to give my tips and toes a much-needed polish change.  I decided to put on a longtime lemming, Chanel Khaki Vert.  If you hadn’t heard, Chanel released an extremely limited edition trio of nail polishes for Fashion Night Out 2010 (similar to the Le Jeans collection from this past FNO 2011) called Les Khakis de Chanel.  Google it, ya’ll – the collection was hot and sold out like crazy.  Sadly, I was not collection nail polish at the time, but as soon as I saw swatches of these, I had to have them.  A few weeks ago I found a lovely lady who was selling her collection, and while I paid a little more than retail for these babies, it was totally worth it!

Khaki Vert is a green creme with very strong warm tones.  Seriously, it’s like, the most perfect army green ever.  Especially when you pair it with the other 2 colors from the collection (which I will sometime in the future), it seriously looks like army fatigue camouflage exploded on your fingers.  I may need to remember this next time I go drinking near an army base and want to snag a man in uniform… LOL!  Here’s a look!

I’m totally loving this mani!  Sadly, Khaki Vert is no longer available, nor would I recommend anyone pay the ridiculous prices on eBay.  However, now that I have a bottle of my own, I’ll keep my eye out for similar polishes so that I can recommend polishes at reasonable prices that may help cure this lemming for you!

Julep Selena

Hi Friends! OH EM GEE I know, I know, you totally thought I deserted you, right?  Not at all!  I'm so sorry I've been away from blogging this past month.  I recently made a personal decision to go to college for my master's degree, and I have been knee deep in studying for entrance exams and filling out grad school applications.  People who work and go to school at the same time - you have my utmost respect!  This is CRAZY! 

Anyway, while I'm getting admitted - and hopefully attending! - grad school I know my free time will be limited, but I still want to hang out with you all at least once or twice a week.  I'm changing my polish less frequently of course, but I still have soooo many great polishes and collections I want to share with you!

Today I decided a little pampering was in order, so I used up an old Groupon to go and get a mani-pedi at a local salon.  It was not good, my friends.  Note to self - stop buying Groupons for untried businesses!  Money is tight these days, between grad school applications and friends and family sales everywhere, and I must be more frugal.  But, I digress - when I was getting my less-than-stellar mani, I brought with me a polish from my own collection, Julep Selena.  Selena is a gorgeous yellow-green creme polish.  It reminds me a lot of China Glaze Trendsetter which I reviewed here, but without the shimmer and it's a noticeable shade more green.  One thing I continue to love about Julep polishes is that this was achieved with just one coat - can't beat that!

I don't know what it is about these mustard yellow/yellow-green lime/dirty olive colored polishes, but I am seriously in love with them all this season, and Julep Selena is no exception!

Julep Selena is currently available at Julep.com.  Julep polishes retail for $14 for 0.27fl oz bottle.  It's a little pricey, but there's always a discount code when you order from Julep!  Currently you can use code MARYROSE to receive $15 off an order of $30 or more. 


What do you think?  Are you loving Selena?  Does she make you think of the singer (I know she does for me!) And what yellow/green polishes are you loving this season?  Sound off in the comments below!