Hi there everyone, welcome to Friday. I finally dragged myself out of bed and into work this morning. Basically it's Christmas party day at work and I didn't want to abandon my friend, otherwise I'm not so sure if I'd really be here. The stomach bug continues on! Today I have some swatches of OPI's special holiday topcoat that was recently released. I haven't really been painting my nails but when I have they stay on for five days usually. So, that means I'm slowly working my way through this ginormous collection :)
OPI Don't Speak is a special 18K Gold topcoat with gold flakies and gold shimmer. It comes in a heavy duty box (see at the end of the post), which to me is much nicer than the last silver topcoat that came out in the Mariah Carey collection. This polish looks similar to OPI Man with the Golden Gun which came out in the James Bond collection but that was just a hair before my blogging started so I don't have it to compare to. For my swatches, I used one coat over OPI Red Fingers and Mistletoes, which is a shimmery red from the holiday collection. I loved how the flakies looked with the addition of the shimmer because it gave it extra dimension. Admittedly I wasn't a big fan of the last silver topcoat but I like this one much better.
I did really enjoy the look and the formula on this polish, the really big downside is the pricetag though. I believe this polish retails for $30 in stores, although a friend was kind enough to pick it up for me at a beauty supply for half the price. Even at that it still stung a little but I think the cost was worth it on this one. What do you guys think of this polish? Will you be splurging on it?
Hi there everyone, I hope the week is going well for you. I had another flare up of whatever stomach thing has been going around. Apparently it has been making its way around the office as well...gross! As promised, today I have my most request video, how I shape my square nails. It's the entire process from start to finish plus the two ways that I remove glitter polish. Hope you enjoy!
Hey guys, just a quick update. I was so excited this morning because I all set to finally be back and I had my most requested video set to go up....how I shape my nails. I go to publish it this morning and it was corrupted when it was uploading last night, of course. It will go up tomorrow now but I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm back. Last week I had the worst food poisoning/stomach flu of life. It was like a continuation or a second round of the one that took me out Thanksgiving week, except worse and my husband had it too. I made it through work on Wednesday and then Thursday and Friday we were both miserable at home. I have some catching up to do but that's life. It will also be a funny week because I'll only be working two days and then I'll be up in Chicago helping my family move Wednesday through Friday for their move to Iowa which I am all too bitter about. I guess it wouldn't be the holidays without some snags and craziness ;)
Hi there polish friends. Hopefully the week is going well for you. Same old same old here. Today I have two more OPIs to share with you. I'm working on swatching a bunch of collections right now so I thought I'd throw in some random polishes I had on hand :) First up is Can You Tapas This? This polish is one of my first polishes, even before starting my blog, and it remains one of my favorite colors. It's a maroon with a touch of brown, cream formula. I used two easy coats with topcoat below.
Second is one of my favorite opaque neutrals, Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh, which is a cool-toned nude with almost a taupe hue to it. Again this one was easy to apply, two coats below with topcoat.
So there's a look at two of my favorite polishes, do you own either of these?
Hi there everyone, sorry for the long break. I've just had some weird stomach bug for a week now and it's really been getting me down. I'm trying my best though. I hope my American friends had a good Thanksgiving. My family and my in-laws had a combined dinner and day and it went very well. Friday we did some shopping and saw The Grinch in the play version in downtown Chicago. It's back to work now, which is bringing me down, but we must prevail haha! Today I have a review of the Zoya Winter/Holiday collection featuring six polishes, three regular polishes and three of the chunkier pixiedusts. Keep in mind I'm not the biggest fan of textured polishes, so let's get started. Also the video review will be at the end if you prefer that, plus a very important question ;) Haven-holiday plum liquid metal with a touch of orchid Haven really surprised me. Haven is a nice deep metallic purple without with brushstrokes and it's a gorgeous color. I wore it for four days straight and got a bunch of compliments on it. I think it's pretty unique to my collection and it had a great formula. I used two easy coats with topcoat below.
Imogen-black crystal pixiedust with holo glitter Imogen is a a black textured polish with very chunky silver and holo glitter. I didn't have any problems with application even with the amount of glitter. I used two coats below.
Nori-sapphire blue pixiedust Nori was a little different because it was a little less glitter dense. It reminds me of Zoya Dream in pixiedust form. It was less dense in glitter but still really opaque in formula and covered well in two coats.
Prim-velvet blue metallic Oh Prim, my very favorite from the collection. I know that Prim is polarizing because it is metallic and has brushstrokes but I think it's fantastic! I consider Prim a periwinkle metallic blue and I think it's gorgeous for Winter and even into Spring when it's still cold. The formula was perfect and I used two easy coats with topcoat below.
Thea-deep amethyst pixiedust Thea is along the lines of the blue in that the glitter does get covered up by the colored base. This one reminds me of Zoya Aurora in pixiedust form, a warm purple in color. I had no problems with formula again, I used two coats below.
Willa-black cream Last up is Willa which is a black cream. I thought it was a little bit on the thinner side meaning that there are more opaque blacks out there. It was good though, just not the greatest black polish of life. I used two coats with topcoat below.
Overall it's not my favorite Zoya collection, it's just okay. I'm not the biggest fan of the combined regular and pixiedust polishes together in one collection and it's not the most unique in terms of color. My favorites are Prim and Haven. What do you think of this collection? Most importantly....did you order the Cyber Monday Zoya Mystery Box????? I caved and did! It was then weird to admit to my husband that I ordered a box of something that I had no idea what was in it ;) Leave me a comment with your thoughts!
*Polishes in this post were provided for review in exchange for my honest opinion.
Hi there everyone, I hope all of my American friends had a happy Thanksgiving. I have a really quick Nailstalgia post today which I'm writing in between Black Friday shopping for eight hours and then heading down to Chicago with the family for a play and dinner. Today's Nailstalgia is OPI's Black Cherry Chutney. I had found this polish in a set in my local TJMaxx and it looked like a dark vampy beauty. To me it is a deep purple black cherry color. For my swatches I used two coats but it definitely could have used a quick third coat. Swatches are with topcoat.
Sorry for the express edition of Nailstalgia today but I'm off to go get ready :) Plus I just ate two HoHos and now I have a sugar rush! Black Cherry Chutney didn't live up to my expectations of being a vampy two coat shimmer but it is a pretty color. I think there are better colors out there in the OPI range though. Is this a color you have in your collection?
Hi polish friends! Sorry for the slow week, I've been dealing with food poisoning since Sunday and am finally coming out of it today. I'll keep it short since a cat tail is making it very hard to type :) Today I have my November polish favorites with a few October favorites thrown in!
Hi there everyone, welcome to Monday. Well I was headed into work this morning but I had some stomach issues after dinner last night. I'm not sure if I overdid the junk food or if it was the shady Taco Bell we ate at but I am home today. Despite that, yesterday was a great day because we went to a giant craft fair with my mom. I did post a haul on my youtube channel if you are curious what we came home with :) Today I have a stunning holiday polish to share with you. I was stuck the other night so I reached into a basket with untried polishes and pulled out Julep Waleska. Whoa baby is it gorgeous. I believe this is from August but to me it is totally holiday.
Julep Waleska to me is a shimmery green with strong blue undertones and dense gold shimmer. It's such a good combination of green and teal that most of the time it was hard for me to tell which color it really was. The shimmer was really strong in this polish and it just makes it look that much more "holiday". The formula was really great and I used two easy coats with topcoat.
Overall I'm in love with this polish! The color is gorgeous and shimmery and I'm already ready to wear it again :) Sadly I did cancel my Julep box a few days ago. I just was canceling it every month but I do still plan to hunt for good colors at my local TJMaxx. Do you have a favorite holiday polish?
Hello there my polish friends. I hope the weekend is treating you well. It's been a great weekend so far as I sit here in my robe under my heated blanket :) Yesterday last minute we went to the Illinois/Penn State football game which was really fun. We didn't stay the entire time because it was freezing and my lips actually turned blue. Today we are going to a huge craft fair and my mom is driving down to meet us so you know I'm pumped about that! Today I have my last Fall mani most likely. Fall is my favorite season and it did get swallowed up by my surgery but with the number of days of snow and ridiculously cold weather we've had it feels like Fall is gone.
This combination is one that I wore the other day because Zoya Tanzy is the most unflattering color for my skin tone haha! Once I combined these two colors it was like a Fall shimmer-bomb on the nails :) This combination is Zoya Tanzy as the base and one layer of OPI Orange You Fantastic over top.
Below is Zoya Tanzy. I saw this polish in stores and fell in love with it so eventually I ordered it on Zoya's website. Zoya describes it as a bright tangerine orange with yellow gold metallic sparkle. It's a beautiful warm metallic and I thought it would be amazing for Fall. When I applied it I discovered one thing...this is probably the most unflattering polish I could have ever picked for my skin tone. Besides the color being awful on me, the color is pretty and the formula is great. I used two easy coats with topcoat below.
Well there it is for Fall this year. I am sad to see it go but I figured it was over when I spent 15 minutes getting my car door open the other morning.
Hi Friday polish peeps! I am so excited that it's Friday :) It's been a long, drawn-out week at work! But, there is an exciting weekend ahead so I just need to get through the next seven and a half hours :) Tonight we are going to our friends house for dinner and video games. Our friend actually took the day off of work to go to the midnight release last night of the Wii U Super Smash Bros game so we will definitely be playing that. Tomorrow we've got some errands to run and then the hubby and I are going to a HUGE Christmas craft fair with over 350 vendors. Can you tell I'm excited? Today I have my very first makeup review video. I did pre-film this back in September pre-surgery so I was a little flat because my zombie gallbladder was hurting me, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. I think it's something I might keep up with in the form of videos. Let me know what you think. Have a great day everyone!
Hi there polish friends, welcome to Thursday. Last night I was definitely in lump mode. It's just too darn cold here and my hormones were just all over the place. I was happy because I had cheese with dinner, then mad because I ate all the chocolate yesterday, then crying for no reason #justgirlythings Does anyone else hate those #justgirlythings on pinterest? Haha, I do! I couldn't hold in the crazy last night. Then right before bed I got the brilliant idea to convince my husband we should switch around our spare rooms (just convince him, not actually do it). Somehow through all that I did manage to fall asleep right away, too much crazy. Today I have a polish I couldn't wait to show. I know I'm behind on swatching collections, my hands are like lizard dry. I've been slathering them with lotions and oils and wearing the dorky gloves when I sleep but nothing is helping. Anyone have any suggestions for a really strong hand cream? I do promise to catch up this weekend, dry hands or not!
Formula X Alchemy is a polish I picked up during the Sephora VIB sale when it was 20% off. I saw it in the catalog of holiday gifts and although I don't normally buy these polishes because they are pricy, I thought it was too pretty to pass up. I think it's sold out online but I would check in-store if you are looking for it. This polish is a loaded dusty platinum antique gold shimmer with multi-colored shimmers. It does look different in different lighting, sometimes it looks gold, sometimes a little bronze, and sometimes even a touch purple. The array of shimmers is beautiful and really sold me on it. I see gold, blue, purple, and copper. The formula is really great and opaque, I used two easy coats with topcoat.
I'm in love with this polish. It's nothing like I've ever seen before and just so unique and sparkly! It is limited edition so if you want it I would try to find it as soon as you can. What do you think of this polish, will you be buying it?
Hi there my polish friends and welcome to Tuesday. Thankfully I haven't frozen yet with this polar vortex fun we've been having. -8 wind chill this morning and icy roads...isn't it still Fall? Not much new is going on since the weekend. I had a super lazy night last night, but to be fair, so did my husband :) I ordered my Erin Condren planner so I spent the night browsing planner supplies on etsy. Try to contain your excitement for the thrilling life I lead ;) Today's Twinsie Tuesday prompt is favorite sports team. I don't really follow sports all that much, although my husband is a die hard Chicago sports fan. I knew I was going to break his heart when I didn't choose a Chicago team but he took it better than I expected. When I lived in Tampa we got to go to a lot of Bucs and Lightning games. We were even at some of the Playoff games for the Tampa Bay Lightning which was really amazing so that's the team I relate to the most...The Tampa Bay Lightning (hockey). I've always been a hockey fan more than anything else.
I decided to keep it simple to really show off the contrast of the team's colors, white and a royal deep blue. My husband even got in on it and helped me pick out the right shade of blue. We looked at all the blues on my OPI wall rack and I picked a few and he asked me to swatch them to see them accurately...I kid you not :) I guess even if it's nail polish, men must take their sports seriously. We had the swatches of the blues, compared to the colors of the team on google, then we discussed which was better... For my white base I used a pure white, OPI Alpine Snow. For my shade of "lightning blue", the hubby and I settled on OPI Keeping Suzi at Bay, which was deep but not too deep of a blue.
I can't wait to see what everyone else chooses and if it relates to where they live now!
Hi there polish friends, welcome to Monday. I hope you all had a great weekend. I had a good one myself. Saturday was really busy. In the morning the hubby and I ran errands and did grocery shopping and then after lunch we were with our friends the rest of the day. We played Mario Kart on their Wii U, went out to dinner, and then came back and watched Guardians of the Galaxy. Yesterday was supposed to be spent swatching in the afternoon but somehow it turned into nap time with a kitty and then wrapping Christmas presents...oops. It feels a little strange writing this post after the morning I've had, but it is still technically Fall. First, the wind chill is 1 degree, second, I had to clear the snow off my car this morning, and third, I am not exaggerating when I say that it took me a full fifteen minutes to get the door to my car open because it was frozen shut. Yea, so here's a nice Fall orange...
I wanted to show OPI's In My Back Pocket because Thanksgiving and November still are Fall to me. This type of weather we are having right now is typically January weather. I wore this around Halloween and right when all the leaves were falling and it seemed like the perfect orange. Not too bright but not too deep. I always struggle finding that perfect balance with orange. The formula isn't amazing with this one but it's workable. I found that the best thing was to do three thin coats since the polish tended to be on the thin side. For my swatches I used three thin coats with topcoat.
What's your favorite orange polish? Do you have one you specifically like for Fall? Thanks for reading and I hope everyone is keeping warm if you're in a "polar vortex" area like myself. P.S. why are we naming these things now? ;)
