Friday, December 12, 2014

OPI Don't Speak-Pure 18K Gold Topcoat

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?

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Most Requested Video-How to Shape Square Nails (plus removing glitter polish)

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!

 

Monday, December 8, 2014

I'm Alive I Promise....

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 ;)

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

OPI Swatch Spam-Can You Tapas This? and Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?

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?

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Zoya Wishes Collection-Swatches and Review

*Press Samples
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.