NOTD: Dark Plum

I honestly didn't think I would find anything in the new OPI collection 'Touring America' that was worth buying - but I was wrong!

While out shopping yesterday, I fell in love with the new shade I Break for Manicures, a gorgeous dark plum-burgundy. I also picked up a fun shade called Its My Year (not from the Touring America collection); in the bottle it's a duo-chome grape purple with gold and grape shimmers.

It was no surprise to me when I picked both shades as the colors I would paint my nails this week! I did all of my nails in the I Break for Manicures color, and then used Its My Year as my accent nail color for my ring finger.

I love the look of dark nail polish on short nails - it makes them 'pop'. I also love the shade because it is very fall appropriate - and fall is my favorite season!

Two coats of I Break for Manicures was all I needed to get a completely opaque finish on my nails. I only used one coat of Its My Year on my accent nails.

I'm really hoping that when I go to take this color off, I don't end up with burgundy staining on my skin - but we'll see!

Here are some better pictures of my nails:

NOTD: Strange Tides

Months ago when OPI released the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides collection, I knew immediately that there were only two polishes in the entire collection that I wanted: Skull and Glossbones, and Strange Tides.

The polish I will be sporting this entire week is none other than Strange Tides. This shade if polish is like a dirty mint green. Think Clinique green with a bit more brown thrown in. When I first put it on, I knew I was either going to really like it, or I would be horribly disappointed in it and would take it off my nails immediately. It turns out, the color works well with my skintone. Depending on the light, the green can also look brighter or darker. Yesterday when I did my nails, it was sunny - so the color was brighter. Today it's overcast and looking like rain, and the polish has taken on a stronger brown tone.

This is a color that not everyone will like. I think it's one of those shades that you really have to try for yourself before you make a decision about it.

I also noticed when I applied the polish that it looks really great on my short nails.

What do you all think of this color? Would you be game to try it? Those of you who own it already - what do you think about it?

NOTD: Back to Black & White

I do not know why I call these 'Nail of the Day' (NOTD) posts, when it is very rare that I wear my nail polish for just one day. Typically it's on for a week (Sunday to Sunday), so it should really be NOTW.

Anyway, I originally had wanted to have white nails this week with a super shimmery white glitter accent nail. After two coats of white polish I decided it was not going to look very nice, so I put black crackle over top of it. I didn't want to waste the white.

This is what I ended up with:





The simplicity of this, as well as the awesome contrast between the black and white, makes me love it. This is what crackle polish shoud look like, lol! I find I don't have as much luck with applying the shimmery crackle shades as I do with the solid crackle shades. The shimmery ones tend to be thinner in consistency and apply pretty sheer over your base color.

I did decide to give the accent nail another try...I put the glitter polish I had wanted to use on my ring finger nail - you can barely tell in these photos, though!

For this nail look, I used:

- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in Shade 4860-21 White Out
- OPI Nail Lacquer in Black Shatter

What do you think of this NOTD? Do you like the look of white polish - or does it scream 1980's a bit too loudly?

Have a great day!

NOTD - Ivy Green

If you follow me on Twitter, you will likely have seen a recent tweet from me about how I am not sure I like my current nail color. Really, I think it has more to do with my 'accent nail' - I don't like one nail on each hand being different from the rest.

This Sunday, I decided to paint my nails with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in shade 4860-17 Ivy League - which is a bright metallic ivy green. I chose to paint my accent nail (ring finger nail) with OPI's Turquoise Shatter.

Here's what the nail colors look like:



and here's what my hand ended up looking like:



and here is a close up of my accent nail:


I think this attempt at my nails was an epic fail. I wanted to try something new, thought my color combination would work, and I think I ended up with a hot mess. I will keep it on my nails for the rest of the week, but I won't be wearing this combination again. Who would've thought that blue and green would look bad together?

TAG: Summer Nail Color Picks

When I first decided to do the 'Summer Picks' tag, I didn't think I would bother posting about nail polish. I decided to tonight because I cannot make up my mind about which face/cheek makeup products to share with you!

I have a large collection of nail polishes, amassed over the years. My collection is no comparison to the one I had in 7th/8th grades though. Back in the day, nail polish was the business. I had every color imaginable and loved loved loved to wear it. In high school and college I got tired of it, and usually only wore clear polish or a shimmery white or pink. Gradually as I got more and more into makeup and cosmetics, I began to grow a brand new nail polish collection.

It was hard for me to pick just a handful of favorite polishes for the summer months - so I didn't. I picked several handfuls!

I've divided them into categories to make looking at them a bit easier.

Glitters:


- OPI Nail Lacquer in Simmer & Shimmer (Burlesque Collection)
- OPI Nail Lacquer in Teenage Dream (Katy Perry Collection)
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in 4860-24 Shooting Star
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in 4860-05 Rockstar Pink

Why pick just plain old silver or gold glitter when you can pick color? These are my faves, alone or on top of other polishes!

Shatters:


- OPI Nail Lacquer in Black Shatter
- OPI Nail Lacquer in Turquoise Shatter
- OPI Nail Lacquer in Blue Shatter
- Barry M Nail Paint Nail Effects in 316 White

Shatters look phenomenal over top of complementary or contrasting colors. You can really create some awesome mixes - my favorite being the white shatter overtop of a blue.

In the picture above it looks like the Blue and Turquoise shatters by OPI are very similar in color - they're not! I just just the lighting!

Regular Polish:


- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in 4830-17 Hot Magenta
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in 4830-10 Strawberry Icing
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in 4860-06 Sun Kissed
- Wet 'n' Wild Fast Dry Nail Color in 224C The Wonder Yellows
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in 4860-02 Green With Envy
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in 4830-22 Lime Lights
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in 6213-07 Turquoise
- Essie Nail Lacquer in 752 Turquoise & Caicos
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in 4830-11 Lavender Envy

I am a huge fan of color, especially bright color, so it's no surprise that all of the polish colors I picked in this category are really bright and crisp!

I love Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color. It is extremely affordable and comes in a huge array of colors. Wet 'n' Wild is another brand of cheap polishes that I'm starting to get in to.

While I like high end polishes, I really can't afford to buy them all of the time. Essie is almost $12.00 per bottle where I live - which is even more expensive than OPI! I only pick up Essie when it goes on sale.

What are your summer nail polish picks? Did you pick any of the same colors as me?

I hope you guys all have a great week!

Don't forget to enter my First Annual Blog Birthday Giveaway!

REVIEW: OPI Nail Lacquer in Do You Think I'm Tex-y

Product Brand and Name, Price (CDN), Where Purchased

OPI Nail Lacquer in Do You Think I’m Tex-y from the Texas Collection, $10.00 CDN @ Enviro Trends

Reason for Purchase

I went into the salon to pick up some polishes from the Katy Perry collection. I took a look at the Texas collection while I was there, and this shade interested me.

Notable Features

The polishes are salon quality, and are formulated without formaldehyde, toluene, or dibutyl phthalate (DBPs).

Packaging

OPI polishes come in glass bottles with a black twist off brush cap. They are easy to recognize in a crowd, as their bottles are round and chubby - as are the brush caps.

Experience Using Product

The majority of the polishes in the Texas collection are matte with a glossy finish. They look great in the bottle and great on your nails; Additionally, the majority of the shades in the line are pink or coral based, to go with the spring/summer color trend of coral. Do You Think I’m Tex-y is a deep magenta color; it will look great with Wing It! on top of it. I thought the color may have been a bit to ‘bright’ for work, but I was surprised at how good it looks with professional attire. This color is going to look phenomenal on toenails this summer!

This particular polish shade is deceiving; it looks very opaque and thick, and it’s not! The polish is very thin, and once again I had to apply three coats to get a finish I was satisfied with. I applied Sally Hansen 30 Seconds to Set Insta-Dri Top Coat to the polish, and it has held up remarkably well. I did my nails this Monday, and as of today (Friday) I have no chipping or wear to the polish. This is a first for me, with an OPI polish! Normally I have chips within the first 2 days of wear, regardless of whether or not I apply a top coat.



Would I Re-Purchase, Recommend, or Reject

I would recommend this polish to someone who doesn’t already have a matte magenta polish; if you do, you can skip this one. I won’t be re-purchasing this shade.

REVIEW: OPI Nail Lacquer in Not Like The Movies

It's a horrible picture, I know! This is the best one I could get...I tried 3 times and gave up!

Product Brand and Name, Price (CDN), Where Purchased

OPI Nail Lacquer in Not Like The Movies from the Katy Perry Collection, $10.00 CDN @ Enviro Trends

Reason for Purchase

I went into the store as I knew they had finally gotten in the Katy Perry collection. I was specifically looking for the shade Teenage Dream, found it, and picked this one up too.

Notable Features

The polishes are salon quality, and are formulated without formaldehyde, toluene, or dibutyl phthalate (DBPs).

Packaging

Polishes come in glass bottles with a black twist off brush cap. OPI polishes are easy to recognize in a crowd, as their bottles are round and chubby - as are the brush caps.

Experience Using Product

I was not attracted to this polish shade at all when I saw the print ad campaigns for the collection in magazines like Glamour and In Style. Once I saw the polish in person, I was drawn to it.

Not Like The Movies seriously reminds me of the MAC eyeshadow shade Vex. It looks like it’s a duo-chrome shade - the main color is a light steel grey, but in different lights the grey takes on a pinky-purple or green-blue sheen. The polish is also loaded with tiny silvery-white glitter particles.

The applied the polish very slowly, very sheerly - I have super short nails at the moment and didn’t want to end up with cuticles covered in polish. For that reason, it took 3 sheer coats for me to get a finish I was happy with. Had I applied the polish ‘normally’, I would have only needed to apply two coats of polish.

Here is what it looks like on my fingers; I put it against two different colored backgrounds so you could see how the light picks up the different colors:





Would I Re-Purchase, Recommend, or Reject

I would recommend this polish to someone interested in trying something a bit different. I have worn the polish all week for work, and love it. It is colorful, but not too inappropriately flashy for the office. Because of how much I like the color, I would likely re-purchase this shade. I am thinking about buying a ‘backup’ bottle.

You can find more information about this polish and many more of OPI's available shades by visiting their website.

REVIEW: OPI Nail Lacquer in Wing It!

I swear, I have never felt more self conscious buying a product (not even tampons!) than when I bought this nail polish. I walked into the the salon I buy OPI from, and the girl at the till and her co-worker would chat - pause to stare at me - and then chat again. This went on for the duration of my time in the salon; when they got at the till, they made small talk with me but made me feel like I was out of place by being there. The manager of the salon, an older gentleman, is usually the one who works the tills on weekends but I guess he was busy. Next time he is there when I am, I will talk to him about this.



Product Brand and Name, Price (CDN), Where Purchased

OPI Nail Lacquer in Wing It!, $10.00 CDN @ Enviro Trends

Reason for Purchase

I like the nail polishes that OPI produces, and I really liked the look of this color in the bottle.

I went into the store to check out whether or not they have gotten in the Katy Perry collection yet, and they have not. So, I picked up this polish and another glitter polish from the Burlesque collection.

Notable Features

The polishes are salon quality, and are formulated without formaldehyde, toluene, or dibutyl phthalate (DBPs).

Packaging

Polishes come in glass bottles with a black twist off brush cap. OPI polishes are easy to recognize in a crowd, as their bottles are round and chubby - as are the brush caps.

Experience Using Product

Wing It! is an interesting color. It is a shade of pink, but it’s got shimmers in it that change the color a bit when light hits it. In the bottle, you can pick up hints of gold, orange, magenta, silver and blue. On my nails, all I have been able to pick up is the silver and blue. I really like colors like this, because they transform depending on what you are wearing with it, or the light you are around.

One thing I am not too happy about is that this color never goes opaque. You will pretty much always be able to see your nail through the polish. It goes on very streaky for the first coat, but applies much more smoothly on the second and third coats. I had to use three coats in order to get a finish I was happy with.

Would I Re-Purchase, Recommend, or Reject

While I like this color a lot, I am sure that you can find shades similar to this one by drugstore brands that are less expensive. Additionally, I am not really impressed with the streaky application and the number of coats required to get a good finish on my nails. Price for this product is also a negative - $10 is a lot for a nail polish (I know I have said this twice now, yet I keep buying them...). For the reasons above, I would not recommend this product.

REVIEW: OPI - Burlesque Collection

Only recently did I discover a local (relatively local...45 minutes away) store that sells OPI nail polish. Lucky enough for me, they keep up with the latest collections, so they had the recently released Burlesque collection available for purchase.

I've bought 6 polishes out of the collection, so I thought I would share a review with you all.



Product Brand and Name, Price (CDN), Where Purchased

OPI Nail Lacquer, @ $10.00 per polish, purchased at Enviro Trends.

Here are the shades that I have: Simmer and Shimmer (blue glitter), Rising Star (gold shimmer), Let Me Entertain You (fuschia shimmer), Tease-y Does It (Burgundy Shimmer), and Bring on the Bling (gold glitter).

Reason for Purchase

I liked the colors and wanted to try out the brand.

Notable Features

The collection was created as part of the theatrical release of the movie Burlesque starring Cher and Christina Aguilera.

The polishes are salon quality, and are formulated without formaldehyde, toluene, or dibutyl phthalate (DBPs).

Packaging

Polishes come in class bottles with a black twist off brush cap. OPI polishes are easy to recognize in a crowd, as their bottles are round and chubby - as are the brush caps.

Sometimes you can buy 'value' packs that have two or three full-size polishes in them, usually with a coin purse or makeup bag attached as a bonus gift with purchase.

You can also usually get 'sampler' packs of new releases in a collection; they are mini bottles packed in a box typically 4 mini polishes. Depending on your store, you can also usually get the mini-bottles of permanent collection shades in singles. They're handy if you are planning on traveling and don't want to risk carrying a full-size bottle that may break or take up too much room.

Experience Using Product

Pigmentation in Let Me Entertain You is poor. I had to do three coats to get a completely opaque finish. Tease-y Does It on the other hand was perfect - becoming completely opaque in two coats. The two glitter polishes I have are great - I love them for a low-key weekend manicure. I have not yet tried Rising Star.

Would I Re-Purchase, Recommend, or Reject

I would definitely recommend the glitter shades from this collection. The shimmer shades are all gold/orange/red based - so if you're not into those colors, you probably won't find much that you like in this collection.

I am also not a fan of the price-point of these nail polishes. I wish they were $5 instead of $10. The good thing is, when the store I go to wants to clear the polishes to make room for a new collection, they go on sale for $4.99 (that's how much the Shrek polishes were going for).

If you want to learn more about OPI and their range of nail products, check out their webpage by clicking here.

To learn more about Enviro Trends salons, click here.