OPI Nordic Collection - Fall 2014

Hi there, gentle readers! Thank you so much for all the kind words. <3 We've been doing all right. We're slowly replacing all the essentials we lost, though that's been a bit slow because last month has been insanely busy. I've bought another camera, and I'm borrowing a laptop, so I'm able to finally make progress again with blogging. :) It's really wonderful to be back. I've missed you guys.

Today, I've got the 12-piece OPI Nordic Collection for Fall 2014 to share with you. I was pretty excited when I heard of this collection. I love the idea of all things Nordic, and my one visit to a Nordic location (Stockholm a few years ago) was filled with incredible memories. Also, this is the first year in a long while that I've been this eager for fall and everything that it brings. Just thinking about the cold nights and snuggling in warm sweaters fill me with joy. Ok, onto the collection...

Butter London Brown Sugar

Hi there, lovely readers! Happy Mid-Autumn! We celebrated with friends last weekend by eating mooncakes, the ubiquitous food of the holiday. I've never been a huge fan of the original flavors like lotus and red bean, but one of our friends found more interesting flavors for us to try, like jasmine tea, and they were delicious. Being the tea-lover that I am, I love anything tea-flavored. :-)

Today, I have another gorgeous lacquer from the Butter London Rock Your Colour Collection to share with you. Brown Sugar has a reddish brown base filled with oodles of golden shimmers and gold and pink glitters.

Gosh, isn't this one just sensational?! It's my favorite from the collection. It's so sparkly and full of warmth, really just a perfect color for fall. The formula's equally awesome. It's easy to apply, coming out effortlessly though a little on the thin side. I ended up doing three coats for total coverage, but you may be able to stop at two coats depending on your application. Even though this is a glitter, it dries glossy and smooth to the touch, which is a total bonus. :-)

You can find Brown Sugar on butterlondon.com and at select retailers such as Nordstrom and Ulta for $15 for 0.4 fl oz.

** This post contains product(s) provided for honest consideration.

OPI Muir Muir on the Wall

Hi, you guys! :-)

Today, I've got another color from the OPI San Francisco Fall Collection to share with you. Muir Muir on the Wall has a dark smoky brown base with tons of purplish burgundy shimmers that come out to play when the light hits it.

If you're like "hey, this kind of looks familiar", you're not alone. Shimmery vampy shades seem to be a forte of OPI's and we've seen a few similar colors from last year's fall Germany Collection. The first coat of Muir Muir is a little on the thin side, but the second coat does a good job of filling almost everything in, so I left it at that for the swatches.

After some reflection, I think I have a love/hate relationship with colors like this. They are so pretty and glowy under strong direct light, but so blah in the shade. And since fall is a time marked by darker skies and less light, I'm not sure it's really the best time to show off polishes like this to their potential. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. :-)

You can find Muir Muir on the Wall at your local nail salons and beauty stores such as Ulta and Dillard's for a retail price of $9 for 0.5 fl oz.

** This post contains product(s) provided for honest consideration.

Butter London Bit Faker

Hi, you guys! Happy start of the new week! :-)

I've got another two colors from the Butter London Summer Holiday 2013 Collection to share with you. You may recall that I had showed you Sunbaker and Marbs a while back. The lovely folks at Butter London PR originally had sent over Bit Faker too, but I had some issues with my bottle and so I wasn't able to show you the color. They sent me a replacement bottle of Bit Faker and also another color from the collection, so I'm happy to have them to share with you. First up is Bit Faker, a bronze-y, brassy glitter polish filled with gold, bronze, copper, and brown glitters in a sheer base.

This is so sparkly, warm, and gorgeous in person. :-) As is often the case with glitters like this, the first coat is a little patchy, but the second coat fills in all the gaps for a complete coverage. It does dry gritty, so you'll need to add top coat for a glossy shine.

You can find Bit Faker on butterlondon.com and at select retailers such as Nordstrom and Ulta for $15 for 0.4 fl oz.

** This post contains product(s) provided for honest consideration.

OPI What Wizardry Is This?

Hi you guys! Hope your week is going well! Mine has been so busy. I feel like I barely had any time to relax and just kick back. I'm hoping I'll get the chance this weekend. :-)

Today I'm wrapping up the OPI Oz The Great and Powerful Collection with the only liquid sand polish of the bunch. What Wizardry Is This? is a burnished copper brown with gold and copper glitters that dries down to a matte textured finish.

Compared to the Mariah Carey Liquid Sand polishes, this one is made up of finer particles, so it's not quite as textured. The formula is thin and super easy to apply. It goes evenly onto the nails and with enough pigmentation to reach opacity in two coats. It first applies onto the nails glossy, then dries down to its signature liquid sand finish, with the glitters and extra gritty particles giving it the textured look and feel. Dry time is a little longer, as is the case for textured polish, so give yourself a few extra minutes if you are wearing this.

Hope you guys have enjoyed my posts on the OPI Oz Collection. What do you think of this collection? Any particular likes or dislikes? For me, When Monkeys Fly! was definitely the sore thumb of the collection, but I really like the rest. I would have expected an Oz-inspired collection to feature emerald and ruby colors, so the theme felt a little contrived. But otherwise, it's a really fresh and elegantly beautiful collection that I think I'll wear frequently in the future.

You can find What Wizardry Is This? at your local nail salons and beauty stores such as Ulta and Dillard's for a retail price of $9 for 0.5 fl oz.

** This post contains product(s) provided for honest consideration.

OPI Hands Off My Kielbasa!

Hi hi! Continuing along with the OPI Euro Centrale Collection, I've got another polish from the set to share with you today. Hands Off My Kielbasa! is a tough color to describe. It's a brownish rose and tan color with pink and bronze shimmers in a metallic finish.

This has a pearly sheen to it that depending on the light can look a tad frosty. The formula is great on this, probably helped by the fact that it's a metallic. It's smooth and pigmented. It flows evenly onto the nails without any issues and is opaque in two quick coats. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this color. The brown shade and the frostiness is a double whammy for me. But that's a personal preference. If those are things you enjoy, then you'll love this color.

You can find Hands Off My Kielbasa at your local nail salons and beauty stores for $9 for 0.5 fl oz.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Butter London Scuppered

Hi you guys! Thank you so much for all the well wishes. I'm relieved to be feeling much, much better today. :-)

I've got the last of my picks and my personal favorite from Butter London's Holiday 2012 Collection to share with you. Scuppered is a brownish bronze/copper hybrid infused with gold and pink shimmers and scattered with larger green glitters.

To me, the most fascinating parts of this polish are the unexpected pink shimmers and green glitters, both of which show through clearly on the nails. The formula is typical Butter London, smooth and even, making application a breeze. It is a little thinner on the first coat, but the second coat adds the necessary opacity. 

I have been so taken with Scuppered, I ended up wearing it for my birthday mani earlier this month. I'm always a little nervous when I swatch a favorite polish, for fear that my pictures won't do it justice, and I think it is the case with this one. Perhaps Scuppered is best seen in person in order to fully understand the magic of this polish. :-)

You can find Scuppered on butterlondon.com for $14 for 0.4 fl oz.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Julep Minka

I'm super excited to show you Julep Minka, one of the suede polishes from my November Classic with a Twist Maven Box. Minka is a reddish, brownish copper with lots of silver shimmers that dries to a matte finish.

This is a gorgeous fall color and I fell in love with it the second I put it on. As with all mattes I have used, application can be just a little tricky. It dries fast, so you need to work fast. Use thin coats because there isn't a lot of time to smooth over any extra polish once it's on the nails. You can tell exactly when this polish is dry to the touch because the finish changes from the initial wet metallic finish to the matte finish once it's dry. It's nicely pigmented, and I needed just two thin coats for opaque coverage.

Barielle Rusted Vintage Boots

Today, I have another polish from Barielle's fall offerings to share with you. Rusted Vintage Boots is a brick red with brown and orange tones in a creme finish.

This is totally the color of fall leaves. The formula is smooth, pigmented, and fast-drying. It is amazingly opaque in just one coat, but the first coat leans more red, so I did another coat just to give the color more depth and to bring out more of the brown and orange shades. Still, even with that second coat, you will see that it looks redder and darker on the nails than in the bottle.

You can find Rusted Vintage Boots on Barielle.com for $8 for 0.45 fl oz, though there is an ongoing sale for buy one get one 50% off; or as part of the Runaway Fever kit of five polishes for $25.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more information, please view my Disclosure Policy.

OPI The World Is Not Enough

Happy Halloween, lovely readers! Are you doing anything fun to celebrate? For me, it's a regular work day, but our office does get into the spirit with this Trick-or-Treat event in the afternoon where people bring in their kids, so that should be fun. I'm looking forward to seeing the kiddies in their cute costumes. :-)

Today, I have another one of my favorites from OPI's Skyfall Collection to show you. Yes, another favorite. I'm really loving this collection, so a bunch of them ended up as favorites of mine lol. The World Is Not Enough is a light taupe / brown polish with tons of sparkly, predominantly pink shimmers.

The taupe base qualifies this polish as a neutral, but the micro-glitters add that extra zing to elevate this polish out of the ordinary. When the light hits it, the micro-glitters sparkle like crazy, and you can see all sorts of colors in there—pink, silver, and green.

Formula-wise, this is a little thicker than typical OPIs, presumably to keep the shimmers afloat. Each coat is slightly sheer, so you will need three coats for opacity. And it dries a little slower due to the thicker formula. All-in-all, application is a little tricky, but the gorgeous color totally justifies it for me.

You can find The World Is Not Enough at your local nail salons and beauty stores for $8.50 for 0.5 fl oz.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

OPI Skyfall

Hi you guys! It's Thursday, and this week has just flown by. I did some fall shopping earlier in the week, and found the cutest pair of boots at DSW. It's just in the nick of time too. My prior pair of boots had holes in the front, which means you could see my socks if you looked carefully and my socks would get wet when it rained lol. I love the satisfaction of finding a good pair of shoes, especially during a desperate moment. :D

Anyways, back to polish. I've got another wonderful color from OPI's Skyfall Collection to share with you today. Skyfall is the namesake of the collection and of the movie that inspired the collection, so my expectations were high and it does not disappoint. It is a dark vampy red with a slight hint of brown in a creme finish.

This is a variation of the ultra-popular oxblood shade for this fall, so you'll definitely be on trend with this color. I found the formula to be thin and smooth, typical of OPI's cremes, though this one is just a tad on the runny side. Be sure to wipe the excess off the brush before application, or you may get some dollops that run onto the nails. It is also fairly pigmented, and I needed just the two usual coats for opacity.

You can find Skyfall at your local nail salons and beauty stores for $8.50 for 0.5 fl oz.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.