Sephora by OPI Revisited

I have two new Sephora by OPI polishes that I want to swatch, but my nails are in no condition for swatching right now. I always break them doing stupid things! Opening cabinets, car doors, doing laundry... Ugh.


So, instead, let's revisit the Sephora by OPI line. When it was originally released, I did a bunch of swatches with all the polishes I bought. The formula was so thick and awful that the swatches suffered. Now I've added some thinner to them and they've come out quite a bit better.




Beauty Junkie. I admit that I only bought this for the name. It's kind of a vampy-brown-red-plum creme, too red to be chocolate.



Brainiac. One of the biggest disappointments. It was described as spiced pumpkin, but does this look like spiced pumpkin to you? No! It's kind of a weird burnt-salmon...



Cab Fare. Yellow with shimmer. It's pretty sheer in addition to being thick, stringy and goopy. All yellows are streaky and thick to some extent, but this one seems worse than others. The color is pretty nice and I like the sparkles.



Call Your Mother. Very pretty muted taupe-purple creme.


Charge It. Metallic gold. This one is pretty similar to Chanel Gold Fiction. I haven't done a side by side to see if they're exact dupes, but they have a very similar shade and texture.



Domestic Goddess. Bright candy grape purple creme.




Don't Go There. Another nice muted purple creme.



Metro Chic. Hard to describe... Mousy, grey taupe creme? I do love this color. It's the only Sephora by OPI polish I've worn since doing my original swatches...



Never Enough Shoes. Black with multicolored glitter. The glitter in this is small and subtle.



Queen Of Everything. Gorgeous metallic platinum-silver.



Run With It. Warm grey with coppery speckles. Reminds me of wet cement. Sort of similar to Zoya Harley.


Like I said before, I was not impressed with the formula of these. It's not consistent with OPI's formula, it seems like a completely different brand. Not all of the polishes were bad- some were a normal texture. The rest were insanely thick and gooey. I added thinner to them and it helped tremendously. Also, a lot of them have streaks of unmixed pigment that never mix back in no matter how hard you shake it. The streaks will occasionally transfer to the nail.

I don't like the way the bottles look, either. They look cheap and strange. The plastic they use to seal the bottles is also difficult to remove.

Nice colors, but I feel like they need to to a little quality control on these before they sell them.

Hopefully my nails will grow back soon so I can swatch my new ones!

NYX Revisited.

About a year or so ago I did a post featuring swatches of my entire collection of NYX polishes.
Looking back at them, I realized that the pictures could be a lot better, so here I am at number three in my series of collections revisited.

I've also revisited China Glaze Bahama Blues and Color Club Dance To The Musique.

Antique. Smooth, shimmery metallic antique gold. More of a bronze, really.

Asphalt. Black jelly with multicolored glitter. I call this one "Clown Roadkill."

Aurora. Light, pearly green-tinged yellow. This is soft and springy. Very difficult color to pull off, though. Makes my hands look super red.



Jungle. Duochrome aqua, green and turquoise shimmer. This is a must have color for any blue or green lover. It is breathtaking.

Las Vegas. Deep rich green with tons of green shimmer. This is incredible. Again, another must have. It is impossible to capture the beauty of this polish on camera. It has so much depth and sparkle, you just have to see it to believe it.

Lime Sparkle. Golden green glitter in a lime green jelly base. One of the best glitter polishes in the universe. It's so smooth and shiny, so ridiculously sparkly and over-the-top insane. I adore this.

Paradise. Light blue shimmer with golden-green duochrome. Serene and tropical.

Rainbow Sparkle. Opalescent glitter in a neon yellow jelly base. Holy cow. One of the most bizarre polishes in my collection. It is super bright and neon, much closer to the bottle color than the color on my nails. Awesome.


Tahitian. Spring green shimmer. Crisp light green, doesn't necessarily make me think of Tahiti, but it's still nice.

Techno. Pearly, frosty medium purple. Much, much more purple in real life but still a little on the blue side.

Wild. Shimmery, rich purple. It is a nice color, but it's one of the worst polishes ever. It's insanely sheer. If I recall correctly, this was either five or six coats. It needs them. You won't achieve bottle color with fewer coats than that.


Purple Avenue over Wild. Blue-opal chunks of plastic in a sheer purple base. Honestly, this is an awful polish. I'd pass on this if I were you.

And one old picture because I couldn't find the polish to re-photograph it:

Peach Avenue over Wild. Peachy opal chunks of plastic in a sheer orange base. Another awful polish. Do yourself a favor and get Sinful Green Ocean if you want the plastic-chunk look, it's much better and easier to use.

The formula on these is very hit-or-miss. Some were dreamy, like Techno or Jungle. Others were sheer, like Wild and Las Vegas. Some were thick, some were thin, some were just right. I don't know what's up with their formula. Drying time is also all over the place. I can't make a definite statement on this.

The color selection is unbelievable. They have everything you could want. Sheers, reds, pinks yes but also duochromes, glitters, brights, vampies, GREEN, blue, et cetera. I don't know if they regularly release new colors or if they only have a core line, but this brand is hardly lacking in variety. The one downside is that they have changed formulation on some colors but kept the same name, so you may have two entirely different colors that share a name.

The only thing I really hate are the "Avenue" polishes. I thought they would be neat mylar glitter or something, but they're just crap. They are nearly impossible to apply. You will have an inch thick coat of sheer goo before you even have a decent amount of glitter on your nail. You could use the toothpick trick that I use to apply the heart polishes (Like the Valentine's Day Nicoles) but it's just not worth it. The 'glitter' is large chunks of sharp plastic. It sticks up through the polish and doesn't lie flat. At least they're really pretty to look at in the bottle!

I bought all of my polishes directly from Nyx Cosmetics.

Zoya Summer 2009 Ooh-La-La Collection

The first part of Zoya's two-part summer collection is called "Ooh-La-La"- appropriate, because I'm pretty sure that's what I said when I saw them!

If you recall, I was given the Midori color dot in the blogger scavenger hunt- Midori is part of this collection of six bold metallics (shimmers, really) and it is *awesome*. I'll get to that in a minute. Just wanted to warn you of the hotness ahead of time so you can prepare, maybe sit down or stand near something soft so you don't hit your head on something when you faint.





Emme. Soft, girly pink pearl. Pretty, girly, delicate, feminine... Girly-girls and pink lovers will love this. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those! But I don't dislike this polish at all- just because it's not my style doesn't mean I can't admire a pretty color when I see one (on someone else! ;-) ). The pearl finish on this is especially nice.




Ginessa. Intensely shimmery white. This is a clean, bright, fresh white that you can wear without fear of looking like you've painted your nails with white-out. It's one of those Zoya shimmers that I love- not quite glitter, but large irregular-shaped and somewhat flakey shimmer particles. This polish has an unusual texture- it's thick but... airy? Squishy? It's almost like it's whipped... Peculiar! This is similar to Nicole You're A Star.




Goldie. Rich, shimmery yellow gold. This looks like molten metal. Not a polish for the faint of heart- it's loud, bold and flashy. Awesome. This is more of a yellow gold shade than other golds I have. Goldie is unlike other metallics that can drive you insane with visible brushstrokes. It's smooth and buttery.




Katy. Bright fuchsia pink with blue/purple shimmer. The shimmer in this polish is fascinating- it looks like a combination of silver and pink in the bottle, but on the nail it looks like a blue-purple flash. It's kind of a bright 80's Barbie pink color that's begging for a zebra-stripe Konad design!




Midori. Vibrant, shimmery green apple green. AHH!!! Isn't it SO COOL?! It is a lighter shade of spring green that leans yellow and it's packed with gold shimmer. But... It's GREEN!!! Thank you, Zoya! It looks like candy. It also bears a strong resemblance to a certain discontinued green that everyone loves... *cough*Moonpool*cough*




Tallulah. Medium electric blue with multi-toned shimmer. Easily one of the best blues in my collection. It's bright but not too bright- a lot of bright blues are either too sky blue or too turquoise, but this is a nice medium shade. It has very unique shimmer- the shimmer looks blue-green from straight on, but at an extreme angle it's purple. Very subtle, but it's there if you look for it. This is not a twin to Color Club Pure Energy, but they could definitely be cousins.

These pictures are all three coats of polish. Most really only needed two, but I did three anyway. Goldie, Emme and Ginessa were the sheerest shades of the bunch.

The formula on these is excellent as usual. Smooth, not too runny or too thick, no bubbles, no streaks. Pretty much perfect. Only Ginessa was a little weird- I've never encountered a polish with such a light, airy texture before! All dried quickly to a shiny finish even without topcoat.

Overall, I'm thrilled with this collection! Midori and Tallulah are amazing. Emme and Ginessa seem a little out of place with the other bold, bright colors in this collection. Ginessa is really cool, I wouldn't replace it if I had the choice. Emme could have been a nice bright purple, but I know you have to have a pink in there for all the pink lovers. And there are a lot of pink lovers. I know, because I think I can hear them collectively screaming at me from all over the world every time I bash pink- "PINK RULES YOU STUPID JERK STFU!!!!!!!" But Katy is pink.

Stay tuned for the second part of Zoya Summer: La-Di-Da, a collection of six bright cremes.

Reader Requests

I've been sooooo behind on my swatching and requests, but I managed to finish a few today!



OPI Golden Rules! From one of my favorite OPI collections of all time, Night Brights. A soft metallic gold with a brushed-metal type finish.



OPI Cozu-Melted In The Sun. A shimmery peachy metallic with large particle shimmer. Super pretty. It looks darker in the bottle than it does on my fingers... Strange!


Lippmann Collection Rhapsody In White. I didn't think I had this one, but it turns out I did! A very pearly bright white. Easier to apply than Icing On The Cake, but still not easy to work with. Very brushstroky.



China Glaze Aqua Baby. A bright blue creme. If I recall correctly, this is practically identical to China Glaze Shower Together from the Eco Collection, but I couldn't find my bottle to compare.

I finally got a chance to swatch the Essie 2008 Bridal Collection and the OPI Princess Charming collection, as well as a ton of old and brand new polishes, so keep an eye out for those. I have comparisons on the way also. Whew!

Too Excited Not To Swatch: Rescue Beauty Lounge Spring/Summer 2009

For economically challenged Glamazons.

Even though the sun was only out for about six nanoseconds today, I just had to try to swatch these. I even tried to do it with artificial light, but I broke the lightbulb in my lamp! I am just way too excited about this collection to wait for the perfect time to swatch. I am obsessed with these polishes!!

So, keep in mind that these are somewhat rushed.

Also, be sure to check out The Nailphile's swatches of these, as well as All Lacquered Up's coverage of this collection!

Ji Baek describes these polishes much better than I can: "They sparkle like little diamonds."

That's the truth- these are some of the sparkliest glitters I have ever seen. And since they're all jewel-toned, it's just like having gem-encrusted nails!


Here are the bottle pictures again, in case you missed it:




Locavore, Frugalista, Look Rich, Be Cheap



Look Rich, Be Cheap. A mix of gold and purple glitter. In certain lights, the gold is more dominant, like this picture. In other lights, the purple is more dominant. Super cool. I think someone said this reminded them of Mardi Gras, and I'd have to agree!



Frugalista. Gunmetal shot through with purple glitter. Man, I love this. It's a silvery gunmetal, more silver than grey and a bright flashy purple. Like Look Rich, Be Cheap, the silver or purple will be dominant depending on the lighting.



Locavore. Top photo is sunlight, bottom photo is dim indoor light. A dazzling combination of gold, green, blue and silver glitter. It looks like a treasure chest full of gemstones! A pirate's booty. The emerald green shade is dominant, but the golden glitter takes on an almost celery-green shade next to it! The purple adds mystery and depth and the blue really compliments the green. This is one of the most perfect glitter polishes I own- it's entirely unique! I don't have a single polish like this, even with the hundreds of glitters I own.

This collection is just incredible. It makes my heart skip a beat! I'm a die-hard glitter fan, so I nearly fainted when I saw these polishes!

If I get a chance to take better, sparklier swatches I definitely will. These polishes deserve it.

I still can't calm down about these- this is the most exciting collection I've seen all year! I don't know how anyone's going to top this!

Sneak Peek: Rescue Beauty Lounge Spring 2009!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


GLITTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Locavore, Frugalista, Look Rich, Be Cheap

I'll have a full review of these as soon as the sun comes out (and I stop hyperventilating!!!).... I think I'm going to faint!

Rimmel Part 1

I thought now would be a great time to post about my love of Rimmel polish. The other day I was out shopping, and noticed that the Rimmel Underground Play Fast polish displays at every store were completely empty! This can only mean one horrible, horrible thing: They're being discontinued.

On the bright side, a few of the colors (Camouflage, Hard Edged are two that I saw) seem to have been repackaged in the 'regular' 60 Second bottles, and they have a new display.

A few of the stores I went to still had a couple lonely Play Fasts on their displays, so if you've been thinking about buying a particular Rimmel color but haven't yet, now would be the time to do so. I've had my eye on a few shades but haven't bought them because I assumed that they were permanent and were never going to be discontinued. Now I might be too late!

Anyway, the intention of this post is not to make you go out and buy Rimmels, but to share may love of this particular polish line. I just thought it would be worth mentioning that these will soon disappear.

I will do another two or three parts to this post when I'm done photographing my Rimmel collection. So, you may consider this part one :)


Rimmel Underground Play Fasts:


Hard Edged. One of the most beautiful polishes ever to see a drugstore shelf. It's a vampy brown shimmer with pretty strong duochrome. As you can see in the left hand side of the photo, there's some green/gold iridescence visible in the bottle. This is visible on the nail, but it's very subtle. Hard Edged seems to change from brown to purple in some lights. This picture doesn't capture the true beauty of this polish at all. It has a lot of tonal similarities to OPI Black Tie Optional.


Camouflage. A gorgeous, gorgeous quick-drying golden green shimmer. What I like the most about this shade is that it's more green than gold. A lot of drugstore greens in the past have been too light, too gold, and not green enough for my liking (Maybelline Go Go Green, L'Oreal Bijou Gems B. Strong.) but Rimmel Camouflage is nice and rich. It's a St. Patrick's Day green.
Perfect in every way.


Night Life. An edgy mushroomy taupe-brown with golden bordering on copper shimmer. Rimmel may have been ahead of its time with this color! This was released years ago, and just this past year mousy taupe-browns and purples started to become extremely popular. This is a very unique shade, I can think of only one similar shade- CND Family Secret. While they're not exact matches, the taupe/brown/grey with reddish shimmer makes them cousins.



Street Wear. Another edgy, sexy muted shade. This time it's a grey putty with subtle gold shimmer. Extremely hot. It reminds me of mushrooms. I think this picture makes it appear a little more warm-toned than it actually is, but it shows the shimmer well.

About half of the shades in the Rimmel Underground Play Fast line are these fabulous sheer, flaky shimmer colors that are really amazing.


Out Of Control. This is a really old picture! I haven't taken a new picture because this one is just about perfect. Out of Control is a pinkish-red color, more of a coral really, that has outrageous gold shimmer. It truly is out of control! The polish is made of little flakes, so it takes three coats to reach bottle color.


Pop Quiz. Light, peachy orange flakes mixed in with silvery white flakes. Another very unique shade from Rimmel. I'd be hard pressed to find a match for this polish. The different colored pearly flakes all combine to make this pretty light orange color. It's very sparkly, and I have a feeling that it would be great layered on top of one of the other more opaque Play Fast shades like Mouthy.



Scene Stealer. Mesmerizing gold/taupe/bronze/grey shimmer flakes with a slight duochrome effect. This is a very beautiful polish, I've never seen anything like it. It is very sheer but still packs a punch! This picture is three coats and you can still see through it a bit, I'm sure four coats would make it 100% opaque, but I like the sheer look of this. It sparkles and changes in the sun, and even looks good in dark indoor lighting. Another polish with layering potential, would probably go well with Night Life.


And a couple "regular" Rimmels...


Green With Envy. Not exactly what I would ever consider green, but pretty anyway. A bright metallic blue/aqua type of color. You may notice that the bottle is absent from this picture. That it because somehow I accidentally threw it across my kitchen and it shattered all over my ceramic tile floor. Swatching is dangerous... >.<
Torrid. This color has been repackaged, so this is the 'old' version. The new version appears to be exactly the same, but I won't know until I apply them both. Sometimes companies do that. No idea why. Anyway, Torrid is a rich plum-brown shimmer. I can't decide if it's more reddish or brownish. I guess it doesn't matter if it's as beautiful as this!



Dazzle. A very unusual drugstore find! A festive light gold metallic packed with fine medium-gold glitter! As much as I adore this color, this one is a victim of "good idea, bad execution". When you mix light-colored and light-textured metallics with glitter, instead of looking like a nail covered in delicate, sparkling glitter, you get a nail with weird speckles and lumps. Glitter and thin-formula metallics rarely work. Another example of a metallic with glitter that doesn't work: L'Oreal Bijou Crystals B. Shocking. Instead of a nice glitter look, you get chunks. But, for every few failures, there is one success... One of the best light metallics with glitter is the ancient OPI Mystic Moonshine. So, it can work, but it rarely does.


I really love Rimmel polishes. The formula on them is always perfect, they dry quicker than any non-holographic or neon polish I can think of, and they have a variety of incredible unique shades. I have seen UK-only shaded that are even more spectacular than the ones they sell here!

I wish people would start to love drugstore polishes instead of shunning them because they're 'low-end.' You all know I love my OPI, my Rescue Beauty Lounge, Dior, Lippmann Collection, Essie, all of the more expensive and popular brands. Drugstore polishes can be just as good! If I put a Rimmel in a Chanel bottle and told you to use it, you'd probably think that Chanel had improved their formula. I encourage you to look past the name and packaging and love the polish inside.

The odd thing about drugstore polishes is that they're not always inexpensive. I almost bought a Revlon the other day that would have cost me $7.50! I'll talk more about this in another post, but the idea that drugstore polish is cheaper is quickly becoming inaccurate.