OPI Texas Collection

When I first saw the promo pics for this collection, I breathed a sigh of relief. A collection full of reds/pinks/oranges and a few others I couldn't care less about. Not interested.

But then I made the mistake of ordering one of the 'sorbet' finish polishes. I was making an order and had room for one more in the package, and chucked in Houston We Have a Purple at the last minute. And when I put it on my nails, I was sold on this collection.

Instead of having none, I now have six. Dammit.

Here are the pics:

Guy Meets Galveston. A bright coral with OPI's sorbet finish. This is three coats without top coat. You can still see a little bit of visible nail line, as this was the sheerest of the sorbets. Perhaps a tiny bit too 'orange' for my liking, but I know lots of people are loving this one, and it is a perfect pedi shade for summer.

Too Hot Pink to Hold Em. This looks more red than hot pink to me, but nonetheless it is yummy! This is two coats without top coat.

Do You Think I'm Texy. Slightly deeper and pinker - this is two coats without top coat.

Houston We Have a Purple. Deep berry and the most opaque of the sorbets. This is two coats without top coat.

Those are the four I bought from this collection with the new 'sorbet' finish. I absolutely LOVE this finish. It really is a 'jelly' finish, which has been around for longer than OPI would have you believe, so it is in no way 'new', but these lacquers apply smoother and more evenly than any other jelly I own. They are deliciously squishy and juicy, and the shine is unbelievable. They look wet and freshly applied for at least a few days, and I am loving them. Perfect for summer.

My only gripe would be that they are all so similar. I don't understand having six (I only got four, but there are six) of these sorbets which only vary by such small degrees in their base colouring. Having said that, I still bought four of them, so they must be different enough!

Next up, two of the shimmers from the collection:

This is Totally Fort Worth It. A grey with pink shimmer. The pink flash is very hard to capture in photos, but it is there. This one is a little bit frosty, so the brushstrokes are quite visible and you need to be quite careful with your application. It is also very sheer - this is four coats. This one is nice enough, but a little too much effort for not enough result.

Finally, Austin-tatious Turquoise:

This is a gorgeous turquoise shimmer with this amazing pink flash which is visible on the bottle, but not so visible on the nail. This one was quite sheer as well - this is three coats. I like this one, but I have to say it is the sorbets I am more enamoured with in this collection. The others I could take or leave.

MCB

Dior Nirvana

Hi Guys,

Today I have a stunner for you from Dior. I was just walking around the shops the other day and this one caught my eye and had to be mine! I hadn't heard much about this new collection, and when I googled it there wasn't much info out there about it. But its in Aus stores now, so if you can, hunt it down and make it yours!

Ok, this is Nirvana:

An amazing teal which morphs from more blue based to more green based depending on the light. It applied like an absolute dream - this is two coats plus some Revlon top coat (I didn't have my beloved Seche Vite with me at the time). I love, love, LOVE the Dior brush for application - some of you with smaller nail beds might find it a bit unwieldy, but for me it is perfection. Its huge and kind of curved at the end, and the above pics are with no clean up whatsoever - the brush makes it easy for me to get it really neat first time.

So what do you think of Nirvana? I'm so in love I bought a back up. And I'm eyeing off some of the other colours I saw too. Pity Dior is $35 here...

MCB

Milani Rockstar Heavy Glitter

This is a mani I did while I was playing around with ideas for New Years Eve. I didn't end up going with this one, but I did take some pics:

And a blurry one to show the sparkle:

This was 2 coats of Purple Gleam with 2 coats of Blue Flash on the ring finger. I then stamped with China Glaze 2030 and covered it all with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. The Milani glitters decided to eat through top coat, so I ended up having to do 2 coats of CND Shiney top coat in between 2 coats of Seche Vite! All in all this ended up being 7 coats of polish, not counting the stamping! It was an absolute nightmare to get off, even using the foil method.

That being said, it was so much fun, and a sparkl-o-rama on my nails! The Milani glitters are so blingy in real life - it was hard to truly capture it in pictures. They applied easily and were opaque in only 2 coats. I ordered these online from Cherry Culture, which ships internationally (thank you Cherry Culture!).

MCB

OPI Katy Perry Collection

Well here I am eating my words. I posted a month ago about Australia never getting the latest polishes and having to wait ages and whinge whinge whinge. Then not only did I get Chanel Riva pretty much around the same time as everyone else in the world, here I am posting about a collection which hasn't quite been released in the US yet. Ok, now I have to admit it is not so hard being a nail polish junkie here in the land Down Under :)

I should mention first up that there must be way more nail polish aficionados around my part of town than I realised, because I did not manage to pick up the Black Shatter polish - it had sold out in both stores I went to within hours. But I wasn't too phased by that, because, to be honest, crackle nail polish isn't really my thing. I did, however, manage to pick up all four colours in the collection.

On to the pics!

First up, Not Like The Movies:

This is 3 coats with no topcoat. This colour is hard to describe - its like a silvery grey with a green and pink duochrome. That doesn't really make any sense, but if you look at the pics you will know what I mean. I didn't think I'd like this colour when I saw it in the bottle, but it is actually very pretty on the nail. The pink flash is particularly attractive in the light, and this colour is pretty unique in my collection. I like it a lot more than I thought I would.

Next up, The One That Got Away:

This is 3 coats with no topcoat. The One That Got Away is a divine berry red with glass fleck shimmer. There is a gold flash in the bottle which doesn't translate onto the nail, but I still LOVE this colour. It is a bit like OPI's Let Me Entertain You from the Burlesque collection, but with more burgundy, berry red 'tude to LMEY's fuchsia fun. Delicious.

Onto the glitters...Firstly, Teenage Dream:

This is 3 coats with no topcoat. This is a sheer pink with tiny silver and holo glitter, and larger holo particles mixed in. It looks quite sweet on its own, but would definitely pack a punch when layered over other colours, perhaps different pinks or reds for full effect.

Lastly, Last Friday Night:

3 coats with no topcoat. Like its pink counterpart, this is very sheer with small silver and holo glitter and larger holo particles throughout. It reminds me a lot of Sinful Colours Hottie, which I have, so I will try to do a comparison at some stage. Looks nice by itself on the nail, but again, would look amazing layered over a range of blues, or even green or black.

So there you have it - apart from the black shatter polish - OPI's Katy Perry collection. I love it, and I'm looking forward to trying these glitters over some bolder colours to see how they look. What do you think?

MCB

Chanel Riva

Remember that post I did on China Glaze Moody Blue? And I whinged about how we never get the popular, awesome polishes down here in Australia, and they always take ten years to get here and by the time they get here everyone's forgotten about them anyway?

Yes. Well. I have to take that back in Chanel's case...because I have, in my hot little hands, a little bottle of Riva.

All is not forgiven though, because there was still an impossibly long waiting list for this polish, and it was only through a lucky twist of fate and some pretty awesome customer service that I obtained this beauty. Also, I paid $39. $39!!! For one little incy wincy bottle. Ugh. And that didn't even include shipping.

Anyway, here are the pics:

This is 4 coats of Riva and one coat of Seche Vite.

I have to say straight up that I don't like this as much as I thought I would. It has more of a grey tinge than I was imagining, and was a little streaky and difficult to apply. Nothing too troublesome, but for the amount I paid for it I expected perfect application, and this was not that.

A lot of reviewers/bloggers have said that the shimmer disappears on the nail, and this is definitely true in the shade and low light, but in the sun I have to say that the shimmer showed up beautifully (albeit subtly) and it was gorgeous. If you look at the sunlight pics above you can definitely see the little crystals of blue microshimmer peeping out of the jelly-ish base.

So although I don't like this as much as I thought I would, I still like it. It is a nice colour, and the shimmer makes it unique in my collection. However, unless you are completely in love with it, I would have to say that China Glaze Moody Blue or Hard Candy Sky will satisfy your lemming, even though they are not exact dupes.

MCB

Snowflake Konad

Now, I know its summer here in the Southern Hemisphere, and temperatures are quicky climbing to their typically stifling and uncomfortable levels as is the norm here in Aus. Christmas day is usually a nightmare - humidity is at about a million percent and walking outside is like wading through hot pea soup. Try putting makeup on and arranging your hair into some sort of socially acceptable style in that!

On that note, here are two random facts about me - firstly, I hate summer. I hate the humidity, the heat, the discomfort and the inability to even breath without sweating and generally looking like you've just walked out of a particularly strenuous session in a Bikram Yoga class. Winter is my bestest friend :) Secondly, and this fact is likely a direct consequence of the first, I love air conditioners. Sweet, sweet air conditioning. Wreaks all types of havoc on your skin and eyes, but removes all that evil heat and humidity and generally makes my world a better place.

So why am I regaling you with these inconsequential and probably uninteresting details? Basically its a long winded introduction to my current mani of snowflakes. Because even though temps outside are climbing, I am taking a leaf out of my Northern Hemisphere girls' books and embracing all that is cold and icy.

Ok enough talk:

This is three coats of Zoya Crystal as a base. I then randomly added snowflake stamps from Konad plate M59 and Bundlemonster plate BM14. Just to make it super sparkly, I topped it off with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust and sealed it all with a shiny coat of Seche Vite. The rhinestones on my ring finger were added in between the Fairy Dust and Seche.

As usual, the pics do not do this justice. It is so sparkly and icy in real life. Oh well, even if it is getting hotter here, my nails can remain in denial :)

MCB

China Glaze Moody Blue

Hi Everyone,

With all the discussion going on in the US and Europe over Chanel's new blue polish, Riva, I thought I'd jump on that bandwagon with a post about a reputed dupe to Chanel's polish - China Glaze Moody Blue.

Of course, here in Australia we can't get Riva yet - we Aussie girls usually have to wait about 500 years after the rest of the world has gotten their polish - and also gotten well and truly over it - before we even get a whiff of a trendy collection! Online polish e-tailers are a godsend in this polish backwater, but as far as I know, unless we have friends in the US or Europe willing to ship us some goodies, we will just have to wait to get our paws on Riva down under.

I shouldn't complain - we do have some unique and awesome brands such as BYS, Ozotics and Ulta (not the same as Ulta in the US) that are hard to come by outside of this country...

Anyway, for a comparison of Moody Blue with Riva, you should check out Lacquerized's post on this at: http://www.lacquerized.com/2010/11/chanel-cote-dazur-collection-le-vernis.html 

Here are my pics of Moody Blue:

I do really like this colour - it is soft and sweet and squishy (somebody learned 'alliteration' as a literary tool in high school!). But...this is 5 coats! Eeek! I don't know if it was just me, or if this is sheer for everyone, but I seriously could not be bothered applying 5 coats then top coat.

And given my penchant for some Konad action, you know what's coming up next:

I added the pretty bow stamp from Konad plate M56 in Konad Special White polish. So cute and girly - I loved this design. Could have been a bit neater with the application but after the six coats of polish I had already applied, my patience was wearing thin and the outside light was fading fast!

That's it for now - can't wait to get my hands on Riva so I can compare the two. If it applies in less than five coats, I think it will be a winner for me.

MCB

Blue Skies

Gonads - I can take them or leave them...but Konads - now that is another matter. It is a rare day that I can resist the temptation to stamp/decorate or otherwise alter the appearance of a perfectly acceptable manicure. So in keeping with this approach, after I had painted my nails with Color Club's Take Me To Your Chateau, I couldn't resist sprucing it up with some stamping and freehand.

I got this idea from Ashley's amazing blog Polish and Konad, and you can see her original here: http://www.polishandkonad.com/2010/06/disney-pixars-up-freehand-mani.html

Here is mine:

I used 2 coats of Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau, Konad plate M79, and Konad Polish in Special White. For the balloons, I used China Glaze Heli-Yum, China Glaze Grape Pop, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Orly Lollipop, Orly Gumdrop and Illamasqua Blow. I then used a Sally Hansen nail art pen in white to create the shine on the balloons, and topped everything off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Cute, but my balloons are a bit messy...I really need to get me a dotting tool, and some ambidexterity :)

MCB