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

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

Christmas Konad

I went to a Christmas par-tay the other night, and so I decided to get into the spirit of things with a Christmas mani! I was kind of going for a candy cane look with an accent nail:

I kind of like it, but I think the accent nail doesn't really tie in with the other nails - its like 3 nails from one manicure and a random nail thrown in! Maybe if I'd used a white creme on the accent nail instead of a shimmery polish it might have tied in a bit better...

Anyway, this is one coat of OPI's Ali's Big Break for the red base, and 2 coats of China Glaze Frosty for the ring finger. The one coat of red wouldn't have been sufficient for a normal mani (I'd go with 2 coats) but I knew I'd be using a full nail stamp which would hide the minor imperfections, so I stuck with one.

I then stamped with my BundleMonster stamps - BM20 in Konad Special White Polish for the stripes and BM14 in Konad Green for the holly. I then dotted on the little red berries on the accent finger with a dotting tool and Ali's Big Break.

The only problem with the BundleMonster plates is that their full nail stamps are so damn tiny! You can see on the pics above that they only just cover my middle finger, and I'm glad I don't include my thumbs in the photo cos I tried to join up the stamp across them to make it fit and it was a hot mess :) But for the price, you can't complain really!

What kinds of Christmas manis have you guys been coming up with?

MCB

China Glaze Holiday Collection 2010

China Glaze are fantabulous. They consistently release interesting, high quality polishes with on-trend colours and unique finishes. And this year's holiday collection is no different.

Of the 16 (!) shades released this year, I decided to pick up 3 little beauties...still resisting the temptation to add to this number...

First up, Sugar Plums:

This one has sparse holo glitter suspended in a burgundy red creme base. This one is really pretty, but I found that the base was a bit dense for the glitters, and as a result some of the glitter was covered up by the base resulting in less visible holo glitter + weird lumpy bits. But its not as bad as it sounds, and it definitely looks better in real life than in the pics, which emphasise the lumpiness. I still like this polish and I'm glad I bought it!

Next up, Frosty:

A gorgeous sparkly white with silvery white microshimmer. I love this colour - I adore whites on my nails, and this one has a kind of softness to it so it doesn't end up looking like White-Out. Sparkly, snowy, icy goodness. Perfect for pretending it isn't going to be 40 degrees celsius on Christmas Day here in Oz. Ew. This is 2 coats with Seche Vite on top. LOVE!!

Lastly I picked up Party Hearty. This one is kind of weird on its own, and is best for layering, so here it is layered over Frosty:

This one is so much fun! Small green glitter and larger red hex glitter suspended in a clear base. This is two coats, so I think you'd have to layer it pretty thick to get it opaque. Its just perfect for making any mani look Christmassy! Very unique in my collection as well.

I got the idea of layering a sheer white polish OVER Party Hearty from the amazing Polish Hoarder Disorder blog. Here is the above combo (2 coats Frosty, 2 coats Party Hearty) with one coat of OPI's Funny Bunny layered over the top:

I love this look - all soft candy sweetness and muted Christmas spirit. I think this just might be my actual Christmas day mani this year...but we'll see. So many choices!!

MCB

Some Goodies From The OPI Burlesque Collection

This collection has been raved about throughout the nail polish community, and for good reason. Each and every colour has something special about it, and it is so unique and different from other things released this year. And OPI managed to do a collection that didn't comprise of mostly red cremes - yay!! Nah, they're not that bad, but this is one of their best...

A warning - this post is long and pic heavy!!

First up, The Show Must Go On:

I have already posted a comparison of this previously with MAC's Bad Fairy, but here it is on its own in all its glory. The Show Must Go On is an amazing foily duochrome which alternates between shades of bright red and orange and gold. Its beautiful and sparkly and bright and I absolutely love it. Even though oranges aren't usually my new thing ("Whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed..." - Legally Blonde), this one has enough variety and enough deeper tones to lure me in!

This is three coats plus one coat of Seche Vite. Two coats would probably have been enough if I was more careful with my application, but I did three here.

Next up, Let Me Entertain You:

I LOVE this colour! Deliciously juicy fuchsia jelly with glass fleck glittery bits. Thirst-quenchingly luscious...this is two coats with Seche Vite on top. This is my favourite of this whole collection - if I didn't know that it was a chemical cocktail of potentially lethal ingredients, I would be drinking it by the pool this summer.

Next up, two of the glitters. First we have Show It and Glow It:

Blingy multicoloured glitter suspended in a clear base. The majority of the glitter is this pinky purple colour, and there is a lot of silver in there too. These types of polishes are so hard to capture on camera - it just doesn't seem to reflect the amazingly sparkly nature of this polish. You really need to see this in person to appreciate its blingtastic goodness! This is three coats with Seche Vite on top.

Last but not least, Sparkle-icious:

Another multicoloured glitter. This one is composed of lots of blue, pink and gold glitter, and there is a slight predominance of gold on the nail. As for the previous glitter, the photos do not reflect the amazingly blingy nature of these polishes!

Just a word of warning on the glitters before you coat your nails in their dazzling goodness - if you have not heard of the foil method of removal, google it and memorise it before you attempt to remove these beauties. Otherwise you will be sitting there for half an hour scrubbing the glitter off your poor tortured fingers. Acetone and foil are your friend...

Well that's the selection I got from the Burlesque Collection. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!!

MCB