Nicole by OPI - Holiday Magic

For the Holidays this year Nicole has released a set of four shades that are supposed to " complement winter wardrobes" and "add a magical touch to any occasion". Let's take a look>>>

Bring On The Tinsel - This is a clear base with blue, green, silver, gold and red glitter. At first glance I thought it was red, blue and silver, but no! There is gold and green too! This is 4 coats. It's not full coverage but it looks good on it's own.

Spark My Mistletoe - This is a fiery red glitter with large, holographic, hexagon glitter thrown in. The red also flashes gold which I just love. This is definitely going to be a layering polish. I am thinking of all kinds of layering combos for this...

Stuck In The Chimney - This is a soft, brick red. I keep wanting to call this mulberry, but I don't think I know what color a mulberry is. This has a bronze shimmer throughout that I really love and I love the name!!

Kiss Me At Midnight - Vampy burgundy with red shimmer. This speaks for itself. It reminds me of Sinful Colors - Rich In Heart but that shade may have been darker. This color got noticed when I wore it. Lots of compliments.

Overall I love this set! Great little holiday collection and unique in comparison to other collections out. Great shades and great formula.

Nicole - Holiday Magic should be out now and is available at ULTA, Meijer, Harmon, HEB and Sears.

What do you think?
:c)

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

OPI Burlesque Shimmers (Part II)

The second part of the OPI Burlesque collection is made up of various shimmers from foily shimmers, to glass-flecked shimmers and more. Take a look >>>

Ali's Big Break - This is a bright, candy apple red with irregular shaped shimmer. This is bold and spicy and I loved wearing this.

Tease-y Does It - This is a brownish purple with a glowy shimmer. It's vampy but not so dark it doesn't have it's own color and character. I love this.

Rising Star - Bold, slightly foily, shimmery yellow gold. It looks like what you would get if you crossed Nubar - Caramello and Nubar - Oro from the Venetian Glass collection.

Take The Stage - Burnt orange, slightly foily shimmer. Also similar to the oranges in the Venetian Glass collection.

Let Me Entertain You - Glass-flecked fuchsia. Very pretty and hot! Super similar to Zoya - Allegra. Like, practically dupes. It just seemed to me like Allegra was thinner, or it just took more because it has a smaller brush than the OPI but I got LMEY on in two coats and it took 3 with Allegra.

The Show Must Go On - This is my favorite!! I may even like this one more than all the glitters! :cO This is a hot pink foil with a gold/copper duochrome shimmer. It's much like MAC - Bad Fairy, but better! They are not dupes, but they have similar properties which makes me compare them. For all the days I was wearing this all I could think is "This is so much better than Bad Fairy!" The colors differ because Bad Fairy is deeper and more cranberry and The Show Must Go On is more like a hot strawberry. The similarities are the finish and the gold/copper duochrome, but the base color is much different. They do look similar in the bottle though don't they?!>>
What do you think of Part II of Burlesque?
:c)
-Elaine

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Nubar Venitian Glass Fall 2010

I hate to tell you guys, but the days are getting shorter. It may be hard to believe. I know I don't considering it is 90 degrees outside right now, but trust me! The days of Fall are coming and Nubar's newest collection is making me wish it would come faster! ...Only for polish... I really love summer

Inspired by traditional Venetian Glass, Nubar's Venetian Glass Collection captures the brilliant colors and flawless craftsmanship of the ancient, traditional handmade glass of Venice. With vivid hues, a strong glass-flecked shimmer, and rich color saturation, these shades are as memorable as their inspiration.

Arencia - ORANGE! This is a glowing, bold orange. It reminds me of my fave: Sinful Colors - Courtney Orange, but glass-flecked instead of shimmer. Really, really hot. This could pass for a summer shade, but it did remind me of pumpkin patches when I put it on.

Bronzo - This is a more mellow shade than Arencia. It is a sort of toned-down, slightly burnt orange, copper color. Very Fall. It does look a lot like the A Perfect "10" shade I posted.

Caramello - This is a very deep, bold gold that looks just like it's name: caramel. It's like glass-flecked caramel sauce with a bit of a foil finish. This feels very dramatic, and antique-y. I really like this shade.

Oro - Whoa! This is a very, very bold, yellow gold. This is serious, attention getting shade. It reminds me of Zoya - Goldie, but on steroids. This was my first official mani from this collection.

Rosso - This is a red glass-fleck and although I would normally say "it's red, move on," I really like this red! It is very shimmery and pretty and I will definitely wear it.

Vino - Ooh. So sexy! This burgundy is the deepest of the bunch, but not too dark. It can be appreciated for it's color and I love the way it has glints of purple.

Verde - THE STAR OF THE SHOW! I love this! It's probably a given that this would be the fave of this collection. It's a blue sided, evergreen tree green with loads of gold glass-fleck shimmer. I have it on now and it's mesmerizing. I don't have Zoya - Edyta to compare, but they appear to be the about the same. I also hear that's true from a favorite, trusted blogger.

Vaso - The oddball. I love it for that reason. I mean really, where does a light lavender fit into this collection? It is very pretty though. I was worried prior to trying it that I wouldn't like it because it has this weird frosty look. Do you see it? Instead of looking like a super shimmer, glass-fleck like the rest of the bunch, the white shimmer in it makes it look sort of... crinkled? It's a strange effect, but I still like it on my nails.

The formula on these is fantastic. If you do really thin coats you'll have to do three, but a thin to medium coat will give you two-coat coverage for every shade. This are all very well pigmented, have an easy to control formula (I didn't have to do any clean-up for any of these swatches) and they all have a serious glass-fleck to even almost a foil finish. These are probably even better in person. I did the best I could to get good, clear swatches in strong sun but even then I couldn't capture all the beauty. This is a top-notch collection. I was slightly miffed at the 5 colors all in the red/gold/orange family, but they all are different, and they all capture the essence of Fall along with Vino and Verde so it makes a great Fall collection. And I am assuming since this is based on ancient Venetian glass making, this were the prominent shades used in that time, so it makes a lot of sense that those are the colors in this collection.

What do you think about Venetian Glass?
This collection is available now at www.bynubar.com. It retails for $7.49 a bottle or $49.95 for the eight piece set. Also, for a limited time, if you order the 8 piece set you get a bottle of Nubar Diamont Top Coat (which is a great top coat) and Foundation Base Coat free.

-Have a great weekend!
-Elaine
:c)

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Black Label OPIs

I'm back with more. Told you I would be!

I got a hold of a few black label OPI nail polishes from a friend. What does "black label" mean? I will tell you:

Nowadays most new nail polishes are free of the 3 big "bad" chemicals: toulene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). You will often polish-heads refer to them as "the big three" and polishes without them as "big three free" or "B3F".

You can quickly spot bottles that have had their chemical formulations changed among some of our favorite brands, such as OPI, Essie and China Glaze by their labels. Newer China Glaze bottles have black labels with white writing, indicating they are B3F, where as older bottles have white labels with black writing, meaning they were made before the formulation change.

The same is true of OPI, but a little different. Newer polishes released by OPI have white labels with green text, and older bottles before the formulation change have white labels with black text, deeming them "black label OPIs".

Black label on left, green label (B3F) on right

I recently explained this to a friend and she was intrigued. While visiting family she snagged a few OPIs from her sister for me to play with since they were black label, meaning they may be pretty old. I suspect some may be extremely old. I have never even heard of any of these shades. Want to see? Sure!

Royal Flush Blush - This is a blush pink metallic. Has some brush strokes but I could live with it. I don't know that I would actually ever wear it though.

Pink-Ing of You - Now this one I have heard of. Unfortunately this one broke on my friend. I really don't trust OPI bottles. She managed to save most of it and put it in a Cover Girl bottle. The application was rather horrible. I needed to do 4 coats and it still isn't even but it may be because of the Cover Girl brush. I don't know.

God Save The Queen's Nails - I love this one for the name. And that is about it. The application was rather uneven and needed three coats. And the color rather bores me. Burgundy shimmer...whatever. Next.

Gala Gold - This I can get on board with. This is a gold shimmer. I did three coats for this swatch. What I love about it is that it is not like any other gold I have seen. It isn't a warm yellow gold, but it isn't a neutral or rose gold either. It is like a peach gold? Does that make sense? Whatever it is I like it a lot.

Japanese Rose Garden - Oooh. Another winner. I know it is pink, but it is a pink I really like! It is a creamy, cool pink with a bit of silver shimmer. This swatch is two coats.

Prince George's Passion - Another great name! This is a dusty brick red creme. I am sure OPI has a million of them but this one is nice. This swatch is two coats for the camera, but I wore it as a mani a couple weekends ago and I was able to do just one coat! And it looked great! I wore it for a few days.

Hawaiian Orchid - Another winner! This is a sheer which I wouldn't normally get excited about, but I want to use it for a french mani real bad. It is super smooth and streak free and it has a bit of a blueish flashy shimmer.

Mother Road Rose - I found this rather similar to God Save The Queen's Nails so another snooze fest really, but the application was better than GSTQN. This was two coats.

So overall I like these a lot. Mostly I was excited to try some older shades I may have had a hard time finding if I really wanted to get a hold of them. I would have loved to get like, Rainforest, or some other highly sought after black label but these are nice too!

What do you think? Are you going to go inspect your bottle labels now?!
:c)
-Elaine

Naughty Nailz 'XX' Collection Swatches

Hello all! Today is day 2 of 3 of my Naughty Nailz posts. I hope you are excited! Today we will be looking at the XX Collection, and like I said yesterday: with each added "X" the names get saucier, so be prepared!

Creamy Climax Dream - Metallic white shimmer. Similar to yesterday's The Big "O", but CCD is more bright white than off white, and it has a metallic, brush-strokey finish, as opposed to TBO's shimmer finish.

Spank Me, I'm Naughty - This is a baby pink metallic, but it looks much more pink in the bottle than on the nail.

Hooker Pink - I love this name and I love this color! If I go for a pink, it is colors like this! Hot pink/fuchsia. This has a hot pink flash to it too that makes it really special.

I'm Not Really A Whore - I love this name too! This is a nice, cool toned, sharp red with a gold shimmer. In the bottle you can see the shimmer is gold and that there is a lot of it, but not so much on the nail. I do still like it though. I chose this as my first official "Naughty Mani".

Left Him Cuffed To The Bed - Shade and sun. This is an awesome color because it is a dark burgundy, but has that jelly quality. That is why it needs a sun and shade pic. You can see how deep and bold the color is in the shade, but in the sun you can see that it has that translucent jelly finish. Really awesome.

Secret Carpet Burn - This is a bold red. Like yesterday's Red Thong In Divorce Court, this is as red as it gets, but has a more jelly end result. It is reminiscent of Essie - Lollipop.

I yet again have to rave for the formula. These babies go on super smooth and are neither too thick nor too thin. They go right where you want them and aren't streaky at all. The only problem children were Creamy Climax Dream and Spank Me, I'm Naughty but they are metallics so they are almost as a rule going to be more difficult to apply, and will have a "brush-strokey" look.

Stay tuned for the finale: the XXX Collection!

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Nubar Modern Matte

Hey! I got my Nubar Mattes from Beauty Judy's giveaway and I swatched them to share! They come in a little plastic baggie/carrying case and they are are all shimmery and very matte. Judy also sent me a little something extra to share a taste of Philly with me! They are a box of Tasty Kake, Butterscotch Krimpets. They are a soft, yellow cake like a Twinkie, but without the filling, and they have a butterscotch icing on top. Yum! I seriously opened the box and shoved one in my face before I even looked at the polishes!! I have a major sweet tooth. I did the same thing when Tuli sent me polishes (here). She sent along some chocolates, and I dove into those before getting to the rest of the package! I think if I sold polish, I would send them with sweets in every box! Wouldn't that be great.


Vital - Sun and shade - I wore this one as soon as they came. It was vital. It is a royal purple shimmer with blue and pink shimmer. It reminds me of grape juice.


Prevail - Sun and shade - Grayed purple matte shimmer. Sorry for the speck on the middle finger. I got something on it while painting. It's not the fault of the polish. The shimmer in this is dense and gorgeous. It's like a peach shimmer. I love the way it looks with the shade of this polish.

Avant-Garde - Sun and shade - Brownish, burgundy matte shimmer. I think this is perfect for fall.


Contempo - Sun and Shade. Bright red matte shimmer. This is a smidge brighter than Zoya - Posh, but they look pretty much the same.

And to showcase how shimmery they are, I put on a topcoat which really makes the shimmer pop. They look beautiful:

Vital - With topcoat and without

Prevail - With topcoat and without

Avant-Garde - With topcoat and without

Contempo - With topcoat and without


Nubar Modern Matte Collection is available at bynubar.com. They retail for $7.49 each, or $24.95 for the set, which saves you $5.01

Thanks to Beauty Judy and Nubar for the giveaway!

Jesse's Girl Nail Polish Swatches

I don't have Rite Aid in Chicago (boo) but I do in New York, so I went to see what I could find and was surprised by a brand I never heard of before: Jesse's Girl. They had all kinds of pretty cosmetics, but I of course was only concerned with the nail polish! I picked up 5:
Cherry
Garnet
Gunmetal
Magenta
Confetti

All the polishes have simple, self-explanatory names. Not very exciting, but at least to the point.

Cherry - Pinkish red shimmer. Very shimmery

Garnet - Burgundy creme. Not too dark. Very pigmented.

Gunmetal - Gray shimmer. This one was the only that I felt needed 3 coats.

Magenta - Magenta shimmer. Cool, bright and shimmery.


Confetti - Blue and purple bar glitter in a clear base. Applies smooth and even.

I thought all of these had great application. The formula was smooth and easy to work with. The colors are nice and the shimmers are very shimmery! I love the bottle, but the square top can be a little difficult to brush with. Not to worry: You can pop off the top for a small, round handle if you prefer:

This was a wonderful introduction to Jesse's Girl cosmetics. They can be found at Rite Aid stores and at jessesgirlcosmetics.com
On the website I discovered even more polishes than I saw in the store.
They retail for $2.99