OPI Swiss Collection, Fall 2010

For Fall this year, OPI went for another one of their signature "location" collections. This time the theme is Switzerland. I would love to go to Switzerland. Do some skiing! It's on the list of places to visit. Hope I get there one day. For now I will wear these and pretend.

Glitzerland - This is a super shimmer, foil-ish finish shade that we have been seeing a lot of lately. This is a very flattering slightly yellow, warm gold. This swatch is three coats. I thought at first it might be a dupe to China Glaze - Swing Baby, but it's not:

They have the same finish, but Swing Baby is a neutral, champagne color, and Glitzerland is a yellow gold. Different enough to own both.

Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous! - Oooh! This is a foxy charcoal shimmery, foilish shade. It is so seductive! I love the deep charcoal color but it is also so sparkly! Awesome shade. This swatch is three coats.

Yodel Me On My Cell - This is a mesmerizing aqua shimmer It is definitely blue, but has the slightest smidge of green to it too. I really love this. I believe I did three coats for this swatch because a couple nails had bald spots after two.

Ski Teal We Drop - This is a dreamy smooth, medium to dark teal creme. Not much more to say but AWESOME.

I'm Suzi & I'm a Chocoholic - I thought this was going to be the shade I liked the least, and it is actually the one I like the most! Weird. I love this shade but hate the name! Chocolate is brown, not red! The first coat is more red and by the second coat it is much more brown, which I liked. It is so smooth and dreamy. I love it! The pic makes it look more red in the bright sunlight, but it was pretty brown otherwise. The pic also doesn't make it look as creamy and dreamy as it should because I smudged my topcoat.

The Color to Watch - This color I didn't have high expectations for. It was thin and needed three coats, which I expected. I did end up liking this on my nails and actually wore it, which I did not expect. It is delicate, interesting, pretty but not flashy.

Overall I am impressed with these shades. I would wear them all. Great shades for fall, which is right around the corner. I wish there were more two coaters than three coaters, but for a great color it's worth it. Plus the Pro-Wide brush helps speed up application so doing a third coat isn't so bad.

Other shades in OPI Swiss:

• Color So Hot it Berns
• Cuckoo For This Color
• Diva of Geneva
• From A to Zurich
• Just A Little Rösti At This
• William Tell Me About OPI

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.

Gold and Diamonds

Hello!

So I think I am just too cute. Look what I came up with using an Orly Foil FX shade, Rage:

So what I did: I started with Rage which is this incredible, shimmery, molten metal, foil, rose gold. Then I stamped "twinkles" and diamonds with black polish and Konad plate M14. "Big deal, Laine. What is so damn cute about that?" WELL!! This is what. I added prismatic glitter to the diamonds with Cover Girl - City Lights top coat and that made the diamonds look like they are twinkling! CUTE!

(Blurred to show the holographicness)

What do you think?

:cD
-Elaine

Vintage Vixen Swatches - "Hotsy Totsy"

Hello Everybody! I have a very exciting post today: One half of the China Glaze Fall Collection, Vintage Vixen. I have been very excited to see these shades for myself and they do not disappoint. The only way they disappoint me is that they make me wish it was fall!

Vintage Vixen is a collection of 12 foxy, vintage shades and I am showing you them in two parts. Today is going to be the first 6-piece set: Hotsy Totsy. Tomorrow I will show you my swatches of other set.

Okay, ready? >>>

Jitterbug - This is a steel colored, mega shimmer with a sort of foil finish. It's part foily metallic, and part shimmer. Very flashy and hott. This is 2 coats.

Swing Baby - Same concept as Jitterbug but this is a champagne colored shimmery foil shade. This appears to have several different colored particles in it to give it the overall shade it is. It is hard to peg as "cool", "warm" or "neutral". This is on the thinner side than Jitterbug though. I needed three coats.

Bogie - This is a eggplant purple shade with silver shimmer. WOW. I really like this one. I wish it was fall so I could wear it! It doesn't feel like a summer color.

Hey Doll - This is a mauvy, rose with shimmer. Not a color I would normally go for, but it is still pretty.

Ingrid - Ah, the beloved taupe nail polish. Do we have lots of them? Sure, but this one is special thanks to the caramel colored shimmer.

Foxy - A very unexpected surprise. This is a very brown, red shimmer. On coat 1 it looks mostly like a red shimmer (boring), but by the second coat it has a more noticeable brown color to it (awesome). This is another one that is making me wish it was fall.

How pretty are these? I would have normally thought tomorrow's set would be way better thanks to the bold colors like blue and green, but this set is fantastic! There is lots to enjoy here. The formula of these are a bit thin and runny, but very pigmented allowing for two coats on all except for Swing Baby. Hey Doll may need 3 coats but by doing a thicker second coat I was able to get away with just two.

Stay tuned for Part II!!

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.

Laine's Version of the Ruffian Mani

Photo Courtesy of CND

After seeing the nails done by Creative Nail Design (CND) for Ruffian at Fashion Week I had to try it out. Here is the video showing how they got the look:

The inspiration was the night sky. To emulate it they used a dark navy topped with a matte maker and left metallic silver in a crescent shape at the base of the nails for moons. I love it!

I did mine a little different. I used gold foil for the moons, and dark green topped with matte for the majority of the nail, so mine isn't quite like the sky, but it sure is chic!

Here are a couple shot of the finished look shiny, prior to adding a matte top coat:


And here is the look after being mattified:


How I did it: If you look at other posts of my nails, you see that I practice "the gap method" of painting. I stop the brush far before the cuticle and leave a little space to ensure I don't hit the cuticle and make a big mess! But for this mani since I was going to have to do a larger size gap for the moons, I didn't want to take away from the space the moons would have. Therefore, when I put down the gold base (China Glaze - 2030) I went all the way to the cuticle (but still didn't touch it! It was a dangerous game of chicken!). Then I proceeded to paint with Zoya - Envy very carefully as I usually do, but with a huge gap, being the crescent moon. There was no real trick to it. I just worked very slowly and very carefully.

What do you think?!
:c)

-Elaine

Valentine's Day Mani Inspiration

I am assuming whether you are a V-Day lover or a V-Day hater, you are going to do some sort of theme manicure, right? Even if it is an anti-V-Day mani. Well if you are torn on what to dress your nails in for the big day I put together some ideas I had for Valentine's Day manicures to help inspire!

1) This is a base of Essie - Marshmallow, a jelly white, and a smorgasbord of heart stamps done with China Glaze - Romantiques: Awaken, Adore, Admire, Harmony, Cherish, Passion and Devotion. I used Konad plates M3, M35 and M73.

2) This is a base of Essie - Flirty Fuchsia, stamped with Konad plate M4 and Konad Special Polish in red and white. I topped it all off with a holographic glitter topcoat: Cover Girl - City Lights.

3) I wanted to do a manicure that didn't have the usual red, pink or white base. I chose Naughty Nailz - Left Him Cuffed To The Bed for the base (appropriate for Valentine's!). Then I stamped the little swoops with Konad plate M4 and China Glaze - Devotion. Next, I stamped the "Love" and hearts with Konad plate M2 and China Glaze - Admire and Revlon - Punch Chrome.

4) I went a bit more geometric with this one... for a second. Then I messed it all up! In a good way, of course. I started with a base of Orly - Polo Princess. Next, I painted three vertical stripes with LA Colors Art Deco striper polishes in Red Glitter and White. While still wet, I took a needle and pulled across the stripes from left to right to give a mild marbled effect.

5) Now this is not a "mild" marble. This is wild! I water marbled a red, black and white creme. (you can see my tutorial on water marbling here) Then I topped it with two coats of Cover Girl - Disco Dazzle. You could also add a heart - infused polish like below. I wish I had.

6) This is a base of a reddish pink creme: Perfect Chic - 314 and then topped with Nicole by OPI - Love Your Life. I showed you another mani I did with Love Your Life back in November:

This is Sinful Colors - Sugar Sugar with Love Your Life.

7) This one looks sort of like an anti-V-Day mani but it isn't really. I chose Sinful Colors - Happy Ending for the base since the name sounds lovey-dovey. The yellow rhinestones are heart-shaped, and then I added magenta and black to the ring finger.

8) And this one is obviously a V-Day mani. The base is another one of the new Sinful's I showed you, Easy Going and then I stamped the rose with Konad plate M36 and China Glaze - Cherish and Revlon - Punch Chrome.

What do you think? What is your favorite? What are you doing for your Valentine's Day manicure?

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post which will include my favorite Valentine's Day mani! Hmm... what could it be, what could it be? :cD
-Elaine

I'm-Not-Really-Here Green SPAM

Hi everybody! I am on the road for work today so I have a fun, easy post: GREEN SPAM! Enjoy!

Amour - Ellis Green

Maybelline - Lime Aluminum

BB Couture - Laguna Lagoon

Sally Hansen - Make-a-Mint Frost

Barry M - Spring Green

Essence - All Access

A Very Merry Un-Birthday

Here is a little something I rocked over the weekend. I started with a base of NYX - Dancing Queen, then I did a glitter gradient of OPI - Mad As A Hatter and a gradient of Lippmann Collection - Happy Birthday. I call it "A Very Merry Un-Birthday"!

The gradient wasn't very difficult to do. I started at the base, and with less polish on the brush than I would need for the whole nail, I made a couple of swipes only on the bottom third of the nail. Then I pushed a little bit toward the tip to get those few loose looking pieces. I did this with both glitters. Once the glitter was where I wanted it, I added a top coat and viola!

NYX - Dancing Queen, OPI - Mad As A Hatter, Lippmann Collection - Happy Birthday

Have a great Monday!
-Elaine

More Diamond Cosmetics Swatches

Some more Diamond Cosmetics swatches for ya!

Hue Are You? - Cranberry red with heaps and heaps of gold shimmer. 2 coats.

Lemon Yellow Zest - Lovely yellow cream. Very yellow. Almost marigold. I had to do 3 coats to get it all even though.

18K Gold - Oh how I love this bold gold shimmer. It is such a bold yellow-gold that I want to actually call it orange-gold. In 8th grade there was a girl that came to school with a manicure like this and I wanted that color so bad. And now 11 years later, I have it.

Tropical Dream - Soft creamcicle orange with a golden shimmer. 2 coats.

Party Hearty - Awesome champagne foil. I think I may use this as my New Year's Eve mani!

I am so pleased with the colors I bought. I love them all and the formula is great on these too. Mostly 2 coaters and nice easy application. The bottles are slight less than the usual 0.5 oz size. These are 0.43 oz, but that is fine with me.

Diamond Cosmetics can be purchased HERE and are only $2.