Makeup Withdrawal

Showing posts with label OPI. Show all posts

OPI Sheer Tints

Thursday, April 3, 2014

A few weeks ago my favorite nail supply shop had the new OPI Sheer Tints so I snatched them up. I had envisioned doing some sort of plaid manicure with them and was excited because tints/jellies are among my favorite types of nail polish.

OPI Snow You Love Me

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Hi folks!

I have a billion silver holo glitters but when I saw this at the nail supply yesterday, I instantly knew it'd come home with me. What makes OPI Snow You Love Me from the holiday Mariah Carey collection different?

Take a closer look at the glitter.

Sorry, definitely not my best macro. The base of Snow You Love Me is really cloudy so it does macros no favors, really distorting images. It's silver holographic circle glitter, with overlapping circles on the glitter! The overall effect makes the glitter look like sequins that lay perfectly flat on the nail.

They are extra reflective and rainbow-y because of the holo circles printed on each round piece of glitter. The bad news is that the bottles settles really badly. The first picture in this post was taken after shaking the bottle for a while. After a few minutes, the glitter settles and it looks like the bottle is just half filled with base. Cloudy base at that. Insert frown face here.

I won't lie, though it makes me sad that the base is murky and the glitter is sparse, it's still incredible looking and I'm so glad to have it!

Products featured were purchased by me, for my own use. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

New for Holiday 2013: OPI Pure 18k White Gold & Silver Topcoat

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Hi folks! Two posts again in one night? Lucky you! Hah no, actually I picked up something really exciting today and just couldn't wait to blog about it.

Today I happened upon the new gold leaf topcoat that OPI is releasing this year for the holiday Mariah Carey collection. It's called simply Pure and is made up of 18k white gold and silver. There's definitely a yellow tinge to both the gold and the clear base but I think it still looks very white against dark colors.

This is one coat over OPI Roadhouse Blues. What do you think? Did you pick up The Man With the Golden Gun last year? Will you be getting this one?

Since I bought this at an independent nail supply with pro pricing, I'm not sure how much this will go for as retail. I'm guessing very close to the cost of Man With the Golden Gun though.

Products featured were purchased by me, for my own use. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

31 Day Nail Challenge v2: Orange Nails

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

My friend Deborah is amazing, you know what she tracked down for me? A bottle of the elusive OPI Black Spotted! If you hadn't heard about this polish before, it is an extremely hard to find lacquer. It came out in French Sephoras with the OPI Spiderman collection and hasn't been released elsewhere (edit: been notified that it was also found in the Netherlands!). I had previously been given a small decant of the rare liquid but hadn't really used it since I didn't want to waste it.

For today's orange nails I wore OPI Black Spotted over Catrice Copper Cabana (another polish given to me by Deborah! ♥ ) Funny thing about this polish, even though it looks really neat it is really hard to use! There's definitely a learning curve, for me it was much harder to master than crackle polish. You have to apply it on completely dry polish or else crack will form. Also, you need to do a single super thin coat with minimal over lap or else the spots won't form. This is my fourth attempt at using Black Spotted and my nails still look rather different.

If you can't get your hands on OPI Black Spotted, give this tutorial for water spotted nails by Cute Polish a try.

Products featured were given to me by a friend. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Some OPI Spam

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Hi folks, I hope you're enjoying your weekend! I myself am off to the beach with Morgan and family. If it seems like every weekend I'm off somewhere, well... it's because I am. I'm so happy that I've really been able to spend my weekends exploring California.

I've done spam by color and finish, but not yet brand so today's nail spam is all OPI. I used to buy quite a bit of OPI when I still shopped at pro stores, but in recent years have not collected very many. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the spam!

OPI Stay The Night. Three coats. From the Mariah Carey Collection, the first of this kind of texture to hit the market. Dry time is sort of slow, and when fully dry the finish is not as gritty as I would like. I prefer this with topcoat.

OPI My Private Jet. Three coats. I have the brown non-holo version. I know it's not as spectacular, but I think it is pretty in its own right. Brown and sort of opalescent with chunky silver holo micro glitter.

OPI Black Cherry Chutney. Three coats. Blackened wine shimmer. 99% of the time, this looks pretty much black to me. Only when you hold it up to a super bright light do the edges of the nail look slightly reddish. For the longest time I put off buying Every Month is Oktoberfest because I thought it would look like this (good thing it doesnt!)

OPI Russian Navy Suede. Two coats. Ahh, Suedes! So gorgeous. You have to apply these quickly because they dry really fast (and on some people tend to chip pretty fast) but I think they are so worth it.

OPI Roadhouse Blues. Three coats, I think. Don't quote me on that. Gorgeous dark indigo. I bought this because it's pretty close in color to OPI Sapphire In the Snow which I don't own and can't really find. See LaquerWear's comparison.

OPI Chopstick-ing To My Story. Three coats. The Hong Kong Collection was from spring of '10. My photo makes it look bolder and more saturated than it actually is. Actually, if you google this shade it's hard to find a picture that accurately shows how murky and faded this burnt orange creme is. Trust me on this one? I still really love it, it's a 'pretty ugly' shade to me.

OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston. Three coats. What did they call this finish again? Sorbet? Something like that. A lovely punchy jelly.

OPI DS Mystery. Three coats. This polish used to really disappointment because of how little those golden flecks actually showed up on the nail. In time, my annoyance has subsided and I now sort of like this polish. Sort of.

OPI Tease-y Does It. Three coats. From the 2010 Holiday Burlesque Collection. This is one of my all time favorite polishes! When it first came out, I thought I could pass on it. I don't know what I was thinking. I spent the first few months in 2011 trying to track it down, it was sold out in most the beauty supplies I checked. Finally I snagged it at CosmoProf on clearance! A purple-y brownish base with really nice wine flecks that shift a little in color.

Hope you enjoyed the spam!

Products featured were purchased by me or swapped for by me. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Ikat Manicure

Saturday, February 2, 2013

So I originally tried a heart manicure today and it was absolute rubbish. Really, just terrible. I don't do hearts very well, ok? Or pink. So I scowled, scrubbed it off my nails and tried again.

I used: OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, American Apparel Lopez Canyon, American Apparel Raccoon and American Apparel California Trooper.

Surprisingly, I really liked the brown in this manicure. I think I need to incorporate it into nail art more often, it looks so lovely with orange.

Thanks for checking it out!

Products featured were purchased by me, for my own use. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Fifty Words or Less Reviews- Vol. 1

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

I think this is a common thing for beauty bloggers- we'll try out a product and we're just plain lukewarm about it. I mean, it can be a decent, nice product... just nothing to wax poetic over. Or even if something is fantastic, it's pretty much straight forward and there's not that much to say about it. So I present to you Fifty Words or Less- a series of reviews in which I group together a few products and get it out of a way. Because I just don't love or hate these products enough to warrant each their own post.

OPI Manicure Pedicure Scrub in Papaya Pineapple.

Gentle, decent sugar scrub. Sugar crystals dissolve easily so it's not as harsh as other scrubs out there. Strongly scented though- too strong for me. Scent lasts through several hand washings and really lingers. A tube will last you forever.

Mary Kay Satin Hands Hand Cream

Heard great things, doesn't live up to the hype. Claims to last through several hand washings- no freakin' way! Non-scented is a plus, but might actually leave my hands drier than they were to begin with. Aveeno Body Moisturizing Lotion is better than this stuff.

Etude House Magic Rice Pack Peeling

Bought it because I mistakenly thought it was a gommage cleanser. It's not. Regular granular type. Smells awful- like household cleaning solutions and medicinal at the same time. Tingled after using it on my face (dislike) so I'll use it up on my hands.

Kose Softymo Deep Cleansing Oil.

Super cheap, bought it on Sasa ($13) because the Speedy Oil was out of stock. Not as good as the Speedy, thicker and doesn't rinse clean- needs a follow up cleanser. Doesn't break me out though. Smells like citrus oils, works decently.

Can you think of anything that you bought recently that you're not terribly excited about?

Products featured were purchased by me, for my own use. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

OPI NYC Ballet Soft Shades- Don't Touch My Tutu Jelly Sandwich

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Good evening! Today I have one of the new OPI shades to show you, from the NYC Ballet Soft Shades collection. I decided to jazz it up a bit by dabbing on a few glitters. On top of two coats of Don't Touch My Tutu, I use a bit of Wet'n'Wild Party of Five Glitters, some Love & Beauty Rust and a touch of Wet'n'Wild Prancer. Then I topped it with another coat of Don't Touch My Tutu.

I was intrigued to see all these delicate jellies in this collection. I especially wanted a white one, so I had to get Don't Touch My Tutu, here's how it looks by itself.

I really like how this looks on my nail. Two years ago, I would have never worn this! It's neat how taste can change. It looks like skim milk pooled onto my nails. The jelly finish is really nice. Unlike CND Cream Washed, which I also own- this doesn't look streaky in the least bit. By itself, I wore three coats.

What do you think of a white jelly? I also bought My Pointe Exactly which I'll show you in a few days.

Product featured was purchased by me, for my own use. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

NYX Peach Ave Over OPI Sapphire In The Snow

Monday, December 12, 2011

Good evening! Tonight, I have an interesting combination to show you. I borrowed a friend's bottle of OPI Sapphire In The Snow last week and fell in love with how perfect this dark, rich indigo creme is. I need to get myself a bottle!
I never actually intended this to be actual mani- I was fooling around and slapped a coat of NYX Peach Ave on top, and the flakes absolutely popped against the dark base color. I think it looks even better than it does on top of black creme.
Here's what Sapphire In The Snow looks by itself:

The only thing about NYX Peach Ave... well, two things actually.
1.) The flakes are very sparse. In these pictures, I had to layer THREE coats of it and there's still not that many flakes on the nail.
2.) There are two different versions of NYX Peach Ave. One has these beautiful multichromatic flakes and the other has these large chunky orange foil bits. They're completely different.

Being the nut job that I am, I have both.
I can do a comparison post about them sometime, if there's interest. With actual pictures.

Have a great night!

OPI Sapphire In The Snow was borrowed from a friend. All other featured products were purchased by me, for my own use. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

OPI Warm & Fozzie Over Black

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Good evening!
Yesterday, I decided to use Warm & Fozzie as a layering polish out of curiosity. I wanted to see what it would look like over black since it was very thin when I wore it by itself.
This is one coat of Warm & Fozzie on top of Wet'n'Wild Black Creme.
I liked the result. In indirect lighting you can clearly see the coppery and bronze particles.

To me, it looks like flakes of metal on top of polished black lacquer wood. I love it when a polish can be worn multiple ways.

I have another post for you tonight, an EOTD.

OPI Muppets Collection: Meep-Meep-Meep

Monday, October 10, 2011

Hello, readers.

My post about Warm & Fozzie polish was full of nostalgia about Fozzie Bear. Not so much with this polish. Didn't really care for Beaker (sorry buddy!).
But let me tell you a story about the word "Meep". It's sort of related. Then I'll talk about the polish.

Once, a long time ago (read: sometime this year) I went to Atlantic City to celebrate my birthday in the most ridiculous fashion we could think of- by spending the night in a city with casinos, lounges and no last call for alcohol. I was there with a close friend of mine, her nice gentleman friend and his pal who was OUT OF HIS MIND. At some point during the night this fellow decided that my name, Mimi, sounded like the roadrunner noise. So periodically he would creep up behind me and go "MEEPMEEP" in my ear.

It was unsettling.

Back to the polish.
I usually don't buy fuchsia or pink polish. This color CALLED to me from the display. It promised me that it would look juicy and delightful on my fingertips. It did not lie. Meep-Meep-Meep has little flakes of magenta, pink and gold in a fuchsia base that you can see in my picture above. It's absolutely dazzling, especially in the sun.
I used three coats. It covered really well, typical of OPI quality.
I think is an all-around pleasing color and that even though it might not be the attention getter among all the crazy glitters in this collection, I bet it'd look great on lots of people if they gave it a chance!

Are you planning to pick up any OPI Muppets polishes?

Hope you have a great rest of the week.

Love,
-Mimi

PS: I'm working on that eye shadow tutorial since there was interest. Soon, I promise.

Products featured were purchased by me for my own use. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

OPI Muppets Collection: Warm & Fozzie

Thursday, October 6, 2011

I finally had a chance to stop by CosmoProf to pick up Muppet polishes from OPI.
I don't remember much from when I was really young, but I remember the Muppets. My favorite was Fozzie Bear. He was friendly, charming and even though he told bad jokes, I thought he was funny.
It's nice to see that OPI paid tribute to him in a beautiful polish that really embodies all his warmth.

image from Muppet Wikia

Warm & Fozzie is a mix of bronze, gold and pink foil particles in a dusky translucent base that gives the whole polish some depth. The pink is very, very difficult to see in my pictures, it's something you have to squint carefully to notice in person. It's very sheer, I found that three coats was not enough. Four was optimal.

In the shade, you can see the gold shift to the orange bronze.

I think this polish represents him perfectly. The gold bronze captures the orangish color of his Muppet fur, the little bit of pink hints at the color of his nose.
This polish does indeed make me feel warm and Fozzie inside.
EDIT: I did a post about this polish worn over black. Click HERE to see it.
Wocka wocka!
-Mimi

Products featured were purchased by me, for my own use. For additional information please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

OPI Crystal File Review

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Hello Reader!
I tricked you a little. I titled this post as a 'review' but it's not really because I couldn't properly use this file.
I love crystal files and last month when I lost my beloved Essie file, I panicked and went out and bought the first file I could find. That ended up being OPI's Crystal File. It was $5ish at CosmoProf.
At first glance, I thought that this file was identical to Essie's. As soon as I pulled out of the protective sleeve, I could tell it was much lighter and thinner than the Essie version. I didn't even get a chance to file my nails- I gently tested the file against one finger (not really a lot of pressure or anything, honest) and it snapped.
I was really disappointed. I used the shards of it, and it did file well (really smooth grit!) but honestly I would NOT recommend this crystal file just because it is just so darn fragile.
Yeah. No thank you. I'll be going back to Essie now.

Do you have a favorite crystal file? Have you tried one yet? (If you haven't, I strongly urge you to).
Product was purchased by me, for my own use.

OPI Texas Collection: It's Totally Fort Worth It

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Hello Readers!

I seem to be short on time lately, I have a big nail display project I'm working on for a competition. So tonight I'm popping in to show you pictures of one of OPI's new Texas polishes called It's Totally Fort Worth It (ah, OPI, your naming schemes never fail to amuse me). It's a fine shimmering grey with larger multicolored (warm, predominately magenta) shimmer bits. This nail polish is really quite sheer, what you see in the pictures is four coats and it's still not opaque. I bet this would make an interesting layering shade but I haven't had the time to test it out on top of other colors yet.

This is one of those polishes where if you aren't careful with the application it will punish you by showing every brush stroke. However, it's such an interesting combination, soft grey with brilliant magenta- certainly something I've never seen before. If you can get your hands on this, I'd say that it's definitely worth having!

All pictures were taken under a lightbox, with flash. 1x Essie First Base, 4x OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It and 1x Sally Hansen Insta Dri.

OPI Texas Collection- Sneak Peak! Swatches and Display

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Howdy Readers!
Guess what I have to share with you today? A sneak peak at the upcoming OPI Texas Collection. Here we have both the display at CosmoProf and a picture of the swatch wheel. Now pay no mind to how blue the display picture is, I had to take it with my cell phone camera and chose the wrong setting. The swatch pictures on the other hand, are much truer to the actual colors.
The girl working at CosmoProf gave me such a weird look when I asked if I could take a picture of the display- equal parts disdain, I-think-you're-crazy eyeball rolling and surprise. But what do I care? I get to show you a new collection.
Half of this collection contains warm, fruity colored cremes while the other half contains a few interesting surprises.

The shades that intrigue me the most include I Want To Be A-Lone Star (a pale pearly blue with lavender shift) and Don't Mess With OPI (a cheeky green creme) but I wouldn't associate either one of those shades with Texas!
Maybe it's just me- what do you think of this upcoming Texas collection?

OPI Designer Series Extravagance

Friday, December 17, 2010

Indoors, under lightbox, no flash
2x Extravagence, no top coat (which is why the finish looks rather flat)

Hello dear readers!

Ah, just look at this polish. There aren't even words to describe how beautiful it is. Let's just take a moment to take in the dazzling photos.

This holo makes me almost cry with joy. It's just so stunning! And to think, I almost didn't buy it- I picked the bottle up on a whim at Cosmo-Prof and almost put it back.

This magenta scattered holo doesn't just sparkle... it's like an array of jewels on your nails, each facet shining brilliantly. It only took to coats for it to look completely opaque, and the application was amazing! I really like how well OPI DS polishes apply, they just glide on and level so well.

Let's look at some more pics!

Indoors, flash. With topcoat- 1x Sally Hansen Insta Dri

Look at that amazing color!

I've been really lucky with nail polishes lately. I've had a slew of really gorgeous polishes in the last few weeks!

On a side note, my nails look kind of thick because I just had acrylics put on. *hangs head in shame* I know, I love natural nails but with the upcoming holiday festivities, I knew it'd be really hard for me to maintain attractive looking hands so I choose artificial nail enhancements, just till January 2nd! That's when I'll soak 'em right off. I like how even they look though, and how well nail polish holds to the acrylic material. Usually my nails chip or I get tip wear within 24 hours, no matter what combination of top coat and basecoat- but I can count on acrylics to look good for a few days at least.

Anybody else do anything different for their nails for the holidays?

Product was purchased by me for my own use.