OPI Major League Baseball Collection Swatches and Review...

Hi Everyone! Today I have another OPI collection to show you. This is the Limited Edition OPI Major League Baseball collection. It features 7 lacquers inspired by the sport with fun names to boot and aims to give the female fans of the sport something fun to sport (no pun intended) on their nails while cheering for their favorite team...

Polished by KPT Sunday Rose

Mother's Day is just around the corner, are you prepared? I promise, this isn't a public service announcement, it is just my introduction for the beautiful Polished by KPT Sunday Rose thermal lacquer. Sunday Rose is part of a Mother’s Day Manicure box set created in collaboration with Serum No. 5...

Nicole by OPI: Wel-Kim to My World - Kardashian Kolors for Spring 2012

Nicole by OPI is releasing a collection titled Wel-Kim to My World which includes six polishes to add to the existing Kardashian Kolor collection. They are due to hit stores in April. The additions include three creams, two shimmers and a glitter. All are sweet and light, perfect for spring. They all feature "Kim" as part of the name...

Golden Globes Inspiration + Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl

I didn't actually watch the golden globes, but I did see photos of the beautiful dresses online and couldn't help but be inspired. One of them was the elegant dress worn by Angelina Jolie. I wanted to recreate the sharp bright red triangle against a pale pearly backdrop for the manicure.

To achieve this I used Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl, then taped off the nails and added the accent using Wet 'n Wild Caught Red Handed. The red bled from under the tape in a few spots, but overall I'm really pleased with how these turned out...

On it's own Tokyo Pearl is a white pearl frost. It starts out very sheer, but does build up nicely. I applied three coats and the nail line was only barely visible. My problem with these types of polishes (and this was no exception) is not their sheerness, but the streaking. It is not forgiving to imperfect application and shows every flaw. In addition dry time even with a fast drying top coat was painfully slow. I waited an hour before applying the tape and still had problems. It was cute for a manicure, but not a polish I would reach for if I needed something quick.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Main Line Color Name/Number: Tokyo Pearl, 112 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

As always, let me know what you think!
Did you watch the Golden Globes or get inspired by any of the dresses? :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Sinful Colors - Wish Collection Swatches & Review

I got the chance to review the new Wish holiday collection from Sinful Colors. It consists of five base colors and two nail art polishes. The collection has a nice variety of colors to play around with. Since there are lots and lots of photos, I'll try to make the text sweet and to the point :)

Out of this World is a nice pearly silver color. Application was great with surprisingly good coverage after two coats. I'll admit I was worried this one would never be fully opaque, but I was proven wrong. I hesitate to call this a full foil, but it did apply like one. I think it would look perfect sponged over blue, but that is for another day.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Out of this Wold, 842 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Midnight Blue is a bright metallic blue. It is a gorgeous color although a bit too much for my skin tone. It came out slightly lighter than bottle color. Application was good with full coverage in two coats. Removal was a pain and resulted in a major case of smurf hands. Make sure to use a good base coat with this to protect your nails and remove very carefully to avoid staining.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Midnight Blue, 13 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Sugar Sugar is a bright metallic red with a slight shimmer. This one is not new to my collection, but it is one of my favorites. I have swatched it here before. I also used it for a 4th of July manicure and the inspired by a flag challenge from the 31 day challenge. I didn't see the harm in swatching it again though, so here it is :D Application for this is good with two coats for full coverage.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Sugar Sugar, 839 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Daddy's Girl is a purple jelly with multichrome specks. This is such a gorgeous polish in the bottle. The specks flashed everything from purple to magenta to gold and at the right angle I could see green and blue. Sadly, it came out very sheer and none of those colors showed up on the nail. I applied three coats and a top coat. Otherwise, no bald spots or pulling with this jelly so application was good.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Daddy's Girl, 841 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Daddy's Girl over Black on Black:
Since Daddy's Girl was so sheer, I decided to try it over Sinful Colors Black on Black. This is one coat of Black on Black with two coats of Daddy's Girl. Ahhh, just look at those flecks. I love it. It did loose some of it's beautiful purple in the process so next time I will try it over a deep purple as a base and see if I can still capture those flakies. :)

You can click to zoom in for more detail...

Last Chance is a deep forest green creme. It came out darker than bottle color for me and in some light looked almost black. I have no complaints though, since I love dark colors. Application was good and it covered completely in two coats. This did stain my nails a bit upon removal, so again I recommend using a nice base coat with this.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Last Chance, 948 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Now on to the the Nail Art polishes in the collection...

Flower Girl is a gold foil with a nice, easy to work with striping brush. I chose to just draw a few lines and dots over Daddy's Girl (over Black on Black). I didn't want to take this one off. Came out so cute :)
The only problem I had with this is the smell. It is much stronger than any Sinful Colors polish I have tried. I'm not sure the reason behind this as it is also Formaldehyde, Toluene, and DBP free. :(

Fashionista is a silver glitter in a clear base. I tried it over Last Chance for my manicure. This one does not make sense to me in a nail art form as it does not allow for precise drawing. The glitter just goes where it wants, as most glitters do. Just like Flower Girl, this one also had a nasty smell. 

What do you think of this collection? Have you tried any of these colors or nail art polishes?

** These polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Ulta Princess

On my latest trip to Ulta I decided to give the store brand a try. I was drawn to the dark and creamy colors, but instead I convinced myself to get something light and spring-like. Among a few others, I got the Ulta (Salon Formula) polish named Princess. Princess is a very sheer, pearly coral color. I expected it to be more opaque, but maybe that was just wishful thinking. This is three coats plus a top coat, the nail line clearly visible.

Outside, overcast:

Compare the next two photos and you can see how depending on the slight light change it goes from pearly/shiny to very transparent. An aspect of pearly colors I really dislike :(

I decided I would try layering it since I was not to keen on how it looked by itself. Sinful Colors Soul Mate was still fresh on my mind from yesterday's post and happened to be a similar coral color. I decided that just maybe they were Soul Mates :D

This is one layer Sinful Colors Soul Mate and two layers Ulta Princess.

Actually caught some sun this time around!

Not too bad, I like the layering of these two. You get the opaqueness and shimmer, but I thought that unless it is out under direct sunlight, most of the time Sinful Colors just stole the show. So that led me to some thinking, which led to a franken, which lead to a kind of fail...

I thought that by mixing the two colors, I could adjust the proportions and get the best of both worlds in one polish. WRONG! I mixed 1/4 SC Soul Mate with 3/4 Ulta Princess and got... wait for it... Soul Mate with the teeniest, tiniest shimmer. That's right, even with 3/4 of the bottle being Ulta Princess (what a waste), Soul Mate just overtook the whole show.

See the shimmer? I didn't think so :D

OK, so it redeemed itself a little bit outside, but still kind of meh, not what I expected. I still like the color, but maybe if I had not seen the two colors separately, I would have liked this one more...

 What do you think? Is it better alone, layered, mixed, or maybe not at all?

Brand: Ulta Collection: Salon Formula Color Name/Number: Princess Toulene, Formaldehyde and Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) free

And here is some Wacky Laki math for you:

3/4

+ 1/4

=

Thanks for looking as always :D
Anutka

Cover Girl Snowflake Frost

After wearing dark on my nails, I was in the mood for something nice an light. This is Snowflake Frost from the Cover Girl Nail Slicks collection. It is a very pretty sheer pearly metallic color. Depending on how the light hits it, it is either very pearly/shiny or barely there transparent. I applied 3 coats and the nail line was still visible.

The visible nail line doesn't usually bother me, but with this polish at certain angles it looked dirty and streaky instead of the pretty pearly color I wanted. I decided to try it over white, to keep the white pearly color, but hide the nail line. I used French White Cream from Wet and Wild underneath the CG Snowflake Frost. I really like how it turned out. Looks like I'm wearing pearls on my nails. Will do this combo again for sure.

This is two coats of French White Cream followed by two coats of Snowflake Frost and a topcoat...

Here is a little side by side comparison... Snowflake Frost by itself (left) vs Snowflake Frost over French White Cream (right).

Brand: Cover Girl
Collection: Nail Slicks
Color Name/Number: Snowflake Frost 020

What do you think? Is it better on it's own or over white?

Anutka