[Review+Swatch] OPI Peanuts Collection for Halloween 2014

Press Sample

Hi! I have a quick review of OPI's Halloween collection for you today. This year's collection is inspired by the Peanuts! Who doesn't love Peanuts? Plus, I couldn't wait to try the glitters. :)

Good Grief, 3 coats: medium yellow creme. I found the formula very watery and thin. It's still controllable, but you have to be more careful. Application was a little streaky, but not too bad for a yellow.

To Be or Not To Beagle, 1 coat over Good Grief (left): black hex and bar glitters with matte multicolored hexes. The multicolored glitters are: pale pink, light green, light blue, medium blue, light yellow, light orange, and red. It's very dense so glitter payoff is great. It applies evenly without any problems. Love!

Where's My Blanket, 1 coat over Good Grief (right): black glitter with colored hexes in light orange and pale yellow. It's less dense than To Be or Not To Beagle, but still has good glitter payoff. The consistency is great and it applies evenly.

Who Are You Calling Bossy?!?, 2 coats: black creme. The formula is great - great consistency and good pigmentation. It's not a one-coater, but I can see it becoming one with use after it thickens up a little bit. I'm just guessing though, so don't hold me to it. ^^

Verdict: The cremes for the most part, applied easily without too much trouble. They're not crazy unique, but if you need a nice black or yellow, they're good options. The highlight of this collection are the glitters. Those are definitely unique and perfect for a fun, colorful mani. :)

Availability: Peanuts by OPI and Little Peanuts mini pack can be found at Professional Salons, including Chatters, Planet Beauty and ULTA. Peanuts nail lacquers will retail for $9.50 ($11.50 CAN) each; Little Peanuts mini pack will retail for $13.95 ($17.50 CAN).

[Swatch+Review] Barielle Banana Drop, Satin Glow, & Blue Cotton Candy

Press Sample

Hi guys! Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. Mine was super cold, and it's currently snowing again. I wish it would be spring already! Unfortunately, that won't be for a few more months. In the meantime, I've been enjoying these lovely colors from Barielle.

Banana Drop, 3 coats: pastel yellow creme. Most pale yellows aren't very flattering on me, but this one looked okay! It was a tiny bit streaky, but the third coat evened it out just fine. It was fairly easy to apply and has a smooth, shiny finish. I wore mine with base coat and didn't have any staining either.

Satin Glow, 3 coats: sheer, warm pink crelly with gold shimmer. First off, I really love shimmery creme-jellies, and this one is no exception. It's a bit sheer, but builds up nicely in three coats. It's also a little slow to dry, but expected for this finish. (Think Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely In Love, Sinful Colors Cinderella, Essence Grey-t To Be Here.)

Blue Cotton Candy, 2 coats: teal blue with silver shimmer. I love this one. It reminds me of Cult Nails Let Me Fly, but lighter and dustier. The formula was excellent, as was the opacity. Dry time was good as well.

Verdict: I'm glad I got to try all three of these. None of them were disappointing and lived up to my expectations in both color and consistency.

Availability: Barielle polishes are 5-free and are available for purchase at barielle.com for $8 each.

Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez Collection (Part 1)

Selena, 3 coats: peach creme with hidden shimmer.  One of my favorites from this collection!  It applies well and looks great with my warm skin tone.  The shimmer is barely there, but in the sun you can see a little sparkle.

China Glaze Trendsetter

Look what I found!  These swatches are from over a year ago.  I guess I forgot to post them.  This is Trendsetter from last year's Fall 2011 Metro collection.  Trendsetter is a green leaning mustard yellow with gold shimmer.  It's an unusual color, one I've affectionately nicknamed...er...baby poop.  It's definitely one of those hate it or love it colors.  I personally think it's a great color for fall.  It looks perfect against brown leather. :P

Dr.'s REMEDY "Step Into Summer" Collection

I've reviewed Dr.'s Remedy polishes before, but in case you are new to them, here's a brief description of the brand:

"Dr.'s REMEDY is a line of doctor-inspired cosmetics that is dedicated to using clean, hypo-allergenic ingredients.  Their Enriched Nail Polish is the first-ever nail polish on the market created by doctors and approved by the American Podiatric Medical Association.  Made with organic ingredients, vitamins, wheat protein, tea tree oil, lavender, and garlic bulb extract, Dr.'s REMEDY vegan nail polish is the #1 podiatrist recommended brand."

Dr.'s Remedy's new summer 2012 collection, "Step Into Summer" features three playful colors reminiscent of daisies and tulips.  All swatches below are shown without top coat.

YOUTHFUL Yellow, 4 coats:  "A hue of banana-meets-lemon with here-comes-the-sun subtlety, this shade is matte, marvelous and magical."  I've got a lot to say on this one, so I broke it down into three parts.

Finish:  First of all, this color is not matte.  However, I am so glad it is not matte.  Light yellows tend to have problematic formulas, so adding a matte finish to the equation did not sound enticing.

Formula:  This is one of the better yellows I have used.  It was easy to work with and had good pigmentation.  Youthful Yellow was minimally streaky.  I used a fourth coat for pictures, but you can easily get away with 3 careful coats.  It's also self-leveling so you won't have to smooth it out with top coat.

Color:  I found this yellow worked well with my skin-tone.  A rare find, as most light yellows tend to be a touch too bright.  The color description for this shade actually makes sense to me.  It has the softness of a banana yellow and the brightness of a lemon, making it fall somewhere in between.  I would say it leans more banana than lemon though.  I hope this all made sense, because now I'm just thinking about fruit. -_-

HOPEFUL Hot Pink, 2 coats:  "Hello Kitty never had it so good; this shade of pink is every gal's new best pal, no doubt."  A pretty generic blue pink creme.  I think this color is flattering across all skin tones, so if you don't own one yet, Hopeful Hot Pink is a good option.

GRATEFUL Grape, 3 coats:  "Move over Jolly Rancher, this take on grape has sizzle, shine and a touch of shimmer."  Grape purple would be right on for this one.  It has subtle pink-purple shimmer that comes out to play in the sun.  In terms of the formula, it was thinner than the others, but equally easy to work with.


Verdict:  The collection as a whole features a fun trio of delicious colors fit for summer.  The pink was a bit generic, but the other colors were unique to my stash.  My favorite would have to be Youthful Yellow. :)

Dr.'s REMEDY is sold online at www.remedynails.com or by calling 1-877-323-NAIL.


Liz

*The polishes reviewed in this post were sent to me for my honest review.
Please view my Disclosure Policy for more info.

NOTD: Super Bright Mani

It may be the end of summer, but it's been around 100 degrees lately!  I think it's finally cooling down starting today.  Here's a bright mani I did to say goodbye to summer. :)

Technicolor Nails & Tutorial (Pic Heavy)

Hey all!  I did a mani with this design as the accent finger for Polish-aholics' Monday theme mani yesterday.  A lot of people liked it and Janelle from Life. Love. Nailpolish. requested a tutorial so here it is. :)  I wasn't sure what to name this look, but one of the members said it reminded her of a technicolor version of Jem and the Holograms.  In the end I decided to call it a technicolor mani. ^^

OPI: Simply Smash-ing

Trixie of Nailfiled wanted to see Simply Smash-ing from my latest nail packages.  So here it is!

BYS Wonderland Collection

Minus one.  I got two out of the three in a swap with Ame of GiMiKd Girl!

L to R: Down the Rabbit Hole, Through the Looking Glass

Down the Rabbit Hole is a black jelly base with tons of holographic micro glitter.  This one is really gorgeous in the sun and super sparkly!  I think this was opaque in 3 coats.

Through the Looking Glass has a clear base filled with blue and yellow micro glitter.  This one's apparently a close dupe to OPI's Absolutely Alice.  I think the difference was that Through the Looking Glass had less yellow glitter, which is a shame because it would be perfect with a bit more yellow glitter!  For some reason while I was swatching this, I was determined to get it opaque.  5 coats later it wasn't anywhere near opaque, but I didn't want to take pics of my stained nails.  I noticed China Glaze Blue Iguana is a similar blue to the glitter in here, so I did one coat over the glitter, then another coat of TTLG.  The result?  Amazing!  The blue is a perfect match and you need only one coat as a base.  It actually makes it just look like it's opaque from the blue glitter, not like it has a jelly base.  So I was pleased.  I suggest doing one coat Blue Iguana, than 2-3 coats TTLG. :)

NOTD: Rain, Rain, Go Away

It hasn't been that sunny these past few days, so I haven't really been swatching much.  My pictures don't come out that great unless I have plenty of natural lighting. :/  Today was no exception.  It's dark and gloomy out and earlier there was a crazy downpour of rain.  In hopes of sunnier days, I did a mani that I hope would appeal to the weather gods. :P

I wanted to do an ombre mani, but didn't have enough similar blues.  So I tried my best to lighten some colors with glitter. :P  See how the sky and clouds "gradually" get lighter. :)  On my pinky I drew a nice summery sun.  On my ring finger (third from the right), I used BYS Color Change Royal Blue.  It's actually really nice because it changes lighter or darker, so depending on my temp it gives the ombre a different transition in color.  My favorite is when it's darker toward the tips, cause then it's like the sky is turning lighter...quite literally.

With flash

Here's a complete list of polishes I used for this mani: China Glaze First Mate, BYS Color Change Royal Blue, Essie Coat Azure, Sally Hansen Gray by Gray, Revlon Cloud, Revlon Sheer Cotton, Hard Candy Hick, Sinful Colors Hottie, SC Unicorn, LA Colors Wave Length, Milani Nail Art white.  If you look closely in the flash pic, you might notice a very subtle pink shimmer.  That's from Hard Candy Hick, which I'll review once it gets sunnier.

Hopefully you guys are experiencing better weather!  Max and I are so ready for some more sun.

That window needs some cleaning...

Liz

--
PS. Check out this nice giveaway! :)

Beauty Fulfilled's Blog Birthday- Kaushal's giving away a lot of goodies like nail polish and make-up!

Challenge Tag: Fail Mani

Cristina from Opinionated Little Finger tagged me to do this 3 polish challenge tag.  Cristina's a new nail blogger from France!  She has lovely polish pictures and good reviews so be sure to check out her site. :)

Here are the rules for the challenge:

1. Go to your lacquer stash

2. CLOSE your eyes and pull 3 random items - JUST 3

3. Create a mani from them

4. Post your mani when you post the tag

5. Tag 3 bloggers

I have this things where I need my polishes to be standing upright.  I cringe whenever bloggers post pics of their polishes in a pile, lying on their sides or upside down.  I don't know why, it bothers me. -_-  I feel like it's better for the polish to stand upright, but I have no logical proof for this.  So I gently placed my polishes in a large bag, quickly grabbed three and set them back on their shelf upright. ^^

The three I picked were:
Sinful Colors Mint Apple
Sinful Colors Unicorn
China Glaze Strawberry Fields

I hope this wasn't cheating, but I also used Milani Nail Art polish in white.

I know this challenge has been going on for a while now, so I'd like to tag anyone who hasn't done it yet and would like to.  If you'd like, link your challenge post as a comment, and I'll go check it out. :)

So here's what I did.

Sorry, dry cuticles. >.<

In other words, it was a fail mani.  This was my first time doing legit free hand art, so be gentle. :P  Weirdly enough, I did kind of like it.  It must be that weird pride you get in doing something for the first time.  In case you can't tell, the white is supposed to be a tree branch and the pink flowers. -_-;;

Anyway, if you're eyes are suffering from that, I have a cute mani I'll post later today!


Liz

Sinful Colors Haul

Second post for today!

Here's my Sinful Colors haul of 6 polishes.

From L-R: Unicorn, Black on Black, Social Ladder, Timbleberry, Mint Apple, Green Ocean

This was my second time buying Sinful Colors.  The first time I bought Let's Meet (a shimmery lemon yellow) and What's Your Name? (black with teal glitter).  Both didn't quite live up to my expectations in terms of color and formula, but since these are sold at Walgreens for $1.99, I guess I shouldn't have expected too much.  However, Sinful Colors has some really cute colors and there are some colors that are total gems.  You just have to find them. ;)

From L to R: Social Ladder, Unicorn, Timbleberry, Black on Black, Mint Apple

I used three coats for all of these.  Social ladder is this pale pink tinted white with pink and green shimmer, although the green doesn't show up as much on the nail.  It's pretty and opaque in three coats, but can be a tiny bit streaky.

Unicorn was my least favorite from this haul.  It's a bright light yellow and extremely streaky.  Even after three coats I wasn't satisfied.  Seche Vite did make it more even, but still streaky.  Yellows are known to be streaky, so if you're looking for a good yellow, I'd suggest spending a few more bucks for one with a better formula.  The yellow was also bit too bright for me.  I was expecting a more soft, pale yellow.  This polish also stained my nails yellow! Yuck :(  Be sure to use base coat with this one!

Timbleberry was my favorite out of these and all Sinful Colors polishes I own.  (Hint: This is one of the gems!)  The formula was great and the color was extremely pigmented.  It's this gorgeous bright hot (x100) pink coral.  I could have used 1 coat for this, but two is better.  In the swatch I did three for consistency.  Also...timbleberry?  I don't know if it's supposed to be spelled like that or if was a typo.  It looks like it goes by both Timbleberry and Thimbleberry, but my bottle's label is missing its "h."

Black on Black also had a nice formula like Timbleberry.  I was a bit hesitant to buy it, but Erika from Chloe's Nails seems to love it so I had to give it a try.  And I'm glad I did!  This was also a potential one coater, although I recommend two.  I also layered Green Ocean over it as seen below.

Green Ocean is a clear base with green flakies and regular green, blue, and orange glitter.  The orange seems to be more of a flash but I'm not sure.  I'll let you know once I do a full manicure with it. This is so pretty against a black base, BUT it's so lumpy!  And won't smoothen out. :(  Otherwise, I love it.

Finally, Mint Apple, a shimmery mint green with a subtle gold shimmer.  I've heard a lot about this one, so I bought it to see if it lived up to the hype.  The formula was a bit sheer, but overall it was okay and not streaky.  My swatches aren't showing the exact color of Mint Apple.  This color just wouldn't photograph and my pics are making it bluer than it really is.  It's a lot greener and minty-er...(well, duh).  It's a nice color, but I don't know if I'm loving it as much as the other bloggers.  I think I prefer the more blue Ocean Love Potion from Sephora by OPI.  I haven't done a full mani with this color yet, so maybe my opinion will change.  I'll also do a comparison when I get the chance.

Unicorn was in the Polka Dots display for Sinful Colors, so I tried using it for the dots with Timbleberry as the base color.  As you can see, I suck at doing polka dots.  Next time I'll make them smaller and more spread out.  I also decided it looked too summery for right now, so I tried this:

This is Unicorn topped with Nicole by OPI Make a Comet-ment.  The dense holo glitter did a good job of hiding any streaky-ness.  It looks nice in this pic, but I really did not like this.  Because the glitter is so dense, it looked like gray dust against the light yellow.  I think Make a Comet-ment looks better with dark colors, or if you do top a light color, don't do the whole nail.  Instead do something like this:

This is a mani I did for my little sis before leaving for school.  The blue is China Glaze First Mate; the light blue is Essie Coat Azure, and the glitter is Make a Comet-ment.


Whew!

Hope you all enjoyed your Saturday, and I'll see yous tomorrow! :)


Liz