Sephora by OPI Living in Cin-namon

Sephora by OPI Living in Cin-namon - Natural Light

Living in Cin-namon is a dark redish brown from the Sephora by OPI 2012 Fall Spice Market Collection.  This is two coats and the formula was great. It is a dark red/brown metallic finish.  This one is actually more exciting in the bottle. It looks like is should be duochrome with light golden red flashes, but it doesn't translate onto the nail.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Edit: This is a dupe for OPI Geman-icure by OPI in colour, however the formula is a bit thinner.

Lilac Glitter Gradient

Last night, today and tomorrows manicure is two coats of China Glaze Sweet Hook with a glitter gradient of Sephora by OPI Sugar Plum Fairies Gone Wild.

China Glaze Sweet Hook & Sephora by OPI Sugar Plum Fairies Gone Wild

Sugar Plum Fairies Gone Wild was not the easiest polish to use for a glitter gradient as the glitter is a tad too sparse and needs thick coats to make the glitter denser.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Sephora by OPI It's Real 18k Gold Top Coat

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope you all had a good night.

2012 was pretty big for me. I got married, got an awesome new job and went on amazing holiday around America and Canada.  I don't think 2013 can really top that, as at the moment there are no plans for anything big happening.

Sephora by OPI It's Real 18k Gold Top Coat over black - sunshine

I picked this up while I was in America in October, once I found out that the OPI version was retailing for NZ$74 in New Zealand.  This was US$30, so was about half the price of the one back home. This is three coats over a black base. It is really fine little flecks of 18k gold in a clear base.  I like the effect, but I find gold hard to match with many other colours.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Olympic Gold means golden nails

New Zealand won a couple of gold medals in the rowing this weekend so I thought it was appropriate to wear some gold on my nails.

This is Sephora by OPI Looks Like Rain, Dear from the 2010 Holiday collection.

 Sephora by OPI Looks Like Rain, Dear - sunshine

 Sephora by OPI Looks Like Rain, Dear - shade

This is three coats. It applies nicely and for a glitter give good coverage.  It is a clear gold jelly base jam packed full of teeny tiny gold glitter and bigger holographic hex glitter.  This polish does look more impressive in the sun as that is where the holographic bits sparkle.  This polish is a glitter so did take some extra work to take off.

I am off to watch some more Olympics on TV. Have a good Sunday everyone. :)

Lots of Love
Lisa

Nail Polish Presents

My best friend Lisa just got back from America and Canada and bought me back some goodies!

Sally Hansen Gem Crush Collection - Razzle Dazzler, Glitz Gal, Big Money, Cha-Ching, Showgirl Chic, Be-jeweled and Bling-tastic (7 out of 8 of this collection)

Sepohora by OPI - Spark-tacular!, G-listen To Your Heart, Looks Like Rain, Dear, Sugar Plum Fairies Gone Wild

Nails Inc Connaught Square and Fitzroy Square, Wet n Wild It's All in the Cut and Give me a Price Quote, Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air and Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie

These are a combination of my birthday present, Christmas present and what she managed to get for me with some money I gave her! AWESOME!
I have so much swatching to catch up on. Lots and lots of glitter!

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Show it and Glow it! + comparison

I love glitter - I also love Fuchsia Polishes so OPI Show it and Glow it was something I was really looking forward to.

Here it is in a bunch of different lights (click the picture to get a bigger picture to see the detail)

OPI Show It and Glow It! - sunshine

OPI Show It and Glow It! - outside shade

OPI Show It and Glow It! - inside

Show it and glow it is a pink fuchsia glitter in a clear base, with extra silver and blue glitter. These photos are all 3 coats. I like that these polishes only need three coats to be completely opaque. Again it is a pain to take off - but after staring at your fingers all day long you wont want to. These sparkle best in the sun, but are pretty all day long. I love this glitter collection by OPI.

Sitting on my desk with my untrieds and polishes I'm working on was Sephora by OPI It's Bouquet with me (this was one of the polishes my mum bought back from America for me :)). Looks kind of similar huh?......

OPI Show It and Glow It! and Sephora by OPI It's Bouquet with me.

Both polishes are three coats in this picture. They are not dupes. They are both in clear bases but the glitter in It's Bouquet with me is much sparser and the glitter is different sizes, unlike Show it and Glow it! which is all one size. Show it and Glow it also has more colours and depth to it. I think It's Bouquet with me is more of a top coat than a stand alone polish, due to the sparseness of the glitter, which doesn't give an opaque coverage. To be honest Show it and Glow it is my favourite, and it is more versatile, as it can be used alone or as a top coat.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Sephora by OPI Sparkle Me Silver Top Coat

Sephora by OPI Sparkle Me Silver Top Coat -sunshine

To be honest I was a little disappointed with this polish. It is thick and gluggy clear jelly with sparse long silver glitter. The glitter does not cover the nail very well. This is 2 coats over black and was so thick on top of the black. It was hard to even out and leave any glitter on the nail. I'm not sure how often I will wear this again, but it will probably not be much. On a good note the glitter is pretty and does sparkle like lots of little rainbows on the nail - I just don't think it is worth the effort.


Back to the thesis writing and job hunting *sigh*

Lots of Love
Lisa

Sephora OPI Haul

So Sephora does not ship to New Zealand. Luckily my mum and dad just got back from a 3 week trip to America. I thought these would be easy enough polishes for them to get because all they had to do was find a Sephora store. Turns out it was easy, they fouond a Sephora store straight away and managed to get 4 of the 5 polishes I had asked for.

Left to Right: Go with the Flow-er, Leaf him at the Altar, It's Bouquet with me, Sparkle me silver top coat.

These four polishes are all quite sheer and see through, so im thinking of using them for layering.
Sparkle me silver is a top coat of long silver glitter pieces - I havent had a polish like this since I was about 10. And It's Bouquet with me is silver and purple glitter in a clear base and is definitely designed for layering in my opinion.

I know that these sell for US$9 each and that this is considered rather on the expensive side in America (Although to us here it is a bargain). How do you feel about Sephora OPI? And the fact that some of their polishes are online only (ARGH I SO WANT Midnight Mambo!!!!). I also noticed that they are now selling mini polishes in packs for the newer collections (seems like a good idea, the regular sized polishes seem quite large - but I think thats just because they are so tall).

At the moment I am spending all day and night at uni trying to finish my thesis, and my nails are pretty short and crappy at the moment. I cant wait to get a job and finish uni and have some spare time and money to take care of my nails properly.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Black Sparkle Comparison

Ive been meaning to post this for awhile now and I have finally finished it! YAY!

Black Sparkle Comparison

Left to right - OPI Suzi Skies in the Pyrenees suede, Zoya Freja, OPI My Private Jet, Sephora by OPI Absinthe makes the heart, Revlon Steel-etto

Zoya Freja

This one has the least visible sparkle or glitter. Its more of a charcoal colour with shimmer rather than glitter.

OPI My Private Jet

I don't think this needs any introduction. Beautiful holographic glitter sparkleness. (Sorry about the old crappy photo)

Sephora by OPI Absinthe Makes the Heart

This polish was the least opaque. Most of the others could have got away with 2 and in some cases one coat, but this I think was three. Its more of a glitter in a runny jelly base.

Revlon Steel-etto

I bought this polish about 2 and a half years ago and I'm pretty sure you can't get them anymore. Its from the Dark Pleasures collection. It was done in one coat but here is two.

OPI Suzi Skies in the Pyrenees suede

OPI Suzi Skies in the Pyrenees suede - with top coat

The top coat makes it sparkle and the glitter stand out much more than without a top coat. I always wear my OPI Suede polishes with a top coat. This is still a pretty polish though.

Obviously my favourite is OPI My Private Jet - But it had an unfair advantage in this comparison because it was holographic and none of the others were. Next favourite would be Revlon Steel-etto.

Hope this was helpful.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Obsession...

Obsession....
So Ive been collecting for about 15 months now and this is where I am at....

ZOYA - 30 polishes

I was lucky enough to take a trip to America last year and this is the Zoya collection I managed to bring back! This is almost impossible and really expensive to buy in New Zealand so I was over the moon whenever I came across it in a salon in America

OPI is widely available in New Zealand but at $25 a polish is not very affordable to students! Again I brought a lot back from America where they were only $8 a polish (which is about $12NZ) The other problem with OPI in New Zealand is we don't receive all of the collections or exclusive polishes - that's when I have to turn to ebay and my over used credit card. So far I have 76 OPI colours and 9 of the Designer Series polishes.

While in America I also discovered Sephora by OPI and was in heaven in the Sephora shops (not just because of the polishes!) I picked up 6 of these colours.

I've always read other blogs about China Glaze but have never seen it in a shop in New Zealand. However.... I was over the moon when I saw these for sale on Trade me (www.trademe.co.nz this is the New Zealand version of ebay) So far I have 18 China Glaze polishes and cant wait to get more of their awesome colours.

Now you can clearly see why most of the people I love think I have a slight problem here - some would say an obsession.
I just cant help myself!!!!!
And I dread to calculate how much money I have spent on all of these!

That's all for today. I'm still wearing my yellow polish from my previous post. Its been 3 days and I got my first chip today. This is actually a good effort for my nails.

Lots of Love
Lisa