Up Close & Lovely - OPI Designer...de Better

I ended up buying another polish from the OPI Muppets collection - and I'm glad I did! I absolutely adored Warm & Fozzie, and I very much like this one - Designer...de Better (dumb name), but it's not head-over-heels love.

My normal shot holding the bottle didn't really work out, because the polish is so reflective! Here are some other attempts...

A close-up so you can see the orange flecks in the silvery polish...

Designer...de Better is very boring colour from afar, but a very interesting colour up close! (Usually it's the other way around, right?) When you first clap eyes on it, it looks like a normal champagne/beige foil. Snoozeapalooza. But then you squint to get a closer look, as something isn't quite right...this champagne snoozer is actually a silver foil with orange or bronze particles in it - really cool! It's like something special, just for you.

Is there a polish you like better up close?

kittytokaren

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Gold, part I: CG Midnight Kiss

I wore this once on my toes last winter with Party Hearty over the top and wasn't that wowed. Looking at it on my nails, I can only ask: HOW?! This polish is a total knock out! It's a slightly silvery, cool gold foil. SO sparkly. SO reflective. Just gorgeous!





It kind of changes colour with the light. Indoors, the creamy, silvery tones come out and it looks like a subtle, pale gold with high shine. I find the pastel tones of very reflective polishes often come out in low light, the same is true for the chromes I've reviewed. In the sun though, it turns into a total bling fest. Kapow!

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So Fall... OPI Warm & Fozzie

Fall is my favourite season - I love burying my nose in a big fluffy scarf, finally getting to wear my plum lipsticks, how the air can smell crisp and like burning firewood at the same time...even the seasonal coffee flavours...but most of all - the fashion. And that includes polish, of course! OPI Warm & Fozzie is the epitome of fall, and honestly, it has become my new favourite. It's like the wintery sister of my all-time-fav - OPI DS Glow! It's somehow sultrier - more dark and bronze, but has the same kind of vibrance that DS Glow has with flashes of warm gold and twinkles of red. Absolutely gorgeous. Pics can't describe it...

I got so many compliments on this polish - even from polish n00bs. I'm even considering purchasing a back-up! Warm & Fozzie was initially going to be my only purchase from the Muppets collection, but because it's so fabulous I picked up Designer...de Better as well - hopefully it will be another special metallic/foil/amazingjdfla;dsjf for me to fall in love with!

What polish reminds you most of fall?

kittytokaren

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Chanel Peridot

My new academic year's resolution -- besides to finish my qualifying exams at the end of the Winter 2012 quarter -- is to be more consistent about posting here!

Chanel Peridot

Got lots of compliments on this one. It felt more like a foil to me than a duochrome and oddly enough, the duochrome is more pronounced in the photos than in real life. Still, it was sparkly and bright. A little streaky on the application and you can see some evidence of brushstrokes. Three coats, thinner than I expected though. The photo was taken on the fourth day of wear and, as you can see, it was still chip-free!

Close-up on Peridot

So bright, it burns. :)

I've been up to quite a bit lately. Attended a wedding in Seattle. Saw friends that I haven't seen in a long time (all of whom seem to be in wedding planning mode... so there was a lot of conversation about cakes and caterers, dresses and... more dresses). There are a lot of pregnant women in my life so I'm making quilts, burp cloths and other basic, easy-to-sew baby items. I have also started making quilts for Quilts for Kids, an organization that provides handmade quilts for children in hospitals. I don't get that much time for hobbies and volunteer work, so it's gratifying to be able to kill two birds with one stone on that one. Attempting to make a dress from a 1952 pattern... I suck at sewing darts but now I'm super picky about buying clothes because I'm so aware of how they're made and how they fit. I tried to herd my RAs and got a bit of participant running done in the last two weeks of the summer quarter. I'm doing a little bit of freelance editing for an academic in another country who needs a little help with English and English-language publishing. My own paper just got slung back to me for a second revise/resubmit and I'm writing this post while trying to force myself to read all the comments VERY VERY CAREFULLY so I can see exactly how dumb I am. (Seriously, I can't type numbers. It's a very bad thing to be bad at as a researcher!) I went to the dentist for the first time in three years: I needed two appointments to properly clean my teeth (ugh) and I found out that my previous dentist did a crappy job applying two of my crowns, and thus they need to be replaced (double ugh). Lots of dentist visits. Though I like this dentist and his office a lot: they're the most cheerful bunch of people and all patients get a flower at the end of their appointments. I'm getting LASIK in about a month, so there's been a lot of back and forth to ophthalmologists (and one day I'll spell that correctly on the first try -- I forgot the first 'l' again... at least I got all the 'h's this time). I can't wear glasses because all the glasses I've ever had have given me a splitting headache and my eyes seem to have developed an allergic reaction to all sorts of contact lenses in the past year. It's a sh*tload of money but I'm hopeful that it'll be a good investment. And I'm slogging through a huge backlog of NOTD photos and trying to get some of the summer and fall collections swatched. So I've been busy... and spending more money on fabric than polish lately. A history of cosmetics obsession translates really well to sewing and fabric choices.

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Desperately duping graphite

I have a rule against buying Chanel polishes. I lust after them, I render myself completely broke buying them, I apply them with a frantic anticipation, I am disappointed. This is how it always goes. I adore a luxury purchase as much as the next girl, but every Chanel lacquer I've had has ended up in the swap pile. But Graphite...*sigh*. I adore Graphite. Quite apart from the fact that I'm not supposed to be buying polish at all, never mind Chanel polish, this one has my heart. So I went rummaging through my stash to see if I had anything similar that would prevent me from hitting 'purchase!'.

This is what I turned up: 'Mischa' by Andrea Fullerton, a brand available in Superdrug in the UK. The colour is definitely not a dupe, but it's in the same vein, and a very fine colour in its own right. It's a foil with dominant colours of pewter, violet, and gold. From a distance it looks like a dark grey with warm undertones, and it sparkles nicely in the sun. This is three coats, and longevity has been good (I'm on day four of wear today with no issues, although I will be removing it tonight).

But, I'm not convinced by the brand. The bottles are teeny - 5.5ml - and are priced at £5.50 each. At £1 a ml, these are more expensive than my Illamasquas (£13.50 for 15ml, although I nearly always purchase in a sale, making them more like £10 each). They're not even far off Chanel, which is £17.50 for 13ml. I bought four of these when I first started my internship, and the colours are really gorgeous and unique (I'll swatch some of the others in the coming weeks) but they are expensive given the small quantity you get. Not sure why I'm complaining, given that I rarely dent my big 15ml bottles, but the size of these does feel a bit stingy.

Are you ever put off polish purchases by the quantity you get in a bottle?

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Many, many pictures of OPI Rally Pretty Pink

I spent most of the three days I wore this staring at my nails. Staring at them indoors, staring at the outdoors, staring at them during the day, staring at them during the night... and taking photos of most of that process.

OPI Rally Pretty Pink (outdoors in direct sunlight)

(outdoors in indirect sunlight)

(indoors in lightbox)

(indoors, indoor lighting, no flash)

I never thought I'd ever go so nutty over a pink shimmer! But it's so much more than just a pink

shimmer. It's a ton of gold foil (and green shimmer, perhaps?... though that might just be a trick of the light) suspended with a pink-purple jelly that can look like a slightly dusty magenta or a really rich red-leaning purple, depending on light and angle. Three coats -- could've used a fourth because it's jelly and the more you put on, the more shimmer you get! But three coats was sufficient. There was no color that it looked like "most of the time" (hence the many photos in different types of lighting situations). So changeable, so lovely. It sparkles so hard, it burns.

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Zoya Rea

A cool rose foil.



(2 coats)

She's cute but she would look better on somebody darker or lighter than me. Formula on this was good, 2 even coats, dried very well.

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Urban Ballerina - $OPI Shiny Dancer

I really loved the idea of the Sephora by OPI (fondly known as $OPI) Urban Ballerina collection. All the greys and pinks were right up my alley! Here is Shiny Dancer...

In the shade...

Blurred to see the beautiful shimmer...

Hehe and the polish matches my sparkly ballet flats! I thought they fit the theme as well - Urban Ballerina...so apropos!

As pretty as this polish it, it is very reminiscent of OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous. The finish is the same foil-y metallic, but there is some variation in the tone. LLM leans more green, whereas Shiny Dancer is more blue. In the end, I decided I liked LLM better with my skin and Shiny Dancer found a new home - but I would still highly recommend it!

Have any collections out recently really appealed to you from top-to-bottom? i.e. colours, theme, marketing, etc.?

kittytokaren

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Orly Luxe

A few months ago, I went on a quest for a perfect gold polish. Not a blingy gold, not a yellow gold, not a rose gold, but a shiny cool-toned gold. This, my friends, was the winner-winner-chicken-dinner: Orly Luxe.


As part of the Orly Foil FX Collection of 2010, this was the true gold in the collection that contained all of the metallics (well, not ALL) that a girl could ask for. It's a light true gold with a subtle shimmer and wonderful opacity in two coats. This has become my go-to gold; it's got some attitude but can also fade into your skin tone enough to not be too in-your-face. It wears well, too.

The whole Foil FX Collex was full of awesome, wasn't it? Who doesn't like shiny tips, I say? WHO?

Happy day, all!

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Sally Hansen XTreme Wear Purple Gala

Sally Hansen XTreme Wear Purple Gala

I believe this was released last summer or so? Sally Hansen's Hard Candy Mr Wrong dupe. Well, close dupe. It's not an exact match but it's pretty close. I loved Mr Wrong so it's natural that I loved this too. Three coats, dusty purple foil with gold shimmer. :)

Close-up of Mr Wrong

The color combo doesn't look quite as pretty up close but trust me, it's nice on fingernails.

In the meanwhile... as if you all weren't totally bored of hearing about this: I'm sick. Again. For the billionth time. For the last two days, I've been so dizzy that I haven't been able to sit or stand up for more than a few minutes at a time without feeling like I was going to faint. This has been a miserable year so far. :(

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Color Club Enchanted Holiday mini set, Part II of II: Magic Elf & Snowflakes

The rest of the Color Club Enchanted Holiday mini set...

Color Club Snowflakes over Revlon Powder Puff

This was going to be sheer so I layered it over a soft white. Pretty iridescent glitter in a slightly cloudy base; leans towards looking pinker (as on the nail) than bluer (as in the bottle). Two coats.

Color Club Magic Elf

Saved the best for last. AWESOME grass green foil with strong gold shimmer. So bright! So sparkly! Two coats, could've used three (though the VNL wasn't as obvious IRL as it is in the photo).

Thanks to those who commented on my post about my grandfather. I hope to respond to everyone soon. The internet's really spotty in my mother's place in Taipei: the only place where I can access wifi is on floor in the middle of one of the bedrooms, as I am stealing someone else's signal. Why? Because my mother doesn't know her wifi password. She didn't know her wifi had a password. (Actually, she didn't know the name of her network either. My uncle set everything up for her so she has no idea how anything computer-related works.)

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Layering Love - Essence Choose Me

Well all know that this was the Year of the Dupe, right? Case iwhatn point, Essence Choose Me, also know as OPI:CMIYN/Zoya:Charla/Orly:Halley'sComet.

So what do you do when you have a lot of dupes? See what they look like over other polishes, that's what.



Shown above is Essence Choose Me over a black polish - China Glaze Black Diamond, I believe. The darker base allows this the foil surface to really shine and gives your nails a dark, brooding look. Super sassy!

Give it a shot, ladies!

Happy day, all!

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A festive combo - OPI DS Glow meets OPI Dazzled by Gold!

Reminder: Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY featuring Essie Smokin' Hot and a Pradman labradorite ring!! Click here to see the original GIVEAWAY post, or just enter using the widget at the top of the blog - ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT!

With the holiday season swiftly approaching, it seems to be an appropriate time to start trying out some more festive manicures. This mani is putting me in a holiday spirit - which is nice seeing as I will probably be working in the lab over the holidays...

Also this is two of my favourite polishes combined, so how could it be bad right?!

This is OPI DS Glow (see it on its own here) with one coat of OPI Dazzled by Gold (click here to see "the precious" solo) on top.

Oooo sparkly...

and reflective...

By adding a coat of Dazzled by Gold overtop, the red-tone in DS Glow is dampened, which I think makes it more flattering and definitely amps up the "gold" factor.

Even though I will probably be predictable and go with OPI Smitten with Mittens for Christmas and OPI Mad as a Hatter for New Year's (*gasp* k2k would wear a full-0n glitter!?!?!? Yes...on New Year's :P), I'm really loving this 24-karat combo.

Do you have your holiday manicures picked out already? What are they?

kittytokaren

P.S. Congratulation to Piff for finally getting her hands on OPI Dazzled by Gold!!! I no longer feel guilty for posting this. :)

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OPI DS Magic

Into every life, blue polish must come.


And we all know how much I love a blue polish, right? My helmer is screaming with blue polishes, let me tell you. So how does OPI DS Magic rate? Good question, because that is what I was wondering from the moment I saw it grace the webpages a few months ago. Let's break this down:

Pros:
Color - lovely royal blue with a purple sort of shimmer on the edges
Finish - foil-like and sparkly
Wear - only minor tip wear after two days, and I can handle that

Cons:
OOOMPH. Yes, oomph. I wanted a little more oomph from this one! You know, a little more of this, a little more of that! I wanted to hear birds singing, because I was ready to luuuurve this one. Sadly, I only loved it.

All in all, I do like this polish. As bizarre as it may sound, I think this one might look lovely over a deep navy blue or black. Ahhhh, layering possibilities!

Were any of you blown away by Magic's magic?

Happy day, all!

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What Chanel Trapeze Should Have Been - $OPI Already Famous

Reminder: Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY featuring Essie Smokin' Hot and a Pradman labradorite ring!! Click here to see the original GIVEAWAY post, or just enter using the widget at the top of the blog!

In general I try not to buy Sephora by OPI ($OPI) polishes. I hate the brush, and I think they're mad overpriced. But every once in a while, one comes along that demands my attention. This gorgeous metallic/taupe concoction hits so many of my "need-it-now" buttons that it was a must-purchase! (I alleviated my price annoyance by buying it during Sephora's F&F sale...)

Behold - a non-streaky taupe-metallic-foil dream...$OPI Already Famous.

In shade:

In the sun...it's even more sparkly in person!:

This is basically an amped up version of Chanel Trapeze (see it here). While Trapeze is a shy wallflower waiting to be asked to dance, Already Famous is the first girl out on the dance floor. Yes, the finishes are very different, and Already Famous is probably darker, but I think this is what I was wanting from Trapeze all along - a neutral but sparkly polish devoid of telltale brushstrokes. Sorry Trapeze...you're very pretty, but I think my dance card is full now.

Have you been tempted by any $OPI polishes lately?? Did you buy any during F&F?

kittytokaren

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More Claire's foil swatches, Part II of II

The rest of the Claire's mini foil set. Again, these are unnamed.

Sheer champagne shimmer. This is four coats. Excuse the super yellowness of my nails. You can see the actual color of the polish closer to my cuticle. It's actually a very pretty polish for layering.

Pink foil. Eh. Three coats and still a whole bunch of VNL? No thanks.

Light blue foil. This one was SUPER BRIGHT and it didn't look like there was VNL when I put it on but it showed up in the pic. Make of that what you will. Two coats.

Verdict: wish I didn't buy these. Some of them are okay but I have no more room for polishes that I'm not over the moon for.

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