From Blank Canvas to Birthday Cake - $OPI Spark-tacular! Top Coat

I was really enjoying my OPI Alpine Snow blank canvas mani! But I decided that I would add a new polish I bought just for funsies (my brother's favourite word, btw!) - and because I probably can't wear crazy polish for that much longer.

I went to Sephora earlier this week to return something and saw something new in the rack - Sephora by OPI Spark-tacular! Top Coat and I bought it on a whim! I don't have the original Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday, but I'm certain that this was meant to be a dupe, copy or 'inspired by' polish. It's full of multi-coloured glitter in different shapes and sizes - but none of them are too large or chunky, which is something I like. (I'm not loving the look of the upcoming OPI Rainbow Connection - a super chunky rainbow glitter - at all.)

This is two coats and the result reminds me of Funfetti birthday cake! Speaking of which, it was recently my kitty cat's birthday - and she loooovvvves cake. She turned 22 years old! (Yes, in real years.) Here is the lovely lady (alias "The Master Manipulator"), enjoying her birthday in the sweltering heat. Ah...cat life...

Anyways, sorry for the non-polish pic! For those who have DL HB - is this dupe-y or just 'inspired by'?

kittytokaren

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Comparison of Zoya Breezi and Sephora by OPI Slushied

This is why you should never de-dupe your collection by just looking at bottle color.

Zoya Breezi (Summertime, 2011) and Sephora by OPI Slushied (Glee, 2011)

OK. So Breezi looks a tad bit darker than Slushied, right? I mean, maybe if you look really closely, you could think that Breezi may look a tad more teal than Slushied. (Btw, thanks to my SO's mom for Slushied. It's awesome.)

From left to right: Slushied, Breezi, Slushied, Breezi

Seriously, this is not a weird camera quirk. They looked this different on the nail. They're barely even in the same color category (in my head -- granted, my head subdivides the rainbow into about a hundred colors). Slushied is this bright creme that falls somewhere between azure and cyan. Breezi is closer to a very blue teal and it's almost got a bit of a jelly squish to it. Both applied extremely well: two coats each.

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Moment of Weakness - $OPI Traffic-Stopper Copper & Only Gold For Me

Recently I was in Sephora picking up some necessities (*cough*) during the 15% off sale they had on. Just minding my own business, buying my staples, and wearing my conservative Essie Jazz mani (probably my fav nude...check out my post here) - a normal, responsible, short-skirt-long-jacket kinda day. And then I paused...at the $OPI display...

You know I have a weakness for golds, so I casually layered the tester of Only Gold For Me over my Jazz mani. I figured "I'm taking this off tonight anyways!". Then I spotted Traffic-Stopper Copper. Hmm...

So I added that too...

And guess what? I love it, and walked out with both of them! I even ended up wearing this mani for a couple days as well.

I don't know what it is exactly, but the combination of the teeny glitter with the larger hexagonal glitter is really lovely. I also love how sparse the polishes are - what you see in the picture is a couple coats, but with one coat I think you can really achieve something nicely subtle and for me, wearable. For those glitter fanatics out there, I really recommend picking up Traffic-Stopper Copper - I think that the combination of the glitter sizes in the copper colour is quite unique and special and goes really well with rose gold if you're into that. (Which I am - you'll be seeing my new rose gold watch in an upcoming post!)

Now I'm just trying to get my hands on Flurry Up - the silver counterpart to these polishes! I can't find it anywhere - anyone have any clues for me?

kittytokaren

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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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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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Some 'edgy neutral' misfires!

I've shown you so many polishes that fall in the 'edgy neutral' category that I adore, I thought it was time to show you some I didn't love, just to even the score. Sometimes not all polishes work - even if they look great in the bottle! Here are a couple that I was excited about, but didn't work out as planned, for different reasons.

$OPI Under My Trench Coat:

I have two Sephora by OPI neutrals that I absolutely love - Metro Chic and Run With It! - and I have been itching to give their sister - Under My Trench Coat - a spin!

This polish reminds me of the clay in art class when I was a kid - complete with shimmer that looks like the little grains in the clay! As pleasant as those memories are, I'm not sure I'm loving carrying that memory around on my nails - it certainly doesn't suit me at all. Even though it is fairly unique in my collection of 'edgy neutrals' thanks to its shimmer, it's not working. All this polish does is bring out the strong yellow tones in my skin, making me look...jaundiced. Nice. Disappointing because I loved it in the bottle!

Off to a new home it goes! I'm sure this would look good on someone with different colouring. :)

Lippmann Waking Up In Vegas:

When I saw this in the bottle, I went completely Gaga for it! (Haha I'm so punny!) It looked like the perfect warmer grey, that doesn't have the green leanings of Essie Chinchilly. Unlike Under My Trench, I actually really like the colour on my nails, and I think it suits me. BUT, the application on this was *horrendous*. Super chalky, and I had to be really careful to load my brush up and use very few strokes, otherwise I'd get uneven bumpiness in the finish that is normally characteristic of pastels. Oh, and I got chips after a day. For such expensive polish, this is ridiculous, and I just don't look forward to wearing it because of the application and wear issues. Away it goes!

So that's all for today! Have you ever bought a polish because of how it looked in the bottle only to be disappointed later?

kittytokaren

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A Step Ahead of the Trend?: $OPI Havana Dreams

Let's face it - Chanel has been setting nail trends for several years now. I feel like there is even a special kind of regret in missing out on a Chanel limited edition polish - a regret that people are really cashing in on on eBay ($300 for Jade? No thank you!).

So this is my attempt to stay one step ahead of the trend! Sephora by OPI ($OPI) Havana Dreams:

A step ahead of this future trend?:

Chanel showcased a creamy powder blue polish with their breezy, beachy fashions at their Cruise Collection for 2011. No word on when this is going to be released, but I know that when it comes out, I'm going to *want* it. Sephora by OPI released Havana Dreams - which looks to be a similar light blue to the mystery Chanel.

The formula was rather runny so it required 3 coats, but wasn't chalky at all. As with my other $OPIs, I think application will improve greatly with the addition of an OPI ProWide brush, like I did with Metro Chic here. I'm not sure about it on me - I know it's pastel, but it is so out of my comfort zone I have a hard time gauging whether or not I can pull it off.

So what do you think - trendy triumph or baby blue blunder? Is it worthy of a ProWide or should I throw it back into the swap pool?

kittytokaren

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On-the-fly mall swatch: Chanel Paradoxal v $OPI Metro Chic

My Nordstrom got Chanel Paradoxal in today, and I know a lot of you (like me!) have been foaming at the mouth to see this one in action!

Before I paid the Chanel fee, I was curious to see how this matched up to Sephora by OPI Metro Chic - the scuttlebutt was that Paradoxal might be its darker, more brooding sister. So I quickly swatched Paradoxal at Nordie's and headed over to Sephora to swatch MC, so you're seeing very sketchy mall swatches here!

In all the pics, Paradoxal is the darker of the two. I don't know if I think that these two are sisters - maybe half sisters? They definitely from the same genre and the colour try to evoke a similar smokey, sexy, neutral-ish feeling. However, Metro Chic has a malted-milk creaminess to it that is lacking in Paradoxal - plus, it is much lighter and has more 'taupe' flavour to it - whereas Paradoxal is plummier. Paradoxal has that famous subtle Chanel shimmer - but trust me, it's very subtle. Especially for those of us thinking of wearing it in the Fall/Winter season, I think the shimmer is going to show itself only rarely. If you're considering this, I wouldn't factor the shimmer into your decision - if you don't like the base colour, you're not going to enjoy it.

What do I think?? I LOVE it! This was pretty much made for me - it's greyed out, sort of neutral, and purplish. I love edgy neutrals and I love purple, so this is perfect. Plus, the formula was lovely so that gives it some more points. Needless to say, I bought it. I will probably wait until the Fall to really get wear out of this though.

Just wanted to show you really quick!!

kittytokaren

PS Don't forget to tune in July 1 for our NEW and IMPROVED site, courtesy of mKat!!!! It's going to be amazing :)

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Trend-cum-Classic: Sephora by OPI Metro Chic

My life has been pretty hectic as of late. Family issues are ruling my life, and I spend every waking minute that I'm not in lab dealing with them. Lab isn't going all that great either, and my apartment is a complete disaster. Even though it is summer and 'pastel weather' (about 90ºF and humid here!) I needed a sort of Heimkehr - a return to home, to feel like myself again.

So I put on a polish that I wear a lot, but for some reason have never shown you. I think it is because I wear it when I'm super busy/flustered and don't have the time/energy/patience/awareness to snap pictures. I only own back-ups of two polishes (Essie Tennis Corset and OPI DS Glow) but I consider this baby totally back-up worthy! You can't tell from the pictures, but I'm definitely going to need another bottle soon.

Sephora by OPI ($OPI) Metro Chic - a colour that was super trendy a couple years ago but has proved its staying power and become a total classic in my opinion. I know this one has been reviewed to death, but here it is on me:

I took a couple pictures because the colour of this is hard to accurately capture - it's a dusty, milky, silky, smokey ermine colour with purple tones. Basically, grey + brown + purple = Metro Chic. It sounds bizarre, but on the nail it is just super chic and elegant, and whenever I put this on I think "Why on earth do I wear anything else?!" - truly the sign of a great polish!

The one tick I would put in the 'con' column for Metro Chic is that is a Sephora by OPI polish - not that I dislike the polish itself - I just hate hate hate that long skinny brush!! However, I made a HUGE discovery - the OPI ProWide brush fits in the $OPI cap! I ripped out that awful brush, stuck a ProWide in there, and now my absolute favourite brush is now in what might be my absolute favourite polish!!!! It improved application tremendously, and I did two easy coats - in the dark, I might add - and I think it turned out great.

Is there a colour you go back to again and again? Do you think taupe colours have become classic or would you still put them in the trend zone?

kittytokaren

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Sephora by OPI Call Your Mother vs. Brucci Daniella's Curve

I was doing a stash cleanout and I thought I found a couple dupes.

I swatched them and they definitely are not. But IMO, if you don't have a gigantic stash, it's only worth owning one of them.



(2 coats each)

Both applied very nicely but I haven't done an actual mani w/ either of them yet. Though, I definitely like the Brucci better on me.

I think either are great work appropriate colors that wont make you hate life.

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Sephora by OPI swatches: Absinthe Makes the Heart & Worth My Weight

Here are two Sephora by OPI polishes that I feel just didn't suit me at all... but everyone else seems to like 'em. :P

This is one color that I just had no love for at all. This is a swatch from awhile back (early December, right after my trip to Boston). That's how non-fun I think this color is: I totally forgot that I had swatched it...

Sephora by OPI Absinthe Makes the Heart

I like dark greens, I like multicolored shimmer. It's not an uninteresting polish: it's gold and green shimmer in a darkened moss green base. But on my fingers, it just looked like slightly sparkly mud. In some lights, the green showed up a little bit more and was kind of pretty... but this sort of just reminds me of dead leaf mulch. Sparkly dead leaf mulch but not sparkly enough. :( I also found this polish fairly sheer and had to use four coats to build it up to opacity. A lot of people love this color but I just couldn't make it work for me. :(

Sephora by OPI Worth My Weight

This is a polish that I REALLY wanted to love. Chunky holo glitter and small holo glitter suspended in a gold shimmer and microglitter base. It sparkles like crazy and is right up my alley... excepts it falls in that paler, cooler gold category that never fails to make my hands look weird. It is totally gorgeous up-close though.

Close up of Worth My Weight

Worth My Weight in the bottle

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$OPI Run With It!

I've been lusting after Sephora by OPI (lovingly called $OPI) - Run With It! for quite a while. Even though it's not one of the 'popular' polishes in the nail community, I've been lemming it. Every time I walk into a Sephora I turn a bottle around in my hands and looks at the strange shimmer/speckles. I stalk photos of it online. I've tried relentlessly swapping for it to no avail. I went to the mall with my BFF this weekend for some girl time and finally decided to bite the bullet and get it. $o glad I did! Here is Run With It!:

It is another one of those neutrals with an edge that I adore! Its a soft dove grey colour (which means a grey that leans brown instead of blue). This polish is subtly interesting - it has the most interesting finish to it. On one hand, it seems to have some speckles in it that are darker than the polish itself - these don't really shimmer but rather contribute to the overall colour. On the other hand, there is some distinct superfine gold microshimmer that you can only see in very direct sunlight.

The end result is a polish that I think is the perfect "grungy neutral with an edge" for spring - it is lighter than most of it's taupe-y cousins, giving it a really soft, sophisticated elegance. The finish of this polish makes it really special to me. The effect is subtle, but really cool, and makes this a one-of-a-kind polish.

I only own two other $OPI polishes - Metro Chic (love so much) and Don't Go There (really like this on my toes). The reason I only own a couple is because in general the line is:

a.) expen$ive

b.) similar formula to OPI in my opinion

c.) not especially unique colours

d.) the brush sucks.

How does Run With It! fare?

Well, I still think the price is inflated and the brush is still terrible. The $OPI brush is like the awkward, lanky, gangly teenager of polish brushes - it is really long, but the cap is quite wide, so it doesn't know how it wants to be applied. The brush itself is quite skinny (so flinty would probably like it with her bitty wittle nails...) but I have to say, if I'm going to pay over OPI prices for an OPI polish, I'd rather it come with the amazing ProWide brush. Even though it offends my sense of order, I'm seriously considering pouring this into an empty OPI bottle with a ProWide brush, because I know I'm going to be reaching for this one often! I also have a feeling it would apply just like my favourite OPIs if it was given the chance!

Run With It! does manage to be unique and special, and seeing as I absolutely love edgy neutrals - this makes it worth the money to me, and I'm really glad that I finally sprung for it! My BFF loved it too. (She was sporting Rimmel Steel Grey that day, btw :) so proud!) I really don't understand why this polish is named the way it is, but the bottom line is that if there was an emergency, I would take this polish and run with it - I really really love it!

Have you guys tried $OPI polishes? Thoughts on the colours/formula/brush??

kittytokaren

P.S. BTW I've also received a ton of compliments on this one already!

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NJ Transit FAIL and NOTD

So I've been excited about Nails Night Out NYC for months now. MONTHS. You may have read about it on other nail blogs (it was featured on All Lacquered Up and Scrangie, among others). Finally, tonight was the night. I got up early this morning to have time for homework and working out. Finally, I got on the NJ Transit train to New York Penn Station at 5:58 PM. I figured that was plenty of time to get to NYC around 7ish and then take a cab to the venue. Little did I know that tonight was the night that NJ Transit trains would completely shut down. :( It was a very disappointing, frustrating, sad night for me. I missed Nails Night Out because of a stupid train malfunction. I can't stop blaming myself for not having left earlier, you know? Oh well. :(

Here was my special NOTD that I wanted to wear to NNO.

This is 2 coats of Sephora by OPI What a Broad and 1 coat of Nicole by OPI Let's Get Star-ted.




With flash:


You can purchase the SOPI at sephora.com and the Nicole is currently available at most Harmon stores and some Bed, Bath & Beyond stores.

Thanks for reading!

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$OPI's 212

I threw this swatch up on MUA and thought I would share it here.


(2 Coats + Flash - it was night time when I took this, so you don't get the ~tru~ sparkle or whatev.)

I was gonna skip by this polish until I saw Vampy do a swatch of it. She just makes things look so good.

When it arrived in the mail, I was kind of taken aback by it. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it really does look like a bunch of polish sludge. Like a franken fail where you throw all your old polished into a bottle and hope for the best.

If there was one polish it really reminded me of tho, it would be Wagon Trail. Wagon Trail on acid.

But that's not to say I don't like it. I don't really know how to feel about it.

Thoughts on this polish?

ETA: Idea from lovely commenter Jessica. Here's one coat of 212 over black. It gives it a kind of different personality. I noticed on MUA some ppl complaining that 212 just does not work/look good on them and maybe trying it over black (it's quite a warm toned polish) will help?

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Now and Then

Let's explore the changes in my nails over the last year...

June 2008 - OPI Russian Navy


August 2008 - OPI My Private Jet


September 2008 - Sephora by OPI Never Enough Shoes


August 2009 - Urban Decay AC/DC


August 2009 - The Icing Roger That


This post demonstrates how applicable the phrase "practice makes perfect" is to nail polish. As you can see, only just a year ago my nails looked like hell after application!! My cuticles were dry and cut and hurt! So here are some of my tips about nail application that may help those of you just getting into nails:

- Apply your nail polish s-l-o-w-l-y. I am the least patient person on earth and it took me awhile to get the hang of a slow application. Applying slowly ensures less mistakes and therefore less cleanup!
- When I do make mistakes, I usually clean up either in the shower the next morning or I apply cuticle oil all over my cuticles and then clean up with a cuticles stick.
- Creative Nail Design Cuticle Eraser (most beauty supply stores) and California Mango Mend (Sally Beauty Supply) are my HG (holy grail) cuticle products. I also use cuticle oil most mornings.
- I use Nubar Nu Nails as my basecoat, which has proven to be very effective for my nails. Remember, however, that everyone is different - just because one basecoat works for me doesn't necessarily mean that it will work for you. Keep trying!

Thanks for reading!

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Happy Monday!

Hello Everyone! Another Monday, another week, another day towards the end of summer :( This GMAT prep course is totally kicking my butt! I'm having trouble concentrating on problems and exercises for six hours a day lol Even when I studied for exams in college I would study for a half hour and get distracted by something and then return to studying like three hours later only to study for another hour. Really bad!! I need to figure out a way to sit still for at least two hours to get through some of the material.

So last week my mani was Sephora by OPI Dark Room. I didn't have time to redo my mani so I just layered a shimmery polish over it, Sahara 208.



Yes, there is tip wear. But there are blue, gold, and red shimmer throughout this polish and it was a perfect topper for Dark Room. The red and blue shimmer didn't show up much int he pics, mostly just the gold. This mani held me over the weekend until I had time to redo my mani. Decided my nails were getting too long so I filed them down and was too lazy to round them off. So heres my new shape and current mani:


China Glaze Orange Marmalade


China Glaze Orange Marmalade

Here it is with two coats along with a base and top coat. This nail polish dried SUPER fast for me, actually all the nail polish from this China Glaze Summer Days collection dried super fast for me. All my China Glaze cremes take kinda long to dry even with the fast dry top coat. Oh and I have no idea why half the label is missing from my bottle lol I didn't notice until I did this mani. Orange Marmalade absolutely glows in the sun and I couldn't capture a more glowing picture. My mom saw it and was like, "wow! Looks like oranges, good enough to eat" haha So far I'm liking the nail shape! I didn't think it would look good on me because my nails are so wide but I'm getting used to it. I know this polish will be distracting enough for me to stare at tonight while I'm zoning out at my prep class. Ha

I hope everyone has a good week and enjoys their Monday!

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First Polish or Perish post from Foxglove. :)

Philadelphia has been seriously monsoon-ing all weekend. Well, not quite, but we've had some flash flood warnings and I've ended up looking like a drowned rat every day. It hasn't made for good polish hunting weather, but I've some new acquisitions to share anyway! :)

First up, I have some of the dark greens that have been making a buzz on the MUA Nail Board.

(above: $OPI Dark Room on the left & Orly Enchanted Forest (+ butterfly charm!) next to him.)

I've yet to swatch Dark Room, but it looks murky and almost dusty in the bottle. I have a feeling it'll lose some of that quality when it's dry on the nail and just turn into an almost-black, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I'm wearing Orly Enchanted Forest today. Here are some NOTD photos. (Excuse the photos, clouds & rain don't make for the best lighting.)

Orly EF (when in the sun) looks very hunter green to me. When I look at it I think of collegiate sweatshirts. I'm sure this green matches some University's color somewhere. :)

I might switch to something a little more happy. I spent the morning braving even more rain to have brunch with my Mom to discuss my final year of undergrad that's coming up in the fall and then (finally!) breaching the subject of grad school with her. I don't know how well it all went over, so I guess, well, I think that I'm going to have to go at this alone.

But that's ok. I think a fresh manicure and a rainy afternoon spent with Grey's Anatomy & my GRE books will help me figure everything out.

Maybe one of the following?

(above, some untrieds: OPI Mod-ern Girl & China Glaze V.)

read more "First Polish or Perish post from Foxglove. :)"