Vintage Stash Spam Week - OPI and China Glaze

Happy Monday everyone! Today's post will be a quick one with my vintage OPI and China Glaze bottle spam!

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First up is OPI. OPI vintage polish is probably some of the easiest to come across in person because most nail salons in the US use OPI. Much of my vintage OPI stash has been found through dusty hunting, which is where you go to old nail salons and see if they have any old, vintage gems lying around. If you've been reading mine and Dana's blogs for awhile, you will know that we have absolutely insane dusty hunting luck when we are together. So if you want to start a vintage collection but don't know where to begin, check out some of your local nail salons. The longer the salon has been there, the better because they will have the older collections. The best ones always have a layer of dust on top- hence, "dusty hunting" =)

I decided to include only black label OPIs in this stash post, because they are what I truly believe constitute the "vintage" years of OPI. I believe that OPI switched over to the green label (a.k.a. big 3-free) somewhere around 2006 (correct me if I'm wrong!) so even though I do have several OPIs that have been released since then that are considered hard to find, or "HTF", I did not include them here. Several of my vintage OPIs date all the way back to 1989 and are among the oldest in my stash. And yes, they are still good as new!

Anyways, here's my vintage OPI collection. Enjoy!

OPI

 Pinks and Mauves, L-R:

Bubble Bath, Let Them Eat Rice Cake, Hawaiian Orchid, Silent Mauvie, Maine-iac Mauve

 Reds, L-R:

Vampire State Building, Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ, Revved Up and Red-y, Mauna Loa Lava, Never Lon-done Shopping, My Throne for a Cranberry Scone

 Orange/Bronze, L-R:

Hungary for My Honey, Sonata in Bronze, OPI and Apple Pie

 Greens, L-R:

Creme de Menthe, Rainforest, Jasper Jade, At Your Quebec and Call

 Purples, L-R:

H-Andover the Amethyst, The Grape Lakes, Two Plums Up, Peel Me a Gobi Grape, 

Black Tie Optional

 Color Shifters, L-R:

La Boheme, Movin Out, Telepathic Topaz, Pluto Plum

Summer for Shore holos, L-R:

Crim-sun, Coral Reef, Day at the Peach, Blue Moon Lagoon, Sand-erella

Fun note about my Summer for Shores - they have all been found through dusty hunting. I know I could easily buy What's Dune online to complete the collection, but I am determined to find it in its natural habitat one day =) 

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Next up is China Glaze! Not a lot is known about pre-1999 China Glaze polishes, many of which these are. Some of these are from the early 2000's as well. I have found several of these through dusty hunting also since China Glaze is readily used in nail salons around here as well. I just love the old China Glaze bottles with the ridged cap and old logo! Hope you enjoy =)

China Glaze

 Reds, Orange, Yellow, L-R:

Crystal Ball, Secrets, Go Crazy Red, Naked, China Rain, Sundiver

 Greens, L-R:

Out on Safari, Cat's Eye, Crocodile Lounge, Moonpool, Wet Velvet

 Blues, L-R:

Walk on the Wild Side, Indian Ocean, Nightfall, No Name Yet

 Purples, etc., L-R:

Grape Crush, Mink Frost, Dusk, Lavender Lynx, Lush Lavender, Orchid Shadow

Original Wizard of Ooh Ahz and In the Mood, L-R:

Ruby Pumps, Cowardly Lyin', Green Shimmer, Black to Silver

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Do you have any old-school OPI or China Glaze in your stash? I'd love to hear about them!

That's all for today folks, thanks for stopping by!

Swatch Request Sunday - OPI's of Collections Past

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend so far. Today I have some more swatch requests from Twitter. I think I will be doing this every Sunday, so don't be shy and let me know if there is anything from my stash that you would like to see!!

First up is OPI Redipus-Oedipus, requested by the lovely Radha on Twitter. R-O is from the 2004 Greek Isles collection. Greek Isles was the first collection that I remember coming out when I worked at Trade Secret back in the day, so its very nostalgic because that is when I first started collecting OPIs. Anyways, Redipus-Oedipus is a really fun bright red shimmer. The consistency was almost like a jelly, it was a bit sheer but super shiny and had that lovely shimmer dispersed throughout. Since it was an old formula OPI, it was relatively thin and required 3 coats to opacity. I absolutely love this color, it would be so fun for a summer pedicure.

Here's 3 coats of OPI Redipus-Oedipus, first in outdoor light then the last pic is indoors. Enjoy!

Next up are two colors requested by the lovely Jamie on Twitter. First up is Let Them Eat Rice Cake, from the 2005 OPI Japanese Collection. Let Them Eat Rice Cake is one of my absolute favorite nude shades of all time. It is a light pinky-nude creme that seems to look amazing on all skin tones. Although it is an old non-3 free formula, it wasn't as smooth and thin as the others and was a bit thick and goopy. My bottle has a bit of a wonky brush, so that didn't help the application process either. It took 3 coats to reach opacity, and though it was a bit uneven on the nail, a nice thick coat of Seche Vite evened everything out beautifully.

The following pics are 3 coats of OPI Let Them Eat Rice Cake. First three pictures are outdoors, last three are indoors.

Last but not least is Baby It's Coal Outside from the 2008 Holiday in Toyland collection. This is probably one of my favorite OPI colors of all time, so I put this on last and decided to wear it as a full manicure because it's just so awesome! Baby It's Coal Outside has a black base with this amazing gunmetal brocade shimmer throughout. The brocade shimmer gives it almost a sueded look, I love it! This is a 3-free formula, and I had no problems with application. It was a bit sheer, so it took 3 coats to reach opacity.

Here's 3 coats of Baby It's Coal Outside, all the pictures are outdoors except for the last one. I can't stop staring at my hands with this on, it's gorgeous!

And here's a macro shot to show you the awesome shimmer!

That's all for today! I hope you guys enjoyed seeing these swatches. Again, I'll be doing this every weekend so please let me know if there is anything you are dying to see.

See you all tomorrow!

Twitter Swatch Requests: Hard Candy Pea Soup, OPI Two Plums Up & Essie Lollipop

Happy Saturday everyone! Hope you are all enjoying your weekends so far =)

On Thursday I asked some of my twitter friends to go through my stash spreadsheet and pick out a manicure for me because I was feeling super indecisive and couldn't make up my mind what polish to wear. I got three different answers from three lovely ladies, so I decided to do them all in this post!

First up is Hard Candy Pea Soup, requested Madeline over at Girl Germs. This is vintage Hard Candy (pre-Walmart) and probably came out sometime during the late 90's. I got this decant from a lovely blog sale, as I was in need of some green Hard Candy polishes to round out my collection but wasn't having luck finding any. I figured that a decant was the best I could do! Pea Soup is a yellow-green frosty shimmer, and it is relatively sheer so it took 3 coats to reach the color you see here. The formula was decent, your typical non-3 free texture and smell. It's not my favorite vintage Hard Candy polish by any means, but it is fun! Very evocative of the '90s, being a sheer, frosty light green. It just makes me want to go shop at Limited Too, drink some Clearly Canadian and watch Clueless =)

Anyways, here's 3 coats of Hard Candy Pea Soup, indoors.

Next up is OPI Two Plums Up, requested by Maria over at Nails Made Simple! Two Plums Up is an old black label OPI from the Hollywood collection from fall 1999. I am currently in the process of collecting the polishes from this collection, because as I mentioned before, my husband is a film maker and I am a sucker for anything film-related. Two Plums Up is a plummy-magenta color. It's a bit frosty but not so much as Pea Soup is as it has a nice shimmer to round out the brush strokiness (not even a word, ha) quality. I did 3 coats here, as it was a bit sheer and I wanted it to be nice and vibrant. I quite like this color, and although it's not something I would normally wear, I'm glad I took the time to try it out today =)

OPI Two Plums Up, 3 coats, indoors.

 

Lastly, I have Essie Lollipop as requested by my lovely Jamie on Twitter! Lollipop is from Essie's 2009 holiday collection, which was the collection that also contained Mint Candy Apple - the color that reignited my passion for polish. I had originally thought that Lollipop was a jelly, but it turns out that it is just a wonderfully shiny red creme. It only needed 2 coats to opacity, and the formula was perfection. Lollipop is an orange-leaning red, and I think it would look amazing on all skin tones. It is so vibrant and so squishy, and is definitely one of my favorite reds in my entire stash! I'm glad this was the last one that I swatched because now I can leave it on and admire its awesomeness!

Here's Essie Lollipop, 2 coats, indoors. Enjoy!!

So there we have it! I hope you have enjoyed these swatches. I am always willing to take requests, so feel free to take a look at my collection spreadsheet in the link at the top of the page (I fixed the link so everyone can see it now)! Let me know if there is anything that you would like to see =) I love hearing from you guys, so don't be shy!

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday and I will see you all tomorrow!

Thanksgiving Nails: OPI & Apple Pie

Hello, and Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! I just wanted to stop by with a quick post today.

OPI & Apple Pie is often considered the ugliest nail polish in existence. It is a deep burnt orange tan color, so of course, I adore it! I was totally stumped about what to wear as my Thanksgiving manicure, but when my mom called this morning and said she wasn't sure she was going to make apple pie for the feast, I insisted that there "MUST BE APPLE PIE!" It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without apple pie. So I thought this would be the perfect color to wear!

OPI & Apple Pie is from the 2001 World Collection, which means this polish is 10 years old! It is a black label polish (which I will show in the pictures below), so it is a non 3-free polish. Usually, I adore the formula of OPI black labels, but this one was not as nice as others I had experienced. It was a bit thick, which is fine, but it did not self-level AT ALL. This means that I had some very lumpy polish on my hand. It took a good 3 coats to smooth everything out. Not really a fan of the formula, but I'll keep it around as it is a unique color. 

Unfortunately, my nails and cuticles are badly stained from yesterday's Kleancolor Metallic Pink manicure. An amazing polish, but that baby stains like nothing else I have ever experienced! My nails are a nice shade of pink, and my cuticles are ORANGE. I tried everything to remove the stains: acetone, buffing, whitening toothpaste, whitening nail soak - even a scalding hot shower didn't do the trick. So, you guys will have to bear with me today. I only have a few pictures so as to spare you from the orange/pink massacre.

So here's, OPI & Apple Pie, 3 coats, Seche Vite topcoat, in natural light. In real life, its a bit lighter and less orange, but these were the best I could do in a short time today. Enjoy!

And, a bonus pup for you! This is UZI, and I am extremely thankful for this little guy today. Plus, my manicure matches the color of his fur =)

See you all tomorrow! Happy Thanksgiving =)

A Water Marble and a Konad

Good morning everyone! It's been a week since my last post and I'm mad at myself! I really need to post more, for real! School is crazy this semester, I'm taking six classes and none of them are easy. Not even one cake class! It has been nuts, and I have been seriously bogged down with homework. However, I need to remember that doing my nails and blogging is actually a stress reliever so if I take the time out to do those things, I should be more productive with everything else, right? At least, that's what I'm going to tell myself!

First up today, I have a water marble for you! Water marbles are one of my absolute favorite things to do with my nails, and I have done a gazillion of them. Generally, they turn out pretty great but unfortunately, this one was a semi-fail for me. So why am I posting it? It still looks cool!

For this marble, I used three Misa polishes: Sorry, Just Can't Help It; Office Polish-tics; and Dirty, Sexy Money. They are all fantastic, dusty cremes and I thought they would be great for an end-of-summer to early-autumn marble. I absolutely adore Misa polishes, the application is phenomenal and the colors are amazing. However, they are just not ideal for water marbling. I tend to use thinner polishes for marbling, such as Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears or China Glazes, but I thought I'd give these a go! Well, though the colors looked great together, they bubbled horribly in the water! You can see in the pics below, especially on my right hand that my manicure looks like it has a case of measles...

Usually, I can eliminate bubbles in the water, and if one does happen to show up on my nail, a quick blow on the nails nine times out of ten does the trick to get rid of the bubble. This time it seems that the bubbles were unavoidable. So, although I love my Misa polishes, I do not think I will be using them again for marbling anytime soon. So, without further ado, my water marble fail!

L-to-R: Sorry, Just Can't Help it; Office Polish-tics; Dirty, Sexy Money

The left hand - not quite as many bubbles as the right hand

Ugh! Bubble city. Still, I like the patterns on my right hand better than the left. Bummer that it bubbled so badly.

So, there you have it. If anyone out there has any ideas on how to eliminate those bubbles, let me know! I would greatly appreciate it, because I really love this color combination. And for all of you wondering how in the heck to do a water marble, I hope to post a tutorial for you guys soon =)

Next up is a slightly less fail mani. Now who out there is on Pottermore? I am, of course! I was sorted into Ravenclaw and wanted to do a manicure for last Friday's Ravenclaw Pride day on Twitter. Blue and Bronze, baby! Now this manicure I absolutely LOVED.

I used OPI DS Fantasy for this manicure on all fingers except the accent finger. I am obsessed with DS Fantasy, it may be my favorite blue of all time. The DS Collection is OPI's "special" collection. It contains holographic and foil polishes that are a bit "higher end" than their normal line. DS Fantasy, while it is not a linear holographic polish, contains a teensy bit of the holographic powder in it. It's enough to really make it stand out. Isn't it gorgeous? The bronze that I used on the accent nail is OPI Sonata in Bronze from the 2004 Holiday Harmony Collection. I purchased this polish back when I worked at a salon in the mall, when OPI polishes were still $7.50! I stamped over the bronze with a Bundle Monster plate and DS Fantasy.

Hope you enjoy this one!

Love this blue so much!

Well, that's all for today! I vow to post at least every other day, if not more often, from now on! Thanks for reading!

-Jacqui