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!

Kleancolor Metallic Red & Red Velvet

Happy Monday my lovely readers! It's cold and rainy here in the CLE, so I hope you all are fairing a bit better in the weather department. The husband and I finally started decorating for Christmas yesterday. We did our fireplace mantle with our nutcrackers and stockings and put up a few of the smaller artificial trees that we have. So I guess you could say that I am feeling a little but more in the holiday spirit. Because of that, I was inspired to do another Christmas-y manicure for you guys today =)

I decided on Kleancolor Metallic Red. Now, you guys already know how impressed I am with this collection of polishes. If I had to do a top 20 polishes of all time, 5 or so spots would probably be occupied by these Kleancolor Metallics. They are really that awesome. You guys have seen the Metallic Orange and Metallic Pink (which by the way, stains terribly upon removal) so I figured I'd throw in Metallic Red today. It is and AMAZING glowy, "lit from within" red that is perfect for the holidays.

After taking pictures, I decided to throw on a coat of Essie's Matte About You. And wow, am I glad that I did because it looks awesome! Mattifying this polish turns it into an amazing red velvet color. Ahhh! You guys, it seriously looks so cool! I can't decide which way I like the polish better, with regular topcoat or with matte topcoat. One one hand, there is nothing like a shiny, glowy red - but on the other hand, the matte topcoat makes it look like one of those velvet Christmas bows. Either way, it is a perfect holiday color and I'm pretty sure that I will do this manicure again before the holidays are over.

This color was ultra hard to photograph, especially because I couldn't get any natural light in this rain. I need to ask Santa for a better indoor light to take pictures! Anways, here is 2 coats of Kleancolor Metallic Red with 1 coat of Seche Vite on top.

And here is 2 coats of Metallic Red with 1 coat of Essie Matte About You.

So what do you guys think? Which way do you like better - shiny or matte?

Thanks for stopping by everyone, see you all tomorrow =D

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!

Blood Splatter Manicure with Essie and Illamasqua

Hello everyone, happy Monday!! Today I'm continuing right along with my Halloween manicures. I did a manicure similar to this one at the beginning of summer for the True Blood season premiere. I was inspired by this:

Image Credit

In the spirit of Halloween, I decided to recreate this for you guys today. I can imagine several types of Halloween costumes that this manicure would be perfect for! To do this manicure, I used Jen @ The PolishAholic's awesome splatter tutorial here. Definitely check it out if you are feeling so inclined, it is a great, simple method to get the splatter effect on your nails.

I used two coats of Illamasqua Load for the base. Load is a funny color. It is a yellow-ivory-whitish creme. Usually, I'm a huge fan of Illamasqua polishes, but I had a bit of trouble with this one. It's pretty streaky and gloopy, pretty much like every other yellow or white polish out there. But, I don't have any other color like this in my stash so that is why I allow it to stick around. However, if anyone knows of an awesome yellowy-white out there that applies better than this one, please let me know!

For the blood splatters, I used Essie Bordeaux which is an awesome burgundy red jelly, a good match for a blood effect. To do the splatters, I would dip the end of a straw in nail polish and blow out the other end onto my nail. Very simple! Clean up was a bish with this, so please excuse my reddish cuticles. I think it just adds to the effect here though!

Enjoy!

See you all tomorrow for another Halloween NOTD!

-Jacqui =)

Lynnderella Very Pretty Vampire over Wet n Wild Buy Me a Drink

Hello again friends! The second part of my post today is another Lynnderella polish =)

For my base layer, I used Wet n Wild Buy Me a Drink from their limited edition (and impossible to find) On the Prowl Collection, again from my friend Krista! Buy Me a Drink is a GORGEOUS burgundy wine shimmer. Ack I love this one soooo much! The formula is a little thin, so I had to do three coats to eliminate streaks and reach full opacity. Love love LOVE it!

On top of Buy Me a Drink, I decided to put Lynnderella Very Pretty Vampire. Another favorite from the polish genius Lynn, VPV is a various sizes of red and black glitter in a clear but murky red base. This blended in really well with Buy Me A Drink, but I think I want to try this again over a more contrasting color to get the full effect. Very Pretty Vampire is more sparse, so it is definitely best as a layering polish. I did two coats of VPV over three coats of Buy Me a Drink. VPV was a very hungry glitter, so I did one coat of Gelous and two coats of Seche Vite to smooth everything out. Here's the finished product:

Not my best pictures today, sorry folks!

Anyways, I will see you all again tomorrow! Have a fantastic Saturday!

-Jacqui =)