Jelly Sandwich with OPI Polka.com

Hi guys! I hope you've been doing well. I've had a hectic week full of ups and downs. Today I have a post that I meant to put up a while ago, I guess I must have forgot about it, but it's a good one so I'm excited to be able to share it with you today! I previously swatched the OPI Euro Centrale collection for you, and now I'm showing you another way to wear the beautiful glitter of the collection - OPI Polka.com.

Yuuuum! Isn't this awesome? I love how the colours of the glitter are still vibrant, just a little muted by the jelly sandwich effect. I used my previous combination of OPI Polka.com over top of OPI My Vampire is Buff, and then to jellify this manicure I added one coat of my favourite sheer white polish - OPI Don't Touch My Tutu!

I am more and more obsessed with jelly sandwiches as they days go on. They are so easy to make and they have such a cool effect. I love knowing that there are at least two awesome ways to wear every glitter polish.

Would you make a jelly sandwich with OPI Polka.com? What are some other layering combinations you would use it for?

OPI Oz The Great and Powerful - Swatches & Review

Hi guys! Wow, I feel like a swatching monster lately. It seems like every time I turn around there's a new collection here for me to swatch, but you know what? I'm not complaining at all! I'm especially not complaining after getting to try out a few of OPI's new shades from their collaboration with Disney to celebrate the upcoming release of Oz The Great and Powerful. This is OPI's annual Soft Shades collection which is usually full of light, creamy, jelly polishes. This year OPI have vamped it up a little and we get a collection of three gorgeous light colours, three glitter toppers, and a new liquid sand shade!

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I do have quite a few photos to show off as I review four of the shades from this collection so buckle up!

OPI I Theodora You is the first colour of the collection that I have to show you. I have to confess something, I might love this colour more than any other polish released so far this year. I am head over heels for I Theodora you. I wore this on its own for a couple days because I couldn't bring myself to take it off and continue swatching the collection - please forgive me!

In these photos I'm showing you three coats of OPI I Theodora You. There is still a bit of VNL, but that is only to be expected with a jelly polish. My photos don't show it off too much but this polish is super glossy! I had no problems at all with the formula.

I can't stop talking about this perfect pink. It reminds me of going to a baby shower for a little girl! OPI describes it officially as an "adorable, sheer pink" and I have nothing to add to that.

The next polish from the collection that I received is OPI Lights of Emerald City. Shown above is one coat over three coats of I Theodora You.

Here I have shown two coats of The Lights of Emerald City. Please ignore the chip on my index finger nail!

Again two coats of this lovely iridescent and white glitter topper. I was looking at this in the bottle for so long before I finally figured out what the white squares remind me of - toothpaste! Anyone else see the resemblance?

I like this look, I'm a fan of white glitter as it's pretty subtle.

You know how much I love a good jelly sandwich so of course I couldn't resist adding one more coat of I Theodora You over The Lights of Emerald City. This was feeling a bit thick as it was six coats of polish, but I think it's pretty enough to be worth it.

I love how the white square glitters look like they're trapped under pink ice!

This clean, sheer white is OPI's Don't Burst My Bubble. In the bottle it leans quite pink, but that sort of disappears on the nail. Again, I am in love with this shade. For the record, my nails do have a slight yellow stain to them so as you can see, these polishes are very forgiving.

Here I have three coats of OPI Don't Burst My Bubble on and it's still quite sheer.

OPI describe this as a cloudy white and I think that's right on par. I see this being perfect for jelly sandwiches when I don't want to take too much away from the base colour.

The final colour I have from the collection is OPI When Monkeys Fly! It is a very interesting mix of two sizes of holographic hex glitter as well as large gold-brown hex glitters. They're not quite as yellow as true gold, but they're not brown, I'm not sure what to call them.

Here I have shown one coat over the previous three coats of Don't Burst My Bubble. The large glitters were surprisingly easy to retrieve from the bottle!

Here is what this looks like with two coats!

I couldn't resist throwing in a nice bottle shot there, look at that holo!

Now I know you're wondering if these large glitters have any issues with taco-ing or curling. As you can see in this photo, the ones on my pinky finger don't sit quite flat, but it appears they do on most of my other fingers. Could it be because the pinky has the most curved surface? Either way, they didn't irritate me and I think some thick top coat could even things out.

I couldn't resist throwing another layer of OPI Don't Burst My Bubble over top of this manicure for another jelly sandwich. This may be one of the first times I'm not crazy about a jelly sandwich though, I liked the depth of the holo glitter before.

Overall I really enjoyed the four polishes I received to review. OPI do a yearly Soft Shades collection and this one is one of the more interesting ones in years in my opinion. I love that they seem to be taking the lead of indie brands and adding cool glitters into their collections. My must haves would be I Theodora You and Lights of Emerald City, but all four polishes have awesome formulas.

Will you be picking up any of these shades? Let me know what you think of this collection!

As with all OPI nail lacquers, the shades inspired by Oz The Great and Powerful contain no DBP, Toluene, or Formaldehyde, and feature OPI’s exclusive ProWide^™ Brush for the ultimate in application.

This limited edition promotion will be available beginning March 2013 at Professional Salons and Spas for $10.95 CAN suggested retail for each nail lacquer.

For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com. Follow OPI on Twitter @OPI_PRODUCTS and become a Facebook fan!

The products in this post were provided to me for my honest review!

Ikat Nail Art ft. OPI Euro Centrale

Hey everyone! One of my favourite nail art bloggerts, Kayla Shevonne, posted an awesome tutorial last week about how to create the Ikat print in a manicure and I couldn't wait to try it out. I know you like seeing colours from new collections incorporated into nail art, so I took three of the Euro Centrale colours and came up with this pattern.

The colours I used for this eye-catching manicure were OPI My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours, OPI My Vampire's Buff, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, and Quo by ORLY Little Black Dress. I used a very thin nail art brush, I think next time I will use a real striping brush though because this made my design turn out a little rougher than I would have liked.

This is a really simple way to incorporate a few colours into nail art, but Kayla Shevonne's tutorial makes it perfectly easy to understand how to try it out. I really recommend you all check it out if you're interested.

What do you think of the ikat print? I have an ikat scarf that I really like, I should find an excuse to wear it this week.

Don't forget that I have a giveaway going on where you can enter to win one Liquid Sand polish from the Mariah Carey collection and one polish from the Euro Centrale collection. This would be a great way to try out the liquid sand texture without having to invest your own money, though honestly, I think those polishes are so worth it!

Saran Wrap Manicure ft. OPI Euro Centrale

Hi everyone! Today I have kind of a fun manicure to show you using a technique that's gaining a lot of ground in the nail polish community called a saran wrap manicure. It's really easy and looks super cute, and as you can probably guess you just use regular cellophane to do it. If you're interested in trying this look out for yourself here is a great tutorial by Nailed It.

For this look I started with two layers of OPI Vant To Bite My Neck? I wasn't sure what colour I should use with this gorgeous eggplant shade, but something told me that OPI A Woman's Prague-ative would be a great addition.

This manicure was so shiny that it was difficult for my camera to capture. I really like this combination of colours.

Looks like I should have let the polish on my pink dry a little more because while doing the saran wrap portion of the manicure it took a little of the purple off. Make sure if you try this look that you allow the polish underneath to dry completely!

Have you done any saran wrap manicures? Do you like the marbled texture?

Don't forget to check out my ongoing giveaway that ends next week! I'm giving away a Liquid Sand polish from the Mariah Carey collection and a polish from the Euro Centrale collection!

Zoya Lovely - Comparisons

Hi guys! Today I have the comparison post that I promised you the other day to accompany my swatches and review of Zoya's Spring 2013 collection appropriately titled Lovely. Let's see if I managed to find any dupes!

Here we have Zoya Blu vs. Zoya Kristen. Zoya Blu is much cleaner and more of a true blue while Kristen is very gray in comparison. In case you couldn't tell, Blu is on my index and ring fingers while Kristen is on my middle and pinky fingers.

Here's a bottle shot showing off the differences which I personally think are more obvious on the nail. Kristen is on the left and Blu is on the right. 

The next comparison I was able to do was between Zoya Neely and OPI Thanks a Windmillion. I really though these would be similar but the OPI is much darker and makes Neely look like a much better option for spring in my opinion.

See? They're not even similar! Are you convinced that you need Neely yet? She's amazing!

This last comparison compares quite a few lacquers. On my index finger I have OPI My Vampire's Buff from the new Euro Centrale collection, then on my middle finger I have Zoya Jacqueline, on my ring finger I have Zoya Avery, and finally on my pinky I have OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?

I personally don't think that the new OPI is a dupe for Jacqueline and I think this bottle shot illustrates it best. The OPI is a little more rosy while Zoya Jacqueline leans a little to the yellow side in comparison. Are these two extremely similar? Yes. Do you need both? Probably not. Honestly I would recommend the Zoya just because the formula is a bit easier to work with, but I love both of them and would be happy with either one.

If you're convinced about some of the Zoya Lovely colours you can follow this link over to the website and make an account. Using this link will allow you to get a coupon for a free bottle of nail polish, and by adding two more to your cart you can get free shipping!

Don't forget to check out my ongoing giveaway here because I know that all of you want a chance to win some free polish! The prizes are two OPI polishes, one from the Mariah Carey collection and one from the yet unreleased Euro Centrale collection!

The link provided is my personal referral link for the Zoya "Share the Love" program.

Ruffle Nail Art ft. OPI Euro Centrale

Hi everyone! Taking a little break from all the swatching and comparison posts today to show you some nail art I did using the lacquers from OPI's Spring/Summer 2013 collection - Euro Centrale. I opted for a ruffle manicure look on two accent nails with two nails of solid colour and I am so pleased with this manicure!

I took quite a few photos of this look and it was difficult to narrow it down to just four!

The colours I used were OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, OPI You're Such a BudaPest, OPI I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw, and Suzi's Hungary...AGAIN!

I love how the dark blue breaks up all the light and bright colours.

Have you ever done a ruffled manicure? I love they was they look but I usually don't get much feedback on them!

Don't forget to hop over and check out my giveaway featuring two brand new OPI polishes!

Zoya Lovely - Swatches & Review

Hi everyone! Today I have an exciting collection to show you that most of you have already seen, haha. To be fair, I just got these in the mail on Thursday so there IS a reason to why I'm so late in posting these. I love the Zoya Lovely collection so much that I could sit around looking at swatches of it all day, so I hope you don't mind some repetition.

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So here I've shown you the bottle pictures both with my blinding flash, and then in natural light in my apartment. I honestly think that every single colour in this collection is perfect for spring. Let's get started with the review and swatches!

First up is Zoya Blu, a gorgeous, clean baby blue shade. The formula on this colour was okay. I used two coats for opacity, but it seemed a little chalky and it wasn't good at self-leveling so I added top coat and it was perfection!

I really like this colour and I think it translates extremely well into spring. This will be a really nice creme to have around to use in nail art!

Next up is Zoya Neely which is my absolute favourite from the collection. Seriously people, you NEED this colour in your life. Neely is a perfect light mint green creme.

The formula on Neely was better than the one on Blu, it was a little more watery but there was no problem with getting ugly ridges. I will be using this polish over and over and over again.

This stunner is called Zoya Jacqueline and she is a lovely off-white colour. At first glace she seems similar to OPI's My Vampire is Buff but I will get into that in a comparison post soon. Jacqueline had a similar formula to Blu, two coats for opacity but a bit of a chalky feel to it. A coat of topcoat smooths everything out deliciously.

I am in love with neutral shades like this. You can be sure that I will be wearing Jacqueline all spring for a clean, fresh manicure, and after spring is over I'll be using her in a lot of nail art.

Next I would like to introduce you to Zoya Piaf. I guess I'm thrown off a little by the name, I thought that Piaf would be a pink colour (La Vie en Rose anyone?). This shade was surprisingly flattering on my skin tone which is something that yellows don't usually accomplish for me.

I love the silver shimmer in this polish, it really brings it to life. This polish and the two other shimmers in the collection have very similar formulas and take three thin coats for opacity. They were all very easy to work with!

This pretty pink is Zoya GeiGei (spelled GieGie on my label..hmm). GeiGei has the same silver shimmer running through her as Piaf and I think this is a really great colour for spring. I'm not sure how original it is but I can get behind it because it's unique to my collection.

You guys know how I am, I just can't get enough pink polishes!

The last lacquer from the Lovely collection is Zoya Julie. Apart from loving the name Julie, I cannot get enough of this pretty purple shimmer. 

I'm not sure why I love Julie so much more than GeiGei and Piaf, but I think the silver shimmer really goes well with this light purple. 

I don't have anything bad to say about this collection, I really enjoyed all six of the colours and I think that they're both great for wearing this spring and incorporating into nail art for the future. You know what the colour scheme reminds me of? Easter eggs!

Will you be picking up any of the Zoya Lovely collection? You can check these beauties out by following this link. If you click on that link and create an account, a coupon for a free bottle of Zoya nail polish will be placed in your account, and by adding two more polishes to your cart you can get free shipping!

The products in this post were kindly provided for review. The above link is my personal referral link for Zoya's "Share the Love" program.