Nude and Pastels

Hi guys! As I mentioned yesterday, today is my very first day back at work. I've been having a pretty nice time sitting around doing my nails, reading, and watching non-stop TLC and Stanley Cup Playoffs so it's a bit of a bummer to be headed back to work, but guess who can't wait to actually be earning money again! Anyway, today's nail art look came from me playing around with striping tape while watching hockey the other night and I really love this colour combinations!

The base colour is one of my favourites - OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh, and the two pastel colours I used are Zoya Neely and OPI You're Such a Budapest.

Is it just me, or does the purple OPI polish lean periwinkle-blue in these photos? It sure looks a lot more lilac-esque in real life.

Thanks so much for reading guys! I'll let you know how my first day of work goes later this week!

Gradient + Lynnderella Love, Lace, and Lilacs

Hello everyone! I am starting to feel like it's summer, the only exam I have left is Introduction to Programming and then that same day I get to head back home for four whole months. Today I have a pretty little gradient that I spiced up by adding one of my favourite Lynnderella polishes - Love, Lace, and Lilacs.

The two polishes that I used to create the gradient are both from OPI's Spring collection, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and OPI I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw. 

I love this Lynnderella polish and I can see myself using it a lot more in the future. I have a bad tendency to hoard my most precious polishes instead of using them and showing them off to the world!

Gradients are my thing lately, I cannot get enough of them.

Thanks so much for reading guys!

OPI Matte Top Coat - Swatches & Review

Good afternoon everyone! I got quite a bit of feedback regarding the press release I posted last week for this new Matte Top Coat by OPI, so I'm excited to let you know that I was sent this polish to review for you guys! I tried out a couple of combinations using the Matte Top Coat and I think you're going to like what you see.

The press release indicates that this is meant to be used over your favourite OPI polishes, so for my first combination I chose two recent OPI releases that look wonderful when matte-ified. 

I took two coats of OPI The Man with the Golden Gun that was released along with the Skyfall collection and layered it over two coats of the gorgeous OPI Vant to Bite My Neck? from this spring's Euro Centrale collection. To get the matte look I only used one coat of OPI Matte Top Coat covering the entire nail.

You can see the polish beginning to turn matte right before your eyes. It takes maybe two minutes for the polish to reach full matte-ness, and an added bonus is that it dries really quickly. 

Yum, matte gold flakes are definitely going to be making an appearance on my nails next holiday season. I love the way this looks.

I wanted to test the claims and see if I could use this successfully over a polish from another brand. I used to use my Essie Matte top coat on top of anything, so I was pretty sure the OPI would work the same way.

No surprises here, one easy coat of OPI Matte Top Coat over two coats of Zoya Blu makes for a fun take on pastels. On my ring finger I layered one coat of Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs on top of Blue before adding the matte coat. 

I mentioned my old matte topcoat - Essie Matte About You - which I had to order from ebay. I know that I searched long and hard in stores trying to get a matte topcoat, but there simply isn't one on the market for Canadian consumers that is easily accessible. I'm going to show you next how the new OPI release stacks up against my old Essie.

I wanted to show you how it performs over two colours - OPI Skyfall and OPI Jade is the New Black. I've labelled the photo above with which polish was on which nail. Personally, I can tell a difference, and I prefer the OPI Top Coat. Especially over Skyfall, I think the OPI polish has a flatter matte look which the Essie is a little more rubbery. I waited about twenty five minutes for these to dry to ensure that one of them wasn't still matte-ifying so I don't think that's an issue. Of course, they are pretty similar and if you already have the Essie maybe you won't need the OPI, but if you haven't invested in a matte top coat yet I would recommend OPI's.

Lastly, I wanted to show you guys some fun nail art using the OPI Matte Top Coat. If you follow OPI on facebook you will have seen the variations on matte manicures they have been posting recently. I love the idea of combining glossy and matte into the same manicure, it's a subtle but chic way of doing nail art.

I chose to use another colour from the OPI Euro Centrale collection, so for reference, here is OPI I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw sans Matte Top Coat for a very glossy look.

I taped off some sections of my nails and brought out my dotting tools and this is what I came up with! I love how this looks!

I think in this combination, my middle finger is my favourite, look how satiny the section near the cuticle looks. Wow!

The OPI Matte Top Coat will be available starting in April 2013 and the suggested retail price is $10.95 CAN, which by the way, is less than what I paid for my Essie polish after shipping. I think this is a great product and it's really bridging the gap in the market that we face in Canada where there isn't a matte topcoat easily available. I love the OPI Pro Wide brush and I much prefer it to Essie's small brush. I would absolutely recommend the OPI Matte Top Coat to anyone in the market for one.

 I hope this review has helped you make your decision! Do you think you'll be picking up the OPI Matte Top Coat? What's your favourite way to wear matte polish?

Some of the products in the review were kindly provided to me for my honest opinion. 

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?

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!

Cutie-cles' OPI Giveaway!

Hi everyone! I have some exciting news to share with you guys today, when I received my press samples to review of the Mariah Carey and Euro Centrale collections, I noticed that I was sent duplicate bottles of two polishes. I emailed my contact at the PR company and I was told that the two extra polishes were mine to keep and do whatever I want with. Naturally, I have decided to keep both bottles as back-ups for when mine run out...just kidding! I want to spread the Mariah Carey/Euro Centrale love and what better way to do that than a giveaway?

Have you been checking out the Liquid Sand polishes, but remain unsure of whether they're something you want to invest in? Do you want a sneak peek of one of the Euro Centrale shades that unites a traditional colour with gorgeous shimmer? Here is your chance to win these two polishes! There will be one winner and they will win OPI The Impossible and OPI Hands Off My Kielbasa! The giveaway starts immediately and ends on January 30th at midnight Eastern.

a Rafflecopter giveaway Due to my college-student budget, I will only ship this prize to the USA or Canada. International readers, if you have someone who could forward a package to you that has a mailing address in one of these two countries I would be happy to send it to them! I hope you all understand why I can't afford to make it international this time, but hopefully we can have another giveaway soon to include you all! Just a reminder of the two gorgeous prizes to be won, here are some of my swatches of these polishes.

OPI Oy - Another Polish Joke!

Hi everyone! I promised you that I would devote a post to OPI Oy - Another Polish Joke! since I was too intimidated to try it on its own in my original review post. Today I have a real swatch of this polish, as well as two layering combinations.

Here we go, the star of the show, OPI Oy - Another Polish Joke! The formula on this is interesting to say the least. I used three very thin coats plus one thicker coat, so four coats in total, to reach this level of opacity. The visible nail line in the photos wasn't quite as obvious in real life, but I still wasn't too crazy about it.

I think this polish taught me why some people don't like yellow gold, it's not terribly flattering on my skin tone unfortunately.

I'm sure that this polish is stunning in the sunlight, but I just don't think it's for me. Maybe we should kick it up a notch...how about some layering!?

Here I took Anti-Bleak from the Mariah Carey collection and layered one coat of Oy - Another Polish Joke! on top of it. I wasn't expecting the gold to go on so thick, and I was admittedly a little careless in my application.

I really thought I would love this, but I think the gold layered over berry just looks kind of brown-ish. Maybe a cooler toned purple would have worked better.

This on the other hand is a combination that I can get on board with! Here is one very thin coat of Oy - Another Polish Joke over OPI Thanks a Windmillion. I am so impressed by how the gold and the sage green play together, yum!

Don't you think this is a gorgeous combination? I just want to keep layering this gold over everything!

Do you have any combinations that you want to see or try out? Would you wear this polish on its own, or layered?

Some of the products in this post were sent for review.

OPI Euro Centrale - Comparisons

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a great start to the weekend. I've come down with a cold so I'm not doing much this weekend, luckily it's just the first week of the semester so there's not a lot that I'm missing out on. Today I've compiled some comparisons of a few of the colours from the new Euro Centrale collection by OPI. Unfortunately I don't have my entire stash with me, as many of my followers know I recently moved across the country and only brought around 50 polishes. That said, I think I was still able to come up with some great comparisons - let's check them out!

So first up we have OPI You're Such a BudaPest vs. OPI Do You Lilac It? Here you can see that the new polish from the Euro Centrale collection leans much more periwinkle, while the other is a true purple. No dupes here! I can definitely justify owning both... how about you?

Once again, OPI You're Such a BudaPest on the left and OPI Do You Lilac It? on the right.

Next up are some comparisons of OPI Can't Find my Czechbook. I thought that this would be easy to dupe, but at least in my personal collection I couldn't find anything that was exactly the same. 

As you can see, OPI Fly is quite a bit darker than OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and China Glaze For Audrey is much too pale.

China Glaze For Audrey vs. OPI Can't Find My Czechbook vs. OPI Fly

On the left we have OPI Eurso Euro, in the middle we have an old classic OPI Dating a Royal, and on the far right stands OPI I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw. I hope it's clear in the photo, but if not just know that Dating a Royal is much lighter and creamier than either of these two shades.

Here we have OPI Ski Teal We Drop on the left and OPI I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw on the right. I was positive that these were going to be dupes, or at least ridiculously similar, but again I don't think they're that close at all! Ski Teal We Drop is much greener than the Euro Centrale polish.

See what I mean? Again, I can justify owning both polishes because I don't consider them dupes. For people who don't hoard polishes though you may be able to get away with only having one of these. Maybe.

Alright, from left to right I've got: OPI A Roll in the Hague, OPI Call Me Gwen-ever, OPI My Paprika is Hotter Than Yours, OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where?, and OPI The Thrill of Brazil. On the nails I only chose to compare the middle three, but I wanted to show you all five to give you a night spectrum.

So as you can see these three polishes are very similar but they're definitely not dupes. As expected, Call ME Gwen-ever is much too orange. While My Paprika is Hotter Than Yours is a red, it looks orangey compared to OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where? I'm not sure if I needed a shade that fits perfectly between these two shades that were released in 2012, but they all have a great formula and if you're looking for one I would recommend any of these.

Here's a flash picture just to illustrate my point: not dupes, but pretty close to the untrained eye!

 I opted to just do a comparison of bottle shots for the next couple of polishes because they're not close at all.

Here's OPI Don't Touch My Tutu on the left, OPI My Vampire is Buff in the middle, and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on the right. As you can see, OPI My Vampire is Buff is definitely not white and is more of an eggshell neutral. Gorgeous.

OPI Vant to Bite my Neck? vs. OPI Funky Dunkey. Clearly Funky Dunkey is substantially lighter and creamier than the Euro Centrale polish. These will both be great to have in my collection to do nail art with.

OPI Suzi's Hungary AGAIN! vs. OPI If You Moust, You Moust. The Minnie Mouse themed polish is much more blue-toned while the Euro Centrale polish leans to the warm side. I love them both.

I hope some of these comparisons gave you a better idea of where these colours lie in relation to some older nail polish colours. Do you have any polishes similar enough to these that will persuade you not to purchase any from the Euro Centrale collection? Can someone really ever have too many gorgeous OPI cremes?

Some of the products in this post were generously provided for review.