OPI Get Your Number

Hi everyone! Included in my package of Euro Centrales that I received to review was a straggler from the Mariah Carey collection. I thought about going and editing my original post and adding it in there, but I figured that it wouldn't get seen much that way and maybe someone out there is still on the fence about purchasing.

I used three coats of Get Your Number and allowed it to dry for about 30 minutes. The Liquid Sand polishes are interesting in that they take quite a bit of time for the full effect to be present. They dry to the touch fairly quickly but if you photograph them early you can tell that they're not completely dry.

Out of the three Liquid Sand polishes that I tried, this one was the smoothest feeling on the nail. I really love the holographic circle glitters throughout the bottle.

Here's a bit of a blurry picture to help show the holographic effect in Get Your Number!

After two coats of OPI Top Coat, this is what Get Your Number had become. Please excuse the odd reflections coming from my window, my swatching situation is less than ideal currently. I much prefer this polish without topcoat, but then again, I'm a sucker for the Liquid Sand effect.

Did you pick up any Liquid Sands? What about some of the other colours from the Mariah Carey collection?

OPI Anti-Bleak vs. OPI No Spain No Gain

Hi everyone! Today I have a little comparison post that has just been sitting around in my "to post" folder and I'm not sure why it never made its way onto my blog! I know how much you guys appreciate comparison posts and I think you'll love this one because these polishes are quite close.

See what I mean when I say they're similar? On the left is OPI Anti-Bleak from the Mariah Carey collaboration that hit stores in January. On the left is an old favourite of mine, OPI No Spain No Gain. 

On my index and ring fingers I am wearing OPI Anti-Bleak and my middle and pinky fingers have OPI No Spain No Gain. As you can see, OPI Anti-Bleak seems to be just a tad darker with maybe a touch of plum, while No Spain No Gain leans a little more toward the fuchsia end of the spectrum.

As you can see, these two polishes are not dupes, but do you really need both in your collection? Both of them have awesome formulas so if you're not a big berry person I would pick up one or the other.

I hope this has helped you in deciding whether or not you'll pick up Anti-Bleak from the Mariah Carey collection!

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 Sprung vs. OPI Warm & Fozzie

Hi everyone! If you read my swatch and review post of part of the Mariah Carey collection, you'll know that upon seeing OPI Sprung I was immediately reminded of OPI Warm & Fozzie from last year's Muppet themed holiday collection. Let's check out some comparison shots of the two!

As you can see these are plainly NOT dupes! I used two coats of Warm & Fozzie to compare with three thin coats of OPI Sprung. The polish from the Mariah Carey collection is much more copper-red toned, whereas the Muppets polish leans brown. This glass-flecked finish is so gorgeous!

Here's a close up for you! One thing I noticed between the two is that Warm & Fozzie appears to be more sparkly.

Here you can see these pretty polishes in the shade, what do you think?

Honestly, these polishes are so different that if this is your type of colour it's definitely worth owning both. These aren't very similar hue-wise, but the finish is gorgeous and is very similar - OPI do gorgeous glass flecks. 

Will you be picking up Sprung now that you know that it's not a dupe for Warm & Fozzie? 

Mariah Carey for OPI - Swatches & Review

Hi everyone! Sorry for my recent disappearance, I've been battling a killer cold for going on eight days now, not to mention it's finals time! Fortunately, I think I have something to show you today that will make up for a couple days of inactivity - swatches of the Mariah Carey for OPI collection!

I've never really been a huge Mariah Carey fan, I appreciate her amazing voice but her music hasn't appealed to me. When I saw promo images of this collection, I'll admit that it didn't appeal much to me either. Let's get on with the swatches and see if my opinion has changed since seeing them in person!

First up is OPI A Butterfly Moment. This shade is a pretty champagne pink neutral with stunning gold shimmer. When I opened my package I honestly thought "please tell me that frosty mess of a light pink isn't in here" and I will gladly admit right now that I am one hundred percent eating my words. I love this shade.

A Butterfly Moment is what I could only describe as a glamorous neutral. This shade is completely office appropriate but when you see it in the light it has a surprising gold shimmer that really lights it up.

I really hate how this looks in the bottle but I can't stress enough how much I love it on my nails. It reminds me of a very pretty lipgloss that was made into a nail polish colour. I did have to use three coats but I think it is mainly do to some awful blue stains on a couple of my nails that refuse to be hidden. 

Here you can see this in the shade, it's a very subtle, pretty pink. 

The next colour is OPI Sprung which I would call a duochrome glass fleck in a copper-rose-gold shade. When I saw this I said to myself, "how could they do this? They are simply putting OPI Warm and Fozzie in a new bottle under a new name!" After doing a comparison of the two I can tell you that this is definitely not the case, which you can see for yourselves in tomorrow's post.

The formula on this was very nice, just like what I've come to expect from OPI glass flecks. I got near full coverage with two coats and only used a third coat in places that I needed to cover up bald spots. 

This colour, while perfect for the holidays, doesn't make much sense to me for a January release. I guess it is pretty universally flattering and not all nail polishes wearers are as wild as I am, but to me it seems a little tame.

The longer I wore OPI Sprung, the more I liked it. It is very elegant and all the different colours in it make it appear multidimensional. 

Switching gears now over to the revolutionary Liquid Sand shades that are coming out with this Mariah Carey collection. This red is called OPI The Impossible and above I have used two coats. One thing to note is that the star glitters are pretty difficult to get onto your nails, I had to do quite a bit of fishing around.

I'm not crazy about this shade, unfortunately. You do have to wait quite a bit for these liquid sand polishes to dry completely, even after about ten minutes you can tell that they're not completely dry and therefore haven't reached their sandy-ness potential. Even though I don't much care for the colour of The Impossible, I was pleasantly surprised with the Liquid Sand concept. It's not quite as rough as I had imagined and from some angles it is a really cool effect. 

To spruce things up, I used two layers of topcoat to bring out the glitter in OPI The Impossible. It looks super squishy and jelly - what do you think of this effect?

I don't think I've ever seen an OPI polish with star glitters, have you?

Here is a bottle shot of OPI The Impossible so you can get an idea of the different glitters.

Next we have my second favourite polish from the collection, OPI Can't Let Go. I'm begging you people, please don't give up on the Liquid Sand concept because this lacquer proves that it CAN work and it CAN look nice! I used two coats here, this one was much more opaque than The Impossible. 

It's not even as gritty as I was expecting, I am officially converted into a Liquid Sand lover. Well, maybe not quite, but I do love the effect of this polish. After trying The Impossible first I thought that the concept was dumb but I really think that Can't Let Go hit the ball out of the park.

This reminds me of one of the old OPI Suedes, but with more glitter!

I know you're probably dying to see it with topcoat so here you go - two thick coats later. I really like this polish both ways, Liquid Sand or with added topcoat. It looks kind of jelly-ish and the glitter isn't too overwhelming.

How do you prefer this polish - sandy or glossy? I want to know! I think maybe I prefer it sandy, it really is a neat concept.

What do you think of the three colours that I've swatched for you today? Are there any that you are going to be picking up? Even though some of the colours themselves aren't my favourite, they had really great formulas and if they appeal to you they are absolutely worth picking up!

These products were generously sent to me for my honest review!

OPI Mariah Carey and Euro Centrale Press Releases

Hi everyone! Today I have two press releases for upcoming OPI collections that landed in my inbox this week. The first one is the much anticipated OPI collaboration with Mariah Carey, let's see what they have to say about this collection which should hit stores in January 2013. I've hidden the rest of this post under a break because it is pretty long, so make sure you open the rest and keep on reading!