Glitz & Glam

Hello lovelies! It's the beginning of January and the festivities are coming to an end, meaning back to the textbooks, calculators, formula sheets, and essays for me! I wanted to kick this month off with a sparkly and celebratory manicure, in hopes of giving myself some motivation for the last stretch before second semester begins. This month, I have 4 diploma exams so chances of me posting frequently are slim, but I will try my best to do some swatches over my exam break. 

That being said, when I went to visit my relatives for Christmas, my grandma gave me some polishes that she received from a salon owner. As soon as I opened the box, my eyes were drawn to the gorgeous silver capped silver polish, which was upon later inspection OPI's DS Radiance. I haven't ever bought any DS polishes, and I received one as a gift a long time ago but it's unfortunately an unflattering color with my skin tone. Suffice it to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this in the box of goodies!

More pics after the jump!

Polish Days December: Bling

Hi everyone! I knew I wanted to spice up my previous manicure, and when I found out that this month's Polish Days theme was Bling I was inspired. As you may have seen yesterday, I have been wearing Nail Pattern Boldness The Tin Man over OPI Into the Night, and to add some extra bling to this mani I chose to layer OPI The Man with the Golden Gun on top of there too. What is more bling-tastic than actual gold and white gold(-esque) flecks?!

Look at all that goodness, I feel like a million dollars with this on my nails. Well, not quite, because I have come down with the worst sore throat ever..but at least my manicure is nice - right?

So these bubbles apparently ARE here in real life, but to be honest I didn't notice them until this macro photo, so I couldn't even tell you which polish was the one that bubbled.

Here are the three gorgeous components of this manicure - and look! That's my reflection in the fancy OPI bottle!

You guys need to check out some of the other manicures done for this Polish Days theme, the ladies that participate in this never cease to amaze me with their talent.

Nail Pattern Boldness The Tin Man

Hi everyone! Today I have a very special post for you because today is the 21st birthday of the man who is not just my boyfriend, but also my very best friend. I think we're going for wings and beers after lectures are done for the day, but before that I figured I'd show him my appreciation with a blog post featuring a polish he bought me recently. After falling in love with OPI's gold flake topcoat, I immediately knew I had to get a hold of a silver version, and Dan decided he would purchase me one from a Llarowe restock.

YUM. Look at that beauty! 

I layered this over OPI Into the Night from the Spiderman collection which came out earlier in 2012.

I found that the chunks are bigger in this than in my OPI on average, which I like. It wasn't too hard to get the flakes on the brush, but it wasn't as easy as it could have been.

I want to layer this over everything - any suggestions?

Thank you soooo much Daniel for this beautiful polish, you are such a thoughtful and kind person!

If you (or your boyfriend) want to purchase The Tin Man, you can do so from Llarowe right here, or you can order directly from the Nail Pattern Boldness etsy shop right here!

OPI Skyfall - Swatches & Review

Good morning everyone! I hope you're ready to see some more swatches of OPI's new James Bond themed collection, coming out this month to celebrate the release of the film Skyfall. Today I have eight of the twelve piece collection to show you, and later this week I hope to get up some comparison posts and a post all about the much anticipated 18K gold topcoat - The Man With the Golden Gun. As is the nature of swatch posts, this will be extremely picture heavy, but I'm sure you can handle it! Let's get started!

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The first polish from the collection that I'll be showing you is OPI Tomorrow Never Dies. This is a gorgeous blurple colour that just looks so rich and luxurious on your fingers! In my opinion this leans more blue, but upon consultation with my boyfriend he said definitely purple, which leads me to believe that this is a true blurple and can appear either colour depending on perspective and lighting.

You know what, now that I'm really looking at the photos, it does look more purple. You'll have to stay tuned for my comparison post later this week to see how it compares to some other OPI blues.

At first this reminded me of OPI Russian Navy, but they're actually pretty different, with Tomorrow Never Dies being lighter. I used two coats for this photo, but then I went to sleep and got sheet marks, so I have a fresh coat of topcoat on. This polish dried very glossy, so the topcoat isn't absolutely necessary, just nice to pump it up a bit.

I love this so much, it's got subtle shimmer but there are no signs of brush strokes anywhere. Application was a piece of cake!

Look at how rich this looks in the shade!

Okay, one last photo of Tomorrow Never Dies, look at the beauty that the sun brings out!

The second polish from this collection is Moonraker. Oh Moonraker, you were the trouble child of this collection for me. I wanted to love you so much, but you had to take it upon yourself to point out every single one of my flaws. I really wish I had buffed my nails before putting on this silver chrome polish, because ridges and brushstrokes are quite obvious here.

I do still have a soft spot for this polish though because it is completely unique to my collection.

Something I noticed about this polish is the formula was a little odd. It was almost stringy. When applying it wasn't too hard to handle but when I was withdrawing the brush from the bottle the polish was stringing to the polish still inside the bottle - does that make sense?

From here on out I have put on a coat of topcoat to see if it would hide the flaws, and I guess it does a little bit.

What happened to my middle finger? I don't know where that splotch came from, I'm sorry! Overall, Moonraker wasn't my favourite of the collection, but if you can handle a tricky formula and if you are dying for a silver chrome, keep this in mind!

This gorgeous raspberry glass fleck beauty-bomb is OPI You Only Live Twice and it is a surprise favourite for me. I originally requested this polish for review as someone had mentioned it may be similar to one released in the Vintage Minnie Mouse collection, and you will see a comparison post later this week!

I used two thin coats for this polish, but one thick coat would have sufficed. This polish is absolutely stunning. The shimmer or glitter or whatever you want to call it is overwhelming, this polish would absolutely get you noticed!

I wasn't even expecting to like this polish much but I'm in love, can you tell?

Ugh, even in the shade it looks like it's glowing from within. OPI You Only Live Twice is a must have polish, in my opinion.

From the moment I saw previews of this collection, I knew that OPI Skyfall would be one of my staple colours throughout fall and winter. This darkened crimson creme has a flawless formula. I used two coats for these photos and no topcoat, yes that's right, this polish is just that glossy on its own!

Mmmm this polish is SO yummy I'm in love.

If you read my blog at all, you'll know that I love a good creme. I have nothing similar to this in my collection, and I'm not really sure why not, because it is a stunning colour that makes a great basic I think.

I can't wait to use this in nail art!

Now I have the polish from The Bondettes set - four OPI mini polishes. Before I get on to the polishes I have some photos of the packaging to show you!

Here you can read a description of each of the four colours in the mini set!

Oh my god, these look so gorgeous! I think this is a really good mini set, for all you polish-addicts who already have a tonne of reds you'll be happy to see there is only one included in the set of minis.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you The Bondettes!

This pretty, shimmery red is OPI The Spy Who Loved Me and it did not want to photograph properly. You'll get a better idea of how pretty this polish is in the shade-photos, the sun kind of washed it out. This red with gold shimmer is very, very lovely and I may consider buying a full size bottle of it - and I don't even love reds that much!

Do you see what I mean? At least a little more than in the sun photos? I used two coats for opacity and the formula on this polish was great.

Look at how perfect this is! I'm not even wearing topcoat - this shine is all within the polish itself. I know a lot of polish-addicts aren't big on reds because they see them released so often, but remember that this is a holiday collection and I'm guessing this colour will be very popular!

This is  OPI The World is Not Enough. OPI describes this polish as a rosy silver, and I guess that's exactly what it is. I don't have that much to say about this polish because I don't find it particularly flattering :( I really wanted to love it, but there's something that just doesn't do it for me. I used three coats of polish as this one was kind of sheer.

It really is pretty, but I won't run out and purchase a full sized bottle.

Here it is in the shade! This polish reminds me of Warm and Fozzie and Number One Nemesis, not in colour so much but in the formula. OPI does this formula really well and it's pretty unique in my opinion.

Does this colour do it for you guys? I wonder if you could get away with wearing this to a more conservative job, it is somewhat neutral - right?

Hi, I'm OPI Goldeneye, and I'm the most beautiful polish in the world.

I'm not even kidding you guys, this polish has jumped STRAIGHT to the number one spot on my Top Polishes of 2012 list. 

I will be wearing this for a full manicure for a while because it is mindblowing. I did have to use three coats to reach opacity, but when the colour payoff is this good I am totally okay with that.

Sorry for all the photos, but this polish is a true beauty.

Okay, no matter how hard I fought I could not get it to look right in the sun, which is why I included more shade photos.

This polish is basically pure golden glass flecks. It's to die for. I feel so luxurious with this on, it looks like it costs a million dollars.

Another shade photo to reiterate the elegance that OPI Goldeneye offers. If you like gold, you need this polish.

This is OPI Live and Let Die, and OPI describes it as a "private jet black." Okay there, OPI. Maybe I'm blind, but this looks darkened green with green/gold microshimmer to me. 

I used two coats of Live and Let Die and I really enjoyed the shimmer that this polish has!

Look at how nice it is in this shady bottle shot, so much green.

I really do like this polish, but again it's not one that I need a full sized bottle of. On the bright side, it is completely unique to my collection which really excites me!

Personallly, I think Goldeneye is a must have, it looks like molten gold on my fingernails and I cannot stop staring at my fingers. For me, Skyfall is another necessity but as it's a creme polish, it's possible that some dupes exist. I would still recommend it on the basis of its awesome formula and hi-gloss finish. What are your overall impressions of this collection so far? Will you be picking any of these shades up?

The products in this review were generously provided to me in exchange for my honest opinion.