Sephora by O.P.I. Havana Dreams & Flurry Up!

Came down with a bit of a cold today, so this'll be short and sweet.

Nana's birthday was a great success, despite the hiccup we had when ordering lunch. It's a long story and I'm too fuzzy-headed to explain. But rest assured, we have a lot of free pizzas coming our way.

I was pretty sad when Sephora announced they were discontinuing their line with O.P.I. Every S.O.P.I. I own I love (except maybe IM Beauty, but that's a color issue). I'm especially smitten with the collaboration they did with Betsey Johnson and one of my polish undertakings is to own all of them.

Even though the S.O.P.I. line is discontinued, they're still pretty easy to find. I ordered Havana Dreams when I found out the line was dissolving for $4.50 on the Sephora website-I'm unsure whether or not they're still available  there, but I'm sure eBay has a lot of them. Flurry Up! I found at Big Lots. I paid all of $1.80 for it, along with the Sparktacular! Top Coat, a red glitter that I can't remember the name of, and I Found a Pot of Gold!

I looooooove Big Lots.

When I set the two next to each other, I knew they had to be worn as a duo. At first I attempted to do a glitter gradient, but the base in Flurry Up! is really viscous and it would have ended up a huge mess. So I just applied two coats. The glitters are a tad difficult to manipulate, but honestly it's just glitter. It's meant to be messy.

Havana Dreams is a pale, white-based blue creme-jelly, perfect in 3 coats. Flurry Up! is just a standard silver glitter in a clear base. Both are pretty straight-forward colors, but look so lovely together.

Time for some hot tea, honey, and lemon for my throat, and curling up in bed for a nap. Till next time!

Sephora by O.P.I. Frankly, I Don't Give A-Dam & Jenna Hipp After Party

I guess I'm in a neutral/pink phase now. It's getting close to spring and I just crave softer colors; maybe that's how I tell myself spring is coming. The weather is screaming JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! at the moment though.

I've had these two polishes for a while and never thought to combine them. I had been considering After Party for a Valentine's manicure (pink glitter, duh), but it just didn't make it in. So I was puzzling what to wear this with (again, pink glitter...can't ignore that) and saw A-Dam a couple rows behind it (I have a very odd system for storing my polishes) and thought pink and grey would look nice together. 

This color combo reminds me of a cute little cartoon mouse with fuzzy grey fur and a little pink nose and ears. I dunno. Maybe it's because I'm sort of feeling raw right now from everything going on in my life, so I'm looking for comfort and cute any place that I can. I see it as a cozy manicure, if that makes sense. 

Frankly, I Don't Give A-Dam is a beautiful, soft grey. In the bottle, there is the merest hint of purple, and on the first coat it's got a taupe-y, bruised quality. Subsequent coats turned it into a true, wet-cement grey. I used three here. 

I don't understand the naming of this polish, probably because I have no idea what collection it came out in. Is it an Adam and Eve reference? Is it because it's cement/concrete-colored and that's what man-made dams are made of? Whatever. 

(EDITED TO ADD: This stupid name kept bugging me so I looked it up. It's from the Garden of Good and Evil, so Adam and Eve ref. Also, other reviews call it a brown-toned grey, which is another great example of my colorblindness. Looks purple in the bottle to me :X)

After Party is by a new-to-me brand, Jenna Hipp. I saw the display at Costco with my best friend last year, and was admiring several of the colors in it. Come birthday time I'd completely forgotten about it (and everything else, since November was when Nana had her stroke) and she surprised me with it. It was a 12-pack of mini polishes. The bottles are adorable:

They remind me a bit of the Ciate bottles, which are the definition of cute. 

Anyway, I haven't tried any until now. After Party is various sizes of soft pinky-rose hexagonal glitter in a clear base. I did have to do some 'placing' with the glitters-the bigger ones wanted to stick to each other and the brush, because it was so small, wasn't very good at breaking them up. The viscosity of the polish was great though, no too thick or too thin, and each brushload delivered a good amount of glitter. What you're seeing is one coat. 

They're supposed to be very eco-friendly (the packaging they came in certainly wasn't though-it took me 15 minutes to wrestle them out of the cardboard and plastic) and are 5-free. I've read mixed reviews on them, but as the year goes on I'll test them (they're mostly summer colors). I do have to say they all look lovely though. 

Till next time! I'm going whale watching with my boyfriend tomorrow, so that should be really fun. :) Have a good weekend everyone!

Sephora by O.P.I. Under My Trenchcoat

I took these pictures a little late in the day so the polish looks a little greener than it is in real life.

Under My Trenchcoat has a putty/beige base filled with very pretty toned-down shimmer that can look gold or silver, depending on the light. The third photo down shows the silvery qualities, while the rest of them flash gold. It’s a really nice neutral.

Feeling headache-y and tired, so nothing else today. Till next time.

Sephora by O.P.I. Read My Palm

Sorry for the mini-break. It was a combination of camera problems and not really having the heart to polish. I’d been growing my nails out and they got quite long, so of course I had another break. No matter what I do my nails just seem to stay weak and peel-y. Ah well. At least they grow fast.

Read My Palm is a polish I picked up when I found out Sephora was discontinuing their O.P.I. line. I ordered about nine colors I’d had on my wishlist and while some turned out to be duds and will never, ever be shown here (IM Beauty and my skin tone had an all-out war), quite a few look lovely.

In the pictures, Read My Palm looks quite similar to Ciate’s Apples and Custard, but I don’t think they’re quite dupes. Apples and Custard is much more opaque, and it’s slightly dustier. But if you can’t get your hands on it, I’d say Read My Palm is an acceptable substitute.

This was 3 coats with Grand Central Station. The formula was smooth, thin, and buttery, and was a joy to apply. Every S.O.P.I. I own has that same smooth formula, it’s too bad they’re being discontinued. I believe they’re still on the Sephora website for $4.50.

HARE Polish Dauphine of Decadence & Sephora by O.P.I. Cartwheels on the Catwalk

I believe my gradient skills are becoming a little better. I tried a method I found here thanks to Imperfectly Painted and I found it a lot easier than sponging the glitter. I doubt I’ll ever get it right, but it’s good enough for me.

I haven’t got good undies for the rest of the HARE jellies yet, so I thought I’d start making a dent in the glitters. Here’s the description for Dauphine of Decadence:

“Dauphine of Decadence is a mixture of gold glitter in several sizes of hex and square glitter, with a sprinkling of pale mint green hexes as a subtle accent. This shade also features striking gold shimmer! This is in a CLEAR base.”

It goes without saying that I love this. Gold and I have been lifelong friends, and I can confidently say that the shimmer in Dauphine of Decadence has outstripped the 24k gold dust shimmer in Deborah Lippmann’s Boom Boom Pow. Hands down. In my head,anyway. There’s more depth in this glitter, and the pretty mint sequins take it way over the top (which is a good thing if you’re inspired by the French Court in the late 18th century).

Anyway, I chose Cartwheels on the Catwalk, my favorite blue, to layer under the glitter. I love the effect…pretty faded, dusty blue and glitzy gold glitter.

Life is becoming a bit easier for me; the main trouble I have lately is being unable to sleep. I also find myself missing school a lot, which was an enormous shock to me. I’d spent the last two years of my life impatient to get out of school…now all I want to do is crawl back into that familiar phase of my life.

Sephora by O.P.I. Sparkling Personality

This mani is a bit smudged because about 20 minutes after I slapped top coat on it I decided I had to repair a bureau drawer that’s been hanging the wrong way for a week. Naturally, instead of ignoring my ridiculous brain and going to bed, I hauled out the pliers and screwdriver, and mashed up both thumbs and a couple fingers. My left hand is worse (I’m a southpaw) so here’s the right.

Anyway, this is another one of the Betsey Johnson polishes I scored on eBay, Sparkling Personality. GLITTAH! There are two types of glitter that I love to bits-blingy, dense glitters such as this, and really delicate, whimsical glitters that just add a touch of sparkle.

Sparkling Personality has a clear base, and is full of dark silver micro glitter. I wouldn’t quite call it charcoal, but it’s not a true, pure silver. In addition to the silver, there are scattered light blue, yellow-gold, and magenta micro glitters. A really fun, different take on silver glitter.

This was two coats, with two coats of Out the Door. This one is a bit of a topcoat gobbler, not as bad as some glitters I have, but a coat of Gelous wouldn’t go amiss.

Sephora by O.P.I. Cartwheels on the Catwalk

My brain just about short-circuited when I saw this color first come out and it’s been on my wish-list ever since. I ended up scoring it on eBay with XOX Betsey and Sparkling Personality. Oh god, this blue. This freaking blue. It’s unusual and girly and edgy and feminine and fancy and casual and empress of the blue polish world. If it were human, I’d be its slavey girl.

I don’t even know how to go about describing it. Despite my camera handicaps, the pictures are color-accurate. It’s a soft, delicate, dusty, pale blue; edgier than a sky or baby blue, but not as funky as an aqua. Even though it’s a creme (cream? I dunno) it’s got a soft, silvery quality to it that bellows “SPRIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!” down my lugholes.

This was two coats, I probably should have done three to even out all the patchiness. It’s also really evident that I have mad ridges on most of my nails. I can’t remember when they appeared, or if they were always there, but they are the bane of my existence. I’ve yet to find a base/top coat combo that masks them completely. And I love the formula. I’d never tried any of the Sephora line of O.P.I. polishes, and I’m pleasantly surprised-nice and creamy!