OPI Make Love...

A request from the lovely Sanna!



OPI Make Love... An opaque milky baby pink. Very cute. Looks especially cool layered with Orly Rock Candy!

Once again, if there's anything in particular you'd like to see, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do! :D

China Glaze Sexy Sport Collection Swatches

So, really, this isn't much of a "collection" as it is one new polish lumped in with a couple old ones displayed alongside a really terrible and bizarre advertisement. I'm not about to post that ridiculous Sexy Sport promo image with the sweaty silicone-laden football player again.

Anyway, the new color, "Sexy Lady" is a medium bright pink creme, not ugly by any means but definitely nothing special.


Sexy Lady.

And the old ones:


Sex on the Beach. Very pretty sheer peachy duochrome with fine shimmer. Reminds me of OPI Peach A Boo!


Sexy In The City. Bright blue with deep frost and shimmer. This one reminds me of MAC Plasma Blu, so if you're unable to find that one, this would be the next best thing.


Sexy. That's exactly right. This is a bright orangey-red "jelly" with that glass fleck shimmer that I love so much. It's bright, vibrant, shiny and sparkly.

Zoya Chit Chat Collection Swatches

Zoya's Chit Chat collection is really cool. Each of the colors has a fine gold metallic shimmer that makes the color come to life. From the pictures they just seemed flat, but once I saw them in real life I fell in love.


Annie. This may be my favorite out of all of them. It's a bright reddish orange with gold shimmer. Really awesome.


Bekka. This is the one I was most excited about, but I was pretty disappointed with it. First of all, my brush had a bunch of long hairs sticking out which made it impossible to use, so I had to give it a "haircut" before I could use it. Second, it took four coats to even out. And third, it wouldn't mix- it was chunky when I was applying it. See that grey sludge in the bottom? It wouldn't mix in and I have no idea what it is. Closer:




Elke. Isn't this pretty? It's reddish with gold shimmer, makes it look coral. It shimmers like crazy. Reminds me of Rimmel Play Fast in Out Of Control.


Erika. Pale pink with lots of fabulous gold shimmer. Not a color I would wear very often (I'm just not much of a pale pink girl), but you have to love how beautiful it is.


Gaia. I LOVE THIS. It's what I wanted Chanel White Satin to be. It's a pure, clean white with gold shimmer. White with depth, definitely! No white-out here.



And last but not least, Lianne. Bright orange with gold shimmer. Perfect for summer. I really love how the gold shimmer makes the orange appear to glow.

Overall, I really loved this collection. All of them, with the exception of Bekka, applied beautifully. Thin, smooth, beautiful, even coats. The shimmer is what I like the most. It adds interest to the colors and makes you want to keep looking at your sparkling nails!

You can get all of these directly from Zoya.

Nfu Oh Shiny Opal Swatches

At last, Yasmeen is gone and I have the astonishingly beautiful Nfu Oh polishes I've been dreaming about since I first saw them.

The formula is not without flaws; it's thick and goopy (must be 3-free!) and smells kinda weird. Otherwise, these polishes are perfect. They have depth, iridescence, glow, fire, shimmer, all that good stuff.

Here are the ones I chose:


49. Very blah on its own. A subtle yellow/gold/green/red opal shimmer. Looks much better over black.


44. Very nice deep orange opal with green reflection.


45. The fire polish! It's a rich, vibrant red/orange with incredible orange flake shimmer that looks like burning, glowing embers.




51. It has many faces- blue, purple, red, green, gold. It's mesmerizing and truly stunning. My pictures do not do this polish justice.




52. Dark blue/green/purple opal. Again, my pictures can not accurately convey how beautiful this is.



53. Blue with purple/red/gold opal flakes. Reminds me of mermaids.


55. Bleh. This color looks dull, flat and lifeless. Green with gold flakes.


56. This is a deep green with blue reflection and complex shimmer.


57. Another blah color. Pale green with red and gold flakes.




60. A masterpiece of polish. My pictures can't capture it, but this is a rainbow in a bottle. It shimmers and reflects every color of the rainbow, as you can see in the bottle. It has an oil-slick look to it.


66. Seafoam green holographic polish. Dries matte. I don't think I like this one.



Various colors over black. The black just makes the opal glitter flakes POP. It's a really cool effect.

I'm so happy to be able to swatch again! I have plenty coming up, including the Ulta Exclusive Essies!

Sephora by OPI - Sephora Exclusive OPI Shades

Looks like the rumor is true!

Beauty and The Blog just gave us all a look at the Sephora by OPI line!

This is going to be awesome! It says they're going to be available in-store in July and on Sephora.com by august.

From the picture, it looks like these colors are going to rock. Metro Chic looks awesome. I am very easily excited. New nail polish makes me all giddy.

As soon as I can get my hands on these, I'll have pics!

Zoya Color Lock System Day 6 (Yasmeen)

Whew! I hung in there for SIX WHOLE DAYS! Can you believe it?! Six days with the same color!!

I decided to end my trial here because it was starting to look too beat up for me to feel comfortable. I'm really impressed with how long this made my polish last. As I've said before, I normally get obvious tipwear by the second day.

Anyway, I'll get to the good stuff. Visuals.



Left hand. Okay, now it actually looks worn. Obvious tipwear and chips on 3 out of 5 fingers.
Can you tell how ready I am to take this off?


Right hand. Looks pretty much the same as yesterday, but the chipping on the index finger is more apparent.

Sorry, Yasmeen. I love you, but I'm not going to wear you again for a long, long time.

You can definitely see that this system dramatically increases polish wear. I'm satisfied with the results. My curiosity has been put to rest. Now that my nails are finally free, here's a sneak peek of what you're going to see tomorrow:

Essie Fall Collection 2008 - Six rich colors!

The colors for Essie Fall 2008 are:

Forever Young – Fiery tango red

Lacy Not Racy – Velvety vintage burgundy

Big Spender – Divinely lush red-violet

No Boundaries – Juicy passionate plum

Swept Off My Feet – Dusky rose seduction

Tomboy No More – Red currant truffle

Those sound fantastic! I can't wait to see them! There are two colors that aren't included in the Nordstrom Mini 4 pack and they sound amazing.

The release date for these is August 1st.

I'll have pictures as soon as I can!

Huge thanks to Essie for this information!

Zoya Color Lock System Day 5 (Yasmeen)

Well, day five and I've had my first official chip. Sure, it's tiny and no one but me would notice it, but it's there nonetheless.


Left hand. Index finger has small chip. Can you see it? Now it's starting to show more wear than I'm comfortable with, but wow! After five days can you believe how little wear there is?


Right hand. More wear than the left hand, but not really any major chipping. Tiny chip on the side of my index finger that you can barely see.

As for the bubbling, Zoya suggested that maybe my bottle of Armor had thickened since reapplying it caused more bubbles. I'll probably try this out again with a new bottle of Armor and let you all know how it goes.

I'm thinking that maybe this will be the last day of my test. One, because I'm just dying to change colors and swatch all the amazing new polishes I haven't yet swatched (including NFU OH!!!) and two, because OMG I'VE WORN THE SAME COLOR FOR FIVE CONSECUTIVE DAYS!!!! The last time I did that was with Essie Viva La Vespa back in what, December?

If the sun comes out today I may remove this and do swatches, but if it stays cloudy I'll leave this on for one more day to see what happens.

Essie Fall 2008 Nordstrom Exclusives

Still no word on what Essie has planned for fall, but this was brought to my attention:

"Straight from the runways to your fingertips! Indulge in the Mini Fall Collection by Essie. From Tomboy No More and No Boundaries to Lacy Not Racy and Forever Young, these irresistible colors are the perfect accessory to any ensemble! -

Forever Young: Not for the faint of heart, amp up the glam factor with this fiery tango red.
- No Boundaries: This juicy passionate plum is ripe for the picking. Bold and intoxicating, it's anything but ordinary.
- Lacy Not Racy: A twist on a classic, this velvety vintage burgundy walks the line between naughty and nice.
- Tomboy No More: Transform into lady sophisticate with this red currant truffle luxe enough to satisfy any lady's craving. "

Nordstrom Exclusive Essiie Fall 2008 Mini 4 Pack available for preorder.

Zoya Color Lock System Day 4 (Yasmeen)

So, here I am at day four. I'm just itching to change colors, but I made a commitment to wear this until it chips.

Well, so far, no chips. Minimal tipwear.

Yesterday after the pictures were taken, I applied a coat of Zoya Armor followed by Hurry Up drops as instructed. It restored the shine of the polish and remedied the peeling I had on my right middle finger, but it caused extra bubbling. Minor compared to the bubbling I already had, but still bubbling.


Left. You can see some minor tipwear. Not enough for anyone to notice, but it's there.


Right. Moderate tipwear and a chip on the index finger.

I can't believe I've made it this far. I feel trapped. I WANT TO CHANGE MY COLOR!!!! This better chip soon, I don't know how much longer I can hold out!

Zoya Color Lock System, Day 3 (Yasmeen)

Day three is where I had to end my test last time. Not because of the wear, but because of the bubbles.

Honestly, I think this is wearing quite well. It's day three and I have virtually no tipwear on my left hand and only slight tipwear and chipping on my right hand.

I'm supposed to refresh it today with another coat of Armor and an application of Hurry Up, but I forgot to to that before I took the pictures. Oops!


Left hand, indoors with low light. You can't even tell I've been wearing this for three days, looks great!


Right hand, indoors with low light. Slight tipwear, a little peeling on my middle finger and a tiny chip on my index. Still looks good, aside from the bubbles.

You can tell that the shine is starting to dull. After applying another coat of Armor, the shine is restored to normal.

So, day three and still looking fine. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

OPI Avojuice Crisp Apple and Raspberry Violet

OPI will be releasing two new scents in the Avojuice lotion line, Crisp Apple and Raspberry Violet. OPI's Avojuice is one of my favorite hand lotions of all time, and I can't wait to smell these.

Not really as exciting as new polish, but still news! OPI La Collection De France is still scheduled for release around the first week of August, so I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as I get my well-manicured little hands on them!

Essie Fall 2008??

I'm really curious about Essie's Fall/Winter 2008 collections. I haven't seen any concrete information on them, but the rumor is that there will be six polishes designed to coordinate with the season's jewel-toned clothing. It's also rumored that there will be a PURPLE in this collection.

Hmmm.... Speculation? Anyone?

I can never resist purple polish, so I hope the rumor turns out to be true!

Swedish Days

Today my family and I went to Swedish Days- the Midsommar festival that happens every year where I live. There are a lot of Swedish immigrants and Americans of Swedish heritage where I live, so every year they have a festival where all the Swedish businesses and restaurants and groups set up booths with food and games. It's a lot of fun!

This year I was inspired to do "Swedish" themed makeup, inspired by Sanna of MakeupMyLack.
Mine's not as good as hers, but it was still fun to do in honor of all the wonderful Swedish bloggers I've met through this blog. You guys are great!



(Flash, because it made my eyeball look cool. LOL)

I used:
MAC Painterly Paint Pot
MAC Chrome Yellow
MAC Orange
MAC Crystal Avalanche
Urban Decay Liquid Liner in Radium
Urban Decay 24/7 Liner in Zero
Cover Girl Lash Blast Mascara

How did I do?

Zoya Color Lock System, Day Two (Yasmeen)

Similar results to what I had last time. Day two with minimal to non-existent tipwear. Observe:


Left hand, full sunlight. Sorry about the shadow. As you can see, no tipwear at all, even with all my typing. I always have tipwear the second day.



Right hand, full sun. You can see a bit of tipwear here, and a minuscule chip on the index finger. I'm left-handed, so I have no idea how I got more tipwear on my right hand than on my left.

Will I have chips tomorrow? More tipwear? We'll see how it goes.

China Glaze Sexy Sport and Zoya Chit Chat Collection Bottle Pictures

I really, really, really want to swatch these, but I promised I would leave Yasmeen on until it chips! ARGHHH!!

Anyway, the China Glaze Sexy Sport "collection" is 3 old colors and one new color- Sexy Lady. The re-released colors are Sexy, Sexy in the City and Sex on the Beach.


Sexy Lady, Sexy, Sexy In The City, Sex On The Beach


Here's Sexy Lady. It's a simple hot pink creme.


And this is the Zoya Chit Chat collection:

Gaia, Erika, Bekka, Lianne, Annie, Elke.

Gaia, Bekka and Lianne look extra awesome to me.

I have a lot of swatching to do. When I'm doing it, it seems like a pain in the ass- waiting for the right lighting, uploading, cropping, resizing, watermarking.... But now that I can't swatch because I can't take off my polish, I really want to! I miss it. It really is fun, even if my neighbors all look at me like I'm insane.

I hope this polish chips soon.