OPI - Jade is the New Black

I hope you're ready to see an amazing color today!

To some of you this is probably old news, but I'm totally and completely in love with this. I've been going on and on about it to my family and friends since like early June when I discovered it, so they're probably all really happy that I've finally purchased it for myself!

I don't have too much OPI nail polish. Most of my collection consists of drugstore finds, probably because I'm a broke college student, but I truly couldn't resist this one. I'd sit and look up every swatch I could find.....obsessive.

BUT NOW IT'S MINE! And I'll stop blabbing so you can see all this gorgeousness. For those of you who don't know, this came out with OPI's Hong Kong Collection, Spring 2010. It's a dusty deep green with a noticeable blue undertone, cream finish. Perfection.

Too many pictures coming up:








2 perfect coats
Base - Gelous Nail Gel Coat
Top- Seche Vite

Whew. It's gorgeous. I loved it as soon as I saw a swatch of it, and I think I love it 10 times more now. I cannot stop staring at my nails. This is a rich, sexy color that could definitely be worn year round. Also, this is the first color ever that I've thought I needed a backup! Maybe I'll buy another before it goes away forever.

Do you have it? THERE'S STILL TIME to pick it up!!

Janna

Ruffian Attempt

Hello there! =]

Ruffian manicures have been pretty popular lately, so here's my take.

My favorite colors are lime green and purple, so that's what I tried to work with. I used purple as the base, then lime green for the top. Wasn't the best idea, but I still really liked how it turned out.

For the base I used Lang Lang by Sinful Colors and on top I used Wild Thing by Pure Ice, my go-to (and only) lime green. (You can see some of Excuse Me by Pure Ice, and I'll explain that in a second.)







I learned a very valuable Ruffian lesson: the darker color just needs to go on top. I kinda knew that, but I really wanted the green to show more, so I broke the rule anyway...and regretted it. This is two coats of Lang Lang, followed by two coats of Pure Ice, then I topped it with to thin coats of Pure Ice's Excuse Me, a sheer yellow shimmer, to make it look lighter, but it ended up looking yellow instead of green, so I put two more coats of Wild Thing on top of that....along with various coats of topcoat along the way when I THOUGHT I was done. Whew.

So if you can pick out yellow shimmer, it's Pure Ice's Excuse Me that I ultimately covered up. That's also why it looks like there are 10 coats on my nails...cause there are. The green was piled on so thick, and it still ended up dulling and turning a murky green color on top of the purple.

I still like how this turned out. Making a neat rounded shape at the bottom was harder than I thought it was going to be though. I got quite a few compliments during the three days I wore this.

I'll definitely be trying this style again in different colors (and keeping the darker color on top!). Have you ever tried a Ruffian manicure?


Janna

POTW and My Dislike of "Boyfriend"

So here's a kind of two-in-one post for you, half pedicure, half rant.

Tonight, I joked with my boyfriend about having him paint my nails, and surprisingly, he actually did. I hateeee painting my toes, so having him do it was really nice and sweet.





This is OPI's Clubbin' Til Sunrise, from Summer '09's South Beach Collection. (I found this recently at Ulta on sale for $1.99) And I did two coats of base coat, L.A. Colors, and one coat of top coat, Seche Vite, myself.

I love the color and have been meaning to wear it for a while. It's kind of hard to describe but the pictures are pretty accurate. . . OPI describes it as "golden tangerine," and it's a frost. I didn't even do a clean up in these pictures, and it's pretty much as messy as it is when I do them myself =p (NOTE: I smudged two of them while putting on topcoat but I didn't have the heart to repaint them, so they shall stay smudged.)

And to all the ladies reading this, if you have a guy in your life that would be willing to paint your nails/toes, take him up on it! I had the biggest smile on my face. He looked half confused and half determined, and it actually turned out really really well. =] Thank you again, if you're reading this!



This brings me to my rant portion of the program. Does anyone else hate the word "boyfriend" or "girlfriend"? Whenever I use it, either in conversations with friends, or here in a post, or wherever, I feel like it sounds so pretentious. Like it makes anyone WITHOUT a boyfriend, or girlfriend, depending, feel like they're missing out on something. Having the label is probably a big reason so many people get so down about being single. Another thing, kids in like, 5th grade have "boyfriends" or "girlfriends;" does that put my relationship on the same level as theirs?

Kinda makes me think there should be a different word. Does anyone know what I mean? It's a hard concept to explain.

I mean, I'd much rather refer to him as my best friend, but that's not special enough. I think we need to create a new word that just fits.

That's it for my rant. I'm gonna keep it short, but if anyone has any comments about it or agrees or disagrees, I'll be happy to keep this discussion going. Oh, and if you have comments on the polish, please add those too! =]

Thanks so much for reading.

Janna

My Icing Polishes

This is sure to be a quick post, since I only have two Icing nail polishes.

Here they are!


Paparazzi and Chase Me

These are definitely unique in my collection.

Paparazzi. This color is AWESOME. Kind of a rosey copper base loaded with shimmer, glitter, and chunky holo glitter! Click to enlarge!!!



I really like how this one (above) came out. HOLO GLITTER!



You'll pretty much be blinded by this polish. This is three thin-ish coats. The formula was chunky, but what else can you expect? It wasn't a huge pain to remove, but I think some of the holo glitter stayed stuck to my skin for at least the whole rest of the day. BUT WORTH IT!

Chase Me. Cute name, pretty color. This one is a dark teal matte polish, much darker than the bottle picture shows. At first I thought it'd be close to Orly's new polish from the Plastix collection, Viridian Vinyl, but this is darker and bluer. (I don't own VV, but this is what I can tell from swatches by others.)





Dried really fast and showed every application flaw, as mattes do. I thought this would be more opaque; this is three coats. I'd say it's more of a satin than a super flat matte finish. I definitely want to wear this a lot come fall, but I may have to either put it over another polish or practice better application skills (or both).

That's all for this time. I purchased these (obviously) at a store called Icing in my local mall for $4.50 each. What do you guys think?

Janna

Sinful Colors Swatches

Hellooooo.

I'm slowly trying to organize my stash into 5 clear plastic shoeboxes. Hopefully they'll fit after all the buying I've been doing. So I'm going to start showing you guys some of what I own little by little til I can show you everything all neat and organized =]

This is my collection of Sinful Colors polishes as of today, 8/10/10. (or 10/8/10, depending on where you live.) August 10th =p No topcoat or basecoat (or clean up) unless specified.



First Row: Snow Me White, Gogo Girl, Dumpling, Bamboo
Second Row: Hottie, Lang Lang (purple), Love Bite

And now for the swatches. I didn't swatch Snow Me White, cause it's...well, white. But if anyone is looking for a review or a swatch, leave a comment. I've heard it's a pretty good white, not streaky or anything. We'll see.

Gogo Girl. I did my swatch on one of my hands, admired it, and then took it right off! I forgot all about pictures. It was my tenth swatch of the day, so I think I was losing it a little. I redid it, but only did one nail. Sorry =\




Second picture is with flash, as you can probably tell. It looks red in the bottle, but I did one coat and all I could see was pink. So disappointed. Buttt then as I kept putting coats on, it got redder, obviously. The picture is 3 coats, but there's still VNL. It's a pretty cherry red though. Cream finish, applied well.


Dumpling. Here's a photo from my NOTD post of Dumpling, from the recent Shanghai Nights collection. (Original post HERE)



It is suuuuper sheer. This picture is 5 (yes, FIVE) coats, along with Sally Hansen Nail Protex (pictured) as basecoat and topcoat. I'm probably going to use this for layering mostly. It is rather pretty though. Also applied well and it has a nice subtle shimmer.

Bamboo. This one caught my eye because I thought it was similar to Jade is the New Black, but now that I own JITNB (YAYYY!), I can tell you that they're quite different. This color is much more blue toned and has a shimmer finish.



Second one is flash (again, stating the obvious).

This is also from the Shanghai Nights collection. Two coats. It has a really subtle but pretty shimmer to it. It dried pretty fast, and was close to matte, definitely needs topcoat. The only thing I don't get is the name, or any of the names from this collection really. . .

Hottie. It's a glitter polish with a (sheer) purple-toned blue base. It has some chunky purple and blue glitter and also a ton of fine glitter.



Ooooooh, pretty.

I only did one nail so I wouldn't have to get all that glitter off. I really like this, but it's going to be for layering. Two coats, and as you can see, it's far from opaque. Definitely pretty and unique though.

Lang Lang. See what I mean about these names? Shanghai Nights collection. This polish is NOT for the faint of heart.


Looks like an innocent purple...


BAM!

This color is electric. That cobalt blue flash is a lot more noticeable in person. This is two coats, slightly shimmery. I'm wearing this in a Ruffian right now, and in some lights it seems more blue, some purple. It photographed really blue in the bottle, but not in this swatch. Aside from the name, this is one of my new favorites.

Love Bite.This is the last of my Sinfuls. I bought this polish cause it looks black, but it actually has green, blue, and purple/magenta shimmer in it, at least in the bottle. Only the teal color showed on the nail =[

Bottle Picture:

Crappy picture, but SEE? The colors are there!




Alright, I guess the purple's there in the first picture if you look for it. . . but I didn't see it at all in person. This is three coats, very pretty.

So there are my Sinfuls. I'm pretty new to this brand, but I'm liking it so far. Application was consistent. The only disappointment was Dumpling, with 5 coats, though I love the color. I think my favorite thing about them is the bottles; they're really cute! And at $1.99, I think they're worth a shot if you can find them. I purchased all of mine at Rite Aid, and I know they sell them at Walgreens, too.

Thanks for reading! Do you have any Sinfuls?

Janna

I Feel Like I Stole from Ulta Today

Went shopping today, and you can read about the specials in the Ulta circular in my previous post here. I definitely took advantage of them!

So I walked in to Ulta, saw the Swiss collection set up right at the front, and stood in front of it. It was gorgeous! There was a whole row of Ski Teal We Drop missing (but there were still other rows full), and a LOT of other bottles gone. I picked up Glitzerland, cause I've had my heart set on that one, and The Color To Watch, which looks so pretty in the bottle! There was my $10 (actually 17), so I got my free mini pack of Brisbane Bronze, Bogota Blackberry, and Black Cherry Chutney, which look awesome. Then I ran to the back of the store, where they had soooo many collections of OPI, including Hong Kong, Shrek, MOD-ern Brights, Mattes, Suedes, blues....collections I don't remember seeing in Ulta before. So I got my ultimate lemming Jade is the New Black for my free Salon nail polish. I'M SO EXCITED.

I needed to spend $17.50 for my free bag loaded with makeup, so I bought Ulta Extreme Wear Matte Finish Mousse Foundation in Pure Beige that I'm loving, and it actually comes close to my skin tone, and Ulta Jaded nail polish, which is gorgeous. I picked the "cool" tones, even though I have NO IDEA whether I'm cool or warm, because I thought the Plum purse would go with a lot more things than the grass Green one would have. (Do you guys know if you're cool or warm? How can I figure it out? I feel like I look okay in both kinds of tones...)

They were also having a special on fragrances. If you spent 30 dollars on any fragrance, you got a free (HUGE) tote bag, and if you spent 58 dollars on DKNY Be Delicious fragrances, you got a silver bag. So my mom and I decided on buying a two pack of the Be Delicious perfumes (in those cute little apple bottles) for 52 dollars, and we got the tote bag, and the silver bag; the girl said, 52 dollars is close enough to 58. How nice! =] Neither my mom nor I am big on perfume, but she really wanted those bags, and they smell so good!

Here are the fragrances and the free bags:



Here are my Ulta makeup goodies:



Check out all the free crap that came with that bag! lol

Also pictured is the ever popular Glam Goth collection by Ulta. When I checked out with the rest of this stuff, I saw the collection sitting by the register, and I stared at it, put it down, and then when we were done checking out I decided I had to run back into the store to get it. =]

So I spent a lot of money today, but at Ulta we got over $200 worth of free gifts! You can't beat it. We saved twice as much as we spent.

While I was in the area (Ulta and Sally's are in the same shopping center), I ran into Sally's and bought Emerald Fitzgerald. So pretty =]



They said they were closing in 15 minutes so I forgot all about poor Ingrid. I'll have to go back and grab that one later.

So that's it =] Can't wait to do some swatches of all my new things. Thanks so much for listening to me rambling with excitement. Is anyone going to go to Ulta? YOU DEFINITELY SHOULD! And let me know how it goes =]

Janna

New Polish Suggestions and Borghese Stellare Notte

Hello there =]

So I recently received the Ulta circular in the mail, and I'm going tomorrow to take advantage my "reward" and all their new sales. I never even knew Ulta had a rewards system. It's basically like, you get to pick from a list of gifts depending on how much you've spent during the last 2-3 months. Since my family and I (in my mom's name) have spent at least $100 from March to June, I get to pick from:

Any ULTA lipstain, lipstick, or lip gloss
Revlon Brow Fantasy
Any ULTA cream eyeshadow, eyeshadow single, or eye pencil
Any Olay Daily Facial Cloth up to $7.50
Any Salon Nail Polish up to $8.50
Maybelline Lash Stiletto Voluptuous Mascara in Very Black (washable or waterproof)

The obvious choice is the nail polish. A free OPI Swiss sounds good. But the question is, which one?

I've been looking at Scrangie's swatches all week trying to decide which ones I should get. Glitzerland is definitely my favorite, even though I wanted to see how it compared to China Glaze's Swing Baby. I also like The Color To Watch, though it's sheer, Ski Teal We Drop, William Tell Me About OPI, and Diva of Geneva. Maybe one of the reds besides Color So Hot it Berns, not a fan of that one. (I also love Cuckoo for This Color, but China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald is an exact dupe, so I hear, at almost half the price.)

I might pick up two of these colors, since when you buy $10 worth of OPI, you get a free mini three-pack of polishes, Brisbane Bronze, Bogota Blackberry, and Black Cherry Chutney. Then I'll get the one free. They're also doing this awesome sale where if you buy $17.50 worth of Ulta brand cosmetics, beauty tools, etc. you get $88 worth of crap: brushes, eyeshadow quads, lipstick, gloss, polish, eyeliner, bronzer, blush,....jeez. Oh, and a bag! So cute =] You can choose from what looks like cool or warm tones.

So tomorrow's going to be a busy day, especially for my wallet. I'd like some feedback on which of the Swiss polishes are your favorites. Have you gotten any? And WHYY hasn't somebody done a comparison of China Glaze's Swing Baby and OPI Glitzerland? lol. If you've found one, please let me know =]

Oh, and just so you don't go without some pictures, here's a recent swatch I did of Borghese Stellare Notte, though you've probably seen it a million times. I'm in love!















So many pictures =p Dark silver with green/purple flash. Gorgeous!

Sleep tight everyone, and I hope to hear your feedback =]

Janna

PHD Nature Challenge Mani: Oh, What a Night!

That was my tribute to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (loooove).


This week, Polish Hoarder Disorder hosted a Nature themed challenge, and since there is so much to choose from, I went with each of the four seasons (summer, spring, winter, and fall). Obviously lol. I'll post the link to the gallery when it's been posted.

Here's the picture I submitted:


I did my thumb too, which was all four of the seasons on one nail, but I hated how it came out. Here's a full picture:


Aaaaand here's what I used. It's a big long list.

Thumb: 3 coats of Avon Mirage
Design-a-Nail Frostbite on BM 01
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away! on plate BM14
SH Xtreme Wear Emerald City on plate BM05
Emerald City and Color Workshop in Nude Pink on plate BM03

Summer: 2 coats of a G.N.C. white polish
2 coats of China Glaze Kiwi Cool-ada
Orly Royal Navy on plate BM 17
Design-a-Nail Frostbite and Sinful Colors Dumpling on plate BM01

Spring: 3 coats Revlon Plum Baby
Design-a-Nail polish in Frostbite on plate BM16

Winter: 3 coats of Revlon Top Speed Chrome in PetalChrome
Revlon Top Speed Chrome in LilyChrome, SH Blue Me Away!, and Orly Royal Navy on plate BM14

Fall: 1 coat of Aziza brown
1 coat of Pure Ice Iced Copper
ChG poetic on plate BM19

I also used my newly purchased Seche Vite topcoat on all nails (and I'll never go back! =])

So that's what I did, and I finished at 11:15, just enough time to resize the picture and send it in =] If you haven't entered a PHD challenge, it's really fun and you definitely should!

Until next time,

Janna