Showing posts with label Bronze. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bronze. Show all posts

OPI Mariah Carey Collection Featuring Liquid Sand

Monday, January 7, 2013
The name Mariah Carey instantly takes me back to great memories of the mid to late nineties when it seemed that I played her songs on endless repeat. This was just one of the reasons why I was looking forward to the OPI Mariah Carey collection. The other reason I was excited about this collection was to try the brand new Liquid Sand polish texture. OPI did not disappoint, this collection is gorgeous...


A Butterfly Moment - "This sophisticated and frosty tan nude has us all a-flutter"
Nude metallic-y frost with a golden shimmer. This has a great formula with easy application. Brush strokes are really minimal for a frost and the OPI brush really helps. Nice coverage with just two coats which was a rather pleasant surprise. I really like this shade and ended up wearing it for a few days. I'll show you the nail art that followed in a few days. Swatches are with no top coat...




Swatch Details
Brand: OPI
Collection: Mariah Carey
Color Name/Number: A Butterfly Moment, NL M41
Number of coats: 2
Top Coat: No

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Sprung - "Fall hopelessly in love with this shimmery copper"
Copper brown and gold flecks. This is very sparkly and beautiful. I personally love these shades that seem to be made up of different colors of flecks. It starts out sheer and builds up to full coverage at three coats. The formula is nice. No top coat in these swatches...




This just needed a close up... am I the only one that goes crazy for these "complex" colors?


Swatch Details
Brand: OPI
Collection: Mariah Carey
Color Name/Number: Sprung, NL M42
Number of coats: 3
Top Coat: No

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Anti-Bleak - "This deep, creamy purple will lift your spirits"
A dark mulberry wine cream. It has a nice creamy formula and gives full coverage at two coats. It looks very classy and sophisticated to me. Swatches are without a top coat...




Swatch Details
Brand: OPI
Collection: Mariah Carey
Color Name/Number: Anti-Bleak, NL M44
Number of coats: 2
Top Coat: No

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Pink Yet Lavender - "This pink glitter with lavender shimmer has superstar shine!"
Clear base with pink hex and small silver holo glitter. The holo or color shifting effect of the small glitter is hard to see in these photos. Look at the bottle on the photos to see some of the flashes of color. It is gorgeous and sparkly on the nail as well. I did use to top coat over the glitter to get a smooth finish...




Swatch Details
Brand: OPI
Collection: Mariah Carey
Color Name/Number: Pink Yet Lavender, NL M43
Number of coats: 1 (layered)
Top Coat: Yes

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Liquid Sand
The following shades are the new Liquid Sand textured polishes....

Stay the Night - "Make it last in this matte black with red glints"
A black tinted base with with red glitter. It looks like hot lava on the nails and is absolutely gorgeous. It is certainly one of the most unique polishes I have ever seen. I'm wearing it as I type up this post and keep starring at it every few minutes. Can't begin to tell you how much I love this one! Application is the same as any regular polish. Dry time is longer than a typical matte polish and is possibly longer than a regular polish as well. Two coats for full coverage. Swatches are with no top coat as they are intended to be worn...





Swatch Details
Brand: OPI
Collection: Mariah Carey
Color Name/Number: Stay the Night, NL M45
Number of coats: 2
Top Coat: No

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Get Your Number - "Wearing this matte blue with sparkles is a great call"
A blue tinted jelly base with different sized blue and holo glitter. It starts out fairly sheer and builds up to nice coverage with three coats. As much as I love Stay the Night (above), this might actually win over because of the variety of glitter and the amazing sparkle. These photos don't do this polish justice. Look at the bottle in these photos to see a bit of the flashes of holo glitter. No top coat in these swatches...




Looks like rock sugar candy to me...


Swatch Details
Brand: OPI
Collection: Mariah Carey
Color Name/Number: Get Your Number, NL M46
Number of coats: 3
Top Coat: No

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Can't Let Go - "Hold onto this matte purple with dazzling sparkle"
A purple jelly base with purple glitter in different sizes. This is also a gorgeous polish and really I can't resist a good purple. This has a great formula and needed only two coats for full coverage. I'm sure you guessed by now, but swatches are with no top coat...





Swatch Details
Brand: OPI
Collection: Mariah Carey
Color Name/Number: Can't Let Go, NL M47
Number of coats: 2
Top Coat: No

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

The Impossible - "This matte fuchsia with star confetti will never give up"
A raspberry red jelly base with pink hex, holo stars and small pink glitter. The star glitter settles down to the bottom of the bottle and doesn't readily get picked up. I flipped the bottle over for a few minutes prior to using to get the stars up to the top. Three coats provides good coverage and no problems with application. No top coat...




The star glitter is best seen if it happens to be in the third coat as shown on the nail on the right. The nail on the left had a star in the second coat and almost completely disappeared after the third coat...


Swatch Details
Brand: OPI
Collection: Mariah Carey
Color Name/Number: The Impossible, NL M48
Number of coats: 3
Top Coat: No

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Just a few thoughts and comments on the new Liquid Sand polishes...

Application: Easy to apply just as any other polish. Opacity builds up with multiple coats.
To top coat or not... I personally really like the texture and the matte look and choose to wear these without a top coat as they are intended to be worn. For that same reason I chose not to swatch them with a top coat. Also, these glitters are very top coat "hungry" and it would take multiple layers of top coat to get a smooth finish. After three coats of polish applying three coats of top coat is the last thing I want to be doing.
Dry time: Dry time is longer than a matte cream polish and about the same as a regular polish. It takes a while for it to turn completely matte.
Removal: Similar to a glitter polish since it is largely made up of glitter.

Texture: It is slightly gritty to the touch, similar to sand paper. It is not sharp and doesn't seem catch on things. As you can see from this angled view it is slightly bumpy, but nothing extreme....



Have you tried (or will be trying) any of these? What do you think of them?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)


** Polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **
** For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Olympic Nails Attempt #2

Monday, August 6, 2012
First I want to say thank you for all the comments to yesterday's Olympic manicure which I considered a fail. I just couldn't leave it alone and decided to redo the podium nails that bugged me. I chose this time to go with very simple medals over the same purple background...



Background for these is SpaRitual Star Gazer stamped with Nicole by OPI Iris My Case and Bundle Monster plate BM-316. Each of the nails was then stamped with a ribbon pattern from BM-321 and the medal portion added in a matching color...


Index (silver): Pure Ice Silver Mercedes
Middle (gold): Cosmetic Arts gold foil (no name)
Ring (bronze): Maybelline Summer N Spice



I'm much happier with attempt number two which doesn't feature the uneven platforms and the mystery number 213 :)

Do you think I improved it or should have just left it alone?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Sunday Stamping: Gold, Silver & Bronze

Sunday, August 5, 2012
It is official, some manicure should just stay in my head and never be translated onto nail. I think this is one of them. This week the in the group Adventures in Stamping the challenge was to create a mani with gold, silver or bronze. Naturally my mind went straight to the Olympics and dreaming up this mess, which I swear looked much better in my head...


Don't get me wrong, I do like some aspects of this manicure including the purple stamped background to match the ribbons of the medals and the Olympic rings on my pinkie finger. I just don't like the complete look. I think what bugs me the most are the uneven nail tips. Ugh! They didn't translate so well onto the nail, but I really did intend for them to be uneven to match the podium height variation. Somehow they look more like football nails to me than ones worthy of the Olympics...


Just in case you want to know, I started out with a base of Sparitual Star Gazer and stamped over it with Nicole by OPI Iris My Case, a pretty duochrome which I will show soon. The stamping pattern is one of random lines from the Bundle Monster plate BM-316. Then I stamped the numbers using Shany plate SH07 and Cosmetic Arts unnamed gold (1), Pure Ice Silver Mercedes (2), and Sparitual Running with Wolves (3). The tips were added by taping off the nails and using colors to match each number...


The background of the nail was inspired by the ribbon of the gold medal... I might have to recreate the pattern again at some point...


SpaRitual Star Gazer is a beautiful deep purple with a silvery glitter. Formula on this was nice, but allow extra time between coats to prevent dragging. I didn't notice the bald spot on my middle finger nail until I was taking photos. Two coats for full opacity. The glitter dries a bit gritty so I would suggest a nice coat or two of top coat to even it out. I have lots of purples in my collection, but this one is made unique but the glitter. The glitter is barely noticeable on the nail though, unless you are a weirdo like me who likes studying polish contents...




Swatch Details
Brand: SpaRitual
Collection: main line
Color Name/Number: Star Gazer
Number of coats: 2
Top Coat: Yes

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) + 100% Vegan

Ok, be honest! I'd love to know what you think of my Olympic mani attempt...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)