Took my chances on a big jet plane, never let 'em tell you that they're all the same.

Hey, look, another off-topic post!  At least there's one picture of nail stuff in here. 

I'm back home... again.  If you read my post from last week, you may have noticed the part at the end where I said I was going on another trip.  Unlike my crappy fail-vacation in November, this one was actually fun.  So much fun that I'm actually sad to be back here in the windy, frigid, and now shockingly flat-looking midwest. 

It's hard not to want to go back when you wake up to this every morning:

That was the view from my hotel parking lot in lovely San Diego, California.  It was my first time in California and now I understand why people want to live there.  It's gorgeous.  And it has these things:

Normally when Christmastime rolls around, I'm all about snow and cold weather, decorations and Christmas shopping, all that traditional holiday stuff.  This year I just wasn't feeling it at all.  I didn't even put up my Christmas tree!  That never happens.  NEVER.  I am the kind of person who gets really into holidays, so that's saying something.

San Diego was festive in its own charming way, though.  There was a massive Christmas tree accompanied by a snowman made of balloons in the hotel lobby.  There were Christmas lights on palm trees.  And this is what my hotel looked like at night:

 

Is that cute or what?  Oh, by the way, in regards to that hotel... It doesn't get any better than booking your room for half price via Expedia on your cell phone in the hotel parking lot minutes before checking in.  What can I say?  I like to wing it.  It's more fun that way.

I didn't do much polish or makeup wise for my trip, but this is what my nails looked like (and what they still look like currently, just with a lot more tipwear):

OPI Black Onyx, OPI Silver Shatter, Gelous topcoat.  And a crab.

I know I probably shouldn't have picked up that crab, but it was so cute.  It was the first time I'd seen one in the wild!  Not only that, but the first time I'd seen (and touched) the Pacific ocean.  First tide pool.  Lots of firsts on this trip. 

I didn't just choose San Diego as a random vacation destination, though.  At least one part of my trip was planned.  That part was this:

(This is not my video, by the way; all credit goes to Witherwings7 on Youtube!)

I could go on and on about how awesome that was, but I'll spare you (unless you actually want to hear about it?).  The best part about that was that not only did I get to go to both nights of the show, I got to meet the band TWICE.  Best Christmas present I could have hoped for.  I guess that's what happens when you buy gifts for yourself, you always know exactly what to get.  Haha!

So, yeah, I took a much longer blogging break than I wanted or intended to, but I think I needed it.  I figured if there actually was some sort of apocalyptic event this month, would I rather have spent more time taking pictures of my own hands, or spending more time having fun with family and friends and doing things I don't normally get a chance to do?

But, after all this end-of-year holiday stuff is over, I should be settling back in and catching up on blog stuff.  The last couple of months have been unusually busy for me and I've been spending most of my free time working on music and writing, so not much time (or daylight) for me to devote to swatching. 

Once again, thanks for continuing to read my blog.  I hope you all had an amazing holiday and I wish you the best for 2013!

Random Nail Spam

While I'm working on getting back to swatching, I thought I'd post a little spam of random, old, un-posted stuff to make it a little less lonely over here!

 Clarins 230 over Orlane 90

 Orly Bubbly Bombshell

 Orly Coquette Cutie

 Butter London Disco Biscuit

 Nicole Texture Coat in Opal over China Glaze Gothic Lolita

Orly Flirty

 Orly Fresh

 Nicole Texture Coat in Gold over neon pink

 Orly Here Comes Trouble

 Milani One Coat Glitter in Lavender Fizz

 Jordana Glitter in Lunar Lights

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream

 Finger Paints Motley over Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Ghostly

  

L'oreal Owl's Night

 Nicole Texture Coat in Quartz over a magnetic polish

 Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Ring My Shell over Essie A Crewed Interest

 Jordana Glitter in Sequins

 China Glaze Ulta-mate Holiday

OPI The Amazing Spider-Man Collection Summer 2012 Swatches and Review

OPI's new Spider-Man collection was a bit of an unexpected surprise for me. A comic book themed collection?? For real? That's AWESOME. Okay, not exactly based on comic books, but it was created to coincide with the release of the new 3D Spiderman movie, The Amazing Spider-man, that's coming out in July, so close enough. Still Spiderman. The collection consists of six colors plus a new shade of OPI Shatter crackle topcoat that creates the look of Lizard's scales.

The colors are:Call Me Gwen-ever - Into The Night - Just Spotted The Lizard - My Boyfriend Scales Walls - Number One Nemesis - Your Web Or Mine?

OPI Call Me Gwen-Ever. This is orange, but it's not the vibrant orange we've been seeing a lot this year. This one is lighter, more of a medium orange than a dark orange, less saturated, less clean, less bright. It's soft and muted, a little dirty even, and has a pink/coral tone instead of yellow undertones.


OPI Into The Night. This is a deep metallic blue with a very slight hint of indigo / purple tone to it. It's not a super dark vampy blue shimmer like OPI Yoga-Ta Get This Blue, it's actually rather light looking with a faded denim type of finish. It is a frost but it doesn't suffer from any weird formula or brushstroke issues like most frosts.



OPI Just Spotted The Lizard. A golden-green chrome with blue, aqua/teal and pure green duochrome. Shiny metallic finish, slightly brushstroke-prone. Chanel Péridot dupe (see below).


OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. This is described as a "cityscape white" on the press release, but to me it looks grey. A very, very light grey, as light as you can go before it becomes pure white. The slight dirty/dingy look of it keeps it from being extremely white-out bright and chalky, but it is still pretty dense and bright on the nails.



OPI Number One Nemesis. A deep greenish-grey shimmer that's made up of lots of different colored particles. There's charcoal, gold, green, a silvery color, even a little hint of blue. In bright light it sparkles like a glass fleck. In dim light it looks speckled. I highly suspect that this is an exact match for Chanel Graphite, but since I've lost my bottle, I can't do a comparison. From memory, though, I want to say it's practically the same.


OPI Your Web Or Mine?. Super frosty warm medium pink. Leans coral. Yikes. DO NOT WANT.

Sidenote: I can't even see the name Spiderman anymore without hearing Jenna Marbles' voice saying, "Bye, Spiderman!"

OPI Shatter Topcoat in Shatter The Scales
The collection also includes this shatter topcoat to layer over any of the shades. It's a dark blue-toned green shimmer with silver foil microglitter.

OPI Shatter the Scales over Call Me Gwen-ever.

OPI Shatter the Scales over Into The Night.

OPI Shatter the Scales over Just Spotted the Lizard.

OPI Shatter the Scales over My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

OPI Shatter the Scales over Number One Nemesis.

OPI Shatter the Scales over Your Web Or Mine?

Unfortunately, I can't compare Number One Nemesis to Chanel Graphite at the moment (hoping my bottle will turn up somewhere, though I feel like I've turned my house upside-down looking for it), but I can compare Just Spotted the Lizard to Péridot:

Comparison between OPI Just Spotted the Lizard and Chanel Péridot
Left to right (pinkie to index):
OPI Just Spotted The Lizard (three coats)
Chanel Péridot (three coats)
OPI Just Spotted The Lizard (three coats)
Chanel Péridot (three coats)

Exact match. I can't tell a difference at all. The OPI seemed more green in the bottle, but it was just an illusion due to the rounded bottle shape. The OPI's formula is a little smoother and more opaque, but that's the only difference I could discern.

The formula on all the polishes was excellent. I didn't have a single problem with any of the shades. The texture was neither thick nor thin, just a nice, smooth, flowing-but-not-runny, in-between texture. No running or pooling, no ridges, no bubbles, nothing. All shades except My Boyfriend Scales Walls were opaque in two coats, but I did three coats of all anyway. Very fast dry time.

Overall, I'm kinda disappointed by this collection. I think it's awesome that they've finally released a collection for geeky polish-lovers like me, but I think the color selection is.... bizarre. Random. It doesn't feel like comic books or Spiderman at all. Okay, I see Lizard green and spiderweb white/grey, but to me, those are the most Spiderman-ish colors in here. Normally I'd not ask for another red, but come on... It's Spiderman! A Spiderman collection with no red! Plus, two Chanel dupes in one collection. I'm all for more affordable Chanel dupes, but really wish they had saved them for another collection and included two superhero/villain themed colors instead. How about a radioactive glow-in-the-dark shade? No? And why does that frosty pink even exist? At least the formula was great.

The limited edition OPI Spider-Man Collection hits shelves in May.

(This was sent for review.)