Preview: OPI Breathe Life

OPI Breathe Life. Four coats, indoors.

Just a quick shot of it for now- it's stormy outside so I can't get a nice, sparkly sunlight picture. Not that I'm complaining- I love the rain! Only... not when I want to take pictures of polish. I'll do a more detailed picture of this as soon as the lighting cooperates.

Here's what OPI says about this gorgeous shade:

So We Can All Breathe Easier …

New OPI Breathe Life Nail Lacquer Supports

New Lung Cancer Foundation of America

The facts can leave you breathless: Lung cancer is the #1 killer of women, making it more deadly than the six next largest cancer killers combined. And 60% of new lung cancer victims will be non-smokers.

For these reasons, OPI is proud to join with the Lung Cancer Foundation of America (LCFA). LCFA’s primary goal is not just to prevent lung cancer, but to cure it. To help “breathe life” into raising funds for early detection, diagnosis, and a cure, OPI has created an exclusive new Nail Lacquer called Breathe Life – a fresh-air, silvery-blue.

“The statistics are shocking. Lung cancer has stopped our breathing long enough, and we need to stop it now,” says Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director.

In addition to this new Nail Lacquer, OPI has also made a donation to LCFA. “Because LCFA is a new organization, working on the frontlines at the grassroots level, every dollar contributed makes a tremendous impact,” Weiss-Fischmann says.

Release date is April 1.

OPI Princess Charming Collection

In my post about the Essie Bridal Collection I mentioned that there was a collection of sheer pinks and whites that I actually like. Here it is- the OPI Princess Charming Collection.

This collection is already a few years old, but it still holds the title of "Only collection of soft shades that I like." The difference is that these soft shades have personality. Observe:




Got A Date To-Knight! A light petal pink creme with a shiny, jelly-like texture. You know me- you know I never wear these colors! But I have actually worn this. Twice. Because I wanted to. There's just something about it that I like, I'm not quite sure what. It's just so... cute...?




I'm A Princess, You're Not! A sheer shimmery iridescent shade that flashes green, pink, silver and soft gold. It's sheer, yes, but it's a duochrome! If you haven't noticed, I use the term 'duochrome' loosely- there are often more than two colors present but I don't feel like counting how many. Would that make this a quadrachrome? See, that sounds weird. Anyway, this color is really pretty on its own, but it's also really cool over black.




My Daddy's The King! A soft, pearl-finish peach. One of the few peach polishes in my collection, actually. I can't believe how much I truly like this. The unique shade and the pearly finish make me love it. That, and it just looks so nice on me. (Wow, I sound like a total narcissist!)




Princesses Rule! A sheer pale pink shimmer. If you do not have this polish, run, do not walk, to the nearest nail polish store and get it! It's the pink version of OPI Hollywood Blonde... well, I guess Hollywood Blonde came out later so maybe Hollywood Blonde is the gold version of Princesses Rule!. Also looks hot over black. One of the things OPI does very well are these sheer crystal polishes. I always look forward to them. Some other examples besides Hollywood Blonde and Princesses Rule! are Up Front And Personal, Pink Before You Leap, Pink Ulta-Matum and That's All Bright With Me (just to name a few.)




Who Needs A Prince? A soft white jelly with red pearl. The red pearl in this shade gives the illusion that the polish is pink. At a distance it looks like shimmery pink, but up close you can clearly distinguish the white and red. So cool.





Your Royal Shyness. Very delicate light pink with a pearl finish. This is a very pale pink. This is the only one in the collection I'm not completely crazy about. It's pretty, yes, but it's so delicate! Delicate colors just aren't my thing. I love the pearl finish- it's not frosty and it's not shimmery, it just looks like a real pearl. It's hard to find polishes that are truly pearl and not frost. This one looks smooth and shiny, even without topcoat.


These polishes used to come with a really fabulous crystal flower toe ring with an invisible band. I think I have one or two of them, but most of the time people just stole the toe rings of of the bottles so I couldn't collect them all. Boo, thieving bastards. You suck.

The formula on this collection is excellent. I am pretty sure it's old-formula OPI, but I don't remember old-formula polishes having the Pro-Wide brush. The label on the bottom is black, so I can only assume it is. They all apply smoothly with no notable issues and they all dry very quickly and to a shiny finish, even without topcoat.

I really do not like sheers, pinks, soft colors, neutrals, what have you- but this collection is too good to resist. They all have character! They're interesting! They all remind me of fairy colors or something. Fairy-tale, for sure. And the names... how could you not like the names? Okay, I'm not into princess stuff at all, but Who Needs A Prince? Genius!

I'm almost positive that this collection is still available, and I've even seen it with green-label new formula bottles, so some of the shades might even be Classics now. If you're in the market for ladylike colors with character, you might really like these. I do.

*watches a pig fly past the window*

MAC Sugarsweet Polishes: Seasonal Peach and Peppermint Patti

I'm sure you've all seen these a bajillion times already, but I've been wearing Peppermint Patti since it arrived on my doorstep on Friday and I snapped a few pics.

It is super hot. Seriously.



MAC Peppermint Patti, in sunlight and indoors. It's not 100% accurate in these pictures, it's a bitch and a half to photograph! It's not as blue as these pictures suggest. It's a soft minty, nearly turquoise green. I had no application problems- it was smooth, dense and creamy. This is two coats. Very pigmented. Excuse the tipwear, I've been wearing it since Friday.

The decal is by Fing'rs EDGE Royal Punk Nail Art. Isn't it awesome?!



MAC Seasonal Peach. A creamy, milky retro peach. I bought this when it came out last year, so I'm not sure if there are any formula or color differences between this and the one released with Sugarsweet. I love this color. It's so retro! It's very flattering and feminine on my hands, but it's not boring. I think the starkness of it gives it an edge. I don't have very many colors like this in my collection and I can't think of a single duplicate.

I also had no problems applying this one. It's streaky on the first coat like any other light milky color would be, but it was pretty much entirely even on the second coat. I do three coats when I wear it, just to make sure it's entirely opaque. Many people complain that this is a nightmare to apply- it wasn't for me. It was actually really nice. So, your mileage may vary.

I think these would look even better together. I was going to do Peppermint Patti on all fingers but my ring finger and then do Seasonal Peach on my ring finger, but then I decided I wanted a decal instead. I'm definitely doing it next time!

I'm also testing out a few new things- a fake nail that promises 10 days of wear and topcoat that promises not to chip or peel, so we'll see how that works out. I look like I have Frankenfingers- one nail is short and french, the rest are long and green with skull decals. I feel like I have someone else's thumb attached to my hand, it's so bizarre. Stripper thumb transplant FTW!!

Ad for China Glaze Kicks Collection

I just saw this ad and I thought I'd snap a quick picture of it to share. It's for the upcoming China Glaze Kicks collection:



You can click it to view full size. I know the picture kinda sucks, I really need to get a scanner!

The colors are:
Entourage
Paper Chasing
Custom Kicks
Sky High Top
Fly
It's Poppin
B-Girlz
Laced Up
Sneaker Head
Oh How Street It Is
Style Wars
Breakin

Looks awesome! They look bright but not quite neon. There also seem to be sets of three nearly-identical pinks and oranges. Hmm... I'll have to see this in person to know for sure!


I love the nails on the model. I think I'll try them for my next manicure!

The Best Polish Names Ever, Part 1.

There are polishes in my collection that I bought for only one reason: They had an awesome name. Most of them I don't even wear, but I can't help but pick them up every now and then and feel happy, or confused or entertained or... something.

The first polish I can remember buying for the name alone is this little gem from Essie....

Essie Meet Balls.

Yes, the name of this polish is actually Meet Balls. I don't really understand the reasoning behind giving this polish such an awesome and bizarre name, but I am thankful they did it. Cause it's awesome.

So, after you Meet Balls, do you Shake Hands With Beef?

The color of this polish isn't so bad, either. It's not a color that I would normally buy for myself or wear, but the freaky name made me give it a chance that I might not give to a polish with a more normal name.

It's sort of a warm reddish-mauve with gold shimmer. I know, right? Reddish mauve? Ugh. But it just looks so flattering on my nails! I can't deny that I actually like the way this looks on me.

So, bonus.

I'll be periodically posting some of my favorite polishes with wacky names, but I want to know... Have you ever bought a polish just for the name? Do you have any polishes with bizarre names? We might even have some of the same favorites!

China Glaze Bahama Blues Revisited

I have been working on re-doing a lot of my swatches lately. I'll admit it, some of my pictures are really bad! Broken nails, fingers at bizarre angles, bad lighting, lots of glare... Some of the worst photos I've ever taken were of the China Glaze Bahama Blues collection. This collection is so beautiful, it deserves to have better swatches. So, here we are, the first post in a series of past collections revisited.

In my original review, I complained loudly about the thick, stringy formula of these. My opinion of the formula hasn't changed, but I am slightly more forgiving of the bad consistency of the polishes because the colors in this collection are so awesome.

These polishes have "three free syndrome": thick yet runny, watery yet stringy, globby and weird and hard to control. This can be remedied with a few drops of Seche Restore, but I prefer not to thin polishes that are new just out of principle.

So, with the weird formula out of the way, let's have a second look at the colors. They rock.



Bahamian Escape. A bright sky blue creme. Looking back, it seems like this color got the ball rolling on the sky-blue creme trend we've been seeing lately. Super cheerful and perfect for any time of year.



Bermuda Breakaway. A rich medium blue creme. One of my favorite blue cremes. It has a similar feeling to OPI Dating A Royal, but it's darker and more opaque. It's perfect for layering and Konad designs.



Blue Island Iced Tea. A light blue with heavy glass fleck shimmer that gives the polish an almost foil-like finish. Isn't this spectacular? I'd call it a new classic. This color is unbelievably pretty and it's going to be a polish lover's favorite for a long time.



Blue Paradise. A medium blue pearl. This is in between frost, metallic and pearl and leans more to the pearl side than the metallic side but is still reflective like a metallic. Not my favorite of the collection, but not a bad polish. You have to be careful of brushstrokes with this one.


Calypso Blue. A dark, rich blue creme. It's lighter and more noticeably blue than a traditional navy blue. This is another favorite of mine. The thing I love the most about this color is that it is a very dark blue that actually looks blue and not black. Be prepared for Smurf-fingers when removing this!



Caribbean Blue. A bright nearly-neon blue with gorgeous glass-fleck shimmer. Wow. I mean, what else can I say? Just WOW. This color kicks serious ass. It's bright, it's blue, it's sparkly, what more could a blue-lover want? I just wish the formula was less of a hassle to use, otherwise I'd be wearing this all the time!

Aren't these colors just to die for? One of the best collections of all time. A great variety of blues in varying finishes and intensities. You have all your bases covered here. I have to take points off for the super-long drying time and the globby three-free formula, but otherwise I love it.

And, in my humble opinion, there's not a person out there that can't wear blue. I think blue is one of the most flattering colors for any skin tone. It just looks awesome on everyone, even a super pale girl with red lobster claw hands like me!

Essie Bridal Collection 2008

I've been meaning to swatch this collection for MONTHS, but my nails are always so stained that I haven't been able to until now. For some reason my nails are really nice and white and pretty right now... I haven't done anything different! Maybe it's from all the swatching I've done this week. Who knows. I'm not complaining.

Anyway, just in case you like these polishes and don't want to read my less-than-glowing opinion of them, I'll post the pictures first and my review second :)



Blushing Bride. A sheer milky cream with a bit of a pink tint.


Cloud Nine. A sheer bright white jelly.



Happily Ever After. A sheer milky shade.



No Pre-Nup. A sheer pink jelly.


Tie The Knot. An off-white cream with a hint of beige.


True Love. A sheer peachy-pink jelly.


Now for my review.


Honestly, I HATE this collection. Sorry sheer-lovers. I just can't do it!

First of all, I never wear these types of colors so they are way outside of my comfort zone. They're not my style, not my personality, and really, really uninteresting to me. I'll go so far as to say that these polishes depress me. When I look down at my hands while wearing these, it's like seeing someone else's hands attached to my body. Freaky.

Second, what you're looking at is SIX COATS OF POLISH. No, I'm totally serious, six freaking coats of polish are on my nails here and they're not even close to being opaque. I do not like to see my nails through my polish. If I were to do only two or three coats of these polishes, it would pretty much look like I'm wearing nothing on my nails. I just don't see the point. With foundation it's one thing- wearing makeup to look like you're not wearing makeup. But my nails? This look is not for me, that's for sure.

Third, if your nails are even the least bit yellow or stained, these polishes will look like total crap. There is no hiding stains with these polishes. Any little bit of damage (like those white lines from where I slammed my finger in a cabinet) or discoloration will be glaringly obvious. These polishes require naturally flawless nails to wear, otherwise it just enhances and draws attention to any flaws that are present.

The colors are boring, plain, demure, uninteresting, natural and just all around too feminine for me. This means that a lot of women probably love these to death, and more power to them. If you like these colors, awesome for you. Thousands of them exist in the world and you can easily find something to suit your tastes. For me, they are the essence of frustration. When I go to the store looking for a cool new polish in a fun color, all I can find are hundreds of sheer pinks!! Sheer pinks are the bane of my existence, if you haven't noticed. Hah!

Okay, okay. I know I'm being harsh. But hey, this is my blog!

I guess there's one color I like from this collection. Cloud Nine.

Cloud Nine is really pretty. It's a bright white jelly that brightens your nails and makes them look very clean. I think it would be a good base for other colors and I'm sure it would make a really natural looking french manicure. If it wasn't so sheer, I might actually wear it. It's soft enough to not look retro, super bright but not stark and chalky looking! It is a really nice white jelly.

Why do all 'bridal' collections have to be so plain? Not every bride on earth wants plain nails on her wedding day. I sure didn't- I wore glitter! Holo glitter! OPI Paris Couture For Sure and Orly Love Each Other, to be exact. I wish someone would release a funky bridal collection for people like me. Seriously, not every bride wants to look identical and not every bride wants the stereotypical chunky fake pink-and-whites that plague the pages of bridal magazines and posters inside salons.

I can see that there are plenty of situations that call for these types of polishes. Job interviews, perhaps. Very conservative offices, sure. Jobs where you're not allowed to wear polish but want to do it anyway without drawing attention to it, totally.

Not all collections of sheer pinks are boring and plain. In fact, there is a collection of sheer pinks and whites that I absolutely love and would totally wear (and have actually worn)! I'll post about that later this week. Light feminine colors can have character and still be pretty (and not need six coats to wear).

*sigh*

Essie Summer 2009: The North Fork Collection

This is the first installment of Essie's summer 2009 releases, and I am quite excited about it for two reasons:

This collection consists of all blues. This is Essie we're talking about. Yes, BLUES!

This may be a sign of things to come- Essie doing blues? Three of them? What other cool colors does Essie have planned? I hope no more sheer pinks and nudes like usual!


I'll get to my review in a moment, but you can also check out reviews for Essie North Fork at The Nailphile, and here at The Crystal Files.

One more thing I'll say about this collection before I post the pictures- These colors resemble the three turquoise shades from the 'mystery' imaginary collection than they do the ones in the press release. YES!!!!



Greenport, full sunlight and indoors. A relaxed yet vibrant turquoise creme. Can you believe this is an Essie polish?! It's so hot! It has some similarities to Misa Dirty Sexy Money and Barielle Sweet Addiction, but it's not a duplicate of them. I hoped that I would see a color like this in OPI's South Beach collection, but I'm content with having it from Essie.



Shelter Island, sunlight and indoors. A bright, cheerful sky blue. Another shocker! A bright blue, I almost can't believe my eyes. Essie did a bright blue. Hallelujah! I love this color a lot, but it is very similar to a lot of other bright blues like Barielle Swizzle Stix, OPI Just Groovy, Zoya Yummy, Misa something-with-a-really-long-name-I-can't-remember.... But still, it's hot and you won't hear me complaining about another beautiful blue.




Sag Harbor, sunlight and indoors. A light, slightly greyed pastel blue shimmer. I don't think I have very many colors like this. It is a little similar to some of Essie's discontinued blues like St. Barth's Blue, but at the moment I can't think of another color that looks like this. The name Sag Harbor always makes me laugh. There is this clothing brand called Sag Harbor that has styles mainly geared for the retirement-age crowd and I always thought that was a funny name for the brand. I never realized it was the name of a place. Sag Harbor... tee hee.


The formula on these is fan-freakin'-tastic. All are opaque in two coats, no streaks, no sheerness, no bubbles, no runny globby three-free formula, NOTHING! Just pure smooth creamy pigmented polish. They dry super fast even without topcoat- this could be due to the fact that the polish doesn't require more than two thin coats or it could be the formula. Either way, I love it. Three-free formulas seem to be improving.

From the moment I saw the first promo image of these I knew I'd like them, but I didn't think I'd like them as much as I do. Like I mentioned before, these resemble the set of blue imaginary polishes more than the 'real' image from the press release. Observe:


This is the image from the press release, which is the 'official' correct image from Essie.




This is the mistake image that was sent in error along with the press release.


See what I mean?? It was the imaginary ones after all!!! Now if they would only release the trio with the green, golden-white and yellow....

By the way, Shelter Island, Sag Harbor and Greenport are all limited edition shades which are officially available starting in April and will retail for $9.

Reader Requests

I've been sooooo behind on my swatching and requests, but I managed to finish a few today!



OPI Golden Rules! From one of my favorite OPI collections of all time, Night Brights. A soft metallic gold with a brushed-metal type finish.



OPI Cozu-Melted In The Sun. A shimmery peachy metallic with large particle shimmer. Super pretty. It looks darker in the bottle than it does on my fingers... Strange!


Lippmann Collection Rhapsody In White. I didn't think I had this one, but it turns out I did! A very pearly bright white. Easier to apply than Icing On The Cake, but still not easy to work with. Very brushstroky.



China Glaze Aqua Baby. A bright blue creme. If I recall correctly, this is practically identical to China Glaze Shower Together from the Eco Collection, but I couldn't find my bottle to compare.

I finally got a chance to swatch the Essie 2008 Bridal Collection and the OPI Princess Charming collection, as well as a ton of old and brand new polishes, so keep an eye out for those. I have comparisons on the way also. Whew!

Orgasm Cosmetics Hard Day's Night

Orgasm Cosmetics Hard Day's Night.

This is the first polish I've tried from the new brand Orgasm Cosmetics and I am really pleased with it.

This shade is called Hard Day's Night, and despite the fact that it causes the song of the same name to instantly repeat over and over inside my head, I really enjoy this polish. It looks like a rich charcoal grey with silver shimmer, but it has a really blue cast to it like it's not actually grey, it's a darkened, smoky blue. In fact, Orgasm Cosmetic's color chart portrays this polish as a dark blue-purple and not grey, so I can't be imagining the blue cast on the polish.

The formula on this polish is really nice. The color itself is opaque in two coats. The texture of the polish is 'normal' to me- not noticeably thin or thick and for a three-free polish it really doesn't seem like one (it doesn't have the runny/gooey texture that three-free polishes can have). The brush was a nice shape and didn't have any defective bristles. The drying time was reasonable- not particularly long or short. All around, a good, solid formula with no obvious flaws.

I really like the bottle- it's a unique shape. I have no other polishes that have the same bottle as this one. If you're trying to make your brand stand out from the crowd, a unique bottle shape helps. It also helps if the bottle shape is actually good (Butter London FAIL) and while this bottle isn't terribly fancy or anything, it is sturdy and stable and not an awkward shape and it doesn't tip over when you're painting your nails.

Another thing I like about this polish is that the name of the polish is printed on the bottle. I wish more companies would do this! I can't tell you how many label stickers I've found floating around in my polish bins. Certain brands are notorious for having the labels either fall off or fade completely, and that can't happen with this polish. Nice big print on the back of the bottle clearly displays the name of the shade. A really nice touch.

For a new brand, it sure seems like they did their homework. Fun colors, great formula and bottles with labels that won't fall off. The color chart on the website is the only flaw I've seen so far- it is a very pretty interactive color chart, but it's not an accurate depiction of the colors (at least for two of the four colors I have tried).

Orgasm Cosmetics nail lacquers are available directly from their website for $6.
Clicking on the color swatch of the polish you want will open the "add to cart" screen.

Dazzle Dry Nail System

I've been seeing the Dazzle Dry nail system advertised in Nails Magazine for months, and it had me very curious. I finally broke down and had to have more information on this mysterious brand. Now that I've tried it, I am in love!

Dazzle Dry is a line of super fast drying nail lacquers, if you can't tell from the name... And when they say fast dry, they mean it!! They are seriously the fastest drying polishes I have ever used in my entire life. I am extremely impressed.

For best results, it is recommended to use the entire Dazzle Dry system when applying the polish on natural nails. The system consists of a nail prep/primer, a basecoat, the color and a topcoat.

The Dazzle Dry Nail Prep is sort of like pimped-out rubbing alcohol. It removes oil and sanitizes nails to provide the ideal surface for the bascoat and polish. This step really helps polish wear and prevents chipping.

After you prep your nails with a Nail Prep soaked cotton ball, you apply the special Dazzle Dry basecoat. A word of warning: if it is cold outside or wherever you are storing the basecoat, it will solidify. No joke. When I got my bottle it was a thick, cloudy gel, almost the texture of Vaseline. This is easily remedied by running some warm water over the bottle. It returns to a clear liquid state very quickly. Apply one coat of basecoat to your nails.

It is important for the basecoat to be fully dry before applying the Dazzle Dry polish. If it's not completely dry, it will make the polish streaky and stringy and you don't want that. So give the basecoat a couple seconds to dry before you try to polish.

Applying the polish is a breeze. Of the three colors I tried, one was completely opaque in one coat and the other two only needed two coats. If you are doing two coats of color, wait for the first coat to dry before applying the second to avoid streaking or clumping. The polish dries so fast, you really only need to wait a minute or two for it to be totally dry.

This polish dries to a semi-matte or satin finish. If you prefer a glassy shine, apply the Dazzle Dry topcoat. The topcoat dries in seconds and is incredibly shiny.

Pretty straightforward. The coolest part is how quickly this polish dries. If you do only one coat of polish, it dries completely in about three minutes. If you do two coats like I did, it's completely dry- not dentable, smudgeproof, absolutely bone dry- in about five minutes. Holy crap!!!

The polish dries very hard and shiny. My nails feel very strong while wearing it. And on top of all that, this stuff wears like iron!! I've been wearing it for a couple days already and there's barely a hint of tipwear, no chipping, no shrinkage even after cleaning, cooking, dozens of hand washings and a very hot bath. Friggin' amazing.

Here are the colors I've tried:





Carnival Coral. A vibrant, saturated, summery coral creme. I'm currently wearing this as a pedi and it's very flattering! I don't normally wear this type of shade, but this is bright enough to be interesting.



Lavender Parade. A soft, springy, Easter-egg type lavender creme. It's delicate and feminine but still fun because it's purple! These types of purples seem to be really popular this season, nearly every spring collection released so far has one... I like them, but I think they need a little visit from the Konad Fairy...

And I saved the best for last...




POLAR JADE!!! Wow, can you believe this color??? It's a medium slightly dusty emerald green shimmer, and it's drop-dead gorgeous. Seriously. I'm head over heels for this color. It looks darker indoors than it does in sunlight and it's proving to be a very difficult color to photograph. I'd say it's in between the indoor and outdoor colors- it's not as warm as the outside one and it's not as cool as the inside one. Right in the middle. Absolutely stunning. I'm still wearing this polish and I don't want to take it off!

Overall, these polishes rock. I am very impatient when it comes to polish drying time. I always use Seche Vite and quick dry drops and even then it can still take too long for me. That is nonexistent with this polish. You don't need Seche, you don't need drops, you don't even need to wait for it to dry because before you even realize it it's already dried! This would be the perfect "Emergency Polish" to keep in your purse- you can apply it three minutes before you need to be somewhere and not have to worry about ruining wet nails.

Removal is impossibly simple. Just use regular polish remover and it comes off in seconds. It might be due to the thin texture of this polish, but it is way easier to remove than regular polish.

The formula is great IF you let the basecoat dry. Like I mentioned above, if the basecoat is still wet, the polish will get stringy and sticky. The polish formula is thin, smooth and pigmented. No bubbling or shrinkage at all, no dents, nothing. Perfect.

The color selection is small but good. They have your traditional reds and pinks, but they also have a good selection of unique shades like Polar Jade. They have purple, blue, yellow, gold and even black. I'd love to see this line expand even more, it's become a new favorite of mine and I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to test drive it. It's awesome.

You can get the Dazzle Dry Nail System and Nail Lacquers directly from VB Cosmetics. Individual polishes are $9, the treatment system is $54 and comes with the Nail Prep, Basecoat, Topcoat, three nail colors of your choice and complete instructions on how to use the system. They even sell a special thinner designed to restore the texture of Dazzle Dry polishes and treatments.