Nicole by OPI Spring 2012 Target Exclusives - Swatches and Review

  Up today are the four most recent Target-Exclusive Nicole by OPI Shades, including three shimmers and one glitter.  All swatches shown without base coat, with top coat.

Great Minds Pink Alike

Outdoors, natural light

Detail Shot

 This medium pink is packed with purple and pink shimmer.  While I was a bit on the fence about this one when I saw the bottle, I love it on - it is a really great pink!  Three coats for full coverage.

Purple Yourself Together

Outdoors, natural light

Detail shot

 Light red-leaning purple with fine copper shimmer.  While this shade might look familiar, it is actually lighter and with a finer shimmer, making it unique among the other purple-with-copper-shimmer polishes we have seen this spring.  Three coats.

That's Totally Red-ical

Outdoors, natural light

 This bright red has the most subtle shimmer - my camera didn't pick it up at all and honestly it is pretty hard to see in person as well.  However, it is still a really gorgeous color - it is bright without being too bright and has just enough pink in it to make it fairly wearable.  Two coats.

Look At Me, Look At Me!

Outdoors, natural light

Detail Shot

 Silver glitter with blue and fuchsia glitter throughout.  I love this one!  While the overall look is definitely silver the color throughout gives it a really unique look.  Two coats.

Overall Review

 I really like all of the colors in this collection, and they are mostly unique to other colors we have seen so far this spring.  The shimmer in the pink and purple shades is just gorgeous, and the silver glitter is really fun.  It is hard to pick a favorite here, they are all really great polishes!  Formula was good on all of them, they didn't give me any trouble.  Personally I am pretty pleased with the entire collection!

DISCLOSURE: The polishes featured in this post  were provided to Polishology by OPI for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

Liquid Crystal

  Here is one of the amazing polishes from the China Glaze Prismatics collection - my personal favorite from the collection!

Outdoors, natural light

  Liquid Crystal has a gorgeous base of medium blue with purple duochrome flash and is filled with medium-sized rainbow hex glitter.  While I was a little bit bummed when I initially found out that these polishes were not holographic (as they claim to be), duochrome with rainbow glitter is still pretty good!  Pretty smooth application for a glitter, I used three coats for full coverage.  It was a bit hard to do justice the the duochrome with the camera, but here is a slightly better shot.

Close-up of purple flash

   Once again, while these are not holographic and that was a little sad, they are still really pretty and the prominent purple flash on this one makes it my favorite.  I think the rainbow glitter is really fun as well.  Love this polish!

Bright Spring Plaid

  Here is a very fun little spring mani I wore a couple of weeks ago.

Outdoors, overcast

  For these nails I started with OPI Did It On 'Em from the Nicki Minaj collection, followed by stamping using Nicole by OPI All Kendall-ed Up using plate M64 and Konad Special White using plate m82.  As a finishing touch I added pink rhinestones to the center of each large flower.  I really like how this one turned out!

Zoya Surf Collection, Summer 2012 - Swatches and Review

  First off a huge THANK YOU to Becky, who was nice enough to swatch the Beach collection for me since I have been completely out of time lately!  She did a really great job.  Today I have the other half of the summer 2012 collection from Zoya, the Surf collection!  This side features some really amazing foil metallics in bright beach-ready hues.  All swatches no base, with top coat.  All were two easy coats!

Carly

Outdoors, shade

 Deep plum metallic foil.  This one seems a bit dark for summer, but is still totally gorgeous!  Something about this color is just so... Zoya, haha.  

Outdoors, sunlight

Kimber

Outdoors, shade

 This is a really amazing bright pink foil with a bit of a golden flash.  Perfect color for summer!  I wore this on my toes for a long time.

Outdoors, sunlight

Myrta

Outdoors, shade

 Bright coral-orange foil with tons of golden shimmer.  The pinkish coral tones in this one make it a really wearable orange shade.

Outdoors, sunlight

Rory

Outdoors, shade

 Lavender-pink metallic foil.  I really like this one a lot - it is kind of girly but the metallic finish also gives it a bit of an edge.  Very pretty.

Outdoors, sunlight

Meg

Outdoors, shade

 This is a light apple green foil, with silvery particles that give it a really great finish.  I don't wear a whole lot of green but this is a really great color (especially in the sun) and I can definitely see myself wearing it.

Outdoors, sunlight

Zuza

Outdoors, shade

 My favorite of the bunch!  This is bright turquoise foil metallic that really just glows.  I totally love it.  :)

Outdoors, shade

Overall Review

The formula on these was really great - two fairly smooth coats for full coverage.  Just make sure you don't keep running the brush over the polish or it will start to get kind of clumpy.  The foil finishes are really nice, the colors are gorgeous, and the application is easy - what more could we ask for?  While my favorite might be Zuza, there is a not a polish in this collection that I don't really like!  Overall a really great turnout from Zoya for Summer 2012!  I can't wait to see what they will be bringing us for fall. :)

DISCLOSURE: The polishes featured in this post  were provided to Polishology by Zoya for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

Zoya Summer 2012 Beach Collection - Swatches and Review

Hello! Today I have the Zoya Summer 2012 Beach Collection for you. Actually, this is Becky, Jenny's little sister, reviewing today. Jenny has been super busy with work recently but didn't want to leave her blog in the dust, so here I am to help out. :-)

 Left to right: Wednesday, Reagan, Lara, Arizona, Shelby, Tracie

Wednesday

 Indoors, natural light

Outdoors, sunlight

Wednesday is a lovely turquoise cream. I used 2 coats for this swatch. Unfortunately, my peely nails showed up on these pictures more than they do in person, sorry! But this applied really well. It is much greener than blue, and a bit faded -- the indoors picture is much more true to life.

Reagan

Indoors, natural light

Outdoors, sunlight

Reagan is a fuschia creme. I used two coats here, but you can easily get away with one if you are careful, which makes this a winner in my book! I really like this color. It is a nice in-between of purple and dark pink/berry, which is one of my favorite shades. In person it is probably closer to the indoors picture, but a little lighter. This is my second-favorite of the collection, even though I think it seems a bit more fall than summer. It makes a great pedi color though :-)

Lara

 Indoors, natural light

Outdoors, sunlight

Lara is a magenta creme. I used two coats for this one. It is not nearly as bright as the second picture; much closer to the indoors picture. 

Arizona

Indoors, natural light

Outdoors, sunlight

Arizona is a bright orange creme. It is not neon, but it is very bright for sure! It reminds me of macaroni and cheese. It was a bit thinner than the others, and needed 3 coats. I don't usually wear oranges much, but if bright orange is your thing, this is a nice one.

Shelby

Indoors, natural light

Outdoors, sunlight

Shelby is a light pink creme. Like Arizona, it was a bit thinner, and needed 3 coats. This one is super girly; reminds me of bubblegum. It's a little softer though, and not all that bright. 

Tracie

Indoors, natural light

Outdoors, sunlight

Tracie is the only non-creme of the bunch -- it is a pretty green shimmer. I don't usually do greens, but this turned out to be my favorite! Two coats here. It is a soft and a touch frosty -- the Zoya website describes it as both "pistachio" and "avocado" and I think both of those are quite accurate comparisons.

Overall

The entire collection is quite nice on formula. It is a little thicker than some other Zoya cremes, and mostly applied quite well in two coats, three coats tops. My favorites were Tracie, Reagan, and Wednesday, but I am sure there is something in here that will appeal to everyone.

For fun, I did a skittles manicure with some fun stamping from Konad plate m30; I wore it for two days so there is some tipwear, but I thought it was cute:

And here ends my first swatch and review! Hope I was helpful; and hopefully Jenny will be back soon to blog for you :-) 

Have a nice day!

DISCLOSURE: The polishes featured in this post  were provided to Polishology by Zoya for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

Oh The Things You Can Think!

  Here is a super fun polish by a really great indie brand - Whimsical Ideas by Pam.  Personally I haven't yet purchased any of the awesome indie polishes floating around out there yet - lack of money, as well as any time to really look for them and decide what I would want, has kind of held me at bay thus far.  This beauty is owned by my sister Becky and she was kind enough to let me use it!

Outdoors, shade

  Seuss is a bright sky blue full of large silver hex, medium red hex and small silver hex glitters.  As the base is a bit sheer on it's own, as you layer you get a really fun look with some of the silver glitters looking more pale blue.  This was three thin coats.  The glitter placement was a bit tough, and as you can see sometimes the larger glitter pieces try to lump together or migrate to the tip.  With a bit more patience than I had you can make things look much more even though.

  I think she kind of nailed the inspiration, don't you think?  :)  Really loved this polish - I might need to be purchasing my own bottle soon!

Outdoors, sunlight

Nicole by OPI Texture Coat - Swatches and Review

  I am started to get a bit crackled out, I must admit.  However these are just different enough that they renewed my interest in the crackle effect. All swatches shown with a top coat.

Opal Texture

Outdoors, natural light

 I just had to start out with my favorite.  This is a gorgeous opalescent crackle polish with a gorgeous duochrome and I pretty much love it.  It works best over fairly dark colors (shown here over black).  It has an amazing pink/purple/golden duochrome to it - while I had a tough time catching the gold flash on camera, here is a bit of the pinkish-purple shift up close.

Amethyst Texture

Outdoors, natural light

 This is a medium purple glitter crackle, which goes on rather spare-looking and them groups together to a denser finish.  However, it is best worn over dark or highly contrasting colors or you lose a lot of the effect.

Aquamarine Texture

Outdoors, natural light

 This is the bright blue version of Amethyst texture - similar sparse glitter crackle.  Once again, best over dark or highly contrasting colors.

Quartz Texture

Outdoors, natural light

This is the only shade to be truly dense and opaque enough to go over just about any base color (here shown over Nicole by OPI Great Minds Pink Alike).  It has a bit more purple in it than a standard silver crackle, making it a unique shade.

Overall Review

Once again, several of these crackles were unique enough to pique my curiosity after previously losing a bit of interest in the trend.  I am totally in love with Opal texture (especially over black) and the glitters are fun and unique as well.  Quartz is nice enough but I am not entirely sure it is necessary with so many silver crackles already available.  Opal is the clear must have out of these in my opinion.  All applied nicely for crackle polish and formed decent texture patterns.  A fun new addition to spice up this crackle trend - for now.  :)

 DISCLOSURE: The polishes featured in this post  were provided to Polishology by OPI for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.