OPI Brights 2016: Alice Through The Looking Glass Collection Swatches & Review

OPI is celebrating the release of Disney's Alice Through The Looking Glass with a new Brights collection! The shades represent the film’s mad, crazy, wonderful characters and their latest adventures. There are eight colors in the collection and one bonus special edition shade.

Press Sample

Oh My Majesty! is an alabaster white shimmer with a pink/copper flash. This is a little sheer, but not terribly so. You could use two coats and still get a bit of visible nail line for a dainty, more natural look. I used three coats here for full opacity.

Fearlessly Alice is a bright cerulean blue crème. This is super pigmented and creamy, opaque in just one coat but I used two like usual. She is a stainer though, so be prepared to use at least two coats of base to protect your nail and be careful with removal to avoid your skin.

What's The Hatter With You? is a deep berry burgundy crème. This has a great formula, applies easily with full coverage in two coats. This isn't what I would call bright or summery, but it's still a nice staple color to have in your collection if you don't already have something similar.

I'm Gown For Anything! is a pale lilac leaning mauve crème. This gal was super opaque, it could be a one coater for some folks! I used two as I normally do. Maybe leans slightly thick, but pretty easy to manage.

Having A Big Head Day is a flashy bright red crème. Another great formula, covers great in one coat but with full opacity in two. I personally don't need one more red crème so I was a little disappointed in this color selection for this type of collection, but you might love it!

The I's Have It is a soft but bright powder blue crème. This one could run a tad streaky if you use a lot of pressure on application, but if you sort of float a generous coat over your nail, as I did, you can get full coverage in two coats. I don't understand the name of this polish and I don't know anyone else who does either, so if you know, would you tell me??

Mad For Madness Sake is a warm medium pink crème. This is bright but still kinda muted, and isn't very unique to the OPI family so this is another one I wasn't super excited to see in this collection. However, it does have a lovely formula and is opaque in two coats.

A Mirror Escape has a thin metallic gold base filled with chunky matte white microglitter pieces. Pretty easy to apply, opaque in three coats. I am not sure if this is intended to be a textured polish, but it dries with a good bit of it so you'll need a thick layer or two of topcoat to get it smooth. I don't care for this unfortunately, they seem to be coming out with one oddball shade in every collection they do lately. *shrug*

What Time Isn't It is being marketed as a "special edition" shade. It comes in a separate box with artwork from the movie on it. OPI describes this as a matte black with silver bar glitter. I found it to actually be a shiny grey crème, but the short silver bar glitter is definitely there. I think I am in the minority of those that enjoy bar glitters, so I like this polish but I don't know if it warrants an extra few dollars on its price tag compared with the other colors.

If you're interested in possible dupes for these colors, my friend Karen over at BeautyGeeks has a bunch of comparison photos on her review HERE. This collection is available now wherever OPI is sold, such as Ulta, Sally Beauty Supply, and professional salons, for $10 each. Special edition shade What Time Isn't It retails for $14.95.

What do you think of this collection? I do like all of the shades, save the gold which isn't my personal style, but I admit I was hoping for something a little more exciting for this collection. Especially considering how groundbreaking the first Alice collection was in 2009. What say you?

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

OPI Holiday 2015 Starlight Collection Swatches & Review

Hey how are you today? I've finally got the OPI Holiday collection from 2015 to show you today! The Starlight collection features 18 lacquers inspired by the stars, the sky, space itself, and love that rockets into the heavens. Let's get to star gazing!

Press Sample

images via OPI

See my swatches after the jump!

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Naileontology Collection Vol. 3 Swatches & Review

I'm back today with more pretties from Australian indie brand Pretty Serious Cosmetics! These three shades are a new installment of their Museum of Naileontology series, an ongoing collection of re-imagined shades inspired by vintage classics. These three lacquers came out around last Halloween, but they don't necessarily have to be only for that season, though one might be more seasonal looking than the others haha. Let's take a look :)

Press Sample

images via www.pretty-serious.com

Baphomet's Berserker is an opaque black jelly polish filled with iridescent small roundish hex glitters. They flex through a few colors, blue, orange, green, aqua, so pretty! This seemed chunky on the brush, and was thicker than I expected, but it was surprisingly not difficult for me to get even and opaque on the nail. Two coats here for full coverage.

Fossil of the Death Worm has a clear base filled with super small microglitter in black and slightly larger metallic orange microglitter as well as some strings of orange. I've heard this is possible to get almost full coverage on the nail, but you'd probably have to do 4 coats or use the sponging application technique. (If you want to see this on it's own, Serenity Nails has a swatch of it here.) This is two coats over Pretty Serious' black crème Absence. The bar glitter had unfortunately curled up, I call this "taco-ing", but they were pretty few and far between so I didn't have too much trouble with them but it's worth noting.

The Singing Seed is a combination of grass green and small gold hex glitter and some yellow gold bar glitters in a clear base. I think there might be some black microglitter in this mix too, which I only saw while editing my picture in super zoom. This seems like it would be easier to get opaque by itself than the other glitter, but again I chose to layer it. This is one generous coat over Pretty Serious' dark green crème Darkling Squishy. The bars in this one seem a little thicker and were fortunately not curled at all. Pretty easy to spread with good coverage!

These are available now on the Pretty Serious website for $9.95 AUD (conversion chart for other currencies available on the website). You can also purchase them on Canadian stockist Harlow & Co. I do like these three shades, but this might be my least favorite episode of the Naileontology series so far. I have high hopes for the next one, because Pretty Serious is such a fantastic and creative brand. What do you think??

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

My Guest Post on BeautyGeeks: Essie LuxEffects 2015 Collection

Hello there, eh! I say "eh" today because I have an extra special guest post on my Canadian friend's blog BeautyGeeks! Essie Canada sent me the new 2015 LuxEffects polishes to show off and I couldn't be more excited to be featured on the BeautyGeeks site, they have some amazing content! Please head on over there and see the magic!

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Of course I couldn't just show them here, this black and white photo is just a teaser :) Here is the link: http://imabeautygeek.com/2015/10/15/essie-luxeffects-2015-swatches-and-review/ - please show the post some love! Their nail blogger Karen has impeccable skills but despises bar glitter and she knows I love it, so this guest post really is a win-win situation for the both of us. See you again soon cookies!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Live Love Polish - UNT Nail Lacquer Swatches & Review

Hey folks! I hope you are having a great week so far! Today I have a new-to-me brand to share with you courtesy of Live Love Polish, UNT Nail Lacquer. I had never heard of this brand and was excited to try them out! They are a popular brand in other countries but they're pretty new to the US. Let's see the polishes I got to try!

Press Sample

First is my favorite, Rocking Maniac. This is a greenish blue greyed out shade with smooth silver microglitter. It's a total "me" color and I love how it looks with my skin tone. It was pretty sheer on the first coat but it built up to full opacity on the second. I do not like the UNT brush however, it's flat and wide and slightly rounded at the edges. Think Sally Hansen Complete Manicure with a little more volume.

Next is Fearless, which I layered over Rocking Maniac. This is definitely not a "me" shade, unfortunately haha. It has medium cobalt blue hex glitters, smaller coppery orange hex glitters, smaller reflective hex glitters and silver string glitters in a clear base. This could work for you, but it's just a little too busy for my taste. This one also had a distinct odor that reminds me of Kleancolor polish (if you don't know what those smell like, very chemically and unpleasant). This is one coat dabbed.

And last is Velvety Fins, seen here over a white crème. This is a mix of yellowy gold, light blue and silver hex glitters and microglitters in a clear base. It looks like there's green in there but it's the gold and blue reflecting off each other. This is pretty but it's not really my cup of tea. This was quite thick as it's really glitter dense. I use two coats here.

UNT nail polishes can be purchased from Live Love Polish for $8 each. This seems to be a fun brand but the brushes are too big of a turn off for me unfortunately. Also, they don't print the names of the polish on the bottle anywhere, which is annoying. If you're interested, check out this and the other brands that the website features, you might find something new and exciting! What did you think of these colors from UNT? Have you ever tried anything from them?

Byeeee!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

OPI Holiday 2014 Gwen Stefani Collection Swatches & Review

Hi there! I am happy to be showing you the holiday collection for 2014 from OPI, their second collaboration with Gwen Stefani. I tried to get these done before the actual holidays, but it's a huuuge collection and it just wasn't in the cards. I hope you still would like to see them though, because they are fab! This collection has a set of six reds, four unique and fun glitters, and eight rich festive shades. Let's see how they look!

Press Sample

This is a long post, so click below to see the individual swatches!

Loaded Lacquer Zombie Hayride Swatch & Review

Hi everyone! I wanted to show you a polish that I got not too long ago that I've just gone gaga for, but sadly it's no longer available. Don't hate me for showing you a polish you can't buy anymore! I just had to post it, it's too great!

The polish is Zombie Hayride by indie brand Loaded Lacquer. I bought this during the last restock they did of the polish, I don't think they're going to bring it back again because it was a Halloween shade for this year. It has iridescent blue/green bar glitters, small metallic purple/pink hex glitters and holographic purple microglitter. I layered it over BB Couture Evil Queen, which I showed you here.

full sunlight

shade

It's AMAZING and I love it. I hope Loaded Lacquer decides to bring this back one day, because no one should be denied this beauty. *EDIT* I just heard from the maker that they are going to restock this a few more times! Keep your eyes peeled! *END EDIT* Even girls who don't like bar glitter have said that they are in love with it! You can purchase other Loaded Lacquers on their website, they are $10 per bottle.

See ya and thanks for reading!

❤ Kellie

China Glaze Halloween 2014 Apocalypse of Color Collection Swatches & Review

Hi friends! Happy day after Thanksgiving (for the USA) and Happy Black Friday! This is kinda funny, since it's the next holiday and all, but today I have the Halloween 2014 collection from China Glaze to show you, Apocalypse of Color. It's got six shades, one of which I've already shown you, and another of which I am not going to show you. Stay with me, there's more ;) I purchased two of these prior to receiving them as press samples, so I actually have three polishes from this collection that I'm not opening to swatch, meaning there'll be a giveaway for those three at the end of the post, so stay tuned for that!

Press Sample | Purchased by Me

First is one of the purchased polishes, Getting to Gnaw You. It's got a black jelly base with tons of copper glitters. This is awesome and perfect for Halloween. I found it easy to apply, but it's got a slight texture, making it very top coat thirsty. I used two coats of polish, then one coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and one coat of Digital Flash from the same brand. This combo of thick top coat wrangled in the texture and made it glass-like. I've seen swatches of it without top coat and it's just as lovely with the natural finish.

Next is another texture but this one is more pronounced, it's I Love Your Guts. This is a bright pinky red matte with a gossamer layer of silver shimmer and little black bits of microglitter. I have heard others have had trouble with applying this one and the next one I'm going to show you, but I found it really easy to put on. I usually don't like mattes because the application can be so temperamental, but this one was a cinch for me. I used two coats here, no top coat.

Kin to I Love Your Guts is But of Corpse. This is a green version with the same black microglitter, silver shimmer and texture. This reminds me of Frankenstein so much! I found this one equally easy to paint with. I didn't buy this or the previous one, but I'm glad I got them as samples, because I ended up loving them! Two coats, no top coat.

The glitter bomb of the collection is called Rest in Pieces. Could these names be any better? It's got holographic and metallic gold, bronze and black hexes and string glitters in varying sizes in a clear base. I wanted this one a lot but resisted buying it, and it's another one I'm glad I ended up receiving for review because it's awesome! This is two coats over pale nude crème OPI My Vampire is Buff. A bit of placing and dabbing is required for this.

And last is the polish I showed you on actual Halloween haha, Don't Let the Dead Bite. I was going to leave it out because you already saw it on me, but I had to include it because it's just that good! This has a fleshy pink crelly base with multisized red hexes and bar glitters. I used two coats here. I love this.

This collection also includes a glow-in-the-dark top coat called Ghoulish Glow that China Glaze releases every year with their Halloween collection. I've already got a bottle of it from a few years ago so I don't need to keep this one. You can purchase China Glaze from Sally Beauty Supply or Ulta stores, or at a lot of online shops like Transdesign and Head2Toe Beauty.

The polishes I'm giving away are the unopened sample bottles of Ghoulish Glow, Don't Let the Dead Bite and Getting to Gnaw You. Please read all terms and conditions detailed in the Rafflecopter widget below, but in a nutshell this is open to all USA residents aged 18 or older. The giveaway will be open until 12/6/2014.

**CLOSED**
The winners have been chosen and emailed! Congrats to Samantha F. :) Thank you everyone for entering!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review. I also purchased some of these products myself.

OPI Halloween 2014 Peanuts Collection Swatches & Review

Hey guys! I have a Halloween collection from OPI to show you today! Halloween collections might be my favorite of the entire year, I just love Halloween and all the awesome polishes brands come out with! This collection is inspired by the Peanuts, ya know, Charlie Brown and Snoopy? What a fun theme! There are two solid colors and two glitters in this collection, shall we have a look at them?

Press Sample

First is Good Grief! which is Charlie Brown's favorite saying. This is a bright sunny yellow crème with a super subtle almost imperceptible shimmer. I used three coats here to best level it out and for maximum opacity.

Next is Who Are You Calling Bossy?!? named for that spunky raven haired Lucy. It's a straight black jelly crème hybrid that is quite shiny. It was opaque in two coats.

And now for the glitters! On my pointer and ring fingers is To Be or Not to Beagle, a colorful glitter to represent Snoopy's happy dance. It's a clear base with washed out red, yellow, blue, green and white matte hex glitters and black hexes, small bits and bars. On my middle and pinky fingers is Where's My Blanket???, named for Linus and his security blanket. This is a mix of black, pale yellow and pale orange matte hexes and small black glitters in a clear base. Both colors are shown at one coat, both are nice and dense.

(My nail beds look kinda purple because of the base coat I use for swatching called Yellow Stopper and it has UV protection so it glows kinda blueish in the sunlight.)

I layered one coat of Where's My Blanket??? over Good Grief! here. I love this combination, so cute!

Here I put a layer of To Be or Not to Beagle over Who Are You Calling Bossy?!? just to see how it came out. I realize the black glitters are not as visible as they'd be over another color, but I actually like this pair together!

OPI nail polish retails for $9.50 each. There is also a "Little Peanuts" mini set available for $13.95 that includes some nail decals. What do you think of this Halloween foursome? I don't know if it screams Halloween to me, so much as just Peanuts, but it's pretty cute. Thanks so much for coming by today!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

The Hungry Asian Spring 2014 Collection Swatches & Review

Hi everyone! Today I wanted to show you the new collection from The Hungry Asian for Spring 2014. It's a collection of 5 new polishes and a cuticle oil. The shades don't really have a theme but they remind me of easter so it's a perfect time for you to get them on your nails!

Press Sample

First up is Smooth Criminail, a shimmery pastel blue with small and medium purple, orange, blue, pink and teal hex glitters. This is so adorable, it reminds me of easter candy eggs. I really love the shimmer running through the blue. I used three thin coats here.

Next is Starstruck, a glitter mix in a clear base. The glitters are short holographic strings and pale pink mirrored circles. So unique and quite fun! I was surprised at how much I liked this! I layered two coats over China Glaze Lotus Begin.

Here is Peachy Keen, a peachy orange creme packed with bright glitters in hex, string, and round shapes in matte and shiny finishes. This one isn't my favorite with my skin tone unfortunately. This is two coats. There is a ton of glitter in this one so it's a tad thick which can make tricky to apply evenly.

This one is Lavender Cream, my babe! I am head over heels with this gorgeous pale purple with satin glitters in mint, pearl, pink, purple and green. Seriously love. This is three thin coats.

And last is Carpe Dayum (haha love the name!) a clear glitter topper with holographic and matte pink shreds with blue/green iridescent glitter bits. O_O Can I just say DAYUM! This polish is seriously crazy cool. I can't think of anything I have that is similar. I put two coats over China Glaze Peonies & Park Ave.

I had to show it to you in the shade too, so you can really see the smaller glitters and the glow they have. Ooh! I just love this!

shade

And the last part of the collection is Kae's new cuticle oil. It comes free as a promotion if you spend $20+ (before tax and shipping) at her store. It's made of sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, grape seed oil and fragrance. I thought the White Gardenia scent would be too strong for me, because most scents are, but this one is actually very subtle and mild. I catch just a hint of it every now and then when I wear it and I think it's lovely. You know I am obsessed with my Bliss Kiss oil, but this one is quite nice and we can all use more cuticle oils in our life ;)


You can purchase these from The Hungry Asian Etsy store for $9.25 for a full size 15ml bottle and $4.50 for 5ml minis. All my readers can get 15% off a minimum purchase of $15 (before taxes and shipping) if you use the promo code KELLIE15 (active until May 7, 2014) Yay! What do you think of these spring pretties? Any catch your eye? I'll see you next time my dears!

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Product samples were provided for consideration.

OPI Soft Shades: Oz The Great and Powerful Collection Swatches and Review

OPI has coincided their release of the yearly Soft Shades collection with the new Disney movie, Oz the Great and Powerful, making it a whimsical fairy tale themed collection inspired by the movie. The collection includes three milky soft jelly cremes and three blingtastic glitter toppers.

Press Sample

Don't Burst My Bubble, I Theodora You, Glints of Glinda

Lights of Emerald City, Which is Witch?, When Monkeys Fly!

First up is Don't Burst My Bubble. It's a classic OPI Soft Shade, demure and classic. The color is an almost white milky palest pale pink. Beautiful and a great "palate cleanser" if you're looking to take a break from loud bright shades like I do on occasion. Or it's a perfect work-appropriate shade for you folks who want/have to keep it conservative. This is two coats.

Over the base of Don't Burst My Bubble, I layered Lights of Emerald City. A unique and still delicate glitter topper, it is made up of white glitter squares and iridescent mylar squares in a clear base. It's quite dense, this is just one coat! I love the way the mylar hits the light and changes colors.

The next jelly creme is Glints of Glinda. I loved this in the bottle, a milky peach nude. On my nails it isn't my favorite, maybe because it's too close to my skin tone? I bet it would look amazing on someone with a dark complexion. This is two coats. It was less streaky and easier to make opaque than Don't Burst My Bubble but still very jelly-like.

I layered When Monkeys Fly! over Glints of Glinda. This is probably the most unique and fantastical glitter I've ever seen from OPI. It is made up of large mirror-like gold hex glitter and smaller holographic silver hexes. Unfortunately it came to light than many customers were experiencing warping and curling of the giant gold hexagons. They addressed this on their Facebook page, if you're interested. I didn't have a problem with my glitters in the least, and I really am in love with this mani. Two coats of glitter.

This is I Theodora You, a more opaque and less jelly but still squishy pale pink. I absolutely adore colors like this. I feel so feminine and classy when I wear such clean shades. This is two coats.

And last is glitter Which is Witch? A clear base filled with tons of micro holographic silver bits, bars, and hexes. Super dense, this is one layer over I Theodora You. Another hit in my opinion, yet this is probably my least favorite out of the three glitters I swatched. Maybe I need to try it over another color for it to really wow me.

This collection also included a Liquid Sand polish which I will show you in another post, as I didn't care for the way my swatches of it turned out at the time of this post. I loved this collection, and even though I haven't seen the movie it's based upon yet, I can imagine myself in Oz whenever I see these beautiful soft shades ;) My favorites would have to be When Monkeys Fly! and I Theodora You.

This limited edition promotion is available now at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, JCP Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and ULTA, for $9.00 ($10.95 CAN) suggested retail for each nail lacquer.

Product samples were provided for consideration.

Lynnderella - Gotta Love Brains

I have a Lynnderella nail polish to show you all today, called Gotta Love Brains. It's from her early Halloween collection from 2011. I've been wanting to get my hands on this for a long time, since it came out, and I finally bit the bullet and purchased it.

The base of this is a sheer grey jelly with pink microshimmer and a bit of a white fleck thing. The glitter is in multi-sized squares, hexes, strings, in purple, silver, pink and blue. I don't love the very large silver hexes, and some of the pink bars have curled but overall I really like the assortment of glitters. This is three coats.

You can purchase Lynnderella polishes from her Ebay store, www.lynnderella.com. This one sells for $23 and is worth every penny if you ask me. I know people are wary of the price of Lynn's, but they're just as nice as department store luxury brand polishes and more unique in my opinion. It's obviously up to every individual as to what they want to spend their money on haha, I don't see much point in worrying about it. What do you think of Gotta Love Brains?