OPI Touring America: Swatches & Review Part 1

Howdy there folks! Hope you are all doing splendidly :) I've had this collection forever and a day so I figured it was time to review it at long last haha. The OPI Fall collection is called Touring America, which is a fab theme if you ask me. I know they do "states" themed collections (like Texas, Chicago, etc.) but this really encompasses the entire country. Fall collections often become permanent colors in the OPI core collection, but I haven't heard if these will be or not. This half of the collection are the more subdued neutral-esque polishes out of the 12 and they are all crèmes.

First up is French Quarter For Your Thoughts, a slightly blue tinged pale smoke grey. I like this color a lot, it is flattering and simple yet chic. This is three coats.

Next is A-Taupe the Space Needle, which is a greenish taupe poop brown. I don't love this color, it really doesn't do much for me haha. Two coats.

This is Get In the Expresso Lane (express + espresso?) is a deep dark cool toned brown. There seems to be a few dark browns out there for Fall this year eh (Zoya Codie, RBL Fortissimo). This was a typical OPI formula two coater.

Suzi Takes the Wheel is a slightly green rainy day grey, different from FQFYT but only slightly. I would guess you wouldn't need both per say, but rather the one that looks better on your skin tone. Three coats here.

I really don't understand the name of Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window. First off it sounds disgusting, but I don't get it, does it mean someone farted in the car on the "trip"? Does it refer to someone having a bathroom accident? Or is someone car-sick? No matter how you explain it, it's gross. I really dislike toilet humor, so this is of course too far for me, but I've only heard one person say they like the name. *shrug* This is a swampy muted army green, two coats.

My favorite of this half, Road House Blues is a deep dark indigo blue. All of these colors dry a little darker than they appear in the bottle which was interesting. This is two coats of sexxxxyness.

Stay tuned to see the second part of the collection!

Products provided for review.

Best Nail Treatments: Review & Swatches

I got the opportunity to try out a new brand a while ago and have been testing out the colors and top and base coats. Best Nail Treatments is a company started by a former owner of Poshe, the brand of one of my favorite top coats (easily found in Sally Beauty Supply). They have 54 polish colors right now, everything from crèmes to glitters to "effects" top coats.

First is my favorite of the colors I tried, by far. Pineapple Express is a neon yellow crème that is pretty easy to work with and has tremendous color payoff. This is three coats. Beware, though, this beezy stains like no other.

Next is a glitter called Midnight Star. The BNT glitters are just straight glitter pieces in clear polish, as far as I can tell. I typically do not like these type of polishes because they are gritty, hard to apply, hard to remove, and spread like the plague. I would say these are true to that pattern. This is a fine color, I just didn't like putting it on or taking it off, and there are a billion little pieces still stuck to my nail even after a hefty clean up job. Three coats here.

This is Baby Pink, a color that is meant to be used when doing a French manicure, but I used it on its own. This color is lovely, a tad thick and w/o much color, but yes nice and milky. Three coats here.

Next is Lemon Cello, which sounded delicious in my head haha. It's a light gold yellow frost, very different from anything else I own. It was pretty sheer, this is three coats.

This is another glitter that I had trouble with, Promiscuous. I honestly chose it for the name haha (funny enough, the label is spelled as "Permiscuous".) It's lovely enough, once I got it on. I just can't imagine wearing it again after all the clean up I had to do. Three coats.

This is a pretty color, Preston On the Creek, a blue with slight purple pearl shimmer. This one stained too, but it was very lovely and easy to work with. Two coats here.

Last of the colors is Brick, a red glitter with slight color in the base. This one was a tad easier to apply but not much. Three coats.

The Base Coat and Top Coat have a technology called "Air Cure" which means that they use the air to harden, without the use of uv light or fans or heat. It sounded wonderfully unique when I first heard about it, but really aren't most top coats and base coats like that? Oh well, that's marketing 101 for ya ;) The Base Coat is rubberized, like Orly's Bonder, flows easily and attaches to polish nicely. It didn't do much of anything for staining unfortunately. I use this for swatching sometimes, but it is a tad thick which is odd for a base coat, that adds to drying time.

Stock images from BNT

The Top Coat was one I was really excited to try out, boasting that it was significantly better than Seche Vite or other quick-dry top coats on the market. Unfortunately, after exhaustive (really, believe me) testing, I just couldn't get it to dry on me. It was thin and hard to apply in the first place, and it just stayed tacky and sticky even after an hour or more! I tried it and failed again when I read my friend Andrea's blog post about the brand, because she said it was the best top coat she'd ever used. I am a firm believer in different body chemistry affecting how polish wears from person to person, so I guess I just struck out with this one.

You can find them for $5.99 each on http://www.bestnailtreatments.com.

Products provided for review.

Glitter Gal - Marine Blue & Black

I recently bought a few Glitter Gal polishes from Leah Ann on her site http://shop.llarowe.com/, so I thought I'd show you them finally haha ;)

This is 3D Holographic Marine Blue, a bright primary blue with amazing linear holographic properties. Gorgeous. One of my favorite GGs ever.

This is 3D Holographic Black, super gorgeous charcoal black with a great linear holo. Beautiful and this totally squelches my desire for OPI's original My Private Jet.

Both swatches are three coats using Gosh Fix Base Coat as a base and no top coat. :)