Monthly Archives

June 2010

OPI – Green-Wich Village (and a rant)

Tuesday, 8 June, 2010

It’s sounds truly silly, but I had been having a hard time finding this color. Most of my nail polish sellers didn’t sell it and I wasn’t going to buy OPI online. I went to my nail polish man here in California and BAM! he miraculously had one bottle of my good greenness.

I bought it, totally excited.

What a let down. The formula was runny. The brush was so freakin’ messed up I couldn’t paint my nails to save my life. This took FOREVER and a day to dry. I literally waited an hour between two coats. What did I get for that wait? BUBBLES. Yes, it BUBBLED. After almost 3 hours, I was ready to throw this nail polish bottle at the next person who cut in front of  me on the freeway without using their signal. I hated the application of this polish THAT MUCH. Never has a nail polish ever incited such blind rage.

However, that aside, I am starting to really dislike OPI’s brushes. I tweeted the other day that I have about 50 some odd bottles (and after I had looked at my spreadsheet, it’s a little over 100) of OPI and about 7-10 of them have wacked out, jacked up brushes that really mar application. OPI, if you’re going to bitch about quality control and distribution, make sure your brushes in your bottles are good. No other brand has ever had such crap brushes as OPI. What gives? Seriously…what gives? I’m not joking anymore. Ok, rant done.

Now on to the hideously disappointing pictures of Greenwich Village.

Look at those bubbles. 🙁 They make me sad.

OPI Flutter Collection – Part 2 – Summer 2010

Monday, 7 June, 2010

The other two were probably the more attractive ones. I’m a huge fan of cremes. I make no excuses for it. Cremes have always been my favorite. That said…I really don’t know what to say about these cremes aside from they were bright. Really bright. So bright that I am going to send these colors to a friend kind of bright because I think they make my collection glow and I can see it in the middle of the night.

A reader asked me to do more pinks, corals (*barfs*) and sheers. I’ll start doing that. 🙂 Even down to the corals. *cries*

With that out of the way, here are the final 2 colors of the Flutter Collection.

Application was a bit runny, but if I had to pick between this or the pink…I’d choose this. It looks a gorgeous, almost burnt orange here but it’s not. It’s really bright. The pictures make the color look a lot more mellow than what it really is when you see it in person.


These pictures belie the brightness of the polish. There is a subtle amount of glitter in it that really doesn’t quite show up. I look at these photos I took and I think, “Wow, what a pretty shade of pink!” Don’t fall for it. If you don’t like brights I suggest getting Catch Me In Your Net. It’s the only one in this entire collection that stands out.

I’m pretty much disappointed with OPI’s colors for summer. I loved the Shrek collection but that’s because it appealed to the girl in me that loves funky and unusual colors. I am still loving Fiercely Fiona and Who The Shrek Are You?

The formula on this was also difficult to work with. I found it incredibly runny and slow drying. I think for the slow drying thing I’ll have to factor in the awful rise in humidity right now. Either way, I wasn’t a fan of this formula or the colors.

Zoya nail polish swatches

OPI Flutter Collection (Part I)- Wing It! and Catch Me In Your Net / Zoya – Charla – Summer 2010

Sunday, 6 June, 2010

Ok, so…I’ve got some colors here that are a part of OPI’s  Summer 2010 Collection called Flutter.

So the first color I’m showing is called Wing It!

I’m not a fan of this shade. It’s a bit too sheer for my taste…to make matters worse, I feel this pink is a bit too youthful for me. Like Fairy Princess kind of pink for a little girl. What may camera failed to capture was the pretty iridescence of the glitter. It’s actually prettier than the actual base color! So while I was disappointed in this color, it was a bit too pink/too close to coral for my taste.

Look carefully at this color…isn’t it gorgeous? It is, isn’t it? Scroll down for the reality.

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So here we are…literally dupes. You can’t see how gorgeous this (these) color(s) is(are) – it’s like mermaid scales. There is a slight green shimmer and gold glitter that runs through it. Absolutely gorgeous. What a pity that it’s a total dupe of Zoya’s Charla.  So…surprise! If you weren’t able to get a hold of Charla, grab OPI’s Catch Me In Your Net.

Heck, here are the ding dang bottle shots!

The formula on this was runny and hard to work with. Both of the colors above were 2 coaters.

Nubar – Twilight and Sunset – Night Sky Collection – Spring/Summer 2010

Friday, 4 June, 2010

Finally! As promised the rest of the collection…you know, a whole 2 polishes.

Attention: Nail tape newbie strikes again! yes, another epic fail on my part. But I do get credit for trying, right? 🙂 Also, I used the Diamond Top Coat that came with the polishes. It said it would be shiny…and it wasn’t. You’ll see in the pics. Also, I don’t have another Twilight shot because…I deleted it in my attempt to multi-task – you know, book plane tickets, pay bills and run some pics through Photoshop. I learned my lesson, I promise!

Anyway, the formulas dried fast, but I still wasn’t thrilled with them. I guess I’m hard to please? I feel like I’ve seen these colors before and I have – they are Orly’s Metal Goth collection. Sorry, Nubar…I wasn’t impressed with this collection.

Nail tape n00b alert! See? But you can’t really see the shine, can you?

This was sort of matte, sort of shiny…and the top coat wasn’t super shiny and you can see it on my ring and middle finger. I tried to leave the pointer and pinkie finger as a matte.

Congrats!

Friday, 4 June, 2010

Congrats to tailuvr79 – she won first place and will receive OPI’s Damone Roberts 1968, Misa’s Dirty, Sexy, Money and OPI’s Shrek Forever Collection!

Congratulations to Sinead – She won 2nd place and will receive OPI’s Damone Roberts 1968

A Big thank you to all who played. Keep an eye out because I’ll be doing another giveaway VERY soon!

-Carinae L’etoile-

Chanel РGold Lam̩

Thursday, 3 June, 2010

Ok, I know I haven’t posted the pics for my nail tape n00b thing, but I do have a valid reason – I didn’t have my camera today. So you’ll have to settle for Chanel’s Gold Lamé instead. Tomorrow is when you can see how I was an epic fail for the Nubar Night Sparkles collection.

By nature, I abhor gold anything – jewelry, nail polish…you get the idea. Then I saw this…and had to have it. Go figure. Don’t know why I had to have it. Like I was going to stab someone if I didn’t have it kind of thing.

Now that I have it I go, “Oh. Can I have my money back?”

It was a lot more sheer than I expected it to be. It bubbled up on me because I did 4 coats. I gave up when I saw it bubbling. It took forever to dry in between coats. I took it off right after I swatched it. How sad. 🙁 Anyway, sadness below.

Nubar – Midnight Matte – Night Sky Collection – Spring/Summer 2010

Wednesday, 2 June, 2010

I know I’ve said it before – I am not a fan of matte nail polishes.  They’re difficult to apply and if you mess it up, there is no way to really fix it. The only true bonus to them? They dry fast. Um, yay?

Nubar’s formula for this polish was no different. I’m a bit angry with myself for purchasing their collection and I will put up the other 2 swatches tomorrow. I didn’t put a top coat all the way on the polish to show how it looks, but I did put it on the tips.

My apologies for the bad shot in the shade…I had my camera set to a different setting and I forgot to put it back.

Before you say it or think it, yes. I am a nail tape n00b. Look at those definitive lines. *sigh* I’ll be practicing more with them…You’ll see if I improve tomorrow. 😀