Eben noch in der neuen Ausgabe der Instyle gelesen und schon halte ich DEN Nagellack Trend des Winters in den Händen: Mattlack! Klingt komisch und sieht auf den Nägeln auch erstmal gewöhnungsbedürftig aus, schließlich lackieren wir uns die Nägel ja, damit sie glänzen! Aber ich finde der Trend hat eine Chance verdient: also bin ich schnell in den Laden meines Vertrauens gegangen, habe mich für einen OPI Mattlack in der Farbe You Don’t Know Jacques entschieden (schon der Name war jeden Cent wert) und war sehr dankbar für die Tipps: Nagellack vorher schütteln, Unter- und Überlack sind tabu! Wichtig sind glatte Nägel, Rillenfüller sorgt dafür! Beim Auftragen wollte ich schon fast BETRUG rufen, weil er doch geglänzt hat, aber 2 Sekunden später (ich glaube das war Zauberei) wird der Lack matt, trocknet wahnsinnig schnell und sieht irgendwie cool aus, so ein bisschen nach Understatement!

Die OPI Mattlacke gibt es in sechs verschiedenen Farben: Alpine Snow (weiß),  Russian Navy (dunkelblau), La Paz-itively Hot (pink), You don’t know Jacque (taupe), Lincoln Park After Dark (dunkles lila) und Gargantuan Green Grape (wie der Name schon sagt: sieht so ein bisschen nach hellen Weintrauben aus). Ich denke ich werde mir noch den Russian Navy zulegen!

Was sagt ihr zum Mattlack Trend – haben wollen oder eher nicht?

Since it’s been rainy and dreary for a few days, I decided to pick a nice bright color to paint my nails. I used OPI – Melon of Troy. I don’t know when I bought it, it’s been a while – but I’ve never worn it. It’s very pretty – melon enough but not too orange. It reminds me of a coral version of OPI’s royal flush blush – which is one of my favorite polishes. It’s a great summer (or rainy day) color The only thing that would make me like it more would be if it had a bit more shimmer, but over all it’s fantastic.

Enjoy!

Katie

I’m Wired da OPI, para Sephora, coleção Digital Diva (primavera 2009). É um coral rosado, levemente neon. Na foto foram usadas 3 aplicações, pois ele tende a ficar mais falhado. É levemente parecido com o Lost without my GPS, porém mais chamativo e puxando mais para o rosado. Pelo fato de usar 3 aplicações, o acabamento não ficou excelente, e 5 dias depois já estava descascando.

So I went multi-store haulin tonight and found a few nice finds.  From Icing, I got two polishes: Blue Goose & Paparazzi

From Sally Beauty, I got a ginormous remover to store under the bathroom cabinet, a standard remover to store in my polish tools box and the new Fingerpaints Icy Iris.

From Ulta, which was having a Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale on OPI polish.  I got: Lincoln Park After Dark, Purple with a Purpose & Ink.

From Sephora, I scored Sephora by OPI Metro Chic and Benefit’s Bad Gal Lash.

From Target, I bought two Studio Tools brushes.  A skunk & crease brush.

Overall, I wish I would have bought more, but I’m happy with everything I got and it’s always fun to shop with my mom.  She’s an impulse shopper but so much fun!

Whenever I’m slightly lost for words about a product, I have a little look at MakeUp Alley. Not because I can’t think for myself but because I like to know what a general consensus is on something.

This was a weird one though. The common thoughts about this one were that the application was dreadful but that the colour was brilliant. Well, I am the living, breathing polar opposite of the general consensus in that case. Application was great. Colour – dreadful.

This is two thick-ish coats over OPI’s Ridge Filler. It flowed on without a problem at all. Honestly, I have nothing to say here as it was absolutely fine. Sure, like any pastel, you have to be careful to get it to match up to your first coat around the cuticle area but that’s common to any pastel creme.

But the colour. Ugh. It’s described by reviewers on MakeUp Alley as being like pink Tippex, as if that could be a good thing. It’s not.

I had this on my hands for around ten minutes before feeling so uncomfortable that I had to paint over it. I must reiterate that there is nothing wrong with this polish at all, but the colour simply isn’t me. Pink lovers, or young girls perhaps, but definitely not one for me.

OPI That’s Berry Daring. A juicy rose/magenta shade with subtle shimmer, only visible in the sun. Vibrant color, not neon. Applied well and is pretty pigmented: this is one coat. Probably could have used another though.

A juicy rose/magenta shade with subtle shimmer, only visible in the sun. Vibrant color, not neon. This is one coat; probably could have used another.

Since my nail polish collection keeps growing, sometimes I have trouble deciding exactly what to wear. Lately, I’ve gotten into the habit of choosing my mani/pedi colors to match the season or occasion. Right now I’m into the fall/Thanksgiving mood. OPI Can You Tapas This? (Colección de España, Fall 2009) is a reddish brown creme:

(For future reference, unless otherwise specified, I use one coat of Poshe topcoat for my manis.)

This color looks different in various lighting. Bright light and sunlight bring out the red tones (like in my picture), but indoors it looks more brown. It applied well; the first coat was pretty opaque, but I did two out of habit. This color reminds me of A1 steak sauce. It’s one of those polishes that makes me hungry. Mmm, tapas…

Every time I do my nails, I always have to change both my mani and pedi (I can’t help it; I have to coordinate!) So I’ll also be mentioning what I have on my toes. I paired this with Orly Golden Majaraja.

<3sarah

I’m sure we’ve all heard by now that green is the latest colour in nail polish trends. We had black, we had blue, and now it’s time for green to take center stage. Like seasons prior, this latest nail polish trend has been started by the latest Chanel runway show. Chanel sets trends – even with nail polish colours. It’s Chanel that brought us “Black Satin” and then “Blue Satin” and now they’ve brought us “Jade”. Why didn’t they call it “Jade Satin”? I thought we were going somewhere with that – I thought it was a pattern! Anyway, I usually wait for the OPI knockoff version to come about because we’re in a recession people! I can’t be paying $25.00 for nail polish! And OPI is really great at replicating the Chanel hot colours (ie Chanel’s “Blue Satin”…OPI’s “Russian Navy”). OPI’s “Jade” equivalent seems to be “Hey! Get in Lime”. And at $7.50 it’s a lot more budget friendly. I’m a bit iffy about green nails, but so intrigued, so I’ll probably be picking myself up a bottle sometime next week! I’ve been meaning to for quite sometime now. I’ll let you guys know how it goes…

What do you guys think though? Green nails? Yay or nay?

Er schijnt een oude wijze man in het land te zijn aangekomen. Eén met een witte baard en een verzameling zwarte huppelmensen die heel blij ronde koekjes zo hard mogelijk naar kindjes gooien. Wat daar de lol van is snap ik niet, maar die dingen zijn wel lekker. Die oude wijze man verplaatst zich op een wit paard en het schijnt dat alle kindjes hun schoen voor de verwarming mag zetten. Maar ik nog niet, want papa en mama zeggen dat ik er nog niets van snap.

En nu heb ik het gerucht gehoord dat de broer van die oude wijze man met z’n witte baard volgende maand langskomt. Maar die komt met een slee met rendieren. En die heeft geen zwarte huppelmensen maar kabouters.

Nee, ik snap er inderdaad niets van…

OPI Just Beachy

“…and the gulf water’s warm like a bathtub, full of lavender and epsom salt. See a bleach blond boy put his longboard down, help his girl get her sunscreen on, I thought about you in your little house, think you’re lonely but I could be wrong…” – Conor Oberst: Beach Bum Song

Haha já to tušila že černokněžnickej seriál nevyjde, já to tušila! Tohle je asi nejvíc opak jakej jsem k tomu mohla vymyslet.

Takže tu máme tři vrstvy OPI Just Beachy, taková frosty vanilka, pěkný no, ale Street Wear Halo chci pořád:-/

OPI Just Beachy:

Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently, you’ll know that OPI have released their 2009 Christmas collection, entitled Holiday Wishes. I know these have been all over the blogosphere of late, but I have a rule that I do not acknowledge Christmas until the latter part of November, when both mine and the fiance’s birthdays are out of the way.

I’ve had the chance to get a pretty good look at this polish as Anton du Beke is currently doing a Rumba on Strictly Come Dancing, and I can’t bring myself to watch.

Holiday Glow was the polish I was most excited about from this collection and I am really glad I bought it. The official description is “charcoal grey glowing with a touch of silver”. Personally I think this is way more brown than grey, but the silver shimmer is undeniable. I think this is essentially last year’s Baby It’s “Coal” Outside but reworked with a browner jelly base.

This was quite sheer but evened itself up on the second coat. It’s really very pretty. I adore brown polishes, and the fact that this is a blinged up version of what would probably be a very nice jelly base on its own makes me very happy.

It dried really fast and although it looks quite foily from a distance, I love the way the shimmer peeks out and appears rather flashy and spectacular.

In actual fact, I am starting to feel a bit festive. Just a little bit, you understand. But I found myself humming along to a carol whilst out shopping today. And I now know in my mind exactly what gifts I’m getting everyone (except the fiance who is a nightmare to buy for) so I guess I’m almost there.

Any excuse for a mulled wine, anyway!

As you can tell, nail polish has become an obsession of mine. I’ve now accumulated a good 80 bottles of full-size polish and it’s only bound to grow-by the end of the year, if it’s not over 105 I will be sorely shocked.

Anywhoo, it’s time to do some comparisons of colours that may look similar next to each other on the Shelf o’ Polish, but really, they are quite different!

Let’s start with Sea? I Told You and Teal The Cows Come Home. On the shelf, SITY looks to be a darker turquoise, with a ton of shimmer, while TTCCH is more of a frost, and a bit lighter. Still very similar, though-at first, I thought “Had I bought a dupe?” But the swatches do not lie-and they really are different. I also swatched Sea Ya Later Sailor! above the two, and it’s not quite a gradient, or at least one that is easy to tell, as SYLS is VERY sheer. In fact, it’s the sort of colour that should only be used as a top-layer-er unless you have a LOT of patience. It is very pretty though, and it’s got more of a green to it. Then TTCCH is definitely blue-ish, but when swatched next to SITY it is more teal. It’s definitely got the frost, so one word: BRUSHSTROKES. Finally, SITY looks like magic. It’s a definite turquoise-blue with shimmer, like I said earlier, but it’s not the type of shimmer like in one of the more glittery polishes. If anything, I would say it’s a type of shimmer like that of Brisbane Bronze. Very pretty, and if you like blues track this down. I wanted to buy it on sale, but no ULTA had it on clearance (just If The Fuschia Fits and I’m His Coral-Friend, the latter of which I still haven’t bought) and it was a lucky shot that I found it at the local Beauty Works-conveniently at the shopping center I will be working at.

Next up, Play Til Midnight and Russian Navy. In the bottle, they look the same. Funny story-I interviewed for a job today, and on the bus to the shopping center, I noticed a huge chip in my Russian Navy-ed out nails. So I walk into Beauty Works, and they had Play Til Midnight on clearance, 50% off. Sold! It was similar enough to blend in, but my concern: are they too similar? In a nutshell, yes, they are very similar-but they are quite different. Russian Navy applies like a dream-two coats and it’s totally opague-and it’s not a boring cream: it has a purple microshimmer to it that really ups the amp, so to speak. Play Til Midnight, meanwhile, is not as opague. It would take me three coats to get the coverage I want. It is a smidge brighter, though, and the microshimmer is more rainbow-coloured and less purple. So far, it looks fairly dupeable, but I could be wrong once I see it on. It’s way thinner than Russian Navy, though, so if you didn’t get PTM you can find a better version in Russian Navy.

More to come soon:)

my nail of the day: O.P.I. Done Out in Deco from their South Beach collection.

sorry for the crappy picture. it’s cloudy and depressing out today.

Vi uma chamada no portal MSN e quase chorei quando li a matéria toda no MSN Moda de Lilian Pacce. Quem nunca ficou imaginando de onde vinham os nomes dos esmaltes?

Pois o blog de Lilian Pacce veio acabar com nossas dúvidas. Eles falaram  com várias empresas e contaram quem dá nome as cores. Confere lá no blog, o link é esse aqui.

Via nomes como Deixa Beijar, Mini Saia, Samba Juliana, Ti Ti Ti e até Rebú e pensava quem seria a MENTE CRIATIVA por trás disso.

Alguns nomes são óbvios porque vem de coleções, como a Balneário Brasil da Impala e Sete Vermelhos Capitais da Risqué. Mas tem outros que não tem muita explicação, só mesmo o gosto pessoal do dono da empresa (como no caso dos esmaltes Cosmos e Sideral da Big Universo).

Já fora do Brasil, a OPI também é cheia de malandragem em dar nomes aos esmaltes. É muita criatividade minha gente. Sente só!

Já imaginou pedir para a manicure “Oi, hoje vou de Makes Men Blush” (algo como: Faz os homens ficarem vermelhos)?

Já com as coleções eles sempre fazem trocadilhos com nomes ou expressões temáticas. Na France Collection tem Bastille My Heart, I’m Fondue of You, Eiffel for this Color e Baguette Me Not. Já na da Espanha tem: No Spain No Gain e Give me Moor!.

Se eu pudesse dar nomes para uma coleção também ia fazer a louca e inventar uns bem malucos! Você não?

• Bling Dynasty – A char-”ming” gold that shimmers and glimmers
• Red My Fortune Cookie – And this rich red is in my future
• Hot & Spicy – A sizzling coral that’s a kung pao wow!
• Dim Sum Plum – A berry delectable delicacy
• Jade is the New Black – The vibrant green is the new fashion vibe
• Suzi Says Feng Shui – A serene cobalt blue to balance your yin yang
• A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find – But you’ve found it- in this zesty red-orange!
• Lucky Lucky Lavender – Be pretty and prosperous in this luscious light purple
• Meet Me on the Star Ferry – A Kowloon-lit, moonlit violet
• Panda-monium Pink – Lend a panda a hand-a in this uproarious light pink
• Pearl of Wisdom – Smart girls choose this lustrous pearl shade
• Chop-sticking to My Story – I mean it- ”pick up” this warm caramel shade

Just had to share this with you all. For the first time in some time I’m excited about an OPI collection – it’s not all reds! Just at a glance I want at least 7 of them – and thats before any swatches. Collection will be out in winter 2010.

Picture and information is from P’ssion, a great Swedish beauty blogger

Hello!

Firstly, apologies as I know I am behind on replying to comments, but I will rectify this as soon as possible, hopefully later today.

Onto the news. The lovely Radiant Babe not only has the new range of China Glaze Khrome polishes in stock, she also has the new Glitter collection. Hurrah.

AND you can buy the Love You Snow Much 4-piece collection for only £18.96.

Plus Dawn also has Duralash false eyelash kits in stock, and was kind enough to send me one of them to try out. I understand that if treated well, the lash extensions can last up to a few weeks. Review coming soon!

Behold a nail varnish lemming. OPI’s Melody In Mocha from I found this on eBay this week and it was one of those “Must. Snap. It. Up. NOW” moments. This polish is from OPI’s Holiday Harmony collection from 2004 (yes really) and I am so happy to own it now. Whilst not perhaps as valuable as baseball cards (although I think a Nars Zulu might be), I do like having rare and discontinued polishes in my collection. They’re like antiques!

What else? Well. Obviously I am not busy enough as it is with my 12 hour working day, planning a wedding, and daily updates of Nice Things.

So, as some of you may know, I am joining forces with the fabulous ladies Brooke from Getcha Nails Did and Christy of The Kronicles of a Konad-er and starting a new blog, called “Polishing Off”, dedicated to…. food! All three of us love to cook, and didn’t want to detract from our beauty blogs by posting stuff about food, so we have decided to co-author a new blog, chock full of recipes and ideas for culinary creations. I’m really excited about this little project and hope you choose to follow us here.

Worry not though as Nice Things will always be my first love and you’ll still get daily posts here.

Hate the name, love the polish. I doubly love this as it is the colour of my car. If Barbra Streisand can afford to have her car sprayed with OPI’s Bogota Blackberry, then I’m following suit with this one. I didn’t actually realise that it was the  colour of my car, until I put it on and then realised I was totally co-ordinated. Hurrah!

Baby It’s “Coal” Outside is from OPI’s Holiday In Toyland collection from Christmas last year. I actually ended up buying a backup of this shade before I’d even used the first bottle once, so convinced was I that I was going to love it.

And love it I do. It is very similar to one of my holy grail nail varnishes, Chanel’s Noir Ceramic, which was limited edition and I now have one totally gungetastic bottle that I cannot bring myself to chuck as I am certain that with the right amount of love, warmth and thinner, it can and will have a Lazarus moment.

A black jelly polish, this is jam packed with silver glitter. Except it isn’t really glitter – it’s weird. It is more like a micro-shimmer – that when you have it on your nails itis perfectly smooth, but looks like it has bubbled up with millions of particles of silver and grey shiny flecks. It almost looks foily but not quite.

This is two coats. It covered beautifully with no application issues at all. Nice and thick but not gloopy. It dried fast as well, although I’m never really one to comment on drying time seeing as I slather everything I do with a big old coat of Seche Vite. The good news is that the glass fleck nature of this means that you get a percentage of the bling, with none of the removal headaches.

It is nice as the shimmer is there indoors as well – it never looks flat, or just matte black. Whilst it might not be to everyone’s taste, I really like it. I don’t usually wear straightforward black polishes as I prefer the deep, dark vampy shades that are nearly black. However, the shimmer in this keeps me interested and so far I haven’t stopped looking at it this morning. I think that back-up bottle I bought may be needed after all!

I am just now getting around to blogging about my Exchange exprince, sorry for my lazyiness…=] I had Pamela from Nail E-Glance. You can read about that Here.

Laine from Lacquer Laine sent me this::

I love these Colors!!!!!!!=] Thanks sooooooo much for them. I have used them both, but they both chipped way to badly before I could grab a good pic. =[

Give Away round up::

Konadomania is doing a 100 followers give away. For some reason my finger don't like the word "followers'. I did it again. =] Thank God for SpellCheck. Anyway, Here are the detials::

- KONAD C SET
- 2 S-HE POLISHES of your colour choice
- 2 ESSENCE POLISHES of your colour choice
- TESTER-SIZE NATURAL BEAUTY PRODUCTS (Suki, Aubrey, John Masters)
- some other stuff which I’ll add during the giveaway, but most probably some local sweets or so, typical of my country, something like Gorenjka

Hope you like the content of the giveaway, as I’m a bit short on money these days:)

Sounds Fun, huh??

Kellie Gonzo is also doing a give away. She is giving away::

Weird. I think I like this better in photos than I do on me. All day when I was wearing this I kept catching my freaky long ET-like fingers in my peripheral vision and wondering where my nails had gone. But once I got used to it, I really started to like it.

Sand In My Suit, aside from sounding like an altogether unpleasant experience, is from OPI’s South Beach Collection.

This is essentially the nuder, beiger (is “beiger” a word?? It is now!)  cousin of Suzi & The Lifeguard from the same collection. It applies in exactly the same way, sheer after only a couple of coats, and finishing to the same shiny, dense, pearlescent frost.

Sand In My Suit is a nice gold and silver shimmery shade of beige. Sand coloured, if you will.  This is definitely one for the warmer toned complexions out there, whereas Suzi & The Lifeguard was aimed more at the cooler toned.

Application was absolutely brilliant. No dragging, no pooling, no bubbles, no lumps. You might think from the finish of it that it is tricky to apply, but nothing could be further from the truth. Result!

So what do you think? I know (mentioning no names) that some of you will hate this.

But actually I quite like it, and the thought “wedding manicure” actually crossed my mind. Fear not though, I dont think this one will make the shortlist.

I don’t want to be thinking “phone home” in all my wedding photos!

Depois da onda de esmaltes opacos, agora chegou a vez dos ultra glitterosos. Não dá para negar que a marcas de esmaltes estão se esforçando para agradar todos os gostos, hum!

Fora do Brasil estão aparecendo vários lançamentos super brilhantes e não falo de cintilância e sim, glitter mesmo. China Glaze, Zoya, Lipperman, Sally Hansen, Color Club e até OPI tem representantes do gênero.

A China Glaze está levando para os Estados Unidos 50 cores novas (todas gliterosas ou cromadas) que foram criadas primeiro para o mercado japonês. Dá uma olhada em algumas cores.

Meteor Shower, imagem de Temptalia.

Atlantis, imagem de Temptalia

Nova, Imagem de Lextard

Já a Zoya tem uma coleção para o inverno 2009 chamada Ultra Glitter. Acho que o nome já diz tudo, não é? As cores são Nova, Luna e Astra e cada vidrinho custa US$7 (ui!).

Astra, imagem de Temptalia

A Lippmann também fez suas apostas no mundo dos brilhos e tem 3 cores novas na coleção de final de ano – que também comemora os 10 anos da marca. São elas: Happy Bithday, Superstar e Ruby Red Slippers (olha a definição da cor: Dorothy´s shimmering ruby). Agora se segura, US$18 cada vidrinho. Meu senhor!! Tem o que dentro desse esmalte??

Ruby Red Slippers, imagem de Lextard

Superstar, imagem de Lextard

Happy Brithday, imagem de Temptalia

Já a queridinha OPI tem uma linha com 12 tonalidades diferentes, toda trabalhada no glitter, chamada Designer Series . Duas delas são novidade e  foram lançadas esses tempos para o outono 2009 (DS Glow e DS Mistery). Dá uma olhadinha em algumas cores antigas da coleção.

DS Extravagance, foto de E-Polishblog

DS Coronation, foto de Karmonie

Aqui no Brasil esse tipo de esmalte não é lá grande novidade. Impala e Dote já tem alguns esmaltes nessa vibe (talvez não com o glitter tão concentrado). Não posso negar que elas são bem festivas mas será que a moda pega por aqui? O matte não vingou, será que o extremamente brilhante pega?

Fiz uma pesquisa rapidinha no twitter e as opiniões foram divididas. Eu gosto do prateado e do vermelho “Mágico de Oz”, mas não sei quanto as outras cores. E você, usaria?

P.S.: A Eyeko tinha o Disco Polish, mas saiu de linha!

P.S.2: Agora, se você acha que pouco brilho é bobagem, pode fazer como Katy Perry e adicionar STRASS ao look de suas unhas. Dá uma olhada na foto do twitter da moça.