14th Feb2011
1 Comm
03rd Feb2011
OPI – The One That Got Away
I know, I know. I said I was all shattered out. I mean it, too. Unfortunately when I did this swatch last week (or was it 2 weeks ago?), I threw on Shatter on top because … I could. I swear, hand on heart, that this is the last shatter pic I will post for a long, long time.
24th Jan2011
OPI – Black Shatter, Teenage Dream, Last Friday Night and Not Like the Movies
I’m missing one of Katy Perry’s colors – The One That Got Away. I did buy it, I just totally forgot when I swatched. Ooops. My bad. I will do it by the end of the week.This is one of the last collections I will show you from OPI. I’m not too keen on supporting indie companies that sell out. Good for OPI that they got $$, but bad for me because I won’t be purchasing new colors I see. Pity. Oh well. All the more money for other nail polish!
I think I will have to do a collection of OPI colors that were my favorites before they were purchased by Coty. This will be my eulogy, my obituary for them. Hm. I have to troll through my colors now! 
Yay.
In the meantime, here are the colors I offer you…Behind the jump, of course!
14th Jan2011
OPI – Comet Loves Cupid
I honestly can’t believe that I’ve been sitting on this for such a long time. Like over a year. This was part of OPI’s 2009 Holiday Collection called Holiday Wishes.This is what happens when you buy stuff in chunks of 20-40 bottles at a time worrying you won’t have enough polishes to swatch for nearly everyday of the week.
I think my problem regarding that has been taken care of. For now.
This shade of red vaguely reminded me of a candy cane red with a tinge of orange in it.
You be the judge!
24th Dec2010
Femme Couture’s Red Caviar
In the bottle, I honestly thought this would be another sister to OPI’s Tease-y Does It or Nubar’s Raspberry Truffle.Color me 85 shades of wrong…but I don’t mind. How did I discover I was wrong? Why, I did a cray cray comparison, of course! See below for my insanity.
Formula was good – it dried quickly and was opaque in 2 coats despite my heavy handed tendencies.
So I left out OPI on the picture, but it’s there. FYI: Middle Finger = Nubar’s Raspberry Truffle, Ring Finger = OPI’s Tease-y Does It and Pointer and Pinkie finger = Femme Couture’s Red Caviar. RC has a very pretty subtle shimmer you can’t really see and it barely hints at a shimmer on my pointer finger.
Ah, now you can see the shimmer in the pointer finger, but it’s still incredibly subtle, isn’t it? RT and TDI are practically dupes! Just a reminder: Middle Finger = Nubar’s Raspberry Truffle, Ring Finger = OPI’s Tease-y Does It and Pointer and Pinkie finger = Femme Couture’s Red Caviar.
This Friday Red post is a lot more subdued than the others I’ve done, that’s for sure.
30th Nov2010
Disappointment abounds…
As some, all, or none of you know, OPI was/will be purchased by cosmetics giant Coty.While it’s great for OPI and they’ve made a profit for themselves, it’s a big step backwards for me. I’m saddened and disappointed by this move. It was, after all, OPI that brought back my love of nail polish years ago with their French Collection.
While some people decry the move due to Coty’s policy on animal testing – they do test on animals, whether we like it or not – I, for one, find that OPI is no longer that cool, independent business I love supporting. I stuck through with OPI when they went after etailers, but I can’t support them in this. I’m saddened that OPI is no longer on my swatching list since it was OPI that I’ve loved back in the early 90s…and it was OPI that brought my love of nail polish back just a handful of years ago. I will swatch the last of my Swiss Collection and I will keep swatching some of their collections because it pre-dates the Coty purchase. The Katy Perry and Serena Williams lines being the last two I will do of OPI.
I didn’t make this decision lightly. I’m a huge fan of smaller businesses. While I’m glad OPI has made money for themselves and I certainly congratulate them on their success, I won’t be lining Coty’s pockets any time soon.
Take care, OPI. I’ll be loving your colors from afar when they’re under the Coty umbrella.
08th Nov2010
OPI – Burlesque Glitter Givewaway
Congrats to Jessica v Polish – the winner of this contest.
Keep an eye out because on December 1, I will be having another giveaway – this time for China Glaze’s Holiday Collection.
CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED — THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ENTERED!
Winner will be announced on Monday.
It’s my mother’s birthday this Friday…so in honor of her, I decided to stage this giveaway that ends on her birthday.
Why did I choose glitter as the giveaway? Well…my mother and I have this crazy love for anything that glitters and shines. The glitter loving apple doesn’t fall far from the glitter loving tree!
Yes, you are reading correctly.
Yes, I am giving away these 6 awesome OPI Burlesque Glitters. See the prettiness on me in this blog entry.
How do you score a chance at winning them? You have 3 ways to enter, so that means 3 shots at winning!
But before I go on, here are necessary details you must know.
Contest ends on November 12, 2010, at 11:59PM (23:59) PST. Any entries time stamped after that will not be considered.
Now, how do you enter, you ask…
1) Follow this blog on Google Friend Connect to the right of this entry.
2) Follow me on Twitter: carinaeletoile then Tweet the following: @carinaeletoile is giving away the glitters from OPI’s Burlesque collection – enter for a chance to win! http://wp.me/pUcSL-Ah
3) Reply to this entry with your name – please make sure you have an email address attached to your name when you post a reply.
4) BONUS ENTRY! If you’re a member of Yelp, add me as a friend – http://carinam.yelp.com
Final notes:
If I reach over 100 followers on my blog and over 100 followers on Twitter, I’ll be tossing in an extra something something along with the prize. You never know what it will be, but I guarantee you you will be surprised in a good way. Not a scary way. I promise! *pinkie swear*
This contest is open internationally as well as domestically.
Good luck and let’s hope I reach 100+
03rd Nov2010
OPI – Yodel Me On My Cell
Pretty, pretty blue….how I do love you.Please excuse the VNL – I tried a new technique on application and it failed me. I’ll try it again later, but if it keeps failing me I’ll go back to how I used to apply.
This formula was thin and a bit moody. I had to do 3 coats to get it to look this color, but you can still see nail line. Grr. It dried quickly, that was one of the saving graces…oh, and the brush wasn’t jacked up, either. YAY!
I’ve heard this shade described as an aqua blue, but it doesn’t really remind me of any kind of aqua nor does it remotely remind me of the sea. I kept thinking, “TEAL! Teal light.” However, the shimmer in this is just freaking fabulous. I mean, Rachel Zoe shut it down, I DIE kind of fabulous.
As always, keep clicking the thumbnails because the pictures get HUGE. These are merely thumbnails. The one downside to making the picture the original size is that you really see all the imperfections in my nails and in application. Oh well. That’s a risk I’m willing to take.
PS I’m still squeeing a little bit for my Giants! I’m TiVo’ing the parade and will watch with hubby when he gets home tonight…he took caltrain in to work and said the place was a MADHOUSE. Good thing I opted to drop him off at the Santa Clara Station, but even then, it was insane. I retweeted the picture and you can find it in my twitter feed in case you’re interested.
15th Oct2010
OPI – Burlesque, Part II, Holiday 2010
If I had to choose, I would definitely pick the glitters over this part of the collection. I’m not saying this half is not up to snuff, but when I think Burlesque, I do think of sequins and shiny under the lights…a lot of sparkle and flash.This half is subtle but still gorgeous.
This post is image heavy…you have been warned!
Hello, Friday Red. What isn’t visible in the picture is the pink undertones. I’m looking at the bottle right now and the pinkness isn’t shown. I love the faint shimmer that makes if glow. Bravo, OPI!
Bronze-y orangey goodness…I can’t believe this actually looked good on me!
It looks so different in these two pictures, but I assure you they’re the same ones. Sunlight made it appear a more deeper gold. Absolutely gorgeous!
A hot magenta.
I honestly thought this color from OPI (The Show Must Go On!) would be a clone for MAC’s Bad Fairy. It’s not. Not even close. BF is more on the orange side, while TSMGO is more on the pink/magenta side. Both share the same orange glass flecks. I had to do 3 coats of BF while OPI’s formula was wonderfully opaque in 2 coats. Though vastly different, there are enough similarities to make them seem almost identical. Owning both would be wonderful, but owning either of the two is still good enough.
I’ve posted this comparison before, but to not include it would be silly because Tease-y Does It is part of the collection. You can read more about Tease-y Does It here.
14th Oct2010
OPI – Burlesque Part I, Holiday 2010
For some reason, I was so enamored with these glitters, knowing full well I hate glitters…yet I just had to have them. They’re a pain to remove, no matter how much foil you use. I’m a sloppy glitter remover. I get frustrated using foil and I end up with the sparkle explosion all over my fingers, as you will see in the pictures.The formula was easy to use. It dried quickly – yay! No clunky, clumpy glitter. I did two coats of every color. My only regret is that I didn’t do three coats to get the full on glitter effect.
I am going to be doing a blog give-away of these 6 colors. They’ve been swatched once, but I just really don’t want any extra glitter in my collection unless absolutely necessary. So keep watching for the giveaway.
I do like how these glitters look – they’re dense and it’s glitter that’s suspended in clear lacquer. I am generally not a fan of that, but it definitely makes the glitter sparkle and pop. I’ve done some comparisons to OPI’s Absolutely Alice and Mad As A Hatter for a point of reference.
Warning: This is image heavy…you have been warned!
I thought this was really close to Absolutely Alice, but it seems I was wrong. So wrong. The glitter in AA is more fine and dense. The color is also far more popping. Simmer & Shimmer is a bit more subtle…well, as subtle as this whole collection of glitters can get.
I feel like the colorful glitter in here is the same – filled with red, purple and a plethora of other colors. However, the one big difference is the base glitter they used. Mad As A Hatter is silver based whereas Sparkle-icious is gold.
I’ve been on a purple kick lately. What appeals to me about this particular color/glitter is that it’s not quite purple and it’s not quite pink. Several years ago I was on a purple and pink design sprees for my jewelry. It sold quite well. I guess I wasn’t the only person who loves purple and pink together.
I love this green. It reminded me of the super tiny limes I used to see in India. It’s not the rind, but the inside of the lime…and I always said I wanted a creme in that color. Instead, I’m looking at the sparkling version of it. LOVE IT!
Currently wearing this on my nails and on me, it looks more salmon colored than orange. This mercifully is not a crazy Halloween orange, but a nice rich burnt orange. The gold glitter thrown in is absolutely fabulous.
How pretty is this? I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of glitter, but this one really made me consider liking gold in general.
