Nicole by OPI Faux Fir

Looooove! This is from the 2009 Nicole by OPI Christmas collection. Somehow this wasn't on my radar until a couple of months ago. I assumed it would be really hard to find by now, but I got at AveYou just a few weeks ago. *shrug*

Shimmery deep green that always looks green, never, ever black.

Top notch formula, two easy peasy coats.

Yes, indeedy. Makes me wish Christmas would get here, like right now.

Green mosquito hawk thanks you for visiting! (Yeah, I know it's a dragonfly. But I'm from the south, and we call them mosquito hawks!)

Nicole by OPI Canadian Star

Part of the One Less Lonely Girl (Justin Bieber) Collection from Nicole by OPI, Canadian Star is a Canadian exclusive release. I was lucky enough to procure a bottle via my Canadian polish fairy, Moxie. 

Was it worth the wait while she tracked it down? You bet it was. It's a glass flecked multichrome that flashes blue, purple and pink. The pink flash is fairly elusive and I had trouble capturing it in these photos, but it's definitely there. Please note: This polish is EXTREMELY sheer, so what you see here is 2 coats over Wet n Wild Black Creme. 

I've heard that it reaches something resembling opacity at about 4 coats, but 3 coats is about the limits of my patience. Hence my layering it over black. My experience with duochromes and multichromes is that layering them over a dark color tends to make the different colors pop more anyway.

Aside from how sheer it is, the application was good. This one comes with the new "perfect stroke" brush (read: mop). I actually don't mind the brush all that much, but I do prefer the narrower old style brush that Nicole used to have.

I do wonder what polish companies are thinking when they make polishes this sheer, though. I really doubt that your average person buys this, sees how sheer it is, and thinks, "Oh, no worries, I'll just layer it over black." It's probably more like, "Uh, this is trash. I'm throwing this away." It's really kind of sad how many great polishes are lost on the nail buying public at large because of things like this. 

Happy Friday, y'all! Hope your week was good. And welcome to the new folks! I'm always excited to discover that more people are here looking at my pictures and reading my posts! =) And I have something special planned when I hit 100 followers... I only need six more now! Yay!

Some random comparisons and swatches

I'm still in the process of checking my stash for dupes and weeding out things I don't like. Hope these help someone!

OPI The One That Got Away

OPI Tease-y Does It

Ulta Envy vs. FingerPaints Avante Garde Green

Zoya Blair vs. Zoya Isla

Zoya Valerie vs. OPI Visions of Sugarplum

Ulta Banana Rum in the Sun vs. China Glaze Lemon Fizz

American Apparel Factory Grey vs. Ulta Concrete Evidence

China Glaze Sea Spray vs. Color Alike 451

Nicole by OPI My Lifesaver vs. Barry M Mint vs.
 Orly Ancient Jade vs. Ulta Mint Condition

Comparison - Nicole by OPI Sounds Grape to Me & OPI Tease-y Does It

I was just looking at these two bottles next to each other, and they look SUPER close in the bottle. Luckily my polish was off and the sun was out, so I was able to do a quick comparison.

Another case of cousins, but not twins. The Nicole by OPI is lighter and the finish is more of a foil. They're both beautiful, but unless you are REALLY into this shade, my opinion is that you probably don't need both. I'm debating whether I need to keep both of them myself. I hope this comparison helps you guys!

Barry M Dupe Check - Blueberry Ice Cream & Blue Moon

I ordered some Barry M polishes from the UK a few weeks ago, and they came in today. After I placed my order, I was concerned the Blueberry Ice Cream was too close to Zoya Robyn and Orly Blue Collar and their cousins. When the polishes came today, I was very happy to see that it wasn't close to Robyn at all, but it was suspiciously close to a couple of others I had. The contenders were China Glaze Bahamian Escape and Nicole by OPI Baby Blue.

They are all very similar in the bottles, but I was pleased to see at least some difference on my nails. Between two of them, at least. >.>

Nicole by OPI "Baby" Blue is quite a bit lighter than either of the others. But Bahamian Escape and Blueberry Ice Cream are virtually identical. Sure, if I squint and try to kid myself, I can pretend that the Barry M is darker. And it is, but only by a hair. I truly think that if I put both of them on in alternating skittles, by the end of the day even I wouldn't know which was which. The formulas on all three are very similar - two easy coats, very non-fussy. Now I have to figure out which one to keep and which to send to live with someone else. *sigh*

I fared much better in the dupe department with Blue Moon. The dupe contenders were Essie Sweet Talker (which I didn't really believe was a dupe, but it was worth comparing) and Hard Candy Sky. 

These actually even look more different in the bottles than the former ones did. On the nail, they are much different.

As I suspected, Sweet Talker was a good bit darker than the others. Sky is actually much brighter and more chalky than Blue Moon, and its formula is the pits. It's hard to work with. It's streaky in that way that lots of pastels are. Blue Moon is much, much better in that respect. Plus I bought Blue Moon to kill my lemming for Chanel Riva, and that's exactly what it did. (Stay tuned for pics of Blue Moon as a full mani as well!)

And that's all I have for tonight. Hope these comparisons help someone! As always, thanks for stopping by! =)

Fall Nicole by OPI Swatches!

Hello, folks! Today I picked up three new Nicole by OPI shades at Target. I'm unclear as to whether these are Target exclusives, but I can say that Target is the only place I've seen them. There are actually four colors in this collection, but the fourth was an unremarkable red shimmer. It's worth noting that these three all have the old style Nicole by OPI brush and NOT the newer paddle shaped brush. Anyway, on to the colors! First up is bottle pics of Green Up Your Act!, Sounds Grape to Me, and It's Not Me, It's Blue.

Green Up Your Act! is an olive green creme along the lines of Avon Olive Green or RBL Orbis Non Sufficit. I own neither of those to compare, but it definitely made me think of those two. The formula on this is absolutely great, full coverage in two coats. I have to say, I love this. This is my first olive green. I didn't think it would be flattering on me, but it really is. And it feels quite unexpectedly chic! Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

Sounds Grape to Me is a stunner. I was hoping from the bottle that it would be a duochrome, but I haven't been able to coax any color shift out of it on my nails. Still, though, it's a beautiful warmer leaning rusty red foil that just shimmers like there's no tomorrow. These pictures really don't do it justice, but it was dark when I was swatching so I didn't have the sun to make it really come alive. The formula is good, this is two coats.

And last up, It's Not Me, It's Blue. The name of this polish is quite confusing to me because this polish is decidedly NOT blue. It puts me in the mind of Chanel Graphite, though Graphite pulls quite gold, and this one doesn't. It's like the cooler cousin of Graphite, and what it really makes me think of is pewter. It's kind of got a bluish purple cast to it, and it is incredibly sparkly. I own absolutely nothing like this one, and its cool tone makes it very, very wearable for me. The formula is a little sheer, and I needed three coats to be happy with the color depth.

Hope you guys find these helpful. I really love all of these for different reasons, and I'm quite happy to add them to my collection!

Orly Frisky + Comparisons

When I first saw the promotional bottle pics of Orly's Happy Go Lucky collection, I immediately got that telltale tingle of a lemming being born.

The blue shade practically screamed that it had to come and live with me. I was also interested in the green and the purple, but the blue... the blue! I was a bit concerned, though, that this would turn out to be too close to other sort of medium turquoise blue/aquas that I own, so I knew that I had to see this one in person before blindly purchasing it. I popped into Sally's yesterday to find a full display of these. Yay, I could compare the bottle to other similar shades! I compared it to China Glaze For Audrey and Orly Gumdrop, and it was more blue than either of those, so home with me it came!

Ooh, ahh. It's so pretty! It practically screams summer to me. I was still worried about duplicates in my stash though, so I pulled out some the most likely candidates.

Once I had them lined up like this, I could tell that none of them were actually that close. But bottle appearances can be deceiving, so I swatched them all next to each other.

Now. If you don't have the same kind of crazy that I do, you might not need this color. But for me, the fact that it's more blue and brighter than any of its cousins that I own means that I am a very happy camper right now. =)

The formula is what I've come to expect from Orly. It's the right consistency, neither too thin nor too thick, and gives full coverage in two easy and cooperative coats.

What can I say? I love it! =D

I hope you found this post helpful and, as always, thanks for stopping by!

Nic's Sticks Rainbow's End

Nic's Sticks are nail polish pens made by Nicole by OPI. I pretty much always ignore them because the brush is terrible, there's not a lot of polish in the pen for the price, and the colors are normally pretty snooze worthy. Then a couple of months ago, two Nic's Sticks started appearing in closeout stores and clearance bins that were actually linear holos - a gold one called Rainbow's End and a silver one called Silver-ella. A few people on MUA ended up finding these at Tuesday Morning and Marshall's. I was out running errands over the weekend and went into Tuesday Morning. These kinds of searches are usually fruitless for me, but I emerged victorious with these!

Yes, three of them... because it takes three of these to equal one normal bottle of polish. My friend Love8Brain over at MUA had typed up a tutorial on how to take these apart to decant them into a normal bottle of polish, so that's what I did. These three silly sticks turned into this:

I put this one for the first time late this afternoon, and I'm absolutely dazzled. It is noticeably holographic even in indoor lighting. I know it would really come to life out in the sun, but it was rainy and overcast all day today. I've done what I could to capture it using a direct light source indoors, and I'm very happy with the way these pictures came out.

Rainbows!

Raaaaaaaaaaainbooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwws!

Seriously, this is amazing. And the formula is fan-freaking-tastic. Holos are notorious for having hideous formulas, but this one is great. I used my normal base coat, Pro-FX epoxy. Two easy coats, completely non-fussy formula. I love this.

I really want Silver-ella now too. I haven't given up the hunt! Perhaps I shall get lucky!

Happy Friday! =)