O.P.I. O Suzi Mio

O Suzi Mio is from the O.P.I Venice collection (Fall/Winter 2015). The entire collection was on sale at my local pharmacy, and it took considerable restraint to only buy one bottle.

Having said that, I'm not discounting the possibility of going back and buying another colour. There was a mint green I had my eye on too ...

I wasn't a huge fan of the formula on this one, it was quite runny and sheer (which is how I'm going to excuse my slightly crap application), and took three coats to opaque. This red-leaning deep purple is a beautiful colour though.

Down the rabbit hole

Hands up those of you looking forward to Tim Burtons's Alice in Wonderland? Yup, me too. Tim Burton/Johnny Depp/one of my favourite books of all time - I cannot wait to see what brilliance comes from that combination.  Plus from the photos and trailers released so far it looks like the costumes and makeup are going to be something really special, and it's probably because of this that more than any other movie I can recall there are some really amazing beauty collections being released to tie in with the movie.  Here are some of my favourite Alice-inspired pretties:

First up is O.P.I.'s Alice in Wonderland polish collection:

The four colours in the collection are Off With Her Red (orange/red), Absolutely Alice (blue glitter), Mad As A Hatter (multi-coloured glitter) and Thanks So Muchness (red shimmer).  While neither of the reds appeal (and like many reviewers I'm a little disappointed that O.P.I. chose to have two reds in a four polish collection), the two glitters are on my Must-Have list. Check out All Lacquered Up for swatches of the four colours - Mad As A Hatter is particularly squee-worthy.

Of course once you've painted your nails with Wonderland-worthy colours you're going to want to have some equally pretty colours for your face, and Urban Decay have just the thing:

Pop-ups, people! Pop! Ups!  Even if the makeup in the palette didn't appeal I'd want it just for this utterly beautiful packaging. Luckily the contents of the palette are pretty awesome in their own right, with 16 of Urban Decay's best-selling eyeshadows (renamed with Wonderland-inspired names), two travel size 24/7 Pencils and a bottle of their primer potion.

The Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows has been released on Urban Decay's website, and will be available in America from Sephora, Ulta and Macys, from 1 February.  English Alice fans will have to wait until March, when it will be available exclusively from Debenhams. Of course none of these retailers ship internationally - *sigh* - so I've already bribed an English friend to snap one up for me!

Finally, Paul & Joe have chosen original Disney illustrations for their Alice in Wonderland collections, and I must have these too.

There are two collections in Paul & Joe's Alice in Wonderland range, Daydream:

And Fantasy:

Each contains a blotting paper, blotting paper refill and Lip Treatment Stick, packaged in an original container. I don't have much information on availability yet, what I do know is that it will be released at Harrods and ASOS in the UK on 5th March and will also be available in the US, although I don't have any US stockist information. More pictures of the collection can be found on Paul & Joe's Facebook page.

So what do you think my pretties? Will you be snapping any of these up? What other Alice tie-ins have you seen?

Today's nail: O.P.I. Merry Midnight

Three words for you my pretties:

Oh.

My.

Goodness-gracious-me!

(That last photo is the blurry "ooooh look at all the pretty sparkly glitteries" photo!)

I want to meet the person at O.P.I. who came up with this colour and I want to give them a great big slobbery kiss.  This colour is amazing - a dark grape coloured base (three coats to opaque) packed with different coloured glitters AND pink flakies. Flakies!  Lovely formula and application - O.P.I. please please pretty please make more polishes like this one!

Merry Midnight is part of the Holiday Wishes 2009 Collection - I picked it up when I was out shopping the other day, even though I normally prefer to order my O.P.I.'s from overseas because even with freight it still works out cheaper than buying them at the ridiculously expensive price they go for here in New Zealand. I'm so glad I caved and bought it!

Poor little courier man

Our poor courier man, we may have the two friendliest dogs in the whole world but when people come to the door they make a lot of noise. Enough noise that even when he has a 'sign for' parcel he simply drops it on the doorstep and runs. Surely though, if you're going to choose a career as a courier driver, you'd want to not be scared of dogs? Just saying.

Anyway, here's the contents of my parcel from TransDesign:


China Glaze Loves You Snow Much collection. Ruby Pumps, 5 Golden Rings, Tinsel and Emerald Sparkle. Mmmmmm, Emerald Sparkle. Photo doesn't do it justice, the pictures I've seen on other blogs are stunning - can't wait to put it on.


O.P.I. Tattoo Ta-Boo! minis set. Witch Arm?, Glow-ink in the Dark, Tattoo You Want Candy?, I Love Mummy. And super cute Halloween tattoos, those bats are adorable.


Orly La Petite French mani minis set. Orly Bonder base coat, Je T'aime, Sheer Nude and White Out. Not my colours obviously, but I'm doing nails for my little brother's wedding in December and the bride (hehe, I just typed that as 'bridge') has requested french manicures for herself and the bridesmaids so I thought I should have some appropriate shades. The inclusion of a mini Bonder is a bonus, because I've seen it recommended often and wanted to try it out.


Finally a bottle of my trusty CND Stickey base coat, a bottle of CND Air Dry, and a bottle of Poshe. I always like to try out new top coats when I see them recommended. I'm especially interested in trying Poshe, polish lovers seem to fall into two camps - those who love Poshe and those who love Seche Vite. I wonder which side I'll end up on?

Hauls, lots of hauls. And an apology in advance

I've been a bad, bad girl my pretties! Remember when I said that I wasn't buying any more polishes in the lead-up to my Melbourne trip? Yeah, about that ...

First up, here's my haul from the BB Couture sale. Which you already knew about, so it's all good:

Left to right: Top Rock Top Coat, Green Goblin and Laguna Lagoon.

Left to right: Midnight Malibu, Spellbound, Midnight Desire, Maleficent Magenta

Left to right: Moon Over Manhattan, Sea of Cortez, Zuma Wave Rider

I'm not sure I actually realised how many purples I was ordering. It's a good thing I like purple.

Anwyay I was absolutely determined that was going to be it for a while. Determined. But then I stumbled upon the polish purge sale that Grace over at The Kitchen, The Closet and the Laboratory was having, and got a few polishes. Just a few. And hey, it's supporting a fellow blogger so totally justified, yeah? Yeah?

Left to right: O.P.I. Glamour Game, BB Couture Electric Avenue, Essie Barbados Blue

Left to right: China Glaze Watermelon Rind, China Glaze Coconut Kiss

Left to right: Orly Country Club Khaki, Orly Enchanted Forest

Left to right: NailTek Quicken fast dry top coat, NailTek Foundation II ridge-filling nail strengthener

Left to right: Zoya Raven, Zoya Irene, Zoya Midori

My first Zoyas! And there's a whole heap of colours in there I've been coveting for some time, so yay for Grace!

And last - because you just knew there would be more - I was out with 10 Year Old Son today helping him choose a present for 13 Year Old Daughter's upcoming birthday, and accidentally bought these when we were buying her present:



A set of neon minis by mwah!. The colours don't have names, but the set was only NZ$12.00. They're more for 13 Year Old Daughter than me, and I was going to hold off giving them to her until her birthday but couldn't wait. I have no information about mwah! polishes, they tend to be stocked in clothing stores like Jay Jays. I already have a couple of their colours and they're not bad.

Blog posts might be a little thin on the ground for the next couple of weeks. As well as my upcoming Melbourne weekend to prepare for (only a week and a half away - YAY), 13 Year Old Daughter becomes 14 Year Old Daughter this Thursday. How this happened I don't know, it seems like only a couple of years ago she was this little:



I am going to be SO unpopular for posting that! Look at her little Buddha Belly!

So as I was saying, 14th birthday coming up, and a gaggle of teenage girls (actually it should be a giggle of teenage girls) are coming over in the weekend for the Sleepover Party Extraodinaire! Which means lots of organising for me, and apparently lots of painting of nails. So in between running around like the proverbial headless chook over the next couple of weeks I will try to keep up with the posting, but I apologise in advance if I'm absent. I will make up for it when I come back from Melbourne, with lots of "look at the cool stuff I bought" posts, I promise.

More hauls, and nail polish bottle constructions

Just a couple of hauls for you. I'm waiting for my big order from the Overall Beauty sale to arrive, and then I'm putting a moratorium on my spending for a while because I'm saving my pennies for a trip to Melbourne within the next couple of months. It's my big reward from the Eccentric English Boyfriend for quitting smoking (nearly two months now by the way - yay me). Initially he was going to buy me expensive shoes once I hit three months smoke free, but then we hit upon the idea of a long weekend trip to Melbourne. My best friend from high school (back in the day) lives there now and I'm super excited about seeing her, and also visiting another high school friend who now has a wee tot. Plus I hear the shopping is awesome! Woo and also hoo! Flights yet to be booked (yay for paying with airmiles), excitement building ...

Anyway back to the hauls. First another parcel from my wonderful UK friend Ewa:



Left to right: Collection 2000 Green With Envy, Boots 17 Peacock (which the lovely Glittermillie has coincidentally just blogged about), Hot Looks Show Off, Rimmel Blue Me Away and Hot Looks BMX Bandit.

Have any of you ever seen the movie BMX Bandit? If not search it out, just to see a very young Nicole Kidman back in the 80's when her hair was curlier than a trampoline spring.

Rimmel Blue Me Away just happened to be one of the polishes I got in my KMart haul the other, but the double up was my fault because I'd told Eva Rimmel was not commonly available in New Zealand and then I found a great big display of them in KMart. But that's ok because the extra one will find a good home with 13 Year Old Daughter's bestie.

Next a couple of polishes from TradeMe:


Love My Nails Raspberry Sorbet


O.P.I. Monsooner Or Later

I was so cross when I opened the packet the Monsooner Or Later came in to discover it is a little itty-bitty-teeny-weeny 3.75ml mini. Then I went back to the listing and realised it very clearly listed the size so it was my own silly fault for not reading more carefully (normally I'm so careful to not buy the minis). It's incredibly annoying because the price I paid was far too much for a mini. Lesson (hopefully) learned.

Finally, 10 Year Old Son has been home sick with a cold the last couple of days, and he was obviously a bit bored because I kept finding these on the desk:



Nail polish towers! I love the way the Kit bottle at top right is teetering so precariously. Every now and then I would hear the clink clink bang of polish bottles falling over, none were broken thank goodness. Bless him!

The Great Nail Disaster of August 09 (and also some polishes)

Oh noes - I broke not one but THREE nails. And because I didn't notice when it happened they ripped off before I could save them. So I clipped all my nails back, because otherwise I was going to be driven batty by the sight of nails of different lengths. In the same way that my little brother's habit of un-alphabetising my herbs and spices whenever he comes to visit drives me batty. (OCD? Me? Why do you ask?)

It was the longest I'd ever managed to grow my natural nails, so you understand my pain. Still, they'll grow.

Anyway, here's a little haul for you - three polishes bought off TradeMe:


O.P.I. Green-Wich Village and Bubble Bath, and Revlon Tropical Teal.

Green-Wich Village and Bubble Bath came together. I got them for Green-Wich Village, Bubble Bath isn't really my sort of colour but I'll give it a try. Plus I gather from other nail polish blogs that Bubble Bath is quite hard to find so what the heck.

The first swatch is pre Disaster, when I still had nails. Look how long they were getting:



Tropical Teal is gorgeous. I would call it more turquoise than teal, but let's not quibble over semantics. It's a gorgeous shimmery blue-green leaning more towards the blue. Nice application in three coats, thin formula and an absolute minimum of brush strokes for a shimmer.

Next up, my poor stubby little nails post Disaster. Promise not to laugh? Seriously - promise!


Awwwww - look at the poor wee things. Awesome colour though. It's funny the things that nail polish colours make me think of, you'll never guess what comes to mind when I look at this colour.


I have Kermit nails!

Nice glossy creme, three coats and very sheer on the first two with a bit of dragging but by three it had a lovely finish to it. Of course it would look even better if my nails were longer. *sniff*

A small TradeMe haul and some more Ruby Pumps

Here's a couple of things from TradeMe: China Glaze Custom Kicks and O.P.I. Tangerini Bikini, plus a couple of colour wheels, so now I can quickly swatch polishes if I don't have the time to try them on!



As proof that the world (and New Zealand in particular) is a very small place the polishes were bought from the lovely Steph from Nail Juice, who very kindly threw in Custom Kicks for me because she was delayed in sending Tangerini Bikini - what a sweetie!

Apologies for the lack of swatches the last couple of days, I've been so busy actually trying polish on that I haven't gotten round to blogging about it. I've pretty much depleted my untried pile, the postman is looking more and more nervous because I know I have a couple of orders that should be arriving any day now!

My gorgeous friend Zeb came over yesterday for a manicure and was patient enough to let me swatch several colours on her. She is but a wide-eyed newcomer to the wonderful world of nail polish and getting her to try colours outside of her comfort zone was fun. She ended up wearing China Glaze Ruby Pumps which looked absolutely stunning against her dark skin. I've swatched it before on myself, but here it is on her:




We went out to lunch after, which was most amusing as every few minutes she would look at her nails and squeal! Ruby Pumps is one of those hard to photograph polishes, it's almost impossible to do justice to the super-blingy glitteriness of it. Look out for more pictures of Zeb's nails to come as I think we swatched about five colours on her, and in the meantime go visit her site for loads of anime/manga and stitching stuff.

We have lift-off

So the Telecom men have been. They promise me they have fixed the problem, but just in case it happens again they've very conveniently blamed it on damp under the house. Because then it's not Telecom's fault, obviously.

Anyhoo, to stop myself from going completely bonkers I have painted my nails. A lot. So I have lots of swatches for you. And also a dog. Just because.

First up, Color Club Rev'd Up:



I'm impressed with the Color Club polishes - good application and super-fast drying time. I think this was three coats, I can't remember (there's been so many polishes people, so very many). It's a nice colour, it doesn't blow me away probably because there's a lot of sparkly purply/pinks out there similar, but it's pretty.

Speaking of pretty, look at the paw!



Next, Max Factor Nailfinity Golden Peach:



Quite sheer, could have gone for four coats with this, but three was ok. Good application but like a few metallics I've used it reacted with Seche Vite top coat (just on one nail) and went gluggy. A very pretty muted gold colour but I'm not sure it suits my skin colour, and it's a little 'safe' for my liking.

13 Year Old Daughter asked for white nails with black polka dots, so I got to try out my new dotting tool.



That's Color Club Paris White with dots in China Glaze Urban Attitude. Yet another fabulous Color Club polish, Paris White applied really well which I didn't expect after past experience with whites. It's a really lovely pure white that reminds me of house paint (in a good way). Three coats because there was a little bit of streaking but again dried super fast.

This was my first time using the dotting tool, and I'm quite pleased with the result. Best tip, which I read on a blog whose name I have now forgotten, make a little dish out of tinfoil and pour just a small amount of polish into it (I actually dropped it off the brush rather than pouring), then dip your dotting tool into that. Also, don't load the dotting tool with too much nail polish (that one comes from my own experience!).

Then I decided to do a little nail art on myself, so I broke out the painter's tape.



The polishes were Color Club Paris White, China Glaze Nail Art Ink and Pinnacle Quicksilver.



I started with a base of Pinnacle Quicksilver - nice application, a lot of brushstrokes though but a very nice bluish-silver. Then I taped off a diagonal across my tips and used Color Club Paris White, and finished with the China Glaze Ink. I'm quite pleased with the result given it's the first time I've attempted anything with a nail art brush. Another tip, from another blog I can't remember the name of: when painting a straight line with a nail art brush place the brush on the nail and then move the nail under the brush rather than the brush over the nail. I had a few thin lines and a few thick lines but that's just practice.

And finally, I've saved the best for last. O.P.I. Suzi Says Da!:




Brown polish can be hit or miss, it's so often either too 'old lady' or just plain unattractive. But this one. OH. MY. GOD! Seriously, while I was applying it I had to stop myself from sticking out my tongue and licking it. Two words: Melted. Chocolate. I cannot stop staring at my nails, this colour is so very beautiful, and what a gorgeous smooth shiny finish. This was three coats, and looking at the pictures it could have been four because I can see some semi-bald patches near my cuticles but that's no biggie when the colour is this beautiful. This one goes in my favourites list, I love it!

An apology, some more hauls and a polish review

Hello there my pretties, apologies for the radio silence - our internet has been dead for the last couple of days. It's back up at the moment, so I'm taking advantage while it lasts.

First up, a couple of purchases from TradeMe which arrived in the mail yesterday:


Top row: China Glaze Urban Attitude, Pinnacle Quicksilver (never heard of this brand, anybody have any experience with it?), Color Club Paris White, Color Club Fast Woman, Color Club Queen of Speed. Middle row: Color Club Rev'd Up, Color Club Sugar Rush, Color Club Candy Girl.
Bottom: O.P.I. Bronze gift set, Suzi Says Da! and I Only Drink Champagne plus cosmetic bag (which I'm not particularly fond of, I only got it for the colours which were a bargain).

Next, from today's trip to the mall, a bundle of stuff from Postie Plus. I can never resist popping in to our local Postie Plus - their clothes may be a bit on the 'grandma' side but they always have bins and bins full of cosmetics at super cheap prices. Today's haul:


Nailene Rhinestone Nail Art Kit, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamonds, Max Factor Nailfinity Golden Peach, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Honeymoon Red, Maybelline Wet Shine Diamonds Jewels n' Berries, Max Factor Nailfinity Disco Pink.

And finally (phew) a review of BB Couture Peony Pink.



That is the most gorgeous pink. And I say this as someone who hardly ever wears pink nail polish! It reminds me of candy floss (mmmmmmmm, candy floss). However this was the first of the BB Couture polishes to give me application problems, and to need more than two coats. There was a lot of streaking and bald patches, which mostly disappeared by the third coat although if I'd wanted to be a perfectionist about it I probably would have gone for four coats. On the plus side, like all the BB Couture polishes I've tried it dried super fast. Application problems aside, I love it!

My nail polish collection now numbers 162. And there's several more arriving in the mail in the not-too-distant future. I may have to go to polish-rehab!

Review: O.P.I. Done Out in Deco

This isn't one of the polishes from my haul(s) of the other day, it's one I bought off TradeMe which arrived yesterday. I've been coveting this colour for a while - lavender done badly can be very much a 'grandmother' colour, but Done Out in Deco has greyish undertones that make it a little different.



I absolutely love it, BUT, I'm not sure it suits my skin tone. Still, one of the many friends who come over for manicures will surely suit it, so it's not going to waste!

Application was excellent, which surprised me. Pastel colours as a rule can be problem children, but not this one. No streaking or dragging, bottle colour in two coats and no clean up required - well done O.P.I.

If you look through my recent polish reviews, you can see my nails gradually (very gradually) starting to get longer. I am determined to get them healthy and grow them long without resorting to acrylics again, which damaged my nails so badly.

I am keeping the courier drivers of Auckland in business - another haul

I finished the last post, looked out the window and there was another package, this time from 8ty8Beauty. Today is like Christmas AND my birthday!

Wall-E would like to present:



Colour Club Where's the Soiree?, Orly GoGo, China Glaze For Audrey (yes I finally found somewhere that has it in stock), Colour Club Pure Energy, Orly Charged Up and O.P.I. Miami Beet (which 13 Year Old Daughter has been coveting).

At this point, faced with nine new nail polishes to try, I have to keep reminding myself that the logic behind me staying home full-time was to make a start on the renovations and generally keep the house in order, NOT to spend all day trying on nail polish.

Here is a side-by-side of Essie Greenport and China Glaze For Audrey. Certainly in the bottle they are very similar, Greenport seems slightly darker, with a more greyish cast. Wall-E says swatching is in order!

Try on nail polish without opening a bottle

Many's the time I've been tempted to open a bottle of nail polish in the shop and give it a sneaky try out on my nails. I don't obviously, because that would be stealing, but now OPI have introduced a cute feature to their website which lets you try on their colours before you go out and buy them.



Head over to OPI, click on the Try-On This Colour tab, use the sliders to select your skin tone and nail length and test to your wee heart's content. The vagaries of computer monitors mean that the colours will never be an exact match, but it's a great way to get an idea of how a colour will look on you before you go out and spend your money only to find you hate the colour on.

The picture by the way is what Sahara Sapphire will look like on me. If my nails were longer. And my fingers were longer!