OPI Elephantastic Pink

Hello lovelies,

Last week was quite a warm week and I wanted a nail polish to reflect my then summery mood. For summer I strongly associate coral colours to the beach and hot days so I rummaged through my collection to pick on of my much beloved OPI's of my collection.

My pick was Elephantastic Pink which is a pink-coral rather than an orangey-coral. As I had been in a pink mood recently, I chose to wear this over a more true coral like 'I Mainly Eat Lobster'. This I had picked up from Fragrance Direct for £3.99 which (as I have mentioned before) is a bargain for OPI and their quality. I expected nothing less than long lasting nail colour when I applied this.

First things first, the thing I love most about this particular polish is its high-shine finish. I have seen many people rave about Barry M's high shine 'gelly' polishes and this is equal in shine. I was so impressed with its shiny finish I could not stop looking at it! It is certainly one of the more gel-like polishes OPI have released.

The one side I have found with this polish is it did not wear as well as other OPI polishes I have used before. As you can see in the picture (after two days wear), you can see some tip wear and even some small chips in the polish. I was a little annoyed by this but I am not sure how much of this is own to me not buffing my nails before hand (silly me!).

Overall, I am split with my opinion of this polish. I LOVE the colour and I think the gel finish is absolutely fantastic. It looks very gorgeous on and I think it would be ideal for hot holidays and times at the beach. However, the lasting power is disappointing as it chips quicker than most of my other OPI polishes. This would probably be a bottle for short wear only.

Do you own this colour? What do you think to this shade?

OPI Super Bass Shatter (Nicki Minaj Collection)

Hello lovelies,

I have to apologise for my absence from blogging the past few days but things have not been swell at home and I have not had to time to read everyone else's lovely blog posts and not had the time to write my own, until now! :)

Two weeks ago, I was in a small town called Wisbech where my Grandma lives. During my visits there, I love visiting Poundland to raid their cosmetics section as they have loads of known brands. So when I went in there I was shocked to see they were stocking OPI Shatter nail polish! Usually retailing at £11.50, I was able to pick up a nice big bottle of shatter for only £1 - bargain! Out of all the colours they had available, I chose a lovely purple because I knew it would go well with pinks (and I have a lot of them!).

When I got home, I was surprised to see it was from the Nicki Minaj collection and named 'Super Base Shatter'. I love the song, but I have never been overly keen on Minaj's style. However, seeing the other polishes in the collection, I can understand why this polish would make a great topper for the bright colours she released.

This polish is a deep purple colour with a slight shimmer. As with most shatter polishes, these can be worn alone as a normal polish or apply it to completely dry nail polish to see it shatter. This is the second shatter polish I own as I have previously purchased Rimmel's 'Crack your Colour' in Silver Clash. I had higher hopes for OPI's shatter as it is a higher end brand than Rimmel and I was a little disappointed in 'Crack your Colour's' translucent formula.

OPI Super Bass Shatter over Rimmel's Lycra 

Pro Nail Polish in 'Sorbet So Good'

Top: Flash, Bottom: No Flash

I have to apologise for my dodgy application to my little finger, but proves a point for anyone that may want to use shatter polishes. It is very important not to go over polish twice once you have painted an area. If you do, the shatter pattern is not very effective while drying.

I was rather impressed by this polish. It is opaque and if applied correctly, the shatter effect looks really good. When I first painted it on, it crossed my mind that it was going to look terrible. It started to look as if I had coated my nails in a thin layer of poster paint! However, when left the cracks started to appear and looked surprisingly good. I was very happy with it :)

The formula is quite thin to start with but after a few applications it became a bit gloopier at the top. This isn't a problem now as it's a new bottle but I'm worried after a few months it may become unusable. This also dries to a 'matte' finish. I am not too keen on this so in my photos above, I have applied a top coat.

This may seem random but I really like the texture this gives to my nails. It feels almost reptile and could not stop stroking them!

I also found the polish very good at maintaining my manicure. Rimmel's 'Sorbet So Good' is not very long lasting (despite the claims) but this as a topper made the whole look last a week. In fact, the pictures above show my nails after one week of wear.

Would I repurchase this? Yes, only if it was £1 though. For a shatter polish (which are currently making it's way out of fashion) £11.50 is too much. I have even seen this polish on 'Cheap Smells' for £9.95 which is a rip off! This is fully worth purchasing from Poundland if you can find it. It can prolong a manicure and actually doesn't look too bad.

Do you like OPI Shatter polishes? Would you purchase this for £1?

OPI I'm All Ears

Hello lovelies,

I hope you are all having a lovely summer! The weather is very hot here in Britain to a point where I have the fan on almost constantly :P

So recently, I have been wearing an OPI shade they released last summer as part of the Vintage Minnie Mouse collection (as opposed to the 'chic' collection they have released this summer). It is a gorgeous shade called I'm All Ears and is easily my favourite out of the collection.

I'm All Ears is the hot pink of the collection. It has a jelly-like finish with flecks of pink and blue glitter. This can be quite underwhelming when you first put it on as it is a jelly finish and the nail line can sometimes be visible. However, this polish comes to life in the sunlight where the glitter flecks absolutely dazzle you. I first noticed how gorgeous it was while walking around in the sunshine and I could not help but notice how interesting this was.

This nail polish wears pretty well. This usually lasts me about five days before I take it off. This is the same quality as most OPI polishes. As this is a jelly, this polish is slightly on the thinner side but still manageable.

As I have said, this polish really is the best of OPI's Minnie Mouse 2012 collection. It is unusual, not a pain and can be used on its own (unlike 'Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It). This is a must have for anyone who loves pink polishes or like girly make-up.

This is currently sold by Fragrance Direct for £3.99.

What do you think to this pink polish? It is too bright for you or do you love how girly it is?

O.P.I. 'San Tan-tonio'

Hello all!

I hope you have all been enjoying the Bank Holiday Weekend (UK residents) :) This weekend I had some real retail therapy getting some great bargains from Debenhams and Sainsbury's (to name a couple). But this post is dedicated to a beautiful nail colour I own by OPI called 'San Tan-tonio'.

I acquired 'San Tan-tonio' very cheaply, actually. Glamour magazine had an offer on for three issues of the magazine with two OPI nail polishes all for £1. Now I know a lot of people on HotUKDeals went nuts for this promotion and anyone that loves nail polish really did miss out if they didn't snap up this deal! It was like they were giving them away.

Anyway, 'San Tan-tonio' was part of a Texas collection OPI released a couple of years ago. The best way to describe this colour is a milky brown or honey coloured. My boyfriend describes it as looking like 'milky tea' and thinks it looks great. I have had many compliments from wearing this colour.

O.P.I. San Tan-tonio

When I received this as my free gift from Glamour, I thought I would not like wearing the colour very much considering Brown is my least favourite colour ever. However, when I put it on I felt very grown-up and sophisticated wearing this and feel this would be inoffensive to wear in a work environment. In my personal opinion, I feel this colour will work best at Autumn time (for those across the globe, I mean 'Fall'). I did love wearing  this honey colour polish with my Navy wool coat as the two colours compliment each other perfectly.

This lacquer has a cream finish and the formula of this was perfect: great consistency and had heavily pigmented. The picture above has two coats of polish on. Longevity is also what you expect from O.P.I. with only slight tip wear after five days.

What do you think? Have you got this lacquer? Even better, did you get to claim the deal by Glamour?

xxxxx

OPI 'I have a Herring Problem'

Hello all!

My first review and swatch will be of OPI's 'I have a Herring Problem'. Now recently after hearing so much about how great OPI was, I had to get some! And after I saw on Fragrance Direct that they had bottles for £3.99 I knew I was claiming a bargain. So my mum and I decided to put in a joint order. One of the colours I received in my order was 'I have a Herring Problem'. Unfortunately for me this is one of the colours my mum had treated herself to but we tend to swap and change! This colour is blue that has a slight green hue to it. This is not a creme, it has a lovely silver shimmer to it.

OPI 'I have a Herring Problem'

I really loved this colour more than I thought would. At first I thought it would be a bit 'blue' for my skin tone (since I'm quite pale). However it seemed to suit me and I loved wearing it while wearing jeans as I felt very co-ordinated. This was quite a pigmented lacquer and only took two coats to be fully opaque. I also wore really well with only tip wear after 4 days. I did not wait for it to chip because I fancied wearing something different.

I'm really quite jealous that this one actually belongs to my mum!

What do you think? Do you love this nail polish as much as me?

xxxx