OPI Hawaii collection swatches and review

Hey lacquer lovers! I'm really excited to be able to bring you a swatch and review post for a portion of the OPI Hawaii collection today! I apologize that it isn't the whole collection, but since the polishes are purchased with my own money, I have to follow my budgetary constraints and that means I have to pick and choose from this large and beautiful collection which shades I want to feature most. I hope you enjoy this swatch and review post and find it helpful when choosing your own shades to purchase from the OPI Hawaii collection :)

So the shades I chose to go with are those pictured in the photo above (clockwise from the top right corner: My Gecko does tricks, Suzi shops and island hops, Lost my bikini in molokini, This color is making waves, and Just Lanai-ing around(middle)). While all of the rest of the shades in the collection were just as lovely, I already had similar shades in my polish collection so I chose to not be redundant in my personal purchases. On to the swatches!

Ok, so first off we have Suzi Shops & Island Hops. This shade is a very pale creme pink. The shade itself may be pale but that does not reflect in the polishes opacity. I only used two reasonable coats here to obtain full nail coverage. As with all my past experience with OPI the polish is very smooth and has a good consistency resulting in a smooth error free application. If you are looking for a good classic pale pink for Spring I would definitely check out this shade.

Next up we have Just Lanai-ing Around. I was drawn to this color honestly because it reminded me of my childhood growing up in the 90's. For me personally since my family was in to tole painting and arts and crafts I was around a lot of paint and colors. The color Dusty Rose was VERY popular in that decade and I grew to love the color so this shade was a must buy for me as it is a perfect reflection of that color. This polish is a rich mid pink creme that evokes being in the middle of a summer garden. Application is smooth and flawless and only two thin coats are necessary to get full nail coverage. This is definitely one of my top three shades for the collection for sure.

Next we have Lost my Bikini in Molokini which is another creme shade from the collection. This shade is very much a true grape purple in my mind. If you already own Do You Have This Color in Stockholm from the Nordic collection by OPI, just imagine that purple but one to two shades lighter.  It is absolutely beautiful and applies easily with good coverage. This purple is very pigmented and adds a bright POP of color perfect for Spring and Summer.

Ok I will have to admit that this next color is my number one favorite from the Hawaii collection, and my boyfriend 100% agrees. My Gecko does tricks is a GORGEOUS pearl finish bright green that I can't seem to find any other words for it other than magical, and stunning. This color is just so BAM here I am green I can't get enough of it, it is honestly a show stopper and will be featured in my next nail art. The color is somewhere in the realm of sour apple candy and the Wicked Witch of the West meets a garden in full bloom and it's just magnificent. I'm not sure if any of that made any kind of sense to you but just look at it. No more words are needed.

Last but not least we have the lovely This Color is Making Waves. This is another Pearl finish shade but in the blue spectrum. I must make it known that in none of these swatches have I used top coat, all the shine you see is from the polishes alone, they are very high gloss even without top coat, and the pearl finish shades catch the light extremely well. In bottle this shade looks darker than it does when applied to the actual nail where it transforms into a true clear sea blue. Your nails will be a vision of clear blue waters with the sun dancing across the tops of the waves. This color rounds out my top three shades and only requires two coats for an even application.


Well guys, I hope you have enjoyed this post, and that it helps you make informed decisions about any purchases you may have been thinking about from this collection. If I pick up any more shades I will be sure to swatch and review them as well :) Until next time lacquer lovers, have a great day and I look forward to you stopping by next time!

What was your favorite shade that I swatched? Let me know in the comments!

Much Love
Jenn :)

Nail Art to match my Black Wolf Warrior Spirithood :)

Heyo lacquer lovers!! I am so so excited to bring you this awesome nail art today :) I love nail art, and I love Spirithoods so once again I wanted to combine those two loves in a burst of creative color love on my nails and I think it turned out pretty darn fantastic if I do say so myself.

Just in case you aren't familiar with Spirithoods they are a LA based company that makes and sells awesome animal inspired faux fur hoods made in the USA with 10% of net profits being donated directly to helping protect endangered animals. I currently own two hoods and even though some may say they are just a hat, to me and to many others like me they have a little something magical about them that makes you feel safe, and happy, and in tune with yourself when you are wearing one. The hood featured here today is the Black Wolf Warrior from their Winter 2014 collection.

So now that you know a little more about Spirithoods the colors I used for this nail art are from top to bottom Fifth Avenue by Essie, Mega Orange by QUO (by Orly), Goldilocks by Cover Girl, and Capacity to see beyond by China Glaze. I used a Bundle Monster image plate and a black China Glaze polish called Bump in the night to stamp the pattern on top of the striped colors.

Well guys, that's it for todays nail art! Let me know what you think in the comments and if you are at all interested in getting a Spirithood of your very own just leave me a comment and I can hook you up with a code for $15.00 off your first hood!

Much love guys!
Jenn :)

Born Pretty store nail art product review!

Hey there lacquer lovers and Happy Wednesday! I hope all is well for you. So a little while ago I was contacted by bornprettystore.com regarding reviewing a few of their many awesome products. Naturally I agreed as I love to spread the word about affordable, quality nail art products so you can all be at the top of your nail game every day.

Before I start, if you aren't familiar with Born Pretty store I highly suggest you pop on over and take a look see at what they have to offer. They have tons of affordable beauty products and accessories to choose from at very reasonable prices. Today I will be showcasing and reviewing some nail wraps, a stamping plate, and a Born Pretty brand stamping polish from the nail art category of the site. Here we go, hope you enjoy!

Let's begin with the nail wraps that I chose. I am a complete amateur regarding nail wraps which is one of the reasons that I wanted to try and review this item. The nail wraps were well packaged and easy to remove from the sheet even with short nails which is a plus considering I have decided to go nubby for gaming reasons :P. The colors were very vibrant and the shine on these babies is real. 

The nail wraps are very easy to apply, even as a complete nail wrap amateur both hands were done in under five minutes. I was pleased with this product in general. I am not really a nail wrap person for every day but I find them a convenient and fast way to get awesome nails when you're short on time. I would recommend using a base and top coat for increased bonding with the nail bed to avoid any incidences of peeling up if you are going to be doing a lot with your hands. 

My only problems with this product were that a) the smell when opening the package initially was very strong. It's not a huge issue for me personally but someone who is scent sensitive may find it over whelming and b) a lot of the design of the wrap was toward the bottom half of the wrap. Being a nubby nailed girl at the moment a lot of the electric looking pattern was in the portion that I filed off.

I would definitely recommend you give these a try if you want to get into nail wraps. Just remember t consider how the design is layed out and how that will fit on the size of your own nails.

If you are interested in trying this product it can be found here .

The other two products I chose were this awesome nail stamping plate with a Sailor Moon theme in the center, and a gold stamping polish. I have never used an actual stamping polish before but have lots of experience with stamping so I figured these items would be a combo to review together.

The stamping plate came packaged in it's own cardboard sleeve which directs you toward the companies Instagram feeds where you can check out some more of their products if you would like.

All of the images on the stamping plate were well engraved and easy to pick up with a rubber stamper. I have absolutely no complaints about this stamping plate, it is good quality with no sharp edges and no incomplete engravings. I highly recommend you check out their stamping plate section. I know I will be revisiting it asap for some more.

The bottle of stamping polish was a little smaller than I imagined based on the image on the site but as you don't need a lot of it there is more than enough for a product priced under $5.00. The polish was neither too thick or too thin and made it very easy to pick up the images from the stamping plate. It is very well pigmented and all of the images stamped onto the nail very easily and I didn't have an issue with being able to see the images clearly as I do with some regular nail polishes that I have attempted to use for nail stamping. There is no offensive odor or any down side that I can see to this stamping polish. I would recommend it for nail stamping on a budget for sure.

If you are interested in picking up these products for yourself you can check the stamping polish out  here and the image plate can be found here :)

There you go guys. Over all I was pleased with these products especially for the price. I would seriously recommend checking out Born Pretty Store. Their products are great for building up your nail art product selection and for great deals on items to help you have the prettiest nails that you can. I hope that you have found this helpful and if you check out the site, that you find something you love!
Please follow this image link to the Born Pretty Store site and use the code AZEW10 for a special 10% discount!

Much Love all see you next time :)
Jenn

Beautiful Glitter Gradient created with OPI Sheer Tints

Hey lacquer lovers, how are you doing today? I hope you are fantastic just like the super glittery, ultra pretty gradient nail art I have for you today. As I've spoken about before I think I got a faulty bottle of the blue OPI Sheer tints tone which is why it is not included in this nail art. Even though they were all stored the same and in perfect conditions for the maintenance of polish viscosity, the blue dried all up on me and solidified rendering it useless and I haven't had a chance to pick up a new bottle yet. Luckily this gradient using only the other three OPI Sheer Tints is just as lovely as it would have been with all four tones.

This is a fairly simple nail art, that should be easy to recreate. I began with two medium coats of OPI my voice is a little norse to get that awesome glittery undertone. I then painted one to two coats of each sheer tint onto the nails transitioning from yellow, to pink, to purple and integrating the neighboring colors on every second nail. You can stop there and top coat if you wish, it looks beautiful but I wanted to add a little boldness to the look so I stamped a nice swirly image on top of each nail in black polish.

Hope you guys enjoyed this nail art I have included a photo of all the polishes used below so that you can easily spot them in the wild should you want to buy them :) Thanks for stopping by today guys :) see you next time!

Much Love
Jenn

OPI Sheer Tints I'm never ambarassed and Cover Girl Goldilocks

Hey lacquer lovers! How are you all? I hope that you had a good Valentine's Day Yesterday :)

Today I am bringing you a look that I originally did on a friend but liked so much that I had to recreate it on my own nails.

I have seen a lot of people using the Big Smokey Top Coat and I want to get some but until I can I figured it would be a good use of my OPI Sheer Tints polishes. For this nail art I have simply used the I'm Never Ambarassed sheer tint polish (yellow as you can see) and painted a few coats onto my nails. Enough to make the color vibrant but not to build up any sort of real opacity. When that was dry I simply took the finest tip nail art brush I own and went to town with Cover Girls Goldilocks outlining each nail and then adding random patterns. I settled on dots and diagonal lines this time but the possibilities are endless!

Hope you guys like this nail art :) Let me know what you think in the comments and how your Valentine's Day was!

Much Love
Jenn

Essie Play date and China Glaze Howl you doin

Two Valentine's Day Nail Art Ideas

OPI My Voice Is a Little Norse with OPI Girls Love Ponies, and Orly Pink Waterfall

piCture pOlish Darcy and OPI Magazine Cover Mouse

Hey lacquer lovers! Happy Valentines Day if you are celebrating it. Even though I do have a long term boyfriend I don't think that you need one to celebrate a Holiday that is about love. My Mother has always given me cards and chocolates on Valentines Day and I have done so with friends in the past as well ( yes even before Leslie Knope coined Galentines Day :P ) Therefore My Valentine's Day nail art this year is decidedly more color themed than "Love" themed. The colors I have used are listed under the photographs themselves.

I hope that you guys enjoy these nail art ideas! Do you like Valentine's Day? Let me know in the comments section below:)

Thanks for stopping by again guys! See you next time Happy Valentine's Day!

Much Love

Jenn :)

Essie Butler Please and China Glaze Electrify

Hey lacquer lovers! I know I've been a little slower on my blog posts lately but I do assure you I haven't forgotten you. I've had some personal issues which should now all be resolved so back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Today I have a lovely combo of Essie Butler Please and China Glaze Electrify. I used Butler Please for the base and did a top down gradient of glitter using Electrify. I just love this. It's so vibrant what do you think? Let me know in the comments and I'll see you for my next post tomorrow!!

Much Love
Jenn :)

Pastel Candy Heart Nail Art

Hello lacquer lovers! So here we are facing another of a string of snow storms in Atlantic Canada. hurray I can't leave my house again! Sucks if I need something, but chances are I'm just going to sit on my ass and play Guild Wars 2 all day so it's cool. Anyway onto the nail art for today!

Today I have a Valentine themed Nail art. I've used pastel colors (L'Oreal Butterfly Kisses, L'Oreal New Money, Pure Ice Playful Purple, Essie Mint Candy Apple, and Cover Girl Goldilocks) to represent the pale colors of those kind of horrible but traditional little Valentines Candies with the I love you messages on them :P. I then took my trust white Sally Hansen White On polish and stamped an image of those same little candy hearts onto each nail. If you are curious the stamping plate I used is Bundle Monster stamping plate #421. All I had to do after that was pop on a top coat and voila. Very simple and cute Valentine Nail Art :)

Hope you enjoy this nail art today guys! See you on Wednesday with another Nail art post and in between who knows I might hit you up with some Mascara reviews!!

Much Love
Jenn :)