OPI Skull & Glossbones swatch and review

Hey everyone! Today I've got a quick NOTD to show you, this is from the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides mini collection that came out in Spring 2011. I missed out on getting the collection then, but fortunately it was still readily available on the internet. This is the first out of four polishes that I'll be swatching for my blog out of this collection, OPI Skull & Glossbones.

What you see above is three coats of OPI Skull & Glossbones over OPI Natural Nails basecoat with two coats of China Glaze Fast Forward topcoat. (In retrospect, two coats of topcoat was a bad idea, you can see the bubbles that showed up!)

This is a murky greyish brown with a hint of green. I wasn't sure if it would look good on my skin tone, because I've worn cool greys before that looked terrible! But I think the brown tones in this warm it up a little and I actually really like how it looks on my nails! I would wear this again, especially to the office on days when I can't have crazy bright nails -- it's subtle and neutral.

The only thing I can fault it for is a really gloopy formula. It took three awkward coats to get it to this stage, and the brush was really wonky too. To add insult to injury, there was dried polish on the inside of the lid, and it made getting the brush in and out of the bottle really annoying. I'm hoping that my other bottles from this set aren't as aggravating. Also, I've only worn it for about 12 hours (painted my nails last night, and I just got back from my lunch break at work), and it's already chipped a couple times. However, that might be due to my poor decision to try two coats of topcoat - a mistake I will not be making again!

I'll see you next time with more swatches from this collection -- I've still got OPI Stranger Tides, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama, and OPI Planks a Lot to wear!

OPI Nicki Minaj swatches (Part 2)

I'm back with the second post in my two-part swatch and review of the OPI Nicki Minaj mini collection...you can see the first post here if you missed it! The first two polishes in the collection were OPI Did It on 'Em and OPI Fly, and the second two are OPI Pink Friday and OPI Metallic 4 Life.

But...wait just a moment?

The packaging clearly says that this polish is OPI Metallic 4 Life, but when I took a closer look at the bottles, it seems like it might be OPI Save Me, a different polish from the collection, instead. Isn't that strange?

Here's images from OPI of each, to compare. Top is OPI Metallic 4 Life, bottom is OPI Save Me.

And here's a picture of the bottle that I got.

Yep, it's NOT OPI Metallic 4 Life. Which is disappointing, because I actually was looking forward to that one! However, after doing this manicure, I did fall in love with what I actually got.

The manicure that I did with OPI Pink Friday and OPI Save Me was inspired by this post on Rebecca Like Nails, which is one of my favorite nail blogs. It's called a Manhattan Cocktail Manicure, and basically, all your nails are one color, except for your thumb and first two fingers on your right hand, or "cocktail hand," and you paint those colors something contrasting, like a fun glitter.

So on my left hand, all my nails are painted in two coats of OPI Pink Friday, with OPI Natural Nails basecoat and China Glaze Fast Forward topcoat. It's a bubble gum pink that I wasn't sure if I liked at first, since I'm not normally a fan of pink, but it's slowly growing on me, and the formula was fantastic.

But on my right hand, my accent nails have a coat of China Glaze Liquid Leather (a great black for layering glitter over!) followed by three coats of OPI Save Me, which is my new favorite glitter! It's got small silver glitter with tiny HOLOGRAPHIC bar glitter! It looks so incredible in the sunlight. I've never had a polish with bar glitter, much less beautiful holographic bar glitter. I can't stop staring at my nails every time I go outdoors.

Three coats of OPI Save Me actually covered pretty well, I'm not sure if I needed the Liquid Leather underneath. Although at first I was super disappointed that I didn't get OPI Metallic 4 Life, I'm over it now because OPI Save Me is so fantastic!

Here's another picture of the glitter, out of focus so you can see the pretty colors in the bar glitter better.

And here's pictures of my hands side by side so you can see the Manhattan Cocktail Mani effect!

What do you think? Did anyone else get OPI Save Me instead of what was supposed to be in the package? Should I go get a large bottle of OPI Metallic 4 Life? Is it worth it? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

OPI Nicki Minaj swatches (Part 1)

This week I'm going to be showing you two fun looks that are created from OPI's Nicki Minaj collection that came out in January. I know it's nothing new for most people, but I missed out on this one and just recently decided to pick up the mini collection when I saw it at my local Ulta. I wasn't too sure if it was worth the money, but as soon as I put these pretties on my fingernails I knew I'd made the right choice! In fact, now I'm wishing I would have grabbed the bigger bottles of a couple of them, because a couple of my coworkers have already asked to borrow them!

So first up is a pretty basic mani with the first two shades from the mini collection, OPI Did It on 'Em, and OPI Fly. Here's a bottle shot of the colors I used:

under indoor light

OPI Did It on 'Em is a bold, bright chartreuse (that means it's halfway between yellow and green!), that is very similar in the bottle to OPI Who the Shrek Are You, although since I don't own the Shrek polish, I can't compare them. However, according to swatches online, OPI Did It on 'Em looks to be a tad more yellow. It's definitely a funky, eye catching color. What you see below is three coats, with OPI Natural Nails basecoat and China Glaze Fast Forward topcoat. The formula was a little thin, it definitely needed all three coats.

in sunlight

OPI Fly is also bold and bright. I thought it would be a bit more pastel, but after swatching it, I discovered that it's a bright, not-quite-teal shade! It's now become one of my favorite blue polishes! For my accent nail on my ring fingers, I did two coats with the aforementioned base and top coats. The formula was a bit better than on OPI Did It on 'Em, it wasn't streaky at all, although if you look closely, you can see a bit of VNL in real life. Three coats probably would have solved that problem.

So...that's it for my first OPI Nicki Minaj manicure, what do you think? Did you buy this collection when it first came out, or did you wait like I did? Feel free to leave me comments below!