Happy Halloween!!

 *some products sent for review, please see end of post*

Happy Halloween!!! Halloween is my favorite holiday, I absolutely love everything about it. I usually wear Halloween manis for the entire month of October, but with my dad being in the hospital I got so off track this year. I'll be wearing Halloween polish well into November, haha. But I have a few recent Halloween manis for you, starting with Lumina Lacquer Peculiar Pumpkin Posse. This is an all holo glitter topper of holo orange and black hexes, black holo dots, holo black diamonds, and orange and black holo pumpkins. Everything in this polish is holo!! It also comes with an extra bag of the orange and black pumpkins.

Like all Lumina Lacquers, Peculiar Pumpkin Posse is best applied by dabbing. This is one dabbed coat with a few places filled in a second time, over OPI A Roll in the Hague. I took the two pumpkins from the extra bag of pumpkins, rather than fishing them out of the polish itself. There are plenty of them in the extra bag, so I figured it was easier and faster. I love the way the orange pumpkin is glowing in the picture below.

Next up we have Lynnderella Bed of Nails. This is a unique mix of white glitter in various shapes and sizes (including skulls!), purple, green, black, pink, and orange glitters in a clear base. Orange, purple, green and black really scream Halloween for me, so this is perfect. And I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw skull glitter in a core Lynnderella polish, I had a huge freak out moment!

This is two dabbed coats of Bed of Nails over OPI Did It On 'Em and China Glaze Grape Pop. I had a little bit of trouble getting the glitter out at first, which is really unusual for a Lynn polish. I turned the bottle upside down for a few minutes and that definitely helped a lot.

Finally we have Lynnderella Devil in a Black Tie over a random black Color Club mini and Zoya Livingston. Devil in a Black Tie has black and red glitters in a crazy holo sparkled base. I couldn't capture the holo sparkle, but it was similar to the fine holo glitter in Lynnderella VamPink!. I guess I just didn't have the right light today.

This is one coat of Devil in a Black Tie. It was easy to apply, no fishing involved.

 *some products sent for review, please see end of post*

What are your plans for tonight? I will be dressing up, probably as a witch or something, and handing out candy while watching Hocus Pocus with Binx. I mean, it is Halloween, I have to hang out with my black cat!

Lynnderella polishes are available on Lynnderella.com. Lumina Lacquer Peculiar Pumpkin Posse is Limited Edition, but you might still be able to grab a bottle at the Lumina Lacquer Big Cartel store.

*OPI and Zoya polishes in this post were sent for review. All others were purchased by me*

OPI Mariah Carey Holiday 2013 Swatches, Part 2!

*Sent for review*

Today I have the second part of my OPI Mariah Carey Holiday swatches. This part is all about the holidays reds and one lone champagne glitter. OPI is famous for it's beautiful reds, especially in the holiday collection. Let's start with my favorite red from the collection, OPI Underneath the Mistletoe. Underneath the Mistletoe is a juicy jelly-ish candy apple red with silver shimmer flecks. It's definitely different than your standard red shimmer, I love this kind of large fleck shimmer. The concept of this polish reminds me a bit of the ever-awesome OPI Holiday Glow, just a different color. I still love Holiday Glow, so I think I'll really enjoy Underneath the Mistletoe as well.

This is three coats of Underneath the Mistletoe. As I mentioned, the base is pretty close to a jelly. I'd say, closer to a real jelly than to a crelly, so three coats for full coverage is definitely the norm for jelly-like polishes. The formula was excellent. All swatches in this post are topped with one coat of OPI Top Coat.

OPI In My Santa Suit is definitely the classic OPI holiday red shimmer. It's gorgeously glowing and festive. It's a bit more pink-leaning than some other red shimmers I own. If you've been looking for a slightly pink glowy red, this one is for you. This is the kind of luminous red polish that I can never resist, despite the fact that I only wear red in December and I already own 30 red shimmers.

This is three coats of In My Santa Suit. You could probably get away with two thicker coats, the pigmentation was pretty good. The formula was excellent, easy to control and apply cleanly.

I was expecting OPI Visions of Love to be a standard deep burgundy creme, but it surprised me by being a crelly! The finish reminds me of OPI In the Cable Car Pool Lane from the OPI fall collection. It's too opaque to be a true jelly, yet too squishy to be a creme- hence, a crelly. The crelly finish made me like this a lot more than if it was just your standard creme. It definitely makes it more unique too.
                                                                              

This is three coats of Visions of Love. With jellies and crellies, I do always end up using a third coat, so I am OK with that. I love the squishy-looking result. The formula was good, maybe a tad prone to possible uneven areas, but it seemed to even out with the third coat.

OPI My Favorite Ornament is the lone non-red in this section of my swatches. My Favorite Ornament is a super sparkly pale champagne silver glitter. This is another full coverage glitter, like All Sparkly and Gold in Part 1 of my swatches. Just like All Sparkly and Gold, I can't wait to sponge this over one of the reds, probably In My Santa Suit.

This is three coats of My Favorite Ornament and I found it to cover easily. I probably would wear just two coats. I just wanted to make sure it looked as opaque in pictures as it did in person. This kind of small, full coverage glitter is easy to apply, dries fast, and feels smooth after one coat of shiny top coat. Perfect for the busy holiday season!

OPI All I Want For Christmas is OPI is a good example of why you should never form an opinion about a polish based on the bottle picture from the press release. OPI calls it a "marvelous maroon", first of all. To me, it looks like a bright red creme. Secondly, in the bottle picture, it looks like it has shimmer. There is no shimmer. Anyway, weird press releases aside, this is a lovely bright true red creme. When I put the first coat on, it did look a bit pink, but after two coats, it was very obviously red.

This is just two coats, I found this one to be excellently pigmented. Great formula too.

Finally we have OPI Cute Little Vixen, a red violet shimmer. Cute Little Vixen is very purple-based and packs quite the shimmer punch. It's one of those glowy shimmers that OPI does so well.

This is two coats of Cute Little Vixen, this one was also very well pigmented. The formula was pretty good, maybe a tad on the thin side, but not difficult to work with.

*Sent for review*

Overall, even if you own a lot of reds, I think there are some gems here, like Underneath the Mistletoe for sure. And I am always in the mood to wear colors like In My Santa Suit during the holiday season! Next I will be swatching the Liquid Sands from this collection and I CAN'T WAIT!! Those are what I've really been dying to try!

Mariah Carey Holiday is available now at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, ULTA and ulta.com for $9.00 ($10.95 CAN) suggested retail for each nail lacquer.
            For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com. Follow OPI on Twitter @OPI_PRODUCTS and become a Facebook fan!

OPI Mariah Carey Holiday 2013 Swatches, Part 1!

*Sent for review*

I finally got around to swatching the first 6 polishes from the 2013 OPI Holiday Mariah Carey collection. I've been dying to swatch these babies, but my dad is still not home (he moved from the hospital to a rehab place), so it's still been crazy around here. But I plan to do more swatching today, so hopefully more OPI Holiday will be coming your way soon. I started off with OPI Sleigh Ride For Two, a rich shimmery burgundy brown. OPI described this one as a dark hot chocolate, but I'd says it's more like a deep chocolate raspberry. There is a definitely a plummy/berry tone to it, it's not just a brown shimmer.

This is two coats of Sleigh Ride For Two, it was very nicely opaque. The formula was really good as well, no complaints. All swatches in this post are topped with one coat of OPI Top Coat.

Next we have the lovely OPI I Snow You Love Me over OPI Sleigh Ride For Two. This screams "HOLIDAYS" to me, it looks like an ornament! I Snow You Love Me contains large round silver holographic glitter pieces in a clear base. The glitters are completely flat, not curled or raised at all, but they look beveled somehow. It almost gives the illusion of the pieces being cut like a diamond. But don't worry, these won't be sticking up and catching on things, they do lay down quite nicely.

The base of I Snow You Love Me is very very thick. I tried to paint this on like regular polish and got a giant glob of clear base and one glitter piece. To apply the pieces as shown, I wiped all of the base off of the brush and deposited the glitters on to the neck of the polish bottle. I then used the cleaned-off brush to pick up the glitters and place them on my nails. You could also use a toothpick or a dotting tool. I found the end result to be worth the bit of extra effort, but if you like to brush polish on and go, this is not really the glitter topper for you.

OPI Ski Slope Sweetie is an interesting white shimmer with lots of gold flash. I wasn't sure if this would be a topper or a stand alone polish, but I think it's best used alone. It's pretty dense shimmer, so I think it would hide any base color. The gold flash is very strong in person, it kind of glows on your nails. I didn't think I'd be crazy about this, but I ended up wearing this on four nails for the rest of the day after swatching it (just four nails LOL) and I really liked it! It was really interesting to look at all the time, I felt like it kept changing colors. Sometimes it had a little pink tinge to it as well.

This is three coats of Ski Slope Sweetie. I think you could get away with two, but I did the third because my camera loves to make shimmers look sheer. The formula was good, not as thin as some pale shimmers like this are sometimes.

OPI calls OPI Warm Me Up a "spiced coffee"... I'm kind of wondering what kind of coffee they drink over there. On me, Warm Me Up looks like a deep shimmering gray tinged with a little mauve-y brown. Not really what I would call coffee, but I love this one all the same. The shimmer is very complex, it looks like it's a ton of different colors. In my macro shot, you can see pink and maybe some blue/green shimmer. It's especially pretty in the sun, but I liked in in the shade (last picture) as well.

This is two coats of Warm Me Up. It was pretty opaque and has a great formula. Very easy to apply and control. I am happy to see the shimmers being pretty pigmented in this collection (so far). I hope that continues.

I always love to see OPI try some new and different things, like OPI Wonderous Star. The base of Wonderous Star is white gold chunky shimmer, almost like glass flecks. Small black hex glitter is mixed in, creating a unique look. I like this a lot, I can tell I'll wear it all the time during the holidays. It might not be everyone's favorite look, but I definitely don't have any dupes of this in my collection!

This is three coats of Wonderous Star. I was actually pleased with the opacity in person, but this is the exact kind of shimmer my camera loves to HATE. You know how some bloggers can't photograph neons accurately? Or some purples? I can't photograph these chunky shimmers. My camera has a heart attack, won't focus right, and makes them look sheer. But I would be happy wearing three coats if I didn't have to take pictures of this. I didn't have to do any fishing or placement of the black glitter, I just used regular brushstrokes.

OPI All Sparkly and Gold is a caramel gold full coverage glitter. I don't think this could be used well as a topper, but it will definitely be EXCELLENT for sponging over one of the many reds in this collection. This isn't too yellow-y of a gold, it leans more towards antique gold.

This is three coats and there is a bit of VNL, but it's less noticeable in person than in the first three pictures here. It's more like this picture in the shade (below). The formula was good, it was pretty easy to apply. I really can't wait to sponge this over some delicious red for a nice holiday mani, but I can never bring myself to do holiday stuff until December. I guess I'll have to wait!

*Sent for review*

I am really looking forward to swatching the rest of the collection, these 6 shades have me in the holiday mood now. I like how these 6 shades say "festive" and "holiday" without being the obvious reds and greens. They make nice options for when you're sick of those typical colors! My favorite from these 6 is I Snow You Love Me. Who doesn't want their nails to look like an ornament during the holiday season?!

Mariah Carey Holiday is available now at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, ULTA and ulta.com for $9.00 ($10.95 CAN) suggested retail for each nail lacquer.
            For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com. Follow OPI on Twitter @OPI_PRODUCTS and become a Facebook fan!