OPI Gwen Stefani Holiday Swatches, Part 2!

*Sent for review*

I am really in the holiday spirit now that Thanksgiving is over! I'm tuning into the Christmas music radio station and picking out which red polish I'll be putting on next. I have some more swatches of the OPI Gwen Stefani Holiday collection for you today. This lovely berry creme is OPI Just Be-Claus. Just Be-Claus is a great mix of red, purple, wine and some fuchsia tones. It's very rich looking and there's something more complex about it than some other berry polishes we have seen lately. I am a fan of this one, very pretty!

This is two coats of Just Be-Claus. It was lovely and pigmented. The formula was great and easy to apply.

OPI Love Is Hot and Coal is a smoky coal black metallic. It's like shimmering obsidian on the nail. I love that this was included in the holiday collection. It's an unusual holiday color, yet it is shimmery enough to feel festive. In some lights, Love Is Hot and Coal looks very dark black, but in others it looks more charcoal. Happily, you can see the beautiful shimmer in all lighting.

This is three coats of Love Is Hot and Coal. I found it to be a little thin and the first coat was uneven looking. It built up to opacity by the third coat though. In person, I didn't find it to look brushstroke-y at all, although in the pictures I do see some brushstrokes.

If you like glowy jewel-toned shimmers, I think you will love OPI Kiss Me- Or Elf!. Kiss Me- Or Elf! is a stunning red-purple shimmer that glows so much it almost looks like it's on fire. I love this kind of shimmer and OPI really does it so well. This purple has touches of magenta so it can look more pink at times. Kiss Me- Or Elf! reminds me of some of the OPI polishes I fell in love with years ago. It's not some fancy new finish or anything, just a beautiful color and glowing shimmer.

This is three easy coats of Kiss Me- Or Elf! If you do thicker coats, you may be fine with just two. It was easy to work with and had a great consistency.

I am SO glad to see OPI rocking the jellies in this collection! OPI In A Holidaze is a cool-toned bright pink red jelly-ish creme. I say jelly-ish creme because it has that squishy jelly quality to it and is not truly opaque after 3 coats, but it is a bit more solid looking than a true jelly. In A Holidaze is really gorgeous, it almost feels more summery than holiday due to it's brightness. But I love a good bright any time of the year! This will be a lovely choice for any holiday mani or pedi and I think it's one of my favorite reds for 2014.

This is three coats of In A Holidaze. There is still some VNL, but it's the good squishy kind. This was a dream to apply- it has that slightly gel-like feeling that some jellies have.

I will be wearing OPI Snow Globetrotter over a million colors this holiday season, it's just so cool looking! Snow Globetrotter has teeny white glitter, tiny iridescent glitter, medium white hex glitter and assorted sizes and shapes of iridescent glitter. The iridescent glitter is very cool. It looks almost like mylar shards, but it feels totally flat on your nail and the glitters are in standard hex shapes instead of shards. This glitter looks gold, green, blue, purple or even pink depending on the light. There have been "snowglobe" glitter toppers done before, but this is my favorite!

This is just one dabbed coat of Snow Globetrotter over OPI In A Holidaze. Dabbing seemed to work well with this topper. I got lots of glitter onto the nail and then spread it around to even it out. The formula was good when applied this way. Applied normally, I think you would mostly get the smaller glitters and you might have to fish for the larger iridescent pieces.

OPI Christmas Gone Plaid is a deep evergreen creme. It's a bit darker than I thought it would be, but it's a lovely rich green. It has some blue tones in it that my camera really wanted to pull out, so these pictures here are not the best pictures (weird light, not super in focus), but they do show the color better than some of the others I got. The blue tones don't really show up once this is on your nails, it looks like a true dark green.

This is two coats of Christmas Gone Plaid. The formula is good, but not that perfect "apply itself" type.

*Sent for review*

Out of these six polishes, my favorites are Snow Globetrotter and Kiss Me- Or Elf!. Honorable mention goes to In A Holidaze! I will have the rest of the OPI Gwen Stefani Holiday collection up for you soon, along with my thoughts on the collection as a whole. Please let me know if you want to see any comparisons of these shades!

OPI Gwen Stefani Holiday polishes are available now at fine salons and Ulta.

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Valid online at www.zoya.com 11/28/14 (12:01am EST) - 12/1/14 (11:59pm EST) or while supplies last. US Only. Not valid in conjunction with other coupons, codes or promotions. Art of Beauty is not responsible for incorrect addresses, credit card entry errors, web related issues or any errors associated with declined credit cards. Returns or exchanges of promotional items not permitted. Code must be entered at time of purchase. One code per account - code cannot be reinstated for canceled orders.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Featuring Lynnderella If Wishes Were Turkeys!

 *Lynnderella If Wishes Were Turkeys purchased by me, OPI Sleigh Parking Only sent for review*

Happy Thanksgiving to my US readers!! I hope you have plans to eat a lot of delicious food and spend time with family members. I will be heading to my aunt's house and eating turkey, 5 pounds of mashed potatoes, and a metric ton of holiday desserts. I had a hard time picking out my Thanksgiving mani, but I think I am sticking with Lynnderella If Wishes Were Turkeys, a Thanksgiving limited edition. If Wishes Were Turkeys is a gorgeous mix of glitters in fall colors- red, green, yellow, gold and bronze, all in a heavily gold-shimmered base. This polish is perfect for Thanksgiving! It reminds me of the Thanksgiving feast, all together on my nails.

For these swatches, I layered two thin coats of If Wishes Were Turkeys over OPI Sleigh Parking Only. If Wishes Were Turkeys provided pretty good coverage with just one coat, but I went fishing around for a few more large glitters, so we'll call it two coats. It was easy to apply and has a great consistency.

*Sent for review*

I have to show you my second choice for a Thanksgiving mani, because it's really gorgeous too! This beautiful combo is Lynnderella Positively East Fifth Street over OPI With a Nice Finnish. Positively East Fifth Street is a core Lynnderella from the fall collection. It is stunning coppery bronze microglitter with larger glitter accents in bronze, red, pink, orange and assorted other colors.

This is one coat of Positively East Fifth Street over OPI With a Nice Finnish. This could definitely be opaque on it's own in 2-3 coats, it's nicely packed with microglitter. Application is so easy and this was smooth with just one coat of Sally Hansen Insta Dri top coat. I think Positively East Fifth Street is one of my favorite microglitters ever! I really love the coppery bronze color.

*Sent for review*

Lynnderella Positively East Fifth Street and the rest of the fall collection is available now at lynnderella.com and lynnderella.storenvy.com. Keep checking both places for If Wishes Were Turkeys, it may show up again soon! By the way, if you haven't already seen it, Lynnderella's holiday collection "Deck the Nails (with Lynnderellas)" is available now! Check it out on her blog, it looks gorgeous and I love the names!

OPI Gwen Stefani Holiday 2014 Swatches, Part 1!

 *Sent for review*

I am finally ready to start getting in a holiday mood! I am never ready to think about holiday stuff until the week of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving week really starts the season off for me AND it is supposed to snow here tomorrow, so I thought I'd show you some of the OPI Gwen Stefani Holiday polishes today. First up is OPI Fashion a Bow, a great warm red jelly. Fashion a Bow has some orange undertones to it and it is nice and bright. The orange tones and the jelly finish make Fashion a Bow stand out from all of the other holiday reds.

This is three coats of Fashion a Bow. The formula is great, nice and easy to apply. Because this is a jelly, there is still a bit of VNL, but it's the nice squishy kind. I can't wait to try a few holiday glitter sandwiches with this!

OPI Cinnamon Sweet is a cool-toned darker red creme. It has blue undertones and is a slightly deeper hue than Fashion a Bow. Cinnamon Sweet is more of a traditional holiday red creme. It's a nice classic, rich red.

This is two easy coats of Cinnamon Sweet. Great formula and pigmentation. My top coat was bubbling for these swatches, I'm not sure why. Just know the bubbling is not from Cinnamon Sweet.

OPI Red Fingers and Mistletoes is a really pretty sparkly crimson red with golden glass fleck shimmer. I love this kind of red shimmer, it really says "holiday" to me. The red base of Red Fingers and Mistletoes is a cooler toned red, but the golden shimmer brings some warmth to it, so I think it will look great on a variety of skin tones.

This is just two coats of Red Fingers and Mistletoes. The formula was really lovely and pigmented. This is one of those practically applies itself polishes!

OPI What's Your Point-settia? is a bright true red creme. I didn't find it to be as cool and blue-toned as Cinnamon Sweet, nor was it orange-y like Fashion a Bow. It's nice and bright and clean looking. It will be a great base for glitter or nail art during the holiday season.

I did three thin coats of What's Your Point-settia? I still had a bit of VNL after two coats, but if you do thicker coats, two may work for you. The formula was good, maybe a little thinner than the others in this collection, but not hard to work with.

 OPI First Class Desires is my favorite of the six I swatched today! First Class Desires is a very deep eggplant purple packed with golden shimmer. I love polishes with this kind of highly visible shimmer. The dark vampy purple base is lovely and different in a holiday collection.

This is two coats of First Class Desires. The formula and coverage were excellent. Love this one all around!

I was hoping the light would hold out for all six polishes today, but alas, it got cloudy and dark right in time for me to swatch the last polish of the day. Please excuse the bad lighting. OPI Sleigh Parking Only is a dark browned plum creme. It's a moody, complicated color. It sometimes looks more deep plum, and other times more like a chocolate with hints of purple. I definitely like it a lot and I like seeing vampy colors in holiday collections!

This is two coats of Sleigh Parking Only. The formula was lovely and nicely pigmented. This does dry to a nice shiny finish. Something about the bad lighting here makes it look very waxy, but it's not.

 *Sent for review*

Out of these six polishes, my favorite is definitely First Class Desires for sure. I also quite like Red Fingers and Mistletoes, especially if you don't own anything like it. I can't wait to swatch the rest of this collection soon! OPI Gwen Stefani Holiday collection is available now at salons and Ulta.

Drool-Inducing! I Love Nail Polish Masquerade

*Purchased by me*

Well folks... I have finally met a nail polish that I could wear every day for a year and not be bored. I Love Nail Polish Masquerade (H) is hands down the most intense color-shifting polish I have ever seen. The colors span a broad spectrum all the way from deep violet to copper to a bright acid green. While wearing this, I also saw red, pink, a rose gold-ish hue, and a violet so dark it almost looked navy blue. The (H) in the name stands for holographic, because why stop at crazy multichrome? Why not add linear holographic shimmer to this amazing polish as well?!? The linear rainbow flame shows up in certain lighting situations. At other times, it looks more like scattered holo shimmer. Either way, it's very rainbow-y!

I included more pictures of Masquerade than I usually have in a post, but honestly there are so many colors to show you in this one polish! I kept taking pictures and they all looked different! In the description of Masquerade on ilnp.com, it says it is one of the strongest color shifting polishes in the Ultra Chrome line. For me personally, it is the strongest color shifting polish I have ever seen. When I wore this, people kept grabbing my hands and saying things like "I just saw your nails change color! How do they change color??".

Here's the bonus- not only is this polish stunning, but it is also easy to apply and totally opaque in 2-3 coats! I did three coats, I just felt the multichrome effect was better with three. Application is a total breeze too, the formula is great!

 *Purchased by me*

Moral of the story? Run, don't walk, over to ilnp.com and get yourself a bottle (or 12) of Masquerade! I'm pretty much obsessed with it.