OPI Hawaii Spring/Summer 2015 Swatches- Hulas, Geckos and Waves!

*sent for review*

Today I have the last 3 polishes from the OPI Hawaii collection to show you. I don't have any fun nail art in this post, due to time constraints (a.k.a. St. Patrick's Day events), but I do have plans for something pretty using one of the polishes. First up we have the adorably named OPI My Gecko Does Tricks. I think geckos are so cute and I would love one for a pet, so I love this name! My Gecko Does Tricks is a pretty light grass green shimmer. After a long winter, this color feels really fresh and spring-y. The shimmer is really lovely, it's sort of golden in some lights, but it doesn't make the polish feel too warm toned overall. This is going to be great for St. Patrick's Day manis!

This is two easy coats of My Gecko Does Tricks. I thought the formula was great, so easy to apply and control. You can see some brushstrokes in the pictures, but my naked eye didn't notice them at all. Sometime the camera lens is a little too picky!

OPI This Color's Making Waves is a pretty blue metallic shimmer with a twist. The twist is hard to see in photos, but you can see it in person and in the bottle. There are gorgeous pinky copper flecks of shimmer mixed in with the blue! These flecks make this blue metallic stand out from others we have seen in the past.

I did three thin coats of This Color's Making Waves, but two medium-thick coats would probably work well too. This was easy to apply and had a great formula!

I think you can see the copper flecks in this picture below if you look closely. They are so cool looking in person!

Last, but DEFINITELY not least, is my personal favorite of the collection, OPI That's Hula-rious!. This is the palest fresh mint green creme and I love how much white is mixed in here. It gives it that stark, kind of mod look. I have definitely been waiting for a minty color like this! I can't get enough mints during spring. I just bought mint green Adidas LOL, it's my color for the season. I knew from the minute I saw the first picture of this that I would love it. Just by bottle comparisons (I will a do a swatch comparison eventually as well), That's Hula-rious is brighter and less dusty than China Glaze Refresh-mint and less milky, more stark/mod looking than Zoya Tiana.

That's Hula-rious! has an amazing formula for a color this pale and stark. This is two coats. Just two coats! No mucking around with three or more coats, no matte top coat in between layers to prevent streaking, no fussiness whatsoever. It self-levels like a champ and needed barely any clean-up. That's Hula-rious! applies like a dream.

 *sent for review*

Overall, I'm really pleased with the whole OPI Hawaii collection. It's probably one of my favorite OPI collections recently! My top picks are That's Hula-rious!, My Gecko Does Tricks, Just Lanai-ing Around and Go With the Lava Flow. If you missed my other posts about this collection, here they are all in one spot-

Go With the Lava Flow, Aloha from OPI, Is Mai Tai Crooked?

Do You Take Lei Away?, Suzi Shops and Island Hops, Just Lanai-ing Around

Hello Hawaii Ya?, Lost My Bikini in Molokini, Pineapples Have Peelings Too

The OPI Hawaii collection is available now at Ulta, ulta.com, and fine salons.

OPI Hawaii- 3 Very A-Peeling Polishes!

*sent for review*

Today I have three more of the lovely OPI Hawaii Spring/Summer 2015 polishes for you, starting off with OPI Hello Hawaii Ya?. Hello Hawaii Ya? is a dusty greyed-out purple creme. It's a nice deep lilac color, but with a little bit of an edgy neutral feel, thanks to the grey tones.

This is two easy coats of Hello Hawaii Ya?. The formula was nicely pigmented and easy to work with. I really liked this color with my skin tone a lot, but I think it will flatter other skin tones as well!

OPI Lost My Bikini in Molokini is a bright blue-toned purple creme. I wouldn't call this "blurple", but it definitely has cooler blue undertones to it. This is really pretty for spring and summer! It's bright and cheery, but not neon. I think a lot of purple cremes I own are either darker or lighter, or just not as bright and clean. This seems unique and definitely worthy of a permanent home in one of my purple drawers.

Lost My Bikini in Molokini was super easy to apply and had a great formula. Two easy coats and you're done! That little dot on my middle nail is a drop of water from a melting icicle by the way, haha! I thought I had wiped it all off my hand until I got inside, removed this polish and then looked at the pictures :/.

OPI Pineapples Have Peelings Too! is the lone glitter in this collection. It's a very unique and different polish for OPI. It has a frosty pale yellow gold base with glitters in various bright colors and different sizes. The base color of this reminds me of an old Revlon Street Wear polish I used to have and LOVE, so nostalgia is making me like this one! The fun colored glitters and the pale yellow also are giving me an Easter egg vibe, and I might have to sport this on Easter this year!

This is three thin coats of Pineapples Have Peelings Too!. It was pretty easy to apply, although I think a lot of the larger glitters in my bottle kind of sunk to the bottom. I kind of like it with only a small smattering of larger glitters. With one coat of top coat, I found this to be smooth to the touch and not lumpy looking in person.

I had to give Pineapples Have Peelings Too! some more love, so I paired it with OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana. This is two coats of I Just Can't Cope-acabana with Pineapples Have Peelings Too! dabbed on. I used a makeup sponge and concentrated the larger glitters at the base of my nails, and then dabbed some of the small glitters out towards the tips. I think this look is really fun! I only wore it for these swatches, but I'm going to have to wear it as a full mani this week, it's too cute.

*sent for review*

The two purple cremes in this collection are really fabulous and must haves for any purple lover like myself. I really like Pineapples Have Peelings Too! more than I expected to based on other swatches I saw. I can't wait to wear it over I Just Can't Cope-acabana this week!

The OPI Hawaii collection is available now at Ulta, ulta.com, and fine salons.

Red Glitter Two Ways with Lynnderella!

*sent for review*

Today I have two very beautiful red glitter polishes from Lynnderella. I had these sitting next to each other in my "to review" box, and I love that they are both red glitters from the same polish maker, but they are so different from one another. Lynnderella Rad Red Party Dress is a red holo microglitter from the holiday 2014 Deck the Nails (with Lynnderellas) collection. It has some larger metallic red glitters, along with the super sparkly microglitter.

This is three thin coats of Rad Red Party Dress all alone. It is nicely opaque, and could have been done in two thicker coats as well. It was easy to apply and the consistency is perfect. I love how much holo glitter is in this one, it's SO sparkly!

In all of my Lynnderella loving years, I have never owned Lynnderella Ruby Red Ruby- until now! Ruby Red Ruby is a classic Lynnderella that has been around for a long time now, and I feel like I'm the last person to get it. What was I waiting for? It's gorgeous! There are a couple different sizes and shapes of metallic red glitter in a red base. It has that kind of glowing embers look to it.

This is two thin coats of Ruby Red Ruby over one coat of Essie Lollipop. Ruby Red Ruby could be worn alone in a few coats, but I layered it to conserve the pretty! It was very easy to apply, no problems at all!

 *sent for review*

I really love both of these polishes and they have convinced me to wear red more often! Both are part of Lynnderella's core line and are available now at lynnderella.com and lynnderella.storenvy.com. For more information on Lynnderella polish, check out lynnderella-lynnderella.blogspot.com. I am kind of hoping for a spring collection from Lynn!!

Side note- Look at the sunshine I had for these pictures!! Actual real sunlight! Winter may some day be over!

I Love Nail Polish Birefringence (h) Swatches!

*purchased by me*

I'm just popping in with a quick post today. My NOTD is I Love Nail Polish Birefringence (h) because I am pumped for the Spring ILNP pre-order today (11 AM PST)!! Birefringence (h) is a super shifty multichrome, flashing between a wide range of colors like navy blue, royal blue, purple, red, gold, green, and pink. I can't believe how many colors I see in this polish and my pictures only capture a few of them. In person, Birefringence is constantly changing and looks different almost on each nail. 

ILNP says Birefringence has an "array of incredible blues, purples, reds, oranges, yellows, and even subtle greens" and it has all of those for sure. I got the holo version, so there is a good amount of scattered holo sparkle in it as well. In bright light, I can see a more linear looking rainbow flash, but in most lighting, it just looks like pretty holographic glitters.

This is three coats of Birefringence. As long as you let each coat dry completely before applying another coat, this was easy to work with. When I put a new coat on too quickly, I had some dragging happen. I needed the third coat to cover that dragging and to make this fully opaque at the tips of my nails.

Birefringence (h) is available now at ILNP.com and you can throw it in with your spring goodies today ;). I am definitely preordering Fame, Happily Ever After, Timeless Vow and Rapture (h). I am pondering Hush (h) and Abundance! Will you be preordering anything from ILNP today?

OPI Hawaii Spring/Summer 2015 Swatches- Ladylike Dots!

*sent for review*

I have three more of the lovely OPI Hawaii polishes for you today. I'm really enjoying spending a little more time with this collection. Sometimes I feel like some great polishes get a little lost in the massive whole collection swatch posts. This way, we can get to know some of these gems a little better. Like OPI Do You Take Lei Away?, for example. Do You Take Lei Away? is a creamy pale beige. This seems to be very neutral in tone, not too cool, not too warm. I read somewhere that OPI wanted to make this sort of color in a shade that would flatter a wide variety of skin tones and I think they succeeded with this one. It looks great on me and I think it will also look stunning on darker skin tones as well. 

This is three thin coats of Do You Take Lei Away?. If you tend towards thicker coats, two should be just fine. This pretty well pigmented and despite the pale shade, I didn't have any problems with streaking. It has a great consistency and was easy to apply.

OPI Suzi Shops and Island Hops is a pale whitened bubblegum pink creme. It's paler and more stark looking than your typical bubblegum pink, but still nicely flattering. I am not a huge pink polish wearer, but I can see myself rocking this quite a few times. If you are more tan than I am, I bet this will look amazing on you!

This is three coats of Suzi Shops and Island Hops. I needed a third coat to make it fully opaque and smooth, but two coats might be fine, as it was pretty pigmented. It was pretty easy to apply too, I just made sure I let each coat dry in between, as colors like this can be streaky if you don't.

OPI Just Lanai-ing Around is a really pretty mauve-y purple with some hidden shimmer. The shimmer is not in your face, but it kind of adds some depth and shows up the most in bright lighting. The color is an interesting mix of pink and purple. I would maybe call it mauve, but it's not a dusty mauve, it's more like the color of a beautiful Hawaiian flower. I have seen some people call it a grandma shade, and first of all, I hate that term. Grandmas wear a wide variety of colors these days. Second, I find this to be a very fresh looking color, especially against my pale skin tone. I am really loving it a lot and it definitely will get a lot of use here.

This is two super easy coats of Just Lanai-ing Around. It's nearly a one-coater, that's how opaque it is! It applies effortlessly. I wasn't expecting this to be a favorite of the collection, but it might just be one!

For my fun look for this collection, I decided to dot on some Just Lanai-ing Around and Suzi Shops and Island Hops over Do You Take Lei Away?. It's kind of a ladylike looking dotticure and I love it! These three polishes work really well together for nail art purposes. I can think of several other looks that would be great with these.

These polishes worked really well for dotting. I used two different sized dotting tools for this look.

*sent for review*

I'm definitely having fun with this collection so far! It makes me envision myself "lanai-ing" around on a beach instead of shoveling my driveway for the 900th time! Thanks for mentally transporting me to Hawaii, OPI!

The OPI Hawaii collection is available now at Ulta, Ulta.com and fine salons.

OPI Hawaii Spring/Summer 2015 Swatches- Hawaiian Sunset!

*Sent for review*

The OPI Hawaii collection for Spring/Summer 2015 is exactly what I need in my life right now. It really makes me think of a trip to the beautiful islands of Hawaii, a trip I'd like to take immediately. For this collection, I'm going to do a little something different. I'm going to post them a couple at a time and include a fun look with each post. Today I picked three of the colors that remind me of a Hawaiian sunset. OPI Go With the Lava Flow is a juicy blood orange with golden shimmer. This fiery red orange beauty gets a nice kick from the gold in the shimmering base. You can see the gold mostly in brighter lights, although you can see the shimmer even in dim lighting.

This is two coats of Go With the Lava Flow. It was very easy to apply and nicely opaque. The consistency is pretty perfect. I especially can't wait to wear this on my toes on an 85 degree day!

OPI Aloha From OPI is a bright red coral creme. This is a standard summer color, but I can never get enough of them! This particular version leans on the redder side of coral, but still has hints of orange and pink.

This is two coats of Aloha from OPI. It was pretty easy to apply. The consistency was good, maybe a tad thicker than some cremes, but not in a bad way.

OPI Is Mai Tai Crooked? is a yellow-toned peach creme. It's a brighter peach, not so much pastel, but it's definitely a peach that leans yellow, not pink. My camera seemed to be a little confused by this one. I think my last picture is the most accurate. The first one is a little too bright, the one below is a little too pastel and dusty.

This is three coats of Is Mai Tai Crooked?. It had good pigmentation and was fairly even in two coats. I did a third coat to just smooth out an area or two, but you may find that two coats is perfect.

When I put Aloha from OPI and Is Mai Tai Crooked? next to each other, I instantly thought of a sunset, so I had to do a gradient. This looked much better blended in person, the sponge marks are so much less obvious. I feel like that's the case a lot of times with sponged gradients, they end up looking splotchy in pictures. I really love this in person, I've gotten loads of compliments on it!

Ahhhh, this makes you think of beaches and warmth, doesn't it?

*Sent for review*

The OPI Hawaii collection is available now at Ulta, Ulta.com, and fine salons.