OPI Mrs O’Leary’s BBQ

 

Two coats, sunlight

This vampy creme is a classic from OPI, which was released as part of the Chicago collection. It’s a plummy-brown red creme. The balance between brown and purple and red is just perfect. When I saw this colour on my colleague for the very first time, I gasped. “What colour is this? I have to have it!” I first thought it looked like a beautiful brown-red on her but later when I had a chance to buy it, I noticed it looked more brown in certain light and more purple elsewhere.

With China Glaze Branding Iron

Sorry I know this is a terrible comparison but I don’t have another vampy red to compare with Mrs O’Leary’s. I don’t normally wear vampy colours so I was terribly pleased to find one that I loved. This is a lousy comparison with China Glaze Branding Iron, which is the closest to a “vampy” I could find in my cupboard. Apart from the obvious fact that Branding Iron has shimmer while Mrs O’Leary’s is a creme, I hope this photograph gives you some idea of the what it would like compared to a redder polish. Also, this is an instance when the polish looks more purple than brown when hit by direct sunlight.

OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees

Alicia’s nails, 2 coats, sunlight

Where are the Pyrenees? They are a chain of mountains in southwest Europe that borders France and Spain. This is very apt, considering that the polish is part of OPI’s Fall 2009 Spain collection. As you can see, two coats are inadequate. There are bald spots and the colour is less dense than ideal.

With three coats, you can see this polish is its full jelly grey glory. I decided to compare it with NARS Midnight Express because I thought they had similar consistencies. Both had a jelly texture, albeit Midnight Express more so than Suzi, while Suzi had a very subtle shimmer. I really like this polish. It somehow manages to be soft and dark at the same time.

With China Glaze Millenium and silver striper pen

I wore this look for a week, which is a long time for Poppynails-land.

China Glaze Love Marilyn

Three coats, sunlight

Love Marilyn, like Lorelai’s Tiara, is from China Glaze’s 2011 Eye Candy collection. I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong because three coats were still sheer for me, whereas other swatches online showed a denser coverage. It could be that I received a crappy bottle because Lorelai’s Tiara was thick and beautiful for me. Coverage apart, this is a very pretty red and silver glitter suspended in a clear base.

With OPI Comet Loves Cupid

Because of its lack of density, I decided that this polish was best layered over a creme. Here I use two coats over OPI Comet Loves Cupid, which happens to be my favourite red polish ever. The red glitter bits seem to sink into the red creme, which is quite glowing and lovely.

Overall, I’m rather disappointed that my bottle of Love Marilyn is so sheer. The whole point of the collection is that the polishes are supposed to be dense enough to be worn on their own but clearly mine cannot, despite using three coats.

OPI An Affair In Red Square

2 coats, sunlight

An Affair in Red Square is a red shimmer polish from OPI’s Russian collection in 2007. It’s an oldie but goodie. It’s a true Hollywood-glam kind of red and it was really easy to apply. While doing research about this polish, I noticed many people comparing it to an OPI classic – I’m Not Really a Waitress.  I don’t have that but after looking at pictures online, I think I prefer An Affair in Red Square, which is a brighter red and does not have that berry/wine undertone. But I must say, I really like the name of that polish. It’s almost like, hi I am Sookie Stackhouse and I’m not really a waitress. I’m a mind-reading kick ass fairy (True Blood geekiness). In contrast, I don’t know what to make of An Affair in Red Square. I have nothing clever to say about it!

I’m not a shimmer person but I really love this polish. There’s something incredible sophisticated and womanly about it. I feel like I should be in a gown every moment I’m wearing this. The only other red shimmer I own is China Glaze Branding Iron. And while the colour is nothing alike, I have it swatched on my index finger so show you my one and only red shimmer polish. I have China Glaze Ruby Pumps on my pinkie.

With Orly Pointe Blanche

Here I wanted to see if An Affair in Red Square would look nice as the red in the Singapore flag. It’s not too bad I think. It keeps the manicure from looking flat and just adds the teeny kind of sparkle.

Random nail art

I have been too busy to do any swatching recently so here are some random nail art pictures. The lighting tends to be quite poor because we usually meet in the evenings to prettify our nails. Daylight pictures are hard to come by nowadays!

My favourite is the first picture. The pink and gold nails are very pretty but so tedious!

Alicia’s nails, China Glaze Something Sweet and China Glaze Sugar High

Emily’s nails, Zoya Moxie

China Glaze Refresh Mint and OPI Jade is the New Black

Alicia’s nails, no idea what these polishes are because she did them with a professional manicurist

OPI Dating a Royal

2 coats, sunlight

OPI Dating a Royal is a deep bright blue creme from the Mod About Brights collection. It has a semi-jelly texture which makes it incredibly shiny. You can spot the reflection of flats behind me in the second picture. The jelly texture also means that you have to be careful to cover all bald spots. Too light a brush stroke will easily leave you with patches of lighter blue. I recommend three coats to be perfect.

One reason why I am so enamoured with this polish is that it’s the colour of one of my favourite rocks the lapis lazuli, which is found mainly in the mines of Afghanistan. My lapis lazuli ring (pictured above) was bought from Montpellier, France, which sold lots of other nice gemstones as well. If you’re a Vampire Diaries fan, you would also know that Lapis Lazuli was worn by several vampires as protection against the sun.

With OPI Crown Me Already (silver glitter) and Nicole Glitz and Glisten (purple glitter), sunlight

OPI Pirates of the Carribean

So. Alicia got her hands on three polishes from the 2011 OPI Pirates of the Carribean collection. The colours all look great in the bottles and they were definitely not boring pastels. I totally get the ocean theme.

First up is Mermaid’s Tears, a dusty blue-green creme:

Alicia’s nails, 2 coats, sunlight

Emily’s nails, 2 coats, artificial light, iPhone picture

Liyen’s nails, 2 coats, indoor light

Next up is Skull and Glossbones, a pale grey creme:

Alicia’s nails, 2 coats, sunlight

Emily’s nails, 2 coats, sunlight, iPhone picture

The last is Steady as She Rose, which is a lilac-pink creme:

Alicia’s nails, 2 coats, sunlight

Emily’s nails, with China Glaze Sea Spray as French tips, iPhone photo

Alicia’s nails, with OPI Do You Think I’m Tex-y?, indoor lighting

My favourite out of these three is Skull and Glossbones, as pale neutral greys seem to be quite hard to come by. The formula on these three polishes were generally good and were very easy to apply. Apologies for the poor photo quality though. My regular camera wasn’t available and I used one that didn’t even have a macro mode. In the end, I used the “Flower” mode but it still couldn’t make up for the lack of macro.

Urban Decay Psychedelic Sister

2 coats, sunlight

This has got to be my favourite colour out of the Urban Decay Summer of Love collection. It is a pink-based red creme that’s quite unique in my (small) collection of reds.

Psychedelic Sister (left side) vs OPI Red My Fortune Cookie (right side)

You can see the pink tones more clearly in this picture, where I compare Psychedelic Sister side-by-side with OPI Red My Fortune Cookie. Application was quite poor. The formula was thick and stringy at times and I had to add thinner.

Red polish always looks good with white polka dots. I’m not sure if the Claire’s brand of nail striper is something special because the ones sold on eBay without any brand name look almost the same. This one comes with a brush and a metal tip, where you can squeeze out a teeny amount of white paint.

This look was inspired by this:

Emily’s nails, iPhone picture

Emily did this manicure in Bangkok. Look how pretty the lace design is, compared with my clumsy and gloopy ones.

Orly Royal Navy

2 coats, sunlight

Let’s take a break from the Urban Decay Summer of Love collection and swatch one of my favourite polishes – Orly Royal Navy. I first heard about it from Scrangie. Her passion for this royal blue colour was so contagious I had to purchase it off eBay. When I first applied it, I was struck by how quickly it dried. There is some neon pigment in this, similar to the cremes in the Urban Decay collection, so it dried semi-matte. It was only after two coats did I see the micro turquoise glitter. But creme lovers, do not worry, the micro glitter is so subtle that you have to stare at your polish to realise that it’s there.

With OPI Alpine Snow (matte) and Zoya Charla

Here’s my blue pudding manicure. Okay the lines aren’t particularly straight but hopefully you will be too entranced by the pretty blue colours to notice!

Urban Decay Shine On

Melissa’s nails, 2 coats, sunlight, iPhone picture

Urban Decay Shine On is a shimmery metallic bronze polish that’s not too gold and not too orange. It looks great on Melissa’s skin and was a breeze to apply.

These are all two coats. As you can see, the colour itensity of the polish is great and on par with MAC Originality. Compare this to the weak Revlon Copperglaze Platinum, which couldn’t cover anything with two coats. We can also see that Shine On’s gold/bronze is much more neutral than Originality.

Melissa’s nails, with OPI Black Shatter, sunlight, iPhone photo

And viola! A leopard theme manicure when Shine On is paired with OPI Black Shatter. After playing with Black Shatter for a few days, I think that it goes the best with glittery polishes. Somehow its matteness dulls the bottom colour so if you are using a creme, your entire manicure looks blah.