OPI Ski Teal We Drop

Y'all. I bought new nail polish. Whoa.

It was extraordinarily exciting, but I was only able to purchase two polishes, sadly. The good thing is that my 2 new polishes are from the OPI Swiss collection, which I was originally not excited about at all. However, after seeing swatches, I got all hot and bothered and decided that I needed about half the collection. I came home with Ski Teal We Drop (which I keep wanting to call Ski Teal The Cows Come Home, oddly enough) and Lucerne-tainely Look Gorgeous.

Ski Teal We Drop is a dazzling teal (thus the name, obviously) creme that applies like butter. I only had to use 2 coats to get a perfect non-streaky finish, and I could not take my eyes off my nails. Even better, the lasting power is top-notch. I went to the beach the day after putting this on (smart move, eh?), and got absolutely no chipping or tip wear the entire day. In fact, STWD didn't wear at all until about 3 days after I applied it, and I was not using my nails gently.

Ski Teal We Drop is fabulous and that is all there is to it. The End.

Withdrawal

arlings. I want new nail polish so very badly. I have had to be unbelievably good for the past few months and refrain completely from nail polish, seeing as I have to spend my money on boring practical things. It's awful! :( Thankfully, I will be able to spend about $50 on nail polish soon, and it will be glorious. I literally have not bought new nail polish since spring break. Horrible thought! In order to somewhat abate my withdrawal symptoms, I thought I would show some of the new collections/some of my lemmings.

'm sure y'all have seen swatches of the new RBL collection by now; isn't it lovely? I wish they had done all of Henry VIII's wives, but I know that RBL doesn't do collections larger than 4 polishes. Here are Scrangie's beautiful swatches, if you haven't seen them yet.

http://www.scrangie.com/2010/07/rescue-beauty-lounge-fall-2010.html

atherine H is calling to me. Such a beautiful soft blue! Catherine is gorgeous as well, and seems so very Spanish and regal! I have always felt terribly sorry for poor Catherine - her first husband died after less than 6 months of marriage, while we all know how abominably the second treated her.

PI is coming out with a Swiss Collection for Fall, which I was at first disappointed with, as it seemed very samey and boring. However, upon seeing All Lacquered Up's swatches, I have recanted. The non-red part of the collection is wonderful! I don't like The Color To Watch, but then I've never liked pearly colors like that. The rest are gorgeous and I need them in my life.

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2010/07/opi-swiss-collection-fall-2010-part-1-swatches-review.html#more-3342

As for the red half, Scrangie has pictures up of them. They look very pretty, but I doubt I'll be buying any.

http://www.scrangie.com/2010/07/opi-swiss-collection-fall-2010-swatches.html

ssie has also released a couple of fabulous shades for summer that I will most definitely be buying. I want want want the green, and the bright peach/coral is very nice as well. Yum yum, summer colors.

http://www.scrangie.com/2010/06/essie-summer-collection-2010.html

p In The Air by China Glaze is completely to-die-for as well. I want pretty much the entire collection, but I think I will settle for Grape Pop, Re-Fresh Mint, Peachy Keen, and possibly Four Leaf Clover and High Hopes.

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2009/12/china-glaze-swatches-review-comparisons-part-3.html

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2009/12/china-glaze-swatches-review-comparisons-part-1.html

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2009/12/china-glaze-swatches-review-comparisons-part-2.html

p.s. I might have gone a little overboard with the drop caps this post, eh? But they were so pretty, and this post was so boring with no pictures! Isn't the owl-ie O just the cutest thing ever though?

Top Coat Trials: The Legendary Poshe

Now for some more of the illustrious Top Coat Trials, in which I try to find a match for the Holy Grail of Top Coats, Seche Vite. Poshe is commonly known as the equal of Seche (some people even call it better), so I was excited to try it and see for myself. Would something finally measure up to Seche?

Upon buying Poshe, I was disappointed to find out that it costs about $7-8, which is only a couple of dollars below Seche. This meant that if the top coat was measurably inferior to Seche, it wouldn't be worth it to buy Poshe instead of Seche. So home I took my little bottle, happy for an excuse to change my nail polish immediately. Poshe applies quite smoothly and nicely, leaving no bubbles, and keeps the polish chip-free for a reasonable amount of time. However, it did not measure up to Seche's glass-like shine and length of wear. Seche will keep your polish on at least 4 days no problem, while Poshe is pushing it at 3.

Also, I was severely disappointed once I reached the bottom half of my bottle. It has all the same problems as Seche (heavy bubbling, extreme thickening, etc.), with even worse thickening! I felt like I was trying to put glue on my nails. :( I've gotten much better results from several of the drugstore top coats I've tried so far.

The verdict: Poshe is nice, but not worth it. Buy Sally Hansen Mega-Shine, and get the same results a whole lot cheaper, or cough up the $10 for Seche Vite.

I'm A Stupid Blogger

Darling Readers,

Let me recount to you a tale of my stupidity. I am such a bad blogger that yesterday I got onto blogger intending to write a new blog post, since, as I'm sure you're all aware, I haven't posted in over a month. Do you know what I did? I wrote a post on OPI Stars In My Eyes, which I already reviewed just a few posts ago. DURP. The worst part is that I didn't even realize it until my friend Libby wrote on my facebook to tell me how dumb I was. Ack! So, my apologies if a post appeared in your feed/blog list for a few hours and then abruptly disappeared. It was just my stupidity. If all goes well, I shall have an actual post for you tomorrow or somewhere abouts there.

Humbly Yours,

Faith

Summer Polish!

Hola dolls! Guess where I am? The beautiful state of Colorado. :) We come here every summer on vacation and it is so lovely to escape the Houston heat. I'll put up some pictures of las montañas later on in the week.

Now for the polish part of the post. I've never been one for only wearing light colors in summer and darks in the winter, but lately I've been craving bright cheerful colors for summer. I just want things that will make me think of popsicles and happiness. :) So, here are a few of the ones that have particularly calling to me lately (that sentence sounds terribly incorrect, but I'm too lazy to fix it, sorry. ;)) Here are some warm colors.

Now this is a dreadful dreadful picture, but you can get the general idea. The purple is OPI Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not. This bright shimmery purple is a good way to go summery but not leave vampy colors totally behind. The other OPI is Cajun Shrimp (I know it looks pink in the picture, sorry), which just screams summer to me. I am aware that coral carries bad associations of old ladies with matching hand bags, but believe me, this color is completely not old lady. ;) Next is China Glaze Orange Marmalade, a glass-flecked orange that doesn't hurt the eyes. Finally we have one of my favorite pinks of all time, Essie Status Symbol, a carnation pink jelly. My normally pink-disdaining self adores this juicy color. :)

And now cool colors. As y'all know, I cannot get enough of sky blues. I want them ALL! Sally Hansen Blue Me Away is a perfect balance of bright yet not neon. Teals are very in for summer, and Essie Greenport is a great example, with it's slight dustiness keeping it from being boring (p.s. in my review of this color I complain a lot about the formula - I have worn Greenport several times since that review and have not had nearly the trouble. I think most of the blame should go to my dying topcoat). Finally, for those times when I want something easy to maintain and calming to look at, OPI Time-less Is More is a classic sheer white.

What are some of the colors y'all have been craving this summer?

Top Coat Trials: Wet n' Wild MegaLast Quick Dry Ultra Gloss Topcoat

Isn't that name ridiculous? Companies really should give their products shorter names. Here I am with another topcoat review in my long search for a wonderful topcoat. For some reason I'm feeling too lazy today to give a real review to Megalast, so here are the pros and cons of this topcoat.

Pros

- very quick drying (dry to the touch within 5 minutes)

- quite shiny

- extremely cheap! (about $2) :)

Cons

- it did really weird things to one of my friends; it actually dulled her polish rather than enhance it. I didn't get that, but I thought I would just throw it in there.

- didn't protect the nail well enough. My polish would chip very quickly.

- *sigh* the usual con. Extreme thickening in the last half of the bottle!

So, overall we have 3 pluses and 3 minuses. But I was very irritated at the end of my bottle, what with the inferior wear-and-tear of the polish, and the stupid thickening. I know that several people love this polish, but I wouldn't recommend it. I haven't found anything to replace Seche Vite yet! This is the fourth topcoat I've reviewed, and if things don't start looking up soon I'll be back bowing before Seche's altar.

Toes!

I don't think I've ever talked about feet on here before, have I? Probably because feet just aren't very beautiful. ;) Yet I feel completely naked and just plain wrong if I don't have polish on my toes - I can bear without polished nails for a few days, but plain toes? No. I don't do that.

So, I thought I would share some of my favorite polishes for toes. There are three polishes that are my fallbacks for toes; China Glaze For Audrey, Essie Buy Me a Cameo, and any red polish (although OPI Comet Loves Cupid has been a favorite recently).

I love a classic red on toes and think it looks put-together and polished. The light aqua of For Audrey (which I can't BELIEVE I've never posted on... what is wrong with me? I thought for sure that I had!) is funky enough to be different, yet still looks lady-like on the toes. And I absolutely adore Buy Me a Cameo on my toes. I hate it on my nails and get ineffably bored every time I wear it on my nails, but somehow this polish turns into a wondrous thing on toes. It is a nude metallic, so it is like wearing a nude polish on toes, except that it is metallic. If you don't see how awesome that is yet, it makes my whole foot look clean and well-cared-for, as well as keeping my toes presentable without drawing huge amount of attention to them. Just realized that I made that sound like I have really ugly feet. I don't, but I do love Buy Me a Cameo.

Of course, I don't just keep it to those 3, but those are my standards... I probably wear one of these 3 at least every other time I give myself a pedicure.

What are y'all's favorite toe polishes?