Nicole by OPI - Too Rich For You

Hello there! Quick post. I get crabby sometimes when polishes don't live up to my expectations. This is a good example. I was tired and wanted to put something on quickly that wasn't a matte. I looked at this and thought 'Oh, it's dark, it should cover nicely'. WRONG. 4 coats for this. Four. That's two too many for me when I'm feeling lazy! It's a nice color, but not 4 coats nice. The formula was smooth, at least. My camera isn't getting the slight green in this so I'll refer you to Paillette's post to get a good view of this polish.

Click to enlarge.

Nicole by OPI - Positive Energy (Matte)

Hello again! I have another Nicole by OPI matte to show you today. This was released at the same time as the matte version of No Limits. I really like mattes for quick manis but this one wasn't quite up to my standards. Most mattes that I've tried cover in 2 coats, some in 1. This took 3. I'm willing to do 3 or even 4 coats for a regular polish, but when I'm using a matte I need to be done as quickly as possible and not worrying about coverage. That said, the color is nice, even if it's not unique. The matte look does make it an interesting take on silver but I feel you might be better off just topping your favorite silver with a matte topcoat.

Click to enlarge.

Nicole by OPI - Midnight Snowfall

Hello there! Today's polish is a bit of a chameleon. Midnight Snowfall came out in Nicole by OPI's holiday collection last year, along with Fell From The Tree and a lot of other great colors. However, it's a bit hard to pin down! You can see under this bright light, it looks definitely blue. However, in other lighting it looks like a rich, slightly dusty purple. This is a blurple polish if I ever saw one. Kinda cool. The only downside is some formula problems. You can see a few patchy bits here and there and I got a load of tipwear on this after only 2 or 3 days. I used 3 coats. Thanks to TA from Color Me Cagey in the comments on  my last post for suggesting dark colors on nubbins, this looks much better than light yellow!

Click to enlarge.

Nicole by OPI - Yellow It's Me

Hello everyone! I finally have another swatch for you. This is my first post with my new, very short nails. I don't think I picked the best color for short nails.. Yellow It's Me is a really cool color in the bottle, light yellow packed with pink shimmer. It always makes me think of raspberry lemonade or something like that. However, the yellow base is jelly. Yellow + jelly = not the most flattering results. To me, it makes my nails look sickly. I'm also not a fan of jellies since they tend to be sheer, you can see the tiniest bit of VNL here after 3 coats. However, I still think this is a really cool color that would look great layered over a bright, solid yellow to give it some more punch and keep it from looking washed out. The first photo is most color accurate for displaying the base color while the second photo shows the true color of the shimmer. It really is a cool color combination.

Click to enlarge.

Nicole by OPI - No Limits (Matte)

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long absence. It's been a hectic week and I haven't had a lot of time for my nails. Matte polishes like this are great for when you need to put something on in a hurry, so this is a great fit for me! Nicole by OPI came out with matte versions of some of their existing colors last year, I picked these up at Walmart. They were one of many companies jumping on the matte bandwagon. I don't know if you can still find these anywhere online, but it's worth a look. No Limits is a deep, inky navy blue full of silver shimmer. The shimmer in these mattes keeps them from looking completely flat and boring, a complaint I've heard from a lot of people about matte polish. The formula is intensely pigmented! If you're careful, you can have this completely opaque in one coat. I was slapping this on haphazardly in 5 minutes so I needed a second coat to cover up some bald spots I made. It dries lightning fast, another great thing about mattes. I was able to put this on and be working with my hands not even 5 minutes later. Mattes will eventually turn sort of satin-y as you wear them due to water and oil. I know some people use a matte topcoat to extend the life of the finish but I just let it be on its own. What do you think of matte polishes? I know they were all the rage last year and, like this year's crackle, they have their fans and detractors. I personally give them a thumbs up.

Click to enlarge.

Nicole by OPI - Shell Me The Truth

This polish is a recent release from Nicole by OPI and I believe it's only available at Target. I reviewed another polish from this collection a few weeks ago, Sea How Far You Go. These are both really great and I might look at getting some more colors before they disappear. Shell Me The Truth is a beautiful cotton-candy pink that is positively loaded with gold shimmer. This really looks and acts like a foil polish, it's so shiny! It does remind me of the pink-gold iridescence you see inside of seashells sometimes. My only complaint is that this took me 4 coats but if you have shorter nails then you won't need to apply as much to avoid your nail peeking through. Click the pictures to enlarge.

Here's a good shot of what the base color looks like without the shimmer showing off.

I told you it was something, didn't I?

Space Nails!

So if you've been paying attention to the US space program lately, you'd know that yesterday was the attempted launch of STS-134, Endeavour's last flight. I was there! Unfortunately the launch was canceled due to some mechanical problems, but I'm hoping I can make whatever the rescheduled flight date will be. In my excitement for the launch I did these space-themed nails. I started with 2 coats of Zoya Raven (black with faint silver shimmer), then used 1 coat of Nicole by OPI Let's Get Star-ted (clear base with big holo glitter and purple stars), 1 coat of Nicole by OPI Pitch-Black Glimmer (black glitter with micro silver and holo glitter) and 1 coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust (clear base with holo glitter). I wanted something shimmery with depth that represented the tons and tons of stars in the sky and I think I got it! If I were to do it again I wouldn't use the Fairy Dust, it adds a little too much rainbow to it and obscures the stars more than I'd like.

Click to enlarge.

Nicole by OPI - Sea How Far You Go

Sea How Far You Go is a great, great shade recently released by Nicole by OPI. It's an olive gold or old gold, really wonderful color. It's somewhat similar to Zoya Jules, but Jules has a taupe base with gold shimmer while SHFYG is olive gold with gold shimmer. Jules reminds me more of a golden oyster and SHYFG is more of, well.. old gold! This was 3 coats.

Click to enlarge.

Nicole by OPI - Fresh Squeezed

Here's another fun summer color! This came from a spring or summer collection from last year so if you really want it, try MakeupAlley or eBay. It's a semi-sheer orange with very pretty pink and yellow shimmer. I must be really changing, I'm becoming tolerant of these sheerer colors nowadays. They used to drive me mad! I'd still probably prefer this with a solid layer of orange underneath though. This is 4 coats.

Click to enlarge.

Nicole by OPI - Fell From The Tree

Back with another post! This time it's a beautiful glowy green from Nicole. This was part of their holiday collection that I found on clearance at Target. I would always look at the bottle and see how lit-up it looked, think about it, then put it back.. Finally bought it, and I'm glad I did! It covered nicely in two coats and even in a dimly-lit room it just GLOWS. These nails kinda make me feel like Poison Ivy, somehow.. If I was any good at nail art I'd slap some red flowers on here. It's much more of a bright, spring green than it shows here, it doesn't have any of the blackened quality it appears to. I suspect it's because I'm taking pictures next to a sunny window instead of actually out in the sun.

Click to enlarge.

Nicole by OPI - You Can!

Another swatch post for you. This is my perfect 'mannequin hands' shade, which would be super if it wasn't 3 coats with some little bald patches. Very pretty though, hard to capture in pictures. The sun obliterates the pretty pink undertone and makes it a beautiful light shimmery beige. I have multiple pictures here.. the one with the cheese fries is just for fun, I went to the state fair on Sunday and had a great time. :)

Click to enlarge.