OPI Muppets Collection Holiday 2011 Swatches and Review

OPI Muppets collection is the most fun and colourful that I've seen OPI do. I was totally existed when promotional images started circulating around for this collection. This is a limited edition collection that is now available at professional salons and nail etailers. I got mine from Cosmetics Central on Amazon, my go-to nail polish online shop. This collection came out 12 new polishes, the top 6 in the image above are shimmers, and then bottom 6 are glitters.

The ones that I picked up were Warm and Fozzie, Designer Da Better, Divine Swine and Rainbow Connection. I think the must-haves in this collection are definitely Designer Da Better and Rainbow Connection! These are great for the holidays, they really bling on your nails and are not gritty like some glitters that I have purchased before. I might go back and pick up Excuse Moi the glitter in a red base.

Revlon Expressionists Fall 2011 Gucci Westman Nail Polishes Carbonite and Facets of Fuschia

Revlon's Expressionists Fall 2011 Gucci Westman nail polishes came out a while back, but we only got them in Canada a few weeks ago, at least that's the case in my area. This collection came with 5 new polishes: Blue Mosaic, Facets of Fuschia, Smoky Canvas, Starry Pink, and Carbonite (along with new lipstick, eyeshadow, and lipgloss).

Review: Essie Good To Go

Like many of you, I used Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat to get my nail polish to dry quickly, however recently I switched to Essie's Good To Go and am pleased with my decision. This topcoat is described as "sets nail color in seconds, perfectly polished manicure, ultimate shine". It has a built-in silicon drying agent to help your polish set in a flash. I always use a topcoat, I just don't have the patience to wait and am prone to ruining my polish if I let it air dry.

Essie French Affair Spring 2011 Swatches and Review

Essie's latest collection is "French Affair", it came with 6 new polishes. These polishes are soft, pastel-like, delicate colours, with the exception of "Coat Azure" which is a blue with shimmers. If you like pastel colours this may be the collection for you, definitely spring-like.

OPI Texas Collection Swatches and Review

OPI Texas Spring/Summer 2011 collection had some really nice advertising promotional pictures,  I had a hard time choosing just one to put here, so I put several. I love the concept of this line.

Essie Summer 2010 Collection Swatches and Review

This set is old, but I picked it up recently so I thought I would review it here. I love Essie mini sets, I have a couple of them now and they are much cuter than buying the full size bottles, Essie is too expensive. I get most of my nail polish from Nailetc on Amazon, they are affordable and have a pretty good selection. I ordered the French Affair collection a few days ago too, so look out for that. Essie Summer 2010 collection came out last year, in the summer of 2010.. duh, and it had 4 fun and bright colours, I love the colours in this collection, and I am glad that Miss Matched wasn't included in this set, cause based on swatches I've seen, it's not the greatest.

China Glaze: Anchors Away Collection Review and Swatches Pt1

China Glaze recently came out with their 'Anchors Away' collection, nautical-inspired with some pastels and rainbow brights. This collection can easily be split into two categories, as in the picture above, the first half sort of light and dreary polishes and the other half more bright and fun. I was instantly attracted to the light and dreary at first, but upon getting the polishes in the mail, I noticed they are very dreary! But there is something chic and sophisticated about these I think. I am calling this Part 1 because I am planning on ordering some more colours from this collection, I think it's a really nice one.

American Apparel: Trenchcoat and Rouge

Did you like my American Apparel swatches yesterday? Hope you aren't sick of them, I have a couple more here today. These two come from the new shades that they've recently added. These two shades are pretty unique I think, which is something AA polishes are known for.

Trenchcoat is like a muted mustard colour. I imagined it would be a tan, but once I received it, I realized it definitely was not. A shade that you are either going to love or hate I think. I don't know how I feel about this, it reminds me of Misa's Hot Couture a bit. This one is going to my cousin, we will see what she thinks of it. It applies very nicely.

American Apparel: African Violet, Coney Island and Berry

I love American Apparel nail polishes, most are opaque in one coat (I know one coat!), they are all creme finishes and they come in cute square bottles. They have recently added some new colours to their collection, I checked my local AA store for them last night and they only had one new colour in stock (African Violet), they hadn't received any others yet. I will show that one to you today as well as some old colours. They sell for $7.50CAD, or 3 for $18, so of course I bought 3.

Essie Fall 2010 Collection Swatches and Review

I know we are into winter now, but I have the Essie Fall 2010 collection today to swatch and review, hope you don't mind. I purchased the Winter 2010 collection first, and then this one. You can read my review of the Essie Winter 2010 set here. This fall set definitely feels fall-like to me, the colours remind me of falling leaves: red, green, brown and a taupe mixed in, they had to add in that taupe it was the hottest colour for a while now and people still love the purple greys. The opacity of these is amazing, I found 2/4 of them (Limited Addiction and Little Brown Dress) went on with one coat coat only that's how pigmented they are.

Essie Winter 2010 Collection Swatches and Review

This is the very first Essie mini cube that I have ever purchased. I always thought they were a bit silly to get when you can get full bottles. A mini cube costs about $17 while one full sized bottle costs $10 around me. My ever-expanding nail polish collection is getting out of control and my favourite Amazon nail polish seller has mini sets for $9-10 so it just makes sense to get these. It's a nice way to sample a couple of the colours and if you like them a lot then buy a full bottle or two. I was planning on getting the Fall 2010 collection (especially for Sew Psyched) but I got to this one first.

Essie Cuddle with Color Fall 2009 Revisited Swatches and Review

One of my favourite collections from Essie has gotta be last year's 2009 "Cuddle with Color", which had some very nice, very fall-like, muted polishes. There were 6 polishes in this collection and I have 3 of them to show and review for you today. The bright pink and orange did not fit in this collection at all in my opinion and the dark blue has been done again and again, nothing new. I know this collection is from last year, but I still think these three colours are just as current now as they were then. These colours are quite drab, but at the same time mature, classy and trendy looking. What do you guys think?

OPI: Swiss Collection Fall/Winter 2010 Swatches and Review

I had a really hard time getting into this collection when it first came out, mostly because it was summer and this is a fall/winter collection. I remember I first talked about OPI Swiss back in May..and no one cared, I've been looking at swatches all over the blogosphere since early July, I don't know how people get polishes so early. Anyways, I picked up three of the 12 polishes recently. The only ones that really appealed to me were the bluey-green shades, the three of them, Ski Teal We Drop, Cuckoo For This Color and Yodel Me On Your Cell. I knew that I wanted Ski Teal We Drop for sure, it seems like the winner of the bunch in my opinion and then I wanted to choose two more, I was standing in my Trade Secrets trying to decide. I don't know if they do this at every Trade Secrets but they let me paint a swatch on a piece of tape to see which one I like. I find it weird that they let you open new bottles of polish and try them out, I wouldn't want to buy a previously opened bottle.

China Glaze: Summer Days Summer 2009 Collection Revisited

We are nearing the end of the summer, I really wanted to get this collection out there before the end hits. A really pretty collection that came out last Summer was the Summer Days collection from China Glaze. This came with 6 colours, I have four here to show you. The polishes have a jelly feel with shimmers, the shimmer colours vary polish to polish too, making them really cool and unique.

OPI Russian Collection Revisted Fall/Winter 2007

OPI's Russian Collection came out a while back, it was released in Fall and Winter 2007. The collection captured "a new moment in elegance and opulence, and was a mixture of luxury and refinement that transcends time."  There were several dark shades in this collection, which I liked a lot. However, I did find that the formulation on a lot of these was quite jelly and despite being really shiny and cool looking, it also made for difficult application that leaves a gloopy mess, so you gotta have patience with some of these, something that I do not always have.  There were 12 colours in this collection, as shown in the pic below, I picked up 6.

OPI Bright Pair Paige Denim Collection Summer 2009 Revisited

I love this OPI Bright Pair collection from last year. This was a collaboration with Paige Denim. I have never even heard of Paige Denim, but this collection of 6 polishes was lovely.  I guess these colours were inspired by jean colours? Fashion and nails definitely go together, sometimes you can't make a statement with your clothes, but you can always add a pop of colour with your nails. In any case, the colours were very summery and cute. They were all cremes (love) and all applied smooth and great (love again). I wanna go back and get the entire collection, but here are the 3/6 that I did pick up.

Hits: Over The Taupe, Shorts Story, No Room For The Blues, A Grape Fit.
Misses: None.

OPI Hong Kong Collection Spring 2010 Revisited

OPI's Hong Kong collection was a really fun and colourful collection. I really enjoyed the polishes in this collection a lot. They were very solid and vibrant. Out of the usual 12, I picked up 5, all the ones I choose were cremes, they all applied great, no issues at all. I keep thinking of others that I want to get. This collection really made me realize that I love blue and green polishes all of sudden.

Hits: Lucky Lucky Lavender, Jade Is The New Black, Suzy Says Feng Shui, Hot & Spicy.
Misses: Pearl of Wisdom, Chopsticking To My Story.

OPI France Collection Revisited Fall/Winter 2008

This is probably my most favourite OPI collection ever. I bought 8/12 of the polishes that came out with this. I thought this collection was perfect, I love the grey tones, vampy reds and purples. The polishes are chic, perfect for wearing in the fall and winter, and very classic colours. The standouts were definitely You Don't Know Jacques and Parlez Vous OPI? J'adore!

Hits: Parlez-Vous OPI?, You Don't Know Jacques!, Tickle My France-y, and We'll Always Have Paris
Misses: Baguette Me Not, Crepes Suziette.

OPI South Beach Collection Revisited Spring/Summer 2009

Today I will revisit last year's OPI South Beach collection. I think this was the collection that really got me into OPI and then I went back and bought some popular polishes previous to this. Ever since then I've been hooked. OPI in my opinion, makes the best polishes because their formulation is so great, most of the time, with creme finishes anyway, you can apply 2 coats and get excellent coverage. The pro-wide brush is also awesome in helping you get even coverage. OPI is definitely king and I don't think any of us are going to stop buying their polishes anytime soon.

Hits: Done Out in Deco,  Feelin' Hot-Hot-Hot!, Miami Beet, OPI On Collins Ave
Misses: Bronzed To Perfection, Clubbing Til Sunrise and Suzi & The Lifeguard

American Apparel Nail Polishes: Mouse, Factory Grey and California Trooper Swatches and Review

American Apparel nail polishes are awesome in my opinion. The bottles are rectangular and flat so they fit together nicely for storage, they have a variety of colours and they apply very nicely, great pigmentation. Their polishes are all cremes, which is my favourite finish. My only complaint about them is the brush stem design, their brushes are really tall, and the entire thing gets dipped into the polish bottle, so it picks up lots of product and you have to be careful not to spill it all over the place. I have dropped blobs of it on my coffee table, sink, and other areas where I do my nails, but if you are careful (I am clumsy at times) this shouldn't be a problem at all. Onto the swatches of a few new ones that I got recently, these are all 2 coats.