OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam

Here's the final polish I bought from OPI's spring collection. This is I Don't Give a Rotterdam. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I love how much attention OPI give to their polish. It's so much more interesting than just naming it after the colour. (Models Own Beetlejuice Autumn 2011 collection, I'm looking at you!) This name is one of my favourites! As for the polish itself, it's a dusty periwinkle blue with gold and silver shimmer. It's more cool-toned than the other blue from this collection, I Have a Herring Problem, and a bit more of a true blue. I think I like it more as a result.

My photos are three coats as it was a tad sheer. The formula itself was fantastic and I didn't have any application issues whatsoever.

Models Own Beetlejuice Spring/Summer 2012 - Summary

In the previous three posts I've reviewed the new colours from the Models Own Beetlejuice Collection Spring/Summer 2012. I thought it might be helpful to put all three together in one post, so here they are again (this time with minimal commentary).

Copper Pot

A copper/bronze duochrome. Three coats. Not my cup of tea.

Tropical Sun

A pink/peach duochrome. Three coats. Me likey.

Indian Ocean

A blue/pink duochrome. Extremely sheer; this is five coats. My favourite of the three by far!

To be honest, I'm a bit underwhelmed by the new collection overall. The promo pictures looked incredible, but I should have known they wouldn't be reliable - we've been burned before. They're nice colours, just not quite as cool as the promo pics made them look. I don't think much of Copper Pot, especially as a duochrome, but I like Island Sun and I really like Indian Ocean. The formula is much improved on last autumn's collection, and for a fiver they're pretty good value for money. I'm not going to tell you to run to the shops and buy them immediately...more to go there at a leisurely stroll if you like the look of any of them.

Models Own Beetlejuice S/S 2012: Indian Ocean

Here is the final polish from the new Models Own Beetlejuice Collection, Indian Ocean. According to the press release it's an "iridescent blue with soft pink undertones", which is bang on the money. It's basically a pale blue with a pink shimmer running through it. As the name suggests, it reminds me of a tropical ocean with a pink sunset reflecting in the water.

Before I show you the photos I have a warning about this polish, dear readers: it was incredibly sheer. If you wear it I highly recommend you layer it over a complementary blue. I knew just from looking at the bottle that it was going to be sheer, but I decided to wear it on its own to better show you what it looks like au naturel. I was determined to see if I could get it opaque, but I gave up at five - yes, five! - coats. Anyway, onto the pictures:

The final photo was taken indoors, and it really illustrates just how pink Indian Ocean looks in some lights. Despite how sheer this polish is, it's definitely my favourite of the collection. It has the strongest duochrome effect of the three, for one thing, and for another - well, you probably know by now how I feel about blue polishes!

Models Own Beetlejuice S/S 2012: Tropical Sun

Here's the second of the new Models Own Beetlejuice Collection, Tropical Sun. The PR release describes it as a "glistening sunset", and this is pretty much accurate! While it's not as orange as the promo pictures would have you believe, it does still resemble a glorious tropical sunset. In the bottle it looks very peachy (in fact, when I first unwrapped it I initially thought they had sent me Golden Peach, another Models Own shade, by mistake!), but on the nail it takes on more of a salmon pink colour that shifts to a glowing peach. It also has sparse, itty bitty silver glitter in it. It was incredibly sheer. I did three thick coats on my nails but it could have done with a fourth - although the VNL was more obvious in real life than in my photos.

I also took a couple of photos indoors, which really brings out the peach colour:

Hmmm, I don't have an awful lot more to say about this polish, except that I rather like it. Definitely more than I like Tropical Sun, anyway. I think it's because it genuinely does look like a sunset. It's pretty cool.

Models Own Beetlejuice S/S 2012: Copper Pot

Last week I showed you some quick swatches of the new Models Own Beetlejuice Collection for Spring/Summer 2012 on a nail wheel. Well, for the next three days I will be showing you proper swatches of them on my nails, starting with Copper Pot!

Copper Pot is the least duochrome of the three polishes, shifting from a copper colour (duh) to bronze/yellowy gold. The PR release calls it "a deep olive tan". I prefer the formula on this to what some of last autumn's Beetlejuice polishes had - it didn't pooling at my cuticles, but it did bubble a little (despite waiting a good five minutes between each coat. Boo). I used three coats for my photos, which gave it full opacity.

See what I mean? It looks glow-y rather than duochrome-y. I don't actually like it very much. I'm just not a huge fan of polishes with a yellow or orange tone to them. Meh.

Lilacquer Kitsune

Today I'm showing you my third and final indie polish from Lilacquer. You can see my swatches of Selkie and Lycanthrope by clicking the links. This colour continues the mythology theme with the name Kitsune.

From Wikipedia: Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore; in English, kitsune refers to them in this context. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume human form. While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others, other stories portray them as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives.

Like the other two Lilacquer polishes I've shown you, it's a duochrome shimmer top coat - this is a green/red one. This was definitely the thickest formula of the three polishes, so I put a few drops of thinner in it first. As with Lycanthrope I started with two coats of Nails Inc Black Taxi, followed by two coats of Kitsune. I was very lucky again to have some lovely sun for these photos, so you can see Kitsune at its sparkliest.

It's very pretty, but it's actually my least favourite of the three. I have no idea why. The red/gold makes me feel that this polish is quite autumnal, so maybe I'll like it more later this year?!

Lilacquer Kitsune retails for $6 (about £3.80) for 5ml. It's not an Etsy shop; to order you email the creater directly and pay by PayPal. International shipping is available at a very reasonable price, and delivery is quite fast - it took 10 days to reach me in the UK from the States. I'm really pleased with my three Lilacquer polishes. They're so beautiful and can be layered over whatever polish takes your fancy to create something truly unique. I hope you've enjoyed looking at them as much as I've enjoyed wearing them!

The Girl on Fire

Today is the official release date of The Hunger Games, but I was lucky enough to see it yesterday evening as my local cinema had an advanced screening. IT WAS AMAZING. I read the first book shortly after it came out and I've been a fan of the trilogy ever since, so it was great to see it on the big screen. It definitely lived up to my expectations.

Anyway, I thought you'd like to see what I wore on my nails to see The Hunger Games. I decided to go with the Girl on Fire theme, which will make sense to you if you've read the books/seen the film. I wanted to do something like this, but I ran out of time. Instead I painted my nails with two coats of Nails Inc Black Taxi, my favourite black creme, and then used a make-up sponge to dab China Glaze Ruby Pumps (red glitter) and Essie As Gold As It Gets (gold flakes) in a sort of gradient. It's supposed to look like fire but it's perhaps a little too red. I'm rather pleased with it anyway.

May the odds be ever in your favour!

Models Own Beetlejuice Spring/Summer 2012 - Quick Pics

Second post of the day! Just a quick one to say that my Models Own Beetlejuice Spring/Summer 2012 polishes arrived in the post today. I'm really impressed with how quickly they've reached me as I only ordered them on Monday afternoon. I haven't tried them on yet but I have swatched them on a nail wheel. Here's a couple of photos of them taken in today's lovely sunny weather:

Tropical Sun, Copper Pot, Indian Ocean

Expect proper swatches in a few days. :)

EDIT: You can find swatches of the polishes on my nails here!

Lilacquer Lycanthrope

Here is the second of the duochrome top coats I bought from Lilacquer. This one is called Lycanthrope.

From Wikipedia: A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope, is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf, either purposely or after being placed under a curse and/or lycanthropic affliction via a bite or scratch from a werewolf. This transformation is often associated with the appearance of the full moon.

Lilacquer Lycanthrope is a green/gold duochrome with the same shimmer as Selkie. It was a little thick but not unmanageably so. I painted my nails with two coats of Nails Inc Black Taxi (a black creme) first before doing two coats of Lycanthrope. It doesn't dry particularly shiny so I followed this with a top coat.

(I was wearing this on Sunday while having lunch with my parents when the sun suddenly came out. I grabbed my camera and literally legged it outside to get some decent photos of it!)

I always say I don't like green nail polishes, but I keep finding ones that make me change my mind! When I initially put this on I decided it wasn't my cup of tea, but it's definitely grown on me. The duochrome shift is subtler than Selkie, going from a blue-toned green to gold, and it's so darn sparkly! All the same, I do think I prefer Selkie.

Lilacquer Lycanthropy retails for $6 (about £3.80) for 5ml. It's not an Etsy shop; to order you email the creater directly and pay by PayPal. International shipping is available at a very reasonable price, and delivery is quite fast - it took 10 days to reach me in the UK from the States. I have one more Lilacquer polish to show you very soon!

Lilacquer Selkie

I'm really excited to introduce to you the first indie polish of my collection. I bought three duochrome top coats (!!!) from Lilacquer, called Selkie, Lycanthrope and Kitsune. I'm a bit of a mythology/supernatural nerd, so I thought it was really cool that the polishes are named after mythological creatures. The one I'm showing you today is Selkie, which is my favourite of the three.

From Wikipedia: Selkies are mythological creatures found in Faroese, Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish folklore. They are said to live as seals in the sea but shed their skin to become human on land. If a man steals a female selkie's skin she is in his power and is forced to become his wife. Female selkies are said to make excellent wives, but because their true home is the sea, they will often be seen gazing longingly at the ocean. If she finds her skin she will immediately return to her true home in the sea.

Lilacquer Selkie is a blue/teal/green duochrome shimmer top coat. I used two coats of a dark teal, Nails Inc Blair, first, then two of Selkie. I was warned by the maker that I might find it a bit thick so I was prepared to use a bit of thinner, but actually I had no problems with it whatsoever. It went on perfectly.

I took eleventy billion photos of this polish and a part of me wanted to post them all...but I managed to narrow it down a bit!

Isn't it lush? It's even better in person. In the shade it's a pretty, deep blue shimmer, but when the sunlight hits it...blam! Sparklefest 2012. It's got such incredible depth to it, like looking into a pool of tropical water. The duochrome is very noticeable, and the different colours really complement each other. This is what Models Own Emerald Black should have been like.

Lilacquer Selkie retails for $6 (about £3.80) for 5ml. It's not an Etsy shop; to order you email the creater directly and pay by PayPal. International shipping is available at a very reasonable price, and delivery is quite fast - it took 10 days to reach me in the UK from the States. I'll be showing you the other two colours available very soon.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Erin go Bragh!

I don't know about you, but I'm celebrating St Patrick's Day in two very traditional ways: by having a lovely pint of Guinness, and by painting my nails green!

For today's manicure I started with two coats of China Glaze Holly-Day, which is from their Let It Snow collection that came out last winter. It's a deep green creme that covers perfectly in two coats. I then used a dotting tool to draw shamrocks on all my nails using the green foil Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe, also a Christmas shade from last year. The shamrocks were surprisingly easy to do - I did three little heart shapes with the points all facing each other. I drew a large shamrock on all but my ring fingers, which got mini ones. In hindsight I wish I'd just done another large one, but oh well. The stalks were done using a striper brush.

Yes, I mucked up the stalks a bit. It wouldn't be normal for one of my manicures to actually turn out perfectly! XD In truth it's because I did this last night while I was watching New Girl, so only half my attention was actually on painting my nails (the other half was on Nick. I can't help it. I love him so!).