Nicole by OPI Modern Family Collection Swatches/Review

This post is way overdue but here are my swatches of Nicole by OPI's Modern Family collection! You guys are going to love this one; there are so many pretty cremes!

Alex by the Books is a minty, faded green. This was two coats of polish.

My Jay or the Highway is a mushroom/putty type of shade. You know the type, so ugly it's pretty! Two coats of color here.

I Do De-Claire is a frosty medium pink that was good in two coats.

Stand By Your Manny is a gorgeous color but had a strange formula. What you see below is three coats and I had an issue with the polish dragging. I will probably layer this over a baby blue creme next time I wear it to avoid this.

Am I Making Myself Claire? is a pale, faded rosey purple, a perfect winter neutral. Good coverage in two coats.

A Phil's Paradise has a foil/metallic finish very similar to the two shades from the Bond collection in the winter. It was a little sheer so I did three coats.

A Like-Haley Story is my favorite of the bunch. This hot pink is not messing around! If you look closely you can also see some awesome subtle shimmer! <3 br="br" coats="coats" for="for" opacity.="opacity." two="two">

Basking in Gloria is a shimmery deep pinkish red. I used three coats for this swatch as it's a bit sheer.

Candid Cameron. Holyyy cow. I think I lied. This is actually my favorite color of the collection. Two coats of this beauty and I feel like I'm staring into the sparkling ocean somewhere way south of here!

She's Lily Something is a shimmery pink top coat with star glitter interspersed. I layered two coats over Basking in Gloria. The stars were so easy to get out of this one!

Haley Good Lookin' is a mixture of rosey pink glitter with larger pink holographic hex glitter. This is two coats over Candid Cameron.

Back in My Gloria Days is a stunning royal purple shimmer. It has a duochrome look to it in the bottle but it doesn't really translate to the nail. Three coats here.

What's the Mitch-uation? is a shimmery, almost bordering on frosty, indigo blue. I did three coats for this swatch.

Last but not least is Luke of the Draw, an edgy mix of silvery gunmetal glitter in a charcoal gray jelly base. This is three coats on it's own, but I would definitely layer this over black or dark gray next time.

The Modern Family is available now at retailers such as Walmart, Target, Ulta, etc. They retail for $7.99. Which ones would you love to have?

Products provided for review

OPI Skyfall Collection Swatches/Review

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Over the weekend, I swatched the newest OPI collection, Skyfall, for you. Please enjoy!

The Spy Who Loved Me is a very holiday-esque shade of red with tiny red and gold glass flecks. The formula on this one was very good; it needed two coats for what you see below.

Die Another Day is a shimmery glowing red, opaque in two coats with a great formula as well. It seems very similar to one of the Germany shades from the fall release, but I will have to compare them to be sure.

You Only Live Twice is a beautiful berry with glassfleck (!!) particles. I'm not typically a fan of pink, but this one is truly stunning. Once again, great formula and two coats were used for opacity.

Skyfall, the namesake of this collection, is a warm, brownish burgundy creme. It's very wearable and appropriate for the upcoming winter season. This one was a bit on the thick side, but covered great in two coats.

Goldeneye is stunnnnnnning! Seriously... I don't know if I'm just craving sparkly holiday goodness or what, but I'm really excited about this one. Its only downfall is that it is a little on the sheer side. I needed three coats here and there are still some spots that aren't completely covered, but you could always layer this one.

Casino Royale is my type of a shade; a yummy berry purple shade that will always look purple and is perfect in two coats.

This is one coat of The Living Daylights over Casino Royale. This is a gorgeous and unique combination of teal, copper, gold, and silver glitter suspended in a clear base. The great thing about this glitter is that it doesn't eat top coat; it will feel smooth to the touch with only one coat of top coat.

Ah, Moonraker. In a collection with so many winners, there has to be a loser, right? Moonraker is the loser here. I'm not entirely sure how this polish even got OK-ed. The color itself isn't that bad, but the formula is absolutely awful. It drags terribly no matter how long you let the previous coat dry for and actually seems like there are little chunks in the bottle. What you see here is three incredibly patient coats.

The World is Not Enough is a multidimensional shimmery brown with a gorgeous metallic finish. There are many different colored shimmers packed into this one, including copper, pink, and green. This one is pretty sheer and I ended up using four thin coats.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is similar in finish to The World is Not Enough, but in a blue/gray shade instead of brown. It has more of a colored base than its brown counterpart, with silver, blue, green, and pink glitter. Because of the base color, it needed only three coats for opacity.

Live and Let Die is my favorite from this collection. This smooth, creamy shade of dark pine green is packed with gorgeous gold shimmer, making it easily one of the most stunning shades in this collection. I used two coats here.

Tomorrow Never Dies is a very unique shade of blue/purple (or blurple, as some say) in my collection and my second favorite out of these twelve shades. I used two easy coats for the shimmery beauty you see below.

Overall, I'd say this collection is definitely a winner. I would definitely recommend almost all of these shades, with Live and Let Die, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Casino Royale being my top picks. OPi nail polishes retail for $8 and the Skyfall collection should be available for purchase now!

*Products in this post were provided for my honest review.*

Zoya Diva Collection

Today is the final installment of the Fall 2012 Zoya collections, Diva. In my opinion, this collection is definitely the winner of the three. These six shimmery shades are absolutely stunning!

This is Elisa, a gorgeous, festive shimmery red metallic. I don't have very many reds in my collection and this one feels perfect for the winter holidays!

My hands down favorite in the Diva collection, Suri. Suri is the most perfect shade of royal purple with beautiful shimmer. 

Song blew me away when I started applying it. Blue is one of my favorite colors so I knew I'd like it, but I didn't realize that it was so packed with gorgeous shimmer!

Ray is a kind-of frosty dark evergreen with tiny silver shimmer particles. I would have loved this more, but it showed brushstrokes just a bit too much.

FeiFei is really unique, both in name and color. It's a blue-based foily metallic with tons of multi-colored shimmer particles in it that make it super sparkly!

Daul is similar in finish to FeiFei, but it's base is a medium shade of purple with gold shimmer. These last two just simply glow. They are so beautiful.

In typical Zoya fashion, the formula for this collection was fabulous. I used two coats for every color. My top picks here are Suri, Song, and Daul. Don't forget to check out the Gloss and Designer collections as well if you haven't already!

Found at: www.zoya.com
Price: 0.5 oz bottle, $8.00 (US)

*Product(s) in this post were provided for my honest review.*

SoFlaJo Orange Blossom Special

You guys know how awesome Jody at SoFlaJo is, right? If you don't, you need to check out some of the stuff she has created! Jody has an awesome eye for color and a ton of polish-making talent. Today I have Orange Blossom Special from SoFlaJo's new collection, Spring Flowers. 

Orange Blossom Special is a beautiful, shimmering shade of peach. It has a very, very slight frosty finish with a lot of golden-yellow shimmer. Pretty much anything with shimmer is a win for me and I love that Orange Blossom Special is a lighter, fresher shade of orange than the bright tangerine that we've been seeing so much this year. You can check out SoFlaJo polishes at soflajo.com or the SoFlaJo Etsy page!

*Some or all of the product(s) in this post were provided by the company mentioned for my honest review.*

Zoya Beach Collection Review

The Zoya Beach Collection is made up of six summery polishes, five cremes and one shimmery metallic. Let's get right to it, shall we?

First up is Wednesday. I might be biased because I love colors like this, but man this is pretty! I used three coats and the formula was great. It may have been a smidge on the thick side, but a drop or two of thinner would fix that in no time. The dry time was top notch as well, even with three coats. It's not quite as bright as this photo shows.

Mmmmm, Arizona. I was kicking myself for not buying China Glaze Papaya Punch when I found it on sale at Ulta, but Arizona totally fulfills my need for a bright mango orange! This is definitely a summer orange and not a pumpkin-y Halloween orange. Formula was absolutely perfect here too.

Here is my least favorite of the collection, Tracie. I'm not a fan of this shade of green and the bit of frostiness makes the application brushstroke-y. Other than the brushstrokes, the formula was good here too. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who will love this one, but it's not for me. Moving on...

Shelby is a bright, bubblegum pink. Very attention-grabbing. I think this one is too blue-toned for my skin, but I'll give it another shot in the summer when I have a bit of a tan. No formula issues here.

Lara is gorgeous! I can't really understand why there needed to be a total of five pink shades between the Beach & Surf collections, but I'm very thankful for Lara! Three easy, perfect coats were all that was needed for this cheery pink mani.

Last but not least is Reagan. Reagan seems very similar to Zoya Areej, so if you have one, you probably don't need the other unless you love berry shades like this. I only used two coats here; three would have been fine too, but it was perfectly opaque at two, so I left it there. I like this shade too, but I probably won't wear it that much to be honest.

My top picks for this collection are Arizona, Wednesday, and Lara. I'm very happy to have a bright orange creme to add to my collection and one can never have too many creamy turquoises! Stay tuned for the Surf collection review coming next week!

*The product(s) in this post were provided by the company for an honest review.*

Blaze Cotton Candy to Sugar Plum

Cotton Candy to Sugar Plum is a shade from Blaze that changes color in the sun! Blaze has a ton of awesome shades (over 50, actually!) that are all UV activated. In addition to their great selection of colors, they're also 3-free. Let's start with the Cotton Candy side of CCtSP first, shall we? Inside, CCtSP is a very delicate shade of frosty light pink. I used three coats for these photos and you can still see some VNL, but I don't really mind. I actually liked this one a lot more than I thought I would!

Now, here's the Sugar Plum side. Pretty, right? This would definitely be a fun shade for someone who wanted an interesting-but-not-obnoxious polish color. The formula was good on this bottle; I said before that I used three coats, but they dried pretty quickly and were easy to apply. Also, I thought it was great that the color change happens very quickly.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this brand. Like I mentioned in the beginning of this post, Blaze has an awesome selection of colors on their website (check it out here: http://blazenailpolish.com/) and they are reasonably priced considering you technically get two colors in one! 

*The product(s) in this post were sent to me for review.*

Julep Alfre

Alfre was the second polish that I got in my Introductory Julep Maven box. I don't love it nearly as much as Cameron, but it's still pretty in its own way. Alfre is a frosty silvery purple that needed three coats because of the brushstrokes. The formula was loads better than Anne or Amanda; I feel like the formula is really hit or miss on these Julep polishes. Luckily, thick polishes can be fixed quickly and inexpensively! 

China Glaze Coral Star

China Glaze Coral Star is one of the polishes that my best friend gave to me as a birthday present (Tree Hugger was as well). Coral Star is a frosty, pink-y coral that was opaque in two coats. The brushstrokes just kill me with this one. It's such a gorgeous color but the brushstrokes in the photos don't do it any favors. A note on the bottle color: I hadn't used this for a while because it looked very orange-toned in the bottle and I wasn't crazy about it. However, once I got it on my nails and got outside, I noticed that it is very obviously pink-toned and not orange. The lighting in my room (and in Sally's when I looked for it there) didn't do much for it. Also, please excuse my uneven middle nail. The edge broke a few days ago and I'm patiently waiting for it to grow back in so I can shape it again.

And guess what came in the mail yesterday?? BigRuby nail tattoos! These are sooooo awesome and so simple and easy to apply. They go on just like a temporary tattoo, but on your nail instead of your skin. I only bought the Sea pack because I NEEDED the shells and the sharks, but they have a ton of other cool categories too! I know they are kind of expensive for nail art, but they are totally and completely worth it. Check them out here.