My Top Five Favorite Fall Polishes

I know we're still a few weeks out from it being "technically" autumn, but lately I've been so in the mood for fall colors that I decided to put this post together. These are my top five absolute favorite polishes to wear during the fall. I do have a lot of other shades that I enjoy wearing around this time, but I find myself reaching for these five very frequently every year.

OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest is a super dark, super shimmery blackened shade of garnet. The formula on my bottle is incredible and covers great in two coats.

Essie Very Structured is kind of my "wild card"; I never expected to like this dark pumpkin spice shade, but I actually love it! I'm wearing two coats.

A England Dorian Grey is an absolutely stunning gunmetal grey metallic. Two easy coats are all you need.

Zoya Monica is a stunning aubergine crème. I have such a thing for purples and I wear this all the time, fall or not. The formula is fantastic and it covers perfectly in two coats.

A England Tess D'Urberville is one of my all time favorite shades. This deep, dark shimmery green is absolutely breathtaking! I'm wearing two coats.

What's your favorite fall polish? Did it make my list?

OPI Hawaii: Swatches/Review of My Favorites

Are you hanging onto the shred of summer like I am? Wearing your tropical maxi dresses one last time? Soaking up the warmth before the temperature starts dropping and the leaves start turning? I can't say I'm not excited for that (I love fall!), but I'm not quite ready to give summer up just yet. So today I have my favorites shades from the OPI Hawaii collection to share the summer spirit with you.

Do You Take Lei Away? is a lovely milky beige cream shade. I love wearing shades like this every other week or so in the summer to kind of cleanse my palette from all the bright shades I wear. This is two coats.

That's Hula-rious! is an awesome light minty green polish which covered well for me in two coats.

Go With the Lava Flow is a gorgeous shade of pink that reminds me of hibiscus flowers. What made this one a favorite is the stunning blue shimmer in it! I just love shades like this. I'm wearing two coats and the formula was perfect. 

Aloha from OPI is a searing hot shade of coral that leans far to the red side, but with just enough pink to make me love it. Wear this to the beach if you want to stand out! Two coats here.

Is Mai Tai Crooked? is a light mango orange polish. I find that most orange polishes give me a Halloween vibe, but this one does a good job of staying in summer territory. The formula wasn't the best here, but I got away with two coats.

Hello Hawaii Ya? is a beautiful dusty shade of lilac that was excellent in two coats. You know my favorites list had to include a purple! :P

OPI released this collection in the spring, but you should still be able to find it now (possibly even on clearance!). Which shade was your favorite?

SquareHue September 2014 Box Swaches & Review

Good morning! I hope you guys had a great weekend! I started getting my Christmas decorations out, so that was fun. :X I know a lot of people get bent out of shape about decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving but it's my favorite holiday and I can't help myself! But anyway, I have the SquareHue September box to share with you today. The theme is Sydney and these three shades are stunning!

King Street is a dark brick shade that has a fantastic formula. This is two coats.

Oxford Street is a warm golden orange shimmer polish. Two coats here.

Crown Street is a stunning burnt orange shade with gold shimmer. Absolutely perfect for your Thanksgiving mani! I'm wearing two coats.

If you aren't familiar, SquareHue is a subscription service that sends you three gorgeous nail polishes each month for $19.99 shipped. These shades are all 5-free, made in the United States, and not tested on animals. Plus, SquareHue donates a portion of every monthly subscription cost to a great cause: the awareness and prevention of human trafficking.

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

OPI Nordic Collection Swatches & Review

Good morning! The OPI Nordic collection was tempting me on my desk so I decided to swatch and post it next. This twelve piece collection was inspired by the Nordic countries and is so fun! OPI sometimes gets a little repetitive with their collection (who needs six reds in a holiday collection???), but this one knocked it out of the park! Let's get started...

My Dogsled is a Hybrid is a beautiful jade green creme. This is two coats.

Going My Way or Norway? is a nice camel tan. I don't think this one looks particularly good on me, but I love the color. Two coats here.

Can't Afjord Not To is a knockout! This creamy, dreamy orange-based coral is just incredible. I love that OPI added this obvious summertime shade to their fall collection. Perfect formula, perfect coverage in two coats.

Ice-Bergers & Fries is a milk chocolate brown shade. I guess I must not like browns since I don't really like the look of this one on me either, but it'll be great to keep around for nail art. I'm wearing two coats.

Skating on Thin Iceland is a lovely deep raspberry shade. This is two coats and the finish seems jelly-like to me. Three coats would probably give it a total creme finish.

Thank Glogg It's Friday is a gorgeous shimmery pinkish red. I love subtle shimmer like this! I'm wearing two coats and the formula was great.

Viking in a Vinter Vonderland is of course one of my favorites! This deep, eggplant purple is just fabulous! I'm wearing two thin coats.

My Voice is a Little Norse is a holographic silver glitter that can be layered up to be worn on it's own or topped over another shade. I chose to put one coat over Viking in a Vinter Vonderland.

With a Nice Finn-ish is a warm gold shade with a slightly frosty finish that totally glows. I'm normally not a big fan of metal-toned shades but this one is so beautiful. This is two coats.

Do You Have This Color in Stock-holm? is an incredibly bright blue-toned purple. It's so much fun for a fall collection! I'm wearing two coats.

Suzi Has a Swede Tooth is a deep bubble gum pink shade with fabulous coverage in two coats.

How Great is Your Dane? is an amazing dark dirty taupe. I love shades like this! This will be the perfect dark neutral for the winter. Two coats.

What did you think of this collection? I love how unique these shades are and how bright some of them are for being in a fall collection. The Nordic collection is available wherever OPI products are sold.

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

SquareHue July 2014 Box Swatches & Review

Hola! Today I have SquareHue's July box to share with you and the theme for this month is Barcelona. I'll give you the run down about the SquareHue subscription service at the end of the post, but for now let's get to the swatches!

Plaça Catalunya is a beautiful hot pink with silver micro shimmer. The formula on this one shows a bit of brushstroke, but the coverage was great in two coats.

Rambla de Raval is a fiesty warm orange with golden micro shimmer. Same slight brush stroke issues at the first shade and also a little more sheer. This is two coats but a third would probably have been wise to make sure everything was totally opaque.

Passieg de Grácia is by far the stunner in this set. This deep, vampy purple just takes my breath away! Absolutely flawless formula makes this polish a total knockout. I'm wearing two coats.

If you aren't familiar, SquareHue is a subscription service that sends you three expertly created nail polishes each month for $19.99 shipped. These shades are all 5-free, made in the United States, and not tested on animals. Plus, SquareHue donates a portion of every monthly subscription cost to a great cause; right now they are focusing on the awareness and prevention of human trafficking. What do you think about this month's colors? That purple is just rocking my world!!

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Zoya Bubbly Collection Swatches/Review

See how behind I am? Haha! Oh well, better late than never, right? I finally have my swatches of the Zoya Bubbly collection from this summer to share with you. It's getting awfully cold around here and I don't know about you, but I could certainly use some cheery summer shades to keep my mind off of the impending winter. Let's get to it!

Jesy is my favorite color (duh, coral!) out of the collection, but it was also one of the most sheer so I will be layering it when I wear it again. I used two coats here.

Alma is an orangey gold jelly with golden flakes. This is two coats. Alma is the most sheer out of the collection.
 

Harper is a juicy bubble gum with iridescent glitter. This was one of the most opaque out of the collection; I'm wearing two coats.

 Binx is a dark pink/magenta shade within gold shimmer and iridescent glitter. This is two coats.

Muse is the second cousin twice removed to Zoya's mermaidy Charla. About the same shade, perhaps leaning a little more blue, but with tons of iridescent glitter which Charla lacks. This is two coats and as you can see, it has pretty good coverage for a jelly.

Staasi is a medium green with gorgeous iridescent glitter and shimmer. This is two coats. 

My top picks from this collection are definitely Jesy (for layering) and Muse (for wearing alone). These polishes can be purchased at www.zoya.com and retail for $9 each.

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Long Time No See: An Explanation of Sorts and Some Autumn Nail Art to Make Amends

Well, this is awkward. Hello again, everyone! The first thing I want to do is apologize for my ridiculously long, unexplained absence. I wish I had some exciting story like I've been traveling the world and just didn't have time for blogging, but frankly, there is no good reason. Stuff just got in the way. First it was work stuff, then it was wedding stuff, then it was "oh but I really want to finish these 8,348 other crafts I have started instead" stuff and eventually, it became five months since I even posted on my own blog.

People have been asking me why I haven't been blogging and if I was quitting The Nail Network. It made me feel guilty and I always promised myself, "I'll start writing up a blog post when I get home" but I never did. I just wasn't into it for a little while there and things like this aren't worth forcing yourself to do unless you are truly enjoying it and having fun.

But today I woke up and actually felt like writing. I got out of bed and went right to the couch to start typing this out on my laptop. I haven't even eaten breakfast yet (and if you know me, you know how grouchy I get without breakfast first thing in the morning). So please accept my apology for being gone for so long without explanation. I have a lot of catching up to do (my nail room is literally overwhelming), but I'm going to work on it and hopefully get back on track with a normal schedule around here. I have a lot of reviews to do, a little bit of fall nail art to share, a wedding post to write up, and of course I need to start brainstorming for my recurring holiday nail art series!

As a little token of my appreciation for sticking around while I was gone, here is some stunningly simple nail art that you could wear all autumn long! I started with a base of OPI My Vampire's Buff and then carefully painted Essie Very Structured in a chevron pattern over the base. I finished it off with a chevron of Milani Chocolate Sprinkles. If you aren't confident if your free-handing abilities, you can use tape to create the shapes, just make sure that you let the base colors dry for a while before you try to stick the tape on.

Phew! I'm glad to have that all off my chest and out in the open. Hopefully I'll see you guys again really soon! :)

OPI Brazil Collection Swatches/Review

Good morning everyone! Today I finally have my OPI Brazil swatches to share with you! This collection is super bright and fun... perfect for summer! There's also a nice mix of light and neutral shades that compliment the brights very well. Let's get to it!

Toucan Do It If You Try is a juicy orangey-coral. The formula was a little thick and I found that my second coat dragged a bit if I wasn't careful. You're looking at two coats.

Live.Love.Carnival. is my absolute favorite in this collection and suprise! It's coral! It's darker and pinker than Toucan Do It If You Try and it's just totally perfect. The formula again is a little thick, but I was able to apply two coats fairly easily.

Kiss Me I'm Brazilian is a bright bubble gum pink. You want Barbie pink? Here it is. This is two coats.

Where Did Suzi's Man-go? is the most gorgeous cantaloupe-colored shade that I've ever seen in polish! The formula was good too and I used two coats.

I Just Can't Cope-acabana is a vivid yellow that has a good formula! It isn't sheer at all at two coats and applied pretty well too.

I Sao Paolo Over There is a faded eggplant shade. I love these dirty neutrals! This is two coats and it had a perfect formula.

Don't Bossa Nova Me Around is a light pink-putty shade. This will be a great neutral choice for summer! Great formula, two coats.

Red Hot Rio is a red jelly polish. I guess it wouldn't be an OPI collection without at least one red, but I'm glad that there's only one. This isn't anything exciting. Two coats.

Taupe-less Beach is a light taupe that leans a little to the purple side. This is two coats.

Next Stop... The Bikini Zone is a shimmery purple duochrome with gold and bronze shimmers. This is the one polish that sticks out in this collection as not belonging. All the other shades are bright and cremes and this one seems like it would fit better in a fall or winter collection. It's a little sheer and needed three coats for what you see here.

OPI Scores a Goal! also seems like it could fit in a fall collection, but I just love it! It's a deep raisin creme that was perfectly opaque in two coats.

Amazon... Amazoff is a deep teal green that was a teensy bit sheer, I did two coats here but I'm seeing a little bit of nail line at the tips when I look closely so three probably would have been better.

Overall, I think this collection really hit the mark! Most of these shades are fabulous for summer and I'm excited that there was a good yellow in here. I generally dislike wearing yellow, but it's great to have a good one for nail art! And can we talk about how amazing the names are? Seriously, I was cracking up as I swatched them! Bravo to whoever named this batch!

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Tropical Zebra Ombré Nail Art featuring OPI Brazil Collection Shades

I'm giving you guys a little break from the florals for today! ;) I had the OPI Brazil collection sitting on my desk and all these colors looked so beautiful together that I knew I had to do an ombré with them.

 

I used OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana, Where Did Suzi's Man-go?, Toucan Do It If You Try, Live.Love.Carnival, and Kiss Me I'm Brazilian for the ombré. I'll have the review of these polishes coming soon, but I'll tell you now that I'm in LOVE with these colors! Especially all together like this.

I thought about doing another floral stamp over this but decided to mix it up and go for zebra print instead. I love how they turned out! This would be the perfect mani to accent a margarita on a beach vacation. ;)

The products in this post were provided for my honest review.