OPI Texas Collection Spring 2011 Swatches and Review

This year's spring nail polish collection from OPI is Texas-themed. I've never been to Texas but I have a lot of Texan friends... I wonder what they'd have to say about these shades? Any Texans want to weigh in on them?

There are twelve shades as usual, and they are:


Austin-tatious Turquoise. You know, this looks like such an amazing color in the bottle and it looks pretty great in the picture... But it's actually a freaking nightmare. The color is great- a sheer turquoise glass fleck shimmer with subtle pink duochrome... But the formula! Oh, the formula. It's sheer and watery, a combination that can only spell disaster. What you're seeing here is SIX COATS. Six watery, runny, goopy coats. The color is dustier and less vibrant in real life. If you want something similar (glass fleck duochrome turquoise) without the weird formula, try Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus.

EDIT: I've been receiving reports from people who own this color, and a few of them say that their bottle isn't watery and sheer like mine. However, the majority of people I've heard from say they have watery bottles like mine. It seems like there are multiple batches of this color floating around.



Don't Mess With OPI. Nice dusty medium green. I like the muted quality of this, it's not your standard green creme. It's like if OPI Jade Is The New Black and Rescue Beauty Lounge Orbis Non Sufficit had a baby.


It's Totally Fort Worth It. Very, very hard to capture the finish of this color. It's not just a plain silver shimmer, it has tiny pink-red sparkles! You can see some of those elusive sparkles in the middle of the bottle on this picture. It would be my favorite color of the collection if it weren't for the sheer, watery formula. This is four coats.


I Vant To Be A-Lone Star. I'm not understanding the name of this. I get the "Lone Star" part, but 'vant'? Is that like a Green Acres reference or something? Wait, did Green Acres even take place in Texas? Eh... guess it doesn't matter. The color is nice. Light greyed-out blue with silvery shimmer. Tranquil and serene. Reminds me of another ancient discontinued OPI... drawing a blank on the name.


San Tan-tonio. Light milky brown creme. Surprisingly flattering on my cool skintone. Makes me think of suede.


Suzi Loves Cowboys. I used flash on this color because it looked too black in natural light. The flash shows the base color and how it looks in sunlight. It looks about two shades darker in dim light. It's just a dark chocolate brown creme, nothing too exciting... But very unusual for spring!

Now for the surprise: the jellies sorbets.

Big Hair, Big Nails. A red coral, or a light cherry sorbet.


Do You Think I'm Tex-y? A deep beet pink/purple sorbet.


Guy Meets Gal-veston. A medium orange coral sorbet.


Houston, We Have A Purple. Haha, my favorite name out of all of them! This is a deep magenta borderline purple sorbet.


Too Hot Pink To Hold 'Em. An awesome saturated pink sorbet. My picture doesn't do it justice, you have to try it out! (Fixed my typo, oops!)


Y'all Come Back, Ya Hear? A medium orange sorbet.

Now, OPI is really pushing this "sorbet" finish pretty hard lately. They describe it as a completely new finish. It's a semi-sheer or translucent wash of color which has the effect of looking like hard candy or popsicles... If you've been into polish for a while, this should sound familiar, because it's what we polish junkies know as a "jelly" finish. Jelly polishes have been around for a long time, but they're not very common. Despite the whole "It's not a jelly, it's a sorbet, it's brand new!" thing, OPI does this finish really well.

I mean, just look at them, they're beautiful. You may not be able to pick up on the jelly effect of the finish from my pictures, but the finish is really spectacular. It's not so sheer that it looks clear, and it's just translucent enough to look soft and squishy. The colors they chose are vibrant and candy-like and they're perfectly suited for the jelly/sorbet finish.

Initially, I did not have high hopes for the sorbets. They all looked like boring colors and I thought they would be too sheer. And, as usual, my mind changed once I actually put them on my nails. They're lovely. I did three coats of all and I think they're perfect.

The formula on this collection is varied. The sorbet/jelly shades are nearly perfect, only a little on the thick side. The other six shades are watery, runny and sheer. I had a really hard time applying them with Austin-tatious Turquoise being the most difficult and I Vant To Be A-Lone Star being the easiest. The brushes were inconsistent and uneven in shape, size and smoothness. Some were rough, a few were normal. I am used to OPI having a very consistent and reliable formula, this collection is hopefully just a fluke.

I'm torn on my opinion of the collection overall. I had written off the sorbets before I even tried them and they ended up being my favorite part. They're very spring/summer appropriate predictable colors, but the sorbet finish makes them wonderful.

The other shades seem too random. There doesn't seem to be one cohesive theme within the color range. You've got brown, green, sparkly turquoise, silver.... They just don't mesh well. And they're a little bit sleepy, I have to admit. Though, I've realized that OPI's spring collections have been very sleepy for the past few years and the summer collection is the exciting one.

Also, the names are starting to be a little too ridiculous. Some are cute, but others get dangerously close to Misa-level cheese and length. I did really love "Houston, We Have A Purple."... I'm still giggling about that one!

So, overall, the new sorbet polishes are definitely worth trying on if you get the chance. If you've never tried a jelly finish polish before, you'll probably be delightfully surprised. People with longer nails may have issues with visible nail line, but if that doesn't bother you, you'll probably love them. The inconsistent, watery formula on the rest of the colors turns me off to them a bit, but Don't Mess With OPI and It's Totally Fort Worth It are worth the frustration.

(These were sent to me for review.)

China Glaze Crackle Glaze Layering

A few of you suggested that I try layering the crackles over each other, and I was curious to see how it would turn out... So, I layered some more crackle glaze over my existing mani and I think it turned out pretty cool! Here's what I tried:

Broken Hearted over Crushed Candy over Essie French Affair. This one didn't seem to want to crackle as much over crackle, but it still looks pretty cool. The parts where the pink and blue layer over each other turned purple! I think I like it!

Cracked Concrete over Crushed Candy over Essie French Affair. I like this one better! It crackled more. I love the color combination. Know what it reminds me of? That weird 'abstract' 80's-90's corporate art with the weird geometric shapes and splatter paint patterns in teal and grey and peach... Know what I'm talking about? The type of generic art you find in offices and stuff? Sometimes there's a palm tree, but usually funky boomerang shapes and triangles...

Sorry about the blurry pictures. I can not hold my hands still today. They're shaking so bad I'm even having a hard time typing. Bleh!

OPI Black Shatter over Nicole My Lifesaver

The full manicure picture of this didn't turn out, but I wanted to post this cause I liked the combination so much:

OPI Black Shatter over Nicole My Lifesaver. Washed out (and my skin looks weirdly red) because of the flash, but this is really more about the Shatter than the base color. Look how perfectly it crackled! I love this stuff so much. It's so much better than the old crackle polishes. It crackles so quickly and doesn't take an hour to remove.

I also think it's quite funny that I'm wearing a Katy Perry nail polish over a Justin Bieber nail polish. Two musicians that I know next to nothing about and would rather eat my mother-in-law's turkey lasagna than listen to even one their songs.... Yet here they are on my nails, their colors joined together in perfect harmony and greatly admired by me.

But, yeah, I really love this combination. Nice contrast between light base color and black crackle effect.

LA Girl METAL Metallic Nail Polish Collection

This review has been a long time coming. I've had these since summer and for some reason could never finish swatching all of them. Same thing happened when I bought all those LA Girl Rock Star polishes last year.

Anyway, I did finally finish them so here they are! This is the new-ish LA Girl Metal metallic nail polish collection. I am missing one color- Pink Steel. I know I'm not much of a pink wearer, but I'm actually kinda bummed out that I didn't get to swatch that one.


Alkaline Blue. Bold blue foil. Very dense silver-based foil finish.


Antique Gold. This is almost more green than gold! Completely gorgeous. Many different shimmering iridescent particles combine to create this golden tarnished olive color.


Brass. Not so much brass as it is dirty rust. Very odd and unique color- silver-based foil with heavy brown creme type pigment... Definitely don't see many like this.


Bronze Medal. Little bronze glass fleck type particles in a sheer base. This is one of the more sheer colors in the collection and you're seeing five coats in this picture. Nice end result but took a lot of work to get there.


Chromium Green. This color appears more blue in my pictures than it looks in real life. Though, in real life, it is actually more of an aqua/turquoise than a true green. Very pretty shiny dense foil finish.


Copper Alloy. Ugh, I can't even stand how pretty this is. Look at how rich and Autumn-y that color is! It's copper and red and rust with gold highlights. So much depth and sparkle. Looks like it's on fire. Total surprise love for me.


Deep Sea Mica. Deep blue/green duochrome shimmer. I don't know if I'd really call this metallic, it has a bit of a glass fleck look to it but the particles are very small. This one is also a bit sheer, it needed four coats, but it's easily layered over another blue or green.


Gold Plated. Warm gold sheer foil. Sheer foil is an unusual description, I know, but it's right in between a true foil finish and a glass fleck metallic like the Milani metals.


Graphite. Great name for this color. Dusty charcoal grey foil. Silver based. Very opaque.


Iron Red. This one is crazy. I wouldn't call it red as much as I'd call it magenta or deep pink. It has so much color for a foil. Yes, it's silver based and foil finished, but it's so freakin' bright! Weird and awesome.


Metallic Olive. If you like green, you need this. I don't know if 'olive' matches this color. I'd call it evergreen. Leafy. Not really olive-y. Many different tones and colors- tiny iridescent green particles. Sooooooooooo pretty.


Millennium. Deep purple foil. Another color you don't see that often! I don't have another polish in my collection that matches this. Very dense and opaque. Very purple. I'd definitely recommend this one, too, if you're looking for unique colorful metallics. I bet this would Konad well.


Obsidian. Black with silver metallic flecks.


Sterling Silver. Silver foil. Not much else to say about it...


Trilogy. This collection is full of weird colors. This is a mauve-mulberry-purple foil. Kinda funky, definitely unique. Seems to have a bit of warm chestnut tint to it as well.

The formula on these is very hit-or-miss. Some are super opaque in one coat, others need 4 or five coats, while the rest look fine at two or three coats. There doesn't appear to be any consistency in the formula. Some are quite thick and almost gel-like in texture. The drying time is long, but they seem to wear pretty well once they're dried.

Some really gorgeous colors in this collection. The greens and the purple Millennium shade are especially nice. Silver and gold foils are rather common, but they do have their place in this set. Copper Alloy was a nice surprise, too.

At $4 a piece they're quite an inexpensive polish. The formula isn't perfect but some of the shades are totally worth getting. I've heard that you can find this brand in some dollar stores, but I've never seen this particular collection anywhere but LA Girl's website. I have ordered from them before and everything arrived safely and fairly quickly. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to order some of those Disco Brites that I keep forgetting about... They glow under blacklight!

(These were sent to me for review.)

Jessica Paint The Town Collection 2010

I love nail polish with a gimmick. These Jessicas come in little paint cans! How cute is that? They also have some that come in teddy bear shaped bottles like the old Fing'rs polishes (I'll post those soon too).

Though, unlike most products that have a gimmick, the colors/product are actually quite nice.


Funkytown. I know that there are a lot of these types of glitters- the blue/pink/purple glitter in a clear base combination. This one, though, is the prettiest of them all. I don't know why but this one sparkles way more than the others I have like this. Maybe they use a special kind of glitter, I don't know, all I know is that this one is blindingly sparkly and I love it.


Girls Night Out. My least favorite of the bunch but still not bad. Much nicer in real life. It's a cranberry red shimmer. It has more depth of finish and color but I couldn't seem to capture it. This shade of berry red does weird things to my camera.



Pajama Party. Awesome color. Hard to photograph. Let me describe. It's a dark blue-based purple base with strong blue shimmer. It sits on the color like a flash or duochrome but it doesn't really shift with the angle. It's more like a blue overlay. It reminds me a lot of the old Jane polish Gem X if you remember that one.


Scene Stealer. A nice teal shimmer. Color is more accurate in the indoor picture. Sunlight picture shows the reflective metallic qualities of the finish.


Shake Your Booty. I love this name. It makes me want to wear it just because of the silly name. Besides, how many polishes do you know of with the word 'booty' in the name? Ignore the fact that I can't stand the word booty unless it is referring to something a pirate obtains. Anyway... pretty standard medium blue shimmer with green accents. Seems like I see this color a lot. Not a bad shade, just a little common.


Shopping Spree. THIS is my favorite of the collection. It looks like velvet on the nails. It's a shimmering red-based purple and it has so much depth. Reminds me of China Glaze Cowgirl Up. It's so pretty.

Formula on these is okay, a little bit runny and sheer on some shades. I did three coats of all and all of them needed the third. Application is a little tricky because the brush doesn't like to conform to my nails or flex as easily as I think it should. Drying time is long.

Love the paint can bottles. We need more cute shaped bottles. I want someone to make some old retro looking bottles with the fancy elongated handles and really intricate designs on the glass, maybe like an Anna Sui or KO bottle.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Borghese Tutti Gelati Collection Summer 2010

It's still summer for a couple more days, right? Crap crap crap I still have summer collections to post before it ends!

Here's one of Borghese's summer offerings, gelato themed! I love pistachio gelato... mmm.

Berry Confezione. A really punchy bright fuchsia/light purple creme. Not a neon, but still very clear and bright.

Limoncello. Oh man, I love limoncello... the liqueur, not so much the polish. Okay, Limoncello the polish is not so bad, it's just a little sheer and doesn't mesh quite so well with my skintone. It's a pale yellow frost. I think this was four or five coats, I don't remember for sure, but it was definitely on the sheer side.

Maraschino. My favorite of the collection. A really bright coral-red creme. Looks better in real life than it does in my picture. The color is so bright and colorful that it did that weird thing to my camera that neons do. Not a neon, but still really bright.

Menta. This is one of the ones I bought before I knew it was part of a collection. Looks better in the bottle than it does on the nail, sadly. Absolutely nothing wrong with the color, it's a gorgeous sparkling turquoise shimmer. My issue with it is the sheerness- it's extremely sheer. This is five coats and you can still see my nails through it.

Pistaccio. Another one I bought randomly off the shelf at Ulta. A green shimmer! Had to have it. Sadly, like Menta, it's ridiculously sheer. This is five coats. The color is great, it's a rich green shimmer, but I don't have the patience to do five coats unless the color is really, really unique.


Tutti Gelati. A pink with silvery shimmer. Almost glass-fleck like shimmer. Could be a warmer cousin to China Glaze's 100 Proof Pink.

The formula on these was varied. The creme-based shades were thick and opaque while the three frosty shimmer shades were thin and sheer. The Borghese brush makes application of the sheer shades a lot more difficult, but it makes the creme application a breeze. If you've never used Borghese before, you might be surprised by the brush. It's huge and wide and flat and when you look at it closely you realize it's actually two brushes side by side. It's a little bit stiff so you need to use a light touch with it (why did that sound so dirty?)

I'm pretty new to Borghese polish. I'm really liking a couple of the shades and now I want to try more. Before these my collection was Espresso Brown, some minis with glitter, Stellare Notte (which is AMAZING), a pink shimmer from the clearance bin at TJ Maxx and Almondine. Very curious to see what they release next... Hopefully another sweet duochrome like Stellare Notte!

(Some of these were sent to me for review. )