Nicole by OPI Liquid Metals for Spring 2011

Here's Nicole by OPI's latest: A set of four super-sparkly foils. Technically these came out late last year, but they're part of 2011's spring colors. These feature the new Nicole Perfect Stroke brush, which is similar to OPI's ProWide brush, just rounder and flatter.



It Starts With Me. This is a silver-based peach toned foil. It's not quite pure gold, not quite taupe.


Miss Independent. A pink toned foil. Again, it has a silver base with a pale pink-purple overtone. This one is pretty unique, I can't think of another foil quite like this.



Rich In Spirit. An aqua-blue foil. In certain lights it seems like it has a greenish tinge to it, in other lights it looks pure sky blue.



The Next CEO. A good neutral gold foil with a little bit of a beige tone.

The formula on these is good. Very smooth, not thick, not runny. Good coverage, I only needed two coats on all of these. Drying time is very fast. The new Perfect Stroke brush was much nicer in these than it was in the One Less Lonely Girl collection; none of the brushes in this set were crooked or defective in any way. Smooth, easy application and a nice glossy finish even without topcoat.

These foils are extremely shiny and sparkly. While the colors themselves aren't terribly bold or exciting, the finish is amazing. They're like a cross between a true foil like Zoya Trixie, a chrome like China Glaze Millennium and a glass fleck sparkle. They are both reflective and sparkly/shimmery/borderline glittery and that's what makes these stand out. They aren't as dense of a foil as, say, Orly's Foil FX collection, but they're twice as sparkly.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber One Less Lonely Girl Collection 2011

It's here. The much talked about nail polish collection inspired by Justin Bieber. I'm still not exactly sure how Justin Bieber and nail polish are related at all, hey, the colors ended up being really cool...


I took full advantage of the twenty seconds of sunlight we had this week...


Give Me The 1st Dance. Standard sparkly silver foil. Not unique, but not a bad color.



My Lifesaver. Wow. This one was not in the promo pictures I originally saw of this collection, so it was a complete surprise. It's awesome. It's not as sky blue as it looks here, it's actually a turquoise creme. The shade is somewhere between MAC Peppermint Patti and China Glaze For Audrey, closer to the Peppermint Patti side. Super creamy finish, easy, non-streaky application, very pigmented. All around great shade.



OMB! Another pleasant surprise. Very different from the promo pics. This is an amazing fiery, duochromey glass fleck red. My pictures don't do it justice. The main duochrome colors are orange and pink, weird contrast between cool and warm in this polish. See this one in real life if you get a chance.


Me + Blue. A blue shimmer base absolutely packed with holographic microglitter. There's just a ton of glitter in this. It's not your traditional holo that's made from little flat sheet-like particles. This is like some of the Nubar Gems that are a shimmer base color with chunky holo glitter, but so much of it that it looks like a true holo under sunlight. It is a little lumpy, but because there's so much glitter you almost don't notice.

Just for fun I put OPI's Black Shatter on top:




One Less Lonely Glitter. What a name. Great color, though! Light lavender glitter in a clear base. It has tiny little glitter particles mixed with bigger round pieces. Very sparkly. Delicate. Nice opacity, too.




Prized Possession Purple. A medium purple shimmer. Very pretty color, but the formula was quite unruly. It was very watery and the brush was defective so I found it rather frustrating to apply. I wish I had something better to say about the formula because the color is so nice, but it reminded me of trying to apply NYX Wild.



Step To The Beat Of My ♥. One of Nicole's signature heart polishes. This one is tiny opal glitter in a very faintly purple tinted base and it has purple and red holo metallic hearts. This is meant for layering but if you like a more subtle look you can wear it alone.

The formula on these was good with the exception of Prized Possession Purple. I did two coats of all but Prized Possession Purple which was three coats. The formula feels like normal Nicole formula, no surprises formula-wise. The big surprise is the new brush. They have switched to a short, wide, curved brush a little bit like the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri brush. Half of the brushes in my set were defective and made application difficult. They're supposed to be gently rounded at the bottom but some of mine were more like Vs or even Ws... When the brushes are the way they're supposed to be, they're great. Hopefully the faulty brushes will be fixed soon. Brings me back to the OPI India collection :)


Overall, the colors are quite nice. I love My Lifesaver, One Less Lonely Glitter and OMB! the most. They're nothing at all like the promo pictures would have lead me to believe, but they're still very pretty. Some of the shades can be easily duplicated, but I'm sure Bieber fans would love to have these either way.

There's some info cards attached to these bottles and they say, "In support of Pencils of Promise. Join Justin and PoP to build 100 schools around the world." It doesn't specify that any proceeds go to Pencils of Promise or anything about a charitable contribution or anything like that... So I'm unclear on whether or not any money from these goes to support a cause, but I'll see what I can find out.

These are available now at Wal-Mart.

(These were sent to me for review.)

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.)

NOX Twilight - Twilight Nail Polish

There's a line of Twilight-themed polishes available right now and I got the chance to swatch a few of them over the summer. First things first, I haven't read the books or seen the movies so I really don't know enough about Twilight to determine whether or not these have anything to do with it.... Teenage vampire romance just isn't my thing. *hides Blutengel CD*

All I can say is that the shade names seem sort of random/generic and don't really bring to mind vampires or werewolves or anything of that nature... But the bottles are pretty sweet and the colors are nice!


Citrus. Really pretty hot pink / pinky coral with gorgeous gold flash/shimmer. I like the gold shimmer in this a lot, reminds me a little of OPI Bright Lights, Big Color- only a pinker, more demure version.


Debutante. A pale pinky-champagne with really strong gold duochrome. I'm digging the duochrome nature of this even if it is a really soft color. It's both flashy and subtle.


Poseidon. Aqua blue creme. A little softer than something like Zoya Robin. Not quite as bright and clear as the standard sky/aqua creme.




Sugar Plums. This one is a hot dark magenta with a blue/violet duochrome flash/shimmer. The shimmer sits on top and changes colors when you move your hand.


Talon. Dark navy shimmer. Not unique but it's still pretty.



Wine and Dine. I wanna date you, baby... I wanna take you out... I wanna wine and dine you... Sorry, polish names always remind me of songs. This one looks cooler in the bottle than it does on the nail, but that's not to say it's bad on the nail. In the bottle it looks like a magical swirl of pink and silver glitter but on the nail it becomes a light pink foil. Foils are pretty cool, but I was hoping for more glitter based on the bottle!

There are a few other shades in the line, including a pretty silver holo glitter, but I didn't try any of those.

The formula on these was good. I didn't really have any issues with application, but the brushes seemed a little soft to me. Opacity was pretty good, I did three coats of all the colors here but only Debutante and Wine and Dine needed the third. Dry time was a little on the long side.


Overall, I like the colors, but they seem so familiar... The bottles are freakin' sweet. I like that big metal seal glued to the front, it makes them look all regal and official. I don't really see what these have to do with Twilight or vampires or anything like that, though... Twilight fans, any opinions?

These are available online, but I've also seen them in store at Meijer and they just so happen to be on clearance right now!

(These were sent to me for review.)