OPI – Every Month is Oktoberfest

Well bless me. It’s colours like these that remind me why I love OPI so much.


OPI’s Every Month is Oktoberfest, from the 2012 Germany collection, is one of those OPIs with an old-school feel. It’s a beautiful inky colour with a deep purple-blue base, filled with subtle yet highly reflective red shimmer. The combination of the dark base with the intense shimmer makes this polish one of those “glowing from within” types. In the shade, it looks like a vampy creme, almost black. But when the light hits it, it positively glows. Shimmer aside, it also has a beautiful glossy finish.

The formula is also reminiscent of the old-school OPIs – smoothly flowing, liquid-y, never gloopy. Yet, it’s quite opaque – you should only need two coats with this. As always, the ProWide brush is fantastic and makes application a breeze. Definitely worth checking out for the fall season!

Essie – Velvet Voyeur

Another one of my birthday polishes…yes, it took me 6 months to get around to blogging it. Don’t judge me. And thanks to Alison for this one! :)

Essie’s Velvet Voyeur. I couldn’t ask for more in a vampy polish – this is the ideal mix of deep purple, burgundy, and brown. It applies somewhat streaky in the first coat (as most polishes do, it’s just more obvious with an ultra dark colour), but a second coat fixes everything. It also dries to a gloriously glossy finish, although I did follow with a top coat (out of habit more than anything).

I really don’t have else to say about it. It’s perfect!

Models Own Pro – Green Envy

So, a few months ago I did a five-week exchange term in Europe. The program was based in Manchester, UK, but we traveled to several places as well. After seeing a glimpse of Europe, I have to say that the UK blows every other place out of the water when it comes to shopping for clothes or cosmetic products. There’s just so much variety in the brands and they’re usually quite affordable. I, for one, was just excited to see with my own eyes the UK products and brands I’ve been reading and listening about for years now!

One of these products was Models Own nail polish. There were so many colours I wanted to pick up, but considering my excessively restrictive baggage limit, I had to resist the temptation to buy like 10 new polishes. I believe these was the only one I bought with my own money while abroad (will go into that later in another post :p).

Of course, Models Own Pro Green Envy is not part of the regular Models Own line, but the “Pro” line. Bought this at Boots at The Trafford Centre in Manchester (HUGE mall; if you’re ever in Manchester you must go, maybe after seeing the stadium. Also, shout out to Amy and Arianna, who went with me! :D). Around 8 pounds I think, which is 3 pounds more expensive than the regular line. Why the price discrepancy? Honestly, I’m not sure. Are the bottles bigger? I don’t have a regular Models Own bottle to compare it to. Could it be that the colours are more on-trend or edgy? Who knows.

Either way, I love Green Envy! A super dark green polish with tons of tiny shimmers. Or is it just a black polish with tons of tiny green and blue shimmers? Not quite sure, but either way this polish is beautiful. It applied beautiful in two effortless coats and dried quickly as well. No complaints here…8 pounds well spent!

holycrapyouneedthis: Joe Fresh – Twilight

Joe Fresh, knocking it out of the park again. Starting with a close-up this time!

Ugh. Joe Fresh Twilight is a $4 polish, people. And it has flakies in it. Beautiful duochrome-tastic flakies. It has a sheer black jelly base (that, upon first coat, looks utterly crap), that builds to an opaque black in two coats. And suspended within it are the most hypnotic bits of misshapen glitter flakes (“flakies”) that flash blue, green, orange, and gold (the bottle photo below shows it particularly well).

Uggggggggghhhhh (just to be clear, all these guttural noises are meant to evoke feelings of desire and lust, and not of disgust).

I cannot contain my love for this polish. There was only one of these left on the racks at Superstore, and when I picked it up, I audibly said to myself: “Oh my freaking God”, and put it into my basket within two seconds of picking it up. I knew instantly I had to have it. I can even look past the fact that it shares a name with my least favourite teen vampire franchise.

I do realize this polish is better suited for the colder months—in fact, this would make a kick-ass Halloween manicure. But I don’t care that it’s May and was 16 degrees yesterday. I’m going to wear whatever awesome nail polish I want (keep in mind, this is coming from the girl who has been aching for the return of spring and summer for the past couple of posts now. What can I say? I just can’t commit to one season).

OPI – Just A Little Rösti At This

Can’t believe it’s been a whole week since I’ve posted! I’ve been incredibly busy, sorry about that. And can you believe it, I actually kept the last nail polish on for a whole week…that absolutely never happens for me. I’m happy to report that Essie Chinchilly is super resistant – a full week and not one chip. Even tip wear wasn’t that noticeable! I was kind of sad to remove it – I wasn’t even bored of it yet – but seeing as how I’m going to be really busy this week too, I don’t think I could live with the same polish for 2 straight weeks. So, change it is!

OPI Just A Little Rösti At This, from their Swiss collection last fall, is a surprise favourite of mine. I bought it because of rave reviews I’ve read on other blogs, but thought it was kind of a boring colour. It’s certainly not the most original colour in the world, but it’s just so versatile! It’s just the perfect deep cranberry creme that looks especially red under direct light, but a little brown under weaker lights. Goes with every outfit, and it’s a bit vampy without going overboard (i.e. looking like a black polish from far away). It’s just such a sophisticated colour  - I LOVE it on short nails.

Let me also say that I’m really picky about pink/red/coral polishes. For some reason, I absolutely hate medium bright neutral red cremes. I feel like I’m either kind of slutty or stuck in the 50′s as a pin-up girl – the colour oozes old-fashioned to me, and I try to stick with modern shades for nail polish (another example: I hate frosty nail polish with a FLAMING PASSION). Also, bright pinks. They don’t look bad, they’re just not colours I would ever choose to wear if presented my entire nail polish collection. But somehow Just A Little Rösti At This strikes a perfect balance – this will probably be the closest I’ll get to a red that I truly love.

When I’m stuck in a nail polish rut and absolutely NOTHING from my collection jumps out at me, not even the new ones I just bought, I usually revert back to a few old favourites, and OPI Just A Little Rösti At This is one of them. I always knew I liked this colour, but I guess its status as “all-time favourite” managed to creep up on me! Ah, love. What a strange and wonderful thing.

(Holy crap, how many OPI’s do I own? WAY too many, I’m sure. It doesn’t help that the closest mall to my house happens to sell them for the cheapest price I’ve seen out of every e-tailer and physical store!)