New collection quickie: Depend Rough Sweet

For those of you who aren't yet tired of texture polishes, or pastel polishes for that matter, Depend releases a twelve piece collection of such shades, called Rough Sweet.

Though disputable whether all of these colors are really pastels, they are kind of soft in tone. At least the ones I tried quick stick swatches of. Here are my picks from the collection, clockwise from top:

2100 Sweet Candy (lilac with very subtle pearlescent shimmer), 2098 Sweet Mint (pale minty green), 2097 Sweet Jelly (spring green with small iridescent glitters), 2094 Sweet Sour (pale yellow with small iridescent glitters), 2095 Sweet Bubble (pale, cool pink), and 2093 Sweet Sugar (white with very subtle pearlescent shimmer).

Three from this collection have the little iridescent glitters to keep them interesting, and apart from the above two, it's also present in a caramel colored shade that I would probably never wear even at gunpoint. Except for these, all have some sort of shimmer that isn't really apparent because of the texture. They're soft and sweet, but not necessarily interesting in themselves.

As usual when Depend releases specialty collections, these come with a bigger price tag than the standard spring and fall collections. At SEK 39:-, these 5 ml per bottle have a high unit price. But if you're really into this sorta thing...

Classic made modern

One may always sport a french manicure, but honestly, most of us polish nerds find them a bit boring, right? Still, I made one while I was wearing a pink polish. But there are pinks, and then, there are pinks... And whites that are a bit more than just whites.

Yeah, I had this neon pink gel polish base (cheap ebay find), so I added the Bond Girl OPI, white liquid sand Solitaire. Neon pink with fuzzy french tips? Yes please. It was kind of hot, actually.

Re-insta OPI

Let's have yet another bulk of manicures that only ended up on instagram... This time all OPI.

OPI All I Want For Christmas (is OPI), with black and OPI All Sparkly and Gold leopard spots (there were some on the thumbs as well). Both OPI shades from the Mariah Carey holiday collection.

More leopard spots: OPI In the Cable Car-Pool Lane with OPI Goldeneye, black, and own mix of coral pink spots.

OPI Oy - Another Polish Joke! with OPI Black Spotted.

OPI Oy - Another Polish Joke! on its own.

Strawberry meringue water marble as requested by the boyfriend. ("Can you please pick my nail color?" -"Do those meringues with pink strokes in 'em." -*...*) The marbling was hell and I'll never do it again. Colors used  were OPI My Vampire is Buff, I Theodora You and Don't Touch My Tutu!.

Sorta skittles with dotted details, with OPI colors Goldeneye, Suzi's Hungary Again! and OPI... Eurso Euro.

And the well known sh*it disaster OPI It's All San Andreas's Fault. But actually it's way better looking when it's completely dry and not on photo. I think I wore it for three days!


Stay tuned for more of my terrible insta photos!

Emotions

Guess who's back! Not only me, but also OPI, with their coming Christmas release in collaboration with Mariah Carey (yes, again!). As expected, the shades of this collection are rather conservative, but a few are a bit more daring, like my first pick: Emotions.

A variety of sloppy photos, of which the last one is shot with my iPhone when the manicure was still fresh (the rest are shot the next morning). The sharpness isn't the best, but I'm pretty sure you can tell what's going on here, and that is a fully black Liquid Sand. Black (slightly jellyish) base, with two sizes of black glitters. And the larger, or less small, glitters actually do glitter. Unfortunately that is not very obvious here, but you'll just have to trust me on this. I've worn this for three days now and it has held up remarkably well for a Liquid Sand - mostly they tend to chip in no time. This was two and a half coats - I reinforced the tips a little after the second coat because they were a bit see-through. Beware though: as always with Liquid Sand polishes, try to keep the coats as thin as possible (I know that's difficult considering the texture), or the "sandiness" will be somewhat drowned in base.

This polish is sooo coooool, and if you tend to agree with me, I think this is the one you should get. I'll post some of the other shades soonish as well, but I think there will be very few surprises. On the other hand, if you're a fan of the classics, there may be some niceties to look forward to.

Vesper my name

Yeah, she really did. Or, rather, screamed it. Vesper wanted to come to mama.

I was generous with her, so I put three coats on, mostly to completely cover up my existing gel manicure, but also because I'm like that. Vesper is a really, really dark purple base, with purple and black glitters, but you will have to wait up to an hour before it looks more than just black. Close to my cuticle where the polish is thinner, you can tell the base is actually purple. And yes, I forgot to do cleanup on my pinky.

Vesper is definitely not for the shy. The color in combination with the Liquid Sand finish makes her a lot more than just a classic vampy. Possibly intimidating in all her power. Needless to say, I love her, like mad. But even the most passionate of loves comes with pain, and yes, I find the Liquid Sand polishes absolutely horrible to remove.

Have your hearts softened towards the (intendedly) gritty polishes yet?

This product was sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
kväll -noun evening
And the Latin word is vesper.

OPI Couture de Minnie - bottles and quick swatches

Evidently a prosperous concept, OPI is once again collaborating with Disney in a Minnie Mouse themed collection. Just like last year, it's a small collection, five polishes in otal, of which one is a topping glitter, and of course one Liquid Sand. Let's take a rather quick and sloppy look.

Clockwise from top left: Chic From Ears to Tail (bubblegum pink creme base with a sprinkling of subtle silver shimmer), A Definite Moust-Have (medium pink creme base with slight silver frost), Innie Minnie Mightie Bow (red shimmer).

Magazine Cover Mouse (red Liquid Sand with gold and pink glitters), Minnie Style (red, magenta and white same size hexagons in clear base).

Here are some (rather useless) swatch sticks:

Left to right: Chic From Ears to Tail, A Definite Moust-Have, Innie Minnie Mightie Bow, Magazine Cover Mouse, Minnie Style.

Close up on Magazine Cover Mouse in sun.


Let's admit, first and foremo(u)st, that the swatchsticks are rather unrevealing - my camera is a bit intimidated by red tones, but the slightly rippled surfaces of the polishes doesn't help either. Dont worry though, neither of these shades are something to write home about. If you like the paste pink cremes, maybe you'll find the little silver glimmers in Chic From Ears to Tail somewhat tempting, though. I really don't like A Definite Moust-Have, which has both a color that's a little weird and alters between looking like a bright fuchsia in some lightings, and like a warm, deep rosy color in others, and the subtle frost OPI has been trying hard to bring back in the last few collections. Innie Minnie Mightie Bow is a nice red shimmer, but not terribly special unless you want them all.

Minnie Style is once again one of those glitters where all particles are the same size and shape. I didn't like it in Skyfall's The Living Daylights, and I don't particularly care for it now. I would have preferred two or three different glitter sizes in this color constellation.

My favourite in this collection is the Liquid Sand, Magazine Cover Mouse. If you really liked the idea of the Bond Girls' Jinx, but would have preferred a cooler tone, more red than coral, this is the one you've been waiting for.

All in all, not terribly exciting unless you're a huge fan of classic pinks and reds. Let's hope for entire collections of greens and blues instead.

These products were sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
mus -noun mouse
Small rodent.

OPI The Bond Girls - bottles and quick swatches

By now we're all familiar with the gritty Liquid Sand finish which supposedly is the big thing this year. From OPI, we've already got four in the Mariah Carey collection, and one in the Oz the Great and Powerful soft shades collection, and to fully exhaust the concept, we're given six new shades for summer, called The Bond Girls collection.

Clockwise from bottom left: Solitaire, Pussy Galore, and Tiffany Case.

Clockwise from top left: Jinx, Vesper, and Honey Ryder.

Pussy Galore, pink with pink glitters; Solitaire, white with silver glitters; and Tiffany Case, blue with silver glitters.

Vesper, vampy plum with black and purple glitters; Honey Ryder, gold with gold ans silver glitters; and last Jinx, coral with gold glitters.


I wasn't expecting much from an entire collection of Liquid Sand polishes, but these are actually way better than the promotional images would make one believe. Perhaps the selecion of colors isn't the most brave, which is always sort of expected from OPI, but they are fairly well executed. Pussy Galore and Tiffany Case doesn't strike me as particularily interesting, but at least Pussy Galore is a baby pink with a little more attitude than we're used to. Honey Ryder doesn't make me tingle either, but it's a gold, and will solely for that reason be welcomed by many.

Jinx is actually very nice, although I can't really see myself wearing it. My photos don't make the glitzyness of it look anywhere near reality. The shades I'm certain I will be wearing at one point or another, is Solitaire, and of course Vesper. Solitaire is crisp in several senses, and as long as it doesn't catch a lot of dirt, which will inevitably show, it will look like your nails are covered in snow. Vesper is the outstanding one in my personal opinion. She doesn't look like much in the bottle, only very dark, but once dried, all the different aspects show up. Considering that my previous favourite among the Liquid Sands were the lava-like Stay the Night, I dare say the vampy ones are OPI's forte in this genre.

The formulas vary a bit in thickness, possibly due to pigments used. Vesper was the most thin, but I'll forgive her that. All swatches above are three coats, but some only need two.

As the names are once again, just like those of the Skyfall collection, classic Bond names, I have no problem with them. I sincerely hope OPI will back off the terrible sense of humor and pick some more less inventive names in the future.

The Bond Girls will be available in Swedish stores in May, so US girls may be able to find them in April already.

Will you be picking any of these up, or are you tired of the sandy finish?

These products were sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
Bondbrud -noun Bond girl [litterally: Bond bride]
That's what we call them.

Stay the Night - if you dare...

This is the one polish from the OPI Mariah Carey collection worth having: Stay the Night.

This was three coats, though as usually I'll refer to bishop Brask and say that some of you will feel content at two. I, however, felt that the base was a bit on the sheer side for a blackish polish, and I never complain doing the third coat. The red glitters in this polish really glows,, while the black glitters creates the gritty Liquid Sand finish. Although it also dries matte, the final finish needs a longer drying time than what you'd expect. Also, it goes without saying that applying lotion will take a bit of the matteness off. The photos in this post were shot the morning after application, and the finish is a tad worn. When fresh - but fully dried - there's also this awesome charcoal-y, ashy overlay that makes this polish look like lava.

Still a bit skeptical towards this gritty finish, I think this particular shade is totally worth it. This is as cool as it gets in just one bottle, at least for this year.

This product was sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
lava -noun lava
Wear it on your nails.

OPI and Mariah Carey

Last year, OPI brought us polishes in collaboration with Nicki Minaj, and the year before with Katy Perry. This year, we're getting Mariah Carey's rendering of polish colors.

Clockwise from bottom left: Anti-Bleak, Sprung, A Butterfly Moment, and Pink Yet Lavender.

The much talked about Liquid Sand polishes, clockwise from bottom left: Stay the Night, Get Your Number, The Impossible, Can't Let Go.


And the wheel swatches I was able to shoot under the current conditions in le ol' midwinter Sweden:

A Butterfly Moment, Sprung, Pink Yet Lavender, Anti-Bleak.

Stay the Night, Get Your Number, Can't Let Go, The Impossible.

The wheel swatches can be magnified, but the detail isn't very good due to high iso grain.

The four polishes of more traditional finishes is what could be expected from an artist such as Mariah Carey - they are the more classic, ladylike colors. In contrast to last year's Nicki Minaj collection, they could very well be perceived as boring. A Butterfly Moment has a bit of an unfortunate finish and is somewhat prone to brush strokes, but is definitely an office appropriate color. Sprung is a bronzey copper shade that will suit warmer skin tones nicely, but it doesn't feel very new or spectacular. Pink Yet Lavender is a rather typical OPI glitter of recent years - not too big hexagonal glitters along with smaller silvery, holographic glitters in a clear base. And this pale pink version just isn't all that exciting, even though I can see how those who prefer classic colors will want to reach for this one to do something more bold. Anti-Bleak is the vampy plum creme who will work for a lot of people. It's just that it is painfully close to OPI's own Casino Royale, which of course came in the preceding collection Skyfall. They are not by any means identical, but too close to be released so close to each other in time.

The Liquid Sand polishes is what makes this collection stand out. It has been widely discussed beforehand whether this is a good finish or not. Some are tempted, but others are more skeptical. Regardless of how you feel about actually wearing polishes with the finish of an 50 grit file, they are somewhat interesting. I really like Stay the Night. It looks like lava! Had there been a few sprinklings of an orange glitter, the imagery would have been perfect. A heavy metal oriented person of course can't resist this. The others are a little less alluring. Get Your Number surely is a nice shade of aqua blue, with holographic glitters that makes it sparkle despite the lack of glossy finish, but Can't Let Go falls flat for me. There is nothing that makes it stand out beside the gritty finish. However, if the sandy texture is doing it for you, and you like a medium purple, then perhaps this one's for you. The last member of the family, The Impossible, is sorta bouncing back and forth in the spectrum between interesting and completely disastrous. The color is a bright magenta leaning red, there are the typical OPI hexagon glitters, and there are star shaped glitters. Which you sometimes will have to really fish for. And that will perhaps make an adult feel like a 14 year old. Whether that is good or bad is something we will have to leave to the particular beholder to decide.

This collection leaves me with an ambivalent feeling. It is one that I was very interested in seeing in person, but that I don't really want to wear much from. The only color I really like is Stay the Night. If you think you can handle the finish, I think it's a must have, especially if you're one of them who swears by the typical black with red glitter polishes. That stuff absolutely glows! Despite my feelings, I think the first part of the collection will sell really well, since they speak to the less daring, general crowd. The other part will probably sell better among younger people.

All products were sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
flytande -adjective liquid
Polishes tend to stop being so after a few minutes of air exposure.