FINALLY!!! OPI Suede Collection!!!!!

I was pretty scathing in my review of the OPI Matte Collection. I wondered aloud if OPI made the Suedes because they immediately realized how crappy their Mattes were next to other companies like Nubar and Zoya, and those brands' magnificent semi-matte velvety finishes. It appears I was right, because OPI completely redeemed themselves with Suede. Everything that was wrong with Matte is right with Suede. OPI, come back, all is forgiven!!!

They did as I tried to do with the Mattes, they raised the darker colors several shades so you could SEE them, and added a massive quantity of metallic powder to them so they would have some depth, shine and texture. These are about the texture of soft whipped butter. They spread well, and dry quickly. When they dry they look like your fingernails were professionally powder-coat painted. It's such an easy way to get manicured-looking nails within minutes. I would say try to get these in one coat, and not apply two, they can tend to ripple and clump if you use too much polish. I applied these over wet and dry base coat, had no shrinkage or rippling problems with either, they dried quickly and no matte finish was lost.

For those who hate and fear matte polish, I would reconsider. These are not flat. These are like velvet - they have a glow, or like the back side of satin. They have both texture and a mixture of matte and shine. As I said about Zoya's MatteVelvets, these look like velvet made with satin, they have a soft matte but glowing textured layer over a base of shine. They really do look a lot like suede, but if the lowest layer of the suede was shiny. These are terrific. I would have preferred a red instead of two reddish purples, and a green instead of two blues, but otherwise I am over the moon about these polishes.

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Suede, a much needed color lightening, and doing so made it such a gorgeous color!


OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees Suede is OPI's version of Zoya Loredana, or ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly. It's more the color of Fuggen Ugly, but the texture of Loredana. Needless to say I love it!


OPI Russian Navy Suede does lose a little bit in translation, but it's still pretty. It loses the characteristic purple shimmer, so it could have been tossed for a gorgeous dark green, imagine how great it would have been if they had lightened Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow like they did Lincoln Park and made it Suede!?


OPI You Don't Know Jacques Suede is SO much better Suede than Matte. A boring taupeish brown becomes a sleek sophisticated brown. A real standout.


OPI Ink Suede is more successfully interpreted that Russian Navy. Love it! Somehow manages to keep the purple quality!


OPI We'll Always Have Paris Suede, pretty but this coulda been lost for a red or a vampy burgundy.


Well took me a while, but worth the wait, saved a lot by buying these online. I seriously adore them!!

Essie Cuddle With Color Fall 2009 Collection

I'm a bit late with this one, but I wasn't going to buy it til it came on at internet prices and I could buy the mini set. And I'm glad because while it's more exciting than normal Essie offerings it's all been done before. I did not buy or swatch bright tights, it's just a neon orange. I'm sure the formula is fine. Buy it if you like neon oranges. As I said I bought the mini set, plus one full size bottle, Chinchilly.

Essie Pink Parka. Neon pink. It's got more blue to the pink than their summer offering, Punchy Pink, and I adore the color. It's pretty much exactly the base color of Color Club's summer offering Electro candy, but without the blue shimmer. I do like it but a mini will be quite enough. Sometimes neon pinks can get a bit orangey, and this one absolutely is not orangey.


Essie Chinchilly. A grey with a healthy helping of taupe. Would have preferred a straight grey, this reminds me of dirty filing cabinets.


Essie Midnight Cami is another midnight navy blue with a slight shimmer. It has a nice cobalt tone, if it's been a few shades lighter it woulda been to die for, but as is it's just yet another almost black.


Essie Angora Cardi, a simple creme, kinda a bit redder/purplier than raisin.


Essie Mink Muffs is a cool-tone brown. Nice for work.


The formula is standard decent Essie, the colors add some needed variety to Essie's line, but are kinda unremarkable. I think it'd be a nice work set, barring the neons.

China Glaze Retro Diva Fall 2009 Collection

I love China Glaze, it is easily one of my top 3 favorite polishes in the world, maybe even #1. They have endless colors, nice jellies and shimmers, super glitters like Ruby Pumps, and they have the GLASS FLECKS, which rock all corners of ass. This year has not been their best year, but they have a super bunch of polishes already, so some slack can be cut.

The Retro Diva Collection for Fall 2009 features their regular formula, which is good. It's not the best or the worst formula, but it is very good and easy to use. I make sure my brush stick is scraped and wipe one side of the brush against the bottle opening so I have a good load of polish, but only on one side of the brush. This minimizes sloppy application.

As for the colors, if you like orange/brown, purple and dark red you are in luck. If not, you're kinda screwed. The collection is mostly metallic frosts, with a few simple shimmers and one drool-worthy glass fleck thrown in. It's lovely if you like the colors. I do have to be honest, while I adore these jewel tones, which are rich and glowing like Zoya's Truth or Dare Collections, I prefer the big grain shimmer of Zoyas' offering to these metallic frosts. But that's a personal opinion on style. These are pretty polishes, and eye-catching, but I know I am going to reach for the Zoyas more often. No biggie, China Glaze is an incredible line, and I hear from AllLacqueredUp's tweets that they are going to put out Emerald Sparkle with gold glass fleck for the holidays!! Who can beat THAT?!

So this collection is a lot like the summer Custom Kicks collection, in that there are kinda too many polishes with similar colors. A fewer similar colors would have been nice. Here we go, arranged by color!

China Glaze Cords, a kind of grey-taupe metallic frost:


China Glaze Far Out, a warm brown frost that I like but makes me worry about the "Poo" factor.:


China Glaze Cruisin', an orange metallic frost. A jelly frost, if you will, it's sheerish.:


China Glaze Free Love, an orange frost. We needed this AND Cruisin', how?:


China Glaze Street Racing, a metallic frost in a super red-orange sort of blood orange shade. I adore this one!:


China Glaze Drive In, a darker orange-red metallic frost:


China Glaze Thunderbird, a gorgeous wine colored frost with metallic shimmer to it. Love this one.:


China Glaze Stroll, the queen of the collection. An incredible burgundy jelly with glass fleck shimmer. Just gorgeous and so much better than the picture. This polish is a must have.:


China Glaze Short & Sassy. Easing from red to purple here, and back to the metallic frosts. Pretty!:


China Glaze Skate Night, a juicy red-purple metallic frost:


China Glaze Stella, a yummy Tyrian metallic frost:


China Glaze Let's Groove, a gorgeous grape shimmer. This is actually tons of shimmer in a very dark almost black purple jelly. It reminds me a lot of Rimmel Night Before. Stunning.:


There you have it. Not earth-shattering for the most part, but if all I get out of this is Stroll, it would be enough.

Sally Hansen Chromes - More!

I promised more Sally Hansen Chrome Nail Makeup awhile ago. Here ya go! It's not the easiest thing to work with, and it's discontinued. I have to get mine off of eBay, but I love the stuff. I think it's fun and well worth the extra time applying.

Behold!

Sally Hansen Rhodolite Chrome:


Sally Hansen Canary Diamond Chrome:


Sally Hansen Aqua Chrome:


Sally Hansen Pink Diamond Chrome:


Sally Hansen Carnelian Chrome:


Sally Hansen Aquamarine Chrome:


Sally Hansen Royal Purple Chrome:


Sally Hansen Peach Crystal Chrome: