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OPI San Francisco Collection Minis Giveaway

Posted on 28 July, 2013 by Cynthia

Hi everyone! As you know, I always do a giveaway for new OPI collections so I managed to pick up a set that will go to one lucky reader. You may have already seen my swatches for this collection which I broke up into three separate parts: liquid sands, cremes and shimmers. I have added one swatch of each polish to this post so they can all be in one single post–I just didn’t want to have one huge post on the whole collection.

OPI Peace & Love & OPI

OPI Muir Miur On The Wall

OPI I Knead Sour-dough

OPI Haven’t The Foggiest

OPI Embarca-dare Ya!

OPI Dining Al Frisco

OPI Lost In Lombard

OPI Keeping Suzi At Bay

OPI Incognito In Sausalito

OPI In The Cable Car-pool Lane

OPI First Date At the Golden Gate

OPI A-piers To Be Tan

OPI Wharf! Wharf! Wharf!

OPI It’s All San Andrea’s Fault

OPI Alcatraz…Rocks

Now, for the fun part! You can enter to win a set of the OPI San Francisco Collection Minis by using the widget below. This giveaway is open internationally, but please make sure that you know the customs restrictions of your country before entering as I will not be responsible for any shipping issues. The colors in the set are First Date At The Golden Gate, In The Cable Car-pool Lane, Muir Muir On The Wall and Peace & Love & OPI. I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t include Alcatraz Rocks since that’s the Liquid Sand I loved the most.

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Good luck!

Disclaimer: The polishes swatched in this post were provided by PR. The OPI San Francisco Collection Minis set was purchased by me.

OPI San Francisco Collection – Shimmers

Posted on 24 July, 2013 by Cynthia

It’s Wednesday which means that I am doing a little happy dance because I had the day off! Woot! Even more importantly, I was able to sleep in until 7 am which was an unbelieavable treat. I don’t think the majority of people have to wake up at 3:45 am to get to work by 5:00 so sleeping in feels like heaven. I’ve been rewatching the first season of The Walking Dead all morning so I feel kind of scared and jumpy, but man is this show good. I didn’t do as much swatching as I was hoping to do since I was able to finish the swatches for this post last night.

Today I have the third and final part of my posts featuring the OPI San Francisco Collection. (You can see my posts for the cremes and the liquid sands by clicking on the links.) This post is going to feature the shimmers which also include some multi-chrome goodness. Let’s get this polish show on the road!

When I first started seeing swatches of OPI Dining Al Frisco, I was thinking to myself: “No, oh no. Not a frost, please no!!!” While this isn’t as frosty as I thought it was going to be, it’s still not a color I would normally gravitate towards and the application is a bit tricky because it’s very prone to brushstrokes.

If you love glowing lit-from-within polishes, you’re probably going to like OPI Embarca-dare Ya! I really like the base color of this polish but it did seem a little thin upon application. The second coat gave me an opaque finish.

OPI Haven’t The Foggiest isn’t very interesting to me. I’m not a big fan of silvery polishes. The application of this polish is great because it’s very easy to control, and it’s practically a one coater. I no longer have OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, but this reminds me a lot of it.

I wasn’t expecting to like OPI I Knead Sour-dough but it really won me over once I applied it. The formula on this one also seemed a little thin, but two coats were enough for a nice even finish. This one reminds me of a darker and more glow-y version of Gouda Gouda Two Shoes. It’s not a dupe by any means, but it’s definitely a relative.

OPI Muir Miur On The Wall is so gorgeous. The pigmentation on this was deceptively thin but it looked perfect once I applied the second coat. I love dark blackened colors like this especially when they have some amazing shimmer.

Last but certainly not least, here is the belle of the ball: OPI Peace & Love & OPI. I had heard talk about how amazing this polish is and I am so mad at myself for not being able to capture it’s full multi-chrome goodness. You can kind of see the purple flash at the edges which is basically just one of the colors that you will see as you change the angle of this polish. It’s just gorgeous.

So what do you think? My three favorites from this part of the collection are I Knead Sour-dough, Muir Muir On The Wall and Peace & Love & OPI. I hope you have liked my swatches of this 15 piece collection. I’m sorry if I have now enabled you to purchase some or all of these–apparently it’s what I do best. Don’t forget to let me know if you have any favorites. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.!

San Francisco nail lacquer shades each feature OPI’s exclusive ProWide^™ Brush for the ultimate in application. Liquid Sand nail lacquers should always be worn without top coat. San Francisco by OPI will be available August 7, 2013, at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, ULTA and ulta.com for $9.00 ($10.95 CAN) suggested retail for each nail lacquer. For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com. Follow OPI on Twitter @OPI_PRODUCTS and become a Facebook fan!

OPI San Francisco Collection – Liquid Sands

Posted on 19 July, 2013 by Cynthia

Hey there, lovahs. I was super glad for Friday because I have two scheduled days off in a row. Yay for having Saturday and Sunday off! And then I was asked to work on Sunday…womp, womp. While I could have said no, I am very conscious of the fact that I could really use the extra moola now that I have this new expense with the car. So of course I said yes which means that this week, I will be working over 50 hours. That may not seem like a lot to some of you, but I feel old, damnit! I need my rest. I know that I’m *only* 33, but I just feel like it takes me so long to get used to a new schedule and my body just needs more rest and sleep. Can you remember being in your late teens/early twenties and basically needing about 2 hours of sleep? How else could you party all night and go to class at 8 am like if that was perfectly normal? Do I sound bitter about getting older? Anyway, enough of my complaining and let’s move on to the polish.

When the OPI San Francisco Collection arrived, I was in nail polish nirvana. I ripped open the boxes like they were holding the last Twinkie on earth, but this was me when I saw that there were THREE Liquid Sands, and two of them did NOT have any sparkle:

I know…I know. Is every collection from now on going to include some kind of texture polish?
Anyway, let me tell you why I am now eating my words.

If you’re a dramatic blue lover, you’re going to love OPI Wharf! Wharf! Wharf! This baby is crazy pigmented and just makes your nails the center of attention. I wasn’t that excited about this polish at first because it’s a flat textured polish without any sparkle. No glitter in a Liquid Sand makes me a sad panda. However, this grew on me the more I wore it.

This is the polish that will fulfill the wet dream of anyone looking for an amazing neutral WITH texture. OPI It’s All San Andrea’s Fault is a beautiful milk chocolate neutral that I can see myself getting away with during more conservative settings without sacrificing the fun factor.

OPI Alcatraz…Rocks is the polish I was most looking forward to from the three Liquid Sands and I can tell you that it does NOT disappoint. Holy crap this polish is gorgeous! It’s full of so much sparkle that it makes up for the lack of glitter in the other two. As soon as I put on this baby, I thought of Sean Connery:

I’m kind of in love with Sean Connery so I was not about to pass up an opportunity to share this clip!

Overall, I am pleasantly surprised. The formula on all three polishes was identical: pigmented, easy to apply and perfect at two coats. I wasn’t expecting to like the first two because they are the usual popcorn ceiling texture, but I think the colors really won me over. Of course I knew that I was going to like Alcatraz…Rocks so it’s no big surprise that it turned out to be my absolute favorite. I decided to break up my post for the San Francisco Collection into three parts because there are 15 polishes in all, and I didn’t want to have such a picture heavy post. I’ll be posting the other 2 parts in the coming days so make sure that you check back. I have so many freaking things to share with you that I don’t even know how I’m going to get all the swatching done. Ok…ok…I’m not really complaining about having so many new polishes because that would just be nuts! Amiright or amiright?! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will catch up with you later.