OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys

Remember when I used to blog? School is turning out to be stressful, so blogging (and painting my nails) is back!  By Back I mean: "hey I took these photos on my ipad' and 'ugh i need a break from anatomy, lets paint nails.' This sort of thing is SURE to bring all the readers in.

OPI Suzi loves Cowboys is a dark brown cream. I would say its a super dark chocolate brown, but I held my hands up to some 85% cocoa chocolate it it looked light. So maybe it is just 'Hershey's special dark' chocolate brown. I can't tell as I am a chocolate snob - or at least I try to be.

This polish from the OPI Texas collection that came out in spring 2011. Yes SPRING. This is not a spring color. It is however a great fall color. Even though I already chipped mine and it has been less than 24 hours. Ah the downside of dark colors.

I thought the formula was great. Two coats had some light patches on the nail, but they weren't too bad IRL. I can see them a LOT in the photos though.

Bootie Babe Pink Slink

Last week's post was draining, so you know what that means, pink polish. Also, I have started doing nail polish swaps. Its the awesome of nail mail and the freeing joy of getting rid of polishes I will never wear.

Bootie Babe (the brand) was created by a man. No surprise here. Have you see the butt on the bottle? Its like sexual harassment being marketed to women. *sigh* I did not photo the butt. It felt almost lewd. This bottle shot was just in my hand while checking lighting.Outdoors was too bright, and I ran out of batteries before I took another shot.

I got Pink Slink in a mystery box blog sale. Its a spring pink creme. Coverage evened out in 2 coats for the most part, but it was streaky. Its a nice spring color on me, but I would not really recommend it. See below.

Now this is an older polish (made in 2011), so if you buy new ones from the company, ignore the next rant. They fixed it, but since I am reviewing the one I have here it goes. The handle is a BEAST. Its short and wide. Even my 5 year old had issues. And the brush is teeny. I think the brush are the main causes for streaky hot mess. Ugh.

As an aside, when I was looking up info on the company I found out when this polish was sold they retailed for $6 and could be found on sale for $4. Now they run $12 for the bottle and clearance at $8. I guess that longer handle led to a 100% increase in costs. :-P So yeah. Love the color, not a fan of formula and less a fan of the brush/bottle. I would probably go pick up a drug store light pink cream for less than $6 and be happy with it.

Here is the tiny bottle compared to a Sinful Colors bottle. The SC is about half used and there is still more polish than in the BB.

If you want to buy this brand to give out as gag gifts or to your favorite chauvinist pig, you can google the company name and find them. They do not have a regular line, so if you like a color you see, buy it.

P.S. I only reviewed this because I decided to review everything I wear if I have a camera handy. But now I want to go pink cream polish hunting.

China Glaze High Hopes

This will be a down and dirty post. I have been hauling kids all over town to evaluation appointments as well as dealing with wonderful health dilemmas of my own. Hopefully an appointment next Tuesday will answer a LOT of my questions and solve a bunch of my health issues.

On to the polish!

China Glaze High Hopes is from the Spring 2010 Up and Away collection. Its a nice bright coral creme. Not a neon though, so if you love bright colors but neons are a bit much, this color is great. It looked a lot more 'red' with white and brighter light.

 Depending on length of your nails, you will need 2-3 coats. There was still visible nail line at 2 coats, so a 3rd for longer nails or those with really white tips. Application was nice. China Glaze does tend to have thinner formulas for their cremes. I like it, but it is a bit different than many brand's cremes and will probably need an extra coat because of it.

The third photo was comparing it with a different pink and it was a flop photo since the focus is off, BUT I wanted to show the color with a coral pink shirt I own. High Hopes is pretty much this same pink/coral shade but with a bit more intensity to the color. This wasn't in as intense light as the first photos, plus a more muted background help the color seem a little less intense.

The color is a lot brighter than the bottle though. The bottle was the same shade as my shirt in the 3rd photo. The polish is clearly more intense.

I bought this polish and all opinions are my own. You can find China Glaze at many beauty retailers and for super discount prices several places on the internet. I tend to buy mine online because I can get bottles for around $3-3.50 while at Sallys its about twice that price.

Battle of the White polishes!

 I decided to see what white base was the best for under a neon. I used all the whites I had in my bin including OPI Tutu which is a sheer jelly and not really a white but more of a control in the experiment. After reading reviews I though China Glaze White on White would perform the best. Its rather popular for white due to price and its a nice white cream that tends to perform rather well. How they did will be shown in pictures and with descriptions below. The funky texture on my hands is because I took the photos inside the screen door. It didn't seem that obvious until I was editing pictures, sorry!

So first up the whites on the nails in all their glory. Sorry for the dry cuticles, these pictures were from when I tried using 100% acetone to clean up cuticles, and its DRYING. Using vasoline on the cuticles will help save your hands, but I didn't realize that at the time.

 On the pointer finger, I have OPI Tutu which is a sheer jelly and I mostly used this as my control in the experiment. This is essentially how it would look if I didn't use white under the polish. I only did one coat because I know its sheer.
Middle finger is OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls which is a slightly gray tinted white cream from the Spiderman Collection. This needed 2 coats to be solid. As you can see its more gray than the last 2 nails. Also, this needed the *longest* dry time of the bunch.
Ring Finger is Orly's Dayglow (won in a giveaway from Apple Laquer! Yay!). Dayglow is labeled as a 'stark white cream' but there is some shimmer type action going on in the bottle and it almost seems more like an opaque jelly on the nail based on how it wants to be applied. This was sort of streaky. I added a couple of drops of thinner, that didn't help much.I found out it just wants to be put down in a thick coat and then let it dry a little longer than you would for thinner coats.
Pinky is China Glaze's White on White. White cream, I have used this before pretty much a 1 coater, but I have had issues with chipping within a day/hours of application. I did add a second coat just to make sure it was a good solid white base.

 Adding the neon was an issue for me. Turned up Turquoise dries matte. And it start looking matte before it was actually dry. So you can see brush marks  from where I added more polish and the other layers weren't dry. So wait several minutes between coats even if it SEEMS dry.

And here they all are with a top coat. See that middle finger? Yeah OPI boyfriend smudged. It really really needed a long dry time for me. Longer than I anticipated that is for sure. The brush strokes actually started with the first layer and got worse after each layer.

My faves as a base for neons? Orly Dayglow and Chine Glaze White on White. They both made the neon POP! I would say for the least amount of layers and thus fastest mani, use China Glaze White on White. If you have a longer amount of time and get the white base solid before adding the neon the Orly performed really well and made the color pop. This was my first time using Orly Polish and I was pretty pleased with it. Again, I would recommend doing thick coats just to even out the white base, but it wore a lot better than the OPI and the China Glaze.

Third option for a neon mani would be OPI Tutu or no white base at all, just a clear base. It took an extra coat or so to get the same depth of color, and it wasn't quite as bright as the white bases, but if you don't really want another polish in your box you can feel free to skip it.

OPI Boyfriend seemed to darken the turquoise and it was not very exciting or neon once darkened. I did use an extra coat on the first two trying to get them to look as good as the last two (part of why I got lovely brush drag marks). PLUS the chipping! After waiting for.ev.er for everything to dry this one still was not dry. And I love OPI polish in general so I was rather bummed. I don't know if it was the base or how the base and the neon worked together.


Opi Boyfriend is best not layered under a neon. Its fine for nail art or with a glitter or something on top, but it made the neon more drab. Its also nice for a white nails that is less white out looking. But again this was experimenting with layering and in this experiment it was a big fat fail for me.

You can buy these brands and polishes at various retailers on the web as well as in stores (though some of these colors/collections might not all be available now). All opinions are my own, and with the exception of winning the Orly in a giveaway, I purchased all the polishes myself. Prices can rage for the polishes, but retail prices are $7-10. China Glaze is the least expensive and you can find online retailers that sell it for $3ish every day.

Essie Mint Candy Apple

One of the most popular colors ever. OK maybe not ever, but you can find dupes and nearly dupes of this color or a very similar shade in nearly every brand.

I have it here with 2 coats. Sorry the cuticles are so scary. I ran out of remover and clean up didn't happen. I didn't wait long enough between coats and got some drag when I added a second coat. It didn't really 'need' 2 coats, but I wanted to make sure to have a good solid layer. My nails are still quite short so probably with longer nails I would need 2 coats anyway.

First photo is with flash. Second photo is the next morning.

OPI Siberian Nights

I am trying to post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This means on days when I feel like posting, I schedule in advance. And days when I don't want to paint or write, I do nothing and you still see posts. I think its a good plan for me. I won't forget the blog, but I don't spam you all with 3 posts in one day and then none for a week.

OPI Siberian Nights is a dark, dark cream purple. It looks more purple in the bottle than on the nail though, on the nail it was pretty much black.

It went on a little more thick than some OPI colors, but it was opaque in 2 coats no problem. I might try adding a drop of thinner just to decrease drying time. But I won't test the polish on my hands for a bit.

My camera doesn't do purples as well as some other cameras, but yes it really looks this color in person. (Unless you get bright sunlight then its more purple, but for most real life applications its virtually black.) That being said, its great for going under something that you don't want a straight black. I have pics coming Wednesday with this layered. Trust me, it is a world of difference. Holographic top coats, fun glitters, etc. If plain black isn't you, this color might be.

OPI retails for $8.50 and can be found at most salons. I can also purchase locally at JC Penny, Beauty Brands, and Ulta. Find authorized retailers at www.opi.com

Zoya Barbie

Zoya is my current favorite polish. It makes me feel good that its 5 free, plus there are so many unique colors. But not this one. If you search for dupes for this color there are some very close versions from other companies.

And the photos looked good on the camera but once cropped they aren't as crisp as I would like.

This is a very basic pink cream. Makes me think of classic Malibu Barbie. I wore it with a super conservative suit jacket and it went well. This is also a bit thicker or more opaque than some of the other Zoya colors. I usually use 3 coats for full coverage, I only needed 2 for this.

These photos are two full days into the manicure and there is a small chip on the middle fingernail. But nothing too bad. I did have a toddler 'painting' I scrubbed up by hand on day one and that is when the chip happened. This is with Zoya Armor top coat. It wasn't quite strong enough to withstand the scrubbing, but much better than other top coats I have used. **As a note for the top coat, if you don't use enough on the brush it will pull the color on the nail. I learned that on my other hand. So a thick coat is better.**

The two pics are indirect natural light. My direct light photo didn't come out.

So there you go. Zoya is 5 free nail polish. Its free of the Big 3 (Formaldehye, dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) and Toluene and also free of Formaldehye resin and camphor. The retail price for this polish is $8, but you can often watch for special sales. If you don't have a Zoya account, you can sign up for one here and they give out occasional promo codes to people with accounts.

https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/0148DB36

*This is a share the love link. I can receive free polish and/or points to use for future purchases of either $ off or free shipping if you sign up through my link.*