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...

Theoretical Blogger

I got this one also from Katarina over at the Edgy Polish webshop - from a new to me brand called Vivid Lacquer, this shade is called Theoretical Blogger.

Pale pastel purple with a mix of various smaller glitters in different purple shades and black - I think this was three coats. This has this speckled egg shell feeling to it. Application wasn't too terrible for being a pastel, and after topcoating it looks nice and even.

Apparently this shade is part of a whole collection of  pale colors mixed with matching glitters. There is a green one, a blue, a pink and a grey. The latter one is called Theoretical Rockstar, and looks really nice.

It is actually very comforting seeing independent line glitter polishes that aren't the typical bombs of ginormous particles, but rather smaller glitters that create effect more than bling. What do you think? Are you tired of glitter bombs yet?

This products was sent or review.

Swedish word of the day:
blek -adjective pale
Not necessarily unimpressive.

OPI Oz - the Great and Powerful

It's the Soft Shades time of year again! This year, OPI gives us a truly mixed collection, called Oz - the Great and Powerful, after the movie that goes by the same name and will premiere on the International Women's Day on March 8th.

Clockwise from top right: I Theodora You, Don't Burst My Bubble, and Glints of Glinda.

Clockwise from bottom left: When Monkeys Fly!, Lights of Emerald City, and Which is Witch?.

Don't Burst My Bubble, three coats. Very pale, slightly warm toned pastel pink crelly.

Glints of Glinda, three coats. Peach leaning beige pastel jelly.

I Theodora You, three coats. Slightly translucent light bubblegum pink creme.

Lights of Emerald City, one coat over Don't Burst My Bubble. Larger white square glitter mixed with smaller iridescent squares in the red to gold to green spectrum, in transparent base.

When Monkeys Fly!, one coat over Glints of Glinda. Small and medium hexagonal, holographic silver glitters, and large gold hexes in transparent base.

Which is Witch?, one coat over I Theodora You. Micro and medium sized holographic silver hex glitter along with smaller holographic silver strings in transparent base.


In this collection you will also find a Liquid Sand polish in an antique golden bronzy shade, called What Wizardry is This?.

Topping last year's fantastic Soft Shades collection New York City Ballet of course wasn't an easy task for the OPI peeps, but to at least attempt it, they gathered a diverse bunch of lacquers in all sorts of finishes, where the three mandatory Soft Shades pastels have been accompanied by equally many glitters. The latter seem to have been made after glancing at what the independent brands have done lately. That means that these glitters are more brave than OPI ever dared to be before, and that the concept for the Soft Shades collection of the last couple of years, with one topper polish to accompany the pastels have already been overthrown. If you take the Liquid Sand polish into account, a supposedly new and daring finish of a color which isn't a classic Soft Shade in itself, the typical pastels are in minority. I applaud OPI for going outside their ladylike comfort zone, but was it really all that successful..?

Let's skip discussion of the pastel shades - they're pastels, nothing spectacular either in color or finish - and move straight to the glitter portion of the collection. I'm just going to get this overwith: When Monkeys Fly! is a disaster. While OPI really tried with the large hexes and all, they failed. The gold hexagons are a curly mess, which is very obvious in the photos above. Let's hope for a correction of this in future batches, but the batch my bottle is from had to endure being mixed with a glitter that obviously hasn't been tested for use in solvents over time. Try again, and try harder, OPI! And after this massive failure, I am happy to say I was happy to see OPI had made a glitter with iridescent particles. And squares! I love that. One may argue that most iridescent glitters look weird over lighter shades, and that perhaps the particle distribution is a little uneven and sometimes too abundant, but here OPI gets an A+ for effort. Which is Witch? is the one that will probably sell insanely well, especially in these times of string glitter deification - and come on, all the glitters in this baby are holographic! No tween can resist that. Perhaps their mothers can't either.

Worth mentioning à propos the pastels, is that the reason why we loved last year's New York City Ballet so much, which was the fantastic jelly finishes, is mostly gone this year. Don't Burst My Bubble has the classic annoying pastel formula with streakiness and patchiness and overall application hell, Glints of Glinda is the one that is the most jelly like, but it doesn't quite reach to the same translucency standards as the Ballets, and surprisingly, due to a breezy (for a pastel, that is...) application and not too shabby pink color, I Theodora You brings home the winner trophy in this round.

Oh, and I didn't hate the names! No, until I have seen the movie, I will stay indifferent towards them. Except when it comes to I Theodora You, because despite not having a clue who Theodora is, that is the cutest name Suzi has come up with in a long, long time. I Theodora it.

These products were sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
mäktig -adjective powerful
A pastel seldom is.

Pink-a-BOO!

Wearing not very alizariney colors - will it ever end? Not yet. I saw this bottle at a friend's, and fell in love with the shimmer. Thought "This will be perfect for work!", forgetting I don't have one at the moment. Anyway, I couldn't capture the shimmer in Essie's Pink-A-Boo. In reality, it's very pretty, here it's just washed out. I wore this manicure for several days before I got tired of it. Am I getting old..?

In this last picture you can sense the greatness of the shimmer. Imagine it a million times better in reality. I used three coats. Like I've said a bunch of times before, I'm not very skilled when it comes to application of pastels and sheers and the like, so I need to build them a bit to get rid of unevenness. Also, it makes me feel a little more comfortable, since I'm used to wearing opaque colors.

Have you surrendered to this prettyness yet? Will you? Is it okay that I have? asks the girl woman who used to avoid feminine shades.

Swedish word of the day:
tjejigt -adjective girly
Huh? Wait... What?

To buy ...what?

I don't know what has happened to me, but let's say it's spring: I'm reaching for colors I have never before been open towards. I'm buying pinks. Sheers. Bridal collections. Pastels. And I really disliked pastels on a personal level, when they got really big a few years ago. One pastel I got recently, is To Buy Or Not To Buy, from Essie's spring collection. At first I only got the very nice (again, sort of ...pastel) green from this collection, but then I spotted the pastel lavender bottle and its super pretty shimmer, and decided I needed that too. Despite it's incredibly ridiculous name. And, unfortunately, despite the fact that the shimmer barely shows up on the nail. I didn't even take pictures of it alone. Instead I opened one of my trusty flakie bottles: Finger Paints Asylum, and added the subtle oompf myself.

Since I'm terribly unexperienced with pastel application (due to my reluctance, of course), this is actually four coats of the Essie. The first  one is very thin though, because I usually start out my manicures that way, and I always, always, forget that pastels needs to just be slapped on as quickly as possible - with the mandatory risk of bubbling. And, if you're wondering why all these photos vary in color, it's because my camera still hates these warmer purple toned shades. It's a red leaning, more lavender than lilac one. At first I thought the last photo (shot with my dslr) was the most accurate, but now I'm leaning towards the sunny photo being that, only the shade is a tad darker. Oh, and can you see the underlying Essie shimmer? I know I can't.

Anyway. The Finger Paints flakie (one coat) made this manicure so much better. Without it, I wouldn't have liked it. It still felt very little like me, but it was okay. And any day soon, I just might post a manicure or two that are so not me that this Essie shade appears to have been made with me in mind.

Swedish word of the day:
lavendel -noun lavender
We emphasize the middle syllable.

OPI New York City Ballet

So, you know I'm not necessarily a bridal person, or likely to wear soft shades. However, I do have a few swatches of OPI's upcoming soft shades collection New York City Ballet. Let's check them out.

Barre My Soul, three coats. Warm, pink sheer pastel shade. Actually pretty flattering on me, but it's hard to tell because my camera does weird stuff to my skintone.

My Pointe Exactly, three coats. Cool, grey sheer pastel. Finally, a soft shade the more gothic among us can get behind!

I also got the glitter from the collection, Pirouette My Whistle. I made some sort of snow fall glitter gradient with it:

And I think that's pretty nice. Small silver glitter and relatively larger white hexagonal glitter. I'm still wearing this manicure, it's holding up, and I don't feel like changing it until it starts chipping.

Bridal collections are seldom interesting, but despite my usual reluctance towards those, I'm liking the shades I tried from this release. Barre My Soul may not be very unique, but I don't have colors like that, and I've already found use for it twice. I did the snow fall manicure with Barre My Soul as well, and used a sandwich method and put some glitter between coats. It was really cute, but unfortunately I got no daylight pictures. I like My Pointe Exactly even better, if I add the possibility of using a soft shade for an occation like intended it is somewhat edgy - put in context.

Pirouette My Whistle is a very nice glitter, in all its cuteness. It's not a dupe for Nubar White Polka Dots, as the small glitter is different. The hex glitter seems identical, though. I think I like the OPI one better, actually.

Formula wise, these aren't the type of shades I'm used to working with, and they gave me a bit of trouble. You really have to watch your strokes as previous coats easily rubs off if you over-work it. Barre My Soul was a tad streaky until the third coat, but using generous layers made it all a little easier, while the streaks were less obvious with My Pointe Exactly, which on the other hand was a whole lot more prone to bubbling and wouldn't allow me the generous coats Barre My Soul did. Pirouette My Whistle is of standard OPI glitter formula, a bit jellyish and thick. Using it the way I did gave me no trouble, but because of its thickness, nails may look a bit bumpy until fully dried. The surface ends up smooth, though.

For a soft shade collection, and the parts of it I've tried, hats off to OPI for trying something a little new. It may not be what I usually rush out to get, but I will find use for these in my working environment and the like. I also like that OPI has released a sparkle shade with the pastels these last couple of years - last year's I Juggle... Men was a nice one too, and allows for some creativity to loosen up the conservative pastel colors.

These will be out in Swedish stores by the end of March, so I'm guessing about a week or two earlier in the US.

Swedish word of the day:
snöfall -noun snow fall
We've had plenty of it here in Stockholm over the last week.

Depend Summer 2011 - bottles and quick swatch

You wanna know the truth? I'm broke. I'm so damn broke I can't afford to buy polish. So, you can only guess how happy I was to finally have some polish in the mail today - the new Depend colors for summer! Here are some lousy bottle photos and a sloppy wheel swatch to get your juices going. No sun today. Sorry.

Some similar shimmers - 251, 243, 242.

Two jellies - 248 and 244, and the repromoted 122.

Some blues - 252, 247, 246.

Some cremes - 250, 245, 249.

And here's the wheel. This time, the colors are in number order. Confusing, huh? You may want to magnify this photo.

All are two coats except 252 which is somewhat sheer and really needed a third. It's a rather nice jellyish bright medium blue packed with glassfleck shimmer. One of my favourites.

The repromoted 122 is a typical hot pink with blue sheen. I like this type of pink, and despite what I suspect to be a worrysome formula I'm definitely going to wear this, even though you'll probably be able to find one among the core line of your favourite brand.

Depend are never late to jump on any bandwagon, and I believe the OPI "sorbet" jellies launched recently inspired them to throw in a couple. Though with much more ladylike coloration. 244 is a salmon pink, and 248 is a slightly muted, pastel sort of, apricot. Since they are swatched on white plastic they look a little bit off, but these are nice sheer colors for the people who like classics and office appropriate. I would never wear them myself, so I'll be handing them over to a friend.

My favourite picks among these are, except for 252, the bright, cool toned green 249, the silver packed dusty purple 243, and the blue metallic 247. The first color to come to mind upon the first glance at 249 was China Glazes Four Leaf Clover, but after a comparison I've established that the Depend is less bright, and about two steps darker. I love it.

I usually don't care much for pastels, but I really like the pale, dove blue, silver packed 251. I've always imagined myself wearing an Empire style dress this color, would I ever get married.

Personally, I like the Depend formula, and most of these are well pigmented and behave nicely. The trouble child is the re-released 122, which is kind of gluey, but I'll try to manage it anyways out of pure stubbornness. As always, Depend put out collections with all colors of the rainbow, this time the emphasis seems to be on blue hues. Surprisingly little pink and purple. Overall, I think it's a nice collection with a little something for everyone thrown in.

These will be available in Swedish stores next week or so, and probably about the same time in the rest of Scandinavia. Outside Scandinavia? Swapping is the way to go.

Any you'd like to see full swatches of?

Swedish expression of the day:
gott och blandat a little bit of everything
from
gott -adjective I good II delicious
blandning -noun mix
Pretty self-explanatory.

OPI Pirates of the Caribbean - chapter II

So lets continue with the pink and purple pastels of the Caribbean collection. All swatches are two coats, no topcoat.

Steady as she Rose. Grey-ish light pink lavender.

Sparrow me the Drama. Rosy pink.

Planks a Lot. Dusty blue-ish purple.

I didn't find any exact dupes in my collection but I don't own a lot of cremes. Sparrow me the Drama has the same rosy pink color as OPI Por Favor, but Por Favor has shimmer in it. Steady as she Rose is something between China Glaze Light as Air and OPI Pandamonium Pink but neither of them is a dupe. Planks a Lot is a darker and a little more purple version of OPI Done Out in Deco (which is more grey in my opinion) although they are quite alike as you can see in the comparison below.

1. Planks a Lot, 2. Done Out In Deco

Swedish word of the day:
påsk -noun easter
Because that's what the pastels in this collection reminds me of

OPI Pirates of the Caribbean - chapter I

One of OPI's spring offerings, the collaboration with another huge movie company and a simultaneous release with the new movie this collection shares its name with, has landed in my mailbox: Pirates of the Caribbean. This collection consists of six pastel cremes and a new color crackle, or shatter, polish, this time in a sparkling silver.

Today I'll be showing you these:

Skull & Glossbones, Stranger Tides, and Mermaid's Tears.

All swatches are three coats, without any base or topcoats.



Skull & Glossbones. Beige-y bone grey.



Stranger Tides. Dusty, beige green.



Mermaid's Tears. 60's kitchen appliances dusty mint green on the cooler side.

Among these, the formula was a tiny bit inconsistent, but definitely far from the worst I've experienced with pastels. I needed three coats for all of them, even though I'm known to be one of those habitual three coaters I would say you'll need that to even out the surface - at least if you have longer nails. (However, this is as usual partly a matter of preference.) Skull & Glossbones had drying time that exceeded those of the others, and the one that gave me more problems with unevenness and patchiness was Stranger Tides. But overall, I didn't have any problems with these, and I had no issues with bubbling.

The other three lacquers will be posted by Cammi soonish, but I'll give you my thoughts on the collection as a whole. even though I'm normally not a pastel gal, I do like this collection a whole lot more than I did for example the recent Texas release. These go well together, and they fit both the season, and for those of you who care, at least partially the trends. Its overall impression reminds me of Essie's Resort collection from last summer, which makes me reflect upon the fact that OPI could seem like being one year behind, but on the other hand, I'm okay with that because I think these are really cute and at least one is unique enough for me. That being Stranger Tides, which ends up being my favourite.

Like always, I went on a pretty extensive dupe hunt, and although I do have some similar colors in my collection (which is of course not that large when it comes to pastels), I'm happy to report that the only close color to Stranger Tides I found was a discontinued polish from Make Up Store, Maria, which is still not a dupe. Mermaid's Tears feels like it has been done a fair amount of times, but once I did actual physical comparisons to similar colors in my stash, I wound up with no dupes for it. If you like this type of color a lot, you should probably get it. Additional information on comparison matters will hopefully be yours once Cammi has done her part, due to being the one of us who is into pastel colors. Let's put our trust in her!

Short summary for those of you who don't like large masses of text: I like this collection, it's nice, but I might not be jumping up and down over it. Out of six colors, I will wear three or four.

Oh, and the Silver Shatter? I will leave you hanging on that one, and post it separately in what I hope to be a wide range of variations.

Swedish word of the day:
ben -noun bone
but also
ben -noun leg
Some pirates may have only one.