Sephora by OPI Tinseltown

Photo credit: Stylebazer.com

In 2012 Sephora released six Sephora by OPI collections/gift sets with Tinsel Town being the limited collectors edition.

Since we don't have Sephora here in Australia I purchased this set from Tarazz.com.au for $54.94 AUD ($49.50USD - we had a good exchange rate at the time). Tinsel Town has 16 minis and one full size top coat in the collection.

Originally I wasn't going to swatch the whole collection but I thought I just had to to show the beauty of each colour so be prepared for a photo heavy entry.

L-R: I'm Wired, Already Famous, A True Romantic, What Aura Gonna Wear?

I'M WIRED

I'm Wired is your classic coral nail polish colour with a creme finish. Two coats is more than enough to get a good finish.

 

ALREADY FAMOUS

 Already Famous is a brown/gold shimmer and is quite thin in consistency and appears more like sheer top coat rather than a polish to wear on its own.

A TRUE ROMANTIC

 If you're after a nice french manicure base colour then A True Romantic is the polish for you with a nice pink creme finish it's a colour that will go with everything.

WHAT AURA GONNA WEAR?

 What Aura Gonna Wear? is a barbie pink colour with punch. This is one to bring out when the warmer weather makes its appearance in the year - HOT!

L-R: And a Cherry On Top, S-Age Is Just a Number, I Think I Cayenne, Read My Palm.

 

AND A CHERRY ON TOP

This is your typical true red jelly polish that reminds me of when I was younger. I'm pretty sure that I either my sister or mom had a Revlon colour like this. It's nice but I don't think I'd use it.

 

S-AGE IS JUST A NUMBER

This is DEFINITELY a doppelganger of OPI's Just Spotted the Lizard from the Amazing Spiderman collection. I used it as a base for when I swatched Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe. 

S-age Is Just a Number is a two tone chrome with fleck of blue, green, gold and purple (kinda like a peacock feather). It's a beautiful colour but really hard to capture on camera.

 

I THINK I CAYENNE 

 This one was quite surprising. When you look at this in the bottle it looks like an orange/green (yeah, not so nice right?) but once you apply I Think I Cayenne it becomes a shimmer yellow/orange with flecks of gold. It's a really beautiful colour but I wish it had more of a creme base as I feel the consistency is a little too thin. 

 

READ MY PALM 

Sometimes when I read the names of nail polishes I wonder "What were they thinking?" and Read My Palm is no exception. The only thing I could think of was that it's supposed to be reminiscent of palm trees? lol. This polish is a creme finish mint green and is more on the pastel side.

L-R: Justa' Pinch of Glitter, Just a Little Dangerous, I Don't Bite, Thyme for a Mani.

 

JUSTA' PINCH OF GLITTER

 Justa' Pinch of Glitter reminds me of a less glamourous version of Deborah Lippmann's Dancing in the Dark. If you LOVE glitter and the textured sand polishes then this shade is DEFINITELY for you!

 

JUST A LITTLE DANGEROUS

 This is a creme purple polish with a little hint of shimmer throughout. This should definitely be a staple colour in your collection!

 

I DON'T BITE

I Don't Bite is a lilac metallic shimmer nail polish that in some lighting looks almost holographic. It's a nice colour but with my complexion can look a little wishy washy.

 

THYME FOR A MANI

 This is another name that I don't get. Thyme is a herb, and it's green. This nail polish colour however is taupe/grey. Confusing much? Either way it's an interesting shade to include in a collection and I would never consider buying this on its own but it is quite nice.

L-R: Meet Me At The Disco, Leotard Optional, Merry Me, Break a Leg Warmer!

 

MEET ME AT THE DISCO

Now here is an example of naming a polish correctly. Meet Me At The Disco is a holographic glitter top coat that reminds me of a disco ball and is super sparkly! LOVE IT!

 

LEOTARD OPTIONAL

 This polish name also makes sense. Leotard Optional is a beige creme polish that reminds me of ballet leotards. This polish also dries to a pinktone rather than a wishy washy beige. This is also a nice colour for those who like more muted tones.

 

MERRY ME

 This bottle arrived half empty and really thick. I don't think it survived the flight to Australia but there was just enough of it to swatch. Merry Me is a red glitter polish with a red jelly base. It dries with a similar texture to those of the OPI sand/Zoya pixiedust ranges.

 

BREAK A LEG WARMER!

This is a shade that I just don't get. I remember last year when grey nail polishes were all the rage but I just couldn't do it. I just don't find it flattering at all on my complexion. Nevertheless, Break a Leg Warmer! is a really well formulated creme polish that dries nicely with lots of pigmentation.

 

ONLY GOLD FOR ME TOP COAT

When I first saw images of Only Gold For Me I thought that this would be on par with OPI's Man with the Golden Gun and Mariah Carey's PURE but alas I was wrong. This top coat is just a gold glitter explosion featuring two different sizes of glitter flakes throughout. It's nice but it's nothing to write home about either.

Overall I am LOVING this collectors edition of Sephora by OPI but am even more excited by Sephora's Formula X Collections but of course Australia misses out on this as per usual. I'm hoping to get my hands on a couple of them to add to my collection.

If you want to buy the Tinsel Town Collection it is unfortunately no longer available on Tarazz or Sephora but you CAN still buy it on Ebay and Amazon (well at the time of writing this). It's definitely worth it for those who love to collect polish like I do!

OPI Mariah Carey Pure Top Coat

OPI Mariah Carey PURE Top Coat $39.95RRP

When I saw that OPI was releasing another limited edition top coat I KNEW I had to get it! So when I was out shopping with the hubs I made a stop past David Jones to see if it had landed and I was lucky enough to get the last bottle!

Now of course, this top coat will draw comparisons to the OPI Man with the Golden Gun which was released in October 2012 for the James Bond Collection, but they are quite different to each other. As you read on you'll see the differences between the two.

(L) PURE; (R) The Man with the Golden Gun

 When I think of Mariah Carey I think of luxury and indulgence, as I think her lifestyle is just that, and I think this top coat is truly a reflection of those characteristics. This top coat is loaded with 18k gold and silver leaf which you can see in the shot below.

Macro shot - unedited

I applied two coats to my base colour (China Glaze Temptation Carnation) and I think there was more than enough coverage for that "bling" factor.

Macro shot - unedited

 When I think back to when I first applied The Man with the Golden Gun 18k Gold Top Coat I couldn't recall being as happy with the coverage as I was with the Mariah Carey PURE top coat so I thought I'd try a comparison.

(L) Man with the Golden Gun (R) Mariah Carey PURE

 As you can see, The Man with the Golden Gun top coat is quite sparse in the foil distribution and I even had to apply three coats to achieve a decent amount of coverage, where as Mariah Carey PURE is quite liberal in its application and only needed two coats to achieve a good coat.

The other thing that I should mention is that I quite adore the colour of the PURE as I feel the Man with the Golden Gun top coat is just a tad too yellow for my liking but I know it has it's place in my little nail polish collection.

 Overall I am SO happy with Mariah Carey's PURE polish and I am really looking forward to seeing what other limited edition top coats OPI will come out with in the future!

Deborah Lippmann - Across the Universe

 Following on from my "Dancing in the Dark" post comes my next nail polish review of "Across the Universe" (another Deborah Lippmann polish).

Macroshot - no filter/edit

 Now I gotta tell you, I'm so obsessed with these glitter polishes - they're just so divine! One day I will figure out how to capture glitter polishes in photos so that it a true representation of what it actually looks like in real life.

As I suspected, this polish is only good on top of a base coat colour as the polish is more like a jelly polish/topcoat as shown below.

One coat - no base.

Two coats - no base.

 Two coats of polish isn't too bad but it still wasn't as vibrant as I wanted it to be. So, I went to my trusty polish collection and pulled out OPI's "Just Spotted the Lizard" from the Amazing Spiderman Collection.

Macro shot - no filter/edit

 Just Spotted the Lizard is a multichrome colour that reminds me of a peacock feather within the bottle, but once it is on it's more green and gold with not so much visible blue. In hindsight I would've picked a darker colour, or even a plain deep blue for the base colour like Power Dressing by Ciate.

Macro shot - no filter/edit.

 Now that I had the base coat on it was time to layer on "Across the Universe". Even with a base coat, I still needed quite a lot of layers for the glitter to look dense enough but I did love the end result! It's still a win for me even though there is a total of five layers of polish (excluding top coat ;p).

Three layers of glitter polish

 Even in the macro shots the glitter looks quite black but in reality it's more of a vibrant blue. This last shot (even though I have boosted the contrast) is more what it looks like in real life. This is definitely one to add to your collection if you LOVE glitter as much as I do! x