OPI San Tan-tonio

As I mentioned last month, I haven't been able to get any of the OPI Spring 2011 Texas polishes because OPI isn't in the "unemployed" budget. However, I now have three shades from the collection due to the generosity and awesomeness of my wonderful friends. Surprisingly, the first one I tried wasn't a "sorbet."

According to OPI, San Tan-tonio is "a “honey” of a ten-gallon tan!" This is definitely a light tan creme, but the exact shade will vary depending on your skin tone. This shade looks like a grayed-out caramel on me. The first coat showed a rosy brown base that continued to deepen in color with each subsequent coat. Here it is at three coats - very shiny and level before I even got the top coat on.

Everyone's monitor shows colors differently, but I had to show a more accurate shot of the bottle itself. For some reason, it kept coming out really light in all the color accurate nail shots. It's not the color of coffee with too much cream - it's more tan than that.

The shade looks different once it's on the hand, but here's how San Tan-Tonio actually looks by itself in the bottle.

I really liked San Tan-tonio - something about the shade made me think of the 70s. If I did "How I Wore It" posts like Varnish Vixen, I'd wear this color with a flowy peasant blouse and flares outfit.

Feelings...

My Current Range of Feelings:
~Angry~
BAD Blogger!  BAD! It's bad enough the PlayStation Network has been down forever and has been screwing with my ability to stream Netflix on our PS3 (I need my random old TV shows fix). As soon as the PSN comes back, Blogger has to go down? "Page Not Found. Error. Blogger Not Found." Networks need to stop breaking!

~Frustrated~
Where did my posts go, Blogger? Everything looked fine and then suddenly they were gone?! I found two of them hiding on random days and times but I'm still missing one. Does "Save" mean nothing? Does "Save" really mean "Lost forever in the internet ether"?

~Sad~
Where did some of the comments go? Why did you take them away, Blogger? I liked those comments.

I'm not going to linger on the negative - I'm going to push forward and focus on the positive! I also feel very...

~Happy, Grateful, Lucky to Know Some Awesome People!!~
Polish presents have been coming in like crazy. With this kind of generosity, I'm going to be able to get through this no-to-low buy period easily until I'm employed again.

My mom is keeping me stocked with new Revlons. Her most recent gifts - Not So Blueberry and Black Lingerie. My friends and family have been layering fiends since I've been back!

My husband is an excellent Easter basket maker - the best jelly beans, bunny peeps, and polish. This year, he treated me to some OPI.

Cuckoo For This Color, Houston, We Have A Purple, Meet Me On The Star Ferry

AND I just got an early birthday present from Katticus (she's a friend and a follower) this weekend. She worked some sales magic like crazy at her Ulta and sent me a ridiculous amount of polish from my Lemming List!

Lighthouse, Below Deck, Marley, Dannii, San Tan-Tonio, Too Hot Pink To Hold Em

I have to take it easy on my right hand due to a finger irritation/issue (meaning no daily polish changes), so I'll be playing with these for awhile. Everything is all soooo pretty!

I'll be making her some really nifty, crafty gift to send to Kat. I've been brainstorming and each idea gets more wild and creative, so who knows what will end up on her doorstep - be ready, Kat!

OWWWP - Zoya Lo

I love the elongated and feminine shape of tapered oval nails, but my nails felt so delicate and breakable. And I was scared to put in my contacts. My nails grow fast and I put my dailies in before coffee - I was freaked out about the possibility of scratching a cornea!! I've gone back to a shorter squoval and my eyes feel safe again.

On to Pink Wednesdays! Lo is from the Zoya Summer 2008 Gossip collection - the creme companion to the metallic shimmer Chit Chat collection. This polish looks a little bit lighter in the bottle. Even the bottle shot on the Zoya website makes it looks like a gentler pink, but trust the swatch shots you find online or order a spoon to get a more realistic idea of what this shade looks like on the hand.

Looks kinda neon, but absolutely isn't! Dries very bright & shiny

Shade

Lo flows on so easily - Zoya's creme formula has never let me down. The shade is fully opaque in two coats, but I get the best wear from Lo with three. Like most Zoya polishes, this shade fights with my quick-dry top coats. To avoid shrinkage, denting and scratches, it's important to seal the tips and give Lo just a few extra minutes to set.

This pink looks a lot like the warm bright medium pink creme shade that OPI tends to release with their summer collections. OPI Strawberry Margarita happens to be very near and dear to my heart, but my black label bottle has gotten older, emptier, and more sheer (is that possible??) so I'm happy to have Lo on hand as a close substitute.

StreetWear Angelic

Happy Mother's Day to all the awesome moms out there!

Today we're going to visit one of my grandmothers who always notices what polish I'm wearing. It all started with a teal shimmer mani I decided to wear on a summer vacation trip to Orlando. Since visits were far and few between when we lived on the East Coast, I made an extra effort to wear shades that are extremely pretty but still unique when we went to see her.

I picked the very girly, spring-y, fairy princess polish that is Revlon StreetWear Angelic. This is a frosty light pink filled with silver microglitter. It's sheer and needs three coats for decent opacity. It went on with relatively thin coats, but this polish still took awhile to really set even with Seche Vite.

 

This polish didn't wow her from a distance like some other blingtastic shades I've worn before, but up close, she really enjoyed the delicate glitter. I achieved the subtle surprise effect I was going for - yay!!

Then my family went a step further and completely surprised me when they asked what I thought about putting a crackle over it. I can't believe I didn't think of that first - wouldn't it look a bit like the new OPI Glam Slam! duos?

OWWWP - OPI I Pink I Love You

This is my Interview Edition of Pink Wednesdays - because I had my first interview in Arizona today! 

The universe works in mysterious ways. I've been applying for jobs that I felt lukewarm about, but I knew they weren't *the job* I wanted. I had my mind set on a certain place in a certain city for a certain county - and they were the ones who called me up for this interview! 

This called for my most professional-while-still-being-quite-interesting pink sheer in my collection - OPI I Pink I Love You. This is a soft light pink with a hidden blue shimmer from the Soft Shades 2009 Fairytale Bride collection.

Early Sun - such a gentle light :)

The blue flash may be a bit hard to see, but click through and you should be able to see the shimmer more when the pictures are larger.

This is only two coats because I wanted to maintain the delicacy of this sheer. Adding a third coat makes this polish more opaque and pink. It also adds on to the slightly long drying time, so I recommend enjoy this streak-free sheer in the more translucent, two coat state.

LA Colors Shock

Happy May Day! I love spring and I'm trying to enjoy it to its fullest. Summer is my favorite season but it lasts a long time here in Arizona. Since summer will be here from June to September, I'm making a concentrated effort to wear my spring polishes until we're hitting triple digits consistently (hey, but it's a dry heat!).

In my search for colors that are light and happy without being the brighter saturated shades of summer, I tried out a polish my husband picked out for me at Dollar Tree. Shock is a bright, yet light, orange from the LA Colors Color Craze line. I thought it looked like Sunny Delight in the bottle.

This polish looked fine at two coats, but I added a third coat for extra depth in the color. Then I got in a fight with our dryer door and slightly dinged my ring finger, but that wasn't the polish's fault. It was drying quickly, but it had no chance against a large appliance door.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Shock dried with a squishy, jelly-like finish.

Shade - Squishy!!

Unfortunately, I was unpleasantly surprised to discover that Shock took on a bit too much of a yellow-orange hue when it dried on my nails. Why couldn't it have stayed more orange-y? It's not a bad shade. Really! But I can never wear this polish again. Ever!!

Why?... Shock, when dry, is almost a dead ringer for ASU Sun Devil Gold. I'm a proud Wildcat and I just can't wear my rival school's color!!! My sister will be graduating this month with her undergrad degree from ASU, so I will be gladly and happily gifting this polish to her for a graduation pedicure. Early Congrats to Mi Hermana!