Absolutely Alice - OPI's 'Alice in Wonderland'

*by Heather*  

Hello fellow nail fans!  I'm here for my first ever blog post to show you the lovely lovely aspects of Absolutely Alice.  Absolutely Alice is the sparkly blue nail polish in the newest OPI Collection Alice in Wonderland.

While Liz (the creator of this blog) tends toward bright zany colors, I am particularly drawn to the blues and purples in nail polish land....so much so that when I first saw this color I *KNEW* it had to be mine.   As you know by now, Liz and I couldn't get our hands on this collection for a week after it came out - it was tragedy, let me tell you!

 Anywho, I could go on and on about the awesomeness, but I'll show you instead.  Be warned, however.....I am not the best photographer ever...and the long nails that Liz talked about previously have been cut, so I don't maim anyone. ;)

This picture is pretty true to the absolutely magnificent color of Absolutely Alice.  Isn't it amazing?  I drooled all over myself, I think.  Oops.

 

Gold flecks of happiness!  *squee*  This color is, essentially, Alice - the blonde of her hair with the blue of her dress, in one amazing polish.  

Okay.  Technical details.  The polish itself is basically a blue polish, with a TON of glitter, both blue and gold.  As with Mad as a Hatter, if you don't do glitter, this polish is not for you.  It took 3 coats to achieve the look you see here, with an extra top coat (courtesy of Seche Vite).  Surprisingly, the oopsies on the sides of my nails were easy to erase.  Generally, in my experience, glitters are the worst at clean up, but this one wasn't bad at all.

Overall, I have to say that this is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, and looking at it makes me smile.  It's a happy polish!  Totally perfect for those 'I need to feel good about myself and be pretty at the same time' days.

I'll be back soon, as I recently purchased Essie colors for the first time, and I'll tell you all about it!

Alice in Wonderland collection

We finally have it (mostly)!!!!! *enter cheers of happiness*. So, between my fellow book/nail nut, who btw will be co-blogging with me due to my terribly forgetful nature, we have all the colors except Off With Her Red! From just seeing the colors, we have determined they are wonderful and, most definitely, not for the subtle. These colors are punch-you-in-the-face spectacular. If you want compliments and look-at-me's this is your collection. Seriously. However, to add in a caution, this is definitely NOT a collection for those who fear the glitter (as you can see in my previous post with the bottles). Now, we have decided to do the colors one at a time to give them our undivided attention, and to also give you the best description possible. I'm doing Mad as a Hatter and Thanks so Muchness! and Heather will be doing Absolutely Alice. We also have piccies to post as we paint. Her nails are the perfect, pretty ones. Mine are almost always a tad messy and much shorter. Long nails don't do well at my job and on the messy-ness....well I'm just too lazy to be that careful. =0). So, here we go (and also, this will be done in parts over a few days and added in).


Mad as a Hatter: This color is great. It's like a friggin' party in a bottle. It's a compilation of clear polish with silver, green, purple-ish glitter. It sounds strange, but when you put it on it's pretty much like Mardi Gras mated with a Disco ball...and I like it. I've had a not so great week and I just needed sparkles and this color fit the bill perfectly. Now, for application, it does take a few coats to reach opacity. Which can also be a plus, because since it's sheer-ish upon first coat, it's a great color to pop on top of a cream polish for some extra punch. It took me two moderate coats to cover my nail. Also, I top coated with Seche Vite, which by it's formula is already super thick (and amazing). The polish, due to it's graininess from the glitter, is still grainy feeling even after the Vite. It took a double top coat application to get a smooth feeling to the nail. On the plus side, however, for glitter it is incredibly easy to remove. So, all in all, this color is perfect for bad days, sexy days or any other day in which you wish to sthparkle! Oh, and sorry, in the pics it seems more silvery-purple and you lose the green a bit. And as for the cut....my innocent self was attacked by a broken glass in a very violent manner.

Nailness

Well, as promised I did some sweet, easy (ish) nails. However I can't find my friggin camera. So, I shall continue the hunt, and if all else fails, I'll edit this post later to add webcam pictures (even though they stink). Anywho, shortly (hopefully) you will see them. Basically, I did a 3/4 and 1/4 reverse dot nail with sparkles (man, that sounds so much more complicated than it actually is lol). I put on 1 coat of For Audrey by China Glaze (the pretty blue seen below), then I painted the top 3/4 with OPI Ink by...well OPI obviously. After eating a bowl of honeycombs for lunch (shoosh!) I took a toothpick and put small dots of For Audrey on top of the OPI Ink on the top of my nails. Then I took another toothpick and did three dots of OPI Ink on the bottom (on top the the For Audrey). After all this I decided I needed some sparklies, so I put a defining line of silver glitter on the line between the Ink and For Audrey. Due to the glitter and my current lack of seche vite (tears of sadness) I had to put on 2 coats of topcoat. Now, let me remind you, I'm not a professional nail art person. I'm just me, and I'm well....messy. So, yes, I did have to spend 20 minutes cleaning up with q-tips, and no, they are no where near perfect. But I feel the flaws lend a sense of personality *cough cough*. the polish colors are below and (hopefully) I'll have pics of the nails themselves shortly.

Up and Coming

Hello dears! So, I still have yet to get the new OPI collection because there is only 1 store (yes, I said 1 friggin' store) in the whole city that is going to carry that collection and that single store still Hasn't gotten the darned thing yet. They told me that it should arrive some time next week. Because next week is so close to the collections release date, WHICH WAS THE FRIGGIN SECOND. Anyway, reviews and pictures will be available then. As for things already here, MAC has released it's Love Lace collection as well as it's Warm and Cozy collection. Love Lace is made up of some very pretty, slightly frosty shadows a few Kohl power eye pencils (which are, in my opinion, the best waterline pencils ever. period.) two lipsticks and two lipglasses. As is usual for MAC a few are re-promoted colors or re-released colors. The warm and cozy collection is created of more neutral pinkish shades and browns, but the colors look very pretty. This collection includes some shadesticks as well as tinted lip conditioners and mineralized skin finishes. I have yet to make it down to my Macy's to check out the collections, intentionally. I, as an awesomely broke college student, budget for my addictions. Thus, I save up and go down when I feel I have sufficient funding and do a small splurge. Thus, I'll likely pop down in the next few weeks and pick up a few things to show you. However, while I am there I'll make sure to check out everything so I can give a basic review/overview of my thoughts on the collections. MAC also has a collection due out the 10th called MAC in Lilyland that I am terribly excited about. Mainly due to the Purple Dash Technakohl liner. The colors in this one are bright, summery as just plain awesome. Plus it has some lipgelee's which I'm dying to try. Now that the new and soon to be have been laid at your feet, I'm going to eat my lunch. Which, due to laziness is spaghetti. Tomorrow I will try to post some nail or make-up pictures for your viewing pleasure. If there is one in particular you like, I can do a step by step picture tutorial post....or be super awesome and put up a tutorial on youtube. Your choice.

So, Mermaid to Order eh?

So, my pretties, this (as you can tell....since I'm assuming your all well past the drooling ape-like cave-woman/man, precognitive state...well most of you are anyway...) is my beauty blog. Which, while similar in hilarity and the epic awesomeness that can be witnessed in my book blog...has nothing to do with books. Here, I shall allow you all to frolic in the playground that is sephora, ulta, lush, opi and other awesome goodness with me. I will point you in new (and sometimes interesting) directions with my decidedly awesome (I hope if I keep saying that eventually someone will believe me...even if it is a strange homeless guy somewhere who wants to feel pretty) girlie-tastic skills (or lack thereof...but I get an A for effort). For those of you new to awesome nail-ness. My go-to brand of awesomeness is OPI or any contingent of OPI. Hence the name, Mermaid to Order, which is one of my very favorite Sephora by OPI colors (I'll put a pic at the end of the post, promise). I plan to put up hauls, tutorials, reviews and any sweet pictures I deem worthy. Feel free to plunder the knowledge within my brain (if you need directions, the girly section is north of the books, past the x-men, hang a right at the star wars, avoid the pointless knowledge area (they'll never let you leave) and don't forget to stop by the cotton candy booth near the back).

Tee-hee *giggles*

So, good news my fellow nail nuts. OPI has a new (small) collection out!!!!!! *cheers excitedly* It is the Alice in Wonderland collection. Between my fellow nail nut (who is also my fellow book nut, who knew?) and I we would have the entire collection (which consists of four glorious colors) except for our happy opi-filled store doesn't have it yet. Way to fail on the whole shipping of the new products company that stocks out store! A pox on all your houses! Anywho, the collection launched on the second and as soon as our store calls to inform us of it's arrival, we plan to buy the whole darned thing. Thus, swatches will be coming shortly. However, in lieu of a swatch here are some tasty tidbits for you:

The colors (in order) are Off With Her Red!, Absolutely Alice, Mad as a Hatter, Thanks so Muchness!

From what I gather from some of my blogs I scamper through, the colors are amazing but the two glittery ones (Alice and Hatter) take 2-3 coats to achieve opacity and a good topcoat (seche vite anyone?) to avoid a grainy feeling once it is dried. Once I have tried them, I shall let you know.