Tag Archives: cosmetics

OPI The Show Must Go On! nail polish review

Posted on March 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

I seem to have been on a bit of a roll with OPI lately – my recent-reviewed Not Like The Movies, Miami Beet and most of all, Parlez-Vous OPI, now rank as some of my favourite polishes period. So let’s usher in another OPI instant classic – The Show Must Go On!

I’ve read lots of posts comparing The Show Must Go On to Mac’s Bad Fairy from its Disney-themed Venomous Villains collection, a magical glittering red-orange-pink concoction in everyone’s photos yet, from when I tried it at a Mac counter, a streaky gritty hellish mess to apply. Whilst The Show Must Go On and Bad Fairy are certainly not identical judging from the pictures, by my reckoning, The Show Must Go On is a simply beautiful colour in its own right.

Not that OPI would have you know. Never have I seen bottle pictures more inaccurate. Google Image this baby and you’ll more than likely see a bright but boring fuchsia staring back at you. The bottle photo at the top of this post is slightly more accurate but still doesn’t nearly capture the depth and brightness of colour, nor the brilliance of its foil-like sparkle.

The Show Must Go On is primarily a metallic pink-based red, with a gorgeous shimmer that seems to come bursting from within the polish itself. It has a fantastically clean and bright finish, jumping straight off your fingers to instantly work its way into any nail polish lovers’ heart. But what makes this polish truly incredible are the subtle shifts in colour that flash at you throughout the day. Red, scarlet, coral, pink, copper, orange, gold – practically every colour from the warm end of the spectrum is there, winking at you like you’re sharing a particularly juicy secret. Needless to say, I couldn’t capture it in photographs, though I’ve tried to compensate with quantity over quality for the sake of this review (though I urge you to click and check them out close up)!

I was also quite impressed with the formula, despite a thin first coat that gave me bald patches all over. Somehow, it worked out its problems by the second coat to give me a truly flawless finish, as clean bright and shiny as a child all smartened up for her first day of school. Sadly, it did the trademark OPI thing of chipping slightly by the third day of wear, but I find their polishes self-levelling enough to fix relatively easily.

This is definitely one of my favourite polishes so far. It’s slightly reminiscent of Zoya’s Gloria, except warmer-toned, multi-coloured and with a more low-key approach to glitter (so not that similar at all then!). Whilst The Show Must Go On definitely boasts a certain shimmer, it doesn’t feel like an additional ingredient, more that it was an inseparable part of the polish all along. It’s festive without being singularly so and unusual enough to distinguish it from the stocking-load of other red foils out there.

Like a flickering flame of the most entrancing candle you’ve ever seen – we’d all be moths if flames were this gorgeous! – The Show Must Go On is a must-see. Get your tickets now!

Looks good with: your inner diva
Drying time: 5-7 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: 3 days

OPI The Show Must Go On nail polish, Winter 2010 Burlesque Collection, $168 for pack of four Mini Teasers, selected Mannings

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OPI Teenage Dream nail polish review

Posted on March 21, 2011 | 3 comments

My rant about the anticlimactic OPI Katy Perry collection over (see here for the colours that should have been), it’s time to deliver a nail polish review proper. Namely, OPI’s Teenage Dream.

Not Like The Movies, a shimmering silver chameleon is definitely the star of the collection (alas, definitely not the star of the album itself!) but from other bloggers’ photos, I thought that Teenage Dream might give it a good run for its money. A dreamy glittering pale pink, it captures the rose-tinted romance from the song itself with oh-so-pretty results.

Too pretty, in fact. The near-translucent peachy pink base of the polish is such a girlie colour to start off with that once you start tipping in sparkly silver micro-glitter, never mind the further dose of twinkle supplied by a scattering of larger round iridescent pieces, that it begins to verge on children’s party territory. Think Hello Kitty, unicorns and the girls clothing department in Mothercare and you’re pretty much there.

In Teenage Dream’s favour though is that, for the many lovers of glitter polishes out there, this is definitely one of the best formulas around. Usually, coloured bases of glitters are so sheer that by the time you’ve layered it to any semblance of opacity, your nail is almost as thick as the Yellow Pages. Not so with Teenage Dream. I was amazed when the pink became perfectly lovely in two – yes, TWO – coats. That’s opaque enough to ensure no Visible Nail Line (i.e. being able to distinguish the white tips of your natural nails), yet not so opaque that the delicate wistful qualities of this unusual pale pink are completely lost.

Secondly, the amount of glitter has been calculated to professor-like levels of precision. It’s easy for glitter to be either so sparse that you once again end up with more layers than a wedding cake or so dense that your nails look more bling-heavy than J.Lo’s jewellery box but Teenage Dream’s clever mix of a wash of peachy silver micro-glitter with the occasional bigger rainbow-reflecting piece floating through makes for a lovely multi-dimensional effect that’s both dazzling yet still reasonably subtle. As subtle as a glitter polish can be, that is.

Like most glitters, it’s anything but a dream to remove, but I expect you all knew that already. And whilst I was impressed by the formula, finish and staying power of Teenage Dream, it’s just not the colour for me (I also have very pale skin, meaning these pale pinks tend to blend in with my fingers!). My eight year-old self, however, would have been all over this like it was the latest princess Barbie. So if you have a pink-loving eight year old crying to get out or simply can’t get enough of glitters, Teenage Dream might just be your year-long Valentine.

Looks good with: sugar, spice and all things nice
Drying time: < 3 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: +5 days

Read my reviews of the rest of the OPI Katy Perry Collection:
     • The One That Got Away
     • Not Like The Movies

OPI Teenage Dream nail polish, Spring 2011 Katy Perry Collection, $168 for pack of four minis, selected Mannings

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Zoya Caitlin nail polish review

Posted on March 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

So how exactly do you follow a best-selling winter nail polish that got picked up by the likes of Vogue, Italian Elle and Daily Candy? Well, turn the shade down one notch and hey presto, you get Zoya’s Caitlin – a softer, spring-friendly sister shade to last season’s much-loved Kelly.

Caitlin, like China Glaze’s Sea Spray and OPI’s Parlez-Vous OPI, is another colour that made me fall in love at first look – I guess I’m still in thrall to a well-placed touch of grey… except this time it’s not just a blue-grey or a purple-grey but a combination of all three! Caitlin is so unusually pretty, a muted mix of lavender, cornflower blue and dove grey, that’s both perfect for spring yet has enough versatility to work all year round. Whereas Kelly’s slate-grey smokiness had a steely coolness to it, Caitlin is a much warmer softer affair – perfect for kitten-ish angora cardigans and delicate spring blooms – yet both are irresistibly impossibly chic without even trying.

As easy to apply as it is on the eye, Caitlin went on easily in just two coats and the finish was as smooth and creamy as Zoya’s consistently high standards have led me to expect. Just to re-iterate, Zoya’s brush size is my favourite out of the four main brands Cher2 stocks (OPI, Essie and China Glaze) and I continue to find it the easiest to grip, use and get good coverage with.

Although it might not show much imagination just to dilute your winter bestseller for spring, Caitlin is lovely enough to justify it. I’d say it’s low-key enough for work yet with enough hues to keep things interesting, whilst the blend of purple blue and grey is something a little bit different than the usual assault of spring pastels. Caitlin somehow turns cloudy into a colour you’re happy to see – a skill most weathermen would kill for, let alone a humble nail polish! Quick, someone tell Michael Fish!

Looks good with: most outfits, soft shades, spring meadows,
Drying time: 3-5 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: 3-5 days

Zoya Caitlin nail polish, Spring 2011 Intimate Collection, $80, Cher2

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OPI Parlez-Vous OPI nail polish review

Posted on March 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

My last nail polish post saw me declaring China Glaze’s Sea Spray as the perfect grey-blue. Well, strike me down if I’ve not just found the perfect grey-purple too. Step (or should that be nonchalantly stroll) forward OPI’s Parlez-Vous OPI.

As part of Fall 2008’s France Collection, it’s an oldie but a goodie, but one that feels especially current since the fashion world went gaga for grunged-out grey hybrids all last year, thanks to Chanel’s Particuliere (see OPI’s Over The Taupe and Zoya’s Kelly for further details). Parlez-Vous OPI is pretty much the most grey a purple can go whilst still remaining obviously and very much purple – which, for me, makes it the loveliest ‘grurple’ I’ve come across so far.

As a result, it’s a muddied muddled lavender but one that feels soft and lush as opposed to resembling the dregs of a dirty puddle. I’m pretty certain I used to own a cashmere jumper this colour, which of course, makes Parlez-Vous OPI an instant winner.

This was also one of the best formulas of OPI I’ve used so far – creamily consistent and opaque in two easy coats. For once, I didn’t find their trademark fat brush too cumbersome (whether this older brush was indeed slightly different or I’ve just got used to it remains to be seen!) and, clearly on a roll from their other star performer Miami Beet, it dried relatively quickly and didn’t chip too easily either.

But back to the colour, which is too insouciantly dreamy not to write more about. As befits a member of the France Collection, there is something quietly chic about Parlez-Vous OPI and it’s one of those perennially flattering shades that seems to go with just about everything and work for just about every situation. My purple obsession has been well documented but this may just be my favourite yet.

Pretty but edgy, soft but grown-up, perfectly purple and yet so much more… Parlez-Vous OPI will be my ‘It Colour’ for several seasons to come!

Looks good with: everything (but I may be biased)
Drying time: 3 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: +5 days

OPI Parlez-Vous OPI? nail polish, Fall 2008 France Collection, $90, Cher2

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China Glaze Sea Spray nail polish review

Posted on March 7, 2011 | 2 comments

china-glaze-sea-spray

Over a week without a nail polish blog – what’s going on?! So here’s China Glaze’s Sea Spray to get us back into the swing of things – and how!

Of all the new spring collections, China Glaze’s Anchors Away was the one I was most excited about and of all the new nail polish colours, Sea Spray was the one I absolutely had to have. Of course, Treg’s Luck struck again, meaning Sea Spray was the only colour missing from the collection when it first arrived in Cher2 (yes, I was there the first day…), meaning I *had* to stake out both branches until it arrived. Thankfully, it was all I dreamed of… and more.

The perfect shade of dusty blue has been a long-time Macguffin of mine so I was overjoyed to find it encapsulated so wondrously in Sea Spray. And since it’s the absolute ultimate blend between a light powdery blue and a pale dove grey, no other brand need bother me with dusty blues again. I’ve found my lobster (sorry non-Friends watchers)!

Despite a streaky first coat, you soon end up with a meltingly creamy finish, with just the merest hint of a pearlescent shimmer bubbling under there too. What’s more, this stuff goes the distance, staying chip-free in style for well over a week.

Since it hung around so long in immaculate fashion, I decided to see how it might look with some sparkly top coats. I gave it one coat of White Cap (a white-based gold glitter pearly shimmer from the same Anchors Away collection) and Last Friday Night (a supposedly blue but actually very sheer chunkier glitter from OPI’s Katy Perry line) and, although the greyness is diluted a little, the results were dazzling! A cross between a snow globe and the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio, I think this looks like magic dust got sprinkled on my fingers (click for a close-up of its frosty goodness!). Way to make me fall in love with Sea Spray all over again!

A slightly more delicate duck-egg blue, Sea Spray completely makes good on its evocative name. I just think it’s too pretty for words – the kind of colour subtle enough for day-to-day wear yet flattering enough to still garner plenty of compliments. It’s fresh enough to make it an obvious spring choice, yet grey enough to make it look charming all year round. It’s soft, it’s lovely and it’s mine, all mine!!! Can you guess that I like it?!

Looks good with: muted pastels, sparkly top coats, pretty things
Drying time: 5-7 mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: +7 days

China Glaze Sea Spray nail polish, Spring 2011 Anchors Away Collection, $60, Cher2

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OPI Miami Beet nail polish review

Posted on February 21, 2011 | 1 comment

OPI’s Miami Beet was another result of my abortive attempt to buy some colours from their new Texas Collection (abandoned as the ‘sorbet’ finish being too sheer for my liking). OPI are apparently famed for their berry cremes and chucking one or two out with nearly every collection – and if Miami Beet is anything to go by, I can see why!

I applied Miami Beet at night and was concerned that it looked too much like Essie’s slightly dull Rock Star Skinny. Thankfully, Miami Beet is much more a morning lark than a night owl and came gloriously alive (if not quite chirping!) in the daylight. The very definition of a rich raspberry, it’s the ideal half-way house between dark cerise and beetroot purple (and not as bright or as magenta as the bottle appears either).

It was also one of the best formulas I have rocked from OPI in a loooong time (don’t be fooled by that watery first coat!). Glassily glossy, creamily smooth and opaque in an even two coats, it dried quickly and stayed chip-free.

Having wanted to nibble at my nails all last week thanks to China Glaze’s delicious Heli-Yum (my other anti-sorbet purchase), Miami Beet was just as edible. We seem to be in the midst of a frozen yoghurt craze here in HK and I could barely look at my nails without thinking ‘Mmmm… Very Berry’! Mulberry, raspberry, loganberry, cranberry – take your pick! (Or, if you want to go for fruit in a slightly different state… claret, burgundy or sherry!)

It’s muted and mature enough to work for work but not so dull that it fades into the background. It also transcends seasons – warm and rich enough to fit in with velvety fall shades but light and bright enough for summer too (and it was actually released in spring!).

Like Essie’s Silken Cord, a red so perfect I’ve not felt the need to have any others in my collection, Miami Beet will definitely be my go-to berry shade for the foreseeable future. And not a ‘sorbet’ finish in sight!

Looks good with: just about everything
Drying time: 3-5 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: +5 days

OPI Miami Beet nail polish, Spring/Summer 2009 South Beach Collection, $70, Cher2

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China Glaze Heli-Yum nail polish

Posted on February 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Remember my quest for the perfect hot pink? It wasn’t quite as long-winded as my search for Pixie Lott’s yellow, nor as die-hard as my search for a true turquoise and it certainly didn’t entail as many miles as my search for Gosh’s Gasoline but it eventually ended abruptly and slightly unhappily with Essie’s Fiesta, a colour that looked perfect in the bottle, on samples and indeed, in photos but which looked like I’d scribbled my nails in with a Muji gel pen in real-life. Well, I’m now happy to report I found my perfect hot pink without even looking. It’s China Glaze’s Heli-Yum.

I’d originally intended to buy one of the pinks from OPI’s Spring Texas Collection, yet on seeing the supposedly innovative “sorbet” finish (i.e. too sheer for me), I was guided towards the more easily opaque Heli-Yum. A candy-coated bright raspberry creme, it looked even more edible on my fingers than it did in the shop.

China Glaze are fast becoming my favourite brand – the cheapest in Cher2 but with a gorgeous array of colours and consistently high quality results. I was a little worried as Light As Air, which came from the same Spring 2010 collection Up & Away, had been a little gloopy with a lumpy finish but no such problems with Heli-Yum. In fact, it was probably the best yet I’ve tried in terms of formula and application, a smooth and glossy one-coater that dried quickly to boot.

I totally loved Heli-Yum. It was almost good enough to eat (please note: Through The Looking Glass does not recommend you actually try and eat it). It’s the picture perfect shade of hot pink for me, a creamy cerise that’s supremely flattering rather than being sunglasses-needed shocking.

Truly scrumptious!

Looks good with: summer brights, sweets, fun
Drying time: 3-5 mins
Coats required: 1
Chips: +5 days

China Glaze Heli-Yum nail polish, Spring 2010 Up & Away Collection, $60, Cher2

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OPI Not Like The Movies nail polish review

Posted on February 13, 2011 | 4 comments

Remember when I said that China Glaze’s IDK nail polish reminded me of what you imagined butterflies’ wings to be when you were little? Well, we can also file OPI’s Not Like The Movies into the Ethereal Wings Collection. Except that its iridescent mix of shimmering silver, pink, green and purple is clearly a fairy’s wing instead.

Alas, no nail polish company has actually created an Ethereal Wings Collection (though they can bill me for it later!). Not Like The Movies is instead part of OPI’s much-hyped collaboration with Katy Perry, who is at least famous for her colourful and crazy nails, as opposed to another of their recent tie-ins Justin Bieber, who is not. Since this is my first post about one of the Katy Perry colours, I’m going to give in to my rant about how uninspiring this potentially exciting range ended up.

The four colours in OPI’s Katy Perry line are named after songs from her second album – Teenage Dream (a soft pink glitter), Last Friday Night (a blue glitter), The One That Got Away (a bright fuchsia) and Not Like The Movies (silver). Firstly, when you think about the rest of her album, you can instead mourn for the colours that could have been (as invented by me and if KP does another line, she can mail me the royalties later!):

  • California Gurls (bright Smurf blue, like her hair in the video, or vibrant beach-y yellow)
  • Firework (multi-coloured sparkly glitter)
  • Peacock (blue/green peacock’s feathers)
  • Pearl (barely-there pearlised shimmer)
  • Hummingbird Heartbeat (tropical coral or turquoise)
  • Who Am I Living For (angsty edgy blackened purple)

Secondly, the existing colours are ALL WRONG. Although the pale pink glitter does suit the romance of Teenage Dream, the mention of ‘skin-tight jeans’ (plus shots of frolicking in the sea in the video) means it should have been the blue glitter, which applies much paler and dream-like than the bottle colour anyway. This opens up the pale pink glitter for The One That Got Away (which is basically Teenage Dream Part 2 and therefore does not suit a bright colour at all), leaving Last Friday Night to morph into a party colour befitting its feelgood vibe – the fuchsia if you must, yet anything bright and glittery would do. This means the only one OPI actually get right is Not Like The Movies – and get it right they most certainly do!

It’s a wistful shimmering silver that OPI’s PR and photography department aren’t doing any justice to whatsoever. They’re labelling it a ‘sultry silver’ with photos that make it look like your average gun-metal grey. Which it most definitely is not.

With a spectrum of colours almost as difficult to capture as a fairy itself, it’s a beautiful blend of dreamy shimmers and glimmers that casts a spell on all who look at it. It’s rather sheer, taking three to four coats to build up opacity, and since I bought the mini nail lacquer set, I found the simultaneously tiny-yet-fat brush really hard to work with. But it was very much worth it.

A pale iridescent silver flecked with tiny sparkles of silver micro-glitter, it also becomes a romantic pink, a metallic lavender and a sea-foam green whenever the mood takes it. It’s an absolutely enchanting effect that shows up better in the bottle than on my nails in some of my photos but it’s ridiculously captivating in real-life.

The only possible explanation for it so beautiful? Well, I’m settling for a sprinkling of fairy dust, of course!

Looks good with: princess dresses, pretty things, believing in magic
Drying time: 5-7 minutes
Coats required: 3-4
Chips: +5 days

Read my reviews of the rest of the OPI Katy Perry Collection:
     • The One That Got Away
     • Teenage Dream

OPI Not Like The Movies nail polish, Spring 2011 Katy Perry collection, $168 for set of four minis, selected Mannings

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Zoya Pinta nail polish review

Posted on February 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

Oh Zoya. We’ve come this far and you’ve never disappointed me but I suppose it’s inevitable we’d have a falling out eventually. Well, I’m afraid the time has come. The reason? Pinta.

Your website says Pinta is a dark purple creme. The bottle is a dark purple creme. And yet when I apply it, I just see dark navy inky blue.

Lots of bloggers also seem to think it’s the perfect ‘blurple’ shade (have they heard of the word ‘indigo’? Because I’m fairly sure that’s the colour ‘blurple’ is meant to be!) but I could rarely catch the deep grape colour that everyone else seemed to see. Sometimes, when the sun was shining hard, my nails were angled just right and all the planets were aligned, I could just about catch it, but mostly it was like an eternal midnight on my nails.

Desperately seeking purple: Take 1 (regular lighting)

OK, I’m overdoing this a bit because even when Zoya nail polishes aren’t exactly what I had in mind, they’re still better than most other polishes on a good day. The formula was fantastic, opaque in just one coat, although it could have been a little glossier and dried a little quicker in my opinion. As ever, I find Zoya’s brushes by far the easiest to work with and although it’s such a strongly pigmented colour, it came off easily and without staining. And if you wanted a deep dark inky blue, then this would be great. But I didn’t – I wanted blurple. I mean indigo.

What I really wanted was the bottle colour that had drawn me in the first place, a soft creamy indigo that you could get lost in. Dark? Yes, but still definitely visibly purple. But once on the nails, at times it even seemed closer to jet than purple! And it’s also worth noting that it looks WAY more purple on all my photos than it ever did in real life!

Desperately seeking purple: Take 2 (strong sunlight)

After Edyta, another ultra-dark Zoya shade that I liked but didn’t love, I think I’ve worked out that I’m not really a fan of these really dark hues. I guess I save that stuff for my eyeliner.

I’m afraid Pinta just isn’t for me, Zoya, but I’m sure we’ll patch things up soon!

Looks good with: the knowledge that it really isn’t that purple
Drying time: 10 mins
Coats required: 1-2
Chips: 3-5 days

Zoya Pinta nail polish, Fall 2009 Dare Collection, $80, Cher2

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OPI Suede You Don’t Know Jacques nail polish review

Posted on February 11, 2011 | 1 comment

The only problem with OPI’s Suede Collection? Once you wear one, you’ll never want to take it off. And such was the case with You Don’t Know Jacques.

A soft velvety take on mink with that trademark matte micro-glitter finish, You Don’t Know Jacques in Suede is yet another winner from the collection. C’mon OPI – this 100% hit rate is getting boring! It’s a tawny taupe transformed into a muted muddied copper thanks to that dense shimmer effect, and it’s the perfect matte take on the whole greige trend. I absolutely adore it.

This is the third Suede I’ve reviewed now (following the stunning Lincoln Park After Dark and Ink) and all the pros and cons are still exactly the same. Super speedy drying, excellent coverage from just one coat, a fat brush that is impossible to use on my pinkie and more chips than you’ll find in the deep-fat fryer at McDonalds. Seriously, it’s ridiculous. 12 hours spent lying flat in bed and you’ll probably still have some chips to show for your efforts.

Of all the drawbacks to have, chipping quicker than an Olympics 100m race is a pretty big one, but somehow OPI Suedes still have me coming back for more. You Don’t Know Jacques is no different – it’s a really subtle soft but sophisticated shade, highly versatile and a contender for a different take on work-wear nails. It looks really dreamy matched with pastel pinks, greys and creams yet also looks ultra-haute against black. I’m going goo-goo eyed even thinking about it.

There’s just something about that suede finish that is, as my good friend Alex Perry would say (with strong Aussie accent for best effect), ‘expensive’. You Don’t Know Jacques might just be the most expensive of the lot.

Looks great with: soft pastels and neutrals, workwear, luxury
Drying time: <1 min
Coats required: 1
Chips: <24 hours

OPI You Don’t Know Jacques nail polish, Fall 2009 Suede Collection, $70, Cher2

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