Monthly Archives: February 2013

OPI Oz the Great and Powerful, Soft Shades 2013

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It’s become a tradition for OPI to release a collection of Soft Shades each year. For 2013 they were inspired by Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful, and created 3 nudes, 3 glitters and 1 Liquid Sand for their annual OPI Soft Shades collection. Let’s take a look!

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“OPI is very excited to take this fantastical journey with Disney,” explains Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director. “Inspired by the magic of Oz The Great and Powerful, this Soft Shades collection captures the whimsy seen in the film, from glittery shades packed with white, gold and silvery iridescent confetti – Lights of Emerald City, When Monkeys Fly! and Which is Witch? – to soft neutrals in white, beige and pink – Don’t Burst My Bubble, Glints of Glinda and I Theodora You.

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The three neutrals in the collection include:

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These are the three glitter polishes released for the OPI Soft Shades of 2013:

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And finally, the Liquid Sand finish released alongside this collection:

  • OPI What Wizardry Is This?: This rich taupe hue was designed for James Franco’s character, the great Wizard of Oz, and is sure to make a bold statement this spring

We love this collection! Even though they are soft shades, they are definitely NOT boring! The glitter polish, Lights of Emerald City, has amazing square white glitter pieces. Something we haven’t seen before in the mainstream polish brands. We’re definitely intrigued and can’t wait to try them out in person.

These will be available for purchase very soon, for now you can purchase them in our store, Phoenix Beauty Lounge. Make sure to take a look!

What are your thoughts on this collection? Let us know!

OPI The Bond Girls Summer 2013

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OPI continues its success of the Fall 2012 James Bond Collection, Skyfall, with their new collection for Summer 2013 inspired by female counterparts in the James Bond films. OPI The Bond Girls will be available this summer. The six-piece collection features all Liquid Sand™ shades.

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  • Solitaire:This diamond-sparkling white is totally engaging.
  • Pussy Galore: This light feminine pink has the purrrfect amount of shimmer.
  • Tiffany Case: A classic light blue worth investigating.
  • Vesper: A mysterious and intriguing deep purple.
  • Honey Ryder: Take a ryde on the wild side in this shimmery gold.
  • Jinx: This mesmerizing matte coral has lucky sparkle.

Those who love the Liquid Sand polishes will be very excited about this collection. We can’t wait to see these, but we’ll have to be patient for a little longer as they are expected to arrive in May 2013. If you don’t want to miss out, pre-order this collection with us now on Phoenix Beauty Lounge!

China Glaze Avant Garden Spring/Summer 2013 Swatches

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Hi everyone! Today we’re sharing exclusive swatches of the China Glaze Avant Garden collection for Spring/Summer 2013. A collection full of unique and wonderful shades, brights and pastels. Let’s take a look!

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China Glaze Life Is Rosy: Blushed mauve creme (2 coats). This is a beautiful dusty shade. It’s a nice pop of colour without being too overwhelming. We think this is a wearable color for all ages! It’s fun and bright, but still has a muted quality.

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China Glaze Pink-ie Promise: Iridescent baby pink creme (3 coats). This is a gorgeous pale pink. Like the previous shade, this also has a subtle dusty quality. It has a very subtle shimmer too. So delicate!

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China Glaze Tart-y For The Party: Light lavender creme (2 coats). We love this beautiful lavender shade! It’s soft, pretty and squishy! This is the perfect pastel purple, a must-have in anyone’s collection.

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China Glaze Fade Into Hue: Periwinkle creme (3 coats). This is a very interesting dusty blue. We haven’t seen colors like this often! It’s a dusty blue periwinkle. This one appears like a shiny jelly polish but covers like a creme. We love it!

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China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On: Sea foam green creme (3 coats). This is a beautiful pale mint green with soft silver shimmer. It’s packed with shimmer! Another unique shade, we definitely haven’t seen anything like this before.

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China Glaze Dandy Lyin’ Around: Shimmery vanilla icing (4 coats). This is a cute sheer white with lots of shimmer. We see hints of blue, green and pink. It’s very sparkly in person, you’ll have to take our word for it. It comes to life in the sunshine! This will be great for layering over other shades to add some pretty sparkles.

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China Glaze Mimosa’s Before Mani’s: Coral with a light wash of shimmer (3 coats). This is a pretty coral shade with subtle shimmer. A very fun, bright summery colour! We highly recommend this for pedicures. 🙂

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China Glaze Passion For Petals: Bright salmon pink creme (2 coats). This is a pretty interesting shade, also a little hard to describe. At first glance it looks like a red, but it’s more unique and interesting. It’s a dusty, pink-ish red. It also covered extremely well! Flawless formula on this one.

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China Glaze Snap My Dragon: Bright red with pink shimmer (2 coats). This is an amazing fiery red with hot pink shimmer. The pink shimmer is a lot more visible in person, it’s very beautiful and sexy.

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China Glaze Fancy Pants: Indigo with pink and purple shimmer (2 coats). Now this is probably one of the coolest blue shades we’ve seen! It has pink shimmer! Isn’t that amazing? It’s a wearable blue as it’s muted but still has an interesting quality because of the shimmer.

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China Glaze Sunday Funday: Bright blue creme (2 coats). This is an amazing vivid turquoise blue. We’re instantly transported to the beach with a cocktail in our hand when we see this colour, in our heads anyway. 🙂 It screams summer holidays!

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China Glaze Budding Romance: Moss green jelly (4 coats). Now, isn’t this an interesting shade? You don’t see an olive green often, but we do like this one a lot. It’s very fashionable and hip. You either love it or hate it!

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And finally, an overview of all the shades! We absolutely love this collection, it’s full of interesting colors. At first glance we thought this would be a pretty pastel collection but nothing out of the ordinary. That definitely wasn’t the case! China Glaze impressed us with twelve wonderful shades you don’t want to miss.

Which one would you love to add to your collection? What’s your favorite color from the China Glaze Avant Garden collection? Let us know in the comments!

All twelve China Glaze Avant Garden shades are available for purchase at Phoenix Beauty Lounge!

Essie Sleek Stick Nail Wraps Review in Sneek-E

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We have a fun review for you today on the new Essie Sleek Stick nail wraps. These are a collection of high quality, elegant, UV-coated nail wraps that make nail art easy and fun!

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Currently there are 12 different chic designs available, the one we’ll we showing you is the silver chrome snake print design called Sneek-E. Other designs include a fun zebra print, a delicate lace design, a sparkly rhinestone gradient and many more!

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The Essie Sleek Stick sets come with a very helpful instruction booklet, a nail file, a cuticle pusher and of course nail stickers, 18 in total.

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Application process goes as follows:

  1. You start by cleaning your nails, removing any oils by swiping a cotton pad soaked in acetone over your nails. 
  2. Pushing back your cuticles. This will give your manicure the perfect salon look!
  3. Paint your nails in your favorite polish color (optional). What’s fun about this particular Sleek Stick design is that there’s transparent parts that make up the snakeskin print. You can layer Sneek-E over your natural nails for a sexy nude look, or you can layer it over any shade of nail polish of your choice!
  4. Choose the correct size for your fingernails. The Essie Sleek Stick wraps sit on a clear plastic sheet, this makes it very easy to determine the correct size.
  5. Pick the nail wrap off the plastic sheet and carefully place it on your nail. Smooth out the nail wrap and gently push to smooth over using the clear cuticle stick.
  6. Grab the nail file and gently file down the nail wraps, trimming them to size.
  7. Add top coat! And you’re all done!

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Here w layered the Sleek Stick wraps in Sneek-E over a gunmetal nail polish by China Glaze, called Stone Cold. I applied the wraps on three fingers to create a fun playful manicure. The Sneek-E print is so much fun! The chrome effect is very beautiful and mesmerizing.

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These nail wraps were extremely easy to use. I have tried many nail wraps in the past and I had a hard time with all of them. It creased everywhere, the sizes didn’t match my nails properly and the overall effect was disappointing. The Sleek Stick wraps were incredible, they barely creased and finding the correct size was a breeze. I am in love with the shiny effect! These look incredibly stylish and are sure to make an impression.

Would you use the Essie Sleek Sticks? Have you tried nail wraps before, and what did you think of them? If you’re hesitant, we totally recommend you to try these! They are very easy to use and definitely won’t give you as much trouble as other wraps. 🙂 Have fun!

OPI Euro Centrale Spring 2013 Collection Swatches

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Hi everyone! We have some beautiful swatches of the OPI Euro Centrale collection to share with you today. This is the OPI Spring collection for 2013. It features twelve shades, including glitter, cremes, shimmer and jellies. Definitely something for everyone! Let’s take a look.

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OPI Polka.com: This is beautiful glitter features pink, blue and lavender hex glitter as well as tiny blue glitter. We went for a fun gradient look but it looks great layered over the other shades of the collection too!

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OPI Eurso… Euro: A classic deep blue creme. This one is so vibrant! We used two coats for flawless coverage.

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OPI Suzi’s Hungary Again!: This is a warm pink jelly, subtly leans towards coral. Very girly! This was three coats.

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OPI You’re Such A Budapest: This is a beautiful periwinkle lavender blue. It’s as beautiful as it is difficult to describe. 🙂 This is also a jelly finish and required three coats.

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OPI Can’t Find My Czechbook: This beautiful vibrant turquoise blue had really nice coverage, it required two coats for a flawless finish. Looks more green in certain light settings, a very pretty shade!

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OPI My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours: An amazing bright fiery red. A very warm/orange toned red that was very opaque, almost a one-coater. Get your sunglasses out for this one!

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OPI Hands Off My Kielbasa!: Frosty nude usually sounds like a bad thing but this polish is absolutely stunning! This was three coats.

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OPI Oy-Another Polish Joke!: A beautiful sheer gold microglitter. This looks impossible to receive opacity with at first, but 4 coats gets you pretty close. Will be great for layering and gradients too.

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OPI A Woman’s Prague-Ative: This beautiful burnt copper orange has gold and orange microshimmer. It’s so vibrant and luxurious! You won’t be able to keep your eyes off it. This was three coats.

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OPI Vant To Bite My Neck: Deep eggplant purple. Such a rich shade, the finish is so glossy! This was nice and opaque in two coats.

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OPI I saw… U saw… We Saw… Warsaw: Another beautiful deep shade, this is a midnight blue. Similar to Vant To Bite My Neck, this also needed two coats.

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OPI My Vampire Is Buff: Such a fashionable nude shade! A beautiful pale beige that required 3 coats. Classy and stylish!

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Here’s a “Pinneable” collage featuring all 12 shades. Which is your favorite? We are in love with every single one! It’s a beautiful Spring collection with very fashionable and hip shades. There isn’t one we wouldn’t love wear! Hope you enjoyed our swatches.

Grab your favorites at our site, the OPI Euro Centrale collection is available now for $9.99 a piece!