#TBT: My Favorite Black Label OPIs Part 5

Th-th-throwback time! It's the last day of my and manigeek's five-part series of our favorite black label OPIs! I'm happy and sad at the same time. I've saved my favorites for last so I'm quite excited to show you these two. I'm equally eager to see which two Karen picked for her post today, I am the worst guess-er so I'm not even going to try to predict which she's going to show but I'm dying to find out! Her post is located here at the blog beautygeeks, go look!

Jasper Jade came out in the 1996 Rocky Mountain collection for Fall/Winter. I was 10 years old when this came out! I have wanted this ever since I started blogging. I don't even remember how I found out it existed but I wanted it. I finally found it as recently as last December at a decent price on a random nail site. The label is nice and worn so it's definitely an oldie. It's a blackened dark forest green metallic shimmer. It has that watery old chemically formula so it's a bit sheer, but dries so fast there's no reason to fear multiple coats. This is three.

Check out this old-as-hell label! Yaaasss :D

BEHOLD the splendor that is Peel Me a Gobi Grape! This might be my favorite OPI polish of all time. Not. Even. Kidding. It is from the 1998 Painted Desert collection for Spring/Summer. This is a red toned purpley bruise kinda shade with massive amounts of shimmer that reflect coppery orange and bronze. You can't even see the amazingness, it's impossible to translate in a photo. It's very very hard to find, at least at a price you could live with paying, and I looked for it for a long time before I found it on a blog sale last year. Thin but easy formula, this is three coats. I LOVE IT!!!

My poor label must've fallen off at one point so it looks like someone put tape over it to keep it on. No matter, this doesn't bother me one bit as long as it stays on haha.

To recap, here is my 1st post, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Here is Karen's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and last today. Please go check them out if you haven't yet :)

So there you have it folks! Thanks so much for joining me and Karen during this collaboration series, I've enjoyed the heck out of it! I might keep going with the throwback posts, glob knows that I've got plenty of vintage polishes to pick from. What do you think?

Cheers!

❤ Kellie

#TBT: My Favorite Black Label OPIs Part 4

Yay, it's everyone's favorite day of the week again, it's Throwback Thursday! I'm so glad you've decided to join me for another installment of this series, where my friend Karen aka manigeek from beautygeeks and I show off two of our favorite black label OPIs! Have you met Karen? She's from Canada eh and she has the best nails and polishing skills and basically non-existent perfect mutant cuticles. I love her! Check out the first post for an explanation of what a black label OPI is if you're not sure and then let's move on to the picks for this week :)

Blue Moon Lagoon is from the 2003 It's Summer for Shore collection, which was one of the best collections ever. It was full of holographics! If only OPI would do something like that now, the world would be stunned and probably drop dead! This is a sheer light blue holographic. The holo is strong, but it takes quite a few coats to built it up. This is three coats and it could use another even. I don't care though, I love it! I think I got this one in a swap when I was a swapping fiend on MakeupAlley back in the day.

Someone inked over my label! Don't worry tho, it's still legit.

Movin' Out is also from 2003, it came out in the Holiday on Broadway collection (another incredible OPI collection where every polish seriously ruled). I've actually featured this guy on my blog before here, but it deserves to be shown again. Just LOOK! It's a very sheer pinky fuchsia with red shimmer bits and a multichrome flash that turns green, gold and barely blue. I've shown two coats over a black crème here. It's more purple with this base color. What I adore about sheer chameleons like this is that they can look so different depending on how you use them.

Here you get that delicious shift to icy green with gold glimmer. Mmmmmm :)

Let me know what you think about this week's BLOPIs! And if you haven't yet, make sure you stop by Karen's post and see which beauties she's decided to dazzle us with today! We've got one more week to go in this collaboration series, I am so excited to show you the two I've saved for last :D

Catch ya later!

❤ Kellie

#TBT: My Favorite Black Label OPIs Part 3

I'm really loving getting to reminisce about days gone by with these vintage polishes my friends. It's Throwback Thursday time again and I have two more colors to share with you to continue the series me and Karen the manigeek from beautygeeks are doing on our 10 favorite black label OPIs. If this is the first time you're reading, you can see Part 1 and Part 2 and learn what the heck I mean when when I say "black label" :)

Hoodoo Voodoo?! is from the Winter Resort collection for the Fall/Winter of 1995, a true old school find. In fact, it's the oldest one I've shown you so far! This was a great collection but this is the only shade from the collection I have. I'm always looking for Black Magic Mountain and Copper Mountain Copper though ;) Hoodoo is a pinky raspberry crème. This practically applied itself, it was so opaque and smooth! This is two coats. It was actually re-released a few years ago with the new "green" formula so you might be able to find it relatively easily.

Sugarplum Yum is from the 2002 Victorian Holiday collection. It's a pale muted silvery purple duochrome shimmer that flashes pink. Super gorgeous and kind of a chameleon, the diverse looks this throws out in different lighting is really cool. It is semi-sheer so I needed at least three coats to cover my nail line. You could probably also layer it over a dark color for another look. This also has a sister polish in a glitter topper, but I haven't found that one yet.

Have you seen or heard of these two polishes? It's so fun to kinda jump back in time and sport something that was so popular in the past on my nails today! Karen's third post is located at HERE, please go check out her two favorites for this week! She really is amazeballs and I adore her nails! And check out her first and second post if you haven't already :D

Muah!

❤ Kellie

#TBT: My Favorite Black Label OPIs Part 2

Happy #ThrowbackThursday! Today I have my second installment of my favorite BLOPIs, you can check out my first post here, it also includes an explanation of what a "black label" OPI is in case you don't know. In a nutshell, it's a vintage OPI from before 2006. This is a collaboration series I'm doing with my friend Karen, aka manigeek from the beauty blog beautygeeks. She's blogging about her favorites at the same time, so be sure to check out her post too!

This is Japanese Rose Garden from the Far East collection which came out in 2000. It's a dusty light rose pink with a slightly frosty silvery pearl finish. This is actually a shade you can still buy today, it's in the core line. This one is a black label though, so it has some chemicals that the core collection doesn't have of course, and I love the formula. While there are some brushstrokes due to the finish, they are subtle and I think the end result is really pretty and just so classic. I don't remember where I picked this up from, I think I got it in a swap a long time ago.

Here is SRO (Standing Room Only) Silver, which I received as a gift from one of my polish besties a few years ago. It's from the Holiday on Broadway collection from 2003. This is a sheer-ish silver holographic polish. It's very thin and the chemicals make it nice and smelly. This is four coats. The fire of the holo really pops out in bright lights, which is why I love it. Well, that and it's one of the more harder-to-find OPI shades, which makes owning it kinda special :) I also love layering with this, it's gorgeous over dark colors.

You can see the two BLOPIs that Karen chose today on her blog HERE. I'm loving this series, how about you? Have you ever gotten a hard-to-find or exclusive polish that made your heart race? I definitely regret not getting into polish sooner, there were such treasures to be had!

Talk to you again soon :)

❤ Kellie

#TBT: My Favorite Black Label OPIs Part 1

It's #ThrowbackThursday time! I'm doing a nice little collaboration with one of my favorite Canadian nail gals, Karen aka manigeek from the beauty blog beautygeeks :) She does the nail posts on the blog and her sister Janine is the main beauty author. Her nails are incredible and I'm so jealous of her application skills. We both love older, vintage nail polish so we decided to cross-post our favorite "black label" OPIs in a few installments, hence the part 1 in the title.

A black label OPI is a polish from before mid-2006, when they still had the "Big 3" chemicals in their formula. The labels were changed from black to green lettering after the change. I believe only dibutyl phthalate was taken out first, then the others left later (source). Although the new OPIs from 2015 are back to black lettering, go figure. The older polishes do not have the pro-wide brush either, it's thinner and round. I think most of the formulas are much thinner too due the chemicals, but I actually love them because they all seemed to stay on the nails much longer. Bring back the stinky poisons! (Kidding...mostly.)

My first favorite BLOPI is At Your Quebec & Call from the 2004 Canadian collection (a little nod to Karen too, eh?). It is a metallic swampy olive green with sort of a gold shimmery duochrome. It looks like a blackened gold in certain lights and almost not green at all, which is crazy cool. This is stunning and such a perfect color to me. I can't remember exactly where I bought this from, might've been a blog sale or ebay haha, but I've had it for a long time and I am just head over heels.

This is Apricotcha Cheating from the 2003 Las Vegas collection. It's a soft peachy orange jelly crème, shiny and so spring-y. I had this polish on my wishlist for a long time before I found it, and when I did it was in a nail salon that did not want to sell it to me. I had to do some serious begging and pleading to get them to finally agree to let me purchase it haha, maybe because it was basically completely full, I don't know. But I am so glad I have it because I really love it. This is three coats.

Please check out Karen's post on her first two favorite black label OPIs HERE, seriously you'll fall in love with her nails! We are both doing 10 BLOPIs each, consequently there will be four more installments of this series so stay tuned next week for another #ThrowbackThursday! What do you think of these colors? Do you have any cool vintage polishes that you love?

We'll see ya soon!

❤ Kellie

OPI Damone Roberts 1968 Swatch & Review

I have wanted this nail polish for a loooong time. It was one of my biggest lemmings up until recently. Limited edition OPI Damone Roberts 1968 had even been repromoted a few times but I had missed every launch. I heard during a session of #NailGlossip that it was coming back once again, but before it was released, a good friend and fellow nail polish blogger offered to send me one of her extra bottles of it. Of course I said yes! Thanks again, girl!

Received as Gift

Damone Roberts 1968 is a collaboration shade OPI created with salon owner and entrepreneur Damone Roberts back in 2009. According to his website, the color was matched to his salon walls described as "a different green with undertones of a soft grey, and a warm brown that works well on every skin tone". The formula is overall pretty good, it was a bit streaky on some nails. This is two coats of mint pistachio heaven! I am seriously in love.

It is on the pricey side, being $20 instead of OPI's usual $9.50, but it's worth it in my opinion. I might even buy a back up bottle because I love it so much! You can purchase this directly on the Damone Roberts website, but hurry because supplies might not last much longer, it has sold out three times before. I hope you enjoyed this and we'll see ya next time!

❤ Kellie

The product mentioned was received as a gift.

Sally Hansen Magical - Fairy Dust Pink

Hi there, hello. Today I wanted to show you another polish I got from my Southern Luvie, Ange. This is a vintage circa 2002 polish from Sally Hansen, the Magical collection, called Fairy Dust Pink. I can't believe holo polishes came out back then, very cool. The holographic quality to this pale pink polish is really stunning, linear. I also love the gold bottle, though it makes it hard to see how much is left in the bottle, natch.

I love how these are called "nail makeup", so true :) You can find these on ebay every once in a while I think. I'm la la loving this and it's now in my top 5 holo polishes ever! Thanks again Scandalous!!

China Glaze - Limonyte

Hello there friends! Happy Friday :) I have another polish from my dear friend Ange to show you today. This one is a color I've been lusting over for simply ages. China Glaze Limonyte is a fierce glowy neon green, shimmery and beyond sexy. The formula is a tad sheer but applies nicely, this is four coats.

I imagine you could find this on ebay if you were so inclined. I've seen it once or twice, always for ridiculous amounts of money. I believe this polish came out in 2005, in a collection called Nervy Neons (according to the China Glaze Wiki). Oh lordy if ONLY I had been more into polish back then, I could've had so many awesome colors! Shoulda, coulda, woulda :)

Essie - Barbuda Banana

Happy Monday friends! I have a special polish to show you today, a vintage Essie polish. It's a pastel yellow called Barbuda Banana. It's a little hard to find but I managed to snag it on Evil-bay for around $15, which is a lot for an Essie, but it's one I've wanted practically since I got into polish. I've heard tell that the formula is hell-worthy, but honestly I didn't have trouble with it at all. This is four coats, as it is on the sheer side. It's got the tiniest most subtle bit of shimmer in it, barely detectable, but when you do catch a glimpse of it, it just melts your heart!

I don't know why but pastel yellows are one of my favorite colors of polish ever. Are there any types of colors you'll search the earth for no matter how hard they are to find?

China Glaze - Dripping Wet

Hiiiiii friends :) I finally got one of my all time biggest lemmings the other day, so I had to show it to you right away! China Glaze's Dripping Wet is a deliciously dark raspberry jelly that shines like crystallized sap on a tree! Ok that might be going a bit far, but it really is amazing and super shiny! I believe it came out in the Patent Leather collection circa 2003.

This is four coats, making it deep and intense. I adore jelly polishes! I can't even tell ya. You might be able to find this vintage polish on ebay like I did, otherwise not sure where you could pick it up. Are there any old-y polishes out there that you're lemming these days?

OPI Kinky in Helsinki

I have to be honest, I wanted this polish mainly for the name. Basically only for the name. OPI Kinky in Helsinki is a pretty unremarkable nail polish, but its moniker is fabulous and makes me grin every time I hear it. The polish is a metallic fuchsia with a blue/pink flash. Bright and fun, this is two coats.

This was originally put out in the European collection in 2002, then was released again in the OPI Colorcopia collection in 2009. I got this from a blog sale, it shouldn't be too hard to find.

China Glaze - Sprinkles

This is China Glaze Sprinkles, an oldie but a goodie. The base color is a yummy bright pink with a blue-fuchsia flash and gazillions of tiny magenta microglitter pieces in it, hence the name Sprinkles! This is three coats (with a day or two of tipwear, oops!).

I hope you have a great weekend!

OPI - Midnight Blue Glitter

Hi friends! This polish is called Midnight Blue Glitter by OPI. It is a vintage polish from 2004, it came out in the Tuxedo collection. It has a sheer charcoal watery base and is full of dark grey, blue, silver, and teal glitter flakes. This polish is borrowed from my bestie, Mickelle. I wasn't convinced of its beauty until I saw some swatches that have been popping up recently on my reading list from fellow bloggers. I thought at first it was a little boring but the subtle duochrome of the glitter is really beautiful, I love that turquoise pop that comes out from certain angles.

This polish was pretty sheer, pictured here is three coats. I have heard this is great for layering over blue or black polishes. I think it is lovely and has an understated glamorous quality to it. What do you think?

I am sorry that I haven't been posting as much during the last two weeks. I actually just got laid off from my job, and needless to say, it's been a little bit trying to my sense of well being. I have never had this happen before, my company is closing so it came as quite a shock. I am alright and know I will get another job soon, but it is definitely an experience I would rather not have to go through. I was at this company for over four years so I definitely have invested my heart and soul into it, it is hard to see it just fall by the wayside. I have been trying to keep positive and now I can find a career that is tied into what I went to school for, really live up to my potential. I know it will yield positive results in the end, but it is still hard. Thanks to everyone for your support, you're awesome and I love you!

China Glaze Drinkin' My Blues Away

We all have lemmings. There are polishes we see on blogs and fingers of those we admire that we covet but fear we may never own ourselves. It is an ache for beauty deep in the pit of our souls. Drinkin' My Blues Away was a lemming like that for me. I NEEDED this polish. It was like I needed to hear a sweet symphony wafting on the breeze. I longed to taste the blissful sin of rich chocolate or see a masterpiece painting in a museum. Sometimes you just CRAVE splendor with voraciousness you can't explain! Ok, ok, I may be sounding a little dramatic, but for real y'all, that is how bad I wanted this polish.

I received this in a blog sale from my unparalleled and inimitable friend Ange. It is a mini from the Tequila Toes collection circa 2006. I really like mini China Glaze bottles, they are to die for adorable and the brush reminds me of Chanels'. (HINT, HINT, make more please!) The blue is deep like the ocean, the formula is a sultry jelly glass fleck, buildable in three coats. It ends up looks very watery, so on point with summer. I love how the shimmer reflects blue, pink, and mostly purple!

I wore this mani for a week straight. Un-freakin-heard of! I couldn't bare to take it off! And oh yeah, these photos were taken three days after I applied it. Yeah, the old formulas rocked *le sigh*. 

I think China Glaze tried to evoke some nostalgia with this year's summer collection on a couple shades, especially in Blue Iguana and Cha Cha Cha. You just can't fix what ain't broke, though. This baby will be my precious. And I will hug him, and squeeze him and call him my own.