Sephora By OPI Safari Luxe Mini Collection swatches!

Today I have some swatches of the latest limited edition Sephora by OPI mini set - the Safari Luxe mini collection:

This safari themed collection has two cremes and two shimmers in the mini set (and two other colours only available in full size):

Left to right we have Don't Feed The Hand Models, Caught With My Khakis Down, Yes, Your Lioness and I Don't Bite. The first two are cremes, the orange polish has a faint shimmer and I don't bite is a shimmer fest :-) Let's start!

Flash shot of Don't Feed The Hand Models shown above. This was three coats and might have been possible as two using a full sized bottle/larger brush.

Sunlight shot of Don't Feed The Hand Models above. Few nudes have come out this year and I quite like this one. Whether it's better than Essie's Topless & Barefoot, you be the judge... this one appears slightly darker and more brownish.

Flash shot of Caught With My Khakis Down shown above. Comparable to Chanel's Khaki Vert; lovely and opaque with 2 coats.

Sunlight swatch of Caught With My Khakis Down shown above.

Flash shot of Yes, Your Lioness shown above. If you look at the full size version of this picture you will see the faintest shimmer. It's so pretty, I love this colour. 3 coats shown above.

Daylight shot of Yes, Your Lioness shown above. Shimmer is slightly more prominent in the sun. Gorgeous.

Flash shot of I Don't Bite shown above. And here we have the reason I purchased this mini set :-D It looked much more purple online and while it's not quite what I expected, it's damn pretty. It is described as a 'soft purple'. And notice the microscopic holo glitter @_@

Daylight shot of I Don't Bite shown above. I tried to capture the glitter in the fading Canberra light. The sun is setting so early in winter :-| This was two coats and the formula was a dream. What I mean is that it went where you brushed - it wasn't watery and did not go all over your nail while you eagerly reached for your nail corrector. Best formula of the lot.

And here we have Giraffe Print! I was slightly inspired by the pretty orange of this collection and decided there was not enough giraffe print out there in the nail art world ;-) I used two colours from the collection - Base of Yes, Your Lioness with Don't Feed The Hand Models as the print pattern.

Well that's all I have tonight, I can't believe how late it is @_@ Too much Farmville, tsk tsk Leanne. Hope you all have a lovely weekend and if you're in Australia, are enjoying your long weekend, I know I am :-D Until next time my lovelies...

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Dj Donk Nail Polish, Sephora by OPI

Midweek Mani Madness - Cute Carrots!?

Oh deary me. What started out as an 'Easter' themed nail art ended up like this. What can I say :-/ I still think it's cute, if a little crazy... and it wasn't planned, I was wearing Sephora by OPI's Iris I Was Thinner then decided to draw something the next day... after I did dishes, washing and other chores, so excuse the warn edges and frayed top coat :-|

Uh yeah. I think I was going to alternate between bunnies and carrots, I'm really not sure now that I think about it. But I ended up drawing different faces for the carrots and forgetting about the bunnies. I even contemplated various vegetables and fruits but really couldn't be bothered :-P

Thumb swatch above. This purple is such a beautiful colour, it is from the Modern Flower Sephora by OPI Spring collection that came out last year.

These are the colours I used. I'm really getting through that China Glaze Snow! I'm going to laugh if it turns out to be the first bottle of nail polish I use up...

Ah yes, more bath and body works Slatkin & Co candles... I just can't help myself - the dollar is TOO good not to buy these treats! And it's pink! Sooo pretty. It's called Pineapple Orchid and not only is it pretty, it smells nice too :-) I'm getting through my 3 wick candle of Frosted Cupcake so I thought I better get a replacement. This will do nicely. I really like frosted cupcake though, I may need another...

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a good week, Canberra just went BAM! winter! so I've gone from a summery 24 degrees to scarf, beanie and winter jacket :-| I hope wherever you are, you're enjoying better weather!

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Dj Donk Bath Body Works, Nail Art, Nail Polish, Sephora by OPI

Sephora By OPI Urban Ballerina swatches with cupcakes!

I love my minis and Sephora so I couldn't help but order the Urban Ballerina set online. After swatching the colours (swatches below) I decided to pick out my favourite Urban Ballerina colour (purple, what a surprise) and draw some cupcakes:

I will talk about what I used to draw these in a little bit - first the Urban Ballerina set!

This set contains 4 mini polishes and left to right we have Leotard-optional, The Way Tutu His Heart, Who's Spinning Tonight? and finally Break a leg-warmer!

I'm not sure what season or trend this set is in aid of but it's an interesting name/concept. Onto the swatches!

Leotard-optional is described as an opaque mocha beige. It's a cream formula (no shimmer) and it looks beige-tan to me. The flash shot above is about 3 coats I believe.

Excuse the low light shot above - Canberra decided to be gloomy and rainy all day much to my dismay. This colour is not my cup of tea as a nail polish but I wanted more creams to use with my nail art so it's a winner from that perspective (I need to expand my cream collection 10x :-)

The Way Tutu His Heart is a light pink cream polish. The formula was a bit patchy for me and I believe the flash shot above is 4 coats. It may be the smaller brush though and a full size bottle may not be as problematic. Again, happy to have a new cream in my collection :-)

Nice light pink. Natural light shot above.

Ah here's the real reason I bought this set. Who's spinning tonight? was another purple shimmer polish for me to try! The shimmer is oh so subtle and was hard to capture even with flash as shown above.

In natural light it just looks like a dark purple cream as shown above.

Break a leg-warmer! is another cream in charcoal gray and it's the most opaque of the lot. I only needed two coats for the flash shot above. I like this colour. Unique to my collection thus far.

Natural light shot above. So all up there were 3 creams and one shimmer polish. If creams are your thing then this set may be for you. It's certainly different with that tan-beige colour.

Anyway, I'll talk more about the cupcakes! Obviously, I went for Who's Spinning Tonight as the base colour. Then I added Leotard-optional as the bottom of the cupcake and The Way Tutu His Heart as the frosted top. The only non ballerina set colours I used was China Glaze Snow as the white lines on the cupcake case and Mecca Cosmetica Shine as the frosting/sprinkles on top. Shine is highly recommended, I absolutely adore the shimmery pink. It is a must have. Progress shot of the cupcakes below:

I started with the outline of the cupcake case, filled it then did the outline of the frosting and filled. Details left until last. Thumb swatch below against The Way Tutu His Heart:

Cute isn't it? I am a BIG cupcake lover and I have an embarrassing number of cupcake cookbooks... It was only a matter of time before this design appeared on my blog ;-)

Natural light shot above. Well I hope you enjoyed the swatches and the cupcakes! I had fun drawing them. Until next time...

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Dj Donk Nail Art, Nail Polish, Sephora by OPI

Are You Feeling Lucky? Lucky Green Clover nails and a weekend away!

St Patrick's day is coming up and what better way to get into the spirit than with a little lucky clover mani :-) So I present my blinged up lucky clover:

I didn't realise this would be so hard to take a photo of! I decided to use Essie Pretty Edgy as the base and I was sad I didn't have many yellow green grass type cream polishes so I blinged out with China Glaze Emerald Sparkle as the dark green base and Sephora by OPI Gleek Out as the outline.

Sadly flash was not my friend tonight. While I got some superb shots of my thumb nail, trying to get all in focus with no light reflecting was quite difficult. But you get the picture :-D

I wasn't able to post on the weekend because I was in Perth for a friend's wedding. We did some touristy things in the Swan Valley (we've been before so didn't have do to the wineries again) and managed to get in a bit of shopping in Perth CBD ;-) Here are some photos of my weekend away...

After shopping in the city, we walked out to the Bell Tower that's along the river.

We also returned to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory (the one located in Swan Valley, but we've also been to the Margaret River one :-) to pick up some delicious but over priced choccy.

This is the second time we've been around the Easter season but they had a lovely display in the window looking in on the factory.

Close to the chocolate factory is Yahava Koffee, coffee tasting with a large selection of coffee beans and tea. I got a black tea and the bf picked up 3 kinds of coffee beans.

Here we have a shot of the wedding location (ceremony was held outside at the resort we stayed at).

What trip isn't complete without a little shopping? :-D I picked up the velvet edition Lola by Marc Jacobs (the one with the felt cap) and the solid perfume bracelet. It is love.

I love the scent. It reminds me of something from my childhood but I can't put my finger on it...

Well I hope you had a lovely weekend, and have a great St Patty's day if you celebrate :-D Until next time lovelies...

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Dj Donk China Glaze, Essie, Life, Nail Art, Sephora by OPI

Slushied! Gleek out with Sephora by OPI mini set swatches!

Here's what you missed on Glee! Sephora released a Glee themed set of mini nail polishes (a few full versions are available with some of the minis exclusive to the kit). They also brought out a few full sized colours that are not in the set but I'll be swatching the mini set and showing you my slushied nails!

If you've ever looked for Glee songs on iTunes, Amazon, etc you might recognize the above. Glee songs not yet part of an album generally have a big blue slushie as the artwork so I was inspired :-) I only used Glee colours except for the white Sally Hansen Nail art pen to draw the slushie and straw (and often mixed it with China Glaze Snow).

But onto the swatches! The set of six minis comes in the box shown below:

They come with Glee inspired names and they are left to right: Miss Bossy Pants, Slushied, Celibacy Club, Gleek Out, Sue vs. Shue and Express Yourself to Yourself:

Sephora minis come with 3.75mL or 1/8 Fl. Oz which is a little bit less than Essie minis (5mL/0.16 Fl. Oz) and Orly minis (5.4mL/0.18 Fl. Oz) but it's the standard OPI mini size. So if you really like a colour, I suggest you get yourself a full sized version :-)

First up is Miss Bossy Pants, named after Rachel and it's a pink raspberry shimmer, quite pretty on the nails. Flash shot above.

Natural light shot above. I believe this may be 2 or 3 coats. The problem I had with these polishes (and this may be due to the small brush of the minis) is that they were quite patchy and I had to do more coats than I would have liked.

Here we have slushied, a bright opaque blue which of course makes reference to the Glee club members getting slushie drinks thrown at them by the football team for being in the Glee club :-P Flash shot above.

The blue is also the colour of my slushie drink in my nails in the first shot :-) Natural light shot above.

Celibacy Club is a clear diamond glitter polish and makes a lovely topcoat for other base colours. Flash shot above.

I used this over Slushied in my slushie nails :-) Natural light shot above. This polish is only available as part of the mini set.

Next we have Gleek Out and this is described as a glittery lime green. It's very glittery and quite yellow toned. Flash shot above.

Natural light shot above. Not my cup of tea but may appeal to some.

Next we have Sue vs. Shue and this of course refers to the on-going battle between Sue Sylvester and Mr Shue. Very deep dark blue with a beautiful shimmer if you can catch sight of it ;-) Flash shot above.

The shimmer comes out brilliantly in the sunlight but it's still a very dark polish. This is also only available as part of the mini set. Natural light shot above.

Last we have express yourself to yourself. It is a bright glittery coral that is also the base of my slushie nails at the start.

Natural light shot above. This is also exclusive to the mini set. Well I hope you enjoyed - I know not everyone likes Glee and I find it quite hard to watch as it's quite a cringe-worthy show but I love a lot of the music, in particular the Thriller / Heads will roll mashup. LOVE IT. I have a lot of remixes of the heads will roll track :-) And that's what you missed on glee!

Hope you're all having a great week - I'm going away this long weekend but hopefully I get a post out when I get back... with some photos of where I went :-D

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Dj Donk Nail Art, Nail Polish, Sephora by OPI