Author: GingerlyPolished

Affordable nail polish + makeup blogger

OPI ‘OPI’m Dreaming’ Spring 2025 Collection – Swatches & Review

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Well hello there buddy (does anyone else watch Old Time Hawkey on Tiktok, no I’m not getting distracted in the first sentence). Yes, we have had another little pause here in posting, but I’m back and feeling better than ever. See, what has kept my brain absolutely occupied for the past few weeks was an absolute MASSIVE destash of my nail polish collection. The first TRUE big destash of my entire collection in my 9 years of blogging. That’s correct, instead of making it easy on myself and continually moving polish in and out, I instead waited until it was taking over every facet of the bedroom and then paused every other ongoing project in my life and tackled this. Yes, it’s obviously a great strategy.

But I did it! And I managed to destash half of my collection (it’s a very large number that I’m embarrassed to say but it’s a LOT). So okay yes, there are still boxes in front of my closet, but they’re now filled with polishes just waiting to go to a new home. If you’re at all interested (and are in the US, I’m so sorry international friends, shipping is just too hard and risky) definitely check out my destash page at @GingerlyPolishDestash, or my big ass Google doc to see all of the polishes I have available. I was practically frothing at this opportunity to create another spreadsheet.

But with it, my desk is starting to become visible and usable again, instead of every square inch being covered, with me sliding polishes around to create the tiniest little space to swatch. It’s now only filled with untried polishes, and the goal of eventually cleaning it off and having a fully open surface again has me extra motivated to swatch. (That and me getting way too into bullet journal videos and now organizing my every movement into 3 different notebooks. I’m already taking far too long to start so I won’t get too into it, but inside of those notebooks I’ve set myself up on a strict content calendar, and I hope soon you can see the results).

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So enough yapping (jokes on you, I’ll never stop yapping at the beginning of my posts), and let’s get on it, starting with a new OPI review. If you’ve at all been a consistent reader, you’ve heard me say that it’s never a new polish season until I swatch up an OPI collection. And this sweet little OPI spring collection has just been waiting for its moment to shine, and is just perfect for a “new beginning”.

Let’s look at OPI SPRING. I know the season itself is well underway, but we’re catching up here!! We have to swatch spring before we can even think about summer! So yes, this is the OPI ‘OPI’m Dreaming’ collection for Spring 2025. For this seasonal release, we’re once again getting both regular lacquer and Infinite Shine shades – a trend OPI has been on since fall of last year. We have 12 regular lacquer shades and then 12 Infinite Shine shades – so 24 shades to kick off spring (OPI is here to make me WORK in each new collection). In this current post we’ll be looking at the regular lacquer shades, and later on you’ll get the matching Infinite Shine post.

OPI describes these shades as “a collection of buildable shimmery sheer pastels that’ll nail your wildest dreamzZz from head to toe”. Z’s aside, I found that to be a very accurate summary. We truly do have 12 sheer pastels full of dense shimmer. But don’t let “sheer pastels” make you click off just yet because these formulas did pleasantly surprise me. Unless you’re looking for bold, full colors, then yes you can scamper off. This is a specific look and vibe that we have going on with all of these shades, and if you love that look, you’ll be in heaven here.

I always love picking up my OPI shades from either PolishPick or BeyondPolish, both of which I’ve shopped from for years. (If shopping from Beyond Polish you can use code GingerlyPolished for 10% off individual items. It’s an affiliate code, so I would earn a little kickback with each sales – never any pressure to use it! I just want to pass along some savings).

So whew, we’re finally getting on into the swatching! (and blogging again!)

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What’s Up Nails ‘Spooky Spice’ 2024 Collection – Swatches & Review

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Well hello there, and welcome to another post from the Great 2024 Backlog! We have a fall collection here, but the shades are all very much available on the Whats Up Beauty website, so this obviously means it can be spooky all year round. Keeping it short and sweet with my yapping (at least in this introduction), so we can dive right on in to my other yapping.

Today we’re looking at the ‘Spooky Spice’ collection from Whats Up Nails, which is a sub-brand under the Whats Up Beauty umbrella. If you’ve never shopped on Whats Up Beauty, they sell nail polish, makeup and various tools, both from their own brand as well as from many other indie brands. It’s a good little website, and if you’re looking to try out a variety of indie brands, this is a good way to purchase individual items and save on shipping! (They’ve also recently been putting out the most gorgeous makeup products and I just might have to get my little hands on some soon). They don’t release new nail collections too often, so I was so excited to swatch these up.

This release features 9 new polishes. We got a nice little range of colors here overall, and the use of shifty, sparkly flakes connects them all. This whole time I’ve been pondering and wondering how it’s a Halloween collection – but then Whats Up Beauty themselves doesn’t even fully call it a Halloween release, it just happened to release around then, so okay that’s on me. Some of the polish descriptions clearly indicate this collection spans all of the fall events and feelings of the season and that makes more sense to me. You know smart that that’s what they went for the whole time.

Okay I’m done pondering, let’s get on into the swatches!

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Holo Taco ‘Birthstone’ Collection – Swatches & Review

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So sorry for any creme lovers, I’ll say right out that this collection absolutely won’t be for you.

Today, we’re continuing on with our Holo Taco catchup (and overall blog catchup, let’s be honest). At this point I’ve accepted that I’ll be collecting every future release from Holo Taco, so you’re going to get all of the posts about their polishes and collections, and you’re going to like it. I’m working on first reviewing more recent and still available sets, and then we’ll dive into the backlog that’s hanging out under my desk. I’m nothing if not positively overflowing with content.

If you’re not familiar with the brand Holo Taco, was founded by blogger, then influencer and YouTuber SimplyNailogical aka Cristine. She helped really popularize nail art on YouTube, being the biggest and most popular creator in that genre. Though she’s not posting regular nail videos anymore, she still continually streams, both in gaming and with interesting behind the scenes content of collection and overall stats from the brand. She had years and years of testing various polishes and figuring out her preferences and so it only made sense to start her own polish line, to fill in for shades she wanted to see on the market. It’s in between a true indie brand, one that’s hand mixed, and a large mainstream brand like OPI – they have their own warehouse and are able to create new and unique formulas in larger quantities than other indie brands. She’s known for her love of holographic pigment – it’s even in the name, though she’s expanded into gorgeous creme formulas as well as other interesting finishes!

With that intro, let’s dive on into this release! This collection is the Birthstone collection, and that title can give you a good idea what you’ll see here. That’s right, a 12 piece polish set that are named and inspired after the 12 birthstones. All of these shades are filled with so much sparkle and shimmer, which is only appropriate for gemstones.

When the collection dropped, the crowd went WILD, and it sold out even faster than any of their other releases, which Cristine and Holo Taco weren’t expecting. I mean, everyone loves connecting with a “label”, though many, like me, purchased the whole set. It was just something about the finishes and shades that got us all. Unfortunately the full bundle is no longer available (and I’m not sure if it’ll get restocked, maybe at the holiday time again) There are still a few individual shades in stock now on the site. I still wanted to get this post up JUST IN CASE, whether there’s a future full restock, or any of the available colors catch your eye.

Now let’s get on into the swatches!

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OPI Infinite Shine ‘Wicked’ Winter 2024 Collection – Swatches & Review

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No you’re not experiencing Deja Vu. So that means, yes, we have more OPI x Wicked nail polishes to talk about today. I told you there was a little OPI backlog to work through – but we’re almost there, just one more after this next post (OPI x Hello Kitty), and then we’ll be diving full on into OPI SPRING.

But for now, let’s focus on Winter. Starting with their Fall 2024 collection, OPI has been doing a new little thing where they release both a regular lacquer collection, as well as a companion Infinite Shine set. That means anywhere from 21-24 polishes per season, and you know, as a nail blogger, who doesn’t love more polishes. New OPI releases are always the most popular posts on the blog, so I can’t be mad at them providing me 2 per season. And yes, the upcoming Spring collection does have both a 12 piece lacquer set and a 12 piece Infinite Shine set.

As implied, this review is going over the companion to the 12 piece regular lacquer Wicked collection that we discussed here. You know the big points already: this is in collaboration with the movie Wicked, a Wizard of Oz prequel with 9 new shades. We’ll of course get even more green and pink shades (did you see how many shades of pink make up Glinda’s wardrobe), as well as “filling” out a color palette inspired by the movie. Overall we have new and different shades here, but there are a few that are getting a touch close to the regular lacquer shades. I’m guessing OPI isn’t assuming most people will be purchasing all 21 polishes, but WE EXIST, OPI.

If you haven’t read any of my other Infinite Shine reviews, or you’re unfamiliar of how it differs from OPI’s regular polishes, here’s a lil rundown. They’re the same OPI bottles, with instead with a silver metallic cap, and they will be more expensive than the regular lacquer – mainly because OPI is claiming that these will give longer wear and shinier finishes. They say they “lock onto nails like gel” but I am here to emphasize that these are absolutely not gel. They do not need to be cured, and they won’t cause any allergies – and they won’t wear as well as true gel. Any polish that’s not in an opaque bottle will not be gel. Overall, I’ll be honest, I can’t say I notice a ton of difference in the formula and application between their lacquer and these Infinite Shine polishes. And in a blind test, I most likely couldn’t tell the difference. I can always find them discounted from sites like Polish Pick or Beyond Polish (affiliated code: GingerlyPolished for 10% off individual items there, no pressure to use it), so that higher price tag doesn’t hurt as much. I can’t ever cover longevity because of my swatching schedule, so these posts are just about showing you the colors and applications.

Now let’s get on into these swatches!

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Cosmic Brushes ‘Tis the Season’ Eyeshadow Palette – Swatches

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In November of 2024, I finally published up a little post swatching a NYX makeup collection (that collection was limited edition, but if you still want to read it, I’m not stopping you). If you’ve been here long enough, you’ll know I had dabbled in adding makeup to this blog before that post, starting way back in 2017. From there I had some scattered moments throughout the years until all makeup posting finally petered out in 2021. I had been more ambitious and consistent with my reviews in January 2020, but then we all know what happened a couple months later. Either way, even as I was posting makeup reviews, I had never fully settled into a routine with them to keep them consistent, and no matter what they always took a very distant 2nd place behind nail polish.

Now don’t let that above phrasing scare you, Gingerly Polished will always be first and foremost about new nail polish. But makeup has always been right up there in my interests along with nail polish. I get just as excited for its new releases and collections, and I enjoy wearing it just as much. The beauty products in my life are never limited to just nail polish, and so I don’t want this blog to be either. With each of these first posts of this new year, I’ve been detailing my blog plans (I promise that won’t repeat much longer) and now it’s time to talk about the other essential part of those resolutions.

I’ve been adamant that eventually I want to settle into a 3+ posts per week routine for Gingerly Polished in 2025. I’ve mentioned that obviously at least 2 each week are going to be nail related, but now I’m fully noting it down that eventually I want at least 1 makeup related post going up each week. Am I now going to use this goal as an excuse to buy even more new makeup products, saying “it’s for the blog” Obviously. (It’s a joke I’m still being financially responsible here, I promise). I already have built quite a little stash of new products over these past months that I’m still so excited about, and I just want to share them with an audience. Just like nail polish, I’m here to show you the colors and formulas and just help you be more informed shoppers. We’re just finally following through with our goals and plans here!!

So here’s to the first Gingerly Polished makeup post of 2025! I don’t expect to be immediately amazing and have those posts up constantly – I know it’ll take some time. But if I just post once more makeup review after this one, we already beat 2024’s totals! That’s just called smart goal-making, okay.

So here’s to more makeup on Gingerly Polished in 2025! Let’s get into our first one already!

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Orly ‘Après Ski’ Winter 2024 Collection – Swatches & Review

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Oh hi there, it’s me! With my 2nd post of this week!! Of the year even!! Look at me go!

If you missed my previous post – in fact my first post of 2025 – it had a nice little novel to start it (you all know how much I like to yap). As the author of said post, I do recommend reading the whole thing, but I’ll give a little quick summary here. First I go over how many life changes I’ve gone through while keeping this blog, and it’s all very sentimental. But I also talk about how this blog was the item to get pushed to the back burner this past year, and how I truly want to remedy that in 2025. We’re going to work to get to a ‘3 posts a week’ schedule, and there’s just so much nail polish and makeup content on the way (yes more makeup review!!). This blog has been kicking for this long, there’s no way I’m abandoning it before my true 10 year anniversary.

In my time of not writing here, I did build up a nice little backlog of swatches and photos and little thoughts. I’ve been posting away on Instagram still, (if you want to follow me there too, that would be nice), yet those collections didn’t receive their complimenting blog. Instagram is fun for the moment, but the blog comes in for the archive. I see you all searching up OPI’s Fall 2022 collection in our year of 2025, I know how much you all like an archive. So in the work of filling in the gaps, we’re looking at recent mainstream brand releases first.

A mainstream brand like Orly!! That’s right, today we’re looking at Orly’s winter collection, from this past winter 2024 (I know that doesn’t seem too far off, after all it is still winter, but I have plenty of other much older collections to get up here).

This is their ‘Après Ski’ collection – yes add that little accent mark in there, be fancy, pretend you’re on a posh ski vacation as you wear these shades. Orly says to “embrace the magic of winter with crisp cremes and luxe glitters that capture the essence of the season”, and that’s a great little summary for this color palette. We have their normal 6 piece release, with 4 cremes and 2 gorgeous glitter shades in a variety of neutrals accompanied by a few rich pops of color. The names are all themed after the idea of hitting the slopes and then cozying up at the fireplace after. It’s the fantasy we all need to make it through these long cold months.

As always this collection is available on Orly’s website. Now let’s dive on into the swatches!

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OPI x Wicked Winter 2024 Collection – Swatches & Review

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Omg hiiiiii. Yes it’s me, finally publishing my first post of 2025, 28 days into the new year. I have all of these big goals and plans for the year ahead – not just for the blog – and I was sure that I would be hitting the ground and just absolutely running on them right on January 1st. After all, I had that whole day off, what more was there to do? But then I didn’t. And then one week passed, another, and another. And suddenly, here we are 1 month into the new year.

Yet, I don’t feel panicked or like I’m behind (yet). The goals are all still there, I haven’t scrapped them. We still have 11 more months ahead of us for 2025, and I have years and years of swatching and blogging still in my lifetime. It’s almost like this first month has been the “set up”, something which I think is essential for any sort of new resolution. I know it’s been quiet, but I’ve still been here in the background.

You’re probably saying to yourself, (if you’ve followed me for any sort of time) haven’t you had this blog for years now, how have you not figured it out yet? Listen, after almost 10 years of Gingerly Polished, I do ask myself the same thing. I’ve been ebbing and flowing for years, and 2024 was especially sporadic. But my life has gone through so many phases and changes in this decade, how could I ever expect my blog to not do the same?

I started posting to this blog in 2016, in the summer before my senior year of college, as a fresh 21 year old, juggling an on-campus minimum wage job and schoolwork. I was surviving off hot dogs and microwaved cheese quesadillas, and my blog was built on reviews of Sinful Colors collections, as I could buy full sets of 8 polishes for $16. I’ve since graduated, landed a full time job in my field, moved to Chicago, bounced to 4 different apartments and now here we are in 2025. I’m now 30 years old, living in a lovely apartment with my fiancé and our dog, planning our wedding for this year, and in a wildly different financial position. With that privilege, and from also receiving PR from brands now, I’ve been so lucky to be able to purchase and review a wider range of brands than I could ever have imagined back when I started, typing up at the coffee table in my college apartment.

I’ve had my matching Instagram that entire time as well, and I’ve watched as the platform has gone from single photos to 20-photo carousels, and as video has taken over. I remember when 30 likes on one photo felt like an insane number, and I wouldn’t post swatches onto my Instagram until I had the matching blog post published. But with the ever moving and changing algorithm and constant advice of posting every single day and just post more and more, that personal rule quickly fell by the wayside. Instagram has always been the priority, and as mentioned, this is all a hobby alongside my full time job, so one thing had to go, and that was the blog.

But I never fully got rid of it. The blog has always consistently had views – even as my posting floundered. Because the one thing the blog always will have against Instagram is its searchable properties. You can look through and find any brand I’ve posted, any year, and find that specific shade and collection you had seen before and are still thinking about. Instagram is just for scrolling and scrolling. And I think especially as social media platforms continue to change and we see how flimsy they truly are – we did see an entire platform go down and up in one weekend – I think blogging could have another moment. After all, we’re seeing a rise of Substack, a blogging platform, so it’s even more important to use

This is all to say gingerlypolished.com is going nowhere in 2025, and I only want to give it the love it deserves. I have BIG plans for the blog this year, and I thank all of you who’ve stuck around for those empty and quiet months. We’re going back to consistency and I want to reward you with so much content. There’s so much backlog, items that have been up on Instagram without their accompanying blog posts for far too long. I can’t promise that I’ll get every single polish that I’ve every swatched up here, but we’re going to make a true dent.

At the end of last year, I also published a makeup review, and that was only the start of bringing beauty content back into my posting routine. I love reviewing new makeup products almost as much as a new nail polish collection, and again I’m just sitting on a mountain of content that just needs its published moment. The goal is at least 3 posts a week: 2 nail related and 1 makeup related. I’m sure it’ll take a few more months to fully settle into that routine, but you definitely won’t have months of silence again.

AND THERE WE GO, I’M DONE. Listen, clearly I love to yap, that hasn’t changed over these 10 years. I just always love to give myself a little “set up” post, and talk about my thoughts and plans. After being gone for months I didn’t want to just suddenly post like normal. I like to write things down to hold myself accountable, and I’m just excited for the year ahead. I’ve missed this blog, so it’s time to give it the love it deserves. And if you read all of this, I thank you. Thank you for being on this journey with me.

Now for what you’re actually here to read, let’s get on into the swatches.

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Mooncat ‘ Midnight Rodeo’ Collection – Swatches & Review

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A little about me: I do all my swatching at a desk in my main bedroom, and you know, instead of making the entire desk space usable or a place I can work at for my day job, I instead choose to fill it up with all of the nail polish shades I still have to swatch. I just really cram as many bottles onto it as I can and slowly work through them all, while continuously adding more. I don’t know why you’re looking at me like that, it’s obviously a good system and use of space.

A constant part of that insanity is always many beautiful Mooncat collections. They’re all just WAITING for their moment, and it’s about time I work on swatching them – both for the gorgeous nail polishes themselves, and for that fruitless hope of more future desk space.

So let’s work towards that goal. Let’s open up some SPACE. This first set we’re looking at today is called the ‘Midnight Rodeo’ collection, and it released last year in August. It features 10 shades all inspired by the colors of the desert – and in my opinion it truly nails that color story.

Of course, these are available on the Mooncat website. On into the swatches!

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OPI Infinite Shine ‘Metallic Mega Mix’ Fall 2024 Collection – Swatches & Review

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Oh hiiiii, let’s finally round out the fall posts, shall we? Happy Thanksgiving, we’re all thankful for figuring out our blogging schedule.

But okay, yes, I did already post a review on OPI’s fall release a while ago, you are correct there. But that was the regular lacquer formula, the main 12 piece collection that everyone knows. That’s right, I have to clarify because OPI has recently also been releasing matching collections in their Infinite Shine formula. So lucky me, that means 21 polishes per season to swatch up on up for you all (yes I’m the one “requiring” myself to swatch both collections, but all of these shades were pretty). I don’t know how long this will continue, but we do also have this pattern for the Winter 2024 collections, watch out for 2 posts on that set too!

As mentioned, these are in OPI’s “Infinite Shine” formula, the ones with the shiny silver caps, adn the ones that are a touch more expensive than the regular lacquer line. OPI describes this line as being “gel-like”, locking onto nails for longer wear as well as being super shiny. As always, I can’t speak to the longevity claims, as I’m switching my polish up too often with swatching. I more swatch these for the colors rather than any promised benefits. Maybe you’ll notice something different on your own nails!

These shades (as well as the regular lacquers) are all available from Beyond Polish (as always, code GingerlyPolished gets you 10% off individual items. It is affiliated which would mean I would receive a small commission from each purchase – never feel obligated to use my code when making a purchase. I just want you to save some money). They’re also available from PolishPick – a discount site that I’ve ordered from countless times – their shipping is so fast, and they have incredible prices. Either way, get a nice little discount on these Infinite Shine shades.

Now let’s get on into the swatches!

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NYX x Beetlejuice Collection 2024 – Swatches & Review

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That’s not nail polish, you’re correct! Today we’re looking at makeup! Gasp!

If you’ve been following this blog for a while now – shoutout to you – you’ll remember a couple that I dabbled in adding makeup reviews as well, that would pop up here and there in between all of the nail collections. But eventually they petered out and we were back to only nails.

Now I’ll be honest, I’m definitely not wearing makeup as often as I did before. Like a lot of others, my working from home status has continued past Covid, so without the push of going into an office every weekday, my wear of makeup has significantly decreased. But that definitely hasn’t stopped my purchasing of makeup. (It’s obviously from the money I’ve saved on train passes). Therefore I just need a little push to wear and test out all of these beautiful and interesting products I’ve been collecting up like a little squirrel. I must give them the light of day, and THUS, I want to bring makeup posts back to the blog.

Makeup has always been up there as a love for me, just as much as nail polish – in fact even before nail polish. I was caking it on (to cover teenage acne) and testing out wild eyeshadow combinations way back in high school. This blog already contains so much of me and my interests, it only makes sense to expand to a new set of drawers.

And I feel like there’s a little niche I can slot on into with this blog in the makeup world as well. I’ve always chosen to focus on more affordable products, both drugstore and more indie brands, mainly because of budget. Yes, it was definitely more rough to find something good, but with where the drugstore is now, it deserves far more coverage. Affordable brands are always coming out with interesting products and fun releases, and there’s room for more coverage of them! I always talk about how I want this blog to be a nail reference, so it’s time I expand out to a makeup reference I’ve been wanting myself.

Yes, I’m rambling, and there’s this whole novel before we even get into the swatches themselves. It’s just a “new” chapter for this blog, and we all know how much I love to ramble and explain. It won’t be happening every time, I promise. So let’s do it, on into the makeup.

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