Author: GingerlyPolished

Affordable nail polish + makeup blogger

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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PR SAMPLE

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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Holo Taco ‘Dark Academia’ Collection – Swatches & Review

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Listen, I have a problem, and that problem is just always having a myriad of unswatched Holo Taco collections and polishes in all places around and on and under my desk. But this posts shows that I’m working on it! I have a goal of having all of my Holo Taco polishes swatched and blogged, and this post gets us even a tiny bit closer. Baby steps.

So alright! This set is one of their newer releases for 2024 (we now have the Birthstone collection ahead of it) and it’s called ‘Dark Academia’ and if you’re at all familiar with book tropes, those words will immediately evoke a vibe. It’s also been a wardrobe and decor aesthetic, and Pinterest can always help you out with visuals. Just know it’s moody. It’s that feeling of shadowy hallways of old brick buildings on private college campuses, murder mysteries to solve in between classes, and all of the plaid and blazers you could ever want. Sure, I’ve personally saved a lot of this aesthetic onto my own Pinterest, and okay yes, I’m instead wearing the same leggings and sweatshirt every day as I work from home. But listen, this collection spoke to me, and I just needed them all on my nails.

We’ve got 8 new shades here, with some cremes, a brand new (to Holo Taco) crelly formula, and some gorgeous shimmers. They’re all vampy, and they’re perfect for stalking around campus, or you know just typing on a laptop in your living room.

Of course these are available on the Holo Taco website. And did you hear, Holo Taco is now in Ulta! That’s right, you can see their shades in person! None of these shades are available in store – and I’m assuming more limited collections won’t make their way there yet, but it’s still exciting. I just wanted to mention it, and you can grab more of their permanent shades.

Okay yes, let’s get on into these swatches!

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Essie ‘Punk at Heart’ Fall 2024 Collection – Swatches & Review

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We have a few fall collections still to review and talk about here, and of course, we wouldn’t let a season go by without some new Essie.

Essie’s newest seasonal release is called the ‘Punk at Heart’ collection, and it’s their traditional 6 bottle release. Essie describes this set as helping you “break the mold and step into your rebellious era with these six edgy limited-edition shades”. Now, mainstream brands will only ever go so “rebellious” and “edgy” so don’t expect anything too crazy here. It’s the same vibe as when child me thought songs on my Hilary Duff CD were “hardcore” because they had electric guitars.

I say this jokingly, and with love, as it’s still a fun and unique color palette and I was excited to swatch it up. We have 4 creams and 2 shimmers here. It’s not the typical fall shades, and there are even a few colors you fully wouldn’t expect for the season. But it does still feel fall, in the way that (most of) these shades feel suited for cooler weather. It’s not a regular collection, it’s a cool collection.

These are available on the Beyond Polish website (code: GingerlyPolished gets you 10% off individual items. Now it is an affiliate code, so I would get a small amount of commission if you use it – no pressure as always! I purchase all of my Essie polishes from Beyond Polish now, and I would never recommend a place I didn’t myself love).

Let’s get on into the swatches!

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ILNP ‘Campground’ Fall 2024 Collection – Swatches & Review

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ILNP just truly knows how much we all love fall, and so they recently dropped TWO new collections in the perfect fall color palettes. We have a set of 6 jelly holographic shades that we’ll be discussing later. And for this post, we’re looking at the ‘Campground’ collection.

This set features 4 cream shades, all inspired by, of course, the coziness of camping. We have 3 neutrals and a green, and I mean, what else would you expect from a Campground collection. ILNP describes this set as “bringing a sense of calm to your nails, evoking the tranquility of early autumn” and I think that’s the perfect description. These just feel classic, and they’re shades that create a good foundation for any collection, ones that you can reach for any time. Always good to have to balance out the bold vampy shades, and bright oranges and reds of fall.

These are available on the ILNP website. ILNP doesn’t do limited edition collections, keeping their shades around for quite a while, so you’ll be set to pick these up whenever you’re feeling that urge to slow down and set up that tent.

Let’s get on into the swatches!

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