OPI ‘Summer Makes the Rules’ Summer 2023 Collection – Swatches & Review

May 9, 2023May 12, 2023 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

OPI collection reviews are always the most popular posts for this blog. They’re always topping the stats, and clearly everyone else is just as interested in the newest OPI release as I am. After all, it was a couple of random OPI bottles hidden away in the corner of a drawer that truly started my nail polish collection, so I’ll always feel an emotional connection to my “roots”.

Which makes a bad collection from OPI hurt so much more.

Sorry, I’m jumping ahead here. Let’s start off by introducing this newest collection. Yes, it’s SUMMER here in nail world. (And maybe wherever you live too, it’s FINALLY getting consistently warmer over here in the windy city). And I always dive into the new seasons with the OPI release. For Summer 2023, OPI’s release is the ‘Summer Make the Rules’ collection. As always it features 12 shades that as OPI says “let your nails be as bright, bold and carefree as you feel this summer”. We’ve got names themed around laying around the beach, lounging in the sun, and just living your best summer life.

These shades range in a rainbow of pastel, yet bright shades, from bright pinks, to corals, teals and lilacs. We have 8 cream shades and 4 shades in a frosty, pearly shimmery finish. They were a little something different to normal shimmers, and I always love something new in a collection.

As always, these are available from my favorite polishpick.com, or also at beyondpolish.com (affiliate link). Now, as I hinted to up above, the colors are just so pretty, while the formulas for a majority just … aren’t pretty. I struggled with quite a few streaky creams here, and that’s so unusual for OPI. Things lift up a touch in the back half of the set, but it was quite the journey to get there. I’ll let the individual swatch photos and videos speak for themselves now, but I wanted to make sure you were starting this post with the right expectations. Let’s dive in.

Mooncat ‘Lost in a Folktale’ Collection – Swatches & Review

April 13, 2023May 3, 2023 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

Yes it’s true, I am unconditionally and irrevocably in love with Mooncat. YES, I did in fact make a Twilight reference for that, and I’m not ashamed. We all know the cultural impact that franchise had on us.

And it’s accurate, because Mooncat truly HAS stole my heart. The collections and color palettes they’ve been releasing lately have been SO COOL and so unique, and I just want them all. Especially with this mystical, forest themed set we’re looking at today, I basically had no choice. (Always a joke here, obviously we don’t NEED nail polish, and we should never go into debt for it).

So let’s look at this set of 6 beautiful shades. This is the ‘Lost in a Folktale’ collection, and as the title suggests, it gives out all of the whimsical and magical vibes of a sunny forest. We have 6 shades in a variety of finishes, from flakey, to shimmery, to magnetic. A little something for all forest moods.

These are, of course, available on the Mooncat website – both in a little discounted bundle as well as individually. These photos just speak for themselves, so let’s dive right in already! Onto the swatches!

OPI Hidden Prism Regular Lacquer Summer 2020 – Swatches & Review

July 30, 2020November 14, 2020 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

OPI Hidden Prism Infinite Shine Review

Continuing right along with my post catch-up! I fully believe in me to finally get all of these posts up, I’M DETERMINED. LET’S GET INTO IT. (If you haven’t seen other posts, I definitely got a little bit behind, and ended up taking a break with the companion posts to swatches I post on Instagram. Even if its out of season, I still want to post up these reviews, so here we go! And as mentioned, I’m still always posting swatches on my Instagram, so be sure to follow me there, @GingerlyPolished. For full transparency I’m currently writing this on November 14, but adjusted the date so they’re spaced out in the order posted on Instagram, and so November doesn’t get overwhelmed with summer posts, ALRIGHT OKAY I’M DONE).

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We’re looking at the other half of the OPI Summer 2020 release. They released 6 shades in both their Infinite Shine finish, as well as in their regular lacquer formula. I linked the Infinite Shine review up above, so now we’re looking at the 6 regular lacquer shades!

As always I purchased these bad boys off of polishpick.com, and they’re still available there.

This part of the collection features 6 shade of different colored, more sheer bases with glitter throughout. They have an almost flakie look to them, without having larger glitters. Overall they all have pretty similar formulas, so you’ll see that reflected in the notes for each shades. A couple are more sheer than others, and of course I noted that in the individual shades!

Alright, it’s been long enough without this post, let’s just get into it already!

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Up first we have ‘She’s a Prismaniac’, the pink version with blue-purple shimmer all throughout. This had a sheer 1st coat but it’s smooth, so it could be a nice 1 coat nail look depending on your preferences. Most of these shades can be worn in that way as well!

It builds up well with 2 thicker coats, but you could still have some nail line peeking through, so I did a 3rd coat to fully cover everything up.

Orly ‘Radical Optimism’ Spring 2019 Collection Swatches

February 12, 2019February 11, 2019 GingerlyPolished5 Comments

We’re continuing on with spring reviews! (As it continues snowing here as well). My apartment was being shown all weekend, so I definitely got less swatching than I wanted done. But of course, posts will still be coming, don’t you worry about that. For now, shall we talk about this polish?

Today I have the Orly Spring collection! This is called the ‘Radical Optimism’ collection, and came in the Orly Color Pass.

Funny story, this box actually came to me free! I got a delivery notification for it, and was confused as I hadn’t renewed my Color Pass yet (but was fully planning to later). I hadn’t gotten charged for it, so I emailed customer service to see what happened. And turns out they had sent it to me accidentally! They told me to go ahead and keep it – super quick response and lovely customer service. It was just a lovely surprise for me. I had fully planned on renewing and getting this box myself, so I wasn’t mad!

OPI ‘Tokyo’ Spring 2019 Collection

February 6, 2019February 6, 2019 GingerlyPolished2 Comments

It’s the first spring collection post! I think this is the earliest I’ve gotten a spring review up. 2019 is really my year, huh. 3rd year of blogging is really when I get it together, guys.

I’m also in the process of moving, and finding a new apartment, so sometimes browsing availabilities and showings can get in my way. But I’m going to make sure that I won’t get too far behind! I want to keep up this timeliness! I’m putting this down in writing to keep myself accountable! Exclamation points! All exciting things happening over here. No really, I’m actually really excited to move. I’m ready to have a place with more natural light (ergo more places for plants), and to decorate another little space.

But let’s talk about spring polish, shall we? It’s still full on winter here, with ice storms and freezing temps, but you know, I have some bright wonderful spring colors for you.

The first collection to talk about is from OPI! It’s the Spring 2019 collection, and it’s a 12 piece collection based on Tokyo. As always, the names are hilarious and so fitting for their inspiration. It’s full of bright pinks and other bright pops of colors that I’ve really been craving from OPI so I’m so excited to dive in. It’s made up of 9 creams and 3 shimmery shades.

Just like the other collections, I picked these up from polishpick.com. It’s still the best price for OPI I’ve found, and they always ship so fast! Check em out, will ya.

Let’s get right into the swatches.

Untried Month: Zoya January

February 3, 2019February 3, 2019 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

Well friends, it’s February 2019. Which is how long it took me to finally stop writing 2018 as the date on work projects.

One of my goals of this fine year was to use my collection more. This means both untried and unworn polishes, as well as polishes that I’ve swatched but haven’t used as a full manicure. It’ll be mainly untrieds though, as I still have far too many. To help this, I’ve started a series! It’ll be ongoing, and I’ll do lil update posts at the end of every month. As I posted the swatches throughout the month, I tagged them with #ZoyaJanuary.

Each month, I’m choosing a brand to wear. It’ll be brands I have large amounts of untrieds from first, and then smaller ones that I’ve maybe only swatched later on. Every other month will be Sinful Colors, since that’s the brand that will take the longest to get through.

Getting right into it, January was Zoya! I love Zoya, but they are a more expensive brand, so I pick them up on their main 2 sales of the year when they’re half off. Because I cannot review their full collections at this time, I get random polishes every so often, and they’re not featured as often. They were the perfect brand to start with.

Let’s get right into the polishes!

Sally Hansen x Crayola ‘Glam Rock’ Metallic Collection

January 27, 2019January 30, 2019 GingerlyPolished2 Comments

Lord. It’s cold. I’m sitting in my basement apartment, with blankets shoved into cracks under doors and closet and any place I can feel any sort of cold air trying to weasel it’s way into my apartment. I also have a lil space heater pointed at me at all times and will be spending all of my time just bundled up in a nest of blankets. We’re heading into the POLAR VORTEX, y’all. Wednesday this week is calling for a HIGH of -11 and windchills down to -40 so I might actually die. I can’t wait to swatch bright spring collections with some double digit negative temps. BRING IT ON.

The Midwest can be wild and I’ll never leave. This is my fault for always wanting to live next to a lake for the rest of my life, and this is the burden I carry.

Now, anyways. Let’s talk about something great you can do inside, and that’s putting on pretty nail polish. That’s right, this is the perfect weather for me because now I have an excuse to just hide out in my apartment for all free hours and swatch and take pictures of nail polish. I did plan to have this review posted yesterday, but I needed to take the group shot, and broke my SD card and was not emotionally ready to go outside and buy a new one. But I did it today, got my life together, and shall I get into the collection already?

The collection I’m talking about today is a continuation of the Sally Hansen and Crayola Insta-Dri collaboration polishes. Sally Hansen went and popped on us and dropped 12 new metallic shades. And I had to have them all. I got them all, through a combination of muling by great friends and ordering off of Walmart’s website. It was all worth it and I have these babies in my grabby hands.

Sista Chic ‘They Say It’s Your Birthday’ and ‘Moulin Rouge’ Trios

January 21, 2019 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

It’s a truly snowy and chilly wintery weekend, so I’m using that as an opportunity to hole up in my apartment and get some swatching done. It’s 3 degrees today, so I’m not leaving. I am one that loves the snow, so when it finally blizzarded this weekend, I loved it so much. It had been so cold and gray for a while, and it was just a depressing winter. If it’s going to be this cold and gray, a little snow just helps it out a little. Especially when they’re big fluffy flakes just dropping down. I went to college way up North in Michigan, so maybe that’s why I love it.

There’s lots of fun polishes to talk about, so let’s just get into it.

Essie Winter 2018 Collection

January 14, 2019 GingerlyPolished2 Comments

It’s blizzarding and snowing here the entire day as I swatched these, so I think it’s perfect for reviewing the last winter collection I had to talk about. WINTER FINALLY TRULY CAME TO CHICAGO. We’ve been in a cold snap, and all I’ve been saying if it’s going to be this cold, I want some snow to make it better. And it came true! We had big beautiful flakes just dropping on down and even as they pelted me in the face while I was waiting for the bus, it was just what I asked for. Call me nuts, but I love some snow for the winter.

Now, as I said with winter, I had one final winter collection to review! (They’re already showing spring polishes and my god you have to be a season ahead to be on time). But it’s a WINTER REVIEW here!

This is the Essie collection for Winter 2018. And it’s of course a traditional 6 piece collection. I picked these up from transdesign.com. They had the best prices for Essies and their shipping is always so fast and well packed! Do recommend.

Now let’s get into the polishes!

Wet N Wild ‘Fire Dragon vs. Ice Dragon’ Collection

January 7, 2019 GingerlyPolishedLeave a comment

It’s finally DONE. This is one of those long posts that I looked at for so long, and just avoided since I knew it would take quite a while to finish up. I talk about this in my 2019 goals, I’M WORKING ON IT.

Heck, I’m sorry this all took so long. I did want to really take time and make sure I tested absolutely everything in this collection, along with wear tests. Oh I did that. And then I procrastinated more. This is my bad. But it’s here now, and this collection is still available to buy! So better late than never!

That’s right, you’re correct, I got another Wet N Wild collection box. I’m not ashamed and I WON’T BE STOPPED. I mean, you guys like it for the reviews right? I know this took a million years to finally review, but it’s a lot of products to review, and I wanted to fully test them all out, so it got a little pushed back behind others.

BUT HERE IT IS. It’s all here, it’s all been reviewed and tested thoroughly, and it’s all here for me to tell you about it. This post will be a NOVEL but you can skip about to the parts you really want to know, and I’ll stop talking and just get into it.

This collection is the ‘Fire Dragon vs. Ice Dragon’ collection (very Game of Thrones chic), and it’s still available both on Wet N Wild’s site, as well as Ulta’s. It retails for $39.99.

Just like the one before this, the collection comes with a little pin as well. What will I do with this? Idk, but it’s cute.

Let’s get into this monster of a collection and review post. The products are in bold, so you can kind of pick and scroll to which products you’re most interested in. Or enjoy just seeing what I think about em all.

GINGERLY POLISHED

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