Swatch and Review: OPI ULTA Holiday 2012

Happy Saturday, everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend so far!

Today, I'm bringing you this year's OPI holiday shades exclusively for ULTA Beauty. I stumbled upon them at my local ULTA in East Brunswick. If you purchase two OPI shades this weekend, you receive a special gift of your choice of the holiday shades for free.

 

Last Minute Shopper is a juicy strawberry red metallic polish. It applied evenly and was opaque in two coats. It's not the most unique shade out there, but it's a very pretty one. It has a very subtle glow about it. I like that has depth to the color without being a glass fleck. This reminds me of You Only Live Twice from the Bond Collection for Holiday 2012 without the aforementioned flecks.

For the record, this has already been stolen by the Queen Mum (aka: Nana) and I have not seen it since. I have a feeling it will make an appearance when she heads back to Florida and I find it on her dresser during winter break there.

Next up is Skip the Gift Wrap, a vibrant emerald metallic polish that slightly skews towards the frost spectrum. The application was fine and even. The brush strokes in this picture are virtually unnoticeable in real life. I think it's the macro that brings that out.

As Pantone has announced, emerald is SO in for 2013 and I think Skip the Gift Wrap is definitely a color to rock in the new year!

The last of the trio is Gift Cards for Everyone, a blurple shimmer with scattered specks of sapphire glitter. Forgive the lack of a bottle... it has gone missing somewhere within my bedroom.

The glitter is definitely apparent in sunlight, but not as much as in the bottle. It's a lot more scattered on the nail. Though, the effect is mostly there.

Overall, I liked this trio better than last year's two rough glitters and shimmery red. All three are very wearable for me and while they're not incredibly unique, I think they're very pretty shades that anyone would like to find in their Christmas stocking or for their last night of Chanukah.

As I mentioned before, you can currently receive one of these shades free with the purchase of two OPI polishes at ULTA. Because I only purchased these three, they were essentially B2G1 for me. They retail for $8.00 each and are available only at your local ULTA store! They also have a mini set called Stuff My Stocking that retails for $12.50 and includes the three minis

Three OPI's for $16? Not a bad deal, in my opinion. (And the 20% off my total purchase coupon didn't hurt... so they wound up being closer to $12!)

What's your verdict on this holiday collection?

Princess Polish

The Puppy is Coming + A Giveaway

I am happy to announce that after nearly a year of waiting, my first Seeing Eye puppy is on her way! For those of you who don't know me, I am a raiser for the Seeing Eye Inc. of Morristown, NJ, the oldest guide dog school in the United States. This year, TSE is celebrating their 70th year of puppy raising.

Puppies are assigned to families and individuals, whom they live with for anywhere from a year to 16 months. As a raiser, I will be training the puppy in obedience, house manners, and general desensitization to various locations and circumstances.

On Valentines Day, I know that I will be receiving a female Black Lab, who will be joining my five-year-old Chocolate Lab, Dakota, however, I do not know her name. The Seeing Eye names all of their puppies by assigning a letter to each litter in order of birth from A-Z. This makes it easy to recognize siblings and in fact, my puppy's sibling will belong to another member of my school club. What I do know is that she is from the "P" litter, meaning her name will start with a P.

And this is where you all come in! From now until 12:01 EST on February 14th, take a guess through the entry in the Rafflecopter widget below as to what "P" name you think she'll have!

There are three grand prizes up for grabs. The people who guess correctly will be entered to receive either the OPI Holland Mini Collection, the OPI Nicki Minaj Mini Collection, or a Valentines Day prize pack, which includes one full sized bottle of China Glaze Ring in the Red, and some other awesome surprises

However, I will pick seven random names, regardless of your guess, from the widget and each person will receive a mini CG Ruby Pumps and a mini Out the Door Top Coat. So even if you aren't correct, you still have a chance to win!

Good luck and get to guessing!

Princess Polish, Princess Puppy, and Little Miss "P"